Soapbox

Well, I got myself a Facebook page.

   I…haven’t decided how I feel about it. I had assumed Facebook was something 16 year-old girls did to, you know, like totally talk about  boys and stuff, you know? But then I heard that my older sister had a page… and was hearing from people. In our family! People that I never hear from!
   Huh uh. No. If Barb can do it, I can do it.
    And so I did.
    I don’t yet understand half the ins and outs of this thing. Like, what is "poking" someone? (Or do I not want to know?) And there are "groups" and "events", and I know you "friend" people and get them to friend you back….

   I’m starting off slowly. I have a few people from high school on my list, including one guy who was a jock and I doubt he knew I, the theatre groupie, was alive back then. Now he’s old like me, with grown kids and he "friended" me out of the blue, which I thought was nice.  We’re all grown-ups, after all. And I have a few people in my family on my list. Facebook keeps suggesting others, but here’s how I look at it.  Imagine you’re 17. Do you want your mother’s old lady cousin to be your friend? Probably not, ’cause then you keep getting links to all her old lady friends and updates on what she’s doing. So I’m giving the kids a break.

   I did friend my former next-door neighbor, who is now a big-time photographer, thank you. I was a little nervous that he’d think it was stupid… still feeling like a wallflower, even on Facebook. He just posted some lovely photos of the inaugural on his site. I remember leaving my bike in his front yard all the time, and my Dad looking at his photographs and giving him suggestions, back in the day.

   Last night Facebook informed me that my husband (who is one of my friends- thanks honey!) has joined a group called "You Know you’re from Lancaster County When…" and I started to wonder what other groups are out there. First I checked the ones of which my friends are members:  Allison Krauss fan club… Friends of Nelsonville... not really for me. Is there anything about writing poetry, or getting your writing published? Or maybe a Beatles fan club? Ah, "search groups". Sounds promising. ~click~

   Whoa. Talk about going through the Looking Glass!

   After scrolling through 45 pages of groups I struck out completely on the Beatles club (shocking!) and poetry writing, but I did make some interesting observations.

    First, while teen-aged girls may indeed be gossiping about boys on Facebook, most of the groups here seem to be started by teenaged boys who want everyone to know how bad-ass they are,and that you are totally missing out if you’re not having sex with them. (Clearly boys are just as full of it now as they were 30 years ago.)
    Second: way too many people  think it makes them look cool to use profanity in the title of their group, as in the "F**k yes I’m Hot, my Ni**a!" group. Which might as well be called the "Hey everybody- I"m an immature jerk!!" group, or "Emotionally arrested at age 15? Join Us!"

    And what is with groups started about your cell phone? I must have seen 30 called "Tom lost his phone and Needs your number" or "Renee finally got a phone, y’all!" I just don’t get it. Too old, I guess.

   But there were some groups that fascinated me. For example: "Zombie Defense Force" . Who knew they were on Facebook? Now that I think about it,  to date there have been no Zombie attacks at all, so I guess they are doing their job well!  There is one called "F**k Islam!" which claims to be a group about "spirituality’. Yes, very spiritual, I’m sure. They probably all have bracelets that say "Who would Jesus give the finger to?"

    A group called "I Bet I can Find 1 million People who Hate Abortion" has 32,000 members. So …not yet, huh? (I wanted to start one called "No one Loves Abortion, you moron!" but common sense prevailed. )

    The group called "I Love Nuttella" has 47,000 members. Uh oh, looks like more people love Nuttella than hate abortion. Too bad. But Nuttella is just so yummy!

    There was a "Stop Hillary Clinton!" group with over 800,000 members. She’s Secretary of Defense now… so did they fail, or succeed? Perhaps they should have gotten together with the Zombie Defense force… I know people who would see some similarities!

    "I Flip my Pillow to get the Cold Side" has 800,000+ members. Well sure, I mean- who doesn’t? But I can’t imagine what there is to talk about in such a group.
    "Dude- totally flipped it 6 times last night."
    "Cool". 
    Umm… pass.

    "When I was Your Age, Pluto Was a Planet" intrigued me (58,000) as did one called   "I Judge You When you use Bad Grammar" with over 800,000 members. I do judge, actually… but I really don’t want to brag about it. Moving on.

   I found one called "World Domination" which has to date just 3 members. But really, I think it best there not be too many people interested in World Domination, don’t you? The world has enough problems without too many little Napoleons running around.

    My personal favorite was definitely the one called "I don’t Care if I’ll Die at Midnight, I am NOT Passing on your Chain Letter!" If I had a nickle for every prayer chain I have broken I would be recession-proof right about now!

   Well I did not yet find a Facebook group I want to join, but I’ll keep looking. Maybe I should start my own. Perhaps I"ll call it "Old Broads who Don’t Totally get this Facebook Thing Yet"

… and love Nuttella!

Willful ignorance is a sad, frustrating, human trait.
I read in the paper today that Japan is resuming its annual whale hunt. Damn.

My soul has been torn from me and I am bleeding.
My heart it has been rent and I am crying.
All the beauty around me fades and I am screaming-
I am the last of the great whales,
And I am dying.

    The story remarked that after WW2  many Japanese ate whale meat as a cheap source of protein. And now it has become a custom, to which they seem to feel they are entitled.
   "I don’t understand why the world would expect us to give up a custom we have had for so many years" a spokesman said.

This morning the sun did rise crimson in the north sky,
The ice was the colour of blood and the winds they did sigh.
I rose for to take a breath: it was my last one-
From a gun came the roar of death
And now I am done

    Ummm… cause they’re going EXTINCT? Because you are on a course to make your precious  "custom" impossible forever?
Forget the majestic beauty, forget the gentle intelligence of the species or their place in the ecosystem of the oceans… if you exhibit a little self-control now, one day your grandchildren might be able to "enjoy" whales too!

    I guess that’s just me: wanting to stop wars and end hunger and save the whales. Always tilting at windmills and crying when I lose. But it’s so frustrating how willfully ignorant people can be: all people, in so many areas. For some of us bleeding hearts, this area holds a special sorrow. I have never seen a whale. I wonder- will I ever? The killing of whales is so unnecessary, and so barbaric. Ah, but then again, so much of what humankind does IS.

Now that we are all gone there’s no more hunting.
The big fellow is no more, it’s no use lamenting.
What race will be next in line- all for the slaughter?
The elephant or the seal,
Or your sons and daughters?

Indigo clouds riding in a low north sky,
Dead leaves chatter and scold
And race up the road ahead of me
As I turn my steps for home.

Solitary crow in a tossing tree
That sheds its last few leaves of gold.
Stubble in the corn field
Gray hair of a year grown old.

      And maybe it's the Alberta Clipper
      Or maybe it's just thinkin' of you
      That has me staring at a cold north sky,
      That has my heart so blue.

I don't need an almanac to know
Something's gonna freeze tonight.
It's the way of nature, it's the way of hearts:
What was soft and green goes cold and white.

Black crow riding on the winds of change,
My heart hears the song that he sings.
We're riding out the storms of life
On strong but fragile wings.

      And maybe it's the Alberta Clipper
      Or maybe it's just a change that's due
      My heart is weatherman enough to know
      That a storm is coming through.

So the year grows older, but no wiser:
Hey, ain't that just like me?
When will I learn that seasons end
And some things just cannot be?

Let it go, let it go!
Winter's winds are gonna blow
Wrap your heart in tight around you girl,
And keep your head low.

      And maybe it's the Alberta Clipper
      Or maybe it's just thinkin' of you
      That has me staring at a cold north sky,
      That has my heart… so damn so blue.

I was raking leaves the other day and the wind picked up as a storm front approached….and I wrote this song.

    This morning so I went to the NewsStand to see if they have that new Time magazine special edition with the great picture of Obama on the cover. As I was walking around peering at the shelves I caught the tail end of a conversation between the woman running the place and an older black man and woman.
     "Excuse me- what is it you were asking about?" I asked, and sure enough, they’d been looking for the same magazine, and the store doesn’t have it yet, and will get just 15 copies tomorrow morning. The three of us started talking about how we wanted to have something nice to keep as a momento of such an historic moment, and it turned into a 15 minute conversation, starting with the election but moving on into other areas.
     At one point I dug my ipod out of my purse to let them listen to a John Legend song which I thought they would like- and they loved it- and they asked me about ipods and how much they cost and how hard they are to use and could someone as old as them figure one out?
     I’m have to go to work this afternoon, so I wound the conversation to a close (we were in the parking lot by then) and we all shook hands and introduced ourselves (Gwen and Jim) before we parted.
      Gwen said "Well I must say, this has been the high point of my day."
      "My new sistah!" Jim. agreed "You sometimes find one in unexpected places, don’t you."
      "We usually have more in common with that person who seems so different than we realize" I said.
     Gwen nodded and said thoughtfully,  "You know, I"m not normally the sort who just starts a conversation with someone I just met, but… "
      And I said, "There’s something in the air, isn’t there? Change is coming."

They both smiled broadly at that.
That’s my prayer, anyway.

   I haven’t been able to put as much time in with the Obama campaign as I was with the Kerry campaign four years ago, but I’ve done what I could. I knew that on election day, with so very much riding on the outcome, I  couldn’t just sit home and bite my nails, so I volunteered to be what they call a "line manager".
   Anticipating record turnout, the Obama campaign here in Ohio recruited volunteers to stand outside polling places. Our primary job was to pass out sample ballots to people waiting to vote, because the ballot is rather long and complicated. These are non-partisan replicas of the actual ballot, so people could consider the issues, mark their votes in line and take them in with them, and then just transfer the votes onto the voting screen, hopefully reducing the time it takes to actually vote. Our secondary job was to answer basic questions, encourage, entertain and otherwise keep people in line.
   I was assigned the afternoon shift and, anticipating people getting off work, coming straight to the polls and then standing, hungry and tired, in line, I brought water, apples, bananas, cookies, pretzles and a few newspapers and magazines, as well as folding chairs in case someone older or disabled was unable to stand.

   Fortunately, the long lines were all in the morning. While there was a steady stream of voters all afternoon, no one had to wait more than about 15 minutes to vote at my assigned location, which was independence High School on the far east side. I was not the only person doing a shift there. In addition to another line manager, the Obama team  assigned a lawyer to each polling place. At my location it was Barbara and her husband Mike, who left Mass. 3 weeks ago to come to Columbus and try to turn Ohio blue. There were also two fellows from the local union hall there to pass out some voting info and 2 people paid by their employer to pass out info on my voters should reject the payday lending law on the ballot. We all became fast friends, joking and laughing and sgaring stories about our kids, etc. even though, in the case of the payday lending folks, we were on opposite sides of the issue.

    Because the lines were so short I didn’t need all the food I had brought, but it seemed to be well appreciated. Several mothers showed up with tired young children in tow. They welcomed the fruit and water to keep the kids occupied while they voted. A few people asked how much we were charging for the food.
   "Free" we told them. "We don’t want anyone to be hungry while they vote." They seemd to find this a novel but pleasant concept.

    One gentleman took a banana on his way back to his car after voting. "Go Obama!" he said to us. We were told to wear nothing political at all, and to say nothing political: we were there to help facilitate voting and to report problems, not to sway voters.
    "What makes you think we’re from the Obama campaign?" I asked.
    "Hell, McCain people don’t be giving away no bananas!" he said, and we laughed.
    "Obama ’08!" Barbara called to him.

   The only problem that cropped up was a young man, there to vote for the first time, who was turned away because the poll workers said he didn’t have the right kind of identification. He came out and spoke to Barbara, who advised him, and he went home and got his mother. She marched in with him, slapped down the papers she brought and informed the poll worker, "You know, not all people are priveledged to have a driver’s license!" The man was allowed to vote with no further questions.

   By 7:00 things grew very quiet and we were checking our watches for the polls to close and our shifts to end. (The union guys had been there since 6:30 am) With about 5 minutes to go and our supplies loaded into the cars, headlights turned into the school parking lot.
   "Hurry up" we called as the people got out of their car. "It’s almost time to close." And then another car turned in, and another.
   At 7:28 two women working inside the polls came out and began to remove the "VOTE HERE" signs and arrows along the walkway. Just then another car pulled in and 4 people got out.

   "Run!" we said. "It’s almost time to close!"
   "They’re too late" one of the women said. "We’re closed."
   "No you’re not. It’s not 7:30" we argued.
   "Yes it is" they protested. The would be voters stopped, confused.
   Mike stood and held up his cell phone. "My clock time is set from a satellite" he informed the women solemnly, "And they have two- no, one and one half minutes to get inside the doors, and you have to let them vote."

   The tableau was frozen for an instant. "Go!" we shouted. "Run!" and the voters sprinted up the walk while the tired poll workers shook their heads. I know how they felt- it had been a long, long day for them. But this is democracy we’re talking about!
   Another car pulled in. Mike checked his cell clock. "About 15 seconds" he muttered.
   "Go!  Run! GO!" we all shouted as soon as the car door opened, jumping up and down. Taking us at our word, the final voter of the night streaked to the school entrance.  A few seconds after he disappeared inside we heard the sound of the door being locked.

   "Well, that’s 5 extra votes we got accomplished" Barbara said.
   "Six, counting the kid they turned away. " I reminded them.
   "Six votes. I’m good with that" Mike said, and we all hugged and said goodbye. More instant friends: a good day.

   I got in the van and headed up the highway in the dark, feeling a strange mix of emotions. It was all over: nothing more to be done. Every poll was closed and Ohio, for good or ill, was "in the can".  I turned on my ipod and started listening to a song I recently downloaded by John Legend, called "If you’re Out There".  About halfway through the song came the lyrics,

     I was looking for a  song to sing,
     I searched for a leader, but the leader was me.
     We were looking for the world to change
     We can be heros, just go on and say….

and I just started to weep.
   Honestly, I don’t think I had let myself really contemplate the implications for the country, and for my children, of a McCain/Palin victory. But now that there was no time left, now that it was finished, it came rushing in- all the anxiety for the future, but also thoughts of all the wonderful people I have met recently, and the amazing spirit that has surrounded this campign and everyone involved in it. I just don’t want to see that end!

    So it was all too much for a minute there. Then the song came to an end, and the next song started… and I wiped my eyes, and smiled, and then laughed. And I started the John Legend song again, and cried again, but smiled too and sang along triumphantly:

   If you’re out there… if you’re out there… tomorrow’s starting now!