Alt-Right? I don’t think so.
I’m going to use this space to rant tonight but first a story…
Like many of you reading this right now both of my grandfathers served in World War 2. Pappy, my grandpa on Papa B’s side of the fam served in the South Pacific and lost partial hearing in one ear. Mama B’s daddy passed away when she was in high school so I never knew him but he was a POW in the thick of the fighting in Europe. (He didn’t die in the war).
Like so many others…I was at one time guilty of throwing around the phrase ‘nazi’ to describe silly stuff. Being so far generationally removed from that war it never hit me in a meaningful way.
Until…
One day (well into adulthood) I was in the kitchen unloading groceries and one of the bags busted sending a pickle jar crashing to the floor and busting all over the place. Glass and pickle juice everywhere.
There’s this lady supervisor at our grocery store and to this day she guards the plastic bags like they’re gold.
That particular day I’d wanted the bag of pickles doubled bagged to prevent exactly what happened but she wouldn’t let me.
So as I’m cleaning up pickle juice…I say what started out as “That damn bag nazi…”.
Pappy was sitting at the bar and said something like “you know…I lost my hearing fighting the nazi’s…cleaning up pickle juice is nothing”. Yes I know The South Pacific wasn’t Germany / France / Russia…but he did his part and was way more than entitled to classify it as fighting the nazi’s. 🙂
Y’all know enough about me to know I’m a proud card-carrying bleeding heart liberal / do-gooder. I couldn’t believe something so insensitive came out of my mouth.
From that day on I’ve always tried to never use that phrase when describing something silly. I’m sure it’s slipped out from time to time but I do make a conscious effort not to do it.
Awesome story, Texas Girl…what’s the point? You’re probably wondering right about now. 🙂
Y’all know we’re a proud Texas Aggie family.
But tonight I am a sad member of an Aggie family. 🙁
I’m mad beyond words that a place we hold so dear allowed a white supremacist to speak on campus.
Super mad.
But more than mad I am SAD that he was allowed to speak in The Memorial Student Center.
IN The Memorial Student Center.
A memorial to all the Aggies who lost their lives serving this country.
As a sign of respect you can’t even walk on the GRASS around the building.
As a sign of respect you can’t wear a hat / cap inside the building.
But now…apparently you CAN spew garbage supporting ethnic cleansing inside the building. 🙁
Ethnic cleansing, y’all. In 2016. At the 5th largest university in the country. 🙁
Right there in the middle of a building that originally opened in 1951 as a memorial to those former students lost in WW2. Lost fighting…you know…the HORRIFIC CLEANSING of a group of people.
I’m just so very sad tonight. 🙁
And so disgusted at those of you who support this garbage. Those of you who walked it straight into the highest office in the country. Those of you who are NORMALIZING words and behavior our grandfathers gave their unimaginable suffering to stop.
Will we ever learn from the past?
Apparently not.