March 1, 2024

I ran into my friend's son on my walk. He was driving the company van wearing a Russian hat with an emblem. He buzzed down the window to say hello and I asked him about the hat. The emblem was the National Emblem of the Russian Federation. When he drove off I remembered walking by his house last summer and had noticed a violent right wing bumper sticker on a blue truck parked out on the street in front of his house. I hoped it was not his but figured it might be a visitor.

Later I walked down Valley Street and spotted a crowd of about 25 people all dressed in black up on the hill in Precious Blood Cemetery. They were gathered next to a casket that was covered in roses.

Today in Russia they are burying Navalny and I am sad that he is gone.