Last week I attended a Club Track and Field meeting. This meeting was regarding their elections for their organizations leaders and to talk a bit about the program for next year. I wanted to run for the club track team this semester, but was unable to and have been a bit out of the loop. However, I have friends that run on the team and they suggested that I come.
For the most part, most of the positions were already decided. However, for the position of president there were three candidates who spoke. One was a female and then there were two males who wanted to run for president. Their different choices in rhetoric spoke to difference audiences and gave off a different tone. The first candidate was a joke. In fact, he wasn't even there. Another member of the team spoke on his behalf. He spoke about the person barely attending workouts and how he'll probably be on the varsity team next year. The audience was meant to be those who see the group as joke, but for the audience that took the club seriously, he was not presented as the candidate for him. The next person had a rhetoric that displayed him as an intelligent and capable person. However, his audience spoke more to the long distance runners. He promised to help them out more, completely ignoring the sprinters. The third candidate gave a similar rhetoric to the last person. However, her audience was far broader. She spoke to all of the partcipants of the club team. She wanted to improve relations between distance and sprinters and to keep the team more uniform and cohesive.
This meeting added to my experience to UNC because being interested in the club, I would like to know if I were to join again that it would be in the hands of the right person. Also, it was nice to see how an organization is run. The group seemed to have a very friendly atmosphere with people who genuinely cared about the sport. To see that there is a place in which I could feel comfortable around campus and be around people who have the same interests as myself was very positive. It is nice to find a niche in any large campus, and the UNC Club Track and Field team provided an option for my niche at UNC
Monday, April 27, 2009
Event #3: Sporting Event
Two weeks ago I went to the Joe Hilton UNC Track and Field Invitiational. As a track athlete in high school, I was thoroughly excited to attend a track meet at the collegiate level. The invitational had teams from all over, even from my own state. Unfortunately that team was Michigan State. I'm sure they weren't too happy to be at our track so short after their miserable loss to us in the NCAA basketball finals. However, I have friends that run for Michigan State so it was nice to see them compete and as a UNC student, it was nice to see how our runners match up in comparison to other schools.
The track meets are what I expected in a sense. Much like in high school, track meets are bit more low key than other sports such as basketball and football. Unlike the masses that attend basketball and football games, only true track and field enthusiasts attend, or friends of the competitors who come for the event and then leave. There isn't a student section, with Carolina fever students who paint their bodies and yell various UNC chants. There are no cheerleaders who get the crowd pumped up, because unless its a really big meet, there isn't too much of a crowd. However, in my opinion, track and field is one of the most exciting sports you can watch and the lack of attendance just gives me more of an opportunity to watch these powerful, agile, and ridiculously fast athletes perform.
The meet had no clear cut team dominating, but for most of the events, Michigan State, UNC, and UNC Greensboro seemed to be the in the forefront. For me, the most enjoyable events to watch are the sprint events. 100m, 200m, 4x1, 400m, and 4x400 are all extremely exciting races for their own reasons. The pure speed of the athletes is truly astounding. Its crazy to me how they can possibly move that quickly. This meet was slightly odd because they had the sprint events on the backstretch for some of the sprint events because of the wind would've created a skewed result. The conclusion of the meet was the most exciting. 4x400, which ends most meets, ended up between MSU and UNC.....UNC had the lead for the first two runners, but then the 3rd leg runner of MSU was just beastily....he took off extremely fast and hawked down one of our runners and even surpassed him. It was not looking good for us. However, are anchor leg caught up with the anchor leg of the MSU team and we ended up taking it the win. Suck on that again MSU. It was so exciting...on the last turn of the 400 with the anchor runners, the members of the UNC and MSU team were there, cheering their teammates on. The MSU tried to cheer over us, but our TARRR-HEEEEL chant masked their feeble chanting. Go UNC!
I was really glad that I attended this meet. What it showed me was how specific events appeal to specific audiences. As I mentioned before, track and field is not as popular as football and basketball. With that, the events tend to be more specific to a particular audience. In order to be apart of the track and field audience, you must have an understanding of what makes track and field such an exciting sport. While it may seem like people are just running, the excitement comes from watching and speculating who is going to pull through an event. A large part of track is mental. You have to believe that you can in fact hold your pace and get the person in front of you. Some people take out too fast, and lose mentally and are surpassed in the end. Or you have that one runner that upsets everything, and pulls out all that they have at the end for the win. Nonetheless, a true track and field audience understands this. Along with a specific audience, track and field has its own kind of discourse. With its own rules and terminology, it can be difficult to understand what is going on or understand the conversations of those around you. For example, if you listen to the people in the audience, they often times will talk about a persons's turnover or stride, which in comparing to other runners may possibly determine who might pull through in the end.
As a UNC student, I was glad to attend. It added to my college experiences because I got to get yet another glimpse into UNC sports, which is a large aspect of UNC. Our athletes are defininetly strong, honorable and respectable athletes. To get the opportunity to watch them run was definently a privelage and a high point of my freshman year.
The track meets are what I expected in a sense. Much like in high school, track meets are bit more low key than other sports such as basketball and football. Unlike the masses that attend basketball and football games, only true track and field enthusiasts attend, or friends of the competitors who come for the event and then leave. There isn't a student section, with Carolina fever students who paint their bodies and yell various UNC chants. There are no cheerleaders who get the crowd pumped up, because unless its a really big meet, there isn't too much of a crowd. However, in my opinion, track and field is one of the most exciting sports you can watch and the lack of attendance just gives me more of an opportunity to watch these powerful, agile, and ridiculously fast athletes perform.
The meet had no clear cut team dominating, but for most of the events, Michigan State, UNC, and UNC Greensboro seemed to be the in the forefront. For me, the most enjoyable events to watch are the sprint events. 100m, 200m, 4x1, 400m, and 4x400 are all extremely exciting races for their own reasons. The pure speed of the athletes is truly astounding. Its crazy to me how they can possibly move that quickly. This meet was slightly odd because they had the sprint events on the backstretch for some of the sprint events because of the wind would've created a skewed result. The conclusion of the meet was the most exciting. 4x400, which ends most meets, ended up between MSU and UNC.....UNC had the lead for the first two runners, but then the 3rd leg runner of MSU was just beastily....he took off extremely fast and hawked down one of our runners and even surpassed him. It was not looking good for us. However, are anchor leg caught up with the anchor leg of the MSU team and we ended up taking it the win. Suck on that again MSU. It was so exciting...on the last turn of the 400 with the anchor runners, the members of the UNC and MSU team were there, cheering their teammates on. The MSU tried to cheer over us, but our TARRR-HEEEEL chant masked their feeble chanting. Go UNC!
I was really glad that I attended this meet. What it showed me was how specific events appeal to specific audiences. As I mentioned before, track and field is not as popular as football and basketball. With that, the events tend to be more specific to a particular audience. In order to be apart of the track and field audience, you must have an understanding of what makes track and field such an exciting sport. While it may seem like people are just running, the excitement comes from watching and speculating who is going to pull through an event. A large part of track is mental. You have to believe that you can in fact hold your pace and get the person in front of you. Some people take out too fast, and lose mentally and are surpassed in the end. Or you have that one runner that upsets everything, and pulls out all that they have at the end for the win. Nonetheless, a true track and field audience understands this. Along with a specific audience, track and field has its own kind of discourse. With its own rules and terminology, it can be difficult to understand what is going on or understand the conversations of those around you. For example, if you listen to the people in the audience, they often times will talk about a persons's turnover or stride, which in comparing to other runners may possibly determine who might pull through in the end.
As a UNC student, I was glad to attend. It added to my college experiences because I got to get yet another glimpse into UNC sports, which is a large aspect of UNC. Our athletes are defininetly strong, honorable and respectable athletes. To get the opportunity to watch them run was definently a privelage and a high point of my freshman year.
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Final Feeder 3.1
The Detrimental Effects of Outdated and Misinterpreted Tradition
The price of outdated and misinterpreted tradition can potentially be a high one. For some, the price of upholding those traditions overrides their own happiness or even in some instances, takes away their lives. In the South, many lay prey to the potential price of traditions such as the Confederacy and marriage. Those traditions, once meant to evoke pride and honor, serve in contemporary times as a grievance to those who attempt to uphold them. As seen in the texts, Confederates in the Attic by Tony Horwitz and Drawing Names by Bobbie Ann Mason, outdated, misinterpreted traditions such as the Confederacy and marriage serve to be detrimental and devastating to those who the tradition no longer proves as pertinent.
In the chapter Cats of the Confederacy, Horowitz gives an account of the southern tradition of upholding the Confederacy in Salisbury, North Carolina. In his account of Salisbury, he describes a married couple, Sue and Ed Curtis, who religiously uphold the tradition of the Confederacy. Sue, head of the local chapter of United Daughters of the Confederacy, and Ed, member of the Sons of the Confederate Veterans, commit their lives for the continuance of the Confederacy. As said in the Sons of the Confederate Veterans pledged allegiance, Sue and Ed, “...salute the Confederate with flag affection, reverence and undying devotion to the Cause for which it stands,” (Horwitz 23-24). Their salute to the rebel flag, Confederate flag, is symbolic of their devotion to the Confederacy; their devotion to tradition. Their devotion of upholding the tradition of the Confederacy is a result of pride in their family history. When asked by Horowitz why she felt Southerners still cared about the Civil war, Sue replied, “The answer is family. We grow up knowing who’s once removed and six times down. Northerners say, ‘Forget the War, it’s over.’ But they don’t have the family Bibles we do, filled with all these kinfolk who went off to war and died. We’ve lost so much,” (Horwitz 26). This pride in family and the sacrifice for the cause they gave during the Civil War causes for southerners like Sue to uphold the tradition of the Confederacy without acknowledging the beliefs that the Confederacy stood for. The Confederacy, which ones stood for the continuance of slavery, has become an outdated (with the end of the Civil War and loss of the Confederacy) and misinterpreted tradition, and is now synonymous with pride, courage, and sacrifice of family for “the Cause”.
This blind loyalty to tradition without understanding the true connotations of the Confederacy prove to be detrimental, causing for racial tensions and devastating repercussions. While the rebel flag may represent pride in their family for their involvement in the Civil war to white southerners such as Sue and Ed, the African Americans of the town see it is an insult and representative of enslavement. As stated by Michael King, the young preacher of Salisbury’s African American church, “Remember your ancestors […] but remember what they fought for too, and recognize it was wrong,” (Horwitz 44). The difference in perspective of the tradition of the Confederacy causes for racial tension. In the chapter Dying for Dixie, the racial tension that occurs from a white young man’s misinterpretations of tradition results in the loss of his life. Due to the presence of the rebel flag on his truck, Michael Westerman was shot and killed. While many maintained that he was an avid Confederate, the truth of the matter was he truly did not believe in traditional, Confederate interpretation of the rebel flag. According to Sarah, Michael Westerman’s wife’s sister, “The flag was a symbol of him […] He was a rebel, a daredevil, outspoken. He’d do anything,’ (Horwitz 108). The presence and importance of the flag passed down to Westerman through tradition and not maintain its original meaning. Furthermore, the shooter Freddie Morrow as well did not know what the true meaning of the flag was.
What exactly did the flag mean to him? Freddie shrugged and looked at me impassively. ‘I thought it was just the Dukes of Hazzard sign […] After moving to Guthrie, he gradually began to sense whites’ attachment to the flag and blacks’ hostility toward what they considered a symbol of slavery […] To him, the banner was simply something whites knew black hated. He suspected whites brandished the flag as sort of a schoolyard taunt, ‘just doing it out of spite, to see what we would do’”
(Horwitz 116)
As Freddie spent more time in the South, he learned that the flag symbolized not as a rebel cause, but as perpetuation of the enslavement of his people and as instigation. Whether the tradition of the Confederacy, as symbolized by the rebel flag was misinterpreted (as seen through Westerman), or no longer served a purpose or was appropriate in modern day (as seen through Morrow), serves as unimportant . The importance although are the consequences of that misinterpretation. For Michael Westerman, it meant the end of his life via death and for Freddie Morrow, the end of his life via jail-two devastating consequences of tradition.
Though the detrimental effects of outdated and misinterpreted tradition are not seen through racial tensions, Bobby Ann Mason’s Drawing Names shows the detrimental effects of tradition through marriage. As prominent as upholding the Confederacy is a tradition in southern culture, marriage as well proves as a perhaps even stronger southern tradition. To be married, and to maintain ones marriage at all costs, even one’s own happiness, is highly revered in southern culture. In Drawing Names, a family rich in southern culture, the father dislike of the protagonist Carolyn Sisson’s divorce is expressed, “He was a shy man, awkward with his daughters, and Carolyn knew he had been deeply disappointed over her failed marriage although he had never said so,” (Mason 93). Due to the intensity of the tradition, Carolyn’s sister Iris’ faked being happy in her marriage in order to uphold the tradition for her parents. “Ray and me’s [Iris] getting a separation […] The thing of it is, I had to beg him to come today, for Mom and Dad’s sake. It’ll kill them. Don’t let on, will you?” (Mason 98). The importance of upholding the tradition transcends Iris’ own happiness, so much in fact that she is willing to put on a façade for her parents who belief strongly in tradition. The tradition of upholding her marriage no longer proves as advantageous and is actually detrimental. In order to keep up the appearance of a happy marriage and hide her separation for the sake of tradition, Iris suffers through unhappiness and even lies to her own family.
The price of upholding outdated and misinterpreted tradition proves to be a costly and futile. Through the texts Confederates in the Attic and Drawing Name, happiness and even one’s own life are sacrificed for the preservation of traditions that do not necessarily reflect the present. Those traditions, meant to retain the importance and meaning that they were once associated with such as a belief in marriage, now serve to place pressure on the individuals whose lives no longer reflect those traditions and ultimately prove to be a disservice to the individuals involved.
Works Cited
Horwitz, Tony. Confederates in the Attic. New York: Vintage, 1998
Mason, Bobby Ann. Shiloh and other Stories. New York: Harper and Row c1982
The price of outdated and misinterpreted tradition can potentially be a high one. For some, the price of upholding those traditions overrides their own happiness or even in some instances, takes away their lives. In the South, many lay prey to the potential price of traditions such as the Confederacy and marriage. Those traditions, once meant to evoke pride and honor, serve in contemporary times as a grievance to those who attempt to uphold them. As seen in the texts, Confederates in the Attic by Tony Horwitz and Drawing Names by Bobbie Ann Mason, outdated, misinterpreted traditions such as the Confederacy and marriage serve to be detrimental and devastating to those who the tradition no longer proves as pertinent.
In the chapter Cats of the Confederacy, Horowitz gives an account of the southern tradition of upholding the Confederacy in Salisbury, North Carolina. In his account of Salisbury, he describes a married couple, Sue and Ed Curtis, who religiously uphold the tradition of the Confederacy. Sue, head of the local chapter of United Daughters of the Confederacy, and Ed, member of the Sons of the Confederate Veterans, commit their lives for the continuance of the Confederacy. As said in the Sons of the Confederate Veterans pledged allegiance, Sue and Ed, “...salute the Confederate with flag affection, reverence and undying devotion to the Cause for which it stands,” (Horwitz 23-24). Their salute to the rebel flag, Confederate flag, is symbolic of their devotion to the Confederacy; their devotion to tradition. Their devotion of upholding the tradition of the Confederacy is a result of pride in their family history. When asked by Horowitz why she felt Southerners still cared about the Civil war, Sue replied, “The answer is family. We grow up knowing who’s once removed and six times down. Northerners say, ‘Forget the War, it’s over.’ But they don’t have the family Bibles we do, filled with all these kinfolk who went off to war and died. We’ve lost so much,” (Horwitz 26). This pride in family and the sacrifice for the cause they gave during the Civil War causes for southerners like Sue to uphold the tradition of the Confederacy without acknowledging the beliefs that the Confederacy stood for. The Confederacy, which ones stood for the continuance of slavery, has become an outdated (with the end of the Civil War and loss of the Confederacy) and misinterpreted tradition, and is now synonymous with pride, courage, and sacrifice of family for “the Cause”.
This blind loyalty to tradition without understanding the true connotations of the Confederacy prove to be detrimental, causing for racial tensions and devastating repercussions. While the rebel flag may represent pride in their family for their involvement in the Civil war to white southerners such as Sue and Ed, the African Americans of the town see it is an insult and representative of enslavement. As stated by Michael King, the young preacher of Salisbury’s African American church, “Remember your ancestors […] but remember what they fought for too, and recognize it was wrong,” (Horwitz 44). The difference in perspective of the tradition of the Confederacy causes for racial tension. In the chapter Dying for Dixie, the racial tension that occurs from a white young man’s misinterpretations of tradition results in the loss of his life. Due to the presence of the rebel flag on his truck, Michael Westerman was shot and killed. While many maintained that he was an avid Confederate, the truth of the matter was he truly did not believe in traditional, Confederate interpretation of the rebel flag. According to Sarah, Michael Westerman’s wife’s sister, “The flag was a symbol of him […] He was a rebel, a daredevil, outspoken. He’d do anything,’ (Horwitz 108). The presence and importance of the flag passed down to Westerman through tradition and not maintain its original meaning. Furthermore, the shooter Freddie Morrow as well did not know what the true meaning of the flag was.
What exactly did the flag mean to him? Freddie shrugged and looked at me impassively. ‘I thought it was just the Dukes of Hazzard sign […] After moving to Guthrie, he gradually began to sense whites’ attachment to the flag and blacks’ hostility toward what they considered a symbol of slavery […] To him, the banner was simply something whites knew black hated. He suspected whites brandished the flag as sort of a schoolyard taunt, ‘just doing it out of spite, to see what we would do’”
(Horwitz 116)
As Freddie spent more time in the South, he learned that the flag symbolized not as a rebel cause, but as perpetuation of the enslavement of his people and as instigation. Whether the tradition of the Confederacy, as symbolized by the rebel flag was misinterpreted (as seen through Westerman), or no longer served a purpose or was appropriate in modern day (as seen through Morrow), serves as unimportant . The importance although are the consequences of that misinterpretation. For Michael Westerman, it meant the end of his life via death and for Freddie Morrow, the end of his life via jail-two devastating consequences of tradition.
Though the detrimental effects of outdated and misinterpreted tradition are not seen through racial tensions, Bobby Ann Mason’s Drawing Names shows the detrimental effects of tradition through marriage. As prominent as upholding the Confederacy is a tradition in southern culture, marriage as well proves as a perhaps even stronger southern tradition. To be married, and to maintain ones marriage at all costs, even one’s own happiness, is highly revered in southern culture. In Drawing Names, a family rich in southern culture, the father dislike of the protagonist Carolyn Sisson’s divorce is expressed, “He was a shy man, awkward with his daughters, and Carolyn knew he had been deeply disappointed over her failed marriage although he had never said so,” (Mason 93). Due to the intensity of the tradition, Carolyn’s sister Iris’ faked being happy in her marriage in order to uphold the tradition for her parents. “Ray and me’s [Iris] getting a separation […] The thing of it is, I had to beg him to come today, for Mom and Dad’s sake. It’ll kill them. Don’t let on, will you?” (Mason 98). The importance of upholding the tradition transcends Iris’ own happiness, so much in fact that she is willing to put on a façade for her parents who belief strongly in tradition. The tradition of upholding her marriage no longer proves as advantageous and is actually detrimental. In order to keep up the appearance of a happy marriage and hide her separation for the sake of tradition, Iris suffers through unhappiness and even lies to her own family.
The price of upholding outdated and misinterpreted tradition proves to be a costly and futile. Through the texts Confederates in the Attic and Drawing Name, happiness and even one’s own life are sacrificed for the preservation of traditions that do not necessarily reflect the present. Those traditions, meant to retain the importance and meaning that they were once associated with such as a belief in marriage, now serve to place pressure on the individuals whose lives no longer reflect those traditions and ultimately prove to be a disservice to the individuals involved.
Works Cited
Horwitz, Tony. Confederates in the Attic. New York: Vintage, 1998
Mason, Bobby Ann. Shiloh and other Stories. New York: Harper and Row c1982
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Feeder 3.1 Rough Draft
Across a variety of cultures, various traditions can be found. While these traditions are often times revered, many times those same traditions may cause tension. The tension that occurs from tension is a result of the pressure of maintaining traditions within a culture and the desire to change those traditions that are often outdated, misinterpreted and no longer is advantageous. As seen in the text, Cats of Confederacy and Dying for Dixie by Tony Horowitz and Drawing Names by Bobbie Ann Mason, outdated, misinterpreted traditions serve to be detrimental and devastating to not only personal situations, but Southern culture in general.
In Horowitz’s texts, Cats of Confederacy and Dying for Dixie, the preservation of outdated traditions leads to severe racial tensions and eventual shooting in the South. In Cats of Confederacy, Horowitz comes by the town, Salisbury, North Carolina, and discovers that many of the townspeople still uphold the traditions of the Confederacy. Through meetings and organizations such as United Daughters of the Confederacy, the beliefs of the South are still upheld. These are a people who care very deeply for the “rebel cause” and in the “war between the states”. Traditional Confederate symbols such as the rebel flag remain very much so upheld in their culture. This tradition is then passed on to their children into organizations, such as Children of the Confederacy.
The tradition of maintaining the Confederacy that is upheld does not necessarily maintain the same connotations that it once did. For example, in Dying for Dixie, Michael Westerman is shot and killed over the rebel flag, a symbol of the Confederacy. While many maintained that he was an avid Confederate, the truth of the matter was however he truly did not know what the flag meant. The tradition of maintaining the Confederacy and symbols of the Confederacy had been so blindly upheld and outdated, that its true meaning was lost over time. The shooter, Freddie Morrow, as well did not know what the true meaning of the flag was.
What exactly did the flag mean to him? Freddie shrugged and looked at me impassively. ‘I thought it was just the Dukes of Hazzard sign’, he said. The Dukes of Hazzard was a popular TV show that featured a car decorated with the rebel flag. Growing up in Chicago, that’s all Freddie had known about the Confederate Banner
(Horowitz 116)
This tradition over time became outdated and severely misinterpreted. Two people who truly did not understand the importance or meanings behind the traditions believed or fought against them, and ended up ruining their lives.
Traditions are often times outdated and misinterpreted. When that occurs, they are more hurtful than what they may have originally intended.
In Horowitz’s texts, Cats of Confederacy and Dying for Dixie, the preservation of outdated traditions leads to severe racial tensions and eventual shooting in the South. In Cats of Confederacy, Horowitz comes by the town, Salisbury, North Carolina, and discovers that many of the townspeople still uphold the traditions of the Confederacy. Through meetings and organizations such as United Daughters of the Confederacy, the beliefs of the South are still upheld. These are a people who care very deeply for the “rebel cause” and in the “war between the states”. Traditional Confederate symbols such as the rebel flag remain very much so upheld in their culture. This tradition is then passed on to their children into organizations, such as Children of the Confederacy.
The tradition of maintaining the Confederacy that is upheld does not necessarily maintain the same connotations that it once did. For example, in Dying for Dixie, Michael Westerman is shot and killed over the rebel flag, a symbol of the Confederacy. While many maintained that he was an avid Confederate, the truth of the matter was however he truly did not know what the flag meant. The tradition of maintaining the Confederacy and symbols of the Confederacy had been so blindly upheld and outdated, that its true meaning was lost over time. The shooter, Freddie Morrow, as well did not know what the true meaning of the flag was.
What exactly did the flag mean to him? Freddie shrugged and looked at me impassively. ‘I thought it was just the Dukes of Hazzard sign’, he said. The Dukes of Hazzard was a popular TV show that featured a car decorated with the rebel flag. Growing up in Chicago, that’s all Freddie had known about the Confederate Banner
(Horowitz 116)
This tradition over time became outdated and severely misinterpreted. Two people who truly did not understand the importance or meanings behind the traditions believed or fought against them, and ended up ruining their lives.
Traditions are often times outdated and misinterpreted. When that occurs, they are more hurtful than what they may have originally intended.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Rachel and the South-Autobiography 2
Southern hospitality is a notion that I am beginning to become much more accomstomed to. When I first came here, I wasn't aware of perhaps how impersonal the North can be at times. After meeting a few people, I was not aware that if I did not say hello to them, especially in a overly friendly manner in passing that I was being rude. Where I'm from, you just don't don't really say hello to somebody you may have met once, or had a brief conversation with if you see them in passing. It's just.....awkward, and most people don't do it. Those who do are often considered really considerate and nice people, but definently out of the norm. Down here however, I had people act as though I was extremely rude and had no manners....it's not that I'm incapable of being polite or am rude, it was just something I wasn't used to. Along the same lines of saying hello to people in passing that I barely know, I was completely unaware of how friendly some people are down here to people that they do not know at all. Often times on buses, bus stops, or in stores, i will have random people ask me me my name, where I go to school...just strike up conversation. The first couple times that this happened to me, I was startled and felt incredibly uncomfortable. At home, people rarely did that, and when they did, they received an odd look, a look of like...why are you talking to me. It was really difficult for me to try and speak to those strangers without seeming really awkward and uncomfortable.
However, the longer I am down here, the more I have come to appreciate those certain customs. I have had a couple days where I was just in a terrible mood, and having a pleasant conversation with someone who, even though I didn't know them and probably didn't care about who I was, asked me my name and how was I doing. I can definently appreciate the sincerity in southern hospitatlity.
However, the longer I am down here, the more I have come to appreciate those certain customs. I have had a couple days where I was just in a terrible mood, and having a pleasant conversation with someone who, even though I didn't know them and probably didn't care about who I was, asked me my name and how was I doing. I can definently appreciate the sincerity in southern hospitatlity.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Dying for Dixie
This particular chapter in the novel was difficult to read. Perhaps I have been too sheltered, but I could never imagine the kind of racial turmoil that was described in Guthrie. Both sides, the blacks and the white confederates, had so much hatred and pride that it was hard to digest. To have the nerve, regardless of the reason, to display a confederate flag in front of a group of black people is disgusting. While some there were people who claimed that Michael just liked the color and it matched his truck, it is hard for me to believe that somebody who was from that area could truly not know the implications of the Confederate flag. Maybe it doesn't boil down to not understanding the implications of what the Confederate flag means to the black race that bothers me so much. Perhaps it is the blatant disregard for the implications of what that flag means that bothers me the most. And on another note, while I can understand the pain that Freddie may have felt from seeing the flag and the racial slur used against him, to take the life of another person over it is not acceptable. Everything that occured because of the shooting did not seem acceptable at all. An tragic event that occurred was exploited for the advancement of the KKK and other white supremists. The transformation of Westermen from an ignorant redneck to a full fledged Confederate, another one lost for the war that is still going on is beyond dispicable in my eyes. Guthrie seems like a town boiling with racial tension and agendas just waiting to be let loose for the sake of protecting the life of the Confederacy. For protecting and further perpetuating ignorance, violence, propaganda.....everything ugly that racism has to offer.
Guthrie is not a normal time. It is hard for me to think that Horowitz could have skewed the town to make it Guthrie appear as something else.....
This chapter was difficult.
Guthrie is not a normal time. It is hard for me to think that Horowitz could have skewed the town to make it Guthrie appear as something else.....
This chapter was difficult.
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