Men in Black

This afternoon. after facilitating a board retreat for the Colorado Author's League, I headed downtown to my favorite little coffee shop on the 16th Street mall. There, my most favorite barista of all time was steaming coffee, stretching the milk precisely and expertly. Did you know that you stretch the milk to bring out the sweetness? When I looked at her behind the bar, I wasn't sure if the steam rising was just coming from the coffee or not. Perhaps, the milk wasn't the only thing being stretched.

Finding parking was not as difficult as expected, many stores were not filled with customers but were actually sporting handmade signs announcing large discounts on merchandise. I am sure large bands of heavily armored muscled men might have a some effect on impulse purchases, restaurants were steady, but not rushed. A few drunk kids found themselves escorted to the paddy wagon headed down to detox at Denver Health, where my friend Bert, the former Judo champion works and will be waiting tomorrow for a few more guests.

I wore my cute, colorful skirt, little heels and my giant silver peace necklace and just kind of held court as folks came by to share the latest rumors on protests and fears. Looking on the mall, I noticed the usual benches where folks typically gathered that were not anchored down had been removed, trash cans had been replaced with disposable cardboard boxes.

Probably the most disturbing moment happened when my African American friend handed me a brochure espousing that freedom for Negroes was a mistake and how Christians might want to rethink slavery....that was pretty darn weird among other adjectives I could use. Flyers were distributed by young and some times awkward men and women noting dates and times for protests.


While sipping my chai, talk of fear and hope floated in the air. It can be tempting to talk up the drama of the moment, excitement mixed with anxiety intoxicating, but in my opinion, discipline will be required of us not to feed the fear monster. My thought is to starve the beast and feed the future with hope and optimism, even in spite of or because of the men in black.