I told you antifascists were good Americans. There they were, the people Trump needs you to believe are terrorists, in downtown Aberdeen this evening, waving the American flag:
Turning into the last mile of my unexpected evening run, I survived the typical inattentive driver who would have blindly packed me into a pothole with his pickup and noticed a crowd gathered at 6th and Main. I stayed on the opposite of the street—not taking my chances with a crowded sidewalk with too few masked pedestrians or with the blind pickup driver again—and read the signs beneath their star-spangled banner: Black Lives Matter, End Racism. They chanted patriotic slogans: No Justice, No Peace! I Can’t Breathe! And they held aloft the American flag, the flag of a nation that attacked and killed a man without trial last week for allegedly passing counterfeit money, the flag of a nation they desperately, sincerely want to be better.
I gave both thumbs-up as I plodded up the block (84°F, the hottest, sweatiest run of the year so far… and one more reason not to get too close to civilized neighbors). At the intersection, I fist-bumped a good friend who was waiting to cross the street with his sign on his bicycle. Across the block, I passed the Dakota Freie Presse marker in the sidewalk next to Domino’s, turned around to snap a couple picture, then headed north, over the overpass and on home.
Spread out a bit, my fellow patriotic, anti-fascist Americans, and carry on.
Good on ya, Aberdonians!