This week I take 10 flights in 6 days. I'm halfway through now, and with all of the travel, the time changes, (4 time zones in 6 days...) and the hassle of rental cars, expenses, conferences and weddings, I found that layovers are the perfect opportunity to get back into my comfort zone.
No, it's not home. It's empty and full at the same time. Full of strangers: grown men crying over the loss of a parent, children running from their parents, spouses taking turns napping in the stiff leather seats. No room to be left alone, but all the loneliness in the world.
The terminals are ripe with characters for the mind's stage. It was here that I started writing again, after a long dry spell. It didn't start with a political blog or a rant about the shortcomings of congress. I didn't comment on the washed up celebrities in dark glasses that haunt LAX. I wrote a love letter. I used an ink pen and a notepad. And I read it aloud to my partner when it was finished.
With all the blogging, vlogging, facebooking and twittering that we do, as a culture, in DC, it was overwhelmingly pure to write something down again. No, not just anything, it was writing my emotions, my feelings down that seemed so pure. I felt like a poet, a Thoreau in my own version of the wilderness. The burden of politics, as only a DC resident can feel, floated away.
I've had this feeling before. I kept a journal through my travels in Russia, documenting my heartbeat as the plane landed in St. Petersburg and I finally saw those heavenward-reaching birch trees, as a nationalistic rally raged and our tour guide was assaulted, as the pungent aromas of dill and honey mixed in the open market and I was called "Senora" for the first [and last] time of my life.
So this morning, on flights 7 & 8 of my travels, I will bring a notebook and an ink pen, and see what happens. I encourage you to do the same, especially if you find that you're starting to hunch because of that DC weight.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Obama Closing Gitmo
This morning, new President Barack Obama called for a suspension of trials at Gitmo.
To be honest, I was a Michigan voter, I didn't get the chance to vote for Obama in the primaries. My vote went to Dodd. I worked for a labor union that endorsed Senator Clinton during the primaries, and, as part of my professional obligations, I worked in Indiana on her campaign. This is a wholly separate story, but rural Indiana was going for Hillary anyway.
But then I saw the Yes We Can video for the first time, and I understood the movement of the Obama Nation. I did not work on his campaign, except for occassionally helping my office put together a few yard signs, and post a few blogs and articles. I did not stomp for him, and I did not put my whole life aside for his campaign. I could have done more, and many have and will continue to argue that I should have.
My response has and will continue to be that I am a young, white liberal. I came to DC as an idealist. This was never my campaign. I cannot and will not claim it as my own. There are millions of people who worked harder, risked more and struggled longer than I can even know, who deserved to be out there at the inaugural speech, and at the inaugural balls. I was in DC, and I watched it on the Internet, drank a bottle of wine and jumped up with joy when he mentioned "non-believers" in his speech. And I was optimistic, too.
Cautiously optimistic, like so many have described themselves. Then, this morning, as I drank my coffee and checked my news alerts, I remembered Obama's pledge to close Gitmo. Here, now, a politician keeping his word. In an era of Blagojevich, Cheney, Rumsfield and our beloved finally ex-president George W. Bush, how refreshing to have someone keep a promise.
Congratulations to the Obama campaigners, stompers and movers, and congratulations to the new Obama administration. With so much work ahead, this is an encouraging first step.
To be honest, I was a Michigan voter, I didn't get the chance to vote for Obama in the primaries. My vote went to Dodd. I worked for a labor union that endorsed Senator Clinton during the primaries, and, as part of my professional obligations, I worked in Indiana on her campaign. This is a wholly separate story, but rural Indiana was going for Hillary anyway.
But then I saw the Yes We Can video for the first time, and I understood the movement of the Obama Nation. I did not work on his campaign, except for occassionally helping my office put together a few yard signs, and post a few blogs and articles. I did not stomp for him, and I did not put my whole life aside for his campaign. I could have done more, and many have and will continue to argue that I should have.
My response has and will continue to be that I am a young, white liberal. I came to DC as an idealist. This was never my campaign. I cannot and will not claim it as my own. There are millions of people who worked harder, risked more and struggled longer than I can even know, who deserved to be out there at the inaugural speech, and at the inaugural balls. I was in DC, and I watched it on the Internet, drank a bottle of wine and jumped up with joy when he mentioned "non-believers" in his speech. And I was optimistic, too.
Cautiously optimistic, like so many have described themselves. Then, this morning, as I drank my coffee and checked my news alerts, I remembered Obama's pledge to close Gitmo. Here, now, a politician keeping his word. In an era of Blagojevich, Cheney, Rumsfield and our beloved finally ex-president George W. Bush, how refreshing to have someone keep a promise.
Congratulations to the Obama campaigners, stompers and movers, and congratulations to the new Obama administration. With so much work ahead, this is an encouraging first step.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Profanity & Child Prostitution in South Carolina
An amendment proposal, sponsored by Senator Robert Ford (D), was introduced to the South Carolina State Senate this week.
The amendment would ban oral and written profanity basically everywhere outside the home, punishable by a fine of up to $5,000 or 5 years in jail, or both.
I could make some comment here about their legal system, and that if they really wanted to fill up some vacant cells, they should take out ads in a local apartment magazine, or Rent.com.
But I think my favorite part of this amendment is that it would be included in an already existing bill that outlaws the following:
1. disseminating or exhibiting to minors harmful material or performances
2. employing a person under the age of eighteen years to appear in a state of sexually explicit nudity in a public place
3. first degree sexual exploitation of a minor
4. second degree sexual exploitation of a minor
5. third degree sexual exploitation of a minor
6. promoting prostitution of a minor
No, really. Run a highly profitable and sleezy child prostitution ring? Just as bad as swearing in front of my 17 year old brother. Really.
Not to mention, profanity is not defined in the amendment, so the traditional 7 words would probably be included, but what about taking the Lord's Name in Vain? If my brother hears me yell "OH MY GOD" in a public place, will I go to jail? And holy sh** (sorry, Senator Ford), Jon Stewart would have to cancel his show there.
Oh, and by the way, Senator Ford has also written bills to get sex offenders on a global positioning satellite (a GPS, except for everything, and unhelpful in areas of construction) and to extend the smoking ban in South Carolina.
This amendment probably will not go through, but it is South Carolina. You never know.
The amendment would ban oral and written profanity basically everywhere outside the home, punishable by a fine of up to $5,000 or 5 years in jail, or both.
I could make some comment here about their legal system, and that if they really wanted to fill up some vacant cells, they should take out ads in a local apartment magazine, or Rent.com.
But I think my favorite part of this amendment is that it would be included in an already existing bill that outlaws the following:
1. disseminating or exhibiting to minors harmful material or performances
2. employing a person under the age of eighteen years to appear in a state of sexually explicit nudity in a public place
3. first degree sexual exploitation of a minor
4. second degree sexual exploitation of a minor
5. third degree sexual exploitation of a minor
6. promoting prostitution of a minor
No, really. Run a highly profitable and sleezy child prostitution ring? Just as bad as swearing in front of my 17 year old brother. Really.
Not to mention, profanity is not defined in the amendment, so the traditional 7 words would probably be included, but what about taking the Lord's Name in Vain? If my brother hears me yell "OH MY GOD" in a public place, will I go to jail? And holy sh** (sorry, Senator Ford), Jon Stewart would have to cancel his show there.
Oh, and by the way, Senator Ford has also written bills to get sex offenders on a global positioning satellite (a GPS, except for everything, and unhelpful in areas of construction) and to extend the smoking ban in South Carolina.
This amendment probably will not go through, but it is South Carolina. You never know.
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