You'll never guess what I did today. Well, maybe you will. I went down to the Statehouse to join in the protests against Senate Bill 5.
Just like the Obama rally last fall at OSU, once again I grossly underestimated the crowd. I actually thought I'd get into the rotunda and I didn't want to be too hot, so I wore just a light jacket. Oops.
The Senate was going to have another hearing about SB 5 around 3:30. I got there about 1:30 and it was instantly clear I wasn't getting in, nor were the thousands of others crowding the grounds. The observation area of the Senate floor and the rotunda were already filled, the State Police weren't letting anybody else in, and that was that.
But that was OK. It was still a hoot, and a big, boisterous crowd -- workers of all sorts and teachers and police and firefighters from around the state. There were charter buses and TV trucks from Cleveland and Cincinnati. Every so often someone would ascend the steps and address the crowd through a bull horn. We heard from several labor leaders (all unknown to me), Tracy Heard and Kevin Boyce from City Council, and Ted Strickland. Also saw Dennis (The Menace) Kucinich. There was not a Tea Bagger in sight, and King John had conveniently scheduled himself to be out of town.
By 4:00, my toes wuz froze, so I split for the warmth of home. (As Robert Benchley once said, "I must get out of these wet clothes and into a dry martini.")
It was a good experience, even though I never got inside. If the R's insist on cramming this shit down our throats, Buster smells lawsuit!!
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