August 28, 2013
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Dr. King’s dream and redneck racism……
How’s that for an attention getting title?
Dr. King’s dream is being celebrate today and it should be. As an inspiring speech, it rank among the best ever. The ideals behind it of EVERY person being treated with dignity is nothing less than what most major religions teach. And which their followers claim to adhere to…..sort of.
I live in Central Pennsylvania. This is an area full of hard scrabble people who take on life with gusto. They have good hearts for the most part, but they do struggle with people of color. The migration of people of color has been slow in this area. The agriculture takes care of itself for the most part and there has been no need for migrant labor. There is a small percentage of blacks in most of this area but with a few pockets in some of the more settled smaller cities.
You can’t throw a daisy petal into the wind without hitting a redneck.
I’m not talking about the cutesy rednecks such as you find on The Dukes of Hazzard or on Duck Dynasty. I’m talking about rednecks who cherish the ideals of being poor, hardscrabble and nasty to anyone not just like them. They just ain’t gonna let you forget that you aren’t them, and in their minds? They is the best. (Yep, bad grammar is deliberate here.)
Lately, I’ve been noticing an uptick in homes, trucks and SUVs flying the Confederate (rebel) flag.
This isn’t the south.
The Dukes have been off the air for years.
You have hardly left your hometown and have never been south of the Mason/Dixon line.
Did you miss history class? The South lost the Civil War. That flag is an insult to those whose families were slaves.
Today I went past a home that was flying both the American Flag and the Confederate Flag.
I’m sorry, the only things those two have in common (besides being flags having flown in America) is that the one with the stars and stripes celebrates the country and constitution that allows you to fly the orange with blue x one.
Maybe you aren’t a redneck after all. Maybe it’s just yellow that’s turned orange as it has become polluted with hatred.
