Would we drink coffee with Simon Bolivar?
Kristy: Sure. I have a weakness for revolutionaries. And as revolutionaries go, Simon was kind of an overachiever. Most freedom fighters are contented with liberating one country, but no, this man had to liberate the greater part of a continent. On the other hand, he proved largely ineffective at governing. Perhaps meeting him face to face would shed some light on that? I’d be interested to hear what he thinks of later political developments in Latin America and maybe even elsewhere. Mostly I’d just like to meet him to put a fleshed out face with the name. You can’t study Latin America without coming across the name again and again, and I’d like to know what the real man was like. Also… you know… they say he was skilled at liberating countries from the Spanish and women from their corsets.
Cammy: Well, given that Kristy and I once conjured up a mythical Trek franchise focused on the Federation Starship Bolivar (the top Starfleet Academy grads wind up on the Enterprise. Where do the slackers at the bottom go? The Bolivar. What we lack in accomplishment, we make up for in wacky hijinks, Foosball excellence and managing to accidentally save the Universe), I feel I ought to at least meet the man who originated the name. Beyond that, I know he admired my boy Thomas Jefferson, but clearly he didn’t subscribe slavishly to the TJ view of the world, otherwise I don’t think he would have gone in for that whole life-long presidency thing in Bolivia. He also apparently didn’t think the political environment in South America would sustain a US style democracy, which is fodder for some serious debate and conversation right there (during which I think Kristy would be more adept than I). But the real reason I want to meet him? To check and see if he’s anything like he appears in this Hark! A Vagrant comic strip*.
*If you are not reading Hark! A Vagrant by Kate Beaton, you are missing out big time. Speaking of people we ought to have coffee with….
