The Census Taker
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I received two census forms in the mail. I filled them out, completely honestly, and mailed them back. And then today in the late afternoon a census taker knocked on my door.
She asked me the short list of expected questions… even though I had replied in the positive that I had filled out not one but two forms and returned them dutifully. She asked nicely and I answered. She was very nice and I was very compliant.
We sat looking at one another across my bench for an exaggerated stretch of maybe 20 seconds. Politely smiling.
She knew and I knew that there were more pressing questions to be approached, asked and answered.
She liked the smell of my White Buffalo Woman mister and bought one for herself. I enjoyed listening to her tell me about her last child in the house, her graduation from our local high school and how she searched for the income to support her in a college she was accepted to outside of New Orleans. She probably should have only been with me for a maximum of twenty minutes.
So she asked me: “Why do you think so many people are hating?” An important question. The real questions… the ones that might be thought important enough to print on those forms… “We have troubles, yes ma’am; but we should be looking for solutions… why do people in Washington, D.C. NOT want to solve our troubles?”
“My children are educated. I am not stupid, but there is so much I don’t understand. I hear very confusing things, read confusing ideas from Mrs. Palin and her Tea Party. I know they are lying. Why does this work… this lying? Do Americans want to be so afraid? Why do so many want to believe lies?
It’s foolish to think our President isn’t an American. Are these people that unwilling to believe in a smart, kind, talented black man?”
“Yes… can you believe it’s true that Texas is going to print school books full of lies about the history of our country?!” “I can. They are going to print school books that tell absolute lies about how the human species evolved. Scopes all over again…”
“And does that governor of Virginia really think slavery wasn’t the backbone economy of the Confederacy and cause of the Civil War? Like that rebel flag ain’t the beard for euogenics professors and the KuKluxKlan?”
Scoff laws…
We finished that nice chanti and ordered a pizza.
Happy
0 %
Sad
0 %
Excited
0 %
Sleepy
0 %
Angry
0 %
Surprise
0 %
0
0
The last census I received asked, amongst so many many personal questions, ‘Religious Persuasion’. I replied ‘Jedi Knight’.
Thousands of English people did the same – so I wasn’t half as clever as I thought eh? – and the end result was that ‘Jedi Knight’ had to be accepted as a genuine religion.
Oddly enough….there hasn’t been a census since…
LOL I had heard of the phenom- and looked it up to be sure. I believe “Jedi-ism” came in 4th among reported religions in Britain and Wales? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jedi_census_phenomenon
Randall, thy name is irony!
Yes, it’s there on the table like that Holte.
Filled up with confusion and sadness, my census taking friend, Trudy, and I thought of dozens of questions for a ‘political census’ (polls are untrue ya know) … and about the only place that idea floats is among the millions of blogs on politics. 🙂
exception being: the RNC’s latest mailer for fund raising… seems they’ve defied Federal Law and gone ahead and mailed out census constructed / mimic-ed letters… political census taking time… 🙁
But what’s a discussion without the glue of hate? You get yourself one groovy high with some sniffing.
If you take the underlying hate out of the current national discussions, the whole political debate would collapse like a house of cards.
“Why do you think so many people are hating?” hmmmmmm, lets look at the possibilities…..
It’s because they disagree about shifting of Keynesian Economics to more Government interaction? No
It’s because they disagree with Obama’s policies of state sovereignty? NO
Nuclear Posture Review?…. Tax Increases? No
Socialist Health Care? No……Uncertain Citizenship? No
Well? What could it possible be? Surely it’s not because of the color of his skin?……after all this is 2010 not 1952. Right?
Good post Gwen!