Chez StanMinn Communiqués: Nation's Capital

Today SCOTUS hears oral arguments regarding marriage equality.
Finally.
I'm glad the highest court in the land has deemed to do the right thing by cementing civil rights where it should always have been, rather than leave such an important matter up to bigoted meatheads running rampant and scared throughout our great country, leaving a hateful and bloody legacy in their ruinous wake.
That the Notorious R.B.G. has been so vocal with her support has the awful people calling for her to recuse, but that won't happen: rightfully.
Were that the case, many more on the high bench should have removed themselves during important rulings- looking you at you, Thomas, you sick fuck.
Of course I worry that the tilted court will fail in this monumental task, but hope truth and justice prevail.
It's a topic I'm especially passionate about- can you tell?

Not too far away, Baltimore continues to cope with the fall out its murderous police force has caused.
Much anger, frustration and oppression has boiled onto the streets causing great distress to the city and its inhabitants.
Another death, another protest.
It must stop so we can move forward as a civil and decent society.
My feelings are strong on these matters, but scrambled up, so instead of trying to make more sense of them this morning, I'll let events play out and believe in the good we are capable of as conscientious and compassionate humans.

(In other happier news, the NFL draft is in 2 days and most of us here in Oregon are on pins and needles wondering which hellscape our precious Marcus Mariota ends up. He's chosen wisely to watch the whole Chicago circus from the safe confines of his Hawaiian home surrounded by loved one. See the entry about me being coo-coo for football.)

The timing of these is remarkable in that I WAS JUST THERE!
And below is the continuation of an entry I drafted upon returning last month.
I got hung up on the photos, choosing which ones of the 100s to post.
But I'm going to go ahead with what I have and then return to add and tidy up.
History waits for no one.

*One stop on last year's Big Digit Travel Tour was Cincinnati over Memorial Day Weekend, where all my siblings and their families met up with our parents for a mini-reunion.
Around my sister's patio table, it came to light that for the first time in ever, all their various Spring Breaks coincided.
We decided to make the most of this by joining Brother Judge as he continued planning for another educational vacation, this time in Washington DC.
Pretty easy for most of the group as they could drive in a reasonable amount of time.
WI faction flew a short distance to the destination; only I had the furthest to travel.
Across the damn country, in fact.
But no worries- I'm an old pro and the pay-off was going to be sweet.
Because I live so far away, I don't get to see my people as much as I'd like, taking time away from The Redneck Shire is always appealing and revisiting our nation's capitol in decades (and well after 9/11) would be interesting.
Our immediate family had made this same trip back in 1977, then I'd returned a few more times for Pro-Choice rallies.
Something I hadn't counted on was the exhaustive walking, and by default, great foot pain.
My feet are flat and I've yet to find optimal shoes that aren't hideous to cushion my poor peds.
Despite gearing up with lots of treadmill training, I was well and sore at day's end.
Otherwise, I'm in fairly good shape.
My liver also took a beating since there's a good deal of partying with this group, too.
By flying into Baltimore and out of Dulles, the fare was dramatically reduced.
This was fine by me since I could bop around that city I'd never been to and check it out for the day before hopping the short train down to the city and meet up with everyone else.
And it all went according to plan.
The only sad part of my trip was that ZDog wasn't there to see me off and back from the airport.
She always was very good at acting happy to have me home again.
The (many) photos below are from that week which went by in a flash.
So many months of anticipation are here and gone in a moment.
But fortunately they are well documented.
Brother says after 3 straight years of co-ordinating learning trips, it's likely 2016 will be more relaxing, say exotic beach side?
I sure do like the sound of that.