The entire problem with 

the 'good guy with a gun'

myth is that EVERYONE

thinks of themselves as 

a 'Good Guy.'

Everyone.

Including Donald Trump,

racist police officers, 

unstable meth heads, 

rapists, criminals, Nazis,

and every other vile

creature on the planet.

Subjectivity rules--and

those who least have control

of their faculties or Reality

usually think they're most

in control.

'Common sense' on gun

safety can not be decided 

by people who have a proven 

history of not having 

common sense.

End the GOP & NRA

love affair: Protect

American citizens.

***

It really isn't that complicated.
But it's amazing how simple minds
can intentionally complicate things.

People don't think that there is
racism because the specifics of racism
were not laid bare for so long.

People maintained their prejudices
in quiet, safe places where they
were never called out on their beliefs.\

Now that the realness has hit the
streets and the airwaves, people are
uncomfortable about appearances.

Exposure is upsetting to many who
were comfortable in the dark.

***

"You're only as sick as the secrets you keep."

America has a problem dealing with race; That's not an aspect of 
the issue that requires debate. But more pressing that the specifics 
of race (yes, really) is the method America uses to address and 
handle all of its problems;
We don't.

The grand American tradition is to ignore what is in front of us 
(the uncomfortable, squirmy, yucky underbelly of problems!) 
and deny their very existence. We just repeat this practice until 
all of our anger and resentment and crazy has built itself into a 
fever pitch and EXPLODES!

And then--and only then--we'll talk about it. Oh, we'll sit around 
and say our piece and react and stomp feet and cry out. Each of 
us adding our two cents to an issue the majority didn't even 
acknowledge less than a 24-hour news cycle before-hand. 

We will talk rings around it, because there surely is one 
unifying force in effect in this country: We all love to hear 
ourselves talk. The listening? Notsomuch. But we can run that 
mouth like we're getting paid by the syllable. And then, just as 
quickly as the conversation began--it ends.

Now, those of us who were always affected by whatever the 
issue du jour was still have to deal with it in its gory entirety; 
whether it's Flint citizens unable to drink or bathe because of 
still-unfixed toxic water, a mother whose only son was murdered 
by the people sworn to protect him, a child who just heard the
ersatz leader of his country say 'white supremacists' aren't so 
bad, and so on. 

We still have to face the weight of situations that could have 
been long-ago addressed and resolved, or at least improved. 
You know--if addressing and fixing was something we actually 
did here.

Republicans have been adamant about fostering the notion that 
race is not the issue folks are claiming it is. Ignoring their own 
gerrymandering, voter suppression through illegal voting laws
(Texas found guilty again just this last week,) and propping up 
institutionalized racism, they seem hell-bent on either white-
washing reality or keeping blinders on. I'll give them credit for 
being smart enough to simply be evil and corrupt. But I may 
be wrong--they might just be elitist and ignorant.

Today, Rick Santorum and Virginia's Scott Taylor won the 
title of "Most Entitled White Dudes Ever" for their joint 
appearance on Jake Tapper's show. They audaciously 
contended that race does not play a part in the problems 
people face outside of what's caused by the hate-speech 
(and presumably hate-attacks) perpetrated by Nazis and 
'white supremacists' (I can't even write that phrase without 
getting nauseous.)

Translation: 'The whole nation is in favor of hating Nazis 
this week, so for political expediency we'll break with our 
nationalist, racist platforms and party to stand behind that
idea--but don't push it asking us to come clean on the other
harmful ideologies we support.'

There can be no healing of a problem until there is an open 
and honest addressing of a problem. And the idea of coming 
clean about our secrets, our lies, our troubling past, and our 
crimes does not seem to be on any politician's 'to-do list.' 

So we scream at the TV, shake our heads at apathetic 
politicians, stew over the clown that stole our highest office, 
and we wonder what will happen as a result of the continued 
avoidance?

In the meantime, I say we do what we can; Follow our own 
hearts and minds. We don't have to follow suit and be quiet 
just because the men with the most to lose are running scared.

Call them out. 
Speak the Truth.
Hold them accountable.
Make strides to have real talk with friends, neighbors, even 
strangers.

I have started more conversations with people in stores, waiting 
in lines, passing on the street...striving to make connection and 
experience some realness in the midst of a crucial time in this 
country. We all need to know that we're not alone in this fight
right now.

So don't be discouraged by a lack of leadership. Determine to step 
up and provide it yourself, wherever you are and however you can.
We know from experience that one person can make a difference.
Just today we learned of the passing of a great man--Dick Gregory--
who made strides and changes in this old world by refusing to 
accept things the way they are, and daring to reach out for better.

Let's take that example and run with it--all the way into the 
bright light of day. America has a problem with fear of exposure,
and the only way to get over it is to shine that light.
"This little light of mine--I'm gonna let it shine."

"I'm NOT Racist!"

Even the mention of the word 'racism' brings about a
twitchy, nervous reaction in most Americans.

Doesn't even matter on which (of those infamous 'many')
sides you fall on in the equation, either.

Conservative, liberal, middle-of-the-road, or unconcerned...

Possessed of dark skin, light skin, or orange skin...

Upper class, middle class, the ever-increasing lower class...

We all share a history of not only having witnessed the way
that People of Color have been treated , but what gets said 
when those same folks are not present--the American
tradition of a schizoid approach to the matter.

We are all racist, to some extent. All white-skinned people
have had it ingrained in them--consciously, subconsciously, and 
all points in-between. We saw it. We were influenced by the words 
and actions of our parents and guardians, the police, neighbors,
family, classmates, movies, television, and every other form
of experience we went through in our formative years.

Invisibility and being side-lined are also aspects of the overall
issue, so every time we were alone in a room for a special
purpose and there were no faces that looked 'different from us,'
there was some kind of subliminal acknowledgement that "Oh,
I guess this isn't something black folks can/want to do," however
subtlety it may have etched itself on our consciousness.

Everything we do has impact on our understanding of the world,
regardless of whether we're interpreting it correctly. Exclusion
by proxy or by default is still exclusion, and our minds are used
to 'filling in the blanks' and playing detective as to how and why
things are the way they are. (This 'figuring stuff out on our own'
business is how most intentional racists get where they are; They 
did some bad work 'filling in the blanks' for themselves.)

But guess what? While all of us who are not 'People of Color'--
or at least not obviously so--are experiencing the big and small
indoctrination of race-preference in our upbringing, folks who are
black and brown are also experiencing it.

And regardless of whether or not you're actively on the receiving 
end of the lesson, you still get exposed to the gist of it. Black folks
get schooled just like the rest of us as to how they're supposed to 
feel about black folks. And that ends up being internalized as 
both self-hate (and low self-esteem, and depression, and illness,
etc.) as well as dislike of one's fellows.

When I was a teaching assistant at an elementary school in 
southwest Georgia (where I still live,) I saw all kinds of horrific
examples of teachers and staff sending very clear messages of 
racism to kids all day long. Not overt. Not actionable, usually.
Just definite preferential treatment of one race (take a guess!) 
over another, and a superlative knack for giving serious attitude 
(micro aggressions) to deliver the point home to the 'unwanted'
child.

Children are, as anyone who's read a psychology or parenting 
book knows, highly impressionable and absorptive little creatures.
You don't have to beat them over the head with directness, like, say
a 'NO COLORED ALLOWED' sign at a bathroom door. You can
raise an eyebrow or turn your lip up in disgust and send a very
clear message as to your opinion of them. 

Children, ever-ready to adapt and please their care-givers, will 
respond. And they're too young to know when they're being 
groomed by a malicious spirit who isn't concerned for their welfare.

So, when people readily defend their honor by screeching the
phrase "I'M NOT RACIST!!!" we have to look beyond that reaction.

First off: Of course you are! You really can't help but be if you 
were raised in this still-new, angry, scared little place we call
America. It's just the way it has been for so long, there's no escaping
it. (That's not defeatism: Of course we have to struggle to engage
in 'doing better.' But we have to deal with The Reality of 'how 
things are' before we can hope to change them.)

Second: We are all guilty of having passive, subconscious actions
which can be racist without even being aware of it. Looks we give,
comments we innocently make, bad ideas we have never reexamined
since childhood that we cling to still. It's instilled in us. It's a sleeping
beast, and even if we don't mean to, we are all at some time or
another, guilty of sleeping in its cave.

The Nation Was in Crisis Before July 7th, 2016

Constant Loathing: Intermittent Victimhood

There's always been a sense of fear amongst the self-proclaimed
'pure-breeds,' or Anglo-descended sorts, that one day their rule
would end.

It may not have been a conscious thought, or an articulated one, but
just there under the surface of the all-important skin it was percolating.

People of any sort or conviction have always been prone to hatred of
other, different groups of people--'different' by means of comparing a
singular distinguishing characteristic that each group has formed a
bond under, at least.

With the election of a black-skinned man for our highest office, many
Americans found that vague discomfort of subverted rule brought
forth with a violent thrust. The sensation may have even surprised and
shamed some of them.

But for others, the fear itself provides a sense of 'proof' to the false
narrative that there is a necessary division between the 'races.' (One
can never mention often enough that the concept of race is just
that--a notion. The pigment of our skin differing is no more or less
significant than a person's eye color or blood type differing. 'Race'
is completely a social and political invention.) People love them
some pigeon-holing!

But back to the scape-goating. We--people, every last one of us--have
a tendency to want to simplify things. To make them more easily-digestible.
Hence, elected leaders to make tough choices, hence religion, hence
a host of addictions and distractions from this terrifying and confusing
world.

But designing or assuming a reason to blame others for our ills doesn't
make that person/group responsible. Again, it's just notions.

But for love of simplicity, people blame.

We blame different religions, the opposite sex, other states, political
parties, family members, neighbors, other 'races;' anyone who is not
the same as us is by default scary and can easily be made into the
bogeyman. It seems to be in our DNA.

But the seemingly-decreased degree of 'people who actually hate
people who are different' seemed to be a sign of improvement for
our country. Really, it was a 'seems too good to be true' scenario,
an actual cauldron of indignance and seething rage boiling and
getting ready to blow.

And then came Donald Trump. Riling people up, blaming these
'others' outright and proudly, giving people permission to engage
in their baseless accusations and disgust, inciting them to act on it.
The façade of civility in America went straight out the window, and
we have seen exposed the deep and disconcerting pall of fear and
loathing for the longtime scapegoats, people of color.

The fear is based on false notions, on stereotypes, on lack of
exposure, on long-held fears and assumptions, and--in large
part--on mob mentality.

If you've ever been to a concert, a festival, a wedding, even a
packed movie theatre, you may have noticed there is a sense of
energy present--"something in the air" as it's often referred to.
There is in fact documented elevation of emotions in groups,
and certain areas of the brain react to the overriding emotion
that is being presented. There is a 'chain reaction' in effect, and
we are most of us easily drawn into whatever energy is most powerful.

So when people in a crowd get riled up, and get reminded of all
that's wrong with their lives, and are then given a simplistic rationale
for why it has happened and who is responsible, they can get carried
away. Mob mentality is a real thing. It isn't an excuse for inappropriate
or criminal behavior, like yelling slurs or assaulting people, but it is
a phenomenon.

And the people behind these pushed buttons are well aware of this.
I'm calling you out, Donald J. Trump. In your desire to increase
followers you are knowingly spreading false narratives to excite
and offend people, unconcerned with the fallout of such reckless
behavior.

((As a side-note, if I or anyone else I know (poor, not a household
name, not carrying the prestige of power and influence) were to
hold a rally and call on people to harm other people, we'd be under
the jailhouse. Our country has a strict set of double standards in
place; the Rules of Law apply differently to the Two Americas.
The Have-Nots get the full force of the law crushing them and the
Haves have no repercussions at all.))

The mindset of these disenfranchised, predominantly-white people who
support Trump and all his euphemisms and hate speech is that they are
justified in feeling and responding this way because they have been
'victimized.'

'Victimized' in the sense that not everything is going their way, life
is not 100% perfect, they are not in control of what everyone says
or does, and the day is coming closer when everyone will have
equal footing in this country. So in other words, not victimized at all,
just confounded that they can't have things the way they want and
wanting a way to act up about it.

I'm reminded of the tumult in the last few years of religious groups
in this country crying foul and painting themselves as victims of
abuse and terror because they were being forced to move into the
21st century and were no longer being allowed the special privileges
they had been accustomed to holding for so long.

See, people do not like giving up things. Whether they were
deserved or not has nothing to do with it. Whether others were
being harmed in order for them to have had that privilege has
nothing to do with it. People are simply severely adverse to
change and loss, and they get a little crazy about it. Others are
simply looking for an excuse to act on being racist prigs. They've
been dreaming of the day when it would be acceptable again
to treat others like second-class citizens.

This phenomenon is not going away. In fact, it's getting worse
the longer this fanning of flames and pandering is allowed to
continue. Our tax dollars are being spent to close down streets,
pay police, pay Secret Service detail, and more so that DJT can
have rallies to work people up and then let them lose back into
their communities where he will never see or experience the results
of his actions.

Because make no mistake--the words he puts into their minds, the
permission he gives folks to combust, it doesn't fade when he closes
out the night. He's planting seeds of constant loathing, and they'll be
fed and nurtured long after his campaign is done.

**************************************************************************************

GipperGate

#GhostofChristMessPast
#RaygunRonnie
#GOPDOA

 

     "My country, 'tis of thee,

      sweet land of (promised) liberty,

my hands I wring.

Land where the churches side

with white men full of pride,

every blockhead needs a bride;

Bend over and SING!"

 

Stand Your Ground..Against Racism

If you think that being in the wrong place

at the wrong time makes you

'equally culpable' for your own unjustified murder....

if you don't think race played a part in

the murder of Treyvon Martin

(like, say, the motivating factor in

Zimmermen feeling unnecessarily

frightened or making false profiling)...

if you assume guilt or criminal

intent because a teenager wore a

hoodie, was 'shooting birds' on facebook,

or smoked some weed .....

if you think the jurors did their best

and were not skewed in their viewpoint....

if you think that 'Stand Your Ground'

is a smart law and has no issues with it...

if you're happy that Zimmerman got off and

hopeful that it 'sends a message' to 'the rest of them'...

then you are definitely racist as fuck,

regardless of whether you realize it or

recognize it as such or believe it.

Because the insidiousness of racism is

that it goes from 'opinion' to 'fact' in

the mind of the person feeling the

discriminatory outlook...justified and

excused and assumed to be 'truth,'

filtering all new information and events.

Racism: The Great American Epidemic.

More people being infected by it doesn't

make it more legitimate. Get well soon.

***



Instead of remaining a 'simple' matter of excessive
 force and unjustifiable homicide, the murder of
Trayvon Martin has become a litmus test for the
personal politics and racism in our sick country.

It is now about a small town's perverted sense of justice.
It is now a case of money and standing buying leniency.
It is now a horrible miscarriage of justice.
It is a defense that is a ludicrous and cruel joke.
The demonization of this young man is disturbing and wrong.

And to think, this never should have happened.
If only an unwell, privileged, armed thug had stayed in his
house and not stalked a young man.
Trayvon was guilty; guilty of being black and free.

Trayvon Martin is dead for no good reason,
and you or I could just as easily be next.

www.GeorgiaUnity.blogspot.com



Key & Peele: Obama's Anger Translator - "Victory"

These guys are so spot on and hilarious that I bust a gut no matter
how many times I watch it!

Now, at first, I was sort of thinking that I ought to be a gracious winner
and lay low with the "Congrats" and the festivities and the being joyous
that we dodged that bullet on the 6th.

But these sideways, psychotic, backwoods, inbred chicken-pluckers who
are intent on slicing and dicing the entire nation are out of their minds!
Secession! Gun sales! Crazy talk! Racist tweets! Assassination efforts!
Endless complaints! Anxiety fest! Doomsday scenarios! Conspiracies!
It's really quite too much.

There's no placating them; they don't want to be okay!

And the nay-sayers and haters are obsessed and consumed with hating on
President Obama (going against the very system they were counting on to
elect the man they wanted) and are going to pout and stomp feet and act
like kids until they get what they want.

It's a white-hot mess, and the crazy conservatives would have been all
over instigating mess with Obama supporters, so I say....
"Kick it, Key & Peele...speak that truth!"

****************************************************

The End is Near

Well, perhaps the 'end date' isn't

predicted to be an actual Doomsday for

the life of the earth,

as shown here,

but in fact it could be the end of

life on earth for billions of us

if Romney-bot gets into office next week. 



Proud to be detached, duplicitous, and dishonorable.

It's perhaps frightening enough  that,
after all Romney has said and done and had
revealed about him, the race is still so close.

Do people have no understanding of history?
Are they aware of what sort of hold money
and corporations have over candidates, let alone
when the candidate himself is Big Money
with their own corporate holdings?

Yes, we're on the verge of disaster, people,
and don't let fear-mongering and dormant racism
keep you from making the smart choice for the
future of us all.

***



"Snapped back to reality..."

(This piece was taken from a circulating e-mail, author unknown.
It so expertly delineates the hypocrisy behind the blaring rhetoric,
I'm including it here.

Some see the difference, some ignore the difference, some are in
denial about the difference, but the commonality is the same;
There IS a difference.)
                                          -Robert
************************************************
FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO SEEM TO BE SO MAD AT OBAMA, FOR NO
GOOD REASON, READ THIS AND REFLECT A MOMENT … THEN SAY
TO YOURSELF:

"Hmmmmmmmmmm...YOU ARE RIGHT!!!"

Now, since Obama's regime, all of a sudden, folks have gotten mad, and want to take America Back...BACK TO WHAT/BACK TO WHERE is my question?

After The 8 Years Of The Bush/Cheney Disaster, Now You Get Mad?

You didn't get mad when the Supreme Court stopped a legal recount and appointed a President.

You didn't get mad when Cheney allowed Energy company officials to dictate Energy policy and push us to invade Iraq.

You didn't get mad when we illegally invaded a country that posed no threat to us.

You didn't get mad when we spent over 800 billion (and counting) on said illegal war.

You didn't get mad when Bush borrowed more money from foreign sources than the previous 42 Presidents combined.

You didn't get mad when over 10 billion dollars in cash just disappeared in Iraq.

You didn't get mad when Bush embraced trade and outsourcing policies that shipped 6 million American jobs out of the country.

You didn't get mad when they didn't catch Bin Laden.

You didn't get mad when Bush rang up 10 trillion dollars in combined budget and current account deficits.

You didn't get mad when you saw the horrible conditions at Walter Reed.

You didn't get mad when we let a major US city, New Orleans, drown.

You didn't get mad when we gave people who had more money than they could spend, the 1%, over a trillion dollars in tax breaks.

You didn't get mad with the worst 8 years of job creations in several decades.

You didn't get mad when over 200,000 US Citizens lost their lives because they had no health insurance.

You didn't get mad when lack of oversight and regulations from the Bush Administration caused US Citizens to lose 12 trillion dollars in investments,
retirement, and home values.

You finally got mad when a black man was elected President and decided that people in America deserved the right to see a doctor if they are sick. Yes,
illegal wars, lies, corruption, torture, job losses by the millions, stealing your
tax dollars to make the rich richer, and the worst economic disaster since 1929
are all okay with you, but helping fellow Americans who are sick... Oh, Hell No!

***************************************************************************

The Whitest Guys in the Room

No...No, that's NOT a compliment.

'Dumb and Dumber' are hitting their stride by

continuing to delineate just how hapless and lacking of

real plans they are.

Relatable?

Only to the increasingly schizoid Republican front,

and their gang of armed, delusional, wealthy, elitist

goons seeking to control and devalue the rest of us.

"Thanks...but no fucking thanks."

***

The Art of Bullshit and Double-Speak

Republicans!
And their freakish toadies,
the 'Tea Party!" (ugh!)

All for 'smaller' government,

but...
not so small that it can't still;
 regulate and legislate other people's marriages,

regulate tax breaks for the wealthiest,
deregulate the entire business world,
eradicate environmental protections,

control women's and gay men's bodies,
impose and sustain wiretaps,
expedite the expelling of immigrants,
erode the rights of blacks, and

permanently undermine (and condemn to death) 
the poor, the sick, and the uninsured.

GO, Double-speak!

***

Love Us From Afar

Friendship United Methodist Church Lack-of-Outreach Program

Announcement: For Immediate Release

Friendship...

for the designated, privileged few!

Where the crusty, white elite meet to

feign superiority and talk shit

about the 'unwashed masses.'

Come get your Fake Jesus on, today!

(Pending the meeting of basic requirements!)

Non-white, poor, gay,

liberal and other outsiders please

don't apply.

But you can come receive our

rude, smug, condescending

'charity' every third Saturday.

Only.

Exclusively.

Don't get it twisted;

the pretense of compassion

and love has a very strict schedule

around here.

The open door policy is good for

one day only, and we have

plenty of high quality, self-righteous

mouthpieces and gate-keepers on the

premises to make sure unwanted elements

know their place.

We're wonderful, we know it,

and we're very discriminating in our

efforts to preserve our high-faluting standards.

Jesus saved us, and we're

saving him for ourselves.

At least, that's what those weird voices in our

heads tell us!

Admire us as you drive by!

*****



Not Isolated..in the Least

Picture of a Young Man

who should still be alive

The Trayvon Martin MURDER is, as a discussion piece,
a great litmus test for just how bigoted your friends and
neighbors are!

I have been discovering the VERY covert racial ignorance
(of people I've known forever) as a result of this whole mess.

Even had Auntie, who, granted, is becoming more unhinged,
launch into a diatribe about how "not all Klansmen are bad...
some are good and some are bad!" Because she ONCE knew
some KKK members who bullied an abusive dad into cooking
for his kids. (Hey...it's a redneck...you don't expect a Rhodes
Scholar response, do you?)

It's infuriating, frustrating, frightening, and more than a little
disheartening to see and read all the rage-filled racist insanity
that is passing for public discourse in small towns like mine,
where 'a' Trayvon Martin could just as easily have been a friend
or neighbor. Probably has been. Probably will be again.

One local paper (The Miller County Liberal, one of the worst, 
lowest caliber pieces of yellow journalism slime--it should be
against the law for them to call themselves a newspaper)
VILIFIED President Obama for weighing in on the case,
saying of our President:

"Aided by his ignorance of the situation, knee-jerk prejudices,
and tendency toward racial profiling, Mr. Obama played a
heavy hand in elevating a tragic situation in which a teenager
was killed into a full blown hot race riot."
And then, utterly inexplicably, he veered off into this bizarre
tangent about how he and the poor dead kid look so much alike
they could be father and son. It was election-year race-pandering
gone horribly wrong."

Wow! Did you see what he did there? In  addition to having
done too many drugs and living on another planet, he's accusing
folks who want to see the murder of this young man done justice
as being racists themselves. Thereby (not really) exonerating his
own crazed, racist, nonfactual rantings and misinformation!

And this from a relied-upon source of news and information in
a small community where things are already so backwards and
unrepentantly nutso. A paper which also boasts racist cartoons
and only anti-Obama rhetoric and Fox-News style hand-wringing
and falsehoods posing as information and patriotism.

It's a powderkeg issue all right; those who are racist and don't
like attention being drawn to it are similar in their venomous
retorts and protestations to closeted gay men when exposed;
their fear and anger is above and beyond what is merited by
the situation. 'Doth protest too much,' and all that.

Racism is as deeply rooted and prideful a tradition here in the
ridiculous South as deep fried foods and killing stuff. These are
communities of such isolation, limited growth, limited education,
incestuousness, poverty, false superiority, arrogance, ignorance,
defiance, anger, childishness, arrested development, shame,
criminal activities, double standards, paranoia, selfishness, and 
love of conflict--a culture of 'honor'--how will it ever change?

Not that this is true of every Southerner, but a lot. (I'd hate to
be accused of profiling.)

***************************************************

We Still Need You, Dr. King

WARNING: Vitriolic language below. Do not read if offended by hate-speech.

A powerful insight, but...

Has the message and the inspiration been lost?

How will most folks commemorate Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr.'s birthday recognition? Complaining about no
open government offices? Laying around and doing
nothing of much importance? Perhaps making snide
remarks alongside their buddies, or radio disc jockeys,
or Fox News reporters as to the so-called illegitimacy
of this day and of our current president?

I wish to take the occasion to give tremendous Thanks
to Dr. King,  Coretta Scott King, all those who fought
the good fight as Freedom Riders and Freedom
Fighters, and those who continue the legacy today.
There is still so much to be done.

I feel the sting every day of just how far there is left to
go on the journey.

I hear the rat-a-tat-tat gunfire on my soul as an orchestra
of "nigger-this" and "nigger-that" are barked daily, easily,
repetitively, their issuers incorrectly imagining me a
receptive brother-in-arms of hate and dismissal.

These calloused, thoughtless words owing nothing but
to ignorance; born in, bred in, taught, recycled, imposed,
carried down so ironically triumphantly from the shameful
"don't know no betters" of hate that passes for heritage,
especially in these lowly southern backwoods.

One generation to the next, passing on the familiar
like a treasured family heirloom, defiantly daring someone
to tell them all that they 'know' is wrong. Clutching
dissension like a badge of honor. "Accept me by seeing
how faithful I am in my nonacceptance, Paw!" they seem to
cry out.

Others like them offer up the same withered theories as
to why there is a proper scapegoat--with misinformation
its father--behind every mishap and wrongdoing ever suffered
by these scared and lost boys. They don't even know the
meaning of the words they speak, the lies they spill, the
hate the brew like bathtub gin, ever-more potent and
dangerous the longer it sits and steeps.

A world connected non-stop, all peoples seeing into
one another's lives, across the oceans and across the
barriers of language and time. And still we have pockets of
time-displaced folks who revel in their lack of development,
who seek to know nothing more than what they surround
themselves with. They are as preserved as a mosquito in
amber, as annoying as if still alive and mounting a campaign
of frustrating distractedness.

Like the atrocities of World War II, are we destined to
have the evils of segregation become like fantasy as those
of that generation slowly die off? Will the lessons of Dr. King,
and the need for them still, be forgotten because we no longer
have a breathing reminder of how far we have left to go?

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