It is November 6th.
Thursday, November 06, 2008
Weather
Today I wore a tank top on my walk to the post office and was perfectly comfortable temperature wise.
Wednesday, November 05, 2008
Nov. 4th, 2008
I started the day by intentionally avoiding pundits. I checked in on fivethirtyeight.com to see the latest projections and then looked away with intention.
Our plan for the evening worked out very well. Joshua and I went to campus and celebrated just as we had hoped to do with our closest philosophy friends. Late in the evening we were joined by a man who had been watching the election results alone. We welcomed him into our group and enjoyed having yet another like minded person join our celebration.
When the reporters called the election for Obama, we clinked glasses and the phone rang. My good friend Marsha was calling and we had wonderful moment of chatting and celebrating. I called the field office in Gadsden County Florida where I spent two weeks volunteering and spoke with a couple of the friends I made there.
A president elect who has policies that a) acknowledge that America has problems which we must work to correct and b) focus on people, pragmatics and compassion. Our first African-American president! This is a huge deal. And it felt like a huge deal.
After our get together started to wind down, we headed out. The idea was to get a drink at a bar or something...but we were at least momentarily waylaid by a crowd that had gathered at Toomers Corner. The corner is where people gather in this town when they are happy. This crowd was made up of a mix of young people. The majority of the crowd was made up of African-Americans and White people, I would say about 60%/40% respectively. It was amazing to come upon such a large group of people excited about the same thing we were, in Alabama no less! The crowd was pretty segregated, but everyone was enthusiastic and there was a positive vibe. After a little while I noticed that there were police around, and they started shooing people away. I noticed that one particular officer seemed to be shooing only African-American people away, as he skipped right over Joshua and I. We didn't like this at all. When finally he decided to try and shoo us away, I asked him why we had to leave. He wouldn't tell me. He responded that he was "clearing the corner". I said, "Why are you clearing the corner?" He would basically only say those two things: 1) that we had to leave and 2) that he was clearing the corner. We left, assuring him that we were not interested in asking why from jail, but one is left to wonder, WTF?
So we head down the street to get a drink. We have two favorite watering holes in Auburn. One, 1716, is a frat/sorority bar that is pretty great during the slower week days when there is not a crowd. When there is a crowd, Roosters is a better bet. For some reason, it is determined that we should go to 1716 even though we are wearing various Obama paraphernalia and people start trying to "talk" to us about politics before we even get in the door.
We go in. We stand there for no more than two minutes before people start coming up to us and giving us an ear full. Two ROTC dudes have white shirts which have "You'll be sorry" written on them in sharpie marker. I start having a conversation with one of the military guys, who is drunk (as am I). Then the conversation turns and I'm talking to this other kid. And we precede to have an interesting, respectful discussion about politics even though we are coming at it from different places. We are momentarily interrupted by a really drunk guy, who tells me that he was really hoping to see an assassination tonight. I tell him in no uncertain terms what I think of him and his opinion. I then go right back to having my reasonable discussion with the other guy. (I would like to state for the record that I had had enough of being yelled at by people who are cruel and say horrible things, also I was drinking. I have found that my saturation point for mean, scary people has been reached and I didn't leave it alone. I'm having an interesting time today trying to figure out how I feel about having um...had some choice words for that guy. I think I'm ok with it. It is certainly not the kind of thing I would like to do a lot. What I really wish, is that I would have thought to call him unpatriotic. Because he is and I think that probably would have affected him more than anything.)
Finally, we leave.
Crazy, crazy night. Such a mix of emotions, thoughts and experiences. I get so tired of living here. Somehow I can't quite ever forget that I'm in the south. I don't remember always being so aware of my location before. At least not in such a negative way.
I would like to know why the south has been left alone for so long to stew in its own juices in isolation. More than once someone expressed the following idea last night: "Well you're in Alabama, what do you expect?" It reminds me so much of the old adage: "Boys will be boys". You know that clever little saying the is used to excuse boys and sometimes men of bad behavior. It is bullshit. Why is it that we should just expect that Alabama will be racist? I mean really? Why shouldn't I expect more of people? Assuming that racism in the south is an essential part of the life here only enables the racism here to continue, almost without challenge. I know that history and culture here is still tied up with today. But we can do better. People can be better. We can use our minds and power of observation. We can acknowledge problems as individuals and a society. Why not expect this southern society to work to overcome their racism?
Anyway, the mind is ticking away today. The wheels are turning, if slowly.
I hope good things for our hard road to come.
Our plan for the evening worked out very well. Joshua and I went to campus and celebrated just as we had hoped to do with our closest philosophy friends. Late in the evening we were joined by a man who had been watching the election results alone. We welcomed him into our group and enjoyed having yet another like minded person join our celebration.
When the reporters called the election for Obama, we clinked glasses and the phone rang. My good friend Marsha was calling and we had wonderful moment of chatting and celebrating. I called the field office in Gadsden County Florida where I spent two weeks volunteering and spoke with a couple of the friends I made there.
A president elect who has policies that a) acknowledge that America has problems which we must work to correct and b) focus on people, pragmatics and compassion. Our first African-American president! This is a huge deal. And it felt like a huge deal.
After our get together started to wind down, we headed out. The idea was to get a drink at a bar or something...but we were at least momentarily waylaid by a crowd that had gathered at Toomers Corner. The corner is where people gather in this town when they are happy. This crowd was made up of a mix of young people. The majority of the crowd was made up of African-Americans and White people, I would say about 60%/40% respectively. It was amazing to come upon such a large group of people excited about the same thing we were, in Alabama no less! The crowd was pretty segregated, but everyone was enthusiastic and there was a positive vibe. After a little while I noticed that there were police around, and they started shooing people away. I noticed that one particular officer seemed to be shooing only African-American people away, as he skipped right over Joshua and I. We didn't like this at all. When finally he decided to try and shoo us away, I asked him why we had to leave. He wouldn't tell me. He responded that he was "clearing the corner". I said, "Why are you clearing the corner?" He would basically only say those two things: 1) that we had to leave and 2) that he was clearing the corner. We left, assuring him that we were not interested in asking why from jail, but one is left to wonder, WTF?
So we head down the street to get a drink. We have two favorite watering holes in Auburn. One, 1716, is a frat/sorority bar that is pretty great during the slower week days when there is not a crowd. When there is a crowd, Roosters is a better bet. For some reason, it is determined that we should go to 1716 even though we are wearing various Obama paraphernalia and people start trying to "talk" to us about politics before we even get in the door.
We go in. We stand there for no more than two minutes before people start coming up to us and giving us an ear full. Two ROTC dudes have white shirts which have "You'll be sorry" written on them in sharpie marker. I start having a conversation with one of the military guys, who is drunk (as am I). Then the conversation turns and I'm talking to this other kid. And we precede to have an interesting, respectful discussion about politics even though we are coming at it from different places. We are momentarily interrupted by a really drunk guy, who tells me that he was really hoping to see an assassination tonight. I tell him in no uncertain terms what I think of him and his opinion. I then go right back to having my reasonable discussion with the other guy. (I would like to state for the record that I had had enough of being yelled at by people who are cruel and say horrible things, also I was drinking. I have found that my saturation point for mean, scary people has been reached and I didn't leave it alone. I'm having an interesting time today trying to figure out how I feel about having um...had some choice words for that guy. I think I'm ok with it. It is certainly not the kind of thing I would like to do a lot. What I really wish, is that I would have thought to call him unpatriotic. Because he is and I think that probably would have affected him more than anything.)
Finally, we leave.
Crazy, crazy night. Such a mix of emotions, thoughts and experiences. I get so tired of living here. Somehow I can't quite ever forget that I'm in the south. I don't remember always being so aware of my location before. At least not in such a negative way.
I would like to know why the south has been left alone for so long to stew in its own juices in isolation. More than once someone expressed the following idea last night: "Well you're in Alabama, what do you expect?" It reminds me so much of the old adage: "Boys will be boys". You know that clever little saying the is used to excuse boys and sometimes men of bad behavior. It is bullshit. Why is it that we should just expect that Alabama will be racist? I mean really? Why shouldn't I expect more of people? Assuming that racism in the south is an essential part of the life here only enables the racism here to continue, almost without challenge. I know that history and culture here is still tied up with today. But we can do better. People can be better. We can use our minds and power of observation. We can acknowledge problems as individuals and a society. Why not expect this southern society to work to overcome their racism?
Anyway, the mind is ticking away today. The wheels are turning, if slowly.
I hope good things for our hard road to come.
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