Blue Velvet Sectional

Never again. In 2008, as I stood in line at the National Archives (on July 4th!), I overheard a conversation behind me.  A young man from Texas was chatting with an older woman, who said she was from Iowa.  I kept my eyes front, but I rolled them, assuming I was in for a long bout of "Obama is a Muslim who hates America" garbage, but I was surprised. Talk quickly turned to politics, as we waited for a chance to see the Declaration of Independence. The man rather sheepishly confessed that he was an Obama volunteer; the older woman replied that she had been holding meetings in Iowa on behalf of the Senator from Illinois. They were both doing all they could to ensure that the first black president was elected. I smiled, then silently chastised myself for making an assumption that just because I was in a very patriotic place on a patriotic day, I'd be surrounded by gun-loving, gay-hating science-denying idiots. Shame on me. Still, there's a reason that I, and