The Austin chapter of the League of Women Voters (LWV) sponsored movie night at one of my favorite theatre chains. Normally, no one is allowed to talk or even have their phones out at a certain point and the theatre becomes a quiet zone.
Yet, this was a “rowdy” viewing of “RBG,” meaning we were allowed to clap and cheer for the brave, bold, logical assertions of one of the remaining liberal Supreme Court Justices, The Honorable Ruth Bader Ginsberg. LWV seized the moment to register voters, disseminate voting information, especially about early voting, including a time-saving convenient website, vote411.org, where registered voters can enter their address and find personalized election information.
For this special viewing, even the tables were decorated with placemats similar to RBG’s judicial collar. I started the evening with my favorites: a glass of water and Malbec.
Prior to the movie, a spokesperson from the movie theatre welcomed us and explained that when management and staff previewed “RBG,” they couldn’t stop themselves from cheering, booing and applauding and knew they had to offer some “rowdy” viewings for the general public.
Next, the president of LWV, flanked by two members who dressed like Supreme Court Justices, gave us a brief history of the suffrage movement in Texas and the organization itself. They invited those of us who weren’t members to become members. As luck would have it, I sat beside the next LWV president, who will take over those duties in June.
Throughout the documentary, the same two struggles kept lurching forward: gender and racial discrimination. When there was progress in one area, the other area used it as a basis of analogy. Yet, the most entertaining gender/racial analogy was when RBG acknowledged that not only did she know who The Notorious B.I.G. was, but they had several things in common, such as they were both born in Brooklyn.
I had a heroic moment after the movie–at least for me. As I walked toward my car in the parking garage, a woman approached her car and screamed. Ever so cautious, I stopped walking and called out before coming over, “Are you OK?” She answered, “I think a crazy guy put a snake on my windshield, but I can’t tell whether it’s real or not.”
It just so happened that I’d witnessed the incident that she was talking about. After I’d parked, I walked toward the theatre when one of those black overcompensating-male-ego trucks vroomed by. Thank God I was paying attention because I stepped between the parked vehicles, making sure that fool didn’t hit me. The other driver, the woman who was now concerned that he’d left a snake on her windshield, started screaming obscenities at him, which was a moot point since he was long gone. Apparently she’d taken a little too long to get out of his way, but still….
I turned on the phone flashlight, shined it on the windshield, and that snake turned its head to look at me. And you thought Michael Jackson could do the moonwalk! Next thing I know, I was several meters away from her vehicle.
The woman was about to work herself into a good hissy fit over that asshole leaving a snake on her windshield, but I reasoned with her. First of all, I didn’t think the guy would return after the fact and toss a live snake on her car because the incident in question was too trivial in nature to go to such extremes. Secondly, even if he had left a live snake on her car, it would not have remained there for hours. Lastly, I saw a pipe running along the ceiling, which went over the top of her car. I hypothesized the snake slithered across the pipe and dropped onto her car.
My reasoning calmed her down, but the next dilemma was to determine whether the snake was poisonous. She’d wanted to take a picture, but it had slithered away. I backed up even farther. Just then, an SUV, with two guys in it, started to park nearby. I approached the guy riding shotgun.
“Excuse me, can you tell the difference between a poisonous snake and a nonpoisonous snake?”
To his credit, he didn’t seem at all fazed that I’d asked him that question in a parking garage while his (boy)friend(?) was attempting to park. He readily admitted to being a park ranger and knew how to tell the difference among snakes. As he stepped out of the car, I pointed him in the direction of the woman who needed his assistance and continued to my car.
Not nearly on the level of RGB’s contributions, but I think she would agree that everyone should do her best within the moment and situation.