i had lunch today with a couple of my old ADF friends. they still work there, more than 5 years after i left. what's shocking is that --unlike our past get-togethers-- we spent very little time today actually talking about ADF. we spent most of our time together bitching about dubya.
one of these friends is the co-director of the festival, and she told me about the myriad of immigration/visa problems ADF has had this year (which is the ultimate melding of an ADF & dubya conversation, i suppose). she told a terrible story about a russian dance company and the ridiculous number of hoops they had to jump through to get here. zillions of phone calls to consulates, to senators... to anyone who could possibly help speed things up. and still, even though their visa process began months ago, three of the company members didn't get to durham in time for their first performance.
then later, this afternoon, just a couple of hours before charo & i were to leave for the art museum to see les primitifs du futur, we learn that the band's concert has been cancelled... they weren't allowed across the border, either.
what the fuck is going on here?! apparently keeping french & russian artists out of the country is suddenly code orange shit.
ray went off to meet some fellow libertarians & protesters at the kerry/edwards rally this afternoon and returned with stories of rabid, punk-ass kerry supporters forcefully stealing admission tickets from libs... just to keep the dissenting libertarian voices away from the throngs of whooping democrats. (the cops also wanted them gone.)
these people (democrats... a group i typically ally myself with) were apparently so desperate to "do their part" to get bush out of office that they went beyond just trying to excite support for their favorite candidate... they actually atttempted to silence the supporters of only presidential candidate who has taught a course on the constitution.
the intolerance we live with these days is absolutely stunning.
Posted by xta at July 10, 2004 11:57 PM | TrackBackI think the source of some of my permanent dislike of politics took root during the Clinton administration. I do believe that it will continue forever. Perhaps I just wasn't paying attention before then.
Posted by: pinky at July 12, 2004 2:20 PMYeah, intolerace from Democrats is pretty hard to take being that they're supposed to be so, um, tolerant. I want Bush out as much as anyone but it is a democracy....other voices should be heard.
Posted by: lainey at July 12, 2004 6:48 PM