“When
hands outrun the wisdom of the mind.”
----Grandmother
Grandmother was, in one of her poems, observing what has
become known to us as cultural lag; that is, the inability of society
to keep up with, and to timely adapt to, technological innovation.
It is at moments like these that I return to the 'farm' (1) and to
the lessons taught so long ago.
I recall one sojourn when I was young. I had yet to
reach my teens, perhaps when I was 10, grandmother, in all
earnestness, for she was nothing if not in earnest, inquired whether
or not I thought there was such a thing as mental illness. I
replied, in not the first blush of youth, that I didn't know, that I
hadn't given it much consideration. As I recall this was in
reference to a conversation about capital punishment and the insanity
defense, a topic which hadn't troubled my youthful innocence and
about which she felt an urgent introduction. Grandmother was like
that.
“Let me ask you this”, she began in Socratic
dialogue, “how many people have you known or observed are perfect
physical specimens?”
Grasping for an answer I blurted out “not many I
suppose”.
“Precisely!” she exclaimed, confirming her
suspicions that underneath the exterior of this little barbarian a
thinking human being did indeed reside ;that his parochial upbringing
had not yet done irreparable damage; that the Lutherans had not quite
extinguished the flame. (3)
It was an affirmation that has nurtured me, over the
intervening decades, through thick and thin.
But I digress. It was also a revelation that, perhaps,
this place is a giant madhouse; that maybe the protestants were right
that man is, if not intrinsically evil, hopelessly mad. From that day
forward the world assumed a different hue. Later, as I would reflect
upon the imparted wisdom, I would ask myself “and we are about to
arm this population? How could the Supreme Court be so stupid? Have
they not beheld their countrymen?” It was then then that I was
given to understand that there is nothing more dangerous than the
True Believer except, of course, True Believers with a guns.
I bring this up because yesterday yet another act of
senseless violence erupted in my adopted home in Georgia. It was
close to home. I lived for several years in Winder, Georgia. My
late wife was from there, many of my in-laws still reside therein
Winder, originally named “Jug Tavern” before some
railroad Magnate appropriated the place as his own, is located on the
Atlanta Highway about equidistant between Atlanta and Athens. It is
the hometown of the late Senator Richard Russell, mentor to Lyndon
Johnson and staunch segregationist who tried to filibuster Civil
Rights legislation in the mid 1960s. It is also a town whose public
High School sports teams are known as the Bulldoggs, with two 'g's.
That's right, they can't even spell 'dog' properly, you know, god
spelled backwards. As one would suspect it's politics are decidedly
reactionary and ReSCUMlickan. Elections are held in Baptist
churches, despite an abundance of public buildings in which one could
easily exercise the franchise. I always felt a bit soiled when I
went to vote as so too, I am certain, did the Lord.
I left Winder for Athens in 2007, just in time to see
the rise of Obama on the horizon. In Winder Rush Limbaugh and Alex
Jones were all the rage; reaction was triumphant as White Southern
Baptism, albeit with some reluctance, was about the process of
accepting a Mormon in the White House if it meant barring the
“Niggrah” at the door.
Winder is to Athens, as Howell is to Ann Arbor. That
is, a hotbed of ignorance and reaction living in the shadows of
Citadels of learning and culture. To travel the short distance down
the Atlanta Highway through Statham and Bogart to Athens is to
emerge from darkness into broad daylight, similar to the experience
of driving down Highway 24 from Howell to Ann Arbor.
Winder has become a scene of tragedy, both personally
and, now, nationally. Caught up in the hermetically sealed
wrong-wing 'bubble” of Southern Baptism and Fox “News”, my
wife's family dealt with the pandemic as one would expect in a
community where tRUMP reigns supreme, where the pandemic is a
“Democrat Hoax”, that it would “magically disappear” and, in
any case, the Lord will watch over you and protect. My late wife's
family has a long history of diabetes and related diseases which
renders those of us of certain age vulnerable. Her niece, having
been diagnosed with the disease, nevertheless showed up at a
Thanksgiving Day dinner and passed COVID to her Uncle. He died
several weeks later.
It could only be a matter of time before this nation's
epidemic of Gun Violence would strike home.
Yesterday was the day. Some 14 year old with an assault
rifle shot and killed two teachers and two students injuring another
9 in the process. This is a jurisdiction where cultural and political
proclivities have come home to roost. This is what happens when one
votes consistently against reason and science; where one sends idiots
to represent them in Congress and the State Legislature; where
weapons of war outrun the mental capacity of those who wield them. It
is a sad tale, where the politics of ignorance and mendacity finally
come to the homeland. It is a tale told in too often and in too many
places here in America.
Imprison the Bastard.