Stars and Bars are Done

Those who continue to support the “right “ to bear/wear or carry the confederate stars and bars always seem to be part of the poor and poorly educated segment of southern society. One rarely sees a confederate flag sticker or license plate on a shiny new Cadillac or Lexus, but rather on old beater pick up trucks and cars, driven by folks who more often than not seem to be unwashed, unshaven, smoking a cigarette, and wearing clothing straight out of the Goodwill bin.

So why is it these folks among all the lifelong southerners persist in pressing the issue on this emblem of the old south? Why is it those other southerners, well educated, making a nice life for themselves and their families in the new south don’t seem to need to express their pride in the local historical heritage by insisting the south will rise again? Perhaps it’s because for them, the south already has risen again. The proof for these folks is in the good life they have built. They know, (but maybe don’t really like), that part of that good life is the economic prosperity brought by the move out of the old agrarian, country, way of life. That change includes a relentless flow of immigrants from all over the country, into this beautiful state.

Certainly the continuing “invasion” of folks with different ways of thinking, than those traditional southern small town country ways, is upsetting to those who cannot or will not accept the changes, and believe those other ways of being, to be just plain wrong. Those folks who are most upset about the changes are inevitably the ones who cannot thrive in this new southern economy and culture.

It’s a new culture and economy based on innovation, education, technology, and an open minded way of thinking which among other things enables learning how to get along with all sorts of people who are now living in an ever more crowded landscape.

This new southern way of being is new, only in the sense that it has not occurred before in the south, but it is a way of being that has proven successful in populous and popular cities and crowded cultural and business centers for years, even millenniums all over the planet. (See New York, Chicago, London, Amsterdam, Beijing and even Rome over 2000 years ago)

The old south country way of being was a useful way to be when Florida was lightly populated, with folks who had been here for generations, and developed universal, but highly local, cultural norms. That world is fast disappearing if not really already gone.

It’s the howling of those who can’t grasp and live with the new reality one hears when the debate about the stars and bars screams into the local papers again.
It just is a lost cause, because people will continue to flock into this state, and locals will continue to join the new south.

The losers know it so they do the only thing they can: shout impotently into the wind. That wind has just about finished blowing the stars and bars to where it belongs: into the past, a piece of history clearly and perfectly representing a whole host of cultural meanings, some quite awful, others wonderful, for a time and place which simply does not exist any more.

Is There Hope?

Marion county FL seems to be full of retired auto workers, truck drivers, machinists, and butchers, mixed heavily into the native contingent of farmers and other manual laborers. Nearly all of these folks are fine upstanding citizens who work hard, play by the rules , and are, or were contributors to the amazing post WWII economy which brought never before seen prosperity to the millions of folks who call the USA home. That said however, they are not the best and brightest folks of their, or any generation. I don’t know about you, but the kids in my class who were outstanding went on to become doctors, lawyers, business executives, scientists, and leaders of all kinds in any of a variety of enterprises. The brightest kids in my classes did not go on to become plumbers. Yet here in Marion county, until recently, the best known, most powerful political leader we had, Randy Harris was, before he became an erstwhile permanent member of elected officialdom, a plumber. Now god knows we all need plumbers, and a good plumber is critical to the effective functioning of modern life. A good plumber however, is not likely to be the leader taking us past our times of complex troubles, of providing the great insight, and communicating the noble dreams of a better tomorrow to which we all can aspire. If we look back to the founding of this nation, the folks who did the heavy lifting in crafting the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution were highly educated men whose first interests dwelt in the world of ideas, not in the torque of a wrench or the power of a drill press. The ideas those colonials espoused were extraordinary, shocking to the status quo, in a word, revolutionary. The concepts upon which this nation was founded were developed by open minded thinkers who cared not for the conventional wisdom of the day, nor bowed to the old books. They risked this life and the next by being willing to overthrow the established, long entrenched, and supposedly God blessed way of doing things. This legacy of hard thinking, forward looking, highly intellectual, yet active leaders, the foundation by the best and the brightest of their time has eroded over the years. Witness what we have become: a County populated by the not very well educated, who are frightened by the change in the world around them rather than embracing it. A people falling deeper into the old irrational, base and emotionally driven thought patterns which our founders did so eloquently and violently overthrow. Thus we found ourselves faced with a county government led by a plumber who believes the highest good the government can perform is either to enable individuals to make as much money as they can, or to insert its anti-intellectual self into the world of ideas to protect the citizens from harm by exerting control over what books are available in the public library. I despair at times, because I know that in this democracy, we get the government we deserve. We have a population of folks, most of whom have had no education past high school, and heavily skewed toward the older end of the life scale, who are therefore unable or unwilling to learn to adapt to the rapidly changing world around them. I see little hope in the near term for the ascension of anyone even remotely like a new Washington, Adams, Madison or Jefferson from the ranks of the self interested, retrograde, anti-intellectual, brawn over brains, bible over science, populace which consistently re-elected a plumber as its best and brightest leader.

We all need to get on Hook's Bus.....