I’ve never been one to be political. While I follow, vote, and donate to candidates it was never my thing, however, today seemed to be the day. Why? I have no idea. Perhaps because it is Virginia and I feel safer here. Twice I was accosted in mid-day on US 1 in Florida by Tr supporters. It was terrifying but the Hillary bumper sticker remained.

Today as I walked to the rally site I passed by a group of white, disheveled men with ungroomed beards, greasy hair, torn jeans, and tattered caps. A policeman was speaking with them so I assumed they did something wrong and felt sad as grooming such as this reflects little self pride. While I was unaware of the exact location of the rally I knew to pretend not to see this downtrodden group. Finding another policeman in the parking lot I asked directions and was on my way.

Upon entering the rally site I was greeted by friendly staff who offered me a clipboard with paperwork to capture my name, email, and phone number. All were pleasant and I was happy to see diversity among the crowd. Diversity is the only way to get anything done.

The speakers spoke on the effects of gun violence. The first woman spoke of the death of her father by his own shotgun. This hit me personally as I had an uncle do the same and never considered this gun violence, however, over 100 Americans die daily this way.

Two others spoke about the murders of their sons to gun violence. Their treatment by the police was despicable and I teared thinking of their loss and pain. It took great courage for these individuals to tell their story and the mom from Houston’s final remark, “It could be you,” was unsettling.

The last speaker was the Mayor of Washington DC, Muriel Bowser. She tied all remarks together and left me wanting to do more. Since I lived in NYC during 9/11 and beyond, I knew most of what Mayor Bowser said regarding Mike Bloomberg, however, it beared repeating. I enjoyed her comments about mothers with a cause getting it done and while presented jokingly, it is true.

As I left the site the doors opened to the group of white men I had seen in the parking lot. They had hand painted signs of hate toward our candidate and in quick glance I even saw some sign misspellings. I felt sad as I recalled the speech of the mom from Houston who lost her son,

“It could be you,”

and it could be them.

Thanks, Mike Bloomberg for putting your money where your mouth is. I know regardless of Super Tuesday you will continue to be in this fight for the country and the world.