Myers Creek Beach, OR

This morning, I asked Harry if he was woke? He said, like he frequently does, “I’m awake.” I explained that I didn’t mean the past tense of wake, but rather woke as in “alert to injustice in society, especially racism and sexism.” Along this vein, in Berkley, CA, its woke city government is planning on renaming all the city’s manholes to maintenance holes. Heaven forbid that a non-male gendered city employee be asked to climb down into a male gendered hole in the ground. But on the other end of the spectrum, at the Soo Walmart today, woke thought faced a whole new challenge. When Anne got in line at the pharmacy, there was already a woman at the pickup window and a man was seated at the bench beside it. Anne asked the man if he was in line, but he said, “No, that’s my girl there.” Anne explained that she hadn’t wanted to butt in line. He answered, “That’s OK Miss, you can have cute girl privileges.” This conversation occurred within earshot of “his girl” and while Anne was picking up her first Medicare prescription. Anne never felt offended by any of this, instead she was simply amused.