This land is your land...

07.05.08

Atlanta didn't impress me at all. I spent 540 dollars on a plane ticket to figure this out. At least I know there is nothing there for me.

How can such a pretty name be such a cruel place? Most people assume I didn't like it because the black community out numbers the whites. Thats not it, and aparently those people don't know me. It was weird and different, however. I've never been the minornity but mostly people were nice- yet there was one place that stuck out like a sore thumb. On Peach Tree St. down town there is a very pretty park along the sidewalk. There are fountains that have dried up, trees that have gone unwatered, a dangerous swing set, and black homeless speckled with a few whites.

As I was walking by they were all calling me "white girl" and demanding money or food. One even said I owed it to the black man to give back... what? I owed it? If I recall right, Africans were selling their people to whites in America. Not that it made it right for us to purchase humans and force them to labor... also, these people on the streets where homeless on their own accord. I just... I don't get it! How can someone demand equal rights yet lay there in the streets telling a white girl she owed him money? Oh, I know it's not all members of a race, this is just one experiance and one place and one thought. I'm sure this isn't coming off the way I mean for it to. It's just that, complaining about rights isn't enough. You have to step up and show the world that you are above a level. The black homeless man was in the same place as the white homeless man, but that man didn't call me a white girl, bitch, rich yankee, etc. nore did he tell me I owed him anything.

When I got on the bus I sat towards the front and a girl in the middle (the bus wasn't full at all) said under her breath but loud enough to be heard, "Typical." What I took from that was that I was white sitting in the front. I would give up my seat for the disabled or elderly. Another man thanked my mom for riding the bus and said it's good to see the white man using public transportation. Another time on the bus, I didn't have exact change and a nice man behind who looked like Morgan Freemen paid my way. I thanked him and he thanked me. I still don't get it.

At dinner mom and I got a table after an hour wait. We have two extra chairs and offered to share a table with a lady and her four year old. We were at dinner for almost four hours caught in good conversation. She was excied because she and her son made a snow man almost a foot tall. When we told her about Idaho snow men she got super excited. Her son gave me big hugs and cried when they had to leave. If anything, that was the best part of Atlanta.

I don't know. It was a culture shock and an eye opener. For the better, I'm glad I went.

I'm not sure that I want to post this...

Nelapsi

yesterdays and tomorrows