A Queer One From The Start: Some of Y'all Lack Empathy
I know the entire world moves a mile a minute, and there is an enormous rush to contribute your two cents before someone else says the same thing. It’s sad that I avoid tumblr on nights like tonight, mainly because I don’t want to be disappointed by the…
We all make allowances for our homeland. It’s only natural. Our place is the best place, and it gives us the warm-and-fuzzies, even for all its flaws. I get that. I feel that.
But we need to be honest about our allowances, and a limit must exist. To sit idly by and proclaim “But not everyone there is like that!” is to stick your fingers in your ears and deny the truth. Either the better people have failed to do their part in the ballot box, or the majority of people are like that. And if the better people have failed through complacency rather than numbers, have allowed their own constitution to be usurped by meddling, bigoted fundamentalists, that is far worse than if they exist as merely a minority.
If we wish to persist in the delusion the South is full of good people, kind people, people who look favorably on equality, we must also accept the the South is a land of the apathetic and spineless, of those who would cow to the unjust demands of a vocal few before so much as casting an anonymous ‘nay’. Which of course poses the question: Of what value are principles that will be so easily cast aside? For those who are able but unwilling to stand for what is right, there can be no cure, no redemption.
Fortunately, this is not the case in the south. The south is, instead, comprised mostly of those who would oppose equality, with a principled few standing strong in its defense. It is not a problem of spirit, but a problem of numbers. And numbers can be solved.
If you would complain about the South, if you would declare it hopelessly overrun with bigotry, be part of the solution. Move south. Displace a bigot, and register to vote. One by one, you will turn it around.
tl;dr: Actually, the South is full of bigots. But don’t sit around and feel morally superior. Move there. Or go to college there. Occupy The South. Turn those numbers around.
