October 31, 2022

Hello Everybody,

I delayed writing because I wasn't sure what would be of interest to people on this list. I'll just ramble on. You can ignore or just skim whatever you wish. I'm also writing this for my own memory's sake.
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I listen to a podcast called Politicology. Here's an 8 minute excerpt about the Warnock/Walker Senate race that I find rather insightful:

https://logicalpoetry.com/ga/politicology.mp3

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I recently saw an official campaign sign saying 'Women for Herschel'. How could any woman could support Walker given his character and history and his views on abortion? Last Thursday I decided to search for a Walker rally that I could attend and found two - in Monroe and Dublin. So I drove and drove and attended these rallies in rural small town Georgia. Lindsey Graham was campaigning with Herschel in the morning, Ted Cruz in the afternoon. I viewed this as an 'anthropological excursion', as Tanya would term it - to see, firsthand, a MAGA crowd. To experience this foreign culture right here in the U.S.A. To 'know thy enemy' as Sun Tzu put it in the fifth century BC.

Facist => Fascist

Trump 2024. You would think that with age would come wisdom. I do admire his beard.

These people are sitting at the base of a confederate monument in the town square:

This local reporter was practicing her spiel. I heard her say:

"I asked some of his supporters about this claim. One woman said that she isn't all that concerned with his paying for an abortion. If it is true, he has been redeemed, he's a Christian. He says it's all lies and that the Democrats will do anything to win the Senate seat. He feels no urgency to address the issue because his supporters don't seem to care."

Ted Cruz was there to support Walker. Ted first said 'God Bless the State of Georgia' and then joked about Nancy Pelosi being removed as Speaker of the House:

"Nancy will get on her broom and fly back to San Francisco. No, that's not nice. She will get on her private jet, the U.S.S. Broom, and fly back to San Francisco. I hope her husband doesn't pick her up from the airport."

Here's a video on YouTube. Skip forward to 10:00 to hear Ted say these things about the Pelosi family.

Herschel rambled on and on. At both rallies he ended by telling a joke about whether there is baseball in heaven.

I spoke with an older man:

"For a football player, Herschel is a pretty good speaker."

"His opponent, Raphael Warnock, is a fine man. He is a very eloquent, articulate fellow."

"Of course, he is. He's a preacher. I want nothing to do with preachers."

"Warnock is in the distinguished tradition of Martin Luther King, Jr."

"I have no need for him, either."

A few days ago I again went to a Waffle House restaurant for breakfast. Two men in the next booth were flirting with the waitress. The two fellows were older gray-haired white guys wearing Air Force and Army baseball caps. The waitress was a young black woman with a flamboyant pink wig, long pink fingernails, fake eyelashes, and glittery boots. As I paid my check I spoke with another waitress.

"Those two old men really enjoy flirting with the waitress."

"They do. That's why they come in here every day."

"Every day. She seems to enjoy it, too."

"She does."

How will these 3 Americans vote? What values, allegiances, ideas, habits, preferences, influences, history, and experiences will determine their vote?

This observation reminds me of the prose poem, On the Bus for Obama, I wrote in 2008.
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The polls at fivethirtyeight.com are rather depressing. They say that the Republicans are heavily favored to take control of the House. In her Letters from an American on October 25th, Heather Cox Richardson said that we shouldn't put too much emphasis on the polls. No one really knows. She quotes from an article in the LA Times:

Kurt Bardella hit the nail on the head today when he wrote that no one really has any idea what is going to happen on Election Day, 'especially the pollsters who routinely get things wrong.' Those telling us the outcome is clear are doing us a disservice. Bardella reminded readers of the 2020 headline from Vanderbilt University: 'Preelection polls in 2020 had the largest errors in 40 years.'

Last Wednesday I attended a large event where Obama came to support Abrams and Warnock. A few images from the long line of people waiting to get in:

This lady was a recently naturalized immigrant from Chile. She had attended Obama's first inauguration.

6,000+ people came. Mostly to hear and see Obama. This, too, was a 'celebrity event'.

In the line near me were these 3 people. We had all come alone and were glad to share the event with each other.

Obama's speech is well worth listening to in full. I liked how he did the 'thought experiment' in which he asks does a successful football career qualify you to pilot an airplane or do brain surgery? Of course not. It doesn't qualify you to be a U.S. Senator, either!
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Last Sunday I again attended church at the Ebenezer Baptist church. Warnock preached and was in fine form. You can see the full service here. I continue to read his memoir, A Way Out of No Way. I particularly like his description of a time when he was disappointed that he didn't get a job he wanted:

I sought God in prayer... I can sense God's presence. From this place emerges a peace and calm reassurance that a larger purpose is being worked out in my life. My job is to be quiet and still, even as I work. To listen, learn, and follow... I focus on a verse from a Psalm or even just a line. I won't so much talk to God right then as focus and try to listen for 'the sound of the genuine'. While in that meditative moment, the things that trouble me will sometimes disrupt that space. I feel them quietly, push them to the margins, and place again at the center my mantra for the day, "The steps of a righteous person are ordered by the Lord."

My prayer emerges from that place of calm assurance. Prayer for me is more about listening than talking... My most common prayer to God is one I've said in my own words since I was a kid. "Give me wisdom, knowledge, and understanding. Guide my feet. Order my steps. Direct my path."

So while I was disappointed, I remained guided by the sense that nothing can ultimately thwart the purposes of God... We often learn more from the disappointments than from the victories.

That's all for now.

Jon

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