Aryan Nation Demonstration

We got word that the Aryan Nation was marching to the Capitol in demonstration, so I went over at lunchtime.  There was a barricade enclosing the entire lawn of the Capitol, with countless DC police officers with riot gear there waiting.  I heard there were buses full of back up officers.  I saw officers on horseback in place to keep any problems from spreading onto the Mall.

As I stood there and watched DC tourists...families with kids, older people, black people, white people, international visitors...all looking curiously at the police force without a clue what was coming...I was overwhelmed with sadness, frustration, anger.  How can people be so full of hate?  And why must we protect their right to spread that hate in public?

When the demonstration approached, there were many times more police officers than protesters.  I couldn't even get a photo of the protesters through all the officers surrounding them.  Officers in cars, on motorcycles, on horses, on foot.  The passed in front of me, and behind me on the sidewalk were the anti-protest protesters and spectators.  You'd expect those opposing the hate agenda of the Aryan Nation would be ... not hateful, but you would be wrong.  One of my coworkers had also come out, and when I uploaded my photos I realized I'd caught him without realizing it.  The anti-protest people behind him were pointing at him...he has blue eyes and short, blond hair, and they assumed (even though he was on the sidewalk as a spectator) that he was part of the Aryan Nation and confronted him very aggressively.  Yes, they judged him by what he looked like---the same thing they were there to counteract!

It was an extremely emotional day for me...by the time the marchers passed and I got back to work I was shaking and close to tears.  I just can't understand that kind of hate.