Marching in a 4th of July Parade in Sierra Madre

[Susan Kitchens]

I woke up very early on the 4th and got out some sign making equipment (butcher paper, wide brush, blue ink), and made two large signs -- one that said Obama and another that said Warner -- for Russ Warner, the Democratic challenger for the CA-26 Congressional seat.

Searched around the garage to see if schtuff that's kept "around here somewhere, hope it comes in handy someday" would work as a rigid backing/handle for the sign. Voila! Leftover wooden battens from a venetian blind (buy full length blind, install in short window, and decide to "keep" the leftovers in that stupid/brilliant hope that it'll come in handy someday. This time, brilliant won out. My life will be all the more clutterful as a result. Yay and alas.) They were perfect -- lightweight and sturdy. I have no pix of the signs themselves; it was all I could to do transport them to the parade route w/o worrying about a camera. Still searching around for photos.

The local Foothill Democrats club, Obama supporters, Russ Warner the candidate himself and a WHOLE buncha his supporters



Image: on Flickr, as part of the Sierra Madre 4th of of July Parade photo set by Manitoba Museum...

There's also a very short (11 seconds) YouTube movie of us (I can sorta tell where I am in the crowd, but would be hard pressed to point it out to anyone else). There was a car (handing out cold water) followed by a bunch of people walking -- all with signs.. .and then a truck with more signs for Warner. The point of our presence was to show a good-sized group of people in support of Democratic candidates -- Obama and especially Warner... to say, in effect, "They've got supporters."


We were representin' for Obama and Warner, but more so Warner. After all, when the candidate is there, he gets the extra attention.

How were we received? Pretty well, overall. Lots of people on the sidelined applauded us. We ran into pockets of support for McCain-- They expressed their support of McCain by giving us thumbs down... One or two groups booed us... Others shouted out McCain! McCain! I'd respond by simply wishing them a Happy 4th of July. One woman's response to that was to rant that we were ruining their 4th-- no changing her mind. But to one group of McCain supporters, I repeated Barack's "we're not red states or blue states but the United States." I think they received that nicely enough. Oh, and there was one man who called out something like "Obama-- he was born in Pakistan!" Bizarre, that. But it tells me the kind of work to do for the election to overcome crazy ignorance/misinformation/bias. But there were many who applauded, who waved, some standing to applaud us. And some we were able to get into a "Yes We Can!" chant.

it was weird in a personal experience that I took not-personally: The reactions were not for us (well, except for Russ Warner, and maybe some of that was disgust with the incumbent), but for the candidates. It was like walking down a long, slow gauntlet where we could get a reading of people's opinions about the presidential race and about the country in general.

One thing that Russ Warner said to us when we were chanting before the parade was that this district is R+4 -- as in, leans Republican, but not extremely so (as opposed to the district where Charlie Brown is running for Congress -- against Tom McClintock -- that's an R+10 or R+11 district: bright bright red). He and his group were in two parades -- Sierra Madre, and Claremont. We only went in the Sierra Madre parade, tho I gave them the signs to use in the Claremont parade, too. They were out there making sure that they were visible, and as you can see by the photo above, Russ Warner walked to the sidelines and shook hands of many people (The incumbent, David Dreier, was also in the parade, riding in an open convertible, and not personally reaching out to anyone there. 28 years of incumbency will do that to you.)

The Pasadena Democracy for America group blogged their experience (they had a stand set up toward the end of the parade; theirs is the short YouTube clip, above). Some of their people were marching with us. Cool.

That night, I was feeling exceedingly drained, and thought I might be coming down with something, until I remembered that I'd walked down 1.5 miles of street in the hot sun, shouting and chanting... and that the sensation in my throat was probably hoarseness rather than illness. Sure enough.

(If I find any other photos of our group, I'll link/post them here)

[Susan Kitchens]

update! Photo is here of me and my sign!!

[Susan Kitchens]

Was wearing dark navy blue obama shirt. really, in the movie, I can sorta see the sign (large, held at waist height between two people) peeking out between people. I can barely make it out, so I figure it's impossible for another to make it out who wasn't there.

Yeah-- re: pack rat. I called my Mom (she's a major clutterer) and told her the very good/very daunting news that it worked. But the good news is that I can now use each batten for upcoming political events. Just saw another one in september. :)

[Christie (Christine Covelli)]

What color shirt are you wearing? Great story! First time I've heard of pack-rat syndrome paying off!