Serious questions about Follow(ing) the North Star
"Follow the North Star" was the title of a movie about the Underground Railroad which I saw at such a young age that I thought it was, well, an underground railroad.
In my defense, although the nearest municipal transit subway was Montreal (and to me, Cape Breton-to-Montreal was, for many years, calibration for the mental "journey of a thousand miles," despite being somewhat less, according to GoogleMaps this morning) I was raised on tales of Draegermen who pulled coal miners out through smoke and flames to blessed fresh air and sunlight. Underground railroads, albeit narrow gauge and primarily for hauling coal, often figured in such tales of terror. So I figured they'd built a railroad underground to help escaped slaves get to British North America. Seemed legit. Draegermen were better than Superman, what with really existing, and were certainly nice enough guys that they'd have helped out the escaped slaves. But I digress.
Whenever I read FaceBook stuff by my Friends in the States, about how things are going to right-wing hell in ever-larger handbaskets, it's my Stock Comment. Follow the North Star.
Serious question: Is this entirely (or even remotely) fair of me? Should I just be telling you to move up to Canada like the draft-dodgers and deserters of the generation who came of age during that Vietnam thing? Of course I'm not without an agenda: smart people who don't support right-wing political movements moving to Canada is a good thing for Canada, and by extension for me. Or do I just come off snotty and smug, with my essentially-free healthcare and abortion and year of paid maternity leave?
Less serious question: In this age of GPS and compass on every iPhone, can you even find the North Star? How long would it take you on a cloudless moonless night without interfering light? Do you make a habit of it when you're out, like spotting the emergency exits in movie theatres? Is this something everybody does, or nobody does?
In my defense, although the nearest municipal transit subway was Montreal (and to me, Cape Breton-to-Montreal was, for many years, calibration for the mental "journey of a thousand miles," despite being somewhat less, according to GoogleMaps this morning) I was raised on tales of Draegermen who pulled coal miners out through smoke and flames to blessed fresh air and sunlight. Underground railroads, albeit narrow gauge and primarily for hauling coal, often figured in such tales of terror. So I figured they'd built a railroad underground to help escaped slaves get to British North America. Seemed legit. Draegermen were better than Superman, what with really existing, and were certainly nice enough guys that they'd have helped out the escaped slaves. But I digress.
Whenever I read FaceBook stuff by my Friends in the States, about how things are going to right-wing hell in ever-larger handbaskets, it's my Stock Comment. Follow the North Star.
Serious question: Is this entirely (or even remotely) fair of me? Should I just be telling you to move up to Canada like the draft-dodgers and deserters of the generation who came of age during that Vietnam thing? Of course I'm not without an agenda: smart people who don't support right-wing political movements moving to Canada is a good thing for Canada, and by extension for me. Or do I just come off snotty and smug, with my essentially-free healthcare and abortion and year of paid maternity leave?
Less serious question: In this age of GPS and compass on every iPhone, can you even find the North Star? How long would it take you on a cloudless moonless night without interfering light? Do you make a habit of it when you're out, like spotting the emergency exits in movie theatres? Is this something everybody does, or nobody does?