protest

So shalmestere and I went to a protest yesterday, an hour and a half after the Senate voted to acquit President Trump on both impeachment charges. I don't know how many people were there -- I'd guess a few hundred, plus three or four counter-protesters carrying "Trump 2020" flags. The organizers, on short notice, had printed 8-1/2"x 11" photos of every Republican Senator, with name captions and a word like "Coward", "Traitor", "Spineless", or "Bootlicker" under each one, laminated them, and handed them out to the crowd, many of whom had brought their own rapidly-constructed protest signs (we brought one left over from the 2017 Women's March). I found it interesting that the majority of people in the protest seemed to be over 50 years old, and I expect most of them have been protesting for a good deal of their lives. (Per one sign I saw at the Women's March, held by a woman in her 70's, "I can't believe I'm still protesting this shit!")

And I feel conflicted.

It's nice to be surrounded by people who agree with me that the President is a crook and utterly unfit for office. But crowds scare me -- not in the agoraphobia sense, but just because crowds of people are stupid, and do stupid things. Crowds chanting in unison are even stupider. How is it better to have a bunch of liberals shouting "Lock him up!" than to have a bunch of MAGA-hatted Trumpublicans shouting "Lock her up!" (aside from the detail that Trump has actually committed crimes, and despite years of investigation nobody's ever found any crimes to charge Hillary with)?

Protest chants, no matter which "side" you're on, are chosen for their scansion, rhyme, and emotional weight, not for boring reasons like factual correctness or rationality. They're designed to generate adrenaline in the faithful, not to convince anybody of anything. So I guess they serve a community-building function, but a community held together by tribal chants is not the sort of community I want to brag about.

sick again

So, I started coughing around Dec. 14, and spent a good deal of every night coughing until about Jan. 22. Then I had a blessed two weeks without coughing, although in the past few days I've had general muscle aches and felt physically tireder than I should for the amount of exertion. And yesterday I started coughing again. And last night. And today. And I definitely have muscle aches, and I get tired walking across a room. If this lasts as long as the previous one, I should stop coughing around the time we leave for Shawm Camp in March. Which doesn't bode well for, say, practicing before Shawm Camp....

ETA: doctor says it's "a mild bronchitis", and prescribes antibiotics, steroids, and cough syrup. And "lie low this weekend": not a lot of partying, drinking, and carousing. Which weren't very likely at the best of times, and less likely when I'm coughing and achy. But we are scheduled to go to a concert Friday night, a four-hour music class Saturday, a two-hour music class on Sunday, and another concert Sunday. We're skipping the concerts; not sure about the classes, whose teachers are counting on a specific number of people attending.