Arlington, VA—They swept into the a North Arlington neighborhood like a well-organized herd of cats with their weapons of choice, 2.54 cm solid point sticks—made of chalk. They laid a line of block letters spelling ‘SHAME’ in various colors, tall and wide enough to see from a helicopter. For effect, they added giant arrows pointing towards the home of Russell Vought, Director of Office of Management and Budget (OMB). On the sidewalk at the edge of Vought’s lawn, they chalked “USAID Lives In Our Hearts—From The American People.”
The half dozen activists took about a half hour or so to complete the giant block letters. An unmarked security unit sat behind tinted glass in what appeared to be an unmarked police vehicle just feet from them but did not try to stop them. Their antics complete, the chalk affinity group stood in a line looking over their work briefly as if daring the security contingent parked there to come out. Then they faded into the daylight like cats do, as if they hadn’t even been there, leaving their chalk boxes behind like a cat’s paw prints