Leaving Afghanistan and American Patriotism

  A new generation of educators is upon America and I wish them luck. But here in the Trump aftermath it seems as the heartland goes its just a recycling of sophomoric ideas on American exceptionalism coming in the pipeline.

    I was not surprised but kinda taken aback when I saw a facebook post from a first year elementary school teacher a couple days ago of the Afghans falling off the wings of a plane in the disastrous exit from Afghanistan. Her thought was all you people who dont like America look at these giving their lives to come here.

    What saddens me is this otherwise fine young woman from an influential family and extended church and social circle in her town, comes away from four years of "higher education" with not much more political discernment and wisdom than she had in tenth grade. And with her cheerleading instincts and rah rah promotion of her town she replicates across the heartland, will likely run for school board some day or her husband based on "tried and true" values of heartland America the last hundred years. No reading of Azar Nafisi, the Bicentennial history of Alabama, nor my friend Sam Hodges For the Love of Alabama. No recognition of the legacy of Judge Frank Johnson or Jackson Giles or Atticus Finch nor distinction from the Harper Lee Character to the refinement of Joe Crespino in the Non fiction Atticus or what the iconic Atticus could learn from Calpurnia from the recent Broadway revision.

    No thank you, I was raised in the Babdist or the local Methodist church and our assistant school supe was a good man and deacon or elder, and if he hasnt read anything since high school or his assignments at JSU then I don't need to either. And Mark Wilson from Auburn and his Democracy Project is good metrics for our town but we don't need him talking to us about Phil Williams, the Eagle Forum or Post Trump cause we like the America we were raised on thank you very much.

     And those PBS docs on the Blinding of Isaac Woodard and Neutral Ground about the Confederate Monuments etc, well I might see em, I might not if the Jr Varsity idnt playing that night or some preview of SEC football or Gone With the Wind on Turner Classics or prayer meeting or somthing.

    Lets just use South Carolina and Alabama as examples. Where is the syndicated story on school boards across the state and what knowledge of America individuals bring to the table. What percentage among them can hold their own in a decent conversation about Jill Lepore's These Truths and Azar Nafisi's This Republic of Imagination. Who among them will vote different from Gloria Morgan in Collinsville Alabama, as another example if she thinks Phil Williams is the best thing out there because of his position on abortion and things like Clean DACA Bill, or the soul molesting of Donald Trump, the ignorance and silliness of Rick Burgess; well none of em are perfect.......

      Some random thoughts. What is American patriotism if the coming generation of American educators and leadership in small town America is Same as it Ever Was and anything or anybody who question their examination of three or four generations of mediocre understanding and history of the country, well they are just smart asses that we don't need anyhow and Great Uncle so and so fought in Germany even if he did come home and vote for George Wallace three times before he got shot. And God Bless People of Color. They can play football for the SEC and we like em but if they don't like Trump then they and their kin can get to the polls best way they can.

   Pardon me, kinda random, but a lot of again, otherwise good people are in the fog and by god passionate about it.