It's a shame about (the) Ray(s)

Probably the biggest difference between America and the UK is size. Almost everything here is bigger than in the UK. This difference of scale inevitably affects how Americans experience the world around them. That’s why they talk about ‘the London Times’, ‘Paris, France’ etc. The size of America doesn’t prevent people from identifying with their country – quite the reverse – but people do seem to feel very strongly about their home town and state too.

One of the things that’s been going on while we’ve been here is the World Series Baseball. Tampa Rays have been playing the Phillies. I’ve lost count of the number of people who’ve mentioned it. It’s all over the local radio, and there are people in Rays T-shirts, Rays flags flying outside hours, Rays bumper stickers on cars. Sadly, though, the Rays lost out to the Phillies last night. Better luck next year.

This evening it was Harry’s birthday so we decided to celebrate: Rav and I met up with Harry, Susan and her husband, Norwood, in a Greek restaurant called Akropolis, in Ybor City. The food was good and the musicianship of the young bouzouki player was impressive, if a little overbearing. We were also joined by Alison, the Chair of the Democratic Party in nearby Pasco County, who had many interesting stories to tell (apparently a sign that says ‘I don’t call 911’ translates as ‘if you trespass on my property, I may shoot you and I won’t call 911’ – good to know after spending a week walking up people’s drives and knocking on doors in the most blasé manner imaginable!).

At the rally yesterday, the Florida Senator Bill Nelson mentioned that there are over 5000 attorneys in the state of Florida alone, to make sure that things are done right this time. Those attorneys all sport blue baseball caps bearing the words ‘Florida Voting Rights Attorney’. At dinner this evening, we met Janet, who is one of the attorneys. On the right you can see a picture of Janet talking Rav through a sample ballot (I’ll try and scan a copy of the sample ballot, and append it to this post at a later date).

After dinner, we explored a couple of the local bars. They all seem to have very loud bands, consisting of one or two acoustic guitars, playing ‘classic covers’. There had obviously been some night-before-Halloween parties in Ybor, as almost everyone we passed was in costume.

One last political note for tonight: lots of people have taken advantage of early voting (they’re saying over 2 million) but the Orlando Sentinel are reporting a low turnout among young voters – if that’s correct, it’s disappointing and I hope they’re just keeping their powder dry for polling day itself.

And a final point for today – this has been Rav’s last day here. Tomorrow he has to get up stupidly early so that John the taxi driver can take him over to the airport. I will get up a bit later, bid farewell to Fred and the other staff at the Hampton Inn and make my way across town to carry on fighting the good fight.