Oh…the end of worry is near! My girls are getting in tonight and I have missed them like crazy!! I have had the requisite conversation with my long dead dad and he has his marching orders to keep their plane in the air and land them safely. It’s amazing how I immediately feel some semblance of power once they are in my sphere of influence even though I have no more power than when they are away. Mind games, ain’t they swell?!!
Had a girlie day today. Got the old hair and nails done. Don’t know why, not going anywhere but I guess I just needed to feel pretty. Being under the weather for several weeks can do that to a girl. Before the elder daughter left she let me know that the skunk look wasn’t really cuttin’ it and I had to agree so didn’t really want her to come back to the “bride of Frankenstein”…
Here’s something really random for you…What about that Shirley Sherrod case? It just goes to show that anything we say at any time in our life can be taken out of context and used to further an agenda. A three minute snippet of a twenty-seven minute speech was used to portray Ms. Sherrod as a racist. And on the basis of a YouTube airing of this snippet, she was forced to resign her position as the Georgia Director of the USDA.
Don’t be fooled by what you see on that three minute piece! This is propaganda of the worst kind and the best evidence I know of how important it is to get your information from more than one source and make sure you have the whole story before you make judgments. After all, our perspectives are the result of lives lived and as such we think they have a solid foundation. However, some of our experiences lead us to make assumptions and oftentimes those assumptions are just plain wrong. And I guess I would suggest that anytime we allow our assumptions to lead us to snap judgments, then that should be the red flag that says, “take a minute (or twenty-seven) to rethink.”
Now, the full twenty-seven minutes of Ms. Sherrod’s speech takes the audience on a journey that paints a complex picture about the role of not only race but also poverty in American culture. It presents a woman honestly airing her prejudices as well as the epiphany that showed her the error of her position. Oh, that the rest of us could be so honest! Because if we can’t face our shortcomings how will we ever grow and be a agent of change?
What did she get for her courage? Lambasted! Verbally tarred and feathered! Undercut by the very people who should have gotten their information from more that one source, who should have taken twenty-seven minutes before making a judgment! I am disappointed in the NAACP, I am disappointed in the Obama administration, I am disappointed in knee-jerk liberals who were so concerned with appearing to take the high road that they wound up in the gutter. I am disappointed in anyone who painted her a racist before knowing her. Isn’t that what every important civil rights leader in the last half century has asked. Get to know me, him, her, whoever…before judging.
Shirley Sherrod is about as far from a racist as she can get. Because one thing I know about a racist, they don’t question their belief system. They don’t recognize that they might be wrong. They don’t admit that they are behaving badly. And they certainly don’t encourage the choir to sing a different tune. I admire Shirley Sherrod’s willingness to use her life lesson to plant the notes of a different song in the hearts of her choir…
Thanks Shirley!
Some People’s Kids: Courageous. Honest. Deserving of much better treatment…