Overnight at the Capitol. Told by my dear friend

One night when we were in the Capitol, the friday night the police joined us...,

they came( the police) to say good night, ,making their rounds around the rotunda (after we had 'omed in the dome')....

the police even said good night to my mom (in Alabama), I was with my daughter Favian, and Mickey and several friends,

some one came and sang a lullaby (I requested it, this guy was always coming up with great costumes, and it was late, -he did it ever so sweetly ...) someone in a jester costume passed out water to everyone bedded down...

Tim Cordon came by and read from 'The book of Peace" the story was about a governor who tried to stop black folks from voting, and their small victory was in getting some more legislators than they thought to support them....

sleeping under the rotunda, with a large black fist dangling in the center of the dome from helium balloons, was golden

it was the best sleepover I ever attended, one that I will never forget, I wandered the halls at midnight, there were trainings about peaceful protests, musicians in the halls, folks snuggled in 'cuddle puddles', a kitchen set up compete with full meals -withheld unless you washed your hands...  

then in the morning smiling faces arrived with coffee, children with donuts, and sprouted tortillas with egg and avocado...

we had a morning meeting, anyone who wanted shared their thoughts about what to do about holding the space, drumming, prayers....we voted by flickering our hands for yay, thumbs down for nay...it was efficient and moved us through the issues (but not everyone had a chance to speak before Capitol police came...the day rolled on, groups worked on their 'statements for the media, lots of processing and clarifying...some mental health co-counseling was created for those effected by the days holding the space inside the Capitol, ....Chief Tubbs, who was the wonderful Capitol chief of police, went through the motions of saying what he was suppose to, but he let us choose for ourselves, whether we stayed or not... It was a gift to my life (experiences) to have stayed at the Capitol, when our time came to an end I called Donna and Deborah to be sure 'my space' would be filled, we left to take care of our selves and our personal business so we could return again, which we did, and that is another story.