Stevie's One Person Protests

  The shirts I wear have the name of a black American we lost to police or white Americans. Some of the police officers have also been black.  Emmett Till 1941-1955  Elijah McClain 1996-2019 Tyre Nichols 1993-2023 Martin Luther King Jr 1929-1968 Breonna Taylor 1993-2020 George Floyd 1973-2020 Ahmaud Arbery 1994-2020 Jayland Walker 1996-2022

A bit of introduction. I am Stevie Joe Payne, born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma,  February 12th, 1944. My first president was Franklin Delano Roosevelt, although I do not remember him. I remember Harry Truman. I have another blog and this one is new because I wanted to focus on my one person protests. I call them one person because I am usually the only person there. I was a Republican until I began to move away from that in the late 1980s. I'm a registered Democrat. I have participated in a number of protests and marches. I started wearing shirts that read "Being Black is Legal," then I added, "Black Lives Matter." I began designing my own shirts to memorialize black lives taken by police and white people. The name, birth and death years are on the front with "Black Lives Matter" on the back. I'll list some names on a new post. I started my one person protests in January, 2026. This is a record of reports about the protests.   

  February 7th, 2026, 8th day of my one person protest. Today,  a car stopped and the window was rolled down. A man about 40 with a beard becoming white asked me about my sign (Alex Jeffrey Pretti 1988-2026) and then asked, “Are you opposed to ICE?” He asked, “What would you do if a bunch of illegals jumped out of the car and started beating you up.” I replied, “Perdon Señor, pero tú no sabes que tengo muchos amigos Latinos y también una parte de mi familia son mexicanos.” He rattled on without stopping. I said, “It's a one sided conversation because you haven't let me speak.” “Do you have something to say?” “Yes sir. I have a question. Did you serve in the military?” “No.” “I did,  sir, United States Navy, 1961-1965.” “Thank you for your service.” I asked, “Are you brave?” “Yes, I am.” “Are you brave enough to shoot a woman three times and in her face” “I am,” he replied. “Then I'm very sorry for you because you have no heart.” He said, “She deserved it.” I replied, “And...