mnvnjnsn's Diary

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2003-09-22

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No decent docent

This weekend only proved to me that I am getting more agoraphobic. But is it really me, or are there just more assholes in the world?

Saturday we went to the Oregon Historical Society, which is just a fancy name for the museum. Trevor Dunnigan really wanted to go, and I like history, so I thought "What the hell?" Well, let me tell you, for me Hell is a museum full of patriots who smell bad standing too close.

OHS has the Declaration of Independence that's on tour right now, but I wasn't that impressed with either the DoI or the new museum. The new building seems to have less stuff in it, and the DoI was surrounded by a lot of unnecessary patriotic hype. And it's one of the printed copies, not the handwritten and signed one, so there wasn't really much to see.

And oh, the hyperbole! There was a movie all about freedoms with scenes of happy black and asian folks all free to do stuff, like grow vegetables in their back yard and talk to children! The movie was narrated by Reese Witherspoon, picked because she's hot and her ancestor signed the Declaration of Independence. What a coup(ah- pun intended?)! America is so free! What a great place! Ever twirling, twirling, twirling for freedom!

*ahem* I got the distinct impression that the people who wrote this movie, and all the placards placed along the line of visitors, had never been to Canada. Or the UK. Or Scandinavia. Or even out of Orange County.

There was even a guy (I don't know if he toured with the declaration or was some home-grown yokel) who stood by the entrance to the display and said things like "you know, in 1776, if they found you with one of these papers, they'd kill you." It just seems to me that the more people crow about this being the land of the free and the home of the brave, the less likely it is to really be that. You know, all protesting too much and all that.

Don't get me wrong. I like the idea of American democracy. I just don't think the current implementation of it is all that democratic. Quite honestly, when I hear about someone named George chipping away at the hard-earned freedoms of people with a long train of abuses and usurpations, affecting to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power and obstructing the administration of justice, I don't think of that English guy.

3:03 p.m. - 2003-09-22

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