Dispatch #2
hometown pride, bad thoughts, a good work of art
Happy pride, pals! I hope you’ll keep the reason for the season front and center in all your festivities: an end to prisons, pigs, and all occupying forces that seek to subjugate the natural world for the sake of capital and imperialism. Hope you’re doing well wherever you might be.
In Pittsburgh, we’re only now beginning to glimpse summer. Highs in the mid-seventies in June is something I’ll never complain about, however Stevie and I did regret packing up our winter clothes in April. Next year I’ll take Punxsutawney Phil more seriously.
I’ve recently returned from a week in SC. (Breeze Airways has direct flights between GSP and PIT, come on up y’all!) Visiting is tough because there are so many of y’all I wanna see, but not nearly enough time. I checked all my boxes for terrible food we don’t have up here: Groucho’s, Waffle House, Bojangles, San Jose. Got to visit three of my favorite Columbia haunts: Bourbon, the Art Bar, the War Mouth. Stayed up past my bedtime every night, and I’m just finally closing the gap on my sleep deficit.
My South Carolina hot take is that I deeply believe in the supremacy of Columbia over any other SC city. If you doubt this, I can build you an itinerary to prove it. Part of why I like Pittsburgh so dang much is that the rivers, bridges, and grittiness remind me of home… without being home. Anyways, here’s a little dispatch from the trenches of budget flights, pull out couches, and my hometown nostalgia.
15 Hours of Democracy: Two days before I flew down to SC, I decided to serve as a poll worker in Pittsburgh primary election. I signed up for this way back when I thought I’d likely be unemployed due to recent layoffs. It wasn’t much money ($150 for a 6am-9pm shift), but growing up poor has convinced me that some money is better than no money, all other things being equal. I was the youngest poll worker in my ward by probably three decades. The experience truly did not inspire confidence in our electoral systems; it reminded me of why I’ve always hated group projects, and while now — as an adult who claims to be some sort of anarchist — I do still fantasize a little about Plato’s philosopher king rising to power and fixing all this mess. Against my better judgement, I will probably work future elections. The Pros: I enjoyed meeting my neighbors; it was a good excuse to drink bad coffee and eat pastries for 15 hours straight. The Cons: there were some unintentionally inhumane moments where other poll workers clearly misgendered/dead-named folks based off of their recorded name, or were unnecessarily flustered by folks who didn’t have proper ID or didn’t speak English, so I tried to offer a friendly, affirming check-in experience at my own booth. If you’ve never worked an election and you have a heart, I recommend it!
Cutting Losses: Pittsburgh’s incumbent (supposedly progressive?) mayor lost to a (supposedly centrist?) democrat in the primary. I’m bummed anytime someone in the pocket of developers wins an election, but I must say: I appreciate an electorate who will scrap an incumbent. I’ve heard from locals that Yinzers are quick to fire a politician. And while I have little hope that O’Connor will be a force for good, and I didn’t vote for him myself, I do respect the hell out of voters who don’t reward rulers who don’t deliver. It’s a good impulse: ripe for radicalization, organizing, coalition building. I prefer a people who are pissed over a people who lower their expectations.
On Reading Bad Books: Okay, if I haven’t already pissed you off by slandering democracy and esteeming electoral upsets, let me go for the jugular by quoting Ayn Rand. In her 1974 address to the graduating class of West Point she made sense for a brief moment, and issued a statement I came to love when I was a little undergrad philosophy major: “Now you may ask: If philosophy can be that evil, why should one study it? Particularly, why should one study the philosophical theories which are blatantly false, make no sense, and bear no relation to real life? My answer is: In self-protection—and in defense of truth, justice, freedom, and any value you ever held or may ever hold.” My since-absent father used to play the movie Starship Troopers all the time when I was little (I can only assume he didn’t interpret it as satire). Walking Billie Goat, I found a copy of the wildly jingoistic (and not at all satirical!) sci-fi novel by Robert A. Heinlein in a little free library. Apparently, it has been listed as recommended reading for the Marine Corps and US Navy. I’m reading it now — it is proving to be both quick and disturbing. All this to say: it is imperative for all of us to stay sharp in this age of disinformation, AI tricks, and propaganda. We are all charged with flexing our muscles of discernment, testing our ability to read the world. Sometimes, for me, that means reading stuff I hate. How are you staying sharp, for yourself, for your comrades, for the future?
On Reading a Wonderful Short Story: My friend Patrick wrote something incredible entitled “Pigboy and His Artificial Jesus.” It reads at times like Mary the Mother of God’s Magnificat, with a prophetic Christ-hauntedness projected into the age of techno-fuedalism. It receives my highest praise; go read it now. Pigboy made my dry bones ache for a future where capitalism and her demons are dealt their final blow, a future where jubilee reigns. Let it be so.
Thanks for reading this far! As a special treat, here’s the playlist Stevie and I created for our first cookout of the season. Shuffle, put the hotdogs on the grill, crack a cold one, remember that life on this beautiful planet is still worth living — even if it takes a bit of a buzz and one eye squinted to see it that way. Keep chugging.
