The past couple of days I've come out of my front door and get this flashback to when I used to play Half-Life fairly regularly. As you made your way through that first-person shoot-em-up, there was the omnipresent sound of helicopters in the air, an ominous signal of the police-state you were fighting against in your little virtual world.
In Adams Morgan, the past two mornings have brought nothing but circling helicopters, and to tell you the truth they have been annoying me. I suppose it's all about the big Conservative ConFab this week at the Omni Shoreham, where President Bush spoke this morning. I suppose they need high security because wrapping yourself in the flag while shredding the Constitution is tricky business.
I took a quick look over the conference agenda, which reads like a who's who of disgraced politicians (Tom DeLay and George Bush) and questionable scholarship (David Horowitz and Dinesh D'Souza) sponsored by such dinosaur-like vestiges of racist ex-politicians as the "Helms School of Government." How proud those graduates must be to be carrying on the legacy of racist segregation.
But it's not all white (and D'Souza) at the CPAC...you've got sessions sponsored by the National Black Republican Association, and both members have promised to attend the conference. Also Niger Innis, of the Congress for Racial Equality (CORE), will be there. Early on, CORE was an integral part of the Civil Rights movement, working closely with SNCC and the more centrist NAACP, but all that changed when Roy Innis (Niger's father) took over in 1968 and turned CORE into a HUSK. CORE supported Nixon's 1968 election campaign and his 1972 re-election campaign. CORE, which used to have chapters nationwide, is an organization in name only, and it's that name that CPAC capitalizes on, hoping to stave off the obvious accusations that they turn a deaf ear to minority concerns. It's as if Sammy Hagar went on tour with a few family members and billed the show as "Van Halen."
I can only imagine how vile overheard conversations in Woodley Park's restaurants must be this week.
2 comments:
Love the Sammy Hagar reference.
I remember during the heyday of the drug wars hearing gunshots ring out constantly, or seeing it play out in traffic like something on The Wire, and the 2 a.m. circling heliocopters shining beams in your windows...always conducive to sleep.
A friend and I were talking the other day, and he said, "Oh she had to go to the Reagan Hilton," and we were laughing about how Washingtonian's form their own names for structures; for example no one I know that is born in D.C. will ever call National Airport anything other than "National," (rather than the official "Reagan.")
And that Hilton building has been changed for life. I was thinking about Hinckley the other day, as well. His father died last week, and it was his parents (and their deep pockets) that were getting their son his excursions out of St. Elizabeth's for that act he played out in front of the Hilton. As his parents pass, something tells me John's little field trips will be a thing of memory for him.
And this, too, has absolutely nothing to do with what you are talking about, but this is how the brain works (or doesn't.) I was watching the tail end of American Psycho last night. Christian Bale is sitting in a bar, telling others he kills people. Everyone is drinking rye beer and single malts, and Reagan is on the television making a speech about...well..who cares.
And it just seemed so eerie to see Reagan on television in that scene and realize he was, indeed, President, and is, indeed, dead...and the way he died, and his going to those court dates saying he didn't remember....and no one believed him...then...but....he didn't remember.
'course, now we have a President that forgets what he says five seconds after it's left his mouth, and if someone reminds him, he denies it.
Oh yeah. How was your Monday?
My Monday flew by in a whir. In fact, it seems like ages since I posted, but it's been 3.5 days only. I'm disconnected all over.
Post a Comment