Stupid Earlham Hippies

This is what's bothering me at the moment. On Saturday, a group of protestors took a break from a lawful, if noisy, protest to deface the Indiana State Capitol building. They were protesting against the proposed extension of I-69, a road that will provide a more direct route from Indianapolis to Evansville (in the southwest corner of the state) and be part of one of the Canada to Mexico NAFTA interstates. So, there are environmental concerns and there are anti-NAFTA globalization concerns, all of which are quite valid.

It's the method that these protestors used that I am really, really upset about. And its especially troubling given the target. I love the Statehouse. My mom worked there for over 30 years, I've worked there myself for two summers (now working on #3), we had a huge memorial service for my mom in the vast south atrium, and I've never wanted to get married anywhere else. I have so many memories of that building that are seperate from me thinking that it is the most beautiful building in the entire world. Even the Palace of Westminster and all the amazing European churchs get (unfavorably) compared to the Indiana Statehouse. And now someone has defaced it.

What makes it worse is that I actually know some of the people who took part. The Indianapolis Star published a convenient list of everyone who was arrested for their role in the vandalism. (To be fair, my immediate reaction upon seeing the news item on tv was, "I bet Hugh was there.") I identified three people immediately as current Earlham students or alumni and a search of WebDB this morning revealed that of the 24 arrested, 6 are current students of my alma mater (including Hugh, of course, who I also went to high school with) and I'm pretty sure that at least one more is an alum. One of the "current" students was none other than Josh Medlin, the "pie guy" who has previously starred in the anals of law enforcement as the guy who threw the pie at William Kristol.

Anyway, that's my thing today.

In other news, the Tony Awards were very exciting, other than a West Side Story duet between Aretha Franklin and Hugh Jackman. I put that on mute. At lunch I purchased the CDs for Light in the Piazza and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (plus the oldest Great Big Sea CD, because I didn't have it). And then I missed living in London and going to the National all over again. But, cheer up, because I'll be back in London soon! Yay!