Protest!

I wanted to go to the "Occupy [my city]" protest afterwards, so I folded up my "Exploit-o-nomics" sign from the Madison protests into my backpack, and brought it along.

As it turns out, the (Mexican) guy is super pissed off, so after running 26.2 miles, he hobbled over to the protests with me - though not before I just pulled out my sign and leaned against a wall downtown in a park by the marathon traffic, so all the people going by could see it!

Most looked confused, one (late 30s) (really fit) (black) lady smiled broadly, and one older (white) guy in khaki shorts and with a big paunch shook his head and grimaced when I wasn't looking, the (Mexican) guy said later.

In any case, I was "that eccentric guy at a big event"!

Anyhow, on the walk over to the protest the (Mexican) guy said he's super pissed, since the U.S. is becoming more and more like Mexico, with everything for the super rich, and nothing for everyone else - health care is becoming too expensive, education is becoming too expensive, etc.

He said he moved here for opportunity (he's an engineer, and works in the suburbs), and he sees less and less of it...

He said the only thing preferable to Mexico vs. the U.S. is the free college education there.

He also said that he thinks back a lot to a class in college in Mexico about social change, where a professor asked people what they thought about this systemic problem, that systemic problem, etc. After it was all done, she asked people to raise their hands to see who would protest to the point of getting hurt and even getting killed, and no one did.

"You see, there is no hope for our country," she said.

"You know," the (Mexican) guy said, "I realized she is right, that is why I moved."