The Answer is More Chalk

A man, a neighbor who lives on the other end of the street saw a family draw on the sidewalk of this intersection. They were drawing in support of LGBTQ+ and Black Lives Matter. It was a family with kids. This man started yelling and cursing them in front of the children. They feared for their safety and caught him on video. George Floyd's death was shaking our country along with Breonna Taylor and countless other names. This video hit us close to home and I still do not understand why anyone would think that the notion of Black Lives Matter would be even a bit controversial. I cannot understand any human being having any problems with that statement. Yet, my neighbor did. 

When I was talking to my friends in the neighborhood, I said that the answer to this man is we need more chalk. So I bought a large box of chalk and wore a mask in support of this family and in support of Black Lives Matter and the LGBTQ+ community. It was a celebration of free speech. This was during a pandemic and it was the first time for me being out with a group of people. For the next two weeks after I waited to see if I would get any signs of COVID (Yay, I didn't), but it was totally worth it. 

As you can see, we had a remarkable turnout considering we were in a pandemic. We had one guy come around without a mask asking us why we were wearing masks. He suggested we were wearing a mask to hide our identities. What I said to him was that it was an expression of care for others and ourselves. I did not want to get into with him because we were here for Black Lives Matter and the LGBTQ+ community. 

I do not know if this man learned his lesson or not. The important thing was that we had the last word.