Eve of Justice

So after marching/participating in the rally to celebrate this Eve of Justice, I thought the most powerful thing that happened was a little girl falling.

No, not the thousands of people who came out and lit candles and marched, chanted, danced, played music, or just generally showed their support. It wasn't the awesome speakers, or the spirit of history in the making.

The most crazy awesome thing I saw was a 5-8 yr. old girl completely faceplant while running through the crowd. She was headed perpendicular to the flow of the march, and she caught her foot on the muni tracks in the street and fell forward. Now, this wasn't crazy awesome because some poor girl fell, but because when she fell she dropped her little plastic fake candle (the kind that has a lightbulb in it). As soon as she fell, instead of immediately crying, or clutching her hands, or whatever hit first, she shot her little hand out and snatched up the lost candle, making sure it was okay.

Although immediately following this she started wailing, I thought that it was pretty fucking amazing that even more important than her own well-being this little mini pro-queer activist kindergardener was concerned about her candle going out. I also noticed that she had a piece of paper safety-pinned to her shirt that said something like "My mom + mom love each other."

Maybe this sounds crazy or stupid, or maybe you just had to be there, but the look on her face when she scrambled to grab the plastic flame (combined with the protest note attached to her jacket) made me think that she honestly believed that the little shitty candle she held could really help keep her parents together. And that kind of determination and love is what it's all about.