Washington D.C. Part 2

[digitalruki]

Just got back from D.C.

Oh, so much to say! My heart is full of emotion. I miss my D.C. friends already. I didn't say goodbye to most of them. I did say goodbye to Katrina and Scott and Micheal and Brittany. I hugged them all and will wholeheartedly miss them. Yes, even those hopalong bitches.

I actually ended up spending a lot of my time with them. Because Vera spends all her time with them, and I spend a lot of my time with Vera. I'd like to respond to my own previous post by saying that I actually ended up enjoying most of my remaining time with them. 

Chris and I talked about Wolfgang Tillmans. We both think his show was awesome. I connected with Chris on an artistic level.
Micheal wore a frilly green shirt. I found out he's gay, something I didn't pick up on in Miami. We argued about Superman and the Matrix. I think I held my own pretty well. Either that or he's just nice. He told Bush he'd give him a kiss if he'd let him marry a man. 
Pheobe was always nice to me and talked to me and looked me straight in the eyes. Her poetry was so beautiful I almost cried. She's actually a playwright.
Vera danced. She's gotten into the hapit of blaming all her strange behavior on sexual repression. I like that she's angry about being a virgin and yet she still succeeds at being sophisticated, serene, and all-around lovely.
Katrina (jazz singer), Jeff (base player), Sara (musical theatre), and several others camped out in the stairwell and did some a capella jazz improv. Katrina's voice is like chocolate. Jazz is beautiful.
Duncan geeked out about guitars and we sand ultimate showdown. I keep thinking of songs I wanted to ask if he knew. He and Pheobe had some kind of romantic thing going, but it was very obscure.
Helen, and Oregon friend, I regret not saying thank you to for hanging out with me when I was so fed up with the art crowd. She was really nice and a good sport and we had fun. Jeffy and Sarah and the others too. I'm going tp post pictures of sirty boggle games on their pages and it will be beautiful like the night we spent and hour laughing about 'nobreastsex' and 'penisex'. I'm also thankful to Katerina and Lu for letting us do that in their room. Thanks Min for dancing with me. Thanks Bret for playing tic-tac-toe with me.
Charles was indeed avoiding me. Mr. Grandusky told me that he had a feeling Charles liked me. I'll abmit I got my hopes up. maybe he sensed it. He seems to have taken a liking for a nice girl on our bus. They were inseperable. They come sit near the arts scholars occasionally, and we ignore them and they walk away. 
Those petition girls, I hope the very best for them. They are really great people. I'm just in awe of them. Mostly because they know all the words to "white and nerdy".
Scott's laugh might be the only reason I tolerate him. But one reason's enough, right? My opinion of him changed two nights ago, after the president petition fiasco*. He hugged me goodbye this morning. He was the only one up. He mumbled something like "I like your backpack" (?). but I'll take it. Because even though I give him a lot of crap I'm going to miss him.

We didn't want to sleep on our last night. I spent almost the whole night with the arts scholars and had a really good time. We had pizza and sat on the roof listening to Scott's music (and I had no problem with this, which was progress). Jay wanted to get drunk, but we couldn't leave the building and none of the advisors were going to bring us alcohol. Instead, we waited until sleep deprivation would kick in and simulate drunken stupor. 

I noticed that the others were going wild, laughing loudly, saying silly things, having fun and relaxing. They seemed less concious than me. I was tired but I still couldn't just let myself go. I couldn't laugh loudly because I have an annoying half-laugh. I coul;dn't speak up and act silly because I'm not that funny. I had only just begun to feel like I was part of their group but I was still afraid they would hate me. I had a good time anyway but I would have liked to laugh out loud once. Things that make me laugh out loud are 
people falling on their faces,
people being suprised/scared by things popping out of them
and other generally physical things.

And it probably would have been fine if I had just let go! I'm just a dispicable coward. I'm so weak when I want to be accepted. I hate that vulnerability.

On a lighter note, here's my ultimate favorite part about being a 2007 scholar. I signed

 

Yesterday, President George Bush thought he was going to a typical White House East Room photo op with this year's Presidential Scholars after which he planned to give a rah-rah speech in favor of the renewal of No Child Left Behind. Little did he know that the Scholars had a little surprise prepared for him. Prior to entering the room, they handed him a letter signed by 50 of their number asking that he treat the detainees in Guantanamo Bay humanely. Can you say courageous? The President was caught off guard, but he read the letter and guaranteed the young people that the United States does not mistreat its prisoners. (!) With video.

In a world where many adults think it's just fine to poke fun at teenagers or rake them over the coals for being stupid, lazy and mercenary, it feels good to report that those silly adults have got it all wrong. As we News Hounds have learned in the past few weeks, high school students bravely and successfully faced down the vicious and bombastic Bill O'Reilly. And now they have exercised their rights as Americans to personally address their President.

We want to applaud these young people for having the guts to do what the adults who surround the President have been unwilling or unable to do for the past six years, i.e., tell him the truth to his face.

Here are the official White House photos of some of these high school heroes whom we view as the hope of the ffuture. Click this link to see photos of the students..

In his remarks the President said "... This is a program that honors high school seniors for exceptional academic and artistic achievements. Past winners have gone on to win the Pulitzer Prize, succeed at the highest levels of business, work here at the White House. This afternoon we honor a new class of promising young men and women. Your fellow scholars have pursued groundbreaking research, written scholarly papers, and performed at Carnegie Hall. Many of you have also reached out to those in need, and have given your time for causes greater than any individual need. And for that we thank you.

 

They also demonstrated that they have what it takes to speak truth to power!

Anderson Cooper covered this story on his show (video below).

So far, FOX News has ignored it. Surprise, surprise!

that was *handed* to the President this week. full story from newshound.com.

Here are the comments for a giggle. the guys debating in the comment thread really mirror the exact debate we ourselves had that night. Ask me in person for details, I'm not really willing to divulge online. 

"Imagine . . . .students going to the White House and having the brass to not act like trained seals."

*That night after we got back from the fucking AMAZING performance

and after party (chibi I <3 you!) we were ushed into a meeting room were we had a discussion about the petition. It was causing a lot of ruckus among the Scholars Program. Sponsers were threatenign to drop us and our director's job was on the line. The advisors refereed while the scholars debated the issue. I'll admit that the academics scholars speak well but they like to hear themselves talk too much. The same pointless arguements were made over and pver, for two hours. The whole time Scott had his hand up, but they didn't call on him until the very end.

He said he didn't want to speak for anyone else, but he was proud to be participating in such a controversial event and he was glad that this was causing such a ruckus, because it was the most exciting thing that had happened to him all week. I cheered. Because it was what a lot of us were thinking. And I was suprised he was being so enthusiastic about the situation. I had judged that he and the rest of those artfags would just piss and moan about being stuck there, complain about the idiocy of the other scholars, and make fun to the situation in general. In that moment I think I stopped hating him. i saw him and Chris and Asher and Micheal in a more human light and was proud to be an art scholar with them.