Jews. Blacks, Democrats, and Wuffies

BobLee
January18/ 2000

… The current unpleasantness in Lebanon reminded me of yet another group of people I am suppose to hate – “the Jews”.  I’ve never understood why I am supposed to “hate Jews”.  Growing up in small town South, I understand the “colored people v white people” thing.  As a UNCer I want to defeat State and Duke in games.  Now “the Internet” says I’m supposed to “hate them” too.  And politics has degenerated into a daily dumpster dive.  Somedays I’m glad I’m getting old.

As a Caucasian Christian Conservative UNCer my assigned list of “groups of people I am duty-bound to “hate” seems pretty clear.  Except no one says “why” I’m supposed to hate them.  Just “do it” and don’t ask such foolish questions.

This week has been a national referendum of “who do we hate today?”  If you believe some high profile political leaders we should “hate Jews” because George Bush seems to NOT hate Jews.  Neither does Hillary Clinton, at least not the Jews who are registered voters in New York or wealthy Hollywood Jews who will vote for her and give her money.  That makes sense.

In my small Southern home town in the 50s-60s there was a group of Jewish families that were prominent business leaders.  They owned “the shirt factory” and most of the downtown clothing stores including the primary “department store”.  They had kids who were within 2-3 years of me. I knew’em.

Several of’em were classmates of mine all the way thru school.  One I stuffed in a trash can in the student lounge in 1964 but it had nothing to do with his being Jewish.  He was just obnoxious.  I had a few Baptist, Methodist, and Presbyterian friends who might have merited a good trash can stuffing too.

I’m a fairly bright guy.  Growing up there I had Jewish friends that I didn’t even know were Jewish.  At least with “colored people” it was usually easy to tell who was who.  Trust me … we had no one who looked like Halle Berry in my hometown back then.

The Jewish Temple was just two blocks from my house.  The Rabbi, Jerome Tolochko, helped me with a school project once.  He seemed like a nice fellow.

I don’t know if the Jewish people I knew growing up were “persecuted” or not … or if they were circumcised.  If they ate motza balls and geffiltifish they did NOT buy it at Caroon’s or Buddy Raynor’s.  I have never been invited to a bar mitzvah.  I saw the movie Exodus but did not read the book.  I never understood Portnoy’s Complaint.

The people who tell me I’m suppose to “hate Jews” don’t seem to have much going for their ownselves.  I think I’ll choose to dislike “them” instead.

In the ensuing years I can not think of any situation where I have been taken advantage of, cheated by, or in any way mistreated by any Jewish person.  I keep pretty good records of such occasions.  I am going to pass on hating Jewish people.

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   If you grew up in “the South” in the 50-60s you were a part of the “civil rights” situation.  You saw the “separate facilities” and you knew who lived in what part of town.  You were born into that situation and were simply told “that is the way it is”.  

   While us folks “down South” were dealin’ with “colored people”,  those people “up north” took turns hating Irish, Eye-talians, Germans, French PLUS “the Jews”.  They also “hated us down south”, but of course, we “hated Yankees”.  Except Lou Gehrig … everybody liked Lou Gehrig.  He wasn’t Jewish was he?  Sandy Koufax was.  He seemed OK.

Growing up I never had any contact with “colored boys or girls”.  The schools were segregated. The movie theaters, parks, churches and restaurants were too.  Every year the schools would collect canned goods and deliver them “to the housing projects”.  That very short trip was about the extent of my involvement.

My father hired labor crews in his business but never hired “colored men”.  He said “it would cause problems”.  He died in 1968.  I often wondered how he would have dealt with the 70s.

We had “a colored lady” who came 2/days week to do house cleaning.  My mother kept a separate plate, cup, and silverware for her.  I never asked why.  My mother lived in that small town her entire life.  My mother dealt with the 70s, 80s, and 90s by basically ignoring them.  She sorta preferred the 30s, 40s for her memories.

I knew Charlie Scott at UNC.  He and I rode together to Louisville in 1967 in the backseat of the Corliss’ twins Ford Falcon.  Other than both of us being well over 6’, nothing bad happened.  UNC athletics began “breaking the color barrier while I was there.  Ricky Lanier, James Webster and Judge Mattocks were among the first.  I knew them and never “had trouble” of any sort with them.  Morris Mason, the legendary Kenan Stadium equipment manager, was a mentor to me.  He helped me thru some “dust-ups” with a few folks.

When I went to Missouri to work for Dan Devine, about 30% of the football team was “black”.  “They” told me after I had been there for 3 months that they were worried I might be “a racist” because I was “from North Carolina”, but they decided I was “OK”.

I think Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and Bojangles Barry Saunders are dishonest individuals who have profited at the expense of racial harmony in this country.  I think Cynthia McKinney, Maxine Waters and Sheila Jackson Lee are very stupid.  That they are also black makes them black and stupid.  I think Harold Reynolds is THE BEST thing to ever happen to ESPN.  I think Vanessa Williams is drop-dead gorgeous and think Rick Fox was stoopid to cheat on her.

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   Also while growing up, 99.9% of people I knew were Democrats.  We heard there were some “Republicans” in Charlotte but no one I knew had been to Charlotte so there were no first-hand reports.  Politics was probably pretty crooked even back then but who cared.  Political campaigns involved catchy slogans, straw boaters, and boring speeches.

On election day, partisans lined up on the sidewalk in front of the voting place and carried signs for their candidate.  On Friday nights we all went together to the high school ball game and “hated New Bern”.  We NEVER referred to anybody by their politics … “oh him … he’s a damn Republican.”

   One of my dad’s friends always called me “Harry Truman”.  I never knew why.  I called him Adlai Stevenson because he looked like Adlai Stevenson.

My dad and I never talked politics but I’m pretty sure he was a “yellow-dog” Democrat.  I KNOW my mother was a “yellow-dog” Democrat.  Yes, the same mother that kept the separate eating utensils for our colored maid.  Go figure!

My mother was a registered voter for 70 years.  To her dying day she had absolutely no clue what any candidate “stood for” or his views on any issue.  She disliked Jesse Jackson A LOT.  One time I asked her if she realized she was supporting Jesse Jackson’s party.  She got really quiet.  I never brought up the subject again.

I started paying attention to politics in the late 70s.  I wasn’t rich or a member of a country club but found myself more attuned to Republican socio-cultural views.  Sometimes in the 80s both parties got hijacked by extreme factions within each party.  The 90% of the rest of us were immediately told to “pick a side” and hate the one you didn’t pick.  Who made that stupid rule?

I have a number of valued friends who are Democrats and some who are even Liberal Democrats.  In each case both they and I have decided that we will not allow “politics” to interfere with our friendship.  In some cases that limits our conversational topics but it preserves our friendship.

When I see/hear high profile Liberal Democrats on TV I wonder how my friends can possibly support them.  AlGore, Kerry … I mean REALLY!  I figure they wonder the same about me.  But we have learned to deal with it in our own way.

That brings us to the final and silliest “got to hate” of all … hating people who support a different college sports program than I do.  That is soooo unbelievably ridiculous that seeing it manifest on message boards and talk radio gives me cold chills.  If I knew a black Jewish Democrat who went to State or Duke I might not like him but I’ve got to know more about him than that.

If I try really hard I could likely come up with some absurd reasons to dislike someone over their race, religion, or politics … but to waste a constipating stress-inducing emotion like “hate” over which team someone roots for?  That’s when I start thinking “abortion” in their case might have been a bonafide public service.

It seems our society is trying as hard as it can to subdivide all of us into as many divisive segments as possible.  We haven’t even talked about hating “homos”, “heteros”, “feminists’, “chauvinists”, “tree huggers”, “pollutors”, “Chevy-drivers”, “Ford-drivers”, etc.

This website has been active for over seven years.  187 people have unsubscribed over that time.  That is about 2/month.  Heck, I don’t even “hate” those people, but, of course I don’t know who they are either.  I am pretty sure a fair number of them  were from New Bern.  Hating people from New Bern … THAT made sense.  Them sumbitches were “evil”.

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Another Midnight Cowboy question.  

Jon “Joe Buck” Voight only had one “client”.  

What smokey-voiced actress played his “client”?

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 BLS Sezs 

 The only thing you should say to anyone in a public rest room is 

“… Excuse me”.  

Never say that more than once per visit.

 >>><<<

   Jon Voight was Joe Buck and Burt’s canoe partner.  Ned Beatty squealed like a pig but did not know Ratzo Rizzo.

   Hopefully 95% of hacker golfers learned from Tiger this weekend and will leave their drivers in the bag and keep the ball in play … but they won’t.

   Bad news abrewing about UNC FBers “in trouble at a Franklin Street club”.  Isn’t that like an annual rite of summer now?

 Want to e-mail BobLee?

[email protected]

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