Gone With the Wind - Part One

When I was a teen, Gone With the Wind was my favorite book. Since Dave and I are traveling through GWTW country this week, I'm christening this vacation as the Gone With the Wind Vacation.

If you're familiar with the story, you'll know that most of the action in GWTW takes place in Atlanta. I spent some time downtown seeing things that Scarlett O'Hara never would have imagined. I began, not far from Five Points (which is mentioned frequently in the book), at Centennial Olympic Park.

As you can see, this set of fountains is fashioned after the five interlocking Olympic rings. When it gets hot, children love to cool down in the water.



In addition to the fountains, the park houses a couple of playgrounds and a series of small waterfalls. All in all, it's a great place to relax.



After hanging around the park, I went over to the Georgia Aquarium. I took this photo especially for Jonathan, who absolutely detests alligators and crocodiles. Truth be told, I'm not crazy about them either.



I was also impressed by the rich colors of the starfish, urchins and whatnot.



The colorful Lionfish is not native to the American seaboard. Since it's natural predators are not in these waters, it's been causing ecological havoc up and down the Atlantic seaboard.



In contrast to the unpleasant story of the Lionfish, I have the heartening story of the Robust Redhorse Sucker, which was believe to have gone extinct in the late 19th century. It was rediscovered in southern US lakes in the early 1990s, and efforts are being made to stabilize the population, as they are still a fairly rare species in danger of extinction.



I have no idea what this one is, but I love the bright colors, so here it is.



Jellyfish are always interesting too.





I'll conclude the photos with some Whalesharks and a Beluga Whale.





In addition to sightseeing, Dave and I have enjoyed some fine dining experiences. One night, we joined a number of his business colleagues for dinner at Twelve, where we both enjoyed very nice beef dinners. On another evening, we joined a handful of his colleagues for dinner at Canoe. Dave ate his rabbit with relish, and I feasted on pheasant.

Thus concludes my account of the first half of our Gone With the Wind vacation. Stay tuned for Part Two, coming soon.

Prejudices Past and Present

Prof. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., an eminent African American scholar at Harvard University, was arrested last week on charges of disorderly conduct and racial harassment. Yes, you read that list bit correctly - Prof. Gates was charged with racially harassing the man who thought he was breaking into his own home. And the disorderly conduct? He got angry and yelled at the police officer who thought he was breaking into his own home.

The comedy of errors began when Prof. Gates had difficulty opening his jammed front door. Consequently, Gates "opened his back door with his key and tried unsuccessfully from inside his home to open the front door. Eventually, Gates and his driver forced the door open from the outside...." A white woman passing by observed this activity and called the police to report a possible break-in. Up to this point, the story isn't too bad: a woman sees activity that looks suspicious and reports it to the police.

I have to wonder, though, what made her suspicious? Was it the fact that Prof. Gates was a black man trying to enter a home in a neighborhood that - I'll take a wild guess, here - is not predominantly populated by black people? Would she have responded the same way to a white man trying to unjam that same door? I'll never know the answers to those questions, but they're questions that every white person in the USA should consider soberly.

Moving on, the suspicion of unlawful activity was reported, and the police dispatched an officer to the scene to investigate the claim. Unfortunately, the police officer they sent appears to have attended Charm School with Genghis Khan. The long and short of it is that Gates and the officer had words, and the officer over-reacted by arresting the professor. The Cambridge police made the right call and dropped the charges yesterday. Still, it was an ugly chain of events, and one can't help thinking that race played no small part in the ugliness.

President Obama commented on the incident this evening:

What's been reported though is that the guy forgot his keys, jimmied his way to get into the house. There was a report called in to the police station that there might be a burglary taking place. So far, so good, right? I mean, if I was trying to jigger into -- well, I guess this is my house now, so... it probably wouldn't happen. But let's say my old house in Chicago. Here, I'd get shot.

But so far, so good. They're -- they're reporting. The police are doing what they should. There's a call. They go investigate what happens.

My understanding is, at that point, Professor Gates is already in his house. The police officer comes in. I'm sure there's some exchange of words. But my understanding is, is that Professor Gates then shows his I.D. to show that this is his house and, at that point, he gets arrested for disorderly conduct, charges which are later dropped.

Now, I don't know, not having been there and not seeing all the facts, what role race played in that. But I think it's fair to say, number one, any of us would be pretty angry; number two, that the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home; and, number three, what I think we know separate and apart from this incident is that there's a long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately. That's just a fact.

... [W]hen I was in the state legislature in Illinois, we worked on a racial profiling bill because there was indisputable evidence that blacks and Hispanics were being stopped disproportionately. And that is a sign, an example of how, you know, race remains a factor in the society.

That doesn't lessen the incredible progress that has been made. I am standing here as testimony to the progress that's been made. And yet the fact of the matter is, is that, you know, this still haunts us.

And even when there are honest misunderstandings, the fact that blacks and Hispanics are picked up more frequently and often time for no cause casts suspicion even when there is good cause.

And that's why I think the more that we're working with local law enforcement to improve policing techniques so that we're eliminating potential bias, the safer everybody is going to be.

It's been less than a year since the American presidential election campaign was marred by racism. To bring the matter closer to home, I hear people of several ethnic backgrounds express a variety of ethnic, racial, religious, gender and other prejudices every day. I hope I don't express any such things myself, but, to be honest - I probably do sometimes. I'm still trying to unlearn a lot of what my culture has taught me about race, gender, religion, etc. It will be a lifelong battle that will require me to constantly measure myself as I am against the self that I want to be, and to keep striving to reach that ideal. If Americans are serious about living up to our national ideals, we all must wage similar battles - individually and corporately - to remove both past and present prejudices from our lives and society.

Ballgame Lawsuit Settled

You may recall a post I wrote a couple of months ago about the God Bless America lawsuit that was filed against the New York Yankees. A fan sued the Yankees for not allowing him to go to the washroom during the playing of God Bless America during the seventh inning stretch.

The case has been settled. The Yankees have paid the plaintiff $10,001.00, plus his $12,000.00 attorney's fees, and they no longer have a policy restricting movement during the seventh inning stretch.

P.S. - Does anyone besides Dave and me think it's strange that the plaintiff's lawyer got more money than the plaintiff did? Just sayin'...

Chillin' with the Pup

Ally and I spent much of the evening together while Jonathan and Maggie got some supper and went grocery shopping for Ally's provisions. Her current favorite games seem to be "Chase" and "Keep-Away." They both begin the same way: she grabs a toy in her mouth, then saunters over to me to get my attention. After making eye contact with me, she either runs away ("Chase") or dodges this way and that ("Keep-Away") while I try to get the toy away from her. After we did that for awhile, I settled down in the recliner. She wandered over to the couch and looked longingly at the two fluffy pillows. I put one on the floor for her and she quickly settled in for a nap.



After we awoke from our naps, we played some more, then went for a walk. I knew she needed a walk because she went to the front door, barked softly a couple of times, and looked at her leash. We took a nice walk around our complex and arrived home at the same time as Maggie and Jonathan. She drank some water, ate some treats (including ice cubes - she's a Sears), and has now settled down by the door for another nap. It's tough to be a dog.

Still On the Road

If you've read Dave's blog, you know that we spent most of the week in upstate New York. We've also been without Internet connections most of the week. Astonishingly, the world functions quite well regardless of whether I'm plugged into it.

One of the highlights of the week (aside from washing pots and pans - read about that on Dave's blog) was a dinner cruise in Lake George. Here are some photos:










My battery is about to die, so I'll have to say so long for now.