blog entry

Day 2

It's actually the morning of Day 3 as I write this, but Margaret and I totally zoned out last night, watching this whole polygamy raid on CNN. It was FASCINATING, to say the least. Yesterday, we spent the entire day in Alabama. We started out in Birmingham at Urban Standard, a coffee shop that I can't stop talking about. We met with Cory Bordonaro, our Birmingham editor, and Stacy, Account Executive. It was interesting hearing them talk about the city they live in because they offered two unique perspectives: Cory has lived there for less than a year, while Stacy was born and raised in Birmingham. They both shared one perspective, however. They both spoke optimistically about the mindset of B-ham--while it may still be a bit conservative, changes have happened and they continue to happen everyday. That is so encouraging! Less encouraging, however, was seeing a GIANT Confederate flag waving at the top of the highest flagpole I've ever seen. Scott, a native Alabaman, explained that the KKK owns that land and have been flying that for ages, despite protests and pleas. Even worse, is that the land borders a historic African American graveyard. Margaret and I have felt such optimism on this journey, meeting individuals who love their communities and are working to break the glass, race, and gender boxes in order to have a society that is accepting and loving towards everyone. To see something like that flag brought us back to the reality that society has a long way to go and that, for those who use the upcoming elections to illustrate that things are equal and that we've "made it"--someone at our meet up in Mobile pointed out that the very fact that we're using this as an example proves that things aren't finished. The fact that a black man and a woman are running for president is front-page news. People talk about that as much or more than the actual issues the people represent. People are now divided on thought like, "Well, I'm a woman, so I should support Hillary," or "I'm black, so I should support Obama." They think like this because it's never happened like this before, and who knows when an opportunity like this will come along again. They cling to the identities of gender and culture because it's such a rarity--and that is a damn shame.