Banning Books Limits Freedom - CharlotteObserver.com

Kay McSpadden teaches English in a high-poverty school in rural South Carolina. Her essays on teaching are featured in a column she writes for The Charlotte Observer. Some of them have been published in a book-- Notes from a Classroom: Reflections on Teaching.

This is her most recent column:

Banning books limits freedom - CharlotteObserver.com

Bought a Banned Book Lately?

If the political climate is any indication, this is a week to ponder. It's National Banned Books Week.

It is one of life's ironies that the same people who are often most vociferous about their own First Amendment rights are the same voices who would deny that same right to others. When one of our state universities selected Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich for their freshman summer reading assignment, there was a public outcry from some very angry parents. On the other hand, Atlas Shrugged is a part of the business school curriculum in some of our colleges and universities because an area bank gave them millions of dollars if they'd put it there. The idea, the bank executives said, was to bring forth debate on the "ethical underpinnings" of capitalism. That might also be said of Nickel and Dimed.

Those university book lists are wonderful resources for forays into critical thinking. This year's selection, Picking Cotton, must have sparked some interesting discussions.

Here, according to the American Library Association, is a list of the most frequently challenged books of 2009:

1. “TTYL; TTFN; L8R, G8R (series), by Lauren Myracle
Reasons: Nudity, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group, Drugs
2. “And Tango Makes Three” by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson
Reasons: Homosexuality
3. “The Perks of Being A Wallflower,” by Stephen Chbosky
Reasons: Homosexuality, Sexually Explicit, Anti-Family, Offensive Language, Religious Viewpoint, Unsuited to Age Group, Drugs, Suicide
4. “To Kill A Mockingbird,” by Harper Lee
Reasons: Racism, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group
5. Twilight (series) by Stephenie Meyer
Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Religious Viewpoint, Unsuited to Age Group
6. “Catcher in the Rye,” by J.D. Salinger
Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group
7. “My Sister’s Keeper,” by Jodi Picoult
Reasons: Sexism, Homosexuality, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Religious Viewpoint, Unsuited to Age Group, Drugs, Suicide, Violence
8. “The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big, Round Things,” by Carolyn Mackler
Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group
9. “The Color Purple,” Alice Walker
Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group
10. “The Chocolate War,” by Robert Cormier
Reasons: Nudity, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group

Black Beauty was banned by the Apartheid-based South African government for almost 50 years before they discovered it wasn't a book about a black woman. An anniversary edition of The Diary of Anne Frank was banned from being taught in Virginia public schools in January, 2010. Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? was also banned in January, 2010, because the author had the same name as an obscure Marxist and they didn't bother to check to see whether or not it was the same guy. Who was "they" in this instance?

Hello, Texas Board of Education. (You know, the same group that is rewriting textbooks to make them more to their liking.)

Also banned this year--this one at a California elementary school--was the new Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary because of its "oral sex" definition.

Several police associations attempted to have Caldecott Medal winner Sylvester and the Magic Pebble removed from school libraries because the police were portrayed by pigs. Sylvester, incidentally, is a donkey. For that matter, he might be a liberal Democrat.

I was curious about what guidelines are used in children's libraries and found that the Library Bill of Rights includes a section on Free Access to Libraries by Minors. What it says is that you can control what your kid reads, but not what someone else's kid chooses.

That freedom stuff is tricky, huh? But doesn't it beat the alternative?

If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind. Were an opinion a personal possession of no value except to the owner; if to be obstructed in the enjoyment of it were simply a private injury, it would make some difference whether the injury was inflicted only on a few persons or on many. But the peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is, that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error.

— On Liberty, John Stuart Mill

Too Close To Home

Two (apparently) unrelated topics; one disgruntled South Carolina blogger.

Topic One: Healthcare

From The State, Columbia, SC's newspaper, these headlines:

SC health insurers cutting coverage to some kids

"'As national health care reform takes effect, health insurance carriers in South Carolina have halted access to new individual policies for children - a move that could leave families unable to find insurance for their healthy children', advocates said.

Starting this week, insurance companies are prohibited by law from denying plans to children 19 years old and younger who have pre-existing medical conditions.

South Carolina insurance companies said they must suspend new policies for that market because the sudden influx of sick children, and of those whose parents enroll them after learning of a major illness or accident, would drive up premiums for all policyholders.

Ann Roberson, spokeswoman for the S.C. Department of Insurance, said carriers are waiting on "additional guidance" from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services about implementing the expanded coverage. They want to know, for example, whether an open enrollment period will be defined to prevent patients from getting coverage only after they need it, Roberson said.

'I certainly hope the administration will provide the appropriate clarification to insurance providers so they can re-enter this market," Republican Rep. Joe Wilson said in a statement.'" (My emphasis).

And I say, Joe Wilson, you lie.

You'll remember Joe Wilson, of course, the impulse-disordered voice from the floor, yelling at the President during his address to Congress on health care reform. (Obviously, Joe's uncontrollable outburst brought on by  his pre-existing condition). The President stated, "There are also those who claim that our reform effort will insure illegal immigrants. This, too, is false - the reforms I'm proposing would not apply to those who are here illegally." And then Joe Wilson made fool of himself. And he lied again later when he attempted to explain his outburst, claiming to be an immigration attorney. Joe Wilson was a real estate attorney--first, last, and always. Make a note of that and we'll get back to it.


Both Joe Wilson and the SC insurers mentioned above are lying. Insurers are not suspending new individual coverage to healthy children because the new regulations are a little confusing. They are reneging on their pledge to honor the spirit of the law. They are taking advantage of every possible loophole in order to avoid compliance with new laws that might cut into their gigantic profits...just as they always have. Just as they did when they refused to cover children with pre-existing conditions before the new healthcare reform act.


True, many Americans are confused by the new laws and need more information, but--trust me on this--the insurance companies are NOT confused. Their attorneys, whose billable hours are paid for by your premiums, have been pouring over every jot and tittle of the new law for months. No, the insurance companies are counting on the confusion of the average American to keep from getting called out for deception.


Consumer groups are furious, naturally. In California, another state where the largest insurance carriers are refusing to write new individual policies for children, Anthony Wright, executive director of Health Access California, a consumer advocacy organization, stated to the LATimes, "Insurers need to decide if they are in the business of providing care or denying coverage." 


Bless your heart, Mr. Wright; insurance companies are not remotely interested in providing either care or coverage. Insurance companies are in the business of collecting your money as premiums and hanging on to it by their teeth like bulldogs 'til they draw blood. 


The South Carolina Department Of Insurance, Consumer Health Insurance site is...well, toothless. From their FAQ site today--no changes in sight:

Can an insurance company turn me down for individual health insurance coverage? If a company can turn me down, how can I obtain health insurance coverage?

 Yes, you can be turned down. The South Carolina Department of Insurance has no jurisdiction over the underwriting decisions of an insurance company; therefore, we can't require they insure you.

If you are turned down for coverage, you can get coverage through the South Carolina Health Insurance Pool (SCHIP). 

SCHIP is a high risk pool for people who have been turned down by private insurers due to health problems. The issue at hand today is entirely different. Insurers aren't turning down sick children; they are refusing to sell ANY new individual policies to healthy children.

That means that if, for instance, your employer's health policy is too expensive for your family of four and you choose to shop for individual insurance, you can obtain today it for yourself and your wife, but not for your children.

Topic Two: Immigration

We found out yesterday that our neighbor Edgar is being deported to Costa Rica on October 1st. He is the hardest-working man I think I've ever met...all temperatures, all humidities, all day, every day. Edgar owns a lawn and landscape service. When we're lucky, we can hire his service to babysit our yard while we're out of town, and, at those times, I don't dread coming home to face the results; I look forward to it. As he always told us, he'd be driving by our house every day anyway, so he could easily see what needed to be done.

Many of Edgar's employees have been able to obtain their US citizenship in recent years, but not Edgar. He's been here for many years and has run his business reliably and well. Wherever we see him, he smiles, waves, and calls us by name. His house is always tidy-looking and his yard looks fabulous.

In April of this year, Representative Eric Bedingfield, R-Greenville, introduced an immigration bill to the SC House that he modeled to be "virtually the same" as the Arizona immigration law that had just been signed. "It provides a procedure for verifying a person's immigration status under certain circumstances and provides for the arrest of a person suspected of being present in the United States unlawfully," Bedingfield says. 


According to a poll published today, " sixty-nine percent of Palmetto State voters favor passage of an immigration law like Arizona's in South Carolina, higher than support nationally.  Just 20% are opposed to such a law." That same poll shows a 52% to 36% lead for tough-on-immigration Republican gubernatorial candidate Nikki Haley over Democratic candidate Vincent Sheheen. 


I fear that, as the election rhetoric heats up, South Carolina politicians will be pointing to deportation numbers to bolster their own numbers. I also fear that voters haven't much to choose between the two candidates when it comes to immigration. The State newspaper reports, 

Sheheen said a South Carolina law approved in 2008 is a better law because it sets tougher standards for verifying employee residency and provides local law enforcement the ability to enforce immigration law.

“Ours is frankly tougher,” Sheheen said. “We need to fully implement the law that we passed and that’s not been done.”

I don't hold out much hope for my neighbor. My husband wrote to our State Senator asking that he do what he can for Edgar, but there's so little time. Edgar tells us that he has spent $30,000 on attorney fees trying to appeal the deportation. I don't know why he cannot stay and I don't know who represented him legally, but I know it couldn't have been Joe Wilson.

Mother Teddy Bears Unite

Bear with me here, Dear Reader, as I make my case for a coalition of mothers...once known as Refrigerator Mothers, and herein reborn as Mother Teddy Bears--of children with Autism Spectrum Disorders, schizophrenia, and--how should I put this--any and all iterations of LGBTOMG.

I'll let Rachel Maddow provide the front story. Saves my carpal tunnels.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Christine O'Donnell and the Value Voters (and, by implication and association, Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee, and all the Republicans who showed up at the Value Voters Summit) believe that gays shouldn't be allowed to marry; many still believe that gays can and should be cured. O'Donnell founded The Saviors Alliance For Lifting The Truth and promoted Americans For Truth About Homosexuality.  The cure touted by Values Queen Christine for "the gay" is to address a man's repressed anger at his mother for not being warm enough. (It's always men in these scenarios. Do they consider lesbians beyond hope?) Make that pillow the surrogate for your cold, hard, rigid mother and beat the crap out of it. Yeah, that'll work.

Dear Reader, they are talking about a psychogenic theory of mental illness that was debunked by psychologists and psychiatrists in the 1960's!

Photo by Darth Bengal

Back story: In the fifties, the refrigerator mother was blamed for schizophrenia. And she was blamed for what we now call Autism Spectrum Disorders (which include Aspergers Disorder, autism, Rett's Syndrome, and Pervasive Developmental Disorder). In theory, her cold, hard, rejecting persona wrecked normal development in her children.  This theory was based on Freudian concepts, notions that we now largely find quaint, if not bizarre. Back then, it was believed that autism and schizophrenia were primarily socialization and behavioral disorders caused by bad Betty Draperish moms.


Sixty years ago, whatever science did not understand was laid at the feet of parenting. Don't get me wrong, parenting and early childhood experiences are highly significant in personality development, but schizophrenia, autism, and homosexuality are not personality problems.

Schizophrenia is a genetic disorder that occurs in 1% of the population in all countries and results in differences in the make-up of the brain. The National Institutes of Mental Health states:

In fact, recent research has found that people with schizophrenia tend to have higher rates of rare genetic mutations. These genetic differences involve hundreds of different genes and probably disrupt brain development.

Other recent studies suggest that schizophrenia may result in part when a certain gene that is key to making important brain chemicals malfunctions. This problem may affect the part of the brain involved in developing higher functioning skills. Research into this gene is ongoing, so it is not yet possible to use the genetic information to predict who will develop the disease. Scientists think interactions between genes and the environment are necessary for schizophrenia to develop. Many environmental factors may be involved, such as exposure to viruses or malnutrition before birth, problems during birth, and other not yet known psychosocial factors. [emphasis, mine]

Please note that no Refrigerator Mothering is even suspected. Likewise, for Autism Spectrum Disorders. Now, back to those bad mommies who made their kids gay or lesbian.

So-called Christian Fundamentalists believe that parenting and bad choices create homosexuality and that there's a two-part cure: the bible and the right therapy.

Bible first: Fundamentalists primarily cite two verses. Levicus 20:13 (Old Testament, the third of five books of the Jewish Torah) offers the definitive cure,

 "And if a man lie with mankind, as with womankind, both of them have committed abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them."

So much for gay Jews. When Paul and Sosthenes were trying to build a minority religious movement in Corinth and encountered the legendary throngs of Greek perverts, they prudently tried a less drastic approach:

"Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God" (1 Corinthians 6:9-11).

Basically, Paul's letters to the Corinthians recommended that they baptize and convert all the homos...right along with what sounds like the entire population of Corinth.

And the therapy recommended by the Fundamentalists to rid gays and lesbians of their curse? Taken directly from the Primal Therapy of the 1970's--a period when the Refrigerator Mother theory was slow to die and better science had not yet taken hold.

 Most treatments for homosexuality, at that time still considered an illness, were based on the work of Masters and Johnson, who published Homosexuality In Perspective in 1979. That work was supposedly the result of a fourteen year study of 300 homosexual men and women; in it, Johnson claimed a 70% conversion rate for 12 homosexuals who were dissatisfied with their sexual orientation and accepted treatment.

 William Masters and Virginia Johnson appearing on "Meet the Press" in 1979

Looking into those "conversion" cases, staffers and therapists at the clinic have since cast doubt on their validity and, in fact, think that Bill Masters invented specific cases and concocted success stories. His wife and partner, Virginia Johnson, agrees. From Scientific American, April, 2009:

But were Masters and Johnson's claims of "conversion" in those 12 cases -- nine men and three women -- even true?

Prior to the book's publication, doubts arose about the validity of their case studies. Most staffers never met any of the conversion cases during the study period of 1968 through 1977, according to research I've done for my new book Masters of Sex. Clinic staffer Lynn Strenkofsky, who organized patient schedules during this period, says she never dealt with any conversion cases. Marshall and Peggy Shearer, perhaps the clinic's most experienced therapy team in the early 1970s, says they never treated homosexuals and heard virtually nothing about conversion therapy.

"That was a bad book," Johnson recalled decades later. Johnson said she favored a rewriting and revision of the whole book "to fit within the existing [medical] literature," and feared that Bill (Johnson) simply didn't know what he was talking about. At worst, she said, "Bill was being creative in those days" in the compiling of the "gay conversion" case studies. 

There's the "science" on which the Value Voters base their position. That's where Values Queen Christine put her fundraising energies and her time. Note that the saviors of "the gay" don't rely on faith alone; they use outdated, debunked, and fabricated pseudo-science.

They completely ignore the groundbreaking work in genetics and brain imaging of the last twenty years that has pointed science toward a real understanding of the Autism Spectrum disorders and Schizophrenia. And to the differences (not disorders) of sexual and affectional orientation in humans. All of them.


So, I call on all of you who are mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles, kin and kith of children of any age with schizophrenia, Autism Spectrum disorders, and what Maddow ironically dubs The Gay to band together and stand up to the Values Voters who would ignore twenty years of science. Investigation into the genetic causes and brain differences of the disorders (and I don't include LGBTs in that group) offers the first real hope for treatment that families have ever known. And for LGBT's, those investigations offer understanding and acceptance that is long overdue.

Refrigerator Mothers, refudiate that designation, declare yourself Mother Teddy Bears, and make your presence known--on line, in your communities, and at the polls.

Witchy Woman

"I shouldn't have voted against Christine O'Donnell.  When she said she 'dabbled into witchcraft', she wasn't kidding!"

Cartoon created by Ima June Pullet (aka TexasTrailerParkTrash)

Listening to the Melody of Living

It was two years ago today that I received the phone call from my sister's husband, Bob. I don't recall his precise words, but I know that when I understood what he was telling me that my world stopped and all I could hear was silence. It seems so contrary, how can silence have a sound? But it does, it's as if all the air has been sucked out of a room and the silence echoes loudly and then you realize that people are trying to ask you what's wrong. You hear an unfamiliar voice and vaguely recognize it as your own and it's saying, "My mother died this morning."

On this second anniversary of the death of my mother, Evelyn, I went back and re-read a piece that I wrote three weeks after her death in 2008. I was struck by the following paragraph.

I confess that I've never known this kind of emotional loss and I don't feel like me. I go to work and I go through the motions of what I should do; I smile, I talk, I try to be "fine." When people ask how I am, I always say, "I'm doing okay. I'm fine." But I'm not. Everything seems so overwhelming. I come home and watch hours of mindless television. I rarely turn on my home computer; I tell myself that I'll catch up on things tomorrow, but tomorrow never comes. All that I know to do is to keep moving forward one day at a time until I find my rhythm again. I realize that this loss is personal but it is also universal. I am not the first person to lose a mother and people do survive the loss; I just have to get back in sync with living again.

I still miss my mother. I miss her 7:00 a.m. Saturday morning call and her cheery inquiry, "Were you asleep?" I miss her stories about her older sister, my Aunt Nellie Ruth, who is always terribly concerned with two topics: Jesus and other people's sex lives. I miss her rearranging all the items in my pantry so that after she departed from a visit I couldn't find anything without calling her on the phone. Most of all I miss having her always in my corner, telling me that she loved me and that whatever was troubling me was going to be okay. However, in spite of the ache that I still have for her presence, somehow I've gotten back in sync with living again.

My sister, Rhonda, and her husband Bob live only a few blocks from me. I love their home; it's so warm and inviting. They are both very funny people and spending time with them always leaves me relaxed and happy. I feel so blessed to have them nearby. My brother, James, his wife, Lou and my adult nephew, JD live in Charlotte. We keep in contact via telephone and visit on holidays. My dad visits us and I call him every Thursday night for a marathon conversation about world affairs. Mama's youngest brother, my Uncle David calls me regularly just to chat, just as he used to do with my mother. I've renewed connections with some of my cousins with whom I had lost touch over the years. I think that we've all grown to appreciate the meaning of family more.

Then there's Little D, Bob and Rhonda's grandson. His father is Bob's son and Rhonda's stepson. Little D entered this world the December after my mother died; she never met him, but I know that she would have adored him.

This past Saturday evening, I was the babysitter. Little D and I had a marvelous time. We danced, sang songs (his favorite is Itsy Bitsy Spider), and identified all animals as "cow." I corrected him but he just grinned at me and pointed to the horse, dog, rooster, and duck and firmly announced, "cow." Fortunately, he does also call the cow a cow. For some reason, the cat is a cat and not a cow.

My favorite part of the evening was when he had worn himself out and decided to climb on my lap and rest his head on my shoulder. I read him a few nursery rhymes and then sang him a lullaby as he fell asleep.

I've learned that time does have healing powers. There is still an ache in my heart and I have my moments when I miss mama so bad that I want to scream, but the ache is manageable and I no longer feel adrift. I find that I am more patient with others and with myself. I try to pay attention to the small joys of living. There is a rhythm to life; we just to have to take the time to listen to the melody.

Travel Travails

Some years ago I toured Hong Kong and part of mainland China with a senior citizens group, one of whom was my mother. She had invited me along to be her roomie. It occurred to me yesterday that if I were going to China today I'd BE one of the senior citizens instead of at least twenty years younger than anyone else in the group, as I was on that tour.

That thought hit me hard because during that trip some of the folks . . . well, they caused a few eye rolls among the rest of us and I remember thinking to myself, "Lord, don't let me ever be like that!" While I have that trip on the brain, I'm writing out a few reminders for myself from observations I made on that trip.

Rule #1 - Don't try to hide a metal flask in the waistband of your skirt. It's going to keep setting off the security beeper no matter how many other items you remove first. Especially don't try it if you're first in line with 75 other members of the tour behind you because they'll be irritated enough to cheer when the security supervisor finally takes you aside to strip search you.

Rule #2. Don't wander around the plane and lean on other folks' seat, putting your butt at someone's eye level. Also, no matter how long the flight or ride, please don't try to start a sing-a-long. Not everyone has a hearing aid she can turn off.

Rule #3. When the plane is landing, do NOT stand up and yell that your spouse is missing. As the flight attendant will explain, any spouse who boarded is still on there somewhere.

Rule #4. Show photos sparingly. If you have a picture album of your granddaughter's graduation and she's the 17th dot on the 30th row, show one closeup formal picture if you must. If, however, you are telling strangers about your wedding. . . about how you became a bride for the first time at age 85 and walked down the aisle of the Freewill Baptist Church in a long bridal gown with train in a ceremony complete with several bridesmaids. . . feel free to pull out your wedding album. Come and sit by me.

Rule #5. Pack carefully. You may have to carry your own suitcase. While daily Vitamin C and regularity are important, remember that 18 cans of grapefruit juice are quite heavy and they will probably have juice--and yes, maybe even peanut butter--at your destination. Snickers aren't heavy, so sure--pack them. And share.

Rule #6. When arriving in a foreign country, if the sign says, Stand behind the yellow line, please stand behind the yellow line. They don't mean four or five feet over it, they mean that if you don't, the armed guard is going to come over and point out that line with his rifle. It scares the crap out of the other passengers and they can't run to the bathroom because THEY'RE standing behind the yellow line.

Rule #7. If the passenger beside you becomes air-, bus-, or seasick and throws up, don't yell, "Louise is puking and her barf bag broke" even if she is and it did. It's like yelling fire in a crowded theatre among those with a quick gag reflex. Someone has to collect all those bags and I did it last time, so don't look to me!

Rule #8. Don't wander. If you do it too often, your buddy--even if it is your spouse--assumes you're back in the group somewhere and does not report you as missing. If the bus pulls off without you and a stranger is kind enough to offer a ride in the back of his pickup, do NOT ride standing like a cigar store Indian statue in the truck bed. The group will not want to reclaim you.

Rule #9. Pack Immodium. It fetches black market prices within the group, especially after the guard with the rifle passes.

Rule #10. No, the watches running up the arm of the shift-eyed guy aren't REALLY Rolexes.

Rule #11. Even if you prefer American food and don't want to try something different, you really need to have some alternative choices besides "Just bring me a hamburger" when traveling in foreign countries. And no, they probably aren't going to have a hot dog either. You'd better be willing to expand your palate or you're going to be pretty tired of that grapefruit juice and peanut butter by the time you get home.

Rule#12. PLEASE, carry your passport and money someplace that people don't have to avert their eyes every time you need to retrieve them.

A Dip in the Gene Pool

Cartoon created by Ima June Pullet (aka TexasTrailerParkTrash)

Dramamine, Anyone?

By Sally Henny Penny

Some folks wear their hearts on their sleeves, their feelings on a t-shirt, or their thoughts on their car bumpers.

Then there is this guy, who says a lot by the flags he chooses to fly on his boat. That one on the left. What is he trying to tell us?




I'm not psychic, but judging from the size of that boat and the gas it requires, I'd put him down as being for deepwater drilling, shallow water drilling, hydraulic fracturing drilling....anything that will keep the gas flowing. Also for loosening environmental regulations, making the Bush tax cuts permanent, cutting social programs, and sending the Tea Party to Congress. That, of course, in addition to being a racist, anti-Semitic symbol to stir the heart of any Klansman.

Just guessin', you understand. Your thoughts?

I think I'm getting seasick.

My Lowcountry

Samuel Henry David Alken

We've lived in the South Carolina Lowcountry for almost twenty years and it still pleases us when the real locals note, "You're not from around here, are you?" Truth is, we'll never be from around here, even if we never get to leave. And that's a prospect we struggle to face. 

In Conway, SC, which is the county seat, they don't ask where you live; they ask where you stay. Even someone born and raised in Horry County (French, "aw-ree"), who has never been farther away than to Georgetown, will tell you they stay in Conway, as if it's entirely temporary and accidental, as if they were telling you what motel they're staying in during their vacation..."We're staying in the Hilton. How about you?"

So that's my deal: I stay here. Because I can't leave yet. I stayed here this long for all those complicated reasons having to do with allowing some precious military brats to make friends and keep them all the way through high school; with having jobs that allowed us to pay for college for those same precious kids; with providing an anchor to parents whose health and mental tethers had grown increasingly slack; and with being as profoundly STUCK as every other homeowner in America right now. As fate would have it, we stay in the Lowcountry.

I have a couple of blog friends, whose work I admire, who have figured out that South Carolina is...shall we say, mean and ignunt? DRINKS BEFORE DINNER author Barry Knister uses the state as a reliable source of blog ridicule at least once every six weeks whether he needs to or not.  I always agree with him because he's clever, a terrific ironist, and he's right about SC. In his latest dead-to-rights (pun intended) salvo, Barry wrote,  "Politicians from South Carolina are all vetted before running. The process is rigorous and wide-ranging. If the person wishing to run for office reveals a capacity for higher-order cognitive functions, he’s 'de-selected.'" I wish I'd said that.

And a new friend, Bill Minnich of Nameless Cynic, has named inbreeding as the likely answer to the "timeless question, 'What the hell is wrong with South Carolina?'" He got some classic comments on his post "Something Could Be Finer" involving space women and interspecies conjugation with pigs.  There was even a comment so objectionable that Bill chose to delete it; I'm sorry I missed that one. In his newest lob at the Lowcountry, he brings up the state sport, bear baiting. Listen, Dear Reader, you'd be hard put to tell me something new about SC, and that's the most discouraging thought I've had in a year unprecedented for discouragement. Bear-baiting. I went looking for an image with which to open this post and had to do us both a favor by choosing a very stylized old painting instead of the photos available at Google Images. As Bill unmincingly notes, South Carolina is f*cked.

So how do we stand it? Well, we don't go out much. And we're very careful how we answer questions about where we "church," which is another way of asking whether we're good, God-fearing, right-wing conservatives or nasty heathen, hippie, socialist, Obama-lovers. Things are very, very black and white in this area. We've always chosen our few friends here carefully and we tend to keep an extremely low profile and well-tended, high boundaries. We read heavily. I have you and, increasingly, so does DH, who has come to think of you as friends he's never met. I even have a remarkable new SC friend, DemWit, in the Up-State, who can snark with the best of the progressives.

Charleston Single House

And we seek out the beauty in favorite spots within an easy half-day's drive. This is a beautiful place largely inhabited by unwelcoming, defensive, insular people who have every reason to feel like the rest of us don't understand them. Forget them with me for a moment. [We'll visit a couple of rice plantations. I am painfully aware of the unforgivable horror and sorrow of slavery when I am there. I walk through the buildings and grounds very quietly, trying to honor the victims, black and even some white, of that unpardonable practice.]

Hampton Plantation

Middleton Plantation

Middleton Plantation 

Middleton Plantation Gardens by Esperanto (wunderground.com)

Charleston Battery Homes

Home Garden, Charleston

Bald Head Point

Bald Head Light

Beaufort Inn, Beaufort, SC

You're welcome. I just bought my copy of Pat Conroy's South of Broad, about the street that divides the historic Charleston Battery from the less lovely parts. Charleston is so unimaginably beautiful, I walk its narrow streets, peering into walled gardens and drooling over the simplest window box, drunk on confederate jasmine and magnolia, and wondering how I could ever imagine living anywhere else. The city intoxicates.


I'm going to curl up after supper with overdrawn and passionate prose about The Holy City and try once more to juggle the impossible cognitive dissonance of life in the Lowcountry.

As Conroy says, "You really can't exaggerate the South."

Dumber, Dumbest, and A Flash of Smarts

I hate it when the dumb gets dumber in my home town. At least someone had the good grace and the intelligence to apologize formally and publicly. [With a big thanks to Belinda, my Meredith buddy, for sending this my way.]

The Greensboro News And Record:

"Sorry For Violation At Constitution Rally

By Tom Green

As the organizer of the Aug. 14. Restore the Constitution Rally in Greensboro’s Guilford Courthouse National Military Park, I give credit for the success of the rally to the National Park Service rangers and the Greensboro police. Their help in managing the traffic and getting all the rally participants in and out of the park made the event run very smoothly. 

The only real incident we had was from the unexpected behavior of one of the guest speakers, Dr. Dan Eichenbaum from Asheville. During Eichenbaum’s speech, he made the mistake of unholstering his sidearm and, while holding it over his head, proclaimed some major point of his speech.

This was a serious mistake, as it was a clearly stated rule for the rally that all sidearms were to remain securely holstered at all times, and the last person I expected to break that rule would be one of the guest speakers, especially one who had been running for a North Carolina congressional seat. You can’t be at a rally protesting others not adhering to the laws of the land, while breaking them yourself.

I know this was his first time speaking at a Restore the Constitution rally and he’s used to speaking at tea party rallies, so maybe it was a combination of excitement and the August heat that made him forget those rules. However, that’s still breaking the rules and his little mistake should have given the park rangers a reason to shut down the rally and tell us all to go home. Since I’m responsible for the actions of the speakers I invited for the rally, I want to publicly apologize for Eichenbaum’s actions to the rangers, the police officers and to the other speakers and those in attendance, from 11 different states, who managed not to break the rules at the rally. 

His actions were definitely not part of what these rallies are about. We’re in the early stages of putting together two more rallies, one in October and another in November, and I’m pretty sure he won’t be speaking at either.

The writer lives in Burlington

From One Penny Sheet

And/Or....We could just give up on states and nations, just let churches be the sovereign entities. Oh, yeah, that's the ticket!

Friday, Sept. 30th, 2010

OPINION

"Let Churches Determine Who Can Bring In Guns

I just read Doug Clark’s piece (Sept. 1) about concealed arms in church and agree with the discomfort felt by some on this issue, but if the church is OK with it, then why should it bother him?

In America, different denominations are allowed to have varied views, and any who do not agree may attend services elsewhere or change policy through their own internal debate.

Statistical evidence of violence invading a church from without is probably as rare as that of terrorists commandeering passenger jets and crashing them into occupied buildings.

Instead of condemning a congregation from without, why not visit and view the church in question from within, thus making an informed judgment?

By the way, sir, I am unaware of any gun shop uncomfortable with patrons who carry a pocket Bible onto their premises.

Jack Little, High Point"

Ya'll, I am so embarrassed for being Southern today, and you know that's just not right. Make a chick feel better, please. Somebody pass the sweet tea.

From Charm of The Carolines

Sarah Palin: No Laughing Matter

Of the Obama administration, she says, “They talk down to us. Especially here in the heartland. Oh, man. They think that, if we were just smart enough, we’d be able to understand their policies. And I so want to tell ’em, and I do tell ’em, Oh, we’re plenty smart, oh yeah—we know what’s goin’ on. And we don’t like what’s goin’ on. And we’re not gonna let them tell us to sit down and shut up.” The crowd’s ample applause at these lines swells to something vastly bigger when Palin vows defiantly that “come November, we’re taking our country back!”

The above lines are from an article by author Michael Joseph Gross for Vanity Fair. Gross followed Sarah Palin "...through through four midwestern states, speaking with whomever I could induce to talk under whatever conditions of anonymity they imposed—political strategists, longtime Palin friends and political associates, hotel staff, shopkeepers and hairstylists, and high-school friends of the Palin children. There’s a long and detailed version of what they had to say, but there’s also a short and simple one: anywhere you peel back the skin of Sarah Palin’s life, a sad and moldering strangeness lies beneath."

I just read Gross' article. It's long, but well worth taking the time to peruse.

A lot of us, myself included, have been guilty of dismissing Sarah Palin. We laugh at her gaffes, marvel at the way that she mangles the English language, and deride her for her lack of knowledge on most topics of substance. But here's the deal, Sarah Palin is a very dangerous woman and if we are to neutralize her, the first thing that we have to do is take her seriously.

While we're making fun of Palin, she's methodically increasing her base, travelling through middle America, trash talking the Obama administration, and regularly invoking the name of Jesus. Her base doesn't think that she's stupid; they think that she's one of them, and when you insult her, you insult them.

I'm guilty of it, as are most progressives. The provincial and narrow view of the world expressed by Palin's followers offends me and I express my distaste by asserting that they are devoid of intellectual curiosity, which is just another way for stating that they're stupid. Once you tell people that they're dumb, they just aren't interested in hearing anything else that you have to say.

However, Palin has successfully tapped into the psyche of a lot of Americans, people who identify with her because they buy her assertions that she is one of them. She makes them feel that their view of the world is valid, that their prejudices and narrow belief systems are superior to those of the heathen liberals. Early on she recognized that Obama represents everything that they fear and dislike. When he speaks, they don't always easily follow what he is talking about so they presume that he's speaking some anti-American, anti-Christian code. Palin feeds their fire; she's their leader.

Perhaps Palin's most clever move is the focus on generating the tent revival atmosphere demonstrated at Beck's Restoring Honor rally. Palin has two texts that she regularly cites at her appearances, the Constitution of the United States and the Christian Bible, sometimes interchangeably. Her audiences eat the mishmash of secular law and religious belief as if it were the mythical manna from heaven, secure in their desire to get their country back and the belief that God wants them to have it.

I don't believe Christianity is inherently evil but I do believe that humankind has repeatedly demonstrated our ability to twist the precepts of any belief system to justify the worst aspects of our nature. Misdirected religious fervor soon swells into fanaticism, and history is littered with the horrors perpetrated in the name of religious fanaticism. These people believe that they're on a mission from God and that Palin is their angel of light guiding them to salvation, not just for themselves, but for the entire country. If they have to trample on the Constitution, run undocumented immigrants out of the country by any means necessary, and kill off the liberals in order to enact their vision and get their country back, then so be it.

The saving grace of this country has been that most people who consider themselves to be Christians have never been overly involved in organized proselytizing. There have always been exceptions, but not any significant numbers involved in forcing the word of God on all, just a few souls wandering through neighborhoods and knocking on doors on occasion. However, the Palin/Beck base are a different and dangerous breed, and they have found their prophets in Palin and her acolyte, Glenn Beck.

They are fueled by their fear and discontent; Palin and Beck provide them with answers that fit their view that they have been wronged and that their entire way of life is danger of being destroyed. Every time they hear someone speaking Spanish they fear that the conversation is about them. They deeply resent being unable to understand the conversation, after all, this is their country. So they angrily question, "Why can't these people learn English?" They also provide the answer, "They don't want to learn English!"

The black man in the oval office further confuses and upsets them. He must be up to something nefarious; he can't really be working for the good of all Americans. At the core of the obsession with so-called reverse racism is a subconscious belief that black people must have some desire for retribution. That belief fuels the vitriolic dislike expressed for President Obama and the obsessive beliefs that he is on the side of the terrorists, has plans to destroy the United States, and plans to chuck the Constitution and replace it with a socialist manifesto.

I vehemently disliked most of the policies of the George W. Bush's administration but I can't recall there ever being an assessment by progressives that GWB was intentionally and with malice aforethought attempting to destroy the country. Certainly, there have been accusations that certain actions on the part of past presidents would result in the destruction of the foundational beliefs of this country but never the assertion that the president in question ran for office for the express purpose of destroying America.

At the top of the progressive agenda must be plans to reframe our message to re-engage liberals and progressives prior to the November 2010 elections and to begin to lay the foundation for the 2012 elections. I'm not confident that there is any framing that will sway those who are enraptured of Palin and Beck, and I fear that the Palin/Beck base will continue to grow.

There is a great deal of apathy among progressives and liberals; declarations that Obama has betrayed us abound. Like a petulant child who didn't get everything on his or her Christmas list, far too many of us focus on what remains undone and look past all that has been accomplished. We threaten not to vote in order to teach the Democrats not to take us for granted.

It's time that we start taking Sarah Palin seriously; her base certainly does. If we don't, there may lessons learned in November 2010 and 2012 but we may the ones who are schooled.