Could this be my last trip to America?

Published by Rick on Tagged Uncategorized

Actually, whenever I see a newspaper article where the headline is a question, for example “Did Hillary run a child sex ring from a pizza parlour?” my first response is usually no. And that’s probably the answer to this question as well, but if the country I’m going to visit tomorrow for a mere 9 days is truly the country I fear it’s become, then the answer might lean more towards yes. I’ll certainly have a more solid idea on the day Maggie and I leave, which will be the day after the most crucial midterm election maybe in the history of the nation.

The events of the past couple days have scared me even more, in that horrible things happen, and politicians denounce the incidents, then Trump returns right to his same nonsense rhetoric. He had the nerve to say “if there’d been an armed guard at the synagogue,” going back to the NRA logic of “the only thing that defeats a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.” I have nothing but disdain for this rich, pompous, stupid, insensitive, arrogant, racist, sexist, homophobic pumpkin-faced horrible excuse for a leader of ANYTHING, let alone leader of the free world. Whew, glad to get that off my chest.

Anyway, I look forward to seeing as many friends and family as I can, though I’m a bit limited by remaining in the Bay Area the whole time. There are people in Southern California that I love dearly, but I just will not have the time to drive down there, and unfortunately, none of them have the time to come up north either. So we make the best of the time we have. I’ll be doing two music gigs, but no comedy, unless something convenient comes up while I’m there.

The past few years, we’ve been timing our visits to coincide with the end of the World Series and elections. This year might be different unless the Dodgers find a way to win today. The only baseball game Maggie has ever seen was two years ago when we were in New York and we saw the 7th game of the Series at a Manhattan pub where the Cubs put their 108 years of futility to rest. There could not have been a better game to watch to illustrate just how intense this great American game (although many Brits will say it’s a ripoff of their game of rounders) can be. It’s one of the things I continue to miss about not having lived in the US for 15 years. Some of the other things I’ve missed about America, like Mexican food and iced tea, have wended their way into England in a few venues.

For my Bay Area friends, I’ll be at the Kensington Circus Pub in Albany (just north of Berkeley) this Thursday and on Election Day next week, I’ll be at the Rite Spot Cafe on 17th and Folsom in San Francisco. Both gigs are my friend Joshua’s Beatles’ singalong gigs, where he and I and a drummer accompany any singer that wishes to get up and perform any Beatles song, a gig which J has been doing now in various venues for eight years. When he was in London two years ago, we were able to bring the same show to the Earl Haig pub in Crouch End, and had a lovely turnout, mostly from the choir I sing in. I hope to see some familiar faces this time around.

I really REALLY don’t want to come back to UK with any more negative feelings about the US than I already have. I don’t think the country will implode if the election results are what I fear they might be, i.e. the Republicans hold their majorities in both houses of Congress, making it easier for Trump not only to continue his horrific agenda, but to continue it for six more years. It just may become a less recognisable and less pleasant place to visit. We all know what we can do to prevent those possibilities. There’s no excuse for not voting this time around. If you don’t, you get what you deserve.

 

October 28th, 2018



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