On the Streets: Strange, confusing march in Seattle
Hong Kong and Fluoride?
I accidentally follwed a small, strange political march on Sunday 25 August 2019 in Seattle. I was walking to get some food and saw the Seattle Police Department bike squads rolling through my neighborhood. That’s a sure sign of a protest or march.
The leader of the march was speaking into a bullhorn, but I’ll be honest, I couldn’t figure out what their point was. They spent a lot of time criticizing communist China. At one point, the person carrying the bullhorn questioned, ominously, why there was fluoride in Seattle’s water. I didn’t hear him explain why he thought that was a problem.
The march’s end point was at Cal Anderson Park. Counter-protestors met them there. The counter-protestors claimed that the march wasn’t about Hong Kong, and that the marchers were fascist homophobes.
Edit: I’m editing the following paragraph because I worded it poorly. I started the paragraph off by stating that I didn’t want to give the marchers publicity. Publicity was a terrible choice of words. I’m not in the publicity business. Here’s a second shot at getting the wording right.
As I mentioned, I had trouble understanding what the person with the bullhorn was saying or what point they were trying to make. I hesitated posting the following photos because of that uncertainty, combined with my instincts and experiences at other protests in Seattle and Portland that make me skeptical about the march’s objectives. One of the people marching was wearing a Trump 2020 shirt, which makes me doubt that the group chose a route through the center of Seattle’s main LGBT community to demonstrate solidarity with Hong Kong. I wasn’t shooting photos for an assignment, and this is my site, so I’ll trust my instincts on this one.
But I am going to post a few photos I took that I think capture what we’re seeing in America, and what I suspect we’ll be seeing a lot more of during what will be a divisive presidential election.
(March, Seattle, 25 August 2019.)
(March, Seattle, 25 August 2019.)
(March, Seattle, 25 August 2019.)
(March, Seattle, 25 August 2019.)
(March, Seattle, 25 August 2019.)
(March, Seattle, 25 August 2019.)
(March, Seattle, 25 August 2019.)
Cropped version of previous photo.
(March, Seattle, 25 August 2019.)
Gear: I always have a camera on me. I used the Fujifilm X-H1 with a 35mm f/2 to get these images.