This diary was partially inspired by the recommended diary by cskendrick which I very much enjoyed.
Last night my wife and I went to Thirsty Thursday at the local minor league baseball park. If you don't know the ritual, they sell dollar beers on thursdays so the park fills up with all kinds of local color making an appearance. Asheville, my town for the last 8 years, is a stalwart progressive city, but the progressives that have come here from boulder, austin, the northeast, and everywhere in between, and of course the local progressives, are overlaid upon a very vigorous, very proud, very defiant Appalachian culture. These are the people who brought 10,000 people together for a "we still pray" rally when prayer was taken from the most sacred of cathedrals: the football stadium.
My wife is a second grade teacher and was meeting up with some other teachers who were to be at the game. By the time we all synced up, it was the 4th inning or so, so the group had already a nice head start on the dollar beers. We stumbled into a political discussion between two guys in the group, both self described republicans. My wife, the other two teachers (one an african american man), and myself stayed out of the fray, biting our tongues as the ignorance flowed.
First there was a flourish of appreciation from both repugs for Mike Huckabee, and a general disappointment with how he had been painted a religous zealot and "the southern candidate" by the liberal media. One of the men (I'll call repug1) proved to be more moderate in his opinions attempted to temper the conversation with a little bit of logic and reason.
Repug2 on the other hand was not to be contained.. clearly feeling no fear with a head full of bud light, he jumped into the Democratic field saying "I know who I ain't gonna vote for." Repug1's rejoinder "The hillmonster?"<sic> .. Repug2 drew on his cigarette, considered, looked at the african american in the group, obviously engaged in another conversation, muttered "I should just keep my mouth shut", swilled his beer, gained more confidence and drawled "naw, curious george over there"
The air was sucked out of the conversation, I bit my tongue, not wanting to start a scene amongst my wife's coworkers. Receiving no challenge, he was emboldened and went on.. "Anyone who won't put their hand over their heart for the pledge, I can't vote for him. I mean, he won't even wear a flag lapel pin" The other teachers, my wife, and I shared flabbergasted eye rolls. Repug1 begged to differ "No, he started wearing the pin the other day" he assured. Repug2 was not to be swayed "No, he doesn't wear one!" this went on for a while and they agreed to disagree on the notion, and we all moved on to more comfortable small talk.
A little while later Repug2 slid off to get a beer (making conversation with the people in the front of the line to scam skipping a 15 minute wait). Repug1 took this as an opportunity to apologize for the other man (who he had just met) and ensure us that "we're not all knuckle dragging morons". For the rest of the evening, Repug2 was basically ignored (even as he decided to urinate in the back corner of the stadium instead of finding a more appropriate spot) and we all had a good time.
That moment still sticks in my head though. I think -- well that guy's not going to vote democratic anyway, so it doesn't matter. I live with this type of attitude on a daily basis on the jobsite (I'm on a lot of construction sites) as I see the new generation of crackersmilking the clock while the underpaid latinos bust their asses to build houses for millionaires. I hear racist jokes, gay jokes, sexist jokes whenever I get stuck in a room with these guys. But frequency does nothing to lessen the blow.
A few years ago on MLK jr Day, I was driving around listening to the local progressive station (checkout WNCW if you love music), they were playing the "I have a dream" speech. I look up at a stoplight and see a jacked up pickup truck with two 17 year olds in the cab. Flying proudly from the back of the truck was a huge confederate flag, waving in protest. Just another day in the life of Appalachia.