On some high school students’ Facebook pages, it has recently been discovered there are some blatantly racist comments from these teenagers. This is happening because the man with the darkest skin was elected president.
Then, there’s the “social conservatives” who are moving on petitions to withdraw some of the states, or all of the states, from the Union because of President Obama’s re-election. And I ran into it in Terre Haute. I was talking to two young people in the Army Guard and Naval Reserve about camouflage uniforms. I always ask the military men and women who are wearing cammys who wore camouflage uniforms first? It was the Waffen SS. And I told them it was unfortunate that such a good unit was fighting for the wrong cause and the wrong man … meaning Adolph Hitler.
The young Navy reservist said, “Yes, it’s just like us today, fighting for the wrong man, and the wrong cause.” I replied, “This man has been elected by popular vote for two terms. The people in Germany never had that opportunity because the man they elected made himself a dictator.” The young reservist said, “It looks like the same thing to me.”
I did not want to start a stink in a public place, but this rampant stupidity has to come to a screeching halt. A parent, a beloved relative, a teacher, or some older person has gotten into this man’s head spreading centuries-old bigotry into the 21st century.
You may not like, you may not respect, and you may not agree with anything that President Obama stands for, but this naked ignorance is really stupid. It sounds like South Carolina in 1860. We cannot get even close to that kind of ignorance. It may be very tough for these social conservatives to admit that they got their pants beaten off in the recent elections, but that’s exactly what happened. So bite the bullet, wipe away your tears, and see if you can ever win an election that appears to be full of stupidity and hatred.
C’mon now, that is not going to happen. This is a diverse nation. It has different problems in different parts of the country, and it’s going to take everybody pulling together to keep us on the right track, get us past our problems, and we cannot do that when we’re full of hatred for our fellow citizens.
It’s a little tough for Americans as old as I to realize that you are now running downhill toward being a minority in your own country. But that is the fact of the matter. In the 1920s when the KKK had resurrected a rebirth of hatred, this lovely agrarian state had more KKK members per capita than any state in the Union. And it took a scandal of sexual deviation to bring Indiana to its senses.
The Tea Party right-wingers can call themselves patriots until they’re blue in the face, but that doesn’t make it the truth. You can call yourself a social conservative until you’re blue in the face and that’s just another word for bigotry. So get away from these prejudicial attitudes or there’s going to be a big, big political price to pay. And the so-called social conservatives are the ones who are going to pay the price.
P.S. Please remember, I told you so.
Ronn Mott, a longtime radio personality in Terre Haute, writes commentaries for the Tribune-Star. His pieces are published online Tuesday and Thursday on Tribstar.com, and in the print and online editions on Saturday.
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