Wednesday, September 16, 2009

A little story


Our last day in Maine was September 11. The flag at the hotel was at half-mast. My brother-in-law went down to the front office early (7-ish) to pick up a coffee, and the t.v. was showing some kind of September eleveny thing.

There was another guy there, having a coffee, watching the t.v. He told my b-i-l how they should've just taken out the Taliban leadership and not gone into a full war in Afghanistan. Seemed reasonable enough.

Then he said: I hate having a black President.

My b-i-l came back upstairs and was rattled. Who says something like that to a total stranger? It was time to come home. Watching all the craziness of the past summer and the "You lie" business of the past few weeks, you gotta wonder if the US is going to implode. What's the percentage of people who just can't accept a black President? And is this group mobilized enough to turn the country upside down? I dunno.

On a positive note, in 5 days we saw only one bumpersticker that said: Palin 2012.

5 comments:

gsdgsd13 said...

But on a negative note, the person with the "Palin 2012" bumper sticker is presumably allowed to operate a motor vehicle.

Nanuk of the North, older but no wiser said...

And owns a few guns. The vehicle (truck, of course) had a few "Hands off my guns" stickers on it. No surprise.

Susieq said...

Its a very sad country at the moment, the USA. Obama is trying to rise about it all, but really....its just frustrating and sad. So glad I don't live there!

LLJ said...

You have the same condition I have...perfect stranders overshare!

You hear a comment like that and then listen to people pooh-pooh Jimmy Carter's suggesting that alot of this argument lately has racist undertones and I find myself feeling this stranger you meet was at least refreshingly honest about it.

Things are gonna suck here for quite a while. We have had 8 years of hell and change is hard here.

Nanuk of the North, older but no wiser said...

I have to admit that while blatant racists scare me, I do prefer my racists to be openly racist, rather than the kind who say they aren't when they obviously are. At least I know where they stand, and then I can stand far away.