Free Range Friday ~ Off the Menu

Unable to think much about food with my mind caught up in the events of an historic church in South Carolina where hatred moved from evil words to evil actions, this 1958 song from Rodgers and Hamemerstein's South Pacific (based on James Michener's book Tales of the South Pacific) made too much sense. Again.

I'm far from the first to link this song about racial hatred toward the Japanese in our country to black and white race relations in our present times. We, as Americans, don't seem to skip a beat or an ethnicity to hate since we first put 'savage Indians' in their place on first arriving. 

Contrary to most thinking at the time that killing Native Americans wasn't a crime, these three white men shocked enough people with their savagery that action was taken. You can read the whole story here.

With such a short history compared to most of the world, we've been both a melting pot and a smelting cauldron on full boil ever since our not so pure WASPy grand and great-grandparents were the meltees, and working hard at cleansing our Blue Books ever since. 

Here's a scary bit of reality...I'm hereditarily qualified to be a Daughter of the American Revolution, oh matriarchal line of strangeness. On the other side, my father's side, are my way backs from Russian to New York Jewry, which qualifies me for nothing more and nothing less than heartache and pride. There's a Spaniard in there as well, I'm very delighted to know, along with more I'm sure yet to be uncovered.

I'm far from unique, most of us Americans are a little bit of this and a lot of that and anyone who thinks they are only this or only that has not dug deep enough. Well, if one prefers to think one is a biologically pure human, one might not want to look farther, as history shows over and over again. Hence, a Hitler. Or a bigot from down the street.

I've been reading horror and anger and sorrow, virulent justification and deep shame over what happened the night before last, veering off on everything from politics and guns to flags and religion, with only a few voices, quiet and not so quiet staying on point. There is so much vicious, and I mean vicious like the beaten drooling for blood ready to kill you dog of your worst nightmares even if you love dogs hatred flying around the internet I keep waiting for my computer to catch on fire...

So...what to do in the face of abominable actions and attitudes? I just know to keep on keeping on. Stop a joke, stop a slur, write letters, VOTE. Wringing our hands isn't going to change anything.

And of course, wine can help. Because it is better to drink a couple of bottles glasses of wine than to throw your computer or yourself against a wall. This is called foresight, or wisdom or yeah, I already tried the other things, now I have foresight and wisdom. Just trust me on this one.

With all of the completely unnecessary (and it is unnecessary; think about it for a nano second) horror in the world, there are still things like this, Nature's antidote for taking things too far for too long in the sorrow zone. 

Be nice. Nice is good.