Monday, January 25, 2010

The More Things Change...

It has been a couple three months since I last posted. In retrospect it felt as though there was nothing much to say, and then all too much. But the craziness over the past couple months just leaves me breathless.

Massachusetts decided that a right-wing Republican who snidely asserted that he wasn't sure the president's parents were married, that that idiot was the best person to replace Senator Ted Kennedy? Huh? Say what?

Then here in the South someone named Moose, or something such, took a page right out of the Old Dixie handbook. (New South 21st century, Old Dixie very 19th century.) Moose announced the formation of an all-white men, born in America basketball league, creatively named the All American Basketball League! (How clever is that?) No street ball for these guys, no sir, no girls league either I guess. If there are women involved you can bet they'll be wearing cute short skirts, tight tops, and dancing the night away. Moose's league, they will just play the fundamentals of the game thank you very much, none of that exciting dunking, and fast breaks, none of that breaking the backboard because the guys jump so high with such force that they often bring the whole thing down. Uh huh, there are millions of people who will line up for this. (IDFTS!)

Now Moose says he's not doing this out of hatred. No, no, that's too crass. No, he's doing this because he's a minority now. Yup, that's right, he's a minority! Huh? It makes my head spin to see how these folks contort themselves; they could join Cirque du Soleil as verbal contortionists, up is down, left is right, wrong is right. So 1984. Fortunately so far Moose isn't getting much traction with his league. But he has outlined that the league is focused on the Southern states, surprise surprise. Like many white men, especially in the South, seeing a sea change in the nation as we strive to continue our journey out of the Dark Ages of the 20th Century, they are not going willingly.

Personally my position is that when a system has been built to provide one with every advantage, every privilege, every break, a system that gives you the benefit of the doubt based solely upon your skin color and your gender, and you can't make it, feel a need to" lower the baskets" so to speak, then that sounds like a personal problem to me.

Ever since the election in Massachusetts, I feel as though I must have missed a step somewhere along the line. How do you rationally go from Kennedy to, what's this guy's name? It was just last August that people were lined up for hours in the heat and sun to pay their respects to Senator Kennedy. To thank him for his decades of work and effort to help us fix this hot-mess of a health care system. Really. Watching the outpouring of emotion and expressions of grief was just heart warming. And then the folks turn around and__??

Cognitive dissonance. The past few months have been a carousel of dissonant moment after dissonant moment. Where's the rabbit hole y'all? Or should I be looking for the hand basket?