There was this peckerhead driving around my suburban community last week in a beat up old truck, flying these 2 enormous flags. One was an American flag, and the other was a Gadsden flag. And I thought to myself, gee, there goes another peckerhead, Tea Party dude who loves America, but hates Americans. Sigh.
Yesterday afternoon the peckerhead upgraded. Now he's flying 2 ginormous Confederate Battle flags. What the HELL do I do with that?! To drive away and do or say nothing, as if I didn't see, or care, feels... wrong. But one true thing that I've learned in my life is that you can't call an asshole an asshole, and expect him to not be an asshole anymore. I'm betting the same goes for racist peckerheads.
So how do I respond? Seriously folks, here's this racist peckerhead flying his great big racist peckerhead flags right out there in public for all the world to see. I know that he's got a first amendment right to be a racist peckerhead. But I mean, what... how....what?
I can't just move along and hope that some righteous burly dude will drag him outta his truck and shove his racist peckerhead flags up his racist peckerhead ass. Because a) that would be WRONG (right? right??) and b) thinking someone else is better suited to dealing with this is a cop out, and c) knowing that this racist peckerhead is spreading his poison in my community, and not trying to stop it will just bring the other racist peckerheads out from under their rocks believing that it's now ok to be a racist peckerhead in public. And that's one short step from making it ok to elect racist peckerheads.
And yeah, I'm just a white suburban mom, drivin' around in my hybrid vehicle, sippin' my latte, goin' to my little Democratic committee meetings, and shoutin' at The Man from the capitol steps on a nice sunday afternoon. I've got no offensive or defensive skills, other than a tongue like a rattlesnake, so I'm told ;)
So tell me what to do folks. What is appropriate? Most of all, what would be EFFECTIVE? And can we come up with something effective that is appropriate for other situations?
I WANT world peace. I WANT racism to end, dammit. But those don't seem within my grasp right now. I WANT to spend my old age rocking on my front porch, with my grandchildren on my knee. I WANT my grandchildren to NOT believe me when I tell them how racist America was in the olden days. But, what I want right now, what I can do today, is to encourage this racist peckerhead to crawl back under his rock. Meeping piteously as he goes would be a bonus, but not absolutely necessary. Just as long as he stops flying his racist peckerhead flags in my community
8:25 AM PT: Editorial question: Are folks put off by my title choice? I was kind of hoping for some more options for action (that don't include any violence, thanks)