Why is it that Republicans are always pegged as racists?  The more I see, the more I’m convinced it’s liberals who are the most racist.  Take affirmative action for one.  People maintain that we need affirmative action to get businesses to hire minorities, that businesses won’t hire minorities without such requirements.  How does that solve any problems at all?  All you’re doing in that case is just saying you don’t think minorities are good enough to compete.  If someone is forced to hire someone based on race or gender, it forces you to look at that person only with that characteristic in mind.  If you want to change opinions and perceptions, you go about it by treating everyone as equals.  All men were created equal, right?

I’m not even going to go into the whole hate crime bill.  See point made above. Okay, on to what started this whole post in the first place.  A while back, I started a library of classics to read to my kids at bedtime when I finally have kids.  I was looking into the Uncle Remus stories to see how they stacked up as appropriate for children.  So, I pick up the copy at Borders to scan through, and after about 20 pages, I realize I’m not reading the Joel Chandler Harris originals.  I check out the foreword in which the author/abridger just prates on about cleaning up the stories so that they can be enjoyed by a modern audience without worrying about racist language, yada yada yada.  It pissed me off. 
I mean, if they’re going to clean it up and fix up the language, why don’t they also use complete sentences?  The format isn’t dialogue like the originals, but they still have sentences like “Tar Baby don’t say nothing.”  That’s right, that’s the actual sentence used, not a fragment made by me.  And why do they still call him BRER Rabbit?  Don’t they know Brer was how Harris heard Brother?  The originals are a remarkable ethnographic example of regional dialogue.  Not just Southern, but Caribbean also.  Do they really think that people are stupid enough not to realize that the stories arent’ how black people speak today?  The impression I got from the new edition is that no matter how educated or upstanding the person is, he’s still inferior. 

What’s up with that? 
 I can’t go on.  I’m too upset.

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Send us an e-mail to locke[at]getitoffthechest.com

    Alright, so I’m at the gas station filling up today minding my own business and this guy behind me comes up and says that if I get a parking ticket in town, it’s gonna be $500 because they don’t like George Bush around here. Presumably, this is because he saw that I have Texas license plates, which is what pissed me off the most.If this is the kind of gross generalization that gets done in a supposedly liberal community, how are we expected to have any progress as a society?

    First off, the assumption that this is a liberal community is far from correct.  Sure,there is a university which many people strictly label as a haven of leftist politics (I didn’t see that when I was there.I saw a wide variety of opinions.Some people were willing to listen to opposing viewpoints, others weren’t) and a good number of theHollywood community could add to that belief.  However, the sheer amount of money floating around these parts indicates those with the money might be more likely to vote conservative.That is certainly how my former boss felt since he wanted to keep as much of the $100,000 he made each year as a veterinarian.

    Now, I’m not really sure which issue in particular might have this guy pissed off at Bush, but let’s assume it is the war since that is always a hot topic.  I’m not sure if the display is still going on, but for a long time every weekend for the past few years, there was a protest of the war by a guy who just put up crosses on the beach for everyU.S. soldier killed in the war on terror.  And there was also a lot of controversy about it from local families of soldiers who felt that this was an insult to their relatives who had died overseas to be used in such a way.  Let’s not forget how popular fleet week is around here either.  So, there is no major consensus on the war here.

    On to the part that really got me mad, lumping all Texans into one group.  Texas is a HUGE state.  To think that there is only one type of person in the entire population shows just how closed minded one is.  We’re not all cowboys or shitkickers.  Not all of us consider football the greatest thing on God’s green
earth.  Hell, we don’t all even have the same accent.  And we don’t all agree on Bush.

So listen up leftists.  If you want to march in lockstep to what the image of Berkeley used to be, fine.  But remember, it’s just an image.  This country was founded on the basis of a free-thinking people who were
open to take in all viewpoints in thoughtful discussion before making decisions and that’s not going to change anytime soon if I have anything to do with it.

Consider this blog the last holdout for exchange of opinions like the salons of old France.

Also if you got anything that you would like to get off your chest.
Send your writting to locke[at]getitoffthechest.com