Of Mule and Man by Mike Farrell

Author:Mike Farrell
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Akashic Books (Ignition)
Published: 2011-10-06T16:00:00+00:00

DAY SEVENTEEN

Monday, May 26, 2008

CITY OF ORIGIN: BALTIMORE, MD

CITY OF DESTINATION: NEW YORK, NY

MILES TRAVELED: 192

VENUE: MADIBA RESTAURANT

EVENT COSPONSOR

Brooklyn for Peace

Got out of Baltimore with no problem. Mule is behaving nicely, thank you, so I may have been forgiven for the gas gaff—for being a fuel fool.

Speaking of Baltimore, did you know there is a Washington Monument here that predates the one in Satan’s town? (I know, I know, but the detail in all that raving about DC was really weird … and who knows?) Anyway, yes, there is a very tall, cylindrical, and quite imposing structure in a square at Charles and Monument streets in the Mount Vernon Cultural District of Baltimore that was built twenty years before the monument we all know about in DC. And, I learned, Annapolis was the capital of our country for a short time, from late 1783 to mid 1784. Marylanders are very proud of their history. Well, except, maybe, for Spiro Agnew …

And one wonders at the statue of Chief Justice Roger Taney only a few steps away from the tribute to Washington. Expected to go down in history as one of the great chief justices of the Supreme Court, his place in the record books was forever tainted by his opinion in the 1857 Dred Scott case, in which he wrote of “that unfortunate race” which had “been regarded as beings of an inferior order, and altogether unfit to associate with the white race, either in social or political relations, and so far unfit that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect.”

There is some irony in the fact that Taney died on the very day Maryland abolished slavery.

It’s a rich history we share, though not all of it inspires pride.

Driving north on the complex of roadways leading to New York takes us onto the New Jersey Turnpike. Speaking of abolition, I smile as we enter the state, thinking with satisfaction of New Jersey’s courageous decision to abolish the death penalty in December of ’07, an historic act that may move other states to do the same. I explain to Mule that Death Penalty Focus, the organization I chair, gave an award this past April to Governor Corzine and New Jerseyans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (NJADP) for their courage.

Mule is unmoved.

“Hey, pal,” I say, “the first state to abolish the death penalty in the modern era; it’s a big step!”

“For people.”

“Well, yeah. Yeah, I guess that’s right. Hybrids don’t kill their own, do they?”

Grunt.

“Right. Okay, people are odd. Present company excepted, of course?”

Silence.

“Huh. Well, we’re working on it. Maybe Maryland will take the hint and be next.”

Time for a bite. Don’t tell anyone, especially the cops, but I’m getting pretty good at steering with my knees. I mean, you know, you don’t want to pull over every time you have to peel a banana or take your vitamins. You’d never get anywhere. I’ve got this huge bag where I stash all my snacks and pills

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