McMumsy and McPolack in the City

McMumsy showed up yesterday afternoon for our evening of adventure. And by adventure I mean we went to the Kennedy Library and sat with a large group of people McMumsy's age and older to hear Nancy Pelosi speak. Unfortunately, we couldn't do any good fancy-person watching (one of Ted Kennedy's children, plus a Supreme Court justice were in the audience) because despite getting there 35 minutes early the main hall was full; we had to sit in an overflow theater and watch NP on a movie screen.

What struck me as I looked around was how filled the room was with older folks. Pretty much entirely. There are very few people my age who actually make the effort to go out and see things like this, which is one of the things I've been telling myself to make myself feel better about the fact that a recent survey showed that out of the top five cities in the US with the most single people, Boston is number five, Somerville (where I live) is number three and Cambridge (on whose border I live) is number two. WTF? I am not seeing all these single people.

Anyhoo, as I was commenting on the age of the room to MM she said I had gotten the "political bug" from her, and it's true. I just find stuff like getting to see the Speaker of the House, well, speak, fascinating. When MM was in high school she used to get into fights with her little brother over who got to read Newsweek first.

Then we settled in to listen to NP, who was pretty good, but kudos to MM for commenting on the fact that NP's trip from "the kitchen to Congress" didn't just happen out of the blue, which is how NP was playing it. She's the daughter of one mayor of Baltimore and the sister of another; really she's been in politics her whole life. I take issue with people in her position saying "oh, anyone can do this" when clearly she's had significant advantages others don't. I just don't think you should set unrealistic expectations. This could be a little conspiracy theorist for me, but who's to say she wasn't placed in her position of power by men? Eh, I don't know. I do think regardless of how she got there it is a fantastic accomplishment and when she mentioned that when she first assumed her role she heard -- literally -- the women who'd come before her, upon whose shoulders she was standing -- say "we finally have our place at the table," I believed her.