The Blues

Blogging is somewhat foreign to me now. I don't know how much I like that. Actually, I don't like it at all, but I am dealing with it. There are times to write about life and there are times to live it. For most of the last year I've been dealing with the former. So, right now it is exciting to be caught up in a new experience and something I really enjoy.

It has been a busy week. Tomorrow is a big day for the campaign. The Unite for Change House Meetings are launching tomorrow across the country. In Milwaukee alone, there are over 100 of these meetings taking place. I am leading one of them tomorrow. I should be leading two, but that host flaked on me. That's a different story. Anyway, I'll hit the house meeting again in a later blog.

Summerfest started yesterday. If you need a refresher, Summerfest is "the world's largest music festival". It is held every summer right here in Milwaukee. A bunch of us went down there to canvass the crowds coming in and it was a tough day for me. I think the Juneteenth crowd spoiled a lot of us because everywhere we turned during that event people were screaming for Obama. However, the midday Summerfest arrivals were on the opposite end of the spectrum. They were nearly all folk from well outside Milwaukee who had traveled in from the dairy land country of Wisconsin. I was told to "Fuck Off" several times. I also had an Obama shirt on that people liked to point at and simultaneously say "Fuck Obama." That was a lot of fun.

Right before leaving I was having a somewhat heated talk with a man that was wearing his son's dog tag around his neck. He told me his son was killed in Iraq. He was primarily concerned about Obama's stance on abortion, but I tried, unsuccessfully I might add, to guide the discussion elsewhere. He wasn't having it. He kept coming back to abortion and then to the question of experience. I then mentioned that Obama has as much experience as Lincoln had before he became the POTUS. His response came in three stages. First, he immediately mentioned that Lincoln was assassinated, which is a pretty disturbing response. What does that have to do with anything? Did the assassination of Lincoln make him a poor President? Second, he mentioned that many more Americans died under Lincoln than Bush. This was another pretty weak argument. Did he really expect me to think that the Iraq War should be fought and that the Civil War was a waste of our time? Up to this point he didn't sound like that much of a Lincoln fan, but then he switched sides on me with the third stage of his argument. He said the Lincoln/Obama comparison wasn't a fair one. That in no way does Obama measure up to Lincoln. I was confused and I had to cut the conversation short anyways. That was a frustrating moment for me because it is hard to cut those talks short because they really get me fired up and I want to stay engaged, but those people are not the people I should be spending my time and energy on. At this point in the game, we just shouldn't be doing that, but nonetheless, it was an intriguing conversation, but very, very depressing as well.

Summerfest left me in a funk, but all I had to do to get in a better mood was to think back to the guy I saw on Sunday. He must have just gotten out of church. I saw him get out of his car from where I was standing outside a Family Dollar store. He was dressed from head to toe in blue. Blue suit. Blue leather shoes. Blue hat. Blue accents on his sunglasses. The only thing he was missing was a blue cane.

I don't feel blue anymore, but I do feel tired.