One of those old people I wish would just go away and die did just that a few days ago. I started to post something about it, but decided against it...remembering the old saying that if you dont have something good to say about somebody (especially at their funeral), dont say anything. But Brown sent me a link that pretty much summed up why I am glad that old man is dead. And all of those people who think like him can die off too....
...here's the link...click here!!
especially of note are the comments that follow.... sigh...
6 comments:
So, I moved back up north for a lot of reasons and I only fly back down south to visit my family on "their turf" once every few YEARS.. so I found it extremely interesting that he happened to die when I was on one my few visits below the Mason-Dixon line.
Is is ironic? coincidence? a sign to me to show that a new south is born? (some how I doubt it...) I'll just to calling it "interesting"...
Jerome, on a positive note I was happy to see the news in this link...
http://www.forbes.com/sportsbusiness/2008/07/09/tiger-woods-billionaires-biz-sports-cx_af_tvr_0709tigerbillie_slide.html?thisSpeed=30000
I'm hopeful this shows how much the world is changing... take a sport which hasn't been very diverse, and then look at Tiger's ability to be a marketing phenomenon to that very market base, inspiring them to buy clubs, shirts, shoes, Buicks, etc... not saying the world is perfect yet, far from it, but do think it's changing for the better.
Still waiting for the Nascar circuit to see the same kind of breakthrough -- think I've always been a bit surprised that Nascar is one of the sports you've adopted. Know you loved tinkering with cars, so guessing that may be the motivator? Truly would be interested to see a post sometime on your thoughts regarding Nascar (and forgive me if it's ground you already covered in an earlier post and I missed it :-).
John
Well you know how much trouble those negroes stir up. Pretty soon they'll be taking our white women.
Jesse was a visionary.
Speaking of Jesses... when is someone going to get rid of the oh so articulate Mr. Jesse Jackson. I know that he's an international diplomat and all, snicker, but I think that his time has past. Who knows, maybe he's right about Obama... everyone could use a little castration now and then.
ha
Jerome's Wife
** blogspot won't let me log in to leave a comment as myself, so this is the best I can do. Sorry...
Ok, maybe I'm being a little harsh on the south. I apologize. I have never been accepted down there and, ironically enough - it has nothing to do with the color of my skin. It's because I don't have a southern twang (and probably other things I'm too naive to realize). Ask Jecca - she was there when I moved to SC and was one of the few people that accepted me and my "Yankee" ways. (really - is Ohio "yankee"??) I just had never experienced hate like I have when I lived down there.
Zoo keeper, hate to admit it but you have a pretty valid point on the north / south thing, and at least in my case I don't see it in ANY racial context. I've traveled to 30 plus states and 8 countries and the least comfortable setting I've ever been in was Boston, MA. Reason I say no race involved is I'm caucasian and most everyone that surrounded me in Boston was caucasian but to be honest so many of the people I saw were crass, unfriendly, anti-social, and seemingly more eager to pick a fight with their neighbor than to dream of being polite to them. Just sensed this thick air of suspicion from almost everyone with whom I rubbed shoulders... best story I know to share was going into a 7-11 and listening to guys cuss up a storm discussing a game while a young woman huddled with her two small children obviously trying to protect them and no one in the very busy store showed any care at all.
90% of my relatives were poor Irish immigrants who settled in the Carolinas but have a few relatives who also ended up in Columbus, OH. When I visited the OH relatives in my youth they had lived next to two families for 20 years and had hardly ever spoken to them... versus in the South, where my relatives would have been visiting week 1 with cobblers and chicken casserole to make neighbors feel welcome, sharecropping with many of their neighbors so they could all survive. Not saying there aren't crass folks down South as we sure have more than our share of ignorant folks, but being lucky/blessed enough to be pretty darn well traveled in my 40 years, just saying I have sensed less sense of immediate friendliness up North than in Southern states, and pick up this odd sense of desire for isolation / and distrust for others in many Northern cities I've visited.
Jerome can attest, I'm an old philosophy student and try my best to be open minded to considering different viewpoints. If you believe I'm way off base, won't hurt my feelings at all if you share your thoughts on why.
Jerome - excuse me for using your blog as a platform for discussion - but this is quite fun! Hope you don't mind...
sit back - this is gonna take a while...
John you make a good point and I think I stand corrected in that it's not really so much a north/ south thing but probably, more accurately, a regional thing. Your example of Boston doesn't surprise me at all. You'll generally hear stories similar to yours about New England (of which NY is not a part of. Even though I'm not originally from here, I live here now and feel compelled to point that out...) NE is tradionally a close knit, priviledged, elitist area. I get the same reaction when I go there. When we hired for a new sales rep for my company in that area it's one of the areas where you MUST have someone originally from there in order for them to be successful. That's just the way it is.
When my family moved to Florence and I went to J's high school I was shell schocked with culture shock - cut me some slack - I was 14 moving from the midwest to the south. It was different. Just the accents alone I could barely communicate with some people - I talked too fast and they couldn't understand me (including teachers). I didn't say ma'am to adults. (I got in trouble a time or two.) I was in band AND used to be a cheerleader where I lived before - I was an anomaly to these folks in Florence - they didn't know how to treat me and I them. (Was I a band geek or a popular cheerleader??) I went from a school with 100 kids in my grade to 400. Needless to say, this southern high school was known for cliques and I didn't fit into any and I was shunned (except by a small group who accepted me as I was - Jecca and her pals, thank god.)
I guess what I learned from that experience was that those kids who shunned me learned that judging behavior somewhere... and that judging pervaded our town and the surrounding area. So maybe it's not all the south, but I've experienced it in other smaller towns - granted, maybe to your point - not all in the south. And these same people who judged me just judged me on what they knew about me on the surface.. gee, I was in band and disrupting the status quo because I was also a cheerleader. Dare they know my religous affiliation, my thoughts on homosexualtiy or my politcal views. I might have been chased out of town. That particular town did not tolerate differences among their residents. then or now. If you're odd man out you might as well just leave or suffer the consequences.
I know not everyone agrees on everything - that's what makes us unique. However I am for tolerance of other's ideas. And what I found in THAT town/ area is intolerance. That is what bothers me so.
As a side note - I too have traveled the US and world. I have seen/ felt the most hate when I've been in a few places down south (ok John, not ALL places). I've even been to Egypt. A WHITE GIRL from the USA in an ISLAMIC country and I didn't feel as shunned - ok, sometimes... but I guess I expected it there. But not in my own country. I've even done business as a woman in China and got more respect from men there than I have on occasion in coastal Carolina....
just sayin'
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