We had spent our last night before heading home in Wheeling, West Virginia, and as we headed back home, we stopped at Cabela’s, a chain of the largest sporting goods stores in the country. Huge physical spaces, almost like Costco’s. And, for someone who thinks of Paragon as “sporting goods”, a place that has equipment or clothing for SPORTS - tennis or baseball or swimming or golf, I was quite struck by what I saw when I entered Cabela’s. None of THOSE sports, for sure. A kind of Disney meets The Museum of Natural History meets Stew Leonard’s meets Patagonia meets the NRA. Camping and fishing and hunting and hunting and hunting. Oh yeah, hunting, too. Exhibitions and dioramas and interactive exhibits and everything and anything you could (well, I could not) think of relating to the “outdoors” (I like to play sports outdoors...)…two floors, a café, helpful sales people and as we wound through the last part of the store we had not yet seen, more guns and rifles and bullets and knives and stuff to kill (animals/people?) with than one (I) could ever imagine. Behind the long counter, in the main part of this particular wing of Cabela’s was a well populated exhibit that would certainly make any museum proud. Filled with deer, a taxidermist’s heaven. Each one marked with a calligraphied sign that indicated the type of deer each one was, and when, and by whom, it had been “taken.” Not “killed.” Taken. There was something about this word that blew me away. Why not just come out and say what happened. Is that a word choice of “sport”? Certainly makes the whole concept appear more palatable, less jarring...and, I am sure, helps in the whole indoctrination of new, younger and better hunters…"I took that deer." Almost has a sexual connotation to it. Yanni had actually done some editing for a local NY-based rifle manufacturer a year ago…a nice family business. So we were all standing there gazing at the wares – from rifles to handguns to assault weapons, when a very friendly salesman, Greg – 44, stocky, moustache, matted down hair as if he just came back from the woods - asked us if we needed any assistance. Yanni asked about the make of rifle from the company he had worked for, and Greg assured us that they make very good rifles. “In fact,” said Greg, “that’s my birthday rifle. Got it for my birthday last year.” And then he proceeded to show us his “Christmas gun” and so on, until he moved down behind the counter, sharing with us the wonderful attributes of much smaller rifles, in different colors like pink and blue, for kids. From a mechanical design perspective, they were certainly noticeable with their long lines, and open handles, seemingly carved from a master. From a cultural perspective, I just stood there taking it in, feeling disconnected from my then reality. At one point I looked up and saw the section behind Greg filled with assault weapons – AK-47’s and their brethren and cousins and friends. Seeing one first hand made me understand more viscerally the power of these weapons, and the ways that they have been used, in this country, as real weapons of mass destruction. When one of us asked why one would use a weapon like that, Greg said that he has one…and, he uses it for “Plankin’”. Now, it was early, and I couldn’t really hear him well, and it surely sounded like something I had heard of before, although it didn’t make sense why one would need an assault weapon to have anything to do with boiled beef....even killing it…lots of people have killed a good pioece of meat - in the oven...but I asked, nonetheless. “Flanken?” No, he said. “Plankin’…shooting across a back yard into wood planks…target practice.” That’s all it''s for? “Well,” he added, “also in case they come and invade us.” I continued to the checkout counter and paid for a yellow shirt that was on sale for $5.80...down from $35.00...always the bargain hunter...and, there was an addeds store promotional discount (maybe because it was the Cabela brand of shirt) for an additionbal 20%...cost me less than the Burt's Bees lip block...
I didn’t even want to stay around and find out who is the "they" that Greg noted...feeling way more uneasy about some of the threats of within…and, this feels even more relevant this morning, reading about the Feds stymieing an alleged plot by two skinhead neo-Nazis to kill blacks students and go after Obama. The kind of news that so many have been thinking, fewer willing to voice…and, the reality of what we know is going on in the minds of too many. We asked, on our Tour, at least 50% of the kids about whether they think that racism has had a role in this election. Blacks and whites. And, the responses were always honestly felt, and most reflected that while it did not affect THEIR decision, they know that it has been a factor with so many, and how they have heard about people not voting for Obama because he is biracial. And, on the other hand, many young people, whites too, who believe that it would be the greatest of moments for this country to elect a Black man, to reflect back to the world where we have gone, how we have moved…even more than who Obama is, what he REPRESENTS for us at this critical time in the world…and, when friends email me and tell me that Obama has it in the bag, I get very direct with them about NEVER letting any complacency enter into this process…the notion that ANYONE might stay home and not vote because they think it’s a done deal…as Obama said recently, we all need to go forth with the passion and commitment as if he is 20 points behind in the polls…
Unrelated random word/phrase thought: “settling down”…as someone who thinks about the power of words, and what they convey, I have always been struck by the “settle” in settling down…I know that’s not what most people think of when they say they are settling down…probably more akin to placing down roots…and, to me, settling really doesn’t have an aspirational quality to it, nor would it be to most, I believe…“I settled for that” doesn’t make me want to jump on and scream “yay”, even more so when combined with another word that is the opposite of reaching UP…I wonder what the concept really means, what’s in people’s hearts when they feel that they are “settling down”…
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