{"id":1965,"date":"2006-08-20T12:11:06","date_gmt":"2006-08-20T18:11:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/the-atheists-pulpit\/casting-stones\/"},"modified":"2006-08-20T13:49:36","modified_gmt":"2006-08-20T19:49:36","slug":"casting-stones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/the-atheists-pulpit\/casting-stones\/","title":{"rendered":"casting stones"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you haven’t seen the video of George Allen, contender for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008 — well, where the hell have you been? Actually, I missed it until Friday night on PBS, but word is that it has been the most viewed clip on YouTube.com.<\/p>\n

The video was shot by a young American man of Indian descent who works for Allen’s opponent in a Virginia race. In it, Allen looks right into the camera and addresses the young man with a strange term that may be derogatory.<\/p>\n

It’s not the language that matters here; you need to see Allen’s mien and posture. This is a man caught being very ugly, being a bully. He’ll go far in politics.<\/p>\n

Now, I’m certain we’ve all done things we’d rather not see on video, maybe even ugly or mean things. But, we’re not all contenders for the presidency — no matter how low the entrance requirements have sunk.<\/p>\n

Allen is a strange bird, from Southern California but with Dixie in his heart.<\/p>\n

These days, many southerners protest they are held to an unfair standard. Let’s see: generations of slavery, secession from the union with bloody consequences, birthplace of Jim Crow, the Klan and lynching — aw, what the hell, all is forgiven.<\/p>\n

By this rude summary, I do not mean to paint all Southerners as participants in or celebrants of every aspect of their history — OUR history. I sincerely sympathize with generous, kind-hearted, colorblind, love-thy-neighbor Southerners who feel unfairly judged. Nevertheless, there are a lot of Confederate battle flags around. It used to be said, “the South shall rise again.” It did — and put Duhbya in the White House.<\/p>\n

At the same time, it is clear that Boston could be south of Richmond if that’s how we rate racism. Racism, like all the -isms, is deeply human if inhumane. Few of us are genuinely innocent after a few years steeped in whatever niche of our culture. Hate is human. Ignorance even more so. mjh<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read mjh\u2019s blog \u2014 The Real Inaugural Address<\/a><\/p>\n

Brothers and Sisters, it has taken nearly 150 years to win our war against Northern Aggression. A lot of Yankee blood has watered our gardens. Now, we are triumphant. We have beaten the Beast …. [read one of my favs<\/a>]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you haven’t seen the video of George Allen, contender for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008 — well, where the hell have you been? Actually, I missed it until Friday night on PBS, but word is that it has been the most viewed clip on YouTube.com. The video was shot by a young American … Continue reading casting stones<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-atheists-pulpit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1965"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1965\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}