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zdashamberI've seen a lot of Katrina-inspired rants, and many of them have been brilliant. But I haven't yet seen anyone saying this: You shouldn't have to be looking into the gutter to see the faces of your fellow Americans down South.
I am sick of the people of the East and West Coasts dismissing all the rest of the country. I'm sick of the icons that show all the "blue" states without any of the "red". I'm sick of people telling me how the South should have been left to secede, we'd be better off without those ignorant racist rednecks. I'm sick of people talking about how California doesn't have anything to gain from the rest of the country.
I'm from Colorado. It's part of the West—not one of the parts of America that matters, y'know, but hey, at least it's not quite the South. I'm a Californian now; maybe people here don't know my origins when to my face they blow off the entire middle of the US as "flyover country." With a laugh, as if we're naturally united in dissing all those plebes.
Oh, but now, now that they're bathed in shit, with no place to call home, with their jobs and businesses destroyed, now it seems to me that the people on the coasts are willing to gather all those Southerners to their bosoms.
I want you to pause and think about whether you've gained any feeling that Southerners (and Westerners, and Midwesterners) are your brothers, fellow Americans whose persons and lives and opinions are worth every bit as much as your own... Or if you're just seizing another opportunity to feel superior. I hope it's the former, because I am sick of putting on a nice smile as I walk through your coastal country club.
If you've pointed out in the past how the red states suck up more than their share of your tax dollars: do you still begrudge them that? Do you still feel that helping them isn't helping you? I don't much care for Anne Rice, but we're together in this: "And though we may seem the most exotic, the most atmospheric and, at times, the most downtrodden part of this land, we are still part of it. We are Americans. We are you."
I am sick of the people of the East and West Coasts dismissing all the rest of the country. I'm sick of the icons that show all the "blue" states without any of the "red". I'm sick of people telling me how the South should have been left to secede, we'd be better off without those ignorant racist rednecks. I'm sick of people talking about how California doesn't have anything to gain from the rest of the country.
I'm from Colorado. It's part of the West—not one of the parts of America that matters, y'know, but hey, at least it's not quite the South. I'm a Californian now; maybe people here don't know my origins when to my face they blow off the entire middle of the US as "flyover country." With a laugh, as if we're naturally united in dissing all those plebes.
Oh, but now, now that they're bathed in shit, with no place to call home, with their jobs and businesses destroyed, now it seems to me that the people on the coasts are willing to gather all those Southerners to their bosoms.
I want you to pause and think about whether you've gained any feeling that Southerners (and Westerners, and Midwesterners) are your brothers, fellow Americans whose persons and lives and opinions are worth every bit as much as your own... Or if you're just seizing another opportunity to feel superior. I hope it's the former, because I am sick of putting on a nice smile as I walk through your coastal country club.
If you've pointed out in the past how the red states suck up more than their share of your tax dollars: do you still begrudge them that? Do you still feel that helping them isn't helping you? I don't much care for Anne Rice, but we're together in this: "And though we may seem the most exotic, the most atmospheric and, at times, the most downtrodden part of this land, we are still part of it. We are Americans. We are you."
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Date: 2005-09-07 06:19 am (UTC)But I am old and cynical.
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Date: 2005-09-07 04:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-07 11:15 am (UTC)But this probably won't stop me from bitching about rednecks in the long run. ;)
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Date: 2005-09-07 04:31 pm (UTC)As for American-ness, I think it does matter. Some of the people in Thailand affected by the tsunami are probably pimps or secret police, but people in America don't really give a damn about that 8 months later. But in 8 months, some of the people in the Gulf Coast are still going to be Republicans, and that will impinge on an American's consciousness. They catch more shit because they affect us more. I'm just hoping that maybe the hurricane will help someone out there realize that slapping them is like slapping a conjoined twin.
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Date: 2005-09-07 07:49 pm (UTC)I'm probably going to get this wrong, but as I understand it: What it comes down to is that you love others equally, regardless of who they are. Hitler is as worthy of your love as Mother Theresa. This does not necessarily mean that you condone all of their actions, necessarily, but you recognize that everyone is just a human being who suffers. They are who they are because of a complex series of conditions. It makes as much sense to hate them for what they've become than it does to hate a bookshelf from rotting through and breaking, or your hair for going grey.
To be honest, I don't hate Republicans. This is not to say they don't frustrate and upset me. This does not mean that I don't foam at the mouth and rant when they do something I think is stupid. But in the end... they're just people who are trying to do what they feel they need to do.