Ms. Susan D. Bankston
Richmond, TX
susan@brazosriver.com

Dear  Ms. Bankston,

I am writing to you in response to comments carried in the AP article of September 10 release headed on-line as, “Does Racial Bias Fuel Obama Foes? How to Tell?”

The logic or illogic of “playing the race card” or “liberal guilt,” or even “implicit bias” is maddening and I think it played a role in 2008 that many on the left, in particular, would like to see repeated in 2012.

My paraphrase of the present paradigm is as follows, “Anyone who votes for the white Republican is, by definition, racist. If someone votes that way and believes they are not racist, it is because they are unaware of their own racism. Anyone who votes for the black Democrat is certainly not racist. Since I am not racist and do not want to be perceived as racist, I will vote for the black Democrat.”

This is absurd! But it is an effective way to appeal to liberal voters’ guilt and put conservatives on the defensive. In the process, however, of labeling every conservative political point of view as “racist” this or “racist” that, we as a culture are watering down and actually distorting true racism. How each of us live our everyday lives, in harmony with people around us, people of a range of races and ethnic backgrounds, seeing others as valuable individuals rather than within a class or race or label, should be an indicator. The fact that our lifestyle and values are secondary to who we vote for and the color of who we vote for seems repugnant to me.

I think it is patronizing and disrespectful of the office of president that Barak Obama’s skin color should even enter into the equation. The man brought strengths and weaknesses, good ideas and bad ideas to the office; his performance has had high points and low points and should be debated without racial baggage interfering. I have little hope of this happening, however.

Thank you for your consideration of my views,

Sincerely,

Rick Waldemar

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Dear Mr. Waldemar,

You have no idea how impressed I am that you took all the trouble to find me here in Texas to fuss at me.  I would think there are not enough hours in the day for you to look up the email of addresses of everybody’s names in the newspaper and write them a letter.  What a fulfilling life you have!  Bless your heart.

Honey, I did a 20 minute interview with the Associated Press at the convention and, apparently, one of my sentences was coherent and they used it.  In all honesty, that’s about my average – one coherent sentence in 20 minutes of talking.  After a glass of wine, my average sags a bit, so it’s a good thing they caught me before noon.

When asked about racism and Obama I said –

“Every time they say, `We want our country back,’ I know what that means,” Susan Bankston, a white Democratic National Convention delegate from Richmond, Texas, said at the gathering last week.

And Lord knows, being a old white woman from Texas, I do, son, I do.  I know real well what that means.

Please note that I did not say that all Republicans are racists.  I do, however, say that all racists are Republicans.

I just flat loved your whole Kumbaya thing and the new verse you wrote that goes like this, “ in harmony with people around us, people of a range of races and ethnic backgrounds, seeing others as valuable individuals rather than within a class or race or label…” Darlin’, did you watch the Republican National Convention on the radio or something?  Seriously, where was the harmony much less the range of races?  Babe, the range of races ran from real white to pretty much white.  Republicans don’t even like each other.  They snarl at each other.  I bet they don’t even know the regular words to Kumbaya, much less the ones you wrote. 

I don’t have liberal guilt.  I do, however, have Momma guilt because I live in Texas and our Mommas have the distributorship on guilt.  Boy howdy, my Momma can guilt me into damn near anything so I’m real happy that she never votes Republican.

I’m not happy that you feel it is disrespectful to the office of the presidency for us to notice that Barack Obama is black.  It seems to me that all those years that a black man was excluded from even running for president much less getting elected still puts the scales south of fair and even.

Honey, a man stood in my front yard on inauguration day and hollered the N word so loudly and scary that we had to call the police.  I wondering why you don’t worry about him instead of about me?  I get racist emails all the time and the customers around here can tell you about the crazy man who keeps sending me piles of anonymous racist stuff he prints off the Internet machine and uses the Houston chapter of the NAACP as the return address on the envelope.

I’m not saying that you should vote for Barack Obama because he’s black. I’m saying that there are real live Republicans who vote against him because he’s black and that’s a damn shame and very unAmerican.

By the way, I do not label every Republican point as “racist.”  I pretty much label them as stoopid or mean or greedy or holy crap what are they thinking?

One more thing.  If I’m reading something and it says the word paradigm, I generally quit reading right there so try to put that word near the bottom next time.

But, thank you for what effort it took for you to hunt me down.  I pretty much stay under the radar except for a few customers here at the beauty salon. I used to like it that way.

Love and Fried Okra,
Juanita’s friend Susan

Houston, the eagle has landed.

Bubba is unloading the car and I am glaring at the pile of laundry so hard that it just might get up and wash itself.  I need to go to the grocery store, pick up Truman – boy howdy, I missed that little guy – meet a deadline for one of my paying jobs, work my shift at the headquarters, get out an email blast for Silver Democrats and I seriously doubt  that damn laundry is going to wash itself no matter how much I cuss at it.

I’ve got a bunch of stories for you.  But first I have to go through 2,846 (no kidding!) emails left on my server.  I am highly likely to delete them all and start my life all over again.  So, if you sent me something real important and I didn’t answer you from my iphone, send it again.

See you this evening!

Nate Silver of five-thirty-eight has a column regarding Texas. Looking at the map, I was delighted to see that we were not cherry red in Williamson County, but something close to Windsor Rose.

Windsor Rose is the color of nail polish my grandmother wore from the day of Queen Elizabeth’s coronation until her death. I regard this as a sign that we can move this county to something approaching Prairie Primrose, Neutral, or even Baby Blue. Texans, check your county! If we can all help move our counties one notch to the left, we might eventually see Godot, also known as GO Democrats Of Texas!

Texas Ellen

Friday night, the Williamson County Democratic Party opened it’s headquarters in Georgetown, Texas. Good location on South Austin Avenue (1915 S. Austin, Suite 111, GTN, TX) Stocked with lots of yard signs, bumper stickers, buttons, etc. Y’all come by if you are in the neighborhood. Williamson County’s version of the Silver Dems, the Sun City Democrats, were out in force and enthusiasm.

We had a nice big crowd that had to spill out into the parking lot, we had speeches from an outstanding group of candidates, and the evening was topped off with our candidate for US Senate, Paul Sadler. Paul would make us proud as a US Senator: he has a amiable manner and a steel trap mind. Three of our delegates to the national convention also reported on their experiences and just could not quit smiling.

What’s up in your neck of the woods?

Love from Texas Ellen

Sam

As this campaign goes on I am tempted to lose more and more of my religion. Does that mean I’ll darken the door of the local church/synagogue/mosque less? Well that ship sailed for me a long time ago. I learned that I can be spiritual without being religious; that I have every right to practice my personal beliefs as long as they don’t affect others in a negative way. If you, on the other hand, choose to worship at one of these institutions, more power to you; just be sure to leave me at least one glazed doughnut at Shipleys on Sunday morning.

That brings us to today’s sermon which will be presented by the Reverend Michael Stipe of REM fame . REM’s first single, Losing My Religion, written by Stipe, came out over 20 years ago. It’s a song about unrequited love, of seeking for something that isn’t really there (not unlike Clint Eastwood having a conversation with an empty chair). Losing my religion, however, has nothing to do with belief; it’s a southern term referring to losing one’s temper or civility. Stipe refers to the song as “a classic obsession pop song.” The video is marvelous.

This last week Fox and Friends played Losing My Religion as theme music when they covered the Democratic National Convention, in particular during a report about Democrats deciding whether or not to include the word “God” in their platform. REM protested the misuse of their song with Stipe stating, “We have little or no respect for their puff adder brand of reportage. Our music does not belong there.” Gotta admit, Michael still knows how to turn a phrase. Of course “Fair and Balanced” in their usual bluster refused to honor the band’s request not wanting to pass on any chance to smear the DNC. For more about Stipe and his beliefs look here.

Yesterday REM filed a ‘cease-and-desist’ order against FOX to prevent further misuse of their music. This follows a long list of groups who have tried to keep their music from being associated with hatred and bigotry. These include: Twisted Sister, Jackson Browne, Van Halen, Heart, John Mellancamp, and Rage Against the Machine (“Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello lit into Ryan, writing that ‘the only thing [Ryan] is not raging against is the privileged elite he’s groveling in front of for campaign contributions.’”). Thankfully for the GOP they’ve still got music icons Ted Nugent and Hank Williams Lesser on their side.

So yes, I’m losing my religion. I’m tired of those who think using the word “God” over and over in their platform absolves them from acting like they actually believe in He/She/It or in any form of natural law. I’m losing my religion over lies and attempts by the looters and polluters who are trying to buy this campaign for Romney. I’m losing my religion for those who change “Blessed are the poor” into “Blessed are the job creators”
I hope you’re losing your religion too, we’ve got a lot of work to do. 

You know how Hansel and Gretel left cookie crumbs to find their way home? Well, Bubba and I left barbeque rib bones.

We are eating our way back to Texas.

I have a story for you. Yesterday we spent two hours roaming backwoods Tennessee looking for two wineries. I drink wine but Bubba drinks sweet tea. But he’s a sweet man and lets me stop at wineries.

We were so deep in the backwoods that we had no cell phone reception. Hell, Onstar couldn’t even find these little towns. The first winery was run by two women and it was real cute but
wine was secondary to bedazzled tee shirts.

We start looking for the second one and just about the time we started hearing banjo music we find it. It was in some guy’s garage.

A guy who put the gerrrr in grizzled came out of his house. There were rocks in his yard younger than he was. Big guy. Callused hands. Lotsa gray hair.

The winery was in his his garage and he came down on the non decorating side of HGTV. Vern Yip would have cried.

He gave me sips of something he labeled Rotgut. It was on the sweet side but very drinkable with spicy food. I tried a couple other ones and was impressed with some very decent $12 wine made by a guy in overalls and a gimme hat.

He chatted up Bubba and me asking where we were from and hardily approving of Texas. Bubba, who never comes down on the safe side of interpersonal relationships, spurts out that we are returning from the Democratic National Convention.

Holy crap.

Doesn’t Bubba know where the hell he is? Is he goofy on sweet tea and rotgut fumes?

The owner slams his hand down on the counter with such force that I suddenly understood why there were no pictures hanging on the wall. I head for the door because I do not mess with snakes, alligators, and grizzled old men.

He then roars, “Goddam it, son, I want to shake you hand! That sumbitch Romney scares the crap outta me.”

I thought he was gonna hug Bubba. And probably break him.

We then stood stunned as he cussed Republicans right, left, and sideways. We were treated to a sparkling 15 minute rant about Republicans. He loves Bill Clinton, thinks people who don’t like Obama are racists, and wants Hillary to run in 4 years because she’s tough.

Bubba went out to the car and got him a rally sign from the convention. He loved it and headed to show it to “the wife.”

As we left, he shouted at us that he likes Texas okay but those Bushes are sumbitches.

I left with six bottles of decent wine and a smile on my face.

Just thought you’d want to know.