It was a wonderful experience to be manning a table again at Cumberland Pride today in Cumberland, MD. Last year I was tabling with the Women’s Action Coalition of Allegany County. This year it was with the Western MD branch of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America. Every year that I’m involved in this festival, I am more and more excited and pleased at this evidence that, even in this intensely conservative pocket of the state, there is a substantial portion of the population which espouses tolerance, love, understanding and pride as their trademarks.
It was a fascinating crowd of the usuals — young kids in strollers with their tattooed parents; teens out for the excitement, the novelty, and the chance to dress outrageously and not get called out for it; the enlightened middle-aged (like me) and elderly, who have been fighting this battle for decades; drag queens and trans people and church representation (St. John’s Lutheran from neighboring Frostburg) and lots of folks just out to walk their dogs. I met a couple from Williamsburg, VA who had been motoring through town and were thrilled to see that such an event could take place in this neck of the woods. We talked history, ghost stories and theatre.
Then there were the two gentlemen who admitted they both have carry permits, but stopped at our booth to agree with us about bump stocks, military grade weapons, and universal background checks.
There were booths selling scented oils and chakras, handmade soaps and semi-precious stone jewelry, hot dogs, ice cream, lemonade and rainbow-colored apparel. There were live bands (actually performing some songs I knew, for a change!) and booths for every cause from local no-kill animal shelters to national progressive movements.
One young lad (maybe 12 years old) was trying hard to sell a collection of rather ordinary but pretty floor mats. He had been stuck at the far end of nowhere on our mall, and was looking pretty unsuccessful and discouraged. I stopped to chat with him, and found myself feeling empathy for the poor kid, who was trying to make some money in a legitimate way, instead of the usual drug-related path kids around here often take. I talked with one of my fellow MOMS and we bought two rugs from him. We had no need of them (I gave mine away an hour later to my 18-year-old and his new apartment-mates) but there was just this overwhelming feeling of wanting to encourage the kid in his efforts to make a little cash in a respectable way. We may have been the only sales of his day (I hope not) but at least he saw his efforts in some way rewarded. Selfish of us, really — we were able to feel noble at very little cost to ourselves…
But my biggest takeaway from the day was simple pride — pride in my town, in my fellow humans, in the relief of knowing that there are still, in this Trump-benighted country, people who care for each other without judgment or bias — and that a whole lot of them live right here in my hometown!