Maybe it's because I live in a really liberal place, but the fact that racial segregation still exists in our country still shocks me everytime I think about it. I was just reading through the AOL news and this story came up: Georigia School Holds First Integrated Prom. I know it's completly naive to think that desegregation was over and done with 50 years ago, but still...
This school usually had two different proms, but this guy (Senior class president James Hall) "led the charge" for having one intergrated prom.
Speaking of my liberal mind, Extravaganja isn't what everyone thinks/assumes it is. It's just kind of a large, peaceful protest with music and hippies and local vendors and, yeah, "pot heads," "stoners," and whatever else falls inbetween. I use these terms because I just read them in The Daily Collegian, and I don't know if the writer was trying to be funny or trying to "represent," but the whole article lacked that general objective feeling for me (I read it in the Arts & Living section). Matthew Cadwallader writes,
"As students poured out of the dorms to enjoy the gorgeous weather this weekend, they may have noticed something different in the air; a funny smell. The copious amounts of marijuana smoked over the weekend, here on campus and around the world, would certainly be to blame.
The weekend was one for the pot heads, starting with the stoner holiday of 4/20 on Friday and continuing with the Cannabis Reform Coalition's (CRC) 16th annual Extravaganja on Saturday. According to organizers, the latter event, hosted on the Amherst town common, drew over 2,000 people from around the Pioneer Valley for a celebration of all things marijuana."
I mean, the title of the article was "A day of baking in the Amherst sun," but I really thought it was going to be about the nice weather and Southwest Beach... haha. So the "funny smell" just surprised me-- I thought I was getting into something scientific... but nope, it's about "copious amounts of marijuana."
Now I'm not condoning or condemning someone's usage... but just because someone supports CRC or the decriminalization of marijuana doesn't make them a "pot head." I don't know; you can read the whole article here though and see if I am just reading it the wrong way. Something seems off about the article in general to me... maybe Cadwallader is just a freshman or something though... trying to come off as a cool dude instead of a journalist. There were a lot of interesting leads in this one small piece though.
Anyway, this how the CRC describes Extravaganja:
"A marijuana-freedom festival meant to raise awareness about the legalization of marijuana. Featuring live bands, guest speakers, and plenty of vendors on the Amherst Common from dawn till dusk."
I was there for a little bit. It was a beautiful day and there were lots of people and dogs and music and fun. But then I left on a mission for a grill. But that's another story. Sorry Blogosphere, it's too warm out to continue writing.
8 comments:
Has anyone ever lit up a blunt in The Simpsons? I don't remember it, enlighten me if you do.
Homer did, in the recent years, but I can't remember the episode. It had something to do with medical marijuana, and the whole episode (like most of that season, unfortunately) was subpar
That's pretty nuts about Georgia, that one surprised me.
my only logical interpretation is that it seems that kid just was trying to paint a picture so to speak in his writing, except he doesn't know anything about the culture so he just used generalizations, im sure he meant well. Judging from how the most journalistic part of that article was the laws and all, he seems more into politics than anything else, and perhaps thats what he was hoping to focus on rather than representing all the "stoners" for who they really are.
...and comon guys Homer grew up in the 60's/70's era, his mom a rebel hippy, a dad who never really watched him, and was best friends with Barney Gumble, besides all the "copious amounts of duff beer" they drank they definatly have had to do alot of drugs.
I think the hippies in this area give hippies and marijuana a bad reputation, if that's possible. Hippies are an obsolete culture -- they hold no social significance anymore, they don't actually fight to save the environment and they don't really believe in anything.
Of course, this doesn't mean all hippies, because I hate to be general. But most UMass hippies at least.
I am completely shocked about Georgia! Perhaps I too am naive as a long time New England resident who has only gone south to visit my grandparents in Floria. I need to learn more about the rest of the country that I enhabit.
Wow, I think Madison just defined a whole new group of heretofore undefined people: hippie nihilists.
Neat.
About segregation...
I'm terrible with remembering place names and specifics, but I heard on the radio a while ago about how they were considering bringing segregation back to public schools in a certain Southern city. Apparently they had been attempting integration for the past 40 years and "it just wasn't working out", whatever that means. I never heard anything more about it; your post just reminded me of it, and I wish I could remember where it was. But it was very shocking.
I'm full of cheerful stories today.
And, oh yeah, I was shocked by the prom thing too (meant to mention that before). I think a lot of us are from parts of the country that are sheltered from the lingering racism/effects of segregation and it's pretty shocking to see that they actually still exist. I wonder how many other schools there are out there that are still having segregated proms. How is that not being made into a bigger deal? Isn't it illegal?
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