racism in the south

this is quite upsetting. living in tn these last few years has been a eye opener. I am still shocked at some incident of racism/rudeness directed toward someone based on the color of their skin. And shocked again to realize that this is common here. Still !!

i was disgusted when the owner of our local restaurant refused to serve a worker from the tobacco field - based on the color of his skin. I hear it in the way some of these 'southern born and bred' folks talk at the local grocery store.
Many of the folks around here (pop. 450) are farmers and still carry the attitudes of their upbringing.

I'm not surprised though that it goes both ways. Caucasian, Black, Asian, Spanish, Middle Eastern - you name it. If you encounter someone that you perceive as 'different' than you, you more than likely have some preconceived notion about that person whether you want to or not. This is one of the problems we have to address when struggling to end racism among our peoples.
What we tell our children, how we ourselves feel and believe, how we react to others that behave in an inappropriate manner to someone based on their appearance and how we ourselves behave.

I remember my own mother in the 60's saying we could not drink out of a water fountain because a "colored" person had. I was extremely confused as I had never heard either of my parents express any bias towards a race or culture before. I, not even understanding the concept of racism and then to hear my mother say something like that?. It blew my mind. (It was the only time I ever heard her make a statement like that and believe she took a good hard look at her belief system/values and made the necessary adjustments to filter out the trash bin that horrid thought came from - thank goodness.)

I myself have a problem with certain behavioral norms in some cultures - but that does not by any means include a language or skin color prejudice. I could care less what color your skin is, or what language you speak or where your from. If your culture accepts or encourages abuse of human rights as a norm, I'm going to speak out.
Racism is a weed - rooted deep in ignorance and narrow-minded thinking. It's up to each of us in our own way to eliminate it. I doubt I'll see it's complete eradication in my life time. But at least we are trying.

Affirmative Action blows BTW and as long as our government is out of control or misdirected .. well.

thank you'se

to whomever bought me the subscription to threads, a big thank you.
i remember when this magazine came out. it tended toward artsy fabric work and a touch of the more advanced tailoring tips nested in it's pages. haven't seen one in a long time.
again - thank you. if it's who i think it is - trying to tell me something?

who are you?

found this. enneagram personality test. and if you want to know how really deranged you are - check this one out. the purity test at the spark.

eagleville weather

snow and 7 deg. brrrrrrr. got a glimpse of the mail lady as she was driving off. she was smothered under mufflers, hat and gloves.

.. ouch ..

jobs im working my way through

manager i busted punching my timecard out at work called asking me to come pick up my uniforms and be on the floor at my regular time - i went to watertown instead.

this is politics? oops - i mean .. this is politics

the 'boro participated in a "meet your representative" get together on the square. bart gordan didn't show up. had his 'chief of staff', /chuckle, conduct the q and a. i came in on the tail end of it and, of course, the talk was centered around what is happening with iraq. mark and marty had gone due to interest. i went to meet mark for lunch. looking around i saw a couple of college students, a lady draped in mink, several veterans of the gulf and vietnam wars, a grey long hair (i swear he kept winking at me, really - it was sweet) who turned out to be one of the psycho therapists in town. him i'd like to meet seemed so corny.
was an interesting mix of people and opinions/attitudes.
none the less. i left my politics in calif. so - sorry. not to say i'm not concerned about what's happening. just that i consider myself a realist and honestly do not believe that my protesting matters a hoot anymore. although - if i had the means i had considered being right in there with the human shields heading to baghdad.

jobs im working my way through

heard some of the kids talking about the manager clocking them out while they were still out working. i thought "naw - no way" and went on my way. i do remember that during my first week i'd finished my work and gone to ask the same manager for my timecard and he stated "time cards had to get in, it's been taken care of". i shrugged and went on my way thinking "well, he will write in the time i leave." last week i walked up behind him at the timeclock and saw him with a timecard in hand ready to plunge it in the machine. told him i was done and he handed me the same timeclock he had in his hand.

last day of the work week and i went and asked miss v in the office if this was kosher, the manager punching out your timeclock for you. she said she would ask the top dog. i might as well start looking for a new job now. the night time manager was kicked out of the special forces. my life at work is going to be hell. i can feel it now. maybe if i go sweet talk miss v i can get a transfer to another unit on campus.

music

bastard society - jd - sings, does the guitar thing, you know - stuff like that.
just listened to the cd brandon brought over last night.
he went to watch them at "the outer limit".
not to fond of heavy metal myself. but it's jd's band - so had to see what he was doing.

eagleville weather

woke up to a thick, fluffy layer of snow on the ground. first 'good' snowfall i've seen since we moved here. everything is quiet and still. even better than the dead of night. kids said it started at 9am, so in three hours it laid down a solid blanket of white.

looked at the naked plum tree in the front yard. a half moon shone through the lacy branches that were dusted with ice crystals and, with the snow falling, the glitter of it was to intense to look at straight on. when you looked sideways you got the full effect of white/tinted light refracting off, reminding me of diamonds. it was to dark for my camera to catch because i keep putting off buying a battery - so we just looked. took pictures but i'm still enamored with my 35mm camera so there won't be any instant posts of the pics'. beauti-mus.

music

what is this resurgence of "da blues" lately? seems like alot of musicians are playing it right now.
i can't find a decent rock and roll place unless it's a bunch of college boys getting stupid and that is boring as hell.
all there is in middle tennessee (that i've found) is country and/or blues. yuck. i mean i like both but as a steady diet? naw.

leah says there's a goth club in memphis and we are going. now that's going to be fun. there is a 'small' goth counter culture here because of the diversity of the campus. but mostly it's the farm boys with the country music and the soul brothers? .. with the rap and hip-hop. which i don't mind - but again ..
not as a steady diet.

with the drummer 'j' heading to the northwest tomorrow, the music around here is going to slow down. i'm going to miss that terribly.

jobs i'm working my way through

still really digging this job. it's varied enough to keep me interested and i get to move around. so unlike the hospital were i sat at a computer all day. we are short of help right now because the students are still figuring out their schedules and some people didn't come back after semester break. i'm getting a good chunk of overtime and my feet feel it when i step out of the car after the half hour drive home.

car woes

my battery light was flickering off and on for a week. finally - last night it stayed on the entire time i drove the car. i figured i'd better get on it before i had to use the extra coats i have stored in the car. the auto parts store tested and replaced the battery for me and i bought an alternator to carry out. got enough kids hanging around, surely, one of them can replace it.
brandon and jon started on it and then monty and bobby took over with david showing up to input his knowledge.
ends up it got to dark to finish so it will get put back together tomorrow. just getting the old one out took a couple of hours as it is located behind the engine and crowded down in amongst this bunch of wires and "other" car parts.

sunday afternoon yeah.
they have gotten the alternator in and i drove to town without a battery light going on. these guys are pretty good at maintaining jenny's and my cars.
i still hate cars. hate them.

eagleville weather

snow last night. huge fluffy flakes. snow is late this year. usually christmas day we see a light blanket of snow, but not this year. "lite" snow flurries today. hope this winter isn't an icy one versus a snowy, slushy one.

music

jordan and joey in hampton virginia for the phish concert. three day blow out. wish i could of gone but had to work. awaiting the play by play on the blast i'm positive they are having.

well - holy cow

playing on a machine hooked up to cable and all i want to do is cry. what a way to start 2003. damn this rocks. i want one. added to the wish list once again.