The Washington Monument resembles a photo below on the National Mall, July 4, 2019/Photo by Patricia Leslie
This sign identified the button cart as "The Roving Anti-Trump Band Wagon" at the National Mall July 4, 2019/Photo by Patricia Leslie
A few feet away I struck up a conversation with a man who was with his wife and three young children, ages three months, about 15 months, and not three years old. The mother, with infant strapped to her chest, dragged a huge Trump flag. The father, about 30 years old, said he liked my "Make Love Not War" sticker I was wearing from CodePink. "Would you like me to go get you one?" I asked him, He wanted one, and I went and got four for all members of the family, save the youngest, and when I returned, we put the stickers all over the family members. He said he liked Trump but not war and didn't support Trump's attacking Iran, if he does. I told him CodePink was quite anti-Trump, and he said he didn't care, that he liked the message. Under thunder and lightening, the family stood in the rain without an umbrella. I tried to think of a shelter for them but could not come up with anything near the Washington Monument, and it was after the museums' closings.
Soon the three-year-old took my umbrella from my hand and wanted to keep it. After a few minutes I got my umbrella back, said goodbye and left to see if I could find an umbrella for them. (You know how they are always around at the Metro stations, but this was not a Metro station and there were no umbrellas!)
All I could find was ice cream and hot dogs.
Should I give them my umbrella? I wrestled with the dilemma. My camera! My phone! Getting wet.
After a few seconds I remembered a rain poncho I had stuck in my bag and went back to the family, now absent the father and oldest child, while the mother stood in light raindrops. She said yes, she would like the poncho so I helped her put it on while she covered her baby, asleep and head bobbing, in a blanket in its carrier which hung from her neck. Meanwhile, the 15-month old stood in the rain uncovered. I said goodbye again.
I am still bothered by that family standing in the rain! I believe it was the newborn with the bobbing head while his mother retrieved a bottle and bent to fetch items the other children had dropped on the grass which got to me. When present, the father seemed totally oblivious to his family in the rain, but maybe that was just me, an old grandma, worrying about strangers and their needs which, I hope, are far less than what I imagine, and they are just fine/Photo by Patricia Leslie
At the CodePink tent, this woman lifted her rain poncho to show her sign at the National Mall, July 4, 2019/Photo by Patricia Leslie
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