I have never been more proud of my Shore community, Toms River NJ. Not after our rebuilding from the Hiroshima-like devastation of Superstorm Sandy. Not after Andy Kim beat Tom MacArthur (architect of some of the most odious "tax reform" bills in history) for a pretty "red" House seat in 2018. Not even after the TR East Boys Team beat the Japanese team from Kashima to take the 52nd Little League World Series (Yes, we like us some baseball down the Shore, we've got a facility for girls' softball that puts most college training centers to shame, not to mention what we've got for the boys.)
No, today was better. Two hundred or so protesters assembled in a parking lot at Kohls on Rt 37, shuffling around as downtown merchants and law offices shuttered their windows. Then the Heat shows up. SUVs with big, brawny cops from Toms River PD, even bigger and more menacing deputies from Ocean County Sherrifs Office. They pile out and advance toward the protesters with ... water bottles they start handing out, and little applicators of hand sanitizer they give out to the crowd accompanied by smiles.
Then, with somebody saying "Hey, let's get this party started," the protesters unfurl banners, hoist signs, and start down Main Street to City Hall and the cops and Sherrifs grab a piece of the banners and ... march along with them. In complete solidarity, a perfect display of a patriotic community in action, until they get to the end of the march route, when the unbelievable happens: the cops and Sherrifs take a knee, along with most of the protesters.
Mind you, this is the Jersey Shore, almost to South Jersey, home of the Pineys and one of reddest counties in the Northeast. And these cops, I know from experience a big proportion of them are jacked up on 'roids and full of the toxic mindset that can lead to (they are, after all, Jersey boys). But they marched. They took a knee. After they had made sure that everyone else was hydrated and disinfected.
Times are scarey. Like Zappa said, we got trouble comin' everyday.
But after today I can tell you with confidence: We got this !!!