July 24, 2011
4. Newblog2011: 07/24/11 Afternoon shadow
From the notes I wrote on paper when I was out today, @1:35 p.m.:
Today, after I left Another Way in Montpelier, I went to a church that has a small park and sat down. I had sat here yesterday for a couple of hours. It has a statue and some benches, and it was nice yesterday to sit in one place for a while.
Today, as soon as I sat here, a Montpelier police car showed up and parked across the street, in full view. There were some scruffy-looking (not that I should talk) people, who might have been 15 to 20 years younger than I am, sitting on a porch across the street near where the police car parked. When they saw the police car, they all got up and decided to go to the laundromat closer to where I was sitting to see if their laundry was done. One of the men gave a loud, fake sneeze on their way past the park; they didn't have to walk past me at all, since where they were going was on the other side of the street from where I was.
It's true that there have been people who are young and also not famous who have been involved in harassing me. The point is that the United States has always been a sexist country. It's not that sexism was gone from our society a year and a half ago, but it had been getting better for a long time and now, after a massive campaign by the big harassers, I have never in my life seen the kinds of things that have been going on.
Also, I'll repeat this: where I've been for the past several months, even when I was in Waterbury, is still pretty much small town Vermont; small towns in a small, rural state.
After a few minutes, a second police car showed up and parked behind the first one. The first police officer got out of his car and talked to the second one for a while.
I took out my notebook and my pen and started writing about what was going on.
After about 10 minutes, the second police car went away.
The first police officer then took a clipboard out of his car and walked up the street in the opposite direction from where I was sitting. A few minutes later, he walked back to his car and drove away.
I didn't see them speak to anyone but each other or do anything that would indicate that they were doing anything other than stalking me.
Every once in a while, I think of a joke that isn't really my style but that seems funny to me. Some of the jokes that I think of make me uncomfortable and I feel as if I shouldn't say them, because they don't reflect my values and also because I'm not sure that other people's reactions won't turn into something that I'm completely sick of very quickly.
In any case, this is one of those times when I'm going to tell one of those jokes. It's about what happened earlier today with the Montpelier police:
I feel rather confused about all the police that were around today, and about how much I seem to have been getting stalked by police in the Barre-Montpelier area for several weeks. Hasn't it been more than a year that the big harassers and others who endorse the big harassers' agenda have been gossipmongering that I have too much fuzz?
Copyright L. Kochman July 24, 2011 @ 9:14 p.m.
4. Newblog2011: 07/24/11 Afternoon shadow
From the notes I wrote on paper when I was out today, @1:35 p.m.:
Today, after I left Another Way in Montpelier, I went to a church that has a small park and sat down. I had sat here yesterday for a couple of hours. It has a statue and some benches, and it was nice yesterday to sit in one place for a while.
Today, as soon as I sat here, a Montpelier police car showed up and parked across the street, in full view. There were some scruffy-looking (not that I should talk) people, who might have been 15 to 20 years younger than I am, sitting on a porch across the street near where the police car parked. When they saw the police car, they all got up and decided to go to the laundromat closer to where I was sitting to see if their laundry was done. One of the men gave a loud, fake sneeze on their way past the park; they didn't have to walk past me at all, since where they were going was on the other side of the street from where I was.
It's true that there have been people who are young and also not famous who have been involved in harassing me. The point is that the United States has always been a sexist country. It's not that sexism was gone from our society a year and a half ago, but it had been getting better for a long time and now, after a massive campaign by the big harassers, I have never in my life seen the kinds of things that have been going on.
Also, I'll repeat this: where I've been for the past several months, even when I was in Waterbury, is still pretty much small town Vermont; small towns in a small, rural state.
After a few minutes, a second police car showed up and parked behind the first one. The first police officer got out of his car and talked to the second one for a while.
I took out my notebook and my pen and started writing about what was going on.
After about 10 minutes, the second police car went away.
The first police officer then took a clipboard out of his car and walked up the street in the opposite direction from where I was sitting. A few minutes later, he walked back to his car and drove away.
I didn't see them speak to anyone but each other or do anything that would indicate that they were doing anything other than stalking me.
Every once in a while, I think of a joke that isn't really my style but that seems funny to me. Some of the jokes that I think of make me uncomfortable and I feel as if I shouldn't say them, because they don't reflect my values and also because I'm not sure that other people's reactions won't turn into something that I'm completely sick of very quickly.
In any case, this is one of those times when I'm going to tell one of those jokes. It's about what happened earlier today with the Montpelier police:
I feel rather confused about all the police that were around today, and about how much I seem to have been getting stalked by police in the Barre-Montpelier area for several weeks. Hasn't it been more than a year that the big harassers and others who endorse the big harassers' agenda have been gossipmongering that I have too much fuzz?
Copyright L. Kochman July 24, 2011 @ 9:14 p.m.