For my part, I'm not planning my limited and precious travel time around the political situation.
I've been planning a special trip for more than a year. We signed up for Aeroplan credit cards and got all the airfare and a big chunk of the rental car covered with points (and paid zero interest). I have Airbnbs booked in three cities. Flights and accommodations are all nonrefundable. Most importantly, we're visiting places that are very resonant and important to us. There's no way I'm cancelling any of it.
On the agenda: music, history, baseball, and food. The Bob Dylan Center, the Woody Guthrie Centre, the American Jazz Museum, the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. Baseball in two historic parks we've never been to, including one Red Sox game. The Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site, right outside St. Louis! All this and Kansas City barbecue and Stroud's, a restaurant I've wanted to visit since reading about it in the 1990s! (Possibly even in the late 1980s.)
This is our first trip other than to visit family since moving to BC. I'm not counting exploring Vancouver Island places. I love this beautiful island, but it doesn't count as travel to me.
We leave in late April and of course I'll be blogging.
16 comments:
Ahh, the human mind in its complexity can not find an activity that it can not justify. Self justification of deviant behaviors especially in the face of new evidence has always been the way of the entitled elite. Slavers, offenders, climate deniers, sexual deviants, colonists, invaders all have the same thinking. Indulgence. Entitlement. Above the fray. Enjoyed the chuckle of spiritual materialism tour too. It was about the lyrics not the relics.
Surely you're not implying that traveling to the US now -- where many people are victims of the current regime, not enablers -- falls in the category of slaving and colonizing? Or I am somehow displaying some kind of unseemly entitlement? Can you please elaborate?
Also: I know I enjoy quite a lot of privilege, as a white person with some formal education. But surely you don't think a librarian and a writer/word processor are part of the "entitled elite"?
It is spiritual materialism to visit the Woody Guthrie Center or the Bob Dylan Center? Or perhaps all travel is elitist to you?
I thought perhaps I had misinterpreted your comment, but re-reading it, I now see there is only one to interpret this.
Gotta break this shit down. (Are we sure this isn't mags?)
Taking a vacation = "Sexual deviant".
Purchasing/eating ribs = "Entitled elite".
Purchasing/eating mashed potatoes = "Self-justification of deviance".
Attending a baseball game = "Slaver".
Attending two baseball games = "Slaver . . . climate denier".
Visiting a few towns/cities, spending money, then leaving = "Colonizing".
Pointing out this guy is an asshole = "Offender". (Also, "truth teller".)
Preserving a trip that I've been planning for more than a year, unwilling to lose thousands of dollars I saved up and have invested in this trip, makes me an entitled elite.
You know, it's not an organized boycott that I'm breaking, like a vacation in Johannesburg during South African apartheid. It's a choice some Canadians are making, and I am not.
But I think Allan's translation is on target. It's sad and confusing, as lungta always seemed like a thoughtful reader and ally. Oh well. I guess not.
That first comment is a load of flannel. You have family and it's already planned. I was hoping to visit but not now. There's a fear in Europe that if your paperwork isn't up to scratch. It could mean all sorts of trouble. Reform have four seats in our Parliament. I flatly refuse to visit them.
We have a friend in the US who is afraid to travel because they can't prove their citizenship. They were born elsewhere, were naturalized, but no longer have access to the documentation. They were going to meet us on this trip, but now can't take a chance.
I read just now a British band were deported the other day.
The band refused entry was old Punk band UK Subs for a festival in California. Only singer Charlie Harper was allowed in.
People deported for political activities -- or merely for their opinions -- is one of the more disturbing trends. It's been done at various times in US history, but this version is sure to eclipse those eras.
Apologies
I think in extremes so ideas pass the stress test
Human thinking is always the same .
Regardless of the consequences .
Nobody in their own mind is ever wrong .
It remains that the formula for success in this version of civilization
is also the same formula for catastrophic climate change and the 6th great extinction. And at some point, with insight, a choice could occur.
In an era where anything is allowed morality is tricky. Every bodys; doin' it.
Wataboutism ..... it doesn't matter ....China's worse... I earned it ... I won't be here much longer.
In your better thinking I hope that you have considered that advertising on the web you won't be home for weeks, has for others has had consequences. Self doxxing is a thing but that ship has sailed. Senior moment maybe? Security might be advised but as allen says , don't listen he is just an asshole . Good Luck. Spend wisely.
Apologies
I think in extremes so ideas pass the stress test
Human thinking is always the same .
Regardless of the consequences .
Nobody in their own mind is ever wrong .
It remains that the formula for success in this version of civilization
is also the same formula for catastrophic climate change and the 6th great extinction. And at some point, with insight, a choice could occur.
In an era where anything is allowed morality is tricky. Every bodys; doin' it.
Wataboutism ..... it doesn't matter ....China's worse... I earned it ... I won't be here much longer.
In your better thinking I hope that you have considered that advertising on the web you won't be home for weeks, has for others has had consequences. Self doxxing is a thing but that ship has sailed. Senior moment maybe? Security might be advised but as allen says , don't listen he is just an asshole . Good Luck. Spend wisely.
Just responding to this before banning this (now former) reader from this blog.
Perhaps you are projecting. I am frequently wrong. I have been wrong many times in my life and have learned and changed course. Only a fool believes they are never wrong.
I am not concerned that I am announcing plans. It's not a senior moment (so offensive), it wasn't an accident. FFS, I've been targetted at the US border for my activism, was detained multiple times, and I still blogged about whatever I want. I don't live in fear. I do what I do and I deal with the consequences.
I've been lucky and privileged that these consequences were never too great, but if that happens in the future, then so be it.
I've been travel-blogging for more than 20 years. I am not so self-important as to think the US government is watching me (even thought the Canadian government did for many years!). If it turns out I'm on a watchlist, then I'll deal with the fallout at that time. But I'm not curtailing my life based on that possibility.
Perhaps your odious comments stem from a mistaken reading on your part, or a lack of clarity on my part. I DON'T NEED ANY RATIONALIZATION. I am not making excuses for taking this trip, I am not apologizing for it, I am not telling myself stories about it. I planned a trip and I'm going and I entirely nothing to rationalize. I was merely sharing information, as many people have asked "are you still going?".
Now be a nice chap and fuck off.
Enjoyed the chuckle of spiritual materialism tour too. It was about the lyrics not the relics.
I guess Lungta forgot to rationalize this comment.
These places are not repositories of relics. They are archives, centres of learning, places of music, ideas, and history -- labour history, radical history, music history. They are places where generations who may never have been exposed to this history can learn about and explore ideas and values. The other museums (Negro Leagues, Jazz) are the same. To trivialize and mock this as spiritual materialism is small-minded, mean-spirited, and ignorant.
Sounds like an awesome trip. Love the idea of going to a baseball game while visiting a city; seems like a great way to really get a feel for the place (for better or worse!)
It's one of our favourite things to do. We've had quite a few trips constructed around visiting ballparks. And yes, you do learn about the locals! Thanks for visiting wmtc. :)
I wonder, what exactly is a "sexual deviant"? Gay people and trans people used to be called that (and in some circles, still are). Pedophiles and rapists could be thought of as sexual deviants. It's such an antiquated expression. Like calling someone a bluestocking or a milquetoast.
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