We ate at DelMonico’s more or less on whim. William really like the steak that is coming out of his inheritance. At the roof party Jonathan introduced me to someone from the Union of Concerned Scientists who will be putting me in touch with someone on carbon tax.
William gave Pratt hospitality to me an Caitlin but whimped out on getting up early for the kick-off to the march which started at around 7:00 AM.
That’s what this post is mainly about. The kickoff was a ceremony by indigenous people. There were about 100 people in a circle observing and it seems like about 20 participants. It had this much in common with religious ceremonies from my youth. There was incense. People speaking in languages most of the crowd did not understand. And some genuflecting. Actually people kneeled a couple of times but I decided to genuflect since I would otherwise have trouble getting back up again.
In the intro to the ceremony is where I learned we were in Lenape country. The native peoples always ask permission and consult with the original people before performing ceremonies.
The ceremonies were different from those of my youth in that there were a lot of women participating. There were guys blowing conch shells to get our attention. Quite a few people had us turn around to face the cardinal directions. Despite the illusion that the Manhattan grid gives you uptown is not actually exactly north.
Here are some pictures of the beginning. No photographs were allowed during the ceremony
