I HATE HATE HATE TEXAS! "CAMO DAY"??? AAACK!

[UdoKier]

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/2904409

Texas school district nixes 'cross-dressing day'
By BOBBY ROSS JR.
Associated Press

Note to boys in the tiny Spurger, Texas, school district: Put away those high heels and pleated skirts. Instead, wear black boots and Army camouflage to school Wednesday.

A parent's concerns prompted the district 150 miles northeast of Houston to scrap its annual "TWIRP Day" -- when boys dress like girls and girls dress like boys-- in favor of "Camo Day."

..........(edit)

Delana Davies, a 33-year-old mother of three, said she contacted Superintendent Angela Matterson on Tuesday after reading a school notice about "TWIRP Day."

Davies, whose 9-year-old son and 4-year-old daughter attend Spurger Elementary, said she viewed the day not a silly Homecoming Week activity, but as an effort to push a homosexual agenda in a public school.

"It's like experimenting with drugs," said Davies, who also has a 2-year-old daughter. "You just keep playing with it and it becomes customary. ... If it's OK to dress like a girl today, then why is it not OK in the future?"




I was born in San Antonio, raised in Beaumont and El Paso - I was once VERY proud to be a Texan, but to HELL with that state. Enough already! I haven't lived there for 15 years, and I am NEVER going back! Those people are INSANE!

I am still an El Pasoan, because El Paso remains a pocket of sanity, an island off blue in a sea of red, but I am NOT a Texan anymore.

[lightbulb]

1. It cracks me up when folks 'out' themselves like this woman

People that are so insecure about concepts like "gateway crossdressing" are dealing with some unresolved internal conflicts. Those who are truly comfortable with who they are generally aren't bothered by such petty things.

[HereSince1628]

2. hate like love requires the possibility of reciprocity...

It is very unlikely that the geographic region from the Red river to west of the Davis Mountains is going to reciprocate any feeling.

English, you gotta love it or leave it in the dust of an Old Spanish Road or a Stage Coach Route.

[derby378]

3. No red states - just red people

You'd be surprised how many people in Dallas voted for Kerry this time around...

[UdoKier]

6. But the DOMINANT CULTURE is SICKO!

Reminds me of spending time at Grandma's house in north Texas. As a kid, when I told her the neighbor's dow as chained to a tree with no water, looked like he was starving and was COVERED in ticks, all over his eyes, the we should call the SPCA, she was like "no, we don't do that sort of thing here. Don't want to have trouble with the neighbors.

I don't give a crap how many doors Texas gentlemen open for ladies, that kind of stuff makes me sick.

I prefer the "fruits and nuts" here in San Francisco.

[pop goes the weasel]

18. Hey, just because your Texas family

is shitty, doesn't make every other Texas family shitty. My family wouldn't have waited on the SPCA. We'd have been over the fence and "liberating" the dog.

[UdoKier]

21. You think my experience is based on just my family?

I've known THOUSANDS of Texans, all over the state. There are a lot more of the ones like the lady in the article than there are cool ones. Texas wasn't quite as bad way back when. I don't understand why the state has gone so fundy-crazy lately.

[pop goes the weasel]

26. I've known 1000s too

and since I continue to live here, I continue to know them.

Even in Spurgis, it was just one woman with a stick up her ass that caused trouble and a handful of school officials who had been subject to spine-ectomies. The town had for decades embraced and encouraged the cross-dressing tradition as a harmless masquerade. Don't you think that right now there are hundreds of parents and students in Spurgis complaining? But no, you are ready to assign the narrow-mindedness of one person to an entire community that was, indeed, doing something "cool." You are ready to blame an entire town for being bullied instead of seeing the good that this tradition ever existed in the first place.

You want to know why the state has gone crazy-fundy lately? It isn't lately, it has been happening over the past 20 years. It has happened because people like you, who should have stayed and fought and invested in alternative venues in suburbs and smaller towns took the easy way out and left. People began to hear only rightwing-nutjob preachers. There are no small town radio stations, few small town speakers bureaus, no alternative scene to the right-wing small-c christian chamber of commerce military scene.

Despite all that, the majority of people are still decent folk who will respectfully listen and sometimes even agree with a leftish view point. People in the hinterlands find them big city pointy-head intellectual folk intriguing, and are even a bit flattered to have them around if they show mutual respect. That means you have to look for the good in people, make opportunities for the good to be done, and not chide people in public for being less than perfect. You have to respect people as individuals, and show tolerance for human imperfection, as well as expecting the same to be shown to you.

I want some well-financed lefty to come around and put gun shops and taxidermists and small meat renderers back in business in the small towns. The hunting, meat-eating culture here isn't going away anytime soon, and there would be an outflowing of appreciation if people could get their hunting rifles repaired and their trophies mounted locally. There is still a large element of society based on mutual obligation, on the sense of being "beholden." Generating some economic growth in keeping with local traditions would earn a great deal of social capital. Guns and dead animals not your style? How about book stores and all night coffee houses? Now, you can run and complain that Texas isn't what you wish it was, or you can use the rules of Texas society to make it more like you wish it was.

But screaming that you hate Texas is, frankly, childish and on a par with some freeper claiming to hate France. What does it mean to hate Texas? Do you hate me? Do you hate Jim Hightower? Do you hate Molly Ivins? How about Henry Cisneros or Lloyd Doggett? Would you like to piss on the graves of Barbara Jordan, Henry B. Gonzalez, Sam Rayburn? Do you refuse to listen to Lyle Lovett and Willie Nelson and Los Lonely Boys and Dixie Chicks? No movies with Sandra Bullock? Do you hate the Anglos, the Tejanos, the Blacks, the Germans, the Czechs--all Texans? I doubt it. Your professed hate is meaningless except that it serves to distance you from hundreds of thousands of people who have no opinion of you whatsoever.

I'll leave off my harangue with a vignette of something I saw shortly after I moved to this small Texas town. Three figures were walking across the grocery store parking lot at night. Before I could make out who they were, I heard them doing rebel yells and laughing. They got closer. As they drew nearer, I could see their faces--teenagers, 2 white and one black, tearing themselves up into fits of hysteria as they practiced their yell, holding each other up so they wouldn't collapse from laughing. Really, it was sweet.

See, Texas is not such a bad place.

[UdoKier]

28. Of course I don't literally hate everything about Texas!

It's called a rant.

But I have disowned it as a home, because I don't identify with it anymore.

I'm no that old, but I think the last 20 years is "lately" in terms of social change. I remember there being hippies and peace signs in east Texas as a kid!

And I didn't abandon the state, I was conned into going into the Navy, which took me to San Diego, and after a few years in California, I never wanted to go back.

I know there are a lot of great people in Texas. Ann Richards, Jim Hightower, My Dad, Matthew McConaghey & Sandra Bullock (lol).

But you get sick and tired of being a tiny minority and having to argue about the STUPIDEST things with people... Things like "camo day"

[Texasgal]

30. Well...why don't you just pack up

and leave? The you wouldn't have to stop arguing about "stupid" things. Since your so sick of it and all.

[UdoKier]

33. Well...why don't you actually read a few more posts

to get the gist of the conversation?

I packed up and left 15 years ago, as I've already mentioned.

If you think our time as a society is well-spent arguing about something as inane as whether or not a school "switch day" is a "gateway to homosexuality", then you must fit in fine in Texas. That lady should have been kicked out on her rear for raising such a STUPID complaint.

[Texasgal]

40. Hey...agreed that the woman was stupid

and obviously has blinders on, I have never not agreed with that. It just seems counter-productive to sit around bitching about people in Texas.

[pop goes the weasel]

34. He already did

I betcha he might come back, though. Even if just for a visit, since he has disowned it as a home. Where else is he going to find decent BBQ? And Austin is the only place to have migas. And the very location of Texas Renfest (deeeeep in East Texas) makes it the best place on earth for a man to run around in tights and a cod-piece. And San Antonio still puts on the best rain-or-shine spring parade. Really, how long can he deny himself a return trip?

[UdoKier]

37. Mmm... Barbecue...

Now you're not playing fair.

I still Love:

El Paso

San Antonio

The Hill Country

The little pockets of old Austin that remain

The Big Bend



Have always hated:

The heat

The humidity

the pollen

The church people

the racism (the one area where Texas may have actually improved some)

[pop goes the weasel]

48. The pollen

ok, you want to hate Texas for that, I can't blame you. That would be the one thing that would induce me to move.

The heat and humidity, I actually like. I remember the days before wide-spread use of air conditioning with fondness. Little got done, but then, little was expected to be done.

The church-people, well, they're everywhere. And they are much more of a problem in several other states. They're rather like fire-ants that way.

Fire-ants. Now there is a problem we didn't used to have back in the day when fire-ants meant a large slow moving ant that had circular clear-cuts around its entryways.

The racism really is not so bad here compared to a lot of other places. I mean, really. What do white Californians have against people from Mexico, for instance? I'm totally confused by that.

The 5 things on your love list--oh, man, are you ever right! Absolutely to love! People think Texas is Dallas or Houston, or sometimes Amarillo...they have no idea that the heart of Texas is further south and west. Of course, for sheer beauty, the East Texas piney woods are wonderful, too. I still don't know what the attraction is to the Dallas area, though! lol

[pop goes the weasel]

43. Glad to know that

But see, "hate, hate, hate" isn't going to win you friends. It just hurts the feelings of a lot of good people you don't have in mind when you rant like that. My but you really have been out of state a long time to have forgotten that!

Now, the correct way to rant about stupid things that happen in Texas is this:

"The nerve of that woman! I bet she's some furriner, probably from Georgia! What, she was born here? I doubt her parents were. Newcomers, always causing trouble!"

And of course, you get sick of arguing. Never argue. Arguing doesn't win people over; wooing does. A nice box of chocolates, remembering birthdays, and the next thing you know, you've won the "argument."

[lastliberalintexas]

41. Darn fine post, pop

[clspector]

4. I posted this already earlier today

eom

[UdoKier]

8. Sorry. didn't catch it.

nt

[MARALE]

5. Sounds like Texans

It is dangerous for a boy to dress like a girl. We had better make them dress like they're ready to hide in the bushes and shoot people. Much safer to push them to violence and shooting than to have them dress like a sissy.

*sigh*

[movie_girl99]

15. i for one am so tired of the Texas bashing

I would love to pick up and move to a blue state but I have kids in school and don't think its fair to take them away from their friends and family because some of the folks around us still live in the dark ages. Texas is a big place and contrary to popular belief were not all ignorant and illiterate. I will leave when my son graduates but I also believe that part of being a Democrat is to be tolerant and teach our kids to be tolerant even of those backward folks that live inside their own narrow minds.

[UdoKier]

20. I'm a native, and I'm entitled.

I grew up all over the state, have relatives all over the state, and I can say that this kind of woman is SO TYPICAL. I've got them in my family. And I never said anything about illiterate. They're mostly college-educated. Something in the water must make these people NUTS.

Even Austin doesn't seem like Austin anymore.

[movie_girl99]

25. i totally understand

most people in my extended family think this way too. I know you didn't say anything about being illiterate but since the election there has been so much negativity toward people of the south and it gets old very quick.

[MARALE]

24. I know there are a lot of smart people there

But the amount that are like this that are listened to and taken as serious confounds me. I apologize though, most of my favorite posters on these forums are from Texas. I don't like labels or generalities either, especially since I am an Iowan, female, grew up on a farm, and am now an electrical engineer. I don't fit what most people think that I should be like with those credentials (except I can not spell well, a criteria to being an engineer) PLEASE forgive me!!

[Rufus T. Firefly]

7. I'm from Jefferson County, another blue island.

Good Lord. "It's okay to hide and shoot people, but for a boy to put on a SKIRT?!?! What if he LIKES it?!? He might become a DEMONCRAT!"

"And for that matter, girls shouldn't wear pants because that makes them lesbians."

I know a few gay men and only one of them dresses up in drag. Just shows what ignorance can do. As if 11/02 didn't already do that.

[UdoKier]

12. We had "switch day" in junior high school.

My brother and I both did it. It was funny. He's straight as an arrow, and I'm, well, I prefer women, and I sure as hell don't get into drag, and I don't have a problem with those who do.
Who cares?

[GodHelpUsAll2]

56. I'm in Texas

and our high school still has the annual football game where all the girls play football and all the guys wear the cheer leader uniforms and cheer for the team. In full make-up too. Some of us still have fun!

[Justyce]

14. Hi! I'm in Jeff. Co. too! We were one of the

very few blue islands unfortunately... glad to see a local on the site.

[chiffon]

9. I'm with ya on that one.

Unfortunately, some of us are stuck here for numerous and varied reasons. Meanwhile, I will complete my task here in this "lone star state", and I so look forward to the day when I can consider my tenure here a distant memory.

Just MY opinion.

[dubyaD40web]

10. I'd keep my kids home that day...

...and when the school called asking where they were, I'd tell them that my kids wore such good camouflage that they couldn't see them. Then I'd thank them for their concern, tell them what a great idea "camo day" was, and then hang up and take my kids to the park or the zoo or beach or something fun.

[seabeyond]

11. dress as militia, like playing with a loaded gun

ya right

[amber dog democrat]

13. Texas needs you.

Don't forget... we are called The Friendly State. And we are. Sorta.

For what is worth I live in Travis Co. A Blue oaisis in a desert of red.

[bowens43]

16. this is sick.

I am so ashamed of our country.

[LondonReign2]

17. I'm counting the days until I can leave this hellhole

Job forced me to Dallas...from CHICAGO!

So instead of Obama and Durbin I've got the hair helmet (no, not Lott, the other one- Kay Bailey) and sex-with-box-turtles Cornyn.

[UdoKier]

19. LOTS of hair helmets in Dallas

I remember going ice skating on summer days at the Prestonwood Mall Ice Capades Chalet, and that place was CRAWLING with helmet-haired, heavy makeup Neiman-Marcus-shooping ladies back in the 80s.

The skating was fun, but it was nice to get back to normal people in El Paso when the summer was done.

[crispini]

35. LOTS of Democrats in Dallas....

Have you gotten out to any of the Dallas county party functions lately? How about one of the democratic clubs? I just got back from a League of Women Voters meeting about election reform. It was great, they are lockstep with the people on this board about DREs being Bad Things. And don't forget, we just elected three Democratic judges and a Hispanic gay female Sheriff.

C'mon out and see some of the GOOD stuff going here before you call it a hellhole. PM me, I'll hook you up with all the local activists.

Edit: Oh, checked your profile. You don't even live in Dallas... you live in Flower Mound.

Sorry, dude, you're right. You DO live in Rethuglican land. But you don't even live in Dallas COUNTY. So whyfore you wanna be dissin us like that, hmmmm? We're mostly blue down HERE. If you wanna drive and meet some democrats, c'mon down.

[theHandpuppet]

22. Note to Mrs Davies...

Jesus didn't wear pants.

[Career Prole]

23. They've been pushing that "homosexual agenda" on those Spurger

kids "for years, probably for generations, and it's the first time anybody has complained."
Damn town oughta be a regular gay haven then. Why, I'll just bet by now they've got a gay club on every corner! /sarcasm

"You just keep playing with it and it becomes customary. ... If it's OK to dress like a girl today, then why is it not OK in the future?"
Hey, Delena? In my senior year on the Friday before homecoming I dressed like a cheerleader and my girlfriend wore my football uniform. The next day I was back at linebacker and cracking heads and I never even asked anyone what sign they were before I smacked 'em!
For the record, I never dressed as a cheerleader again nor did I feel the urge.

In Spurger, Davies said she will dress her son in camouflaged overalls and her daughter in a camouflaged T-shirt and denim skirt for "Camo Day."

"I'm happy that it's turned out like it has," she said. "But I don't want them pushing it on me again in a few years."
They weren't pushing anything on you, you blind bitter woman. I hope your kids turn out okay in spite of you.
"Camo day"?! You want to talk about turning out sick minds from your school system, there's a good place to start...your little Hitler Youth movement.
Oh...by the way...nice tooth ya got there, Delena.

Know what? I hate Texas too.

[Texasgal]

27. Udokier.....

This could have happened in ANY small town nationwide! Not just Texas! That is small town mentality to a tee!

I get REAL tired of people bashing Texas, wonder what would have happened if this incident had taken place in some other state? Fundies are fundies... they are everywhere! NOT JUST IN TEXAS!

I am not too sure about El Paso, but if you are going to base your area asa last pocket of sanity in Texas, you obviously have not been to AUSTIN!

I agree that the story is bullshit, and it speaks VOLUMES about how stupid people can be, but GOD DAMMIT! Can you leave Texas alone?

It gets real FUCKING old!

[UdoKier]

29. My reply to a similar post.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=2710224&mesg_id=2711145&page=

And I'm sorry, but Austin is NOT what it used to be. It's an overpriced, overgrown suburbia crawling with yuppies now. I wouldn't be surprised if even Austin went red in the next decade, the way things are going...

[Texasgal]

31. Well... Travis county and surrounding

area's went to KERRY! And ALOT of freethinkers, and progressives BUSTED OUR ASSES to do so! Did EL PASO GO BLUE? I didn't think so. You can THANK Me later FOR ALL OF THE HARD WORK YOUR fellow DEMS DID!

Instead of sitting around whining and complaining, why don't you just leave? Go somewhere else, we don't need people here that don't work to change the current status. You sound like a huge whiner that has nothing else better to do.... Just leave....what's so fucking difficult about it?

[sonicx]

32. i think he did leave.

[UdoKier]

36. Again, you think wrong.

El Paso has gone democrat in EVERY presidential election as long as I can remember. We also voted against Duumbya for governor.

This thread is a rant about a prevalent type of thinking in Texas. You can join in, or you can tell why I'm wrong, but if you're just going to sit around and call names, I see no reason to converse with you any further.

And thank you for your efforts. It's a shame that many dems in Texas don't even bother to vote because they just assume that Bush will win.

And, for the millionth time, I live in California now.

[Texasgal]

38. Who is calling people names?

All I said is that you are a WHINER! You were the one that dissed Texas and the people who live here. You were the one who started this noxious thread about how people in Texas are stupid! Kettle black?

People like me will stay and fight for what's right, we will be the people who turn the state around, not a bunch of whining people who sit around and boo-hoo about Texas and their occupants.

I am glad you are in California, we don't need your type here.

[UdoKier]

42. Hehe...

"I am glad you are in California, we don't need your type here."

Exactly why Texas will continue its slide into insanity.

God forbid you be anything less than reverent about the "Texas Republic".

God forbid you think or express yourself any anyway remotely different.

And I never called you or anyone else besides the type of fundy lunatic in the article a name. Nor did I call anyone stupid. The ISSUE is stupid. The person in the article complaining about it is INSANE, just like my native Texan birth mother who believes "Barney" is subliminally trying to teach kids Satanism, and that "Tinky Winky" of the Teletubbies is teaching (yet again) homosexuality.

Look there are a lot of nutjobs in EVERY STATE of this country (including California). Texas is probably not the worst. It's just the only one I've lived in and still have to visit relatives in. It is like an alternate reality there. I'm glad you're so happy there, and I hope you can make it better. It's all I can do just to feed my kids, do my job and keep somewhat informed.

Good day to you!

[Texasgal]

45. Look... you have to admit..

That you said that people in Texas are INSANE.


I must retract what I said about you calling people stupid. Your right, I am insane.

I am INSANE about fighting to keep people aware of our political situation!

I am INSANE about fighting to keep our natural resources for future Texans.

I am INSANE about volunteering to help fellow Texans eat, read, not become homeless.

And yes... I am VERY happy that you decided to live in California, Why, you may ask?

Because it's people like you who are Not "proud" to be Texans and it's people like you who don't work to make it better. You can only sit around whining and complaining about it. Telling others to stay away and not to visit or move here.

If I am INSANE than so be it!

Sign me,

A happy and PROUD Texan

So sue me!

[UdoKier]

46. Yes.

I admit I said that specific people in Texas are insane. I never said that ALL people in Texas are insane, but you seem to breeze past detail after detail after detail to read in what you want to read. "I live in Texas", "El Paso votes republican", "All Texans are stupid"...

But enough of this. You've taken offense. I'm sorry for that. We're just running in circles here.

I know you don't like how I express myself, so be it. Take care, I wish you the best in your efforts.

[Texasgal]

49. Okay, I am sorry...

I did not mean to offend.

My problem with all of this is that I have continually had to defend Texas for the last couple of weeks and I have grown tired.

I will admit that I did not research my claims as throughly as I should have. I was picturing the red/blue Texas and I did not recall El Paso being blue. My apologies. I also did not see where you posted your current residential status.

I am proud of my state, and I do alot to make it work for me. I get really drummed up when people bash it as a piece of trash.

I hope you understand.

[UdoKier]

50. Understood, and I understand your taking offense

And like I said, good luck. You've got your work cut out for you.

[GodHelpUsAll2]

58. You are not alone

We busted ass here in Dallas county also. And we will continie!

[charlie]

57. Yes, El Paso went blue

El Paso and Austin were the only two cities that went for Kerry.

[AnIndependentTexan]

39. aww darn I thought we were going to expand this

We were hoping to make it nation wide and Texas was just the start. We just wanted to convience them that it is ok. Jesus was a crossdresser too! lol

[lastliberalintexas]

44. Well, from a native Beaumonter,

who still lives in this area, I'll just remind you that Jefferson County STILL voted for Kerry this year and STILL voted for Lampson by about 60%. Our area STILL goes Dem on down ballot issues, voted against the tort reform measures last year, and got screwed to the wall by the re-re-districting. And yet, we STILL have the will to keep fighting, in the trenches, while others go off to areas in which it's much easier to be a liberal.


This is ONE woman, sweetie, not the majority of people even in Spurger. When I grew up, we did this sort of thing at Stephen F. Austin Middle School for TWIRP too. This has been done for decades in this area, with football players and bubbas of kind participating- and this is the first time there has been a complaint.

From what I've gathered today, this woman made a request to the school that her children be allowed to skip school that day as an excused absence. The school AGREED, and she backed off.

Then in comes "Liberty" Legal out of PLANO, and we're off to the races. Litigation is threatened, dthe school has to back down because they don't have the money to fight the suit, and this story hits the airwaves. This is yet another example of the well oiled, well financed repub machine in action! They simply found their trophy in this area, but it could have been anyone willing to waste time and money fighting over such silly shit. Just so happens that it was in Texas.

[pop goes the weasel]

51. thanks

for filling in the details on what happened in Spurger. The religious right have been acting like bullies for so long, and getting away with it because regular people who just want to enjoy their lives don't have a good way to protect themselves.

[mitchum]

47. What do you expect from people whose central heroic myth...

concerns "valiant men who fought to the death" in an attempt to establish A HUGE SLAVE STATE???!!!

[pop goes the weasel]

52. rolls eyes

That wasn't what they were doing. The reasons for the Texas Revolution were complex, and the desire of some to establish a new slave state for the US was among those reasons. But it wasn't the only reason, or even the most important one at the time. Santa Anna wasn't exactly a saint, you know, and Texas wasn't the only Mexican territory that rebelled against him.

[mitchum]

53. Maybe you should enter that in a Daughters of The Alamo essay contest

[UdoKier]

54. Still, the notion that the white "Texans" were any better than the Spanish

... when both sides were on land they had stolen from the Indians, is a bit funny.

The Alamo is worth remembering because it was an impressive but futile battle. The cause of Texas Independence? An invader is an invader is an invader.

[pop goes the weasel]

60. lol

When I was a kid, back when dinosaurs ruled the earth, we would say about Texas "we stole it fair and square." There was no illusion that what had happened was anything but one conqueror following another. The Republic of Texas versus the self-styled Napolean of the West--please, where is the good guy in such a fight? In a satisfying action flick, Caddoes and Karankawas would have teamed up with the slaves and peons to deliver a devastating blow to both Alien and Predator. But real life isn't reel life.

[0007]

55. When are folks gonna get smart and let things be as they are?

I live in Texas now and don't care for it or most of the folks. I lived in NYC and loved every second of it!!

[Pikku]

59. I moved from Ohio to Texas

...and all I have to say is that the people are more alike than different.

Granted, El Paso may be a pocket of sanity. I have had very little experience with the rest of Texas. AND, I must admit, I have the usual prejudices of a northerner moving to the south.

But my experience here is much what it was in Ohio. My family (Ohioans all) are mostly limbaugh Republicans (My brother lives in Europe, and is an exception to the family pattern).

I live in a pocket of poverty within Texas. We lost a soldier during the first weeks of this war. Many people in the community where I live and work either can't or don't vote. But an informal poll among my school's students showed that support among the presidential candidates reflected the national split of almost 50/50.

I have seen people I respected here, as well as people I respected there, who have voted republican. I have friends and relatives in both states that consider the NEA (I'm a teacher) to be evil.

(My mother, ferpetesakes, a career teacher and NEA member in a state where the NEA is a UNION, and not just an "organization" like it is in TX, considers the NEA to be beneath her scorn. Funnily enough, she enjoyed the tenure, the guaranteed raises, and the protection against administrative whimsies that I as a TX teacher don't. She didn't complain then. Now, she's retired, fills her days with talk radio, and complains about the evils of the NEA.)

My own (OH) family is not religious, and vote republican. I am a Quaker, live in TX, and vote Dem/Green. My best friend is an evangelical Christian and a creationist, and also votes Democrat. She is vehemently anti-war, although her ex-husband is career military and her son is ROTC.

I guess I'm saying that no group/state/religion/ethnicity/profession/socioeconomic class can be written off (either for or against us). The right may look at people as members of categories like these, but we don't have to. We have the liberty of finding common ground with people we think are unlike us. The mono-thematic zealots in the US population are very few. Complex, concerned people are the majority. We don't have to pretend that we agree with every position of every individual. We do have to recognize that every concern is important, meaning that we need to know what the concerns are. As long as we condemn the "red" states, ot the "south," or the "fundamentalists" we'll never know where common ground lies.

[pop goes the weasel]

61. beautifully said n/t

[chicagiana]

62. I'm 100% in favor of school uniforms ...

But I was thinking khachie pants/pleats with a polo shirt ;-)