Old News Really Fast

DC: Glad to sit down at last

Thank you for your patience, Dear Readers! Our journey to the Stewart/Colbert Rally For Sanity was a six-day trek to the most happening (some say, irrelevant) event of last week, via the distant past. The day after this weary shot, our hostess led a tour for us of Fredericksburg, VA--a charming little town that has more Revolutionary and Civil War history per square foot than any other I've ever visited.

I'm watching MSNBC moments before the polls close on the East Coast, wondering if sanity even has a shot tonight. The Rally was fun, both relaxed and energizing. There were either 215,000 (CBS) or 6 Billion (Stephen Colbert); whichever, there were more people than we'd been led to expect. Well-behaved, nice people with great senses of humor. Okay, there were some kids who didn't hear the cop say to get down from the wall (see first picture), but that was the only misbehavior I saw.

More sane humans than I'd expected

This was not my first Washington rally, so I knew the drill: you focus on the people you came with, try not to lose them, try not to trip, say "excuse me" a lot, be satisfied to add your presence to the whole, and don't drink much before or during. I couldn't see the stage. Frankly, my hearing is going and it was hard to differentiate the amplified program from the ambient noise, so I can't say I heard a lot. But I was deeply gratified by the turnout. And the reliability of my bladder.  Let's face it, when it comes to marching on the Capitol, I've still got it.

Captain America loved our sign!

I met a nice man about my own age who carried a sign that read, "Bob" with a big arrow that pointed down. He really needed to sit down, so he borrowed some time in one of our lawn chairs and seemed reluctant to give it up. The sign was to help his wife find him if they got separated; apparently she was prone to leave him behind. We were both amazed to find someone else from South Carolina. In fact, our sign drew Southerners to us: Texans, Carolinians, Floridians, and one woman from Kentucky. Dozens of people wanted pictures of The Sign. Some wanted their picture made with our sign...without us. Would the kind of people who'd gone to the trouble of attending The Rally To Restore Sanity actually claim our sign for their own on Facebook?  I don't think I want an answer to that question.

We left early for a lovely late lunch...four old people who felt lucky to be in D.C. on such a beautiful day and lucky to avoid the exit crush. We caught a cab back to our car and learned more about being American from our Sudanese driver than from the Rally. And we didn't feel the least bit shortchanged.

Very clever, but bad for American voters

We found this sign the cleverest...clever being the order of the day...but I fervently hope that Democratic voters overcame their apathy today. Right now, I'm signing out to devote myself to the tube and the returns, so I'll post the pictures of Historic Fredericksburg tomorrow or the next day. Depending on the mood. If you're reading this, I know you voted and good for you, good for us. As of 8:05 p.m., Alvin Greene has gotten 40% of votes counted against Jim DeMint's 54% here in SC. I call that a statement of some sort, but I have no idea what the hell it means.

The Rally Take-Away: A marvelous example of Americans enjoying First Amendment rights.

P.S. Looking forward to catching up on your posts.

Cool, Cooler, Coolest

My sanity is being restored! I want to thank Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert from a full heart. You know how bummed we liberal elitists have been prone to get in recent months; well, I've not been immune to that dysthymia, but I suddenly realized today that I'm feeling jazzed. Juiced! Excited for the first time in way too long. Two very smart and clever comedians have somehow managed to make gloomy, pessimistic, dour ol' me kind of tickled with life! Nothing has changed politically, meteorologically, personally...but I'm going to DC on October 30th to see massive, vital evidence of intelligent life on the planet. How cool is that?

If you've thought about going and aren't jazzed yet, please go to Terry Gross's interview with Stewart at the 92nd Street Y, available on Fresh Air at NPR.org. After listening to it, I was as impressed with Jon Stewart, the man, as I am with Jon Stewart, comedian. A couple of snippets from that interview:

And its very easy to dehumanize, and I will say in this room: I would imagine, you know, Beck and Palin are easier punching bags, and we can think of it as, oh my God, I'm so scared if they take over. And you know what? We'll be fine. You know, we had a civil war. Just - we're not that fragile, and I think we always have to remember that people can be opponents, but not enemies. And there are enemies in the world. We just need the news media to help us delineate. And I think that's where the failing is, that the culture of corruption that exists in the media doesn't allow us to delineate between enemies and opponents. And that's where we sort of fall into trouble.

***********************

The [more] you spend time with the political [world] and media, the less political you become and the more viscerally upset you become at corruption. I don't consider it political, because 'political' I always sort of note as a partisan endeavor. But I have become increasingly unnerved by the depth of corruption that exists at many different levels. I'm less upset with politicians than [with] the media. I feel like politicians — the way I explain it, is when you go to a zoo and a monkey throws feces, it's a monkey. But when the zookeeper is standing right there and he doesn't say, 'Bad monkey' — somebody's gotta be the zookeeper.

I feel much more strongly about the abdication of responsibility by the media than by political advocates. They're representing a constituency. Our culture is just a series of checks and balances. The whole idea that we're in a battle between tyranny and freedom — it's a series of pendulum swings. And the swings have become less drastic over time.

That's why I feel, not sanguine but at least a little bit less frightful, in that our pendulum swings have become less and less. But what has changed is the media's sense of their ability to be responsible arbiters. I think they feel fearful. I think there's this whole idea now that there's a liberal media conspiracy, and I think they feel if they express any authority or judgment, which is what I imagine is editorial control, they will be vilified. 

 I can't wait. There are going to be "special guests" and I'll wager one of them will be Rachel Maddow. I hope Oprah won't be there; I'm miffed 'cause she forgot to send me my plane ticket and because I'd really like to see America do something big that doesn't require Oprah to give it her blessing.

Obama responds to DADT question at Town Hall Meeting

Cooler: I love it that the Prez is a Harvard Law School graduate and a professor of constitutional law at University of Chicago. How else would he be able to thread his way through the Don't Ask, Don't Tell maze? While the right vilifies him and the left stamps its foot with impatience (which I share!), Mr. Obama is parsing the law and navigating the political waters like the pro he is. If anyone can successfully make that stupid, cruel policy go away, I believe he can. A misstep will leave gay and lesbians who serve or who want to serve vulnerable to indefinite continuation of DADT, and that would be an additional show of disrespect to the over 13,000 men and women who have found their military careers destroyed by Pub. L 103-160 since 1993.

Not that she would tackle this issue, but can you imagine Sarah Palin as President tackling something this legally and politically complex? She'd be a puppet and a dupe, unable to add one thing of substance to the machinations of her handlers. Keep the faith, my brothers and sisters; the right man is on the job.


Cooler Still: Returned the other day from a West Coast trip to visit my daughter's family. And, just to prove that I didn't spend all my time there holed up in The Bed Bug Inn writing incisive, illustrated, impressively researched, and obviously astute political and policy blogs, I'll share a few shots from an afternoon at the The New Children's Museum in San Diego.

A 3-storey space worm made entirely of...

...balloons!

A Walk-in Trojan Horse

Daughter looks lovely even in Try-On-A-
Wacky-Animal gear.

By Far The Coolest: We've been back on the East Coast for a couple of days, missing little High And Exalted (3.5 years old) terribly. When we left him and his ever-expanding verbal and mental prowess, he was communicating very complex abstract notions, but still having a little trouble with the k and hard g sounds. He still rode in a tar or on a tricytle. It was so adorable, we were all really otay with it, but he was aware that he was making those sounds imperfectly, because, while we never told him he was pronouncing something wrong, we sometimes offered, "Let's try saying kuh-kuh-kuh." He'd try, to no avail, and we'd just hug him and say,"Good job!"


My daughter called us yesterday, saying that H&G had waltzed into the den and surprised her with something he had to say and, now, he had wanted her to call us so he could tell us the same thing. She handed him the phone and he said, 

Hey! What's going on there? Cool! Cat! Trashcan!

He'd gotten it. He'd been practicing quietly in his room and he'd come out for a marathon session of hard C's, ready to wow the world. How could I ever have have feared that humans just suck. Politics just sucks; humans vary; H&G soars. And, you know, it's almost impossible to be gloomy or down in a world that contains Jon Stewart, balloon space worms, my kids and my grandkids.

The High and Exalted Grandson and I cruise intergalactic
space as Funny Face Superhero Space Creatures. Cool!