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In the summer of 1960 my dad drove our Plymouth Plaza from Romney, Indiana to Kessler AFB in Biloxi to visit my recently-enlisted brother. I was only 11 years old, but on that trip I felt the pain of kids who grew up there, white and black.
A vivid memory is of dad gassing up along the highway in Mississippi, pumps in front of a grocery/diner advertising clean restrooms, with two large beverage dispensers under an awning off to the side. I was presented with a stark choice. One machine labeled “Colored Only” sold Coca Cola products, and the “White Only” machine sold 7Up. I had a thirst for Coke. I hesitated. I was thirsty and knew we had a long road ahead. I thought, I’m white, I can do what I want. I bought my preferred drink and sauntered back to the Plymouth.
As I approached mom snarled, “Get in here, put that bottle on the floor and hold it with your feet.”
I heard the urgency in her voice and did as instructed. A distinguishing feature of my childhood is that my family shared very few feelings. I inferred well enough that I’d crossed a line by inserting my coin in the Colored machine. Mom was fearful for our safety but didn’t say it out loud, I suppose for fear of sending me off in some tantrum and worsening the situation.
I thought, how terrible that people live this reality, one side enforcing and the other enduring it.
Once dad had us safely underway, mom used my close call as a teaching moment for my sisters and I, the message being that you don’t mess around here. You get in serious trouble for not following the rules.
Romney is an unincorporated area south of Lafayette – the post office, a largely empty Oddfellow’s Hall that in its heyday held a grocery and a hardware store, a crossroads surrounded by houses for 200 people. It’s shrunk in my lifetime. Surrounded by rich farmland. All white people, of course everyone knew each other. My dad owned the garage next to the hardware, and one house separated ours from the garage.
It is from this perspective that I felt the implications of Jim Crow. I was so thankful that my community didn’t feel the need to enforce that code and sad for the white and black kids I’d see hanging out in the small towns we’d slow for or working in fields that whizzed past my window. I could see that many of those kids had it worse off than me. I was so glad that wasn’t my future.
I’ve been thinking about that trip over the past months as the nation lurches to November. Relief and gratefulness overwhelm me to reflect on how far American society has come since then. Legislating away segregation was hard-fought with loss of life and liberty. The cause was just, enough people realized it, and Civil Rights marchers overcame everything the segregationists threw at them. I praise god for that signature achievement, for without those fearless leaders the status quo would have prevailed.
I didn’t think I’d live to see a black president, but this country actually did it! I felt so proud to be an American when Barack Obama spoke in Grant Park after the results became clear. I cried along with those in attendance, all of us, black and white, feeling shock and pride that this racist nation had actually elected a black man.
It was too great a shock to the system. The Majority Leader of the US Senate proudly proclaimed that he would wield his enormous power to cause the failure of Barack Obama’s presidency and basked in the adulation that followed. Sounded treasonous to my innocent ears. McConnell carried through on that pledge for eight years, the refusal to bring forward Merrick Garland’s nomination to the Supreme Court, as required by the Constitution, merely the cherry on top of his banana split.
Now he feels entitled to be reelected, for he has served well his president, who also feels entitled to be reelected! Because they did exactly what they promised to do. They are well into the process of “draining the swamp” of career civil servants who care deeply about the very important jobs they do. Trump’s ambition? Drive off all those bums, the deep state that believes in the successful operation of government, and replace them with pretty faces who apply for jobs by flattering the president on Fox News.
Well, we’ve reaped the reward. Care to rate their performance on handling the coronavirus pandemic? How about the administration of Justice? He promised to shake things up, folks. You’re surprised he did it?
The path ahead seems so clear to me, yet many people exist in another world where the President is doing a good job, the virus is under control (certainly God’s) and wearing masks is for sissies.
Can’t we please reach consensus that police officers on patrol discussing their eagerness to incite a race war is NOT acceptable in ANY police department? People holding those views should be barred from being in law enforcement. Period.
I’ve watched Donald Trump encourage the worst in all of us. He successfully tapped the wellspring of White Grievance, and the result is captured on video daily. The good news is that the business community has finally seen that they’re on the wrong side of history. Want proof? The Mississippi legislature just voted overwhelmingly to remove the Confederate battle flag from Mississippi’s State flag.
We’ve reached an epochal moment. The vast majority of Americans realize they don’t want to hate people who are a little different. They realize that it wasn’t that long ago that their family first arrived on these shores, and wasn’t it good that the opportunity existed? More importantly, a growing number of voters are repulsed by the Trump administration’s daily demonstration of failure.
I take hope from the mass participation of younger generations in protests and voter registration drives. They are tired of boomers telling them what to do, and it is that spirit that I pray will drive the change that’s already underway to its destination – an inclusive, welcoming American society.

Can’t We All Just Get Along?

Hello world!