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She's a Conservative friend of mine, but more of an Independant or perhaps Libertarian one. The evacuees are being housed in one of our State Fair buildings, which is by her house, so she went over. She was thinking of asking them what her church could do, and also ended up directing traffic as the evacuees were processed and grabbed their toiletries and food that was laid out.
Because I'd been dealing with freepers all week, when she said that the first thing out of some of the people's mouths was "Is this all for us?" I asked if most of them seemed to be poor.
She just about took my head off. "WHO CARES!? WHAT DOES IT MATTER?!"
I almost walked away from her just then, until she made it clear she'd been dealing with the same prejudices that I had all week. It didn't matter to her who they were or what they'd had before. They have nothing now.
She said some of the folks tried to pay for the toiletries and for the place to sleep. Some were too mad, and wouldn't have anything to do with anybody. Some of them after a day or two had already started looking for work here in Wisconsin. They are free to come and go as long as they have their id. They only need it really to prove that they are staying at the State Fair so they can get back in.
My friend is putting together a map of the area churches for those who might want to go to them, and has thought about putting up an evacuee or two in her spare bedroom. The only monkey wrench in that plan has been her sister-in-law, who claims to be a Christian, who asked how much the evacuees could pay for the room. Mind you, the people aren't staying in sister-in-law's half of the duplex, but still that was the first thing she thought of.
Actually, my friend is a Christian too, but I consider her more authentic. She says that this is "make or break time" for Christians to put their actions and their money where their mouth is.
I give her credit.
It was telling though, when she finally apologized for blowing up at me for the question I'd asked, that she said I had suddenly "sounded like a Conservative." Sounds like her own folks are getting on her nerves.
But still, you can tell that she herself is still conservative by where she places the blame. She still thinks there was more that the local authorities could have done. I don't disagree, but I also put more blame on Chimp boy than she does. She thinks Bush is not really a bad man, just not terribly bright. And she voted for him.
But she campaigned against Reagan as if her life depended on it back in the day. So she confuses me. She keeps saying that she doesn't really care about politics now. When she was in college, she thought Reagan was going to get us all blown to bits, and it never happened. She doesn't think any politician is worth much. She almost went Libertarian or somesuch (maybe Constitution) until the "Mary Cheney" comment threw her into Bush's arms.
She still thinks Bush is a Christian. But she does agree that if he turns out not to have been one after claiming thus, he's pretty much scum, and from a Christian point of view, eternal toast, at that point.
So, I think of her as a decent person who needs to wake the fuck up. So far I've not had much luck in that regard. Maybe she'll do it on her own.
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