Vacation post no. 1

Took a drive to the coast, by myself, which I've been told I should be proud of,because most people don't like to spend so much time by themselves. I don't mind. I sat on a rock and watched the beach for a while, ate some fish and chips, walked the pier, sat in a cafe and read. It was nice.

On the drive: Saw a deer who thought about coming on to the road, then saw my roaring automobile and spooked himself to safety. Then, saw another three to so deer awhile later. Saw a group of buzzards eating a dead skunk. I couldn't really tell it was a snunk from the look of it, but the smell was there. Curvey roads are nice in a sporty little car. Misty morning are nice coming down toward the coast.

At the beach: Watched some dudes surf. I was taken by how quiet they were. There was a group of them, like five or so, and they were all friends, I'd guess, but they didn't really say anything, just floated there waiting for the waves. People talk about surfing like Zen and it sort of felt like that watching them. Somehow
they knew when a good wave was coming. Odd.

***

Been staying up late watching TV, which is stupid what with the writer's strike and the fact I don't have cable. I don't even have a set of workable rabbit ears. But I do get PBS. Watched this great documentary on Ralph Nader. I won't say Nader is the coolest guy ever because I don't know enough about him to make that judgment call, but this documentary pointed out what I see as some big flaws in our voting system. Nader runs in 2000, and while being excluded from really participating in the process (no televised debates for him) he gets blamed for costing Al Gore the election. The thing is, they seemed so angry about it. Like pissed off to the point of calling Nader the devil. There was this great footage of Michael Moore in 2000 totally praising Nader, calling for everyone to get together and stand up for what they believe is right. Then cut to 2004 and Moore telling a crowd that Nader needs to leave the country alone and that you shouldn't vote for Nader, even if in your heart you know it's the right thing to do. Essentially he was saying you can't vote for the candidate you think would best respresent you. You have to vote for the one that have the possibility of winning. The worse of two evils.

I think this hits home for the 2008 election as well. Because I don't think there's a major party candidate that I would vote for. Maybe Ron Paul (even with the anti-abortion, anti-gay stuff), but he won't be the Republican candidate. So that sort of takes me out of the equation as a voter, right? And this all plays back into the question of how do we become better citizens, blah, blah. I think it starts locally and builds from there, but I don't know. Or with our money. Vote with your dollars and all that. I don't know.