During my travels home from the Nationals game on Friday night, having had ONE whole beer and feeling a bit snarky, I posted my Facebook status as...
Gleefully throwing all caution to the wind... going against Tea Party safety recommendations and riding BOTH the Green and Yellow lines of Metro, after 11 pm at night, no less. Call me a rebel.
To which my beloved Father-in-law replied
"I thought the metro was safe at all hours, what gives?"
How to respond to that? At least without starting a firestorm of hateful political back and forth on my Facebook page, the likes of which I despise. Unfortunately, to explain the joke means delving into controversial issues as it has to do with fear mongering and wholesale allegations of racism against large groups of people. Hmmm - too much for a Facebook comment, must blog instead.
Let me preface the remaining comments with the statement that I DO NOT believe most Tea Party-ists are racists. In fact, while I am avidly NOT a Tea Party supporter, I have friends and family who are, and these are folks who are intelligent, articulate and most definitely not racists. Personally, I believe that there are racists in any movement (regardless of party affiliation), and some of these folks in the Tea Party just were bonehead enough to put their thoughts in writing and get it posted to the national web page, which is exactly what happened in the days leading up to the Glenn Beck Rally.
Now, most anyone who lives in DC got the joke. My status was a backhand smack-down comment about how when the Tea Party folks were descending upon our fair city for their Glenn Beck rally, there were some insinuations of racist beliefs among the supporters of the movement. This was unfortunately supported by some chucklehead who was stupid enough to write safety advice to his friends who were coming to town. His advice was so poorly written, it basically stated that in order to be safe in DC, a visitor must avoid all areas where there are people who are not white, which is a pretty tall order in a city whose residents are predominantly African-American, and with a growing contingent of Latinos as well.
Some other chucklehead decided it was great advice for everyone concerned and posted chucklehead #1's letter on one of the main Tea Party Rally organizational sites. Bad idea chucklehead #2. It was picked up by many major news outlets and used as fodder for the fire that these folks were racists, which was a shame, because I firmly believe that chucklehead #1 did not intend his advice to be for public airing. It was just advice between friends, not for the good of the whole Tea Party. This posting has since been removed (thank goodness) from Tea Party sites, but the crux of the original text can still be found reposted elsewhere.
For those who don't want to read all about it, the advice that I was referring to in my original Facebook post included the comment "Do not use the Green line or the Yellow line."[on the Metro system].
Period. That is it. Just avoid the entirety of both lines altogether. That there is no safe time or place on them at all, which is of course, hogwash.
The absurdity of wholesale avoidance of two entire Metro lines, in a city that only sports 5 lines total, is extreme to say the least. Especially since many of the fine institutions (like the Archives where the Constitution resides) are located on the Yellow and Green lines, not to mention National Airport, the whole city of Alexandria, and the oh-so Vanilla 'burbs where I live, and the Yellow line terminates. Navy Yard, on the Green line, is where Nationals Ballpark is located and the origination of my trip home that evening at 11 pm. I was inspired to post my snarky comment as I watched a couple thousand other folks easily use our supposedly unsafe lines to get themselves home.
Now back to chucklehead #1's safety advice and my step father's inquiry about the safety of our Metro. Yes, to answer his question, I truly believe that our Metro system is one of the safest in the country. BUT, it is located in a big city. Anytime you are in a big city, doing anything, you should exercise a bit of caution, especially if you are unfamiliar with that city and the neighborhoods within it. Period. Not to the extreme of chucklehead #1's advice by avoiding large sections of the entire city or Metro system, but merely exercising caution, paying attention to those around you and asking advice from trusted locals. I would say that about our Metro, but I would also say it about any other place where you are not familiar with the environs, even my hometown of Bloomington, IN. Some blocks of a city or neighborhoods are just sketchy, especially when the sun goes down. Doesn't mean you should never go there. And crime isn't limited to only specific neighborhoods, on certain Metro lines, an example can be found in the tragic murder that happened in tony Bethesda's LuluLemon store. Crime happens everywhere, even in 'good' neighborhoods.
Anytime you get large crowds of people together, you should just keep a little more aware, and stay a little safer. Throw that caution to the wind and take the Metro home from the ball game. Don't avoid entire sections of a world class city, just because you are afraid of people who are different from you, or because some chucklehead, you never met, told you to be afraid.
Anyway - that was the joke in my FB status. Hope it doesn't start a hailstorm because it wasn't meant to do so. I just refuse to live my life in fear.
Cheers.
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