I was outside, on my way to the juice shop. There are sawhorses all along 7th Avenue, it’s rather eerily empty … but then you look down the street, and you can see the madness 2 blocks away. Madison Square Garden, police sirens, throngs, crowds.
A random woman came up to me and said the following words:
“What’s going on down at Madison Square Garden?”
She may as well have been speaking Farsi. I stood, stunned, and then I admit it: I laughed in her face. I said, “Uh … well – it’s the Republican National Convention.” Like: WHERE the hell have you BEEN? How on earth can you not know about that?
She didn’t look like a tourist, but then again, she might have been. But … tourists of all people would probably be aware of what was “going on down at Madison Square Garden”.
She said, dimly, vaguely, “Oh, is that what’s going on?”
“Yes. That is what is happening down there this week.”
The mind boggles. How can one be that uninformed? I mean, I can understand not being up-to-the-minute informed on the Swift Boat thing (zzzzz), or other obsessive political topics – but … to not know the RNC was in town?
Wow.
Almost as sad: at work last week, in the presence of 7 co-workers, I made a half-joking reference to the governor of New Jersey and his recent “coming out” party…SIX of my co-workers had no clue what I was talking about.
How does one go through life not knowing WTF is going on around them?
You should have made something up, like “oh, the Pope is in town” or “a spontaneous riot broke out following the announcement of a Bee Gees reunion tour.”
Emily, I would have been part of that riot, if it were reality.
I can’t imagine being so ignorant as to what was going on around me.
Who are these “Republicans” of whom you speak? Your ways are strange to me.
Rioting would be useless. Once they decide to go on that reunion tour, nothing can be done to prevent it. Hopefully we can just ignore it.
what is a convention, anyway? and why is happening at madison sq. garden…i thought that was a place where sports and concerts happened. (not to say that the rnc is not both a sport AND a concert)
This is horrible, but not as bad as the five out of the eight protesters interviewed on Hannity who could not name the Vice-President or the protesters in front of Fox News Headquarters who didn’t know what they were protesting because their “leaders” hadn’t told them yet. They actually knew the RNC was in town, but they didn’t quite know why they were there.
Oh, I forget where I saw it but one protester was asked who he would be voting for and he said he was voting for Kearny.
Who would be surprised at the density of people hanging out outside Fox News?