Culture Wars

I was invited to visit Albion College, along with John Rybicki, to do a Q & A and a reading. Susan Ramsey came along to knit a sock and keep us company. The Q & A was interesting; the two classes attending were an advanced poetry workshop (taught by Julie Stotz-Ghosh) who'd read John Rybicki's book of poems, We Bed Down Into Water and a basic writing class (taught by Nels Christensen) whose members had read a few of my stories. Folks asked John Rybicki how he wrote a poem and he talked about running across the roofs of garages as a twelve year old and being filled with electricity; he spoke about his body becoming a shaft of light. And I said, well, sometimes you can't stop rolling a thing around in your head and so you write about it. The coolest thing is that Nels Christensen knows Carolyn Chute and loves her the way I love her, as a writer and a philosopher and a warm person (with a new book just out, The School on Heart's Content Road). The recent NYT Book Review had an article that made a great deal out of Carolyn Chute's being the head of the 2nd Maine Militia, which is a whole story in and of itself. So Nels and I were talking about guns, and he said that he thought more liberals should have guns, because otherwise the other side would have all the guns. Lately I've been thinking that maybe the main difference between the sides in the culture war is that some folks are most concerned about the first amendment, while others are most concerned about the second. We believe in all the amendments, but we prioritize them differently. And that's not really such a big difference as it's made out to be. And there are some people like Carolyn Chute who work hard to protect both amendments. (There is probably a sizeable list of gun-loving writers if anyone wanted to collect it, including Hunter S. Thompson and Pinckney Benedict, for sure.) My darling Christopher says, paraphasing Robert Heinlein, that we citizens should always cast our votes in such a way that we choose more freedom over less, whether it's to allow guns or gay marriages. So Albion was a great trip all around, finishing up with a nice dinner at a bar, and Susan Ramsey was of great assistance in conversation as she remembered everything I could not remember. While we're on the topic of guns, here's a picture of my pal Shawn Wagner and me after we were shooting clay pigeons at the Wagners.

Handgun Owners for Barack Obama

The day that Obama became our president elect, the On Target gun store called Christopher to tell him his .357 was back; he'd bought it a few weeks ago but the first time he cleaned it, he had discovered a machining flaw on the rifling inside the barrel, so they sent it back to Smith & Wesson. People around here were all cheery about Obama, but at the gun store folks were apparently grumbling. Christopher saw two twenty-year-olds leaving the store with a new purchase; one said to the other, "I guess we can go shoot some illegal immigrants now." Inside the store, a man said to the clerk, "I guess I'd better buy a gun before January 20." The guy behind the counter told the guy he didn't think there was any immediate cause for concern to gun buyers. There are lots of bumper stickers at the gun store, classics such as

THEY CAN HAVE MY GUN WHEN THEY PRY IT FROM MY COLD DEAD FINGERS.

and TED KENNEDY'S CAR HAS KILLED MORE PEOPLE THAN MY GUN

and THE WEST WASN'T WON WITH A REGISTERED GUN

There was AMERICA'S PRECIOUS METALS: GOLD, SILVER, LEAD

Christopher's favorite was a newish one, that was supposed to be a dig at the democratic congress.

WHEN THE DEMOCRATS GOT INTO CONGRESS, GAS WAS 2.20 A GALLON

On the way home, after Democrats swept the elections, Christopher noticed that gas was selling for $2.14.