There was a good turnout at the rally in Sedro-Woolley this morning.

Xavier and Eduardo, in the green safety vests, helped organize the event, and acted as crosswalk guards to get us safely from one side of the roundabout to the other. (And see? We even had our own chicken to help us answer the question: Why did the chicken cross the road?)

I ran into some of my old colleagues who taught with me years ago when I was a teacher in Concrete – it was so good to see Mary and Paul, John, and Larry again!

Germaine was there, too! And Chris – who I met at a rally in MV in January, and who is one of my “old friends” now.

I met some new friends, too – Calisa, who talked about the importance of showing up at the rallies in our small hometowns, and Jonathan, who shared his experiences as a soldier deployed to Iraq after 9-11.

Jonathan said that when he’d signed up for the service, the U.S. wasn’t involved in any wars and he hadn’t expected to ever find himself fighting in the middle of one. But when he was in boot camp, 9-11 happened, and everything changed. During his time in Iraq, the command car got blown up and his commanding officer lost a leg, and his First Sergeant lost half her face. Soldiers he served with in Iraq lost their lives. Jon’s experiences in Iraq have informed the way he looks at our current war in Iran, and I am so grateful to him for his willingness to share his thoughts and experiences with me.

I left the rally feeling inspired by the people I met there, and the positive response we got from the cars passing through.

Power to the people!