Samuel Johnson, April 7, 1775: "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel."
It's 9/11 tomorrow. Again.
On September 7th, I celebrated the one year anniversary of my moving to a small, cash-strapped, "red" town in Nevada.
It's all God 'n' Guns here. Obama wants to take my gun. Your gun too. I seldom worry about it since I don't own a gun. But if I did I know it would only be a matter of time before Obama showed up at my front door saying "Give me your gun." I know this because my neighbors swear it's the gospel truth, and maybe God told them so.
Their God.
NOT my God.
The purpose of this post, since MANY of my posts are FREQUENTLY misunderstood when it comes to intent, is simple. Please read this before you click "alert," even though I know some of you love alerting on my posts just because they're my posts.
Tomorrow is 9/11.
Remember it. Don't exploit it. Don't be like my neighbors.
In THIS town, it WILL be exploited. It will be God and guns and closeted gays, because while there IS a "gay community" in this town, there IS no "pride parade." This is basically an ignorant patch of dirt in the desert whose main claim to fame is more meth addicts and alcoholics per square inch than in any other town within spittin' distance, Stretch. And marriage is the union between a man and a woman and if you don't believe that maybe you'd better get out your Bible.
I hate that fucking "sarcasm" smiley, but like I said upstream, people LOVE to take what I say and hit that "alert" button. Now the jurors can read this and know "That's not what he meant. No homophobia here. He's actually slamming homophobia, the alerter missed that. He even used the sarcasm smiley. That should have been their first fucking clue."
The stupid DOES burn here. I haven't checked my profile to see how long I've been a DU member, but it's been a while. I've read posts from friends who moved from blue states to red states and never knew how bad being eyeball-deep, surrounded by ignorant "God&Guns&NoGays" "patriots" could be. I'm the only person in town who uses the expression "teabagger." For everyone else, it's "Tea Party Patriot."
I lost my ability to afford Silicon Valley a year ago and came here at the invitation of a family member. I've kept my head above water but the sheer ignorance of the town is a constant ache, like a hemorrhoid of the heart.
So tomorrow, let's remember who we are and who we are not. I'm in a town where I do not belong, and if you are too...or if you are not...just remember who you are, and remember what America is...and is not.
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I think I'll catch up on my movie watching tomorrow, too.
There's just no damn point in reliving it. No "closure," no "insight."
Just a shitty, shitty thing, a lot of dead people, and I can't endure the exploitation anymore.
It's gotten better since the Shrub left, I will say--less wailing and blaming "Eye-Rack," and a bit more dignity.
I use the smiley liberally; give in to it, it is helpful--I usually say for the irony - impaired, or words to that effect. Unfortunately I also find that there are a lot of people who misread "tone" as well; and some who are just looking for a fight so they find what they are looking for even if there's no intent there. All we can do is our best, I guess...