General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: ...and then a man rode through the lines bearing a white flag. [View all]JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)The reality of my high school history course in the deep South: we never got past the "War Between the States." It was the 1950s, and for the people of the city in which I lived, American history, time itself maybe, stopped right there, right in the moments before the South was defeated. The reality of the defeat was not to be acknowledged. It hurt their pride too much.
And now we have Rand Paul and the rest of the Republicans who want to be in the White House but who cannot afflord to live in the present because they need the votes of Southerners. And the majority of Southerners have to this date not yet admitted they were wrong about slavery, about segregation, about race more generally.
Yet we are a nation of diversity. And it is the failure to deal with that reality that holds large portions of our country back.
Every major issue cannot be viewed clearly by just a little less than half the country because that less than half sees everything through a filter of color and race. They fear and hate people of color, anyone they perceive as different from themselves, and they pretend that their ignorance and prejudice is some righteous expression of religion.
They confuse religious freedom with the freedom to hate and despise people who are different from them. That is what they did in the Civil War, and that is what they do today.
Let everyone over 18 vote. Everyone.