Ben’s Blog

Cassie teaches reading and English to 7th graders at Como Middle School in Como, Mississippi, about 40 miles northwest of Oxford. It’s rural, poor, and about 99.9% African-American. This past Saturday she had to work a basketball tournament at Como. I’ve been to her school, but never while the kids were there, so I took the opportunity to see a little bit of her world.

She had to work in the concession stand, so I sat in the stands with some of her fellow teachers. Cassie had told some of her students that I would be there Friday, as they are always asking about her husband. I had expected a few kids to come up and say hi, but either they were too shy (unlikely), or they didn’t realize who I was.

On Monday at least one student asked Cassie why I didn’t come. I have a hard time understanding how they didn’t pick me out of the crowd, as I’m fairly certain I was the only caucasian in the crowd that wasn’t employed by the school (with the exception of the sheriff’s deputy one school brought with them for security). I was a little disappointed I didn’t get to meet some of her students. I did get to meet her principal and some of the other teachers though.

I got to see the 8th grade boys and girls teams play their Tunica counterparts. Como’s 8th grade girls are undefeated this year, and it wasn’t hard to see why. I was very impressed. They more than doubled Tunica’s score. The 8th grade boys were a lot of fun to watch. They didn’t win, but they had a chance to right until the end. Both teams had around fifty points, which is very impressive for junior high teams playing four five minute quarters. I had a good time, but I wish I had gotten to meet some of her students. Maybe I’ll get another chance before the end of the year.

King Abdullah II of Jordan gave a speech at Ole Miss yesterday, and I was able to make it. I got there about ten minutes before noon, and there were already over 100 people in line. By the time they opened the doors at around 12:15, the line had grown to around 300 or so. The Ford Center only has room for around 700. The Secret Service had two metal detectors setup in the lobby of the Ford Center, and everyone had to go through them on their way in.

After I got through the metal detector, I saw a student from my class. As it turns out he’s from Jordan. I suspect he got to meet the king. I’ll have to ask him on Monday. We talked for a minute, and I was in my seat by 12:30pm.

The king wasn’t supposed to speak until 2pm, so luckily I had brought a book. I would have brought my Treo, but they had specifically asked people not to bring PDAs or cell phones. However, I saw several people using their cell phones inside the Ford Center. Unenforced rules really bug me. The room was full by about 1pm. I assume that means you would have had to be in line by around 12:30 to get in. I’m curious if they turned anyone away. I suspect they did. People were sitting in the aisles for McCain’s speech. I imagine the fire marshal wasn’t too thrilled.

There was a lot of media there. There were no less than half a dozen video cameras and three times as many photographers. There were about a dozen Secret Service agents stationed by all the doors, near the stage, and in the balconies. There were a few Jordanian security guys too. There was zero security for John McCain’s speech last year.
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His Majesty King Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein, King of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, will be speaking tomorrow at Ole Miss. The speech is open to the public and will be broadcast live on the Ole Miss web site. His speech is part of a series hosted by the Trent Lott Leadership Institute. Last year Senator John McCain came to Ole Miss as part of the series.

King Abdullah is a fan of Star Trek and made a cameo appearance on Star Trek: Voyager in 1995 while he was still a prince.

King Abdullah is fairly progressive as far as Middle Eastern monarchs go. However, he has been criticized for restricting free speech in his country. According to Wikipedia, Abdullah has made it illegal to publically disagree with him. It is punishable by up to 3 years in prison and a $7,000 fine. I hope there will a Q&A session after the speech like there was with McCain. If there is, I have no doubt this will come up.

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Well, not exactly. Yesterday we got a letter from our apartment complex saying that we would have to move out when our lease is up in August. They are turning our apartment into a condo. We had been talking about finding another place anyway, so it’s not that big of a deal (Cassie was thrilled), but I’m sure someone’s not happy. I look forward to something different, but I really dread the move. Some of our furniture is incredibly heavy.