My Family!!

My Family!!

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

You Have Now Entered the Twilight Zone

This past Sunday I was returning home from a meeting with my American Sign Language class partner. I  was driving through downtown, one of the largest cities in my state, and noticed something very strange. There were absolutely no cars. I was heading East bound, and there were four cars heading the same way, however, there were none heading West bound towards down town. Not a single one! It was Sunday, and I know traffic is usually slower, but this was very eerie. I became all to aware of my surroundings, and I started to wonder if there had been some evacuation I was unaware of.

I decided to call Foster, because if anyone would have first knowledge of an imminent attack on downtown, it would be him since his job entails responding to such incidences. He would not answer his phone. I felt like I was in an episode of the Twilight Zone. As I got further away from downtown, I noticed police stationed at every exit of the highway, as if they knew something I didn't and I was about to be caught in the middle of a catastrophe.

Then I saw it, a group of cars heading my way, in the lead was a black SUV with flashing blue lights. All the sudden it dawned on me. The world was not coming to an end,  my boss was visiting. Following the SUV were three stretch limos with the American flag on the hoods. That's right, the BIG boss was in town. Obama had once again shut down the ENTIRE city upon his arrival.

Most people would think this was pretty cool, but with this being his fourth visit in a matter of six months, I was a little annoyed. Has the President ever come to your town? If so, you know what happens. All air traffic is halted, every street on the route to his destination is shut down, and every policeman in town is providing live road blocks. If you have anywhere you have to be, good luck! Your flights are delayed, your commute is interrupted, and it is prime time for crime! The last two times he has visited, I have been stuck in stopped traffic for almost two hours. This time I miraculously avoided the traffic, heck, I had the whole side of the highway to myself, but the thousands of cars that were backed up for miles off of the highway were not as lucky. Heaven forbid I had to be at work or class, I would have been up a creek without a paddle. I would have been furious, and if Obama had any chance of getting my vote in 2012, he would have lost it by the time traffic got moving again.

I am completely for protecting our Commander in Chief, but shutting down a whole city to do so seems a little extreme. I am, however, impressed by his reason for this visit. My university's Democratic club wrote him a letter requesting his presence at their annual rally, and he accepted! Never in a million years did they think he would, but he did, and that is pretty admirable in my eyes. I know it is probably part of his campaign, because it is no secret that our state always seems to be the deciding state in the elections, but I would like to think he did it out of the goodness of his heart, and to support his young democrats. One can always hope.

5 comments:

Holly said...

That would totally annoy me if I lived up there and had to sit in traffic that long just b/c he was passing through. I think that's a bit ridiculous no matter who the president is.

Michelle said...

Ugh! We lived near DC for 2 years, and had plenty of those hold ups.

Anonymous said...

I was flying into Chicago for a connecting flight in the past. All flights were halted after mine arrived, as the President was departing. He saved me from missing my connection! Ha ha.

Marie said...

my husbands flight home from his last deployment was canceled for 2 days because the president came to visit the country. I was not impressed :)!

Priscilla said...

I hate that! I understand all of the security measures, but it's frustrating when you're held up because of it.

By the way, you're fast! I was heading your way to let you know that I sent you a blog award and I see that you've already commented on my blog! lol :)

 

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