Tonight Richard Wade of the Friendly Atheist and I were headed to an American Humanist Association event in Washington DC. Before tonight I hadn’t been to DC since I was about 12 years old. So we emerged from the metro station at Dupont Circle onto the streets of Washington DC for the first time and within five minutes, while on Q Street crossing 18th Street, out of the corner of my eye I spotted Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan among the people walking with us through the crosswalk. So I was looking over repeatedly across Richard trying to make sure I was seeing who I thought I was seeing. So Richard asked me, do you think you recognize someone. And I said, “Is that Elena Kagan?” Richard thought I said “Kay Hagan”. He didn’t exactly remember who Kay Hagan was but did remember she had something to do with supporting atheists and he thought since the woman’s face was familiar that maybe he had met her at a conference.
For the record, Kay Hagan is North Carolina’s junior United States Senator. She won her seat against Elizabeth Dole in 2008. During the election contest, Dole’s campaign had tried to turn voters against Hagan (a Presbyterian and former Sunday School teacher) on the false (and unconstitutional) grounds that she as an atheist because the Godless Americans Pac had raised money for her. Kay Hagan was not in the crosswalk with us and even were she, she is not an atheist but was only disparaged for possibly being one.
Richard asked Justice Kagan if she was Kay Hagan. Not hearing him exactly and thinking he asked if she was Elena Kagan, she said “I am”. Richard, thinking he was talking to a bold atheist political figure of some sort, introduced himself and me, and the Justice politely nodded as though she was supposed to know or care who the fuck we were. Then Richard proceeded with boyish enthusiasm to ask the Justice if she was going to the American Humanist Association meeting. She just matter of factly said, “I’m not” and seemed to me to be hoping we would simply leave her alone. And I was more than happy to. But Richard thought her apparent displeasure was because she wasn’t able to get to a reservation to the American Humanist Association event we were going to and so felt embarrassed and sorry for her for different reasons than I did.
Shortly thereafter, he told me who he thought we met, I told him who we actually met, and we have laughed about this pretty much all night. Richard, in his own defense, wants to be credited for being the only person in DC to lobby (albeit unwittingly) a Supreme Court Justice on behalf of the American Humanist Association. I have mostly just been kicking myself for missing the opportunity to give her one of my brand new business cards I was carrying with me.
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