celticdragonfly

Saturday's protest did happen, and I thought it went really well. I'm not sure how many were there - it was a good little crowd. I was quite pleased with the signs we brought - ours were the best constructed and easiest to read. Someone else had done great stickers with the symbol in my icon, and somebody had made and brought buttons for everyone, and someone had printed nametags for the mothers. All very nice touches.

Maggie did great - she was very proud to carry her sign, and showed it off. She let other kids hold it some too. She demonstrated for a while, then went off to play with other kids.

We took a bunch of pictures, and the gallery is here:
http://pics.livejournal.com/celticdragonfly/gallery/0002ttxx?page=1
with some commentary with most of the pictures.

Mostly it was holding up signs for the traffic in cars to see. I had one lady I could see trying to read my sign - it said "THE BEST PLACE TO FEED YOUR CHILD IS WHEREVER YOU ARE" - I kept turning it so she could see it as she passed by - I saw her finish reading it and nod emphatically. That felt nice.

Jamie had fallen asleep in the car on the way there, so he mostly slept in the stroller. Alanna mostly slept in the sling. She woke up after a while, and seemed just happy to be there. She didn't get hungry, oh well. There were plenty of mamas and babies feeding when they needed it.

As we were leaving at the end of the hour, I had a car pull up next to me in the parking lot and ask me what this was all about. I think I did a good job of explaining it clearly and succinctly, and got a positive response. That made me feel good!

UPDATE: We had 30 adults. And... a lot of kids. Not sure how many.

Oh, this is not happy. Various of the people from the DFW area on the protest's email list are now saying oh no, they aren't willing to do the protest on the sidewalk and the area between the sidewalk and the street (which you need to do so that you're on *public* property and the business can't tell you to leave), that's too *dangerous*! What about their kids?

Well, I have a kid who'd be very difficult to get to stay safely out of traffic - and I plan to have him securely strapped into a stroller.

These other women are now talking about well, we'll just go inside and order and nurse, and maybe they'll tell us to leave, and we can make a big fuss about it!

I hate this idea. I do not intend to bring ANY business or spend any money with that restaurant as long as they keep up their current attitudes. And I want to educate the public, not pull some stunt to make a fuss.

Or, they said, we could just meet in some OTHER restaurant! Um, this is a protest, not a lunch date.

Feeling very John Adams-ish, "This is a revolution, damnit, we're going to have to offend somebody!"