City police were very friendly, asking people to "come this way" so the march could get started. This seemed weird. In a moment, their friendliness was explained. The mayor of Pittsburgh was going to start the march. Follow the blue balloons.

Streets were carefully blocked off so people could walk the chosen direction and end up to gather in Market Square, where some speeches would be made.
There were some dogs, lots of tiny children -- some in wagons -- and the inevitable guy on a unicycle. There is always a guy on a unicycle. Or something close to that, like the marathoner who runs the entire race backwards, Backwards Bud.

Here he is.


And a doggy.


And everybody else.

There were a bunch of elected people who spoke, from the county executive to state and federal representatives. All Democrats. If anyone wondered if Pittsburgh was a blue town...



A point that was made more than once by the speakers was about this state's being a big hunting state, so they wanted to push for responsible ownership. If, for instance, someone couldn't locate one of their weapons and failed to report it within a couple of days, that's a big problem. Ed Gainey, a state rep. I'd never heard of before, exercised his vocal chords in an admirable way; he hollered like a preacher and it was great. I liked him.

On TV, the girl who threw up was the one I really remember. You know she was sincere.