Back home from spending most of the week in Anchorage. I stopped in at the Obama, Begich, and Berkowitz offices to get some more materials for our door-to-door get out the vote effort this weekend. Here's Jonathan Teeters, who's one of the AK organizers for Obama/Biden. I had to park down the block because the merchant next door to the campaign office will not allow any Obama supporters to park in his lot. :)
The jack-0-lanterns were carved by employees at the hotel where I stayed, and all of the guests got to vote for our favorites. Cute.
At the Anchorage airport, I was standing in line to buy some tea before my flight boarded and there were a couple of older women behind me. They sounded like some of my Jersey relatives and had just arrived in Alaska. I turned to say hello and ask them how they were doing as I finished up my order. One of them took a look at my "Barack Steady" button and launched into a tirade about how "the country is going to hell if he gets elected." She then proceeded to tell me how "all you young people don't know what you are doing," and that "we will all go broke when he gets elected." I was standing there thinking, "okay, I don't want her to be able to report that 'some Obama supporter told me off in the airport,' so I smiled my sweetest smile and told her that I respectfully disagreed and it sounded like we just had a difference of opinion. She said, yes, that was true and thank God we lived in a country where we could disagree. I agreed with her and then she went into the same thing again about us 'young people,' so I laughingly told her I am 54 years old, not all that young. She first said, "you don't look it!" (Thanks, ma'am, you could maybe be my new best friend!) and then "but I am 78 and I have seen a lot more than you have and done a lot more than you have and know a lot more than you do!" Allrighty then. I did mention that our retirement fund has taken a tumble during the present administration and she allowed that that was due to the Democrats in Congress. Realizing that this conversation had nowhere positive to go, I smiled again and wished them a happy time in Alaska. The woman's friend, who had remained silent throughout, cast me an apologetic look with an almost imperceptible shake of her head. Or maybe I made that up in my mind because I couldn't believe they would both be so hateful. :)
Had a good flight home and took these photos out the window. Last night, we had more trick or treaters than we've ever had at our house, and enjoyed seeing all the kids that we know. We then went to a Haunted House fundraiser for the local TV/radio station and it was pretty darned scary! I think I was screaming more than some of the kids.
3 comments:
It is truly amazing how people just snap at he site of something (a button) and launch into a word salad to get their idea across. Its hard to take the high road but I'm glad you did. And no I'm not paranoid, we just got put on a double secret high alert in the city.
Love you
Bill
I hear you sister. While Philly was awash in Obama signs, buttons, volunteers, and I talked to many of "our people" I had some interesting discussions with a few folks who just predict the apocalypse if Obama is elected. Well, you can't actually say discussion, because rather like your visitor, they just rant and rave and scream, and I have not yet found one who could carry on a conversation about why they think McCain/Palin is the right choice. I'm thinking we are in for a rocky ride ahead, no matter what.
Yeah, it does amaze me that people feel quite free to "tell off" a perfect stranger. I figure the best thing to do is to be really nice and sweet and then maybe they will figure out that we are not all evil.
Post a Comment