SO, Tuesday, an out of town guest wished to see our nation's key documents. A 30 minute trip to the train station, a 45 minute meandering above and underground and we were at the Archives stop. Mercifully, we were not outside in the line long, but once inside and past the 1297 copy of the Magna Carta (LOVELY!!!), we entered another line, this one for the rotunda wherein lie these key documents. This is all post 9-11 by the way--when I was in high school one climbed the steps, entered via the front door, and walked up to them.
About twenty minutes in line, and about halfway to the front, the guard makes a sheepish look and announces that we will have an additional wait as a "VIP" was there. Now, I know, believe me, the foundational myth and the historical reality, but to be slapped with it there, in a shrine to the democratic ideal, well, it chaffed. No one else seemed to notice. I turned around when I saw people do so and saw one of the cretins, a retired cretin no less, from the current set of national managers--Rumsfeld and family. I was so disgusted, so afflicted by the irony, that I turned my back on him. I can imagine the effect this might have had if he cared or if he had paid any attention to the prols waiting in line--there is a crowd, half of whom have no idea he is, the other eagerly snapping pictures the way only Americans in their "celebrity" crazed way can, and then one guy, his back to him, etc. Would have been nice.
I told my guest that it was a pity I had neglected to bring a better pen: a footnote to the "all men are created equal" in the form of "but they do not stay that way" would have been quite apropos. It's a bit overdue.
Thursday, August 9, 2007
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2 comments:
WHEW!! That is so freaking awesome. You know Jim, you are the King of Crazy People. No wonder he was drawn to the same place. Or he was casing the joint, so he could steal the docs and sell them on Ebay.
Regardless, or irregardless, as Thomas Jefferson would have said, this is like a real life episode of the Daily Show. You're going to miss stuff like this when you move. How's that coming, by the by?
Speaking of our nation's history....
I was working the Circ Desk this morning, and a lady came up with a selection of DVDs about US History. She said she was going to try and get her kids interested, using the movies. She had the miniseries "North and South," she had a six disk set about various native American tribes, she had a miniseries about the American Revolution. Her kids came up behind her, two blonde and tanned teenaged girls. "Mom, you are SO watching those by yourself," one said. I tried to help mom out. "C'mon, North and South? That's vintage Patrick Swayze. Right after 'Dirty Dancing.'" She ignored me. With perfect, lovely teenage disdain she said. "No way, not watching those. I'd rather get a job." Heh.
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