Sarah Palin does not represent me

I have used quotes from the "political views" portion of the Wikipedia entry on Sarah Palin liberally. They are in red.

I am happy to see a woman on the Republican ticket. However, a woman in the position is not enough. A qualified woman who supports my views is what it would take to get me to vote for the ticket. I disagree with every single one of Palin's views, and given the statistics on all of the views I have seen in print about Palin lead me to believe that the majority of women agree with me. I tried to find stats pertaining specifically to women, but could only do that in a few places. If you know where I can find them, please let me know. So, the premise here is that the majority of Americans agree with me.

Palin called herself as "pro-life as any candidate can be." She opposes abortion for rape and incest victims, supporting it only in cases where the mother's life is in danger.

As my sister Bonnie said here, "There are a lot of women who are not pro abortion". This is true, because there are approximately 143,400,000 women in the U.S., and 24% are not pro-choice (ref). That is 35,850,000. However, that still leaves 107,550,000, 76% of the female population, who agree with me that in some way, shape or form, it should be left to the individual's choice. Many women, like my sister Bonnie, would not personally have an abortion, but would not try to enforce her choice on others. Let's remember that that is EXACTLY what Palin wants to do.

Palin opposes same-sex marriage and supported a non-binding referendum for a constitutional amendment to deny benefits to same-sex couples. Palin has stated that she supported the 1998 constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage.

Although I do not believe the government should be involved in marriage at all, I believe that if they are going to be involved then it should be equal for all. Personally, I think that any church that wants to should be allowed to ban, or allow, same-sex marriage. I believe that the government should only be involved in civil unions for hetero or homo-sexuals. So, although I have to admit that the majority of Americans are against same-sex marriages, the majority are in favor of civil unions. And to add a Constitutional Amendment for anything is an extreme measure and only 44% of Americans are in favor of that (ref).

Palin, in a televised debate, supported allowing both creationism and evolution in public schools and the next day clarified her position to one of allowing the debate of alternative views and not of having it in the curriculum.

Creationism does not belong in the schools except as part of a class on comparative religions or something similar, so once again, I disagree. 100% so far. Only 13% of people think creationism and evolution should be taught in science classes (the only place it should be part of a “debate of alternate views”) and 16% think creationism only should be taught. (ref)

She did not support re-legalizing of marijuana in Alaska despite using the drug herself at a time when it was legal under Alaska (but not Federal) law, stating concerns about the message re-legalization would send to her children.

Not a big issue in this election but just for completeness, I’ll include it. I am in favor of legalization of marijuana. Criminalizing it rather than regulating it is the only thing that makes it more dangerous than alcohol. Plus, she publicly displays a double-standard here. If she doesn’t want it legal because of the message it would send to her children, what message does smoking it yourself and then wanting it illegal for your children say?

Statistics on this are mixed, but one poll (ref) shows "72 percent of Americans believe that people arrested for possessing small amounts of marijuana should be fined rather than jailed" and 32% are for full legalization.

Palin has strongly promoted oil and natural gas resource development in Alaska, including opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling.

Bonnie says "we can't have it both ways... we can't say we don't want to be dependent on foreign oil, but at the same time not mess up our shores by drilling at home." Messing up the shores has nothing to do with it, although that is the main reason FL won't allow drilling off its shores. The point is, would it do anything EXCEPT mess up the shores.

If you really want details read this full report. However, I think these two lines sum it up nicely. "Production would not lower gas prices immediately. Even if Congress authorized leasing tomorrow, first production would not occur for 10 years. .. At peak, the gas pump reduction would be less than $0.04 per gallon." That peak would be in 2027. If a difference of 4 cents a gallon means ANYTHING by then, I will print and eat my entire blog.

Alternate energy is what's needed, but that's another blog entry (some day I might actually write the blog entries for every time I say that). So, just in case I don't get to it, my one liner on this subject is, Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens has built a wind farm. That should tell you SOMETHING.

She does not believe that global warming is man-made.

Another issue that does not seem to be high on voter's concerns according to polls, but although it wouldn't be in my top three doesn't make it not important. It's all important. This is being debated and I am on the side that says at least the MAJORITY of global warming is done by humans. Here's a wiki link to both sides of the argument, and their small poll which has 70% believing as I do. I couldn't find any official polls on this and the results of the polls I found seemed to be based on whether the web page was right or left wing. Here's one that seemed to have no political affiliation.

But polls should have nothing to do with this. This is fact or fiction. This is science. And the fact is, SOME, maybe the majority, is caused by humans, and if you ignore that it's because you want to sell the things that cause it, like burning oil. And once again, read the entire report here, but I think this sums it up:

"Few people contest the idea that some of the recent climate changes are likely due to natural processes, such as volcanic eruptions, changes in solar luminosity, and variations generated by natural interactions between parts of the climate system (for example, oceans and the atmosphere). There were significant climate changes before humans were around and there will be non-human causes of climate change in the future.

Nevertheless, with each year, more and more climate scientists are coming to the conclusion that human activity is also causing the climate to change."

She opposed listing of the polar bear as an endangered species, and supported a controversial predator-control program involving aerial hunting of wolves.

Once again, I am in favor of listing the polar bear and against aerial hunting of wolves (video). This is still 100% not representing me. I could find no specific polls, but let's extend this a bit further. Palin wears fur. This could fall under concern for animals, ethical treatment of animals and many things that listing endangered species on, and is one of my prejudices, I'll admit. I simply can't believe anyone who wears fur is ethical about animals.

Bonnie says, "There are a lot of women ... who do wear furs" Finding official polls on this was difficult because there were so many unofficial ones. But I think they are telling too. Care?, Sense of Style, Polldaddy, Is fur coming back, What do you think of celebs that wear fur?, etc,., etc., etc. If these random polls are to be believed 70-100% of Americans would not wear fur, so she doesn't represent America either.

Palin is a life member of the National Rifle Association, and is popular among gun rights activists. She is a strong proponent of the Second Amendment, and supports gun safety education for youth.

I'm glad she supports gun safety for children, so they can shoot each other correctly. Once again, I am for stronger gun control. Still 100% not representing me. As far as America, Here's a good video on the Gallup polls on the issue Most Americans want stricter gun control. And once again, it's another blog post, but gun advocate are still misinterpreting the 2nd amendment.

But in a bigger arena, if you look at murder statistics in the US versus countries that have strict gun control, say the U.K. you can see what a difference it makes. The U.S. has approx. 28 murders per million people, where the U.K. has ONE!

Palin's foreign policy positions were not clear at the time she was picked, but she has been critical of the lack of a long-term strategy on the war in Iraq.

I agree that we lack a long-term strategy on the war in Iraq, but disagree that that is what we need. What we need is a short term strategy to get us OUT of Iraq. Since this is so much in the news and I've spent WAYYYY more time writing this than I had intended, I'll just send you to Gallup for their poll on opposition to the war which is at about 63% now.

Conclusion

So let's see. Sarah Palin is a woman. Should I vote for her? If it did it would doing just as bad of a thing as people who will not vote for the ticket because there is a woman on it, or not for the Dems because there is a nonwhite male on it. If I look at the issues, I disagree with her 100%.

Please look at ISSUES before you vote. Government is not a popularity contest. The administration is not about who is male/female/black/white. They are interesting issues and even historical events that will be listed in history books. But the government is the organization that controls my civil rights, makes laws about the things I believe in and will appoint Supreme Court justices. The party that will do the best job is what is important. And for me, that is the Democrats.

hillary, lost but not gone

My sister Bonnie is a Hillary supporter who is now going to vote for John McCain. She said in response to my response to this post, about a Clinton/Obama or Obama/Clinton ticket: "that would have been the winningiest ticket (i think i just invented a word). Hillary should have been on top of the ticket, in my humble opinion. but I would have accepted either one."

I agree. As I said in my post on November 4, 2004 (hillary and barack), Clinton/Obama was my choice of tickets. And I have to admit that I am severely disappointed because for quite a while I really, really thought I had predicted the final 2008 ticket in 2004!!

But I understand the meaning of the word "lose", and Hillary Clinton lost. She gave a hell of a good fight, but so did Barack Obama. Having competed in martial arts off and on for 23 years, I understand that if I lose a match 5-4 or 5-0, or even go into overtime and lose 6-5, I still lose and I don't move on to the next round.

So first, in an election, if a person wins by a landslide, or wins by one vote, the other person loses. Obama earned the top spot, and although I'm disappointed I am also very proud of my country for electing him. And I will proudly vote for him.

Then yes, I was hoping that he would pick Hillary as his running mate and also agree that it would have been a winning ticket.

As an aside, it could not possibly have been the winningest, or even the winningiest ticket because of Richard Nixon's win over George McGovern in 1972. McGovern took one state. Hurray for Massachusetts!!!! (And I cast my first ever Presidential vote for McGovern too.) And to be honest, I also think that no matter how good a Clinton/Obama or Obama/Clinton ticket there would have been a sufficient number of people who would not vote for a nonwhite man, and would not vote for a woman, that the win could not possibly have been that large of a landslide.

But I don't think he could have chosen her and survived. Her supporters were so demanding, so spouting sour grapes at losing, that nominating her would have looked like caving to pressure, paying ransom for their votes, something no President can ever do. If they had gracefully accepted her loss, as she did (although Bill seemed to have more problems with it!), rather than trying to change the law of the land by brute force and all at once, it may have happened. But as I tell my almost 13 year old stepson Bill, any time he starts a sentence with "I'll take that..." rather than asking for it, he won't get it, even if I had planned to give it to him.

To be honest, I disagree with the law of the land. I think that the 2nd place candidate should get the VP position automatically and therefore stop argument, but I've thought that every election, not just this one. And on a bigger level, Karl convinced me we should be using the British Parliamentary system where the percentages of votes from each party in National Election for Prime Minister determine the number of representatives in the goverment. I doubt Americans would be capable of a coalition government. But that's another post. Our laws now say that the Presidential candidate gets to choose the VP. And if my pick is not chosen then I don't hold it against a party that is truly Democratic. The party represents the values I hold important, and that is what is important.

And I don't think we've seen the last of Hillary Clinton. As sad as it is that Ted Kennedy is dying, that opens up the chairmanship of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions as long as the Democrats retain control of the Senate. Health Care has always been Hillary's primary concern, and to be honest, I think she would be more effective there than as VP, or even as Secretary of Health & Human Services, another possibility for her in an Obama administration.

And then there's Bill Clinton. If Obama is elected, my bet is that he gets Secretary of Labor, or head of the Office of Management and Budget, or Ambassador to the U.N.. And of course Al Gore as Secretary of Energy, Secretary of the Interior or head of the EPA. And then there's those up to three Supreme Court nominations that will likely come in the next four years.

But that's another post too. And, of course, if all the Hillary supporters vote for McCain, and McCain wins, those things could never happen.

Sarah Palin

At least one barrier will be broken no matter which candidate wins the election in November. Congratulations to John McCain for following the lead of the Democrats and opening his party to an unconventional candidate, and congratulations to Governor Sarah Palin for gaining her place on the Republican ticket.

To take a page from John McCain's book, I have to say that tomorrow I will talk about my differences with these candidates, but for today, I simply want to bask in the fact that "the times they are a changing".

Many people, myself included have called the choice of Barack Obama to be brave. But now with Sarah Palin, it is becoming plain that neither choice is brave. Both were necessary to revitalize our political system, and to represent the American voting public.

Congratulations should go out to both parties, but even moreso, congratulations should go out to the American public for showing the parties that this is what they want.

history today

Talking to another teacher after school today I said that I was going to have to take a nap so that I wouldn't fall asleep during the speech tonight. She said in an even tone that she was not going to be watching. I remembered then that she was a Republican.

Now, I admit that I am a left wing liberal, as I note in the title of this blog, which started out as a political blog. But tonight is more than the culmination of the Democratic convention. Tonight is history, live, on television. For the first time in American history, a major candidate has nominated someone other than a white male.

The world is watching. There is more interest in the American election by people all over the world than there has been in my lifetime. Everyone will be watching... except Republicans. Think how it would be if someone missed Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech because they were a racist. Tonight is the 40th anniversary of that speech. And I would bet that the speech Barack Obama makes tonight will be printed in history books alongside MLK's.

Whether you are a Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Green, Constitution Party, independent or apolitical, don't pass up this chance to be able to say your children and grandchildren you watched this history happen.

And if I have my way, even bigger history will happen in November.

I was wounded at Gettysburg

Okay, so I fell into a gulley. I was taking a picture at a big war memorial. I stepped back to get a better view. My foot didn't hit the ground. I assumed I'd stepped off a curb and my other foot reached out to find purchase. It found none, and I was going down. Martial arts took over and I tucked my chin and shoulder. But cognitive dissonance was still in force, assuming that I was falling onto a FLAT surface. I was not. It was a V-shaped gulley about two feet deep. I did everything right and still ended up slamming my face into the other side of the gulley.

So there I sat, with a scraped leg, scraped shoulder and a mouse forming on my face the size of a baseball. Karl took over and had ice on my face and antiseptic wipes on my scrapes within what seemed like 30 seconds. I can't believe he was that efficient. I kept ice on my face for the next couple hours as we drove and I ended up with only slight swelling and a black eye where my glasses hit my face.

Now I can tell people I was wounded at Gettysburg.

But how we got there is pretty cool too. Bill's been down at his grandparents in TN, and we drove down to get him. One of the books on Billy's summer reading list was "The Killer Angels" by Michael Shaara, a historical novel about the battle of Gettysburg. I happened to have it on tape. He'd already read his required number of books, but I figured it would be a good way to get another one under his belt. So we were listening to it on the way home from Tennessee to Connecticut. We realized we'd be close to Gettysburg and decided to go put the place to the book.

It was really cool. The places talked about in the book were there, Big Round Top, Little Round Top, the Peach Orchard, the pickets. Even Karl got into figuring out where things happened in the book. We went to the Civil War museum and saw pictures of all the Generals featured in the book.

I liked putting the place to the book. Maybe next year I'll get a book about Africa.

snapshots from gathering of the vibes - 10

RIGHT, THERE WAS MUSIC TOO

I reread my essays on GOTV 2008 and thought, Something is missing. Then I said, Right! I haven't written about the music! It was a music festival after all. As I joked with people, this is what Deadheads do now that the Grateful Dead are dead.

But for me, the music wasn't important. Somehow I have become disconnected from particular musician and musical styles as my own favorites get old, and the new music is as dissonant to my ears as mine was to my parents.

This music is not dissonant. Some of it I actually enjoyed quite a lot. Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks, and Assembly of Dust were my favorites. I wanted to stay for the Neville Brothers, but getting home was more important and we listened on the live radio broadcast from WPKN. But even with those it wasn't the climb down from the cheap seats in the balcony on the side of the stage to get a close up view of Bruce Springsteen as I did 30 years ago. I was content to have a far view and watch people clamor to be near the stage.

Now, if the musicians had been Joan Baez, Pete Seeger, Joni Mitchell, Donovan, Judy Collins and CSN&Y, I may have still done my share of clamoring. But as I grow older I find I am more a person of the word than the music. Music has moved from the foreground to the background of my life. I would rather listen to audiobooks than music, and when I do put on music these days it seems to be classical, background to whatever I am actually doing. Like writing a blog entry about the music of Gathering of the Vibes.

snapshots from gathering of the vibes - 9

DANCING LIKE NO ONE IS WATCHING

Okay, we've had the good, and even a bit of the bad, but I'm afraid it's time for the ugly. I debated whether to write about this, figuring I'm going to be called racist and other names, but on the other hand, my observations of Gathering of the Vibes 2008 would not be complete without talking about it.

Gathering of the Vibes is very white. There were about six black people, three dwarves and 20,000 white people.

Now, 20,000 white people at a music festival made me notice a fundamental stereotype, and realize that sometimes stereotyping happens because although there are exceptions to the rule, it is the rule. And in this case, I gotta say, white people can't dance. They can keep a beat, but there's no rhythm.

I watched what sometimes appeared to be epileptic fits or cases of St. Vitas Dance. People rocked back and forth like patients in a psych ward. But there wasn't anything resembling what I would call dancing. These were the people for whom the Chicken Dance and the Macarena were invented. Don't forget that white people invented clog dancing too.

Line dancing would become them. Square dancing would be fine. But finding your own dance to the rhythms of a band takes more connection to the rhythms than these people could have found in several lifetimes.

Now before you start telling me that everyone has a right to dance and that if it makes them happy it's okay, I agree. I truly believe that you should "Dance like no one is watching." But then I DON'T dance unless no one is watching because I've done too much watching of my own.

Actually, I relate it back to poetry, as I do so many things because deep down that is who I am, a poet who takes her poetry seriously. I always tell people there is a difference between public and private poetry. In the latter, private poetry, you write what you feel, sort of like a journal entry with short lines. I am thrilled to see anyone express themselves in writing and all writing is good. However, it's not publishable. If you want to write publishable poetry you must learn the rules, and then express yourself within those rules. These people were doing private dancing. I just should not have looked.

(video by DreamMassage from youtube.com)

snapshots from gathering of the vibes - 8

SKETCHES

I am one of those people who can't stand doing nothing. And sitting in front of a concert for hours at a time consistutes doing nothing in my book. Then I remembered the Chinese artist who used to come to my art gallery during that year I was fool enough to think I could make money doing that. He went off on a trip to California and when he returned he asked if I wanted to see his pictures. I told him, "Sure", expecting him to pull out a pile of photographs. Instead he pulled out a pile of sketchbooks. The pictures were amazing.

I used to sketch and draw a lot when I was younger and decided that I would take a sketchbook and pencils with me to the Vibes. My pictures aren't amazing but they were fun to do and it was insteresting to practice again after so many years. When I got back and scanned them in, and being a computer geek also, I thought it might be fun to pull them into Photoshop and play with them a bit. Most of them I left as-is, there just wasn't much to play with, but I colored a few in weird little places.

So, here they be:

snapshots from gathering of the vibes - 7

REAL SNAPSHOTS

Finally got my pictures downloaded. I should go back and add the appropriate ones to my previous posts too.

snapshots from gathering of the vibes - 6

THINGS I HEARD

You guys lookin' for a party?
Yeah, whaddya got?

Can four people have an orgy?

It's all about you. "I'm HOT. I'm TIRED. My BALLS are sweaty."

Doses, shrooms, strawberry ganja icing. A teaspoon is all you need.

People try to sneak in by boat. Our friends think they are tomorrow night.

My pants are dry. I haven't sat down for two days.

What are you looking at ME for? YOU'RE the one who's naked!

Don't shit on my truck!
But I GOTTA GO!!!
Don't shit on my truck!
I can't make it!
Just not on my truck!
pause...
Thanks man, you saved my life.

snapshots from gathering of the vibes - 5

HOW THE VIBES IS LIKE A RENAISSANCE FAIRE

As we walked about during the day, I kept telling my husband Karl that the Vibes was like a Ren Faire. Initially, he disagreed - It's a concert! But it was the communities, the people who attend that I was thinking about. I think I finally convinced him.

Instead of pretending it's the middle ages and suspending reality enough to allow rampant anachronism, people here pretend it's the latter part of the 20th century, from about the mid60s up through present day suspending reality enough to allow rampant anachronism.

It's people who wish to exist in an era that was friendly to the things they like to do, and try to create that world for a weekend. Looking at either from the outside, the people would seem to be the subjects of some bizarre social experiment. Besides creating their own reality for a time, they have other things in common:

People wear costumes based on the era.

• Ren Faire: Rogues and wenches, knights and princesses abound. Women in leather corsets and dresses handmade to look authentic (though sewn on a sewing machine course.) Shoppes sell costumes if you want and women who don't have the proper costume come in broom skirts and peasant blouses.
• Vibes: Hippies, Rastamen (all white kids), Punks with red and green hair, people with sleeve tatoos -- countercultures spanning decades. Tie dye everywhere, (but better tie dye than was ever available in the original 60s tie dye era). Shoppes sell costumes if you want and women who don't have the proper costume come in broom skirts and peasant blouses.

People have particular talents that they perform.

• Ren Faire: People wander about juggling, doing magic, playing instruments of the era. Some simply enjoy being a character.
• Vibes: People play hackysack, hula hoop, and that stick thingie that gets tossed back and forth between two other stick thingies. Some simply enjoy being a character.

Shoppes sell things not sold in ordinary stores and many things specific to the current fantasy.

• Ren Faire: You can buy swords, juggling balls, hand carved walking sticks, fairy wings, hand-thrown pots. There's Renaissance clothes and boots. There's incense and carved wooden boxes. Booths are decorated with tapestry covers over the bare white walls. A glass shoppe sells wrought iron and glass patterns with unicorns.
• Vibes: You can by CDs of the bands playing, hula hoops and that stick thingie that gets tossed back and forth between two other stick thingies. There's tie dye t-shirts, and hemp sandals. There's incense and carved wooden boxes. Booths are decorated with tapestry covers over the bare white walls. A glass shoppe sells wrought iron and glass patterns with Jerry Garcia.

Performances are of the era.

• Ren Faire: You can see flamethrowing and rope walking, juggling and magic, Shakespearean farces and jousts. And it all takes place outside.
• Vibes: You see concerts from bands that mostly sound like the Grateful Dead, hosted by Wavy Gravy, the most famous host from the original Woodstock concert. And it all takes place outside.

The last two are so in common and so much the best parts of both of these environments that I don't think it's necessary to separate them to show their overlap. They don't overlap, they are the same.

Everyone is accepted.

• There are those who attend who naturally fit in to the environment, but all a person has do to be accepted here as part of the community, is to attend. And if you dress in costume, you are accepted even more. Nerds, geeks, fat chicks who would not be accepted into the center of the "native culture" outside the walls of the environment are welcomed and embraced as equals to anyone else there. People are, for the most part, polite and respectful of others.

It is peaceful.

• This is the most amazing and wonderful thing about them both. Although I have heard personal disagreements at both, there was nothing beyond verbal confrontation at either, even when I thought behavior was extreme. The ability to have a community that large without an incident of violence during this self-centered, violent time is a blessing that I hope everyone who attends either appreciates.

snapshots from gathering of the vibes - 4

JUST A LITTLE RAIN

It was too hot on Thursday, too hot on Friday, and when the air started to cool on Saturday I was grateful for the respite.

When the sky darkened and the first sprinkles happened I stood in them like a little girl, soaking in the coolness of each drop hitting my hot skin.

When it started raining harder we giggled with pleasure and hid under the shelter we had managed to erect during the land grab.

Younger campers loudly cheered the storm on, while our neighbors on one side retreated to their tent to play gin and the other retreated to a nap.

Sitting, watching the weather, being cool. It was cool. But the rain continued to get worse. The wind blew so hard tents, shelters and trees swayed and bent under tge weight. Our neighbors, the ones playing gin, had a flimsy shelter that was supposed to be staked but it wasn't. It was bungied to ours for support. Ours was strong but it was leaning, quavering, and I was getting wet.

We had to lower it even if it meant detaching it from the neighbor's flimsy shelter. It can sit about four feet off the ground at its lowest point and we dropped it. It stopped threatening to blow away so we reattached the neighbors already bent pole.

With everything finally secure we sat down to watch...

... our tent blow about a foot and half to the right.

In the rush of the land grab it hadn't gotten staked. So the tightly placed community saved the tent. It simply bumped into the tent next to it and stayed. Well, "stayed" is too strong of a word. It didn't fly away but buffeted about like a kids' blow up bouncy thing while we sat and debated the merits of going out in the weather versus the possibility of the tent blowing away. We compromised by agreeing to go out in the weather IF the tent started to blow away. Thank goodness it did not.

Lightning struck nearby while we happened to notice that our shelter had a lovely metal framework that peaked at a point at the top. I was feeling a bit unsettled, tense, and maybe not quite having as much fun with this storm as I should. I started dwelling on how awful it was going to be afterwards.

Meanwhile the young people whose vocabulary annoyed me were still cheering on the storm. I forgave them for the constant stream of "f**king"s. If they enjoyed a good storm they couldn't be that bad. And it made me feel better too.

Mackenzie and Mike wandered by during what we thought was the end of the storm but turned out to only be a lull and stayed until what we thought was the end of the storm but turned out to only be a lull. They went off again, probably for some "privacy".

The storm did finally pass, the music did finally start again, and I of course had only packed one pair of shoes, sandals, that were soaked completely through.

In the concert field, there were puddles so big that kids were floating rafts in them. This video that I found on youtube, has a nice retrospective of the concert ground area including the puddles.

I broke down and walked barefoot rather than risk losing my one pair of shoes to the mud-sucking monsters that seem to hide in the mud puddles. So much for my "shower" in the rain earlier.

On the way to and from we saw downed tents and shelters although the damage wasn't as bad as I would have thought. Maybe this shoulder to shoulder camping had its uses. ... And hey. what's a music festival without a hurricane?

snapshots from gathering of the vibes - 3

LAND GRABS AND LANDMARKS

My daughter Mackenzie and her boyfriend Mike were going too. It was one of the reasons I'd agreed to camp out at all. Being anywhere that the bathroom is not in roll out of bed and pee within 60 seconds range is not my top priority. But even though Mackenzie wanted to be NEAR me, she didn't want me TOO close so she and Mike could have some "privacy." So we left about an hour a half after they did.

I didn't think we had a snowball's chance in hell of being within shouting distance of her given the long line we ended up in traveling down many streets before we got to the concert site and then the long line there. She was already in the "about to camp" line when I called her as we became the tail of the line. I told her I'd call her as soon as we got to a campsite so we could see how far we were. But when I realized what was going on, about 30 seconds too late for prime territory, but in time to grab adequate space, I realized I couldn't call he until we had set up the site.

Here's how it went. Campsites were set up like a parking lot. Long rows of cars parked with their butts facing the driving lane/emergency lane. When we got to the point where they were going to direct us into our site, we tried to pull wide to give ourselves enough space to set up a decent site. But it wasn't to be. There were two guys directing us into the site. One directed people down the driving lane, but the other played chicken with the cars in order to make them take a narrower space. We had barely a person's width between the cars. There were lines painted on the grass and you pulled your car up to the line. Car noses pointed at one another but instead of being nose to nose, there was about 30 feet of space between the cars.

What it came down to was this. In that 30 feet, straight back from the cars, about the width of a car, TWO campsites had to be set up, yours and that of the car facing you. And that's only if you manage to keep the whole width of your car. As we lazily got out of our car, and I readied to call Mackenzie, I was amazed that other people had already rolled out their tents. Then I realized that parts of their tents were within our car width. A land grab was in full force and we were quickly losing before we had begun.

We set to work superspeed. Our tent was about 8x9 and we had a 10x10 shelter. We quickly spread out both tent and shelter. and set up framework as quickly as possible. It turned out everything just barely fit although the person to our left's tent opened into our shelter. Considering his tent was as big as our tent and shelter, and the shoulder to shoulder way people were living, it really didn't matter.

Finally, I reached in my purse and grabbed my cell phone to call Mackenzie and see just how long it would take to walk between our sites. She asked, "Where are you?" I looked for landmarks. On the far side of the next aisle, almost directly across from our site, I saw a truck with a big flag sticking out of it. I said, "Do you see a flag with colored stripes going outward from a peace sign in the middle?"

She said, "Yeah, I see it. It's... on our truck!"

In one way she was 3 rows away, but in another way, she was directly across from us on the next street over. That's still really only about 100-150 cars behind and I think we were much further. But before you got to the regular campsites, you had VIP camping, Family camping, "Boardie camping" (apparently people who hang out on their bulletin boards who request it through there), so many had dropped out of the line there.

But what counts is that we ended up just close enough and we always had the landmark of their flag to find the way.

snapshots from gathering of the vibes - 2

FUCKING

As the title should tell you, if you can't deal with profanity, don't read this post. Actually, "As the fucking title should fucking tell you, if you can't fucking deal with fucking profanity, don't read this fucking post.

Tents are packed like sardines in the campsite, like tent city, where you cannot get from one part of the site to another without passing through a neighbor's area. It felt a bit like the caves described in "Clan of the Cave Bear" where you needed to learn to not stare because you are looking into other people's private lives.

We lucked out in that our neighbors to the left the right were older. But beyond them to either side and behind us were teens/early 20s kids there for the party, and for the freedom of being away from families where they could not swear. So every other word out of their mouths was "fucking".

My favorite was the girl who said, "Any guy I date has to have a fucking dog." I thought, "Hey, most dogs I know like to do that. Do you want the fucking dog so YOU can fuck it or is the boyfriend supposed to have already been fucking it."

But it was the fucking tent, the fucking drugs, the fucking band. It was fucking everything. It was

fucking, fucking, fucking, fucking, fucking, fucking,
fucking, fucking, fucking, fucking, fucking, fucking,
fucking, fucking, fucking, fucking, fucking, fucking,
fucking, fucking,
fucking, fucking,
fucking, fucking,
fucking, fucking,
fucking, fucking, fucking, fucking,
fucking, fucking, fucking, fucking,
fucking, fucking, fucking, fucking,
fucking, fucking,
fucking, fucking,
fucking, fucking,
fucking, fucking,
fucking, fucking,
fucking, fucking,
fucking, fucking,
fucking, fucking,
fucking, fucking, ucking annoying.

snapshots from gathering of the vibes - 1

THE DRINK OF CHOICE

Camping out at Gathering of the Vibes, I could have had any illegal drug of my choice, and many I had never heard of. Runners went tent to tent all night long, illegally peddling illegal wares. I could have had marijuana in a variety of forms from "sour diesel" smokable weed to "strawberry ganja icing" (a spoonful is all you need). I could have had "oreo cookie vanilla ganja icing" too. Or a "ganja ball". I could have had "doses", opium, shrooms, even chocolate mushrooms ("Don't go home with money!"), X, "blue pistols", balloons full of nitrous oxide. I could have bought a glass pipe from foam lined suitcases. I couldn't find the one drug I wanted. I wanted Coke.

More specifically I wanted a Diet Coke. A can, a bottle, a glass with ice and soda fountain Coke. I didn't care. But legally or illegally, there was not a Coke to be found at Gathering of the Vibes. I had not packed any Cokes. I meant to but somehow they got left off the list, out of the cooler, and when I unpacked and saw no Cokes, I figured I could buy them from venders up at the concert grounds and just drink water at the campsite. No such luck. Vendor after vendor, whether they sold Indian food or hot dogs, pizza or Chinese food, sold one brand of soda, Pepsi.

I do not like Pepsi's. I am a Coke addict. I asked for a Coke. Was there anywhere to buy a Coke? I was told that at the Gather of the Vibes, "Pepsi is the drink of choice" and that is what the vendors have to sell. Well, it certainly is not my drink of choice. And if there was any pretense in my own mind that this very counterculture event was not sponsored and influenced by major corporations, that wiped it out. And continually reminded me for the weekend.

I drank bottled water at the camp site, and fresh-squeezed lemonade for the weekend at the concert, which was actually pretty good, but I was jonesing for a Coke. I kept waiting for a runner to come by with a suitcase, foam lined, with cutouts full of Cokes, Diet Cokes, maybe a Cherry Coke or two. Beat the corporate sponsorship. Sell me my own personal drug, my drink of choice.