History in the making
I'm obsessively listening to the John Roberts hearings today on KPFA. Right now everyone's laughing because someone just asked him, "You're not gonna be asking for a big raise now, are ya?"
Listening to the hearings, as well as my recent experience of sitting for countless hours in City Council and Planning Commission and other public meetings until the part I'm there to support is finally introduced, has helped me understand why, aside from voting every four years, so few people really participate very much in government. It takes forever to get anything done, and most of the proceedings are boring as hell. The only reason I can spend so much time in those meetings is because I'm not raising kids, and because it's important to me to try to do something to walk my talk. Every once in awhile it actually has an effect. For example, we had a small success last week, when the Planning Commission finally—after two years of writing and rewriting—approved the Master Plan for the community garden. There's still a lot more that has to happen, but this is a big step in the right direction.
In other news, I rented a car on Saturday and drove into the city for a day on my own, the first in a very, very long time. I went to the Power to the Peaceful festival, a giant free concert and peace event with music, speeches, dancing, and lots of lefty craft & food vendors. I danced to techno music at the East end of the meadow, listened to Michael Franti and others exhorting us to be peaceful in our pursuit of justice, ate a big paper cup full of spicy garlic fries, and sat in the shade next to a gentle dreadlocked blonde boy who called me "sister" and leapt up to give me a huge hug when I stood up to head home.
One thing I'm noticing about these events lately is that there seem to be fewer and fewer of what I would call "old hippies" coming out to dance and play. When I lived in the city, at the end of the 80s, they were still everywhere. Maybe they've all moved to less expensive places to live out their old age. These days it's all rave kids and burners and androgynous skaters in watch caps and enormous pants. They actually had a half pipe at the festival this year; I don't remember seeing that before. I loved watching the skaters flying.
I have to stop now because I'm feeling self conscious about writing in a new place, even though I haven't told anyone about it yet. Hrrmm.
Listening to the hearings, as well as my recent experience of sitting for countless hours in City Council and Planning Commission and other public meetings until the part I'm there to support is finally introduced, has helped me understand why, aside from voting every four years, so few people really participate very much in government. It takes forever to get anything done, and most of the proceedings are boring as hell. The only reason I can spend so much time in those meetings is because I'm not raising kids, and because it's important to me to try to do something to walk my talk. Every once in awhile it actually has an effect. For example, we had a small success last week, when the Planning Commission finally—after two years of writing and rewriting—approved the Master Plan for the community garden. There's still a lot more that has to happen, but this is a big step in the right direction.
In other news, I rented a car on Saturday and drove into the city for a day on my own, the first in a very, very long time. I went to the Power to the Peaceful festival, a giant free concert and peace event with music, speeches, dancing, and lots of lefty craft & food vendors. I danced to techno music at the East end of the meadow, listened to Michael Franti and others exhorting us to be peaceful in our pursuit of justice, ate a big paper cup full of spicy garlic fries, and sat in the shade next to a gentle dreadlocked blonde boy who called me "sister" and leapt up to give me a huge hug when I stood up to head home.
One thing I'm noticing about these events lately is that there seem to be fewer and fewer of what I would call "old hippies" coming out to dance and play. When I lived in the city, at the end of the 80s, they were still everywhere. Maybe they've all moved to less expensive places to live out their old age. These days it's all rave kids and burners and androgynous skaters in watch caps and enormous pants. They actually had a half pipe at the festival this year; I don't remember seeing that before. I loved watching the skaters flying.
I have to stop now because I'm feeling self conscious about writing in a new place, even though I haven't told anyone about it yet. Hrrmm.
3 Comments:
I love the new look! And I'm so very glad there's a comments system--there have been times reading you in the past that I've wanted to comment, but was too shy to email. I am certainly much more of a comments box type of girl.
'Tis a lovely blog! Still, will miss the other, especially the bird lady. But perhaps she has spread her wings and flown away. . . .
Cheers on the new endeavor. ♥s
Tina!
So glad you have this lovely new blog!
I've been listening to the John Robert's hearings, too. For some reason, I find the grammar, diction, stylistic elements of all the speeches fascinating.
And as well, I've been listening to too much distressing news on the radio. It's hard because I want to be informed, but what the hell do I do with all this info?
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