It's been a busy weekend for me, and I thought I would relate a couple of experiences that deal with our current authoritarian zeitgeist.
I teach at a small college in rural Georgia. We obtained a grant from NASA a couple of yeers ago. One of the things this grant allows us to do is to take trips to various NASA sites and exhibits. This weekend, we took a busload of elementary and high school children from local and neighboring county schools down to the Kennedy Space Center. More on this in a bit.
Meanwhile, our college's Choral Director had planned a trip back home to see his folks. He had recently become a cat owner, so he asked me if I could catsit his kitten while he was away. I have two cats myself, so you could say I have a little feline experience. I agreed to board his cat as well, although I did let him know I would be abandoning them this weekend. I managed to persuade him that they wouldn't all starve to death or tear each other to pieces while I was away, so he dropped off his cat with me. The agreement was that I would call him on Sunday when the bus got back, and he would pick up his cat that night.
Now, here is where the story becomes topical. I received a call on Saturday from the director of our music program. Our Choral Director is Canadian. You can see where this is going already, can't you? Yeah, his one week trip back home had turned into an extended visit, thanks to the Border Patrol. So, I've got an extra cat, and our college is lacking a Choral Director. We're all hoping that we'll get the paperwork straightened out so he can return to us.
I believe I indicated I would have more to say about the Kennedy Space Center, didn't I?
So, we filed off the bus at 9:30, and started gathering at the exit after 4:00. We had a group of nearly 30 kids of various ages, and a little over half that many parents and relatives. In order to make sure that we had the whole group, we had them line up at the exit so we could check off names as they went through the turnstiles. There is a row of four turnstiles at the exit, and we were only using one. Also, most of us were wearing T-shirts, which we had handed out that morning, which had our college logo and the Space Center logo.
Nevertheless, several other groups of people who were leaving the Space Center got in line behind our group. There were three other turnstiles to walk through. It was curious to see the expression of confusion on people's faces. One can imagine the thought process: "Oh, there's a line. Do we have to line up too? Well, let's step in line while we figure this out." Our biology instructor was at the head of the line, checking off names. It's amazing how much unintentional authority an older woman with a clipboard can wield over complete strangers.