Friday, November 05, 2004
Non upgraded accounts
Well, I tried to put this in the comments but my account is not upgraded, and so I can't.
All right, you're right, it's not zero sum. And don't think for a minute that I don't have respect for some, even most, aspects of redneck culture. Hell, the south has at least as rich a literary tradition as Los Angeles (it would be no contest except I include screenplays).
But that pesky church/state thing I can't really drop. I still think it's pretty clear that if it never occured to you to be offended by "Under God" in the Pledge, and you think it's fine that the ten commandments are posted in public places then you don't mind state endorsement of religion (again, pls. see Elk Grove Unified v. Newdow). To the extent that you accept state endorsement of religion, you are aligning yourself with other theocracies. And it's a matter of degree, don't get me wrong. But it's not a matter of principle: a Muslim state that endorses a religion is acting on the same principle as a Christian state. One of the founding principles of this country is supposed to be that we don't let our government get into that at all. I wholeheartedly agree that the first two items on the list are characteristic of rednecks. I will deny to the death that they're virtues.
One last thing: Elk Grove Unified is in California; it's not a redneck thing only (although god forbid someone in, say, Birmingham had brought that suit: the guys who protested for Roy Moore would have had his head on a stick. Or a cross! Kidding! Kidding! Relax!).
Look, I've been all over the country and I've been on every side of the cultural divide. When I came to Knoxville I was a carpetbagger from D.C. When I went to Massachusetts, I was a dumb redneck from Appalachia. When I taught school in Georgia, I was again, a carpetbagger from Massachusetts. & out here in Los Angeles, I'm a dumbass southerner (and most of my friends out here are from Georgia). To put it bluntly, I've never lived in a part of the country where people didn't see the places I lived before as a liability or question whether I authentically belonged there (Idaho? Alaska? Surely there's some state that doesn't hate the rest of them...). Except Italy, where they thought I was a yahoo just for being from the states. The fact of the matter is this: in blue states, people assume I'm from a red state, and in red states, people assume I'm from a blue state. And they assign all sorts of attitudes to me based on that, and I think it's a stupid thing to fight over; Obama got that right. So Jody, you're touchy when rednecks are, as a group, denigrated. Fine: for that I apologize. But I'm touchy about anything that celebrates cultural differences between the south and the rest of the country (at least when those cultural differences are things I don't agree with), because in Los Angeles and Boston, I am a redneck. But I don't think for a minute that "under God" should be in the Pledge & I don't like having to explain that. In Georgia and Tennessee, I'm a bicoastal elitist. But I don't march around blaming America for everything. It's never that simple.
Those crazy, wacky gays: OK, tolerate, don't approve, ok. I won't ask you to approve. But I will & do ask you to leave that out of the constitution; let the states decide. Otherwise, you're imposing your moral values on me: just as bad. Gay marriage has been legal in Mass. for months and America hasn't collapsed, and it doesn't look like it's about to become legal in Virginia.
My next posts will not be political.
Comments(0) |
All right, you're right, it's not zero sum. And don't think for a minute that I don't have respect for some, even most, aspects of redneck culture. Hell, the south has at least as rich a literary tradition as Los Angeles (it would be no contest except I include screenplays).
But that pesky church/state thing I can't really drop. I still think it's pretty clear that if it never occured to you to be offended by "Under God" in the Pledge, and you think it's fine that the ten commandments are posted in public places then you don't mind state endorsement of religion (again, pls. see Elk Grove Unified v. Newdow). To the extent that you accept state endorsement of religion, you are aligning yourself with other theocracies. And it's a matter of degree, don't get me wrong. But it's not a matter of principle: a Muslim state that endorses a religion is acting on the same principle as a Christian state. One of the founding principles of this country is supposed to be that we don't let our government get into that at all. I wholeheartedly agree that the first two items on the list are characteristic of rednecks. I will deny to the death that they're virtues.
One last thing: Elk Grove Unified is in California; it's not a redneck thing only (although god forbid someone in, say, Birmingham had brought that suit: the guys who protested for Roy Moore would have had his head on a stick. Or a cross! Kidding! Kidding! Relax!).
Look, I've been all over the country and I've been on every side of the cultural divide. When I came to Knoxville I was a carpetbagger from D.C. When I went to Massachusetts, I was a dumb redneck from Appalachia. When I taught school in Georgia, I was again, a carpetbagger from Massachusetts. & out here in Los Angeles, I'm a dumbass southerner (and most of my friends out here are from Georgia). To put it bluntly, I've never lived in a part of the country where people didn't see the places I lived before as a liability or question whether I authentically belonged there (Idaho? Alaska? Surely there's some state that doesn't hate the rest of them...). Except Italy, where they thought I was a yahoo just for being from the states. The fact of the matter is this: in blue states, people assume I'm from a red state, and in red states, people assume I'm from a blue state. And they assign all sorts of attitudes to me based on that, and I think it's a stupid thing to fight over; Obama got that right. So Jody, you're touchy when rednecks are, as a group, denigrated. Fine: for that I apologize. But I'm touchy about anything that celebrates cultural differences between the south and the rest of the country (at least when those cultural differences are things I don't agree with), because in Los Angeles and Boston, I am a redneck. But I don't think for a minute that "under God" should be in the Pledge & I don't like having to explain that. In Georgia and Tennessee, I'm a bicoastal elitist. But I don't march around blaming America for everything. It's never that simple.
Those crazy, wacky gays: OK, tolerate, don't approve, ok. I won't ask you to approve. But I will & do ask you to leave that out of the constitution; let the states decide. Otherwise, you're imposing your moral values on me: just as bad. Gay marriage has been legal in Mass. for months and America hasn't collapsed, and it doesn't look like it's about to become legal in Virginia.
My next posts will not be political.
Comments(0) |
