how it came to this
Day two of the Democratic National Convention last night. The night before, when it ended and Shobhit switched over to pundits discussing it, one of them said something about how they weren't sure this "virtual" version of the DNC could sustain interest over four nights. Well, you know what? I think they've done a pretty good job for the first two nights. Granted, nothing last night matched the power of Michelle Obama's speech on Monday, but it was still surprisingly compelling. As I noted on social media, I found the virtual roll call of delegate votes, passing in turn through 57 states and territories in alphabetical order, actually kind of fun—even as it went on for 42 minutes. This was clearly part of the plan, but it very succinctly illuminated the rich diversity of this country that Republicans in particular are intent on pretending doesn't even exist.
It was kind of interesting to me that the first person with heritage from the Asian continent was the person representing Washington State. That said, she was only the third person seen (that I can recall) with Asian heritage of any kind: the woman representing Hawaii was originally from the Philippines; the guy representing Virginia was South Asian. At least two states, that I can recall anyway, had representatives who were Native American (New Mexico and South Dakota, very fitting in both cases). There was of course still a lot of white people too, just as there was also a lot of people of color. The whole point was a sense of multicultural unity behind the one candidate who has a chance to beat President Fuckwit, and it worked.
The only real question at this point is whether the efforts of President Fuckwit, his cronies and his Republican lapdogs to suppress the vote—already well underway on multiple fronts—will work. The people nominating Bernie Sanders last night were wasting everyone's time; all but just a few states had a few to several delegate votes for Bernie, for what, to send a message? Bernie was the only other candidate to get any delegate votes at all, but with one or two exceptions, he was vastly outnumbered by Biden votes. Even the guy literally standing in front of Bernie who first noted Bernie's votes, then went on to announce the votes for "our next president," Joe Biden. And Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, seconding the nomination for Bernie? I actually like her a lot, but talk about naïve. I hope she lasts a very long time in Congress, but hopefully over time she'll learn that idealism alone won't get us anywhere. I bet she will.
Bernie getting surprised with a bunch of silly string at a library was actually kind of cute. And then last night his wife was the final speaker, which seemed appropriate. It's already dispiriting to think of how much she's going to get shit on by people on the right (and many also on the far left) for no good reason, but, that's the cesspool that is America.
I spent a little time captioning photos on Flickr last night, but also went to bed much earlier than usual. I even read ten pages of my library book! I decided to get on that, as I just ordered a new book from Amazon. Gabriel, Lea and I have all decided to read the novel Barkskins together, and that was the only way I could get my hands on it in any reasonable amount of time. Even the wait for the e-book at the library is eight weeks, and libraries are still closed for checking out books. They apparently are slowly opening up curbside pickup services, but I could find no such option for this particular book. I do have a DVD movie ready for pickup at the Central Library, apparently.
Anyway, about the book. The choice is because we've all been watching the series on Hulu, produced by National Geographic. They just finished it; I'm halfway through. Shobhit has watched all of the first three episodes with me so far, although he said during the second episode: "I don't like this show. Just look at history, right? The people they're showing as bad, they're the winners." Turns out that is precisely the point, which is what piqued my interest in the book (written by Annie Proulx, incidentally, who also wrote the short story Brokeback Mountain, another point in her favor). The book actually spans centuries, from the seventeenth century (when the entire first season of the show is set), through the main characters' descendants to the present day. It basically traces the destruction of our forests and the causes of climate change. It focuses on specific characters to illuminate how we got here. It's much bigger than judging these first few episodes on their own would suggest.
I did warn Gabriel that I probably won't read nearly as fast as he'll want. He tried to say he'll probably be even slower than me. Haha! I'm still reading a library book I checked out in February. But hey, if I start reading it during my lunch breaks, an idea that only hit me just this morning, maybe I'll finally start burning through it with some real consistency.
[posted 12:33 pm]