We started out the week with a political rally, the making of the relentless Thomas Barker. He was throwing his weight behind the effort for early voting and later drinking by summoning the faithful to the park behind the Bass Museum, leading them like a Democratic Pied Piper to vote at City Hall, and then to quench their thirsts at Score's tables outside on Lincoln Rd. To the excitement of everyone, Thomas produced Matt Damon as guest speaker. Damon has long resided on Miami Beach and is the sort of celebrity who leads a humble life in a place he loves; he also is not shy to demonstrate his support for many local causes. There is a great confidence here that Florida will go Blue this year; there has to be a certain amount of hesitation in thinking like this though. Florida is one of the most complicated political problems in modern times; the lower tip is relatively Blue, but the vast north is backward Red. As the old saying goes, the further north you travel, the further south you get.


On Tuesday I was taking by force to the inner bowels of Miami: Calle Ocho (8th St.), west of Little Havana. Leopoldo was intent on visiting the Saks Fifth Avenue of Army Navy stores and--as always--I couldn't say no. To me it was not so much Little Havana as Little Bad Part of Mexico City. Leopoldo quipped as we crossed one street corner with several unsavory characters hanging around, "You are the only white person for miles". He knows how to make me feel safe. Of course, he used the term "white" not in a racial way, but in the Miami way; "white" here means "Gringo", pasty American-born. There is also another force at work here, it being the South and all; I have often been called "Yankee" to separate me from those belles from south of the Mason-Dixon Line. There being more Yankees here than Rebels, we call them The Defeated. Belles like Peter from Twist never hesitate to remind me that "Your people ruined the lives of my people".

Hopefully, my computer will be fixed today so that I might post photos again.