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Put Down Your Cell Phone-A Creeper Trail Rant
RANT WARNING!
Every morning my dog and I take a long walk on the Creeper Trail. The Creeper is one of the many things I love about Abingdon. It’s a great place to walk and enjoy the beauty of our gorgeous area. We generally go early before 8AM to avoid others and before the heat of the day becomes oppressive. At that time of the morning traffic is usually light on the trail and to and from the trail. (I live less than a block from the trail entrance so we walk.)
This morning I counted FOUR people on their cell phones! I wanted to say, “You’re on the Creeper! Put your phone away!” For one thing, it is DANGEROUS. We get bikers on the trail frequently. I’m sorry to say that most I’ve encountered do NOT signal when passing, though trail rules (clearly posted at the head of the trail) state that they must do so. I’ve almost been hit several times though no fault of my own. My dog and I walk well to the right; she is on a VERY close lead (not a free-ranging retractable lead like some dogs I’ve encountered); I try to be alert to my surroundings. But bikers are quiet and sometimes going extremely fast. If you don’t hear them, then you get no warning. So a walker paying attention to his phone in the middle of trail (and it is narrow in places) could be toast.
For another thing, and this is purely a personal opinion, YOU ARE ON THE CREEPER, for fuck’s sake. If you want just a place to get your exercise, there is a macadamized track at the Coome’s Center. Put the phone away for the duration of your walk. Take time to disengage. Look at the trees, fields, and squirrels. Smell the different aromas of the trail (this morning was distinctly musky). Greet your fellow trail denizens. BREATHE……and remember that there is a life beyond the electronic world. (And I say that despite my love of the internet.)
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Gay?Not Okay! Anti-LGBTQ Legislation Continues To Be Passed
Remember DJT promising to be a great friend to “the gays” and brandishing a rainbow flag at his rallies (well, at at least one rally that was photoghaphed)? So much for that! The rollback of protection for LGBTQ indviduals and couples coninues apace, as states pass laws that place “religious liberty” above the rights of LGBTQ citizens and deny the protection of law from those who are most often targeted. The courts in one state, Mississippi, even went so far as to pass an entirely redundant law to PROTECT those engaged in anti-LGBTQ discrimination.
And lest you think this is purely a Southern state phenomenon, the courts of South Dakota, North Dakota, AND Michigan joined Virginia, Alabama, Texas, West Virginia, and as mentioned, Mississippi, to pass laws that either allow institutions to discriminate against LGBTQ persons in the name of religion or deny LGBTQ persons protect from hate-crimes. Apparently, along with no longer being counted in the Census, we can no longer do things like adopt children, GET BURIED (Mississippi-why am I not surprised?), or oh, I don’t know….JUST EXIST without being an affront to right-thinking people everywhere.
This is not to be taken lightly. We need to treat this seriously. Just because OBergefell became law doesn’t mean a f…. thing anymore. We need to get out and put people into office who will stand up for HUMAN RIGHTS. Not tomorrow. Not next week. NOW. Stand up; speak out; RESIST and VOTE!
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Where Are You From?-A Southern Question
Since the removal of the Confederate statues in NOLA continues to be in the news, the South is on everyone’s radar. Something happened at work that really caught my attention, juxtaposed as it were with the business with issues of the statues, history, race, and Southern identity in general. I had overheard a conversation between a colleague of mine ( a person born in the South and very much a Southerner) and a person who had moved here from the Northeast. She was aking him why people in the South always ask the question, “Where are you from?” She said that she never got that question in other parts of the country. I’ve lived in other places (the midwest, greater NYC) and she is indeed correct. When I lived and worked in those places, no-one ever inquired as to my origins unless my accent slipped out. (I don’t have much of a Mississippi accent. My mother went to extreme lengths to ensure that I spoke with a neutral accent, not the mush-mouth that my more upstate cousins had.)
I ‘ve been thinking about that question. WHY do we here in the South ask that question? And it is usually the second thing that follows hello, the first being an inquiry as to whether you want a glass of sweet tea. I discussed it with a friend of mine who was not from the South originally but who lived in Louisiana for a long time. I proposed that we do it as a tribal thing, to find out who your people are, because we might be related. (A deceased friend once half-jokingly claimed that everyone in the South was related to everyone else.) My friend retorted that it might be a tribal thing but to see if you are one of us or not, to establish bona fides, i.e. are you a Southerner?
That lead to the reflection that the South is the only region of the US that has an unique geographical identity. I’m hardly the first nor the last person to make this claim. It has a hold on me as an individual, like it or not. I am a Southerner, though I like to describe myself as reconstructed Southerner. I’ve hated this fact, tried to escape it geographically by moving to NYC, and finally made my peace with it. I grew up in Mississppi, lived and worked in the heart of the Deep South (the Mississippi Delta), and have known and loved Southerners. I’ve hated some of them, too. But in my maturity I recognize that I can’t erase the fact that I was born and bred in the deepest South, though I don’t have to the subscribe to the “Never Forget” attitude many take in regard to the Civil War and to the not-so-subtle racism that still lingers in those who wish to bring back Jim Crow laws and worse. I actively attempt to overcome my white privilege by educating myself. I read as much as I can, watch podcasts, docs, movies, and series that will help me get over myself. I will never know what it means to be an African American or any other minority (except Jewish, of course) in the South but perhaps I can intellectually understand and notintentionally be such a jerk.
I’m listening to the The Dead South, btw.
