Ron Rash Poem on Textile Mill Owner

   Ron Rash is a friend. Another friend and I worked on an adaptation of his novel One Foot in Eden for the Big Screen. At least two Oscar nominees became attached in the process but after ten years it all evaporated.

    I read his poem The Last Interview in Easley SC Thursday night open mike at the Library. Put it in context of some drama in Gaffney in late 70s. Also mentioned I was on national TV twenty odd years ago in a video response to the PBS Documentary the Uprising of 34.

       The Last Interview

        Thats an early picture on the wall

       painted the year I graduated from

Princeton University, the year

I took my first trip to the continent,

But I digress. You spoke of exploitation

The working man's abuse by men like me.

If they are so abused why don't they go back

to the farms they flee to work in mills,

become Vanderbilt Agrarians

quoting Cicero as they slop their hogs.

In thirty four when the union leaders came

and promised everything they could, then more,

my workers stuck with me. My workers kneew

I'd take care of them. Eureka ran

when other mills shut down. I took a loss

 so they could have some work. Noblesse Oblige

is an idea we still live by in the South.

All Men created equal? Yes Perhaps

but see how soon we sort the top ones out.

Watch any group of childrenn, they have leaders,

followers and stragglers. It does not change

as they grow older. No one questions rank in war of Politics so why not business.

Don't think that I am stupid. I see your pen

hasn't moved since this interview began.

You'll slant what I have said to fit your needs. I know how writers work, their luxury

of always being outside looking in,

passing easy judgments while they risk

nothing of their own, mere dilettantes.

Your words mean nothing to me. I know the truth.

I gave them more than they ever had. 

TKAM Bob Ewell and Sick GOP Ron Desantis

  I saw the Broadway touring play TKAM Tuesday night at the Peace Center in Greenville Starring John Boy Walton as Atticus. He is shorter than you thought he was but did a good Atticus. Robert E Lee Bob Ewell stole the show for me however as from1934 he lives in the Sick MAGA GOP even Ron Desantis and Nikki Haley of today.

    I wondered how many in the audience in Greenville sell out  crowd of 2000 and a few cheering for Atticus and Calpurnia are complicit in the gun Happy lobby of Upstate SC CongressmenJeff Duncan. He is  Dabo Swinney's congressman.  Jeff Duncan is a founding member of the 2nd Amendment caucus, and William Timmons of the SC 3rd has his family's name on the basketball arena at Furman.

    These folks play politics with Bob Ewell and his descendants.  and all their family standings can't whitewash it away.

    The truth is those who do business political and otherwise with Timmons and Duncan, Haley and Desantis are no better than those who convicted Tom Robinson in 1934 . Lee Atwater said you can't say Nigger Nigger Nigger anymore so Guns and abortion politics, and now CRT are gonna take the place of that. The Birch Society and the White Citizens council have regrouped in the persona of Tim Tebow's Mother, Bama Lt Governor Will Ainsworth and radio personality Rick Burgess, Yellowhammer News etc. And white people go to Baptist churches with these people while the Dadeville shooting and Covenant in Nashville are coming to you.

   They Killed the son in law of Seminary President Roy Honeycutt in Louisville. Martin Luther King said the blood of the four little girls at the 16th Street BC was on the blood of Baptist ministers in the state and all over George Wallace. So now is the blood of school children drenching the MAGA wing and christian nationalists now all over the Carolinas and Georgia and Dadeville Alabama right to the FUMC Montgomery where Senator Katie Britt is a member.

    Read what John Archibald said at al.com. See Robert Jones Shutting down CRT Debate, religion news; and two days ago on school boards and Ron Desantis at baptist news global. Read the New Yorker on the Nashville Covenant murders and Marsha Blackburn Tn Senator, native of Laurel Mississippi of Sam Bowers fame.

      Guns and nigger baiting, same tune, different verse. Compelling case has been made without NRA Marion Hammer Stand Your Ground law Ahmaud Arberry and Trayvon would still be alive.

     Lets hope the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship , Dawn Staley of SC Basketball and SEC Commisioner Greg Sankey get up to speed on this along with the Student Catholic Fellowship at St Francis in Tuscaloosa. Nick Saban and Miss Terry gave them a million dollars a few years ago. Lets have some public conversations with them and Jeff Duncan, Desantis and Nikki Haley and stop the Bull Sheet before this country goes straight to hell in a cascade of Bullets, Hell over which it sure is Dangling at the Moment. 

Renaissance Weather and Weekend at Furman; TKAM And billy in Alabama

    Well friends it didnt go as planned but worked out anyway. For six months last weekend I was to be in Bama in a Vrbo with friends and family to welcome Billy Ivey of Napkinisms fame to town, then see Tigers for Tomorrow and the spot where Luke my friend what about young Anna Lee of The Weight slept while passing through; visit Trade Day and then hear Miss Nelle's best friend talk about TKAM at the Cricket Theatre.

    But things imploded and I ended up staying home in the Upstate and trekking out to Furman for two days of Clearly Furman, Two free meals, a water bottle, a New tote bag, a name tag and a partridge in a pear tree. Seriously  great weekend at Clearly Furman emphasis and the weather Saturday was Promotionally perfect. Had conversations with former President Shi who calls this blog "illustrious", and current President Davis with whom I shared some remarkable Baptist Drama trivia from her days at Baylor of which she was not aware. They happened to be seated  near me outside the tent. And a few minutes later where I had resigned to some shade trees, Gov Riley himself comes walking by. I shouted out to him while talking to my classmate Doody on the phone in Ft. Lauderdale.

      Before I forget it, next year you must list the classroom buildings by workshop. I lost forty minutes walking by cane leaving the History repeats presentation, looking for Polarized America. I went from Furman Hall to Riley Hall and then back to Johns Hall for last three minutes of polarization. I was so flustered I almost went straight to TR Chic Fil A small scoop and calling it a day.

   But I persevered and caught the full presentation of Libraries and censorship panel in Furman Hall Second floor with Rest room facilities at north end near North Campus housing.

    I missed new thinking on critical analysis of Biblical texts Friday morning and got distracted by the Doubles Point of Furman Women versus ETSU netters at the expense of President Shi presentation on the Sustainability Program. At lunch he said he appreciated my priorities.

    Several initial takeaways with more to follow so check back in in a few days. One Great weekend for Furman. In the Student Newspaper I picked up in an interview with President Davis, she declares Furman is the best intstitution of higher education in the state of SC, and administrators from near and far are calling her office about the Furman Advantage. Far cry from the assessment a few years ago from a college recruiter with a Vandy grad degree who said Furman had no identity....Wish she coulda been at Furman this weekend.

     We had some bright kids when I was there fifty years ago, but nothing as impressive as the articulate to a tee fifty plus personalities in Timmons arena discussing their Furman advantage projects for a year. Those ready to go to work upon graduation could be hired on the spot. Talked to a young woman from Bob Jones Prep School who is using her Furman degree to work with the sexually trafficked. Young PCA kid from Durham NC majoring in religion and finance loved Bullock BBQ. Then I talked to some football players, one from Kennessay Ga in a group of Three including Caden Richards of our hometown of Gaffney SC.

    I got more to say so Check back in in a couple days.