Pure Nitro, Searching for True Grit in Seneca South Carolina

    Circumstances took a turn on hwy 68, and today I found myself trying to get to Schlotzkys on the catbus while I try to figure out a two state solution. Seneca is the hometown of my High school advanced Composition teacher Miss Margaret Chadwick. Yesterday I read several tributes to Charles Portis, the fellow who wrote True Grit. Jeff Bridges is in the second edition and Mattie has that great line about the Presbyterian Church.

      Here is the link to the Portis tributes. Your life will have more signicance if you read them; and this free associatin blog may make more sense too.

      https://www.oxfordamerican.org/item/1903-man-with-the-keys

   I'm thinking now Portis may be the second greatest man to come out of Arkansas. Maybe third. Of course Johnny Cash is first, maybe Billy Bob Thornton second, Portis third and WJ Clinton fourth or further down. I used to be enamored of Bill, but he has fallen in the last ten years though I hold him in much higher regard than say most Fox News believers in South Carolina, Rome Ga and Hall County, home of Doug Collins.

     I rode the catbus. A twenty minute round trip to Schlotzky's of Seneca, turned into a four hour ordeal. But I did have an interesting conversation on the way to near John C Calhoun's home and on the way back talked to a fellow whose HS English teacher was Ron Rash's wife herself. I think they have a daughter named Caroline and a son James.

    I told the fellow I once interviewed Rash, and knew well the documentarian of both Kurt Cobain and the Stones in Crossfire Hurricane. It's true.

    He was a  Nirvana Fan and goes to church with one of Dabo Swinney's key coordinators.

    All of this helps me reconcile present circumstances after Reading the tributes to Portis.

    Pure Nitro

Black Political mischief in Alabama confusing the Integrity Vote

   The day after Super Tuesday the Al dot com media syndicate in Alabama came out with a piece about how King Makers of color in the black belt of Alabama jumped in with Bloomberg for their mutual pursuits and dollars in the pockets of Black powerbrokers. This a problem for the Democrat party in Alabama almost comparable to the mendacity folks like Bradley Byrne and Mike Hubbard play the politics of race and immigration.

    You should be able to google the Al dot com piece for King makers, Worley, Joe Reed and Bloomberg.

       The white president of Judson College for a long time tried to take a diplomatic virtuous road to move the black belt forward, but folks like Joe Reed were an impediment if it didn't benefit their power. So the beneficiaries of the Civil Rights movement, some of them are no better than George Wallace in the 60s, or Mayor Daley or you pick em.

     Here is what my friend Mart Gray, former Ex Director of the Alabama CBF, the good guys had to say on his facebook wall about the article.

    I quote him with permission:

        

When I first started working in the Black Belt of Alabama two decades ago, nothing could be accomplished without considering the political implications. Not that we were trying to do political things, but in the Black Belt, everything you do has political implications.

Why? Because repressed people learn how to consolidate what little power they have and wield it as effectively as possible. In that process, kingmakers and gatekeepers thrive. Those who are perceived to be able to steer the “power” are given inestimable deference. Go to any diminished community anywhere in the world and this dynamic will almost certainly be active.

Often these individuals begin with noble objectives. But the old adage holds true. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. And Joe Reed, with Nancy Worley at his side, is an example.

The single greatest thing one can do to empower communities and people who are disadvantaged is to allow them to TELL THEIR OWN STORY.

When people of the ilk of Reed and Worley are deposed, there is at least the opportunity for the community to speak for itself.

But other kingmakers and gatekeepers always await with licked lips. And, in my humble opinion, it is the responsibility of us that are majoritarian to listen not to the voices of the ambitious, but those of the vulnerable. They know what is in their best interest. They don’t want a free ride. They just want us to listen.

And, honestly, for a guy who likes to talk...that’s still a hard lift for me.

Bradley Byrne sells out to the Abortion Devil and Loses in Alabama

  Bradley Byrne, Espiscopalian and Duke Grad made the Fetus his Idol his political strategy in Alabama Senate Race and he lost to a Football coach and Selma native the man who brought Stephen Miller to power in the Trump White House, Jeff Sessions.

    In Christian Nationalism as a new book by Katherine Stewart, the Power Worshippers,  points out Byrne made a choice to dance with the Devil and in the vernacular of Jonathan Edwards dangle our country in concert with Donald Trump on the bottomless pits of Hell.

     Good chat on NPR about it today. I called the DC Office of SC 4th congressman William Timmons who with the aid of Wofford and Furman in his district should be able to defined himself on this spectrum.

     http://forums.baptistlife.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=13501 

      To make it local to Dekalb County Alabama, product of the FBC Ft Payne, Samford and Vandy grad, Cherilynne Crowe understands whats at stake here. As does Hillary Beard a product of Ft Payne as well, Guntersville and Bham Southern.  Maybe influencers could bring Crowe to NACC.edu with Casey Mattox to examine, navigate it all for the local study clubs, historical associations, shool board, friends of Jeremy Pruitt at Plainview HS cause these are delicate times and a lot of otherwise good christian people are confused and the devil is at work in high places doing the best he can to further bamboozle them.  Copy and paste the link above. 

     Talk about it in Sunday School.


    Original post below now updated and refined.

Facebook has suddenly been awash in NE Bama lately over amendment One. Otherwise quiet folks and some new chatters are expressing themselves passionately and some surprisingly with articulation.

    Here are my reference points to take anybody seriously

   All easy googles

    Randall Balmers latest on Southern Baptists new fear of Liberals and Narrowing

    2. Edsall, Audacity of Hate, ny times. Lays bear takes the veil off any claim to integrity of the GOP in South Carolina and beyond

   3. Remnick, New Yorker on Limbaugh, Race and Trump. Great complement to Edsall

    4. Howell Raines interview on the Paul Finebaum show last week about Trump. Greg Sankey must address it; Saban and Dabo too

     Jon Meacham on the Soul of America.

    Have you seen the GOP ads in Bama senate Race. Despicable and they claim to be the Christian party while Rick Lance and the Southern Baptists in the state are struck mute

     And then there is the politics of Amendment One.  Everybody in Bama has an opinion it seems but nobody wants to read Jill Lepore, or Sam Hodges For the Love of Alabama, or Ed Bridges on Bama and the Civil War. Bammers for the most part know what they think they know don't want to read anything else, especially the Trumpers.