I forgot your question.
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I was on my way to a weeklong canoe trip (so dressed accordingly). I was fortunate and bumped to first class. This was when I lived in DC and knew I had been seated next to someone important because people from coach kept coming up to give him books and ask him questions. Also lots of coach bound media.
About halfway through the flight I notice him start to panic. He’s looking everywhere around his seat, getting on his knees in the aisle to look under his seat. Turns out he lost his blackberry. Pretty soon they’re making announcements over the loud speaker and all his hanger-ons are on their hands and knees looking for the blackberry too. I’ve gathered by now the guy is some sort of Republican bigwig based on comments made to him and that this is a VERY important blackberry.
I volunteer to let him look around my seat but am getting nervous because I am unshaven and in a pirate teeshirt so thinking I might be suspected of being some sort of proto-antifa mole.
This all goes on for a while until we finally land. When we’re preparing to leave I reached into the crevice between our seats and, sure enough, find the blackberry. He is ecstatic and a roar of applause literally erupts from the peanut gallery.
As Im headed out of the airport I’m followed out by a few reporters who tell me the guy was Ken Mehlman, the head of the RNC at the time. It was a presidential election year.
I feel like that was my moment to alter the course of history and I blew it.
Tomorrow is Barves spirit day at school, and I will of course be trolling. Current frontrunner shirt choices are NASA (because Houston) and Jetsons (because Astro). Also considering just jarring, head-to-toe black.
Any other suggestions?
Yes, exactly.
Long story short(ish):
About a month after the conclusion of the 2013 season, the Barves announced the consummation of a backroom deal that would move them out of the city of Atlanta and into Cobb County. They proclaimed that it would move them closer to their ticket-buying fanbase and alleviate the difficulties of getting to Turner Field (the stadium they played in for two decades following the 1996 Olympics, a building that Atlanta got literally for free), owing to the fact that traffic sucks and public transit in Atlanta is underdeveloped.
Nevermind that one of the main reasons Atlanta's transit infrastructure is underdeveloped is because of 6 decades of obstructionist white flight politics centered directly in Cobb County. In the ensuing years, the Barves and their hypocritical politician partners (the ones who are adamantly opposed to "government handouts," but who managed to find half a billion dollars in tax revenue to help buy a new stadium while simultaneously furloughing teachers) then made it abundantly clear that this was about prioritizing certain parts of the fanbase and certain elements of the Atlanta region's populace:
Just this week, the team amplified the 8 years of dog-whistles by inviting Cobb County native Travis Tritt to sing the national anthem just a few days after he made headlines by canceling all of his tour dates in areas with vaccine mandates of any kind.Quote:
It is absolutely necessary the (transportation) solution is all about moving cars in and around Cobb and surrounding counties from our north and east where most Braves fans travel from, and not moving people into Cobb by rail from Atlanta.
--Joe Dendy, Cobb County Republican Party chairman, November 2013
The Barves can burn in hell.
I hate this. I hated it when it happened and I hate it more now. I think they abandoned the city and I think they did it in a manner that promotes some structural racism. As someone who thinks and cares about inequity in society their move was dishonorable. Everyone has to decide what a bridge too far is for them. And you made your stand and I respect the hell out of it. I have a few of these as well. There are artists whose music I will not listen to because they are such reprehensible people. I'm not sure if I lived in Atlanta how I would have responded. Because it would certainly mean something different to me if I lived there. I'm not in love my relationship with the team. I broke with the Mets in my early teens and with the Cowboys after college. Politically I was never a straight ticket voter until about 2015. People can probably figure this part out. My point is I respect the hell out of your decision. And there are parts of the team that trouble me deeply. But there are parts of sports that trouble me deeply on the grander scale. I can't enjoy boxing and I have never watched a UFC event because winning can frequently mean causing a concussion. And we know the ramifications. Football has been deemphasized in my life, but I still watch it and feel a bit slimy sometimes when I do. Hell, I went to Carolina and both love and respect the University and their educational mission while thinking that the academic Scandal was horrible and that the University abrogated its responsibility to hold itself accountable by trying and succeeding in skirting NCAA ramifications. Institutions should act in an honorable Manner and self police. The university failed to do that and I am embarrassed. To close this book report, the United States is a vast and varied land.