Five Hours From Five Points...

(Trivia: The singer was in Nine Inch Nails and his brother played Johnny Cash's Father in 'Walk the Line' who was also the villain in Terminator 2. Weird!!)

I’m 34,000 feet above the heart of America and we’re all about to die (LOL from Almost Famous). Seriously though, I am stuck on a 5 hour flight from Atlanta to Sactown. The interesting thing is that it is clear the whole way. The plane flew across Alabama and then up to Memphis. I am guessing we are somewhere over Nebraska now. What is interesting though is that every Podunk town is well lit as far as the eye can see because it is so clear. You can see every high school football stadium that is lit up. A little tiny patch of green grass with stadium lights around it.

What to do for five hours? Well, I am tired of work. I’m tired of crunching numbers and glazing over on spreadsheets. I have 62% battery life on my T-60. A full charge on my iPod so I guess I am set.

They are playing some stupid chick movie on the flight called, “Evening”. You know it is a chick flick when you see Meryl Streep and Glenn Close in the credits. I haven’t been listening to the movie at all but I occasionally look up. My iPod seems to sync to certain scenes. It was real funny when “Welcome to the Fold” by Filter played on my iPod during a dinner scene. Funny to watch the words actually sync up to movie.

I was puzzled by the Five Points station in Atlanta. See, Atlanta is a fucked up town for transportation. I have no idea how they did the Olympics. I was in the Olympic area in one of the venue areas for a three day show. And it was freaking impossible to get too. Our hotel was six blocks away. You’d think we could walk but no way. It was six long blocks and you had to cross this area of downtown called Five Points. Also what was weird, a cab charged a flat fee to the airport of $30. I paid that on the way in but this time I figured I’d take the public transit system called MARTA which runs a train from downtown to the airport for a buck seventy five.

Public transit in Atlanta is a freaking culture shock for my white, honky ass. Holy shit!!. I didn’t have a fear of getting jumped or anything. (I just noticed the clock, 6:42—3 hours more!!!) No I didn’t fear for my safety. There were a few of us crackers on the train. A few that maybe I could count on my hand; minus my thumb and forefinger. I was born in the Bay Area and I lived near San Francisco. I was the token white guy on the school bus amongst Filipinos. I had been in a highly diverse, er um reverse situation like this before. I just hadn’t like this. The train was full. I was afraid to take a seat so I just stood holding my suitcase and computer bag like a dick for 20 minutes.

The real interesting thing that occurred was at the airport. Once I left the train station and walked into the terminal. I noticed anyone and everyone, including this flight back to Sacramento; we’re all white, except for the Indian guy with his two kids. I guess what shocks me the most is that is where our diversity in this world ends. Atlanta is a pretty clean town for the most part. The trains were very well taken care except for where the wash brushes missed the windows on the side where each car connected but that’s me, I notice inferior vehicle washing and I love to digress. I was kind of sad though because you can really tell that white America has repressed the black population so much in the past that it never really changed. A $1.75 train ride is quite a bit different than a $440 plane flight. How will we ever change in this country?

Did I write my first Liberal Post???