georgia on my mind

after an insanely long period of electronic isolation in atlanta, i have realized the true value of one's personal computer. i have also made a few other observations:

• politics does not make for good car conversation, especially when in the company of those who do not share your opinions
• in the south, highway traffic is patrolled by aircraft
• when holding a heat gun, do not put it to someone's head
  
• my friends are a rather conservative bunch
• a vanful of white suburban college students do not a hijacker's interest pique

all i could think of on the ride to atlanta (more than 12 hours, ayoyo) was 'shit, what did i get myself into' when my outrageous team mates start spouting bush-isms - 'yeah bush is the man' 'the republicans have a stranglehold on the white house for the next 10 years at least' 'i hate those liberals.' and it was as if i had seen what was coming. the next 5 days, it was a polarized camp with our host spewing things about starbuck's unfairly traded coffee to atlanta's homelessness problem. 'what he wants is republican tax rates with democratic policies' is what a hardcore republican boy said.
'hold your tongue, it's not your country' i told myself over and over again as secretly rolled my eyes.
but there was so much more to the trip. i've been to atlanta, the city that was burned to the ground during the civil war; the city made famous by gone with the wind and the olympics; the peach state. i had my fair share of warmer weather although no florida-like temperatures. i answered phonecalls for an advocacy and outreach center at one of three buildings that was not burnt by the fire, the central presbyterian church. i traversed the city delivering prepared food to homebound patients. i made cards for little toddlers at a women and children's shelter. i survived on ham and cheese sandwich lunches for 4 straight days. but i also left atlanta taking so much and leaving perhaps nothing but trash to be added to their already heaped mounds.
one of the issues we discussed during the trip was the effectiveness of short term trips to places with the pretext of helping but often hurting the community more than we benefit it. i don't think we hurt anyone during this trip but i felt inadequate, guilty sometimes, for what we were faced with - destitution, saying 'no', defining people by race. all in all, i did feel a lack in exposure from atlanta compared to camden last year. one thing i do know is that societal inefficiencies stem from structural malfunctions and although the problems can be alleviated through micro organizations that help individuals on a person to person basis, government policy is the most crucial and thorough engine of change.
but it was also a week i spent with friends 24/7, something i shun in college because of the person i've become. they talked about so many things and i listened because i didn't have anything to say or i felt they were petty and trivial issues. topics covered included: unisex living arrangements (one guy said he didn't want to know about women until he was married (by knowing, he meant what they did in the privacy of their rooms, their movements, although i don't think he articulated himself well, or he didn't think about what he was saying before he said it), time travel and aliens (the guy's girlfriend didn't know what IBM was but was one of the most vocal people in the group, always having a strong uninformed opinion about everything), salvation, and the social gospel.
on our last day there, one of the guy's mother calls and tells us that there was a murderer on the loose in the atlanta area. we had sketchy details but we knew that the murderer (at once terrifying to everyone because after all, he was a black male) was hijacking vehicles to make his getaway. we rationalized, telling ourselves, 'he wouldn't want a white 10 passenger vehicle, would he?' but all the while looking out the window for green hondas (his last reported hijacked vehicle). i was surprised to see that cnn and fox news covered the event extensively, showing it continuously throughout the night. i wonder why a story about a black male shooting a judge and two others, is more sensational than income and educational inequality in america, the core indicators of a just society.