We arrived back in Montreal around 9:00 pm last night - it was a long drive but easier coming up I-95 and I-87 than the trek down through Connecticut and lower New York. I wrote in the car through the Adirondacks, trying to outline an essay which we decided to send to the Montreal Gazette along with a portfolio of photographs. If they don't take it tomorrow, then of course we'll publish it here; otherwise there will be a link.
I had hoped to edit some videos I shot, but didn't get to it today; I spent the whole day trying to write the essay I'd started in the car, encapsulating the experience, and I only think it's partially successful. Maybe a fresh eye in the morning will help.
Thanks for all the comments; I appreciate your reading and everything you've added, and am sorry I haven't been able to respond individually as I usually try to do. Back to normal blogging soon!
The Gazette?! Wow. Waiting with 'bated breath, bien sur!
Posted by: FrScott | January 22, 2009 at 09:02 PM
Hi Scott! Oh, I doubt they'll take it - too many words, and we don't have any connections there. But it felt worth a try. I'd really rather publish on the blog...
Wasn't it a great day? I'm so glad we decided to go. It was like a big party - your friend would have been fine. But all the white locals we talked to beforehand seemed to share her attitude - I found it pretty odd. There was not one incident, not even a look, of hostility from any of the black people at the inauguration; everyone just talked to everybody else - I think the general attitude was, "look, if you're here today, you're one of us."
Posted by: beth | January 22, 2009 at 09:29 PM
This morning at bible study, a member rejoiced toward me that there had not been one, not single one, arrest. I eagerly await further blog postings (and I'm going to startle you by praying that the Gazette will pick it up)...(when I shopped the jewelery store across the street from the cathedral, they looked at me rather oddly, not understanding whence I came.....a retail jewelers' family......)
Posted by: FrScott | January 22, 2009 at 09:46 PM
Welcome back! And thanks for the reports from the scene.
Posted by: blork | January 22, 2009 at 10:16 PM
I take it that you have finished your piece on Washington and that I will not pollute it by sending you a link to a visual that nudged at my memory as I kept returning to Jon's photo of the flag draped capitol bldg. I am not proud to have a mind that goes full spectrum like this but I am also creeped out by the daily messages from what is now the Obama administration and the way the White House homepage has been re-engineered in the type faces and colours, the branding as it were, that carried the campaign forward. I think I had hoped for a certain disconnect. As a communicator I am both thrilled to whatever stirs the heart, and hypersensitive to being sold, I guess that's it.
http://au.encarta.msn.com/media_461537023_761576917_-1_1/hitler_at_nuremberg.html
Posted by: Vivian | January 23, 2009 at 09:10 AM
Well, that's dramatic and disturbing but kind of a stretch, don't you think? I bet we could find many images of government buildings draped with vertical flag-banners, in many major seats of government. I am skeptical, too, and on Tuesday found myself feeling outside the euphoria of the "Yes We Can"ers; for me it was a hugely important milestone in the history of race relations in America and, I fervently hope, the beginning of a reversal of Bush's incredibly damaging policies that have hurt so many people worldwide.
Posted by: beth | January 23, 2009 at 10:32 AM
I have no doubt that the intentions of the new administration are utterly desirable. I voted for and worked in different ways for exactly this change. And shall continue, like you, fervently to hope.
Posted by: Vivian | January 23, 2009 at 02:37 PM
I can't wait to see what you've written, no matter what the venue.
Posted by: Kaycie | January 23, 2009 at 05:15 PM
Welcome home Beth.
Posted by: Joyce | January 23, 2009 at 06:12 PM