It was a rough week here in Philadelphia. Not only was it 90,000 degrees out pretty much every single day this week, there was also that Democratic National Convention heating things up. An additional 50,000+ bodies made for a sweaty, crowded, and angsty week here in the City of Brotherly Love.

But Philly’s tough. We survived. And as I do, I made an effort to learn a thing or two a long the way. Here’s what I learned after surviving the DNC in Philly:

 

Politically Connected People Are Super Important

If you’ve ever watched House of Cards or Scandal, then you know: Politicos, pundits, and the people working for them are super fucking important. Way more important than you. They are entirely too busy to look up from their phones and absolutely can not be interrupted with trivial things like eye contact, pleasantries, or small talk.

 

The General Public Needs An Education in How to Share a Sidewalk

Fun fact: Sidewalk traffic is just like regular traffic. Stay to the right and pick a lane. It’s that simple.

Living a major city, a great deal of us don’t have cars and get around largely on foot. And just like in regular traffic, sometimes you are in a hurry and can’t afford to get stuck behind a Sunday driver. So as much as I’d like to remain stuck behind you and the three friends you’re rolling four across with while you stroll leisurely down the sidewalk as I’m trying to get to work, I seriously don’t have time for that. Move over, stop looking at your phone, watch where you’re going, and if you get lost, pull over to the side so the rest of us can keep it moving.

Please and thank you.

 

You Can’t Fuck With Philly

I mean, you can try. But it won’t go well for you. Just ask the folks from the Westboro Baptist Church.

One of my favorite things to come out of this last week was the Westboro Baptist Church protest that wasn’t. Waving signs with phrases such as “God Hates Potholes” and “God Hates Hard Avocados” mocking the church’s usual hateful rhetoric, hundreds of LGBTQ supporters showed up to shut shit down. The crowd evenutally broke out into a sing-a-long of “Hey Jude”. It was a beautiful thing to see and made me extra proud to be a part of this city (if you didn’t get see the protest, you can check it out here).

 

We Need to Come Together

This week saw no shortage of protests: Black Lives Matter, Bernie or Bust, religious protests, racial protests, protesting out of the love of marijuana.  There was a lot of tension, a lot of pushing, a lot of shoving, a lot of shouting. It was a lot.

These are scary times we live in. Terrorism, mass shootings, racial tension, police brutality are a constant part of our reality. We need each other. We need to come together. As a party and as a country. We’ve got to stick together, take care of each other, look out for each other. Listen. Understand. Empathize for God’s sake. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: The world would be a much better place and life would be so much easier for all us, if everyone would just BE COOL. A little love goes a long way.

 

I’m With Her

Now would be a good time for all of the Trump supporters to flip to a different internet page. Which is for the best because we probably aren’t going to be friends anyway.

After this week, I realize that an alarming number of American adults don’t seem to understand how the electoral college system works. I’m not in the business of teaching fourth grade (or whatever grade it was when we learned all about that) so I’m not going to go into it. But I will state some facts and you can feel free to interpret them however you wish.

• Bernie Sanders, as cool as he and his vision may be, is not the Democratic candidate. Hilary Clinton is.
• The Republican candidate is running on a platform based largely on the idea that if we deport entire groups of people, everything will be way better.
• In the history of this country, we’ve had 43 US Presidents. All of them men and all but one of them white.
• It is 2016 and racism and racial inequality is STILL one of the biggest problems effecting our country.
• It is 2016 and we still celebrate Equal Pay Day, the day in April marking how far into 2016 women must work to earn what men earned in 2015 (and that’s just for the white women; women of color need a couple more months to catch up).
• It is 2016 and we still have 1% of the population controlling the lion’s share of the wealth in this country.

 

I don’t know, maybe it’s time we tried something different. I’m just sayin. And as a woman, I’m ready to have someone from my team calling the shots for a change. So yeah. I’m with her.