Whittoons

The cartoon blown up to the size of a poster by Walgreens was not my first choice for the No Kings Day. A couple of folks previewing my bold statements deemed one as too obscure, and might give the impression that I was supporting Trump. Oh, Come On…Reaally. The very nice lady at the Walgreen’s photo counter had given her stamp of approval. But I buckled under pressure and raced back to her for the last minute, day -of, printing.

So this is the look of the original cartooon:

Given the format, I had to trim it for the poster production. So it appeared like this:

First I duct taped the Harvard pennant (from my Dad’s 25th Reunion in 1965) to the poster, to give an additional clue that this was NOT a pro-Trump statement. Not enough. So I added a word balloon.

My critics were not quite mollified, so I fell back on my toon with Trump in the tank:

Certainly this was more timely, but due to a horizontal layout, the image came out reduced and less easy to read from a distance. To keep everyone happy I taped this over the Trump Flag toon so that, for certain privileged viewers I could I unclip and swing open the poster and reveal the Flag toon.

And on the opposite side I had the nice Walgreen lady blow up this toon:

OK, this also might seem a bit obscure but at least the image of Trump was large and even without the layers of meaning, could be seen as a mockery of the idiot. So by way of explanation, I was making a play on words riffing off of Leni Riefenstahl’s German propaganda film, Triumph of the Will, that she produced in 1935 about the Nazi Party convention in Nurnberg.

Now as to what to wear, I planned to come prepared for all occasions:

But I toned everything down a bit – the toon and my attire, so that no one would perceive me as either an anarchist or a Trump supporter.

The rally at Cal Anderson Park before the march was like stepping into a time warp back to protest days of the late 60’s. Incredible signage everywhere held by people of all ages and walks of life. Positive energy all around. Folk songs held our attention. Though the singer was no Pete Seeger, his words carried the spirit of the day. Parmila Jayapal tossed out he prepared remarks to reflect on the assasination of a Minnesota State Representative and her husband, as well as the shooting of another Minnesota State Representative and his wife.

A giant We The People sign dominated the landscape. Apparently this sign was carried at the head of the parade. I was too far back to catch that. I marched with friends, was recognized by new neighbors, ran into an old co-worker, was greeted by a City Councimember (Dan Strauss) and joined in a few chants. This joining-in was counter to the advice from Peter Coyote, who in his capacity as a Buddhist monk, suggested online that protests should not only by peaceful but silent. But a silent parade might resemble the Trump parade, and more enthusiasm needed to be show for the growing resistance movement.

The crowd estimate by the Seattle Times was 70,000 people, 10% of the Seattle population. I am proud to be a liberal Seattlite.