Plog Number 302
Hate Right in our Faces
Hello Ploggers, how are you? I hope you are all doing well and filled with❤️ Love. In Cleveland, Ohio they have a thing called Parade the Circle. It is always the first Saturday in June. Once that happens the summer is in full swing. We went to the parade today and it was fabulous. The Art Museum sponsors it and it is arty rather than floaty. None of the floats are motorized. The ones that are on wheels are pushed or pulled by someone. They even have some with a person inside doing the Fred Flintsone with vigorous foot to the ground action. Everything in it seems to be hand-made. There is lots of family participation. When my daughter was younger we walked in this same parade with her. I remember we had bubble guns and matching Hawaii shirts and we participated from the music school where she took piano. But this year there was a wrinkle. Let’s talk about it.
The Parade people give you a little book so you can see the schedule of who is coming down the street next. It is very helpful because the parade is eclectic and some of the themes are not obvious until you look at them for a moment or two. There was a lovely group that was entitled “The Villagers Harvest” It was representing the Palestinian American Heritage Society. Their costumes were traditional and beautiful. They wore beautiful native dresses and carried huge flowers and sang songs. They had children in their group and they were peaceful. I saw a woman who was pushing her👶 baby in a stroller that was in the Keffiyeh design. But there was a white woman in the audience to our left and she screamed at the Palestinians with her whole chest. She did it a couple of times until she got one of the men to come over to her and tell her that he was the Olive Branch. Olive🌱 trees are everywhere in Palestine. She wouldn’t acknowledge him but she soon stopped her antics. I think she wanted a stronger reaction than she actually got. She was rude and disruptive. I can hear her loud shrieking now. The only thing she did was show her hate. She didn’t get any support from anyone around us. Later when I looked over at the spot where she was bellowing, I noticed that she was gone. Gone like the wind and took all of her hatred with her.
The Palestinians started to do the high pitched “La La La La” tongue👅 sound as they passed onward. The sound was in the air everywhere all of a sudden. It seemed like they were doing it is support of each other and I really liked that. They remained proud and held their heads up. Hopefully, few people heard the horrible hate the woman was spewing at the Palestinians. Hopefully she moved on and realized her shrieking didn’t deter the group in the slightest bit. We have a long way to go in this world. Our hatreds are so strong and deep seeded, they can become offensive and frightening. Hate is hate, whether black white, Irish and English, Albanians and Serbians. Take your pick. Hatred abounds RECLAIM!