CoME Episode 10: A commute to work

I have to say that I have really enjoyed living in New England the past almost 30 years. It is even more picturesque and beautiful than I could have imagined, from the town commons to the deep forests to the Quabbin Reservoir to the wonderful architecture. I have made a series of photos of New England Holiday doors and also one I like to call “Portals”, meaning windows, doors and paths, and never tire of seeing something new and different. My friend Maqz, of CSA Podcast fame has a blog and does a series of photos he calls “My New York,” referring to his upstate vista. (Check out some of his work "8 Minutes on High". It is these images I will remember.

One place to see these type things is my commute to work. That is one thing for sure that I think that I will miss - my commute to work time. I know most people hate their commute and I used to be one of those but things are different now for me. Let me explain.

Back in another place and time I hated to commute. I was going to graduate school, classes and field work, 2 hours each way. Drive to the subway, subway into the city, different train uptown. Hot in the summer, cold and damp in the winter. Two hours each way, 4 hours a day.

After I graduated I took a job in Brooklyn, about 20 miles from my house, but across two NYC boroughs. 50 – 60 minutes depending on traffic and time of day. Traffic going in the morning, traffic coming home in the evening. One hour, each way, two hours a day.

When we decided to move to Massachusetts I can remember telling someone that we were less than one days worth of commute away. It took 3 hours to get from our new lives in Massachusetts to NYC. My graduate school commute was 4 hours each day. In Southbridge, MA we lived in a small apartment in a 3 floor walk up. I walked to work, many days, a 10 minute jaunt. But here lies the problem. I was used to a much longer commute and had learned while riding the subway or sitting in traffic, to use the time to decompress from the days aggravation. The short walk or even shorter car ride never gave me enough time.

This brings me to my current job. The commute from North Brookfield is only about 25 minutes but it is just the perfect amount of time to forget about my work-a-day issues. Mrsfabp will often comment that I don’t talk about work issues much and this is because that 25 minute drive lets me let them go. I drive past one of the prettiest commons in New England, lots of forest and trees and for several miles along a nice rolling river. On my daily commutes I have seen deer, turkeys, an osprey, foxes, turtles and coyotes (sorry no road runners though!) I cannot imagine a prettier ride and will miss that very much. I listen with horror to NYC radio stations talking about hour long traffic waits to use the bridge or tunnel into the city and cringe. I think of my brother’s commute from way out on Long Island on the Long Island Rail Road and then subway and marvel at his steadfastness.

So this week I have had two days that required my special commute time. On Tuesday I got into a debate with a couple of teabagging, ultra conservatives who felt that lack of health care was natural selection. My God, you can’t cure stupid. Then yesterday I was subject to a barrage of email related to some work decisions that had been made and someone felt they weren’t consulted and so were going to the union to complain. My God, you cannot cure stupid.

How did I deal? That great car ride home, my special commute time. Window open, They Might be Giants “The Else” blasting from the stereo. That’s how I roll! I can’t call my trip to and from work each day, a commute. I’ll just call it a ride. A special ride. My daily 25 minute ride in the country.

What was I bothered about again?

What a disgrace!

On the day before one of the most sweeping political changes called the health bill, was set to be voted on, a most historic day, three US Representatives, public servants, were subject to the most vile display one could imagine. In Washington, DC, Representatives Andre Carson, D-IN., John Lewis, D-GA., a leader of the civil rights era, and Barney Frank, D-MA., were the target of heckling by health bill opponents that went well beyond protest, to the point of verbal and physical assault.
I have no issue with protesting. I understand that this bill for many different reasons has raised the stakes but to do what was done to these gentleman make me embarrassed to be an American today. Representatives Carson and Lewis, African-Americans were taunted with the word “nigger” more than 15 times by the count of security personnel there. Representative Frank was repeatedly called a “faggot” by protesters. Representative Lewis reported being spit on by this mob. I am embarrassed to be a citizen of the same country as these protesters.
Politico published details of these episodes and the was a series of right wing commentary saying they thought the report was exaggerated and many people felt that these protestors were planted by President Obama and the Democratic Party. People, please… President Obama would support people spitting at and calling constituents of his party vile, indescribably vulgar names to what end? I am embarrassed…
These protesters, these ignorant teabaggers, these vile and wretched people are the lowest of the low in this country. After taunting a man with Parkinson’s disease earlier in the week, I thought there was no lower form of life worse than these idiots but I was wrong. There was worse to come and they showed themselves on Saturday and Sunday, showed themselves for just what they are. I am embarrassed. So stupid, they understand the connotations of the word they themselves originally called their group– teabaggers (look up teabaggers in the urban dictionary if you want to know the connotation.) So ignorant, they have become walking billboards for what is wrong with the American education system. So dumb, they act like little “sheeple” under the influence of the far right, ultra conservative, fear mongers they follow blindly. I am so embarrassed.
Rep. Andre Carson, Rep. John Lewis, Rep. Barney Frank, let me offer to you an apology. The haters do not know what they are doing, they have been led to this brink of inhumanity by those who hate even more, who are selfish and angry and blinded by their own inadequacies and ambitions. Representatives, I am sorry for the behavior of these idiots. Please continue to represent the American people, continue to try to do what is best for us, even if there are some who wouldn’t recognize what is best for them if it slapped them in the face. Forgive and forget, and take solace in the fact that with your support, more Americans, more needy Americans, children and those in poverty, will get this health care benefit and protection. Please continue with your work.
I am embarrassed by these people and wish to disassociate myself from their kind, from these teabaggers, these haters, this scum of the earth.