6 Degrees of Separation, New Jersey Style

I did not do anything worldly this weekend.  I went to New Jersey.  I don’t know if I have anything profound to say about my trip, but maybe I can put little insignificant things about my trip on a global scale, or national scale if I’m lucky.  Well, I took the Amtrak train from Union Station and I made the same train trip that Joe Biden makes everyday from D.C. to Delaware.  He’s not taking those trips at the moment because he is busy running for Vice President, technically the Vice President of the free world, and I’d say that makes him an important member of the global community. 

Before I got home, my dad took me to the Starbucks that has just opened in our town (the sign that my quaint little town has officially sold out).  Starbucks does have some stores outside of the United States, but their impact on the global economy because of the coffee bean market is huge.  Starbucks is one of the few coffee companies that have a fair-trade line, but since it is only a small percent of the millions of pounds of coffee that they buy, I do not think they are doing all they can to promote a more ethical coffee market. 

I had an extremely awkward political discussion with my hairdresser because I mentioned that everyone at American University is crazy political.  She said that she thinks Sarah Palin is an intelligent woman.  I strongly disagree and with people who are not holding scissors very close to my head and have control over my physical appearance, I would definitely have argued this ridiculous notion.  Instead I mumbled a nondescript “nnnnnhhhhuuh” and let the subject drop.  I had a much more enjoyable Sarah Palin discussion with my sixty-something year old anorexic alcohol and nicotine addicted dance teacher who lit her cigarette, took a drag, and told me that Palin sets women back 100 years.  This is not serious world politics, but we discussed feminism last class and I think this counts.  Whether feminists are a marginalized group is tough to say, but I think the everyday Jane the Plumbers are worried about the impression Palin gives of the American female. 

My cultural experience this weekend was going to The Haunted Mill.  The Red Mill in Clinton is one of the most photographed places in New Jersey and every year the town goes nuts for Halloween and turns the mill into a haunted house.  The mill was once on the television show Ghost Hunters on the Sci-fi channel.  So this relates to how there is a cultural disparity between the American celebration of Halloween and the Mexican celebration of the Day of the Dead.  We commercialize everything and turn a joyful celebration into a fear-filled freak fest. 

I feel like this blog post mid-semester is a throw back to our discussion about the definition of world politics.  I think the fact that I can make tiny little details of my trip home relate on a global scale means that I was right:  World politics is everything.  Even New Jersey.