I lift my informal blogging sabbatical (I’m writing too much to blog, if that makes sense) to note that a few weeks back someone I’m related to (I don’t even want to admit how closely) forwarded a hysterical email composed of various paranoid forwards that postulated, incorrectly, that the federal government was hell-bent on limiting the type of ammo we could buy.
As one poster speculated, “Controlling the ammo was a prerequisite for controlling Russia and China by the communists. Make ya wonder don’t it?”
There has been a run on guns and ammo ever since Obama was elected, despite no proof anywhere that the Obama administration considers limiting access to guns a priority even close to, say, propping up our failing economy or fixing health care.
The reality is that Obama is a citified intellectual who would die of exposure if left to hunt for his food, who wouldn’t know a brass casing from case law, and in any event has his focus elsewhere. He is furthermore surrounded by people like him who have no inkling of how strong folks in some parts of the country feel about their guns, and his people will occasionally judge wrong in their gun legislation, and then be quickly course-corrected.
But myths are more powerful than reality, and the central myth fueling the guns-and-ammo panic is an old and powerful story: A BLACK MAN IS TRYING TO TAKE AWAY OUR GUNS! Or perhaps that should be “guns,” since the symbolism wouldn’t be lost on a fourth-grader.
It’s funny (or not) how this ism has a parallel with marriage equality, in which, with no supporting evidence, the story is that GAY PEOPLE ARE RUINING MARRIAGE FOR EVERYONE ELSE!
Unfortunately, Obama has had far more impact in this area than he has on guns. It is Obama’s Justice Department that filed a bristlingly homophobic brief on behalf of DOMA, and it is Obama whose big gift to federal employees was to hand them a few ancillary same-sex benefits (because, we are told, DOMA prevents him from going farther).
Meanwhile, a shiny-pulpit minister on the west coast has been telling people — wink wink nudge nudge — that Obama will soon lift Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. A few months back, that would have excited me. Now I feel bored and appeased, as if the point of this rumor is to get me to stay quiet before I realize I’ve been duped again.
We have too many isms in America — isms that divide us, isms that we refuse to acknowledge. White men aren’t emasculated if a black man becomes president. The sacred institution of marriage isn’t trampled upon if the doors open wider to let in more loving, committed couples. And these are all the same struggles, in the same direction.
This afternoon I drive to Norcross, kicking off over a month of travel here and there (with many mini-trips built in).
10/12 - 10/16: TLH to Norcross. Working on-site at My Place Of Work. Mini-trips include Newton County Library System, Athens Public Library, and COMO. I wanted to touch base with a colleague who said sorry, she’s a bit busy with the 2nd annual Atlanta Queer Literary Festival.
WHAT!! I said. But of course I must put that on my homosexual agenda! So in between doing research for various trips and reading excellent drafts of software documentation by the illustrious Evergreen Docs Crew, I am gulping down Heaven’s Coast in preparation for hearing Mark Doty — and waving at busy Cal Gough from afar! I’m trying to see if I have courage to approach the open mike or will just sit there feeling like a wimp (and no, I’m not the Karen G. hosting that mike!).
10/16-10/17. Return to TLH. I’m largely pre-packed for Cincinnatti (just need to grind fresh Peet’s), which fortuitiously requires a very different set of clothes than what I’m wearing in ATL.
10/17 - 10/19: LITA National Forum. I was really going to learn (I find Forum is a great learning conference) but last week my colleague and fellow UIUC alum Aaron Trehub asked me to emcee a panel on distributed networks for digital preservation. I’m thrilled, because this is a topic that I feel very strongly about but don’t work directly in these days. I hope Tim Spalding’s talk is taped because the way the flights went I am going to walk in halfway through it at best.
10/19 - 10/22. Shelter in place in TLH. Vote on 10/20 (first day of early voting).
10/22 - 10/25. Statewide directors’ meeting in Baton Rouge; talking about open source and what it means to be a community librarian (good for me to have it figured out by then!). I get to Louisiana with enough time to make some liberry visits — I’m flying into NOLA specifically for that reason. I stay over in NOLA Friday night because Sandy has a conference there. Handy! We fly back to TLH together.
10/25 - 10/26. Wash, pay bills, and pack.
10/26 - 10/29. Norcross, with some internal round-trips.
10/29 - 11/1. TLH. Hunker in and work.
11/1 - 11/16. (or 11/15, unclear just yet). VALA/CAVAL 30th anniversary; five speaking stops. My itinerary in Australia takes me around what looks to me like the southern belt of the country. I believe I will actually get to meet Kathryn Greenhill and Fiona Bradley face-to-face! I’ve heard from some other folks I know. My co-presenter and I will be sightseeing a bit together too. I’m reading several fat travel books and a little Bill Bryson — if you have one you think is good to travel with, give a holler soon.
In prep for VALA/CAVAL, I’m also reading a slew of books I haven’t quite figured out how to track. Some are in PINEs, some are in WorldCat, some are local… I may try Zotero. I’d like something that would let me present an annotated bibliography online, in the order I choose.
My keynote at Access 2008 was a kind of early version of that talk, btw, sans the research I hope to bring to this. The working title (also used at Access) is “open++.”
