Monday, June 06, 2005

We Abandon Them and Wonder Why They're Pissed

Spent the weekend in West Palm Beach, enjoying northeastern accents amid an ocean breeze and palm trees. With delis like TooJay's and an abundance of ethnic diversity, the east coast of Florida is like a little slice of heaven.

As my newly married brother-in-law will tell you, though, in order to get to paradise, one often has to journey through hell. For me, hell is also known as Central Florida.

Or is it?

Yes, the communities are poor and sweltering in summertime heat. I’m always amazed at houses and trailers that seem too small for one, very large man sitting on the porch, let alone a multi-generational family of fifteen. Sure, tent revivals and evangelical-themed billboards give Jewish families or even progressive Christian types more than a few panic attacks. I found myself singing along with “Jesusland” by Ben Folds and feeling a sense of disdain and superiority over ignorance disguised as roadside fruit stands.

Then I got b*tch-slapped by the moderate who lives inside my head.

What makes me think political affiliation indicates a more evolved human being? I mean, all one has to do is watch noted-liberal Ashton Kutcher converse with the camera on Punk’d to know that ain’t always the case. Am I really so evolved if I’m scoffing at people I’ve never met? How am I different from those who have never met me yet believe they know everything they need to based on terms like “Jew Femi-Nazi”? (I know, they’re not far off, but that’s beside the point.)

I’ve never stopped in Y’all Come Back Soon-Saloon. I've never talked with people who spend their lives picking fruit and selling it to folks just driving through. What do I really know about them? What do I really know about families fed by the phosphate factories they work in all day only to be poisoned by the same factories’ pollution when they go home at night and have a glass of water?

I’d forgotten that the way unions won the south and rural counties was by moving in and living among them. That’s also how civil rights got the help and attention it deserved as well. In every successful struggle, we literally joined with them. We all got to know each other. Now, some might say familiarity breeds contempt. A friend from work used to say "knowing is loving". I tend to agree with her.

I’m not saying we should live among them to exploit concerns and make ourselves richer and more powerful. We're not Repubs, after all, and that's how they won the latest round. Democrats must get to know these rural voters again so we can help them and ourselves get this state and country back on track. We need to listen more and talk less. It's quite obvious that we're only going to save ourselves if we do it together.

What are we so afraid of anyway? For the next road trip, I've already forewarned my husband: If that saloon has Guinness, I’m in.

3 Comments:

At 6/08/2005, Anonymous Anonymous said...

There's no moderate in there, it's all liberal. And it's just like a lib to think that the rural population has to "get fixed" or "straightened out".

 
At 6/09/2005, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Let's hope anonymous got/gets "fixed."

 
At 6/10/2005, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Something has to be fixed, I found out that saloon doesn't serve Guinness. G*ddamn tragedy, that's what that is.

 

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