TX Dem Says Campaign Manager Was Assaulted By Counterprotesters At Rally https://t.co/pmoWq9twIp pic.twitter.com/7i8Mgg5mcZ— Talking Points Memo (@TPM) July 27, 2020
Trust my former hometown, the place of my childhood, to screw this up so completely. This was a "Blue Lives Matter" rally, which is a clueless play on "Black Lives Matter." Except police don't lead blue lives, and choose their jobs, and retire from them eventually. Etc., etc., etc.
It's an excuse for racism, basically, which my hometown was very good at providing when I was there. Nice to see nothing much has changed in the almost 50 years since I lived there (I'm not QUITE that old, ya punks!). I am reliably informed that the two high schools in town (given the town has doubled in size then I was there, I'm surprised there aren't four. The two must be bursting at the seams.) are going to be renamed. One was John Tyler, named for the President (as was the town) when Texas became a state the first time (we left and came back a bit later). The other, the one I attended, was Robert E. Lee. We got rid of the Rebels as a mascot (and the battle flag about the size of a football field. As a friend asked here recently, where do you store a thing like that?) while I was (we were) there. About time they changed the name of the place (it was named in the '50's, when it opened, by popular vote, if you were wondering.).
Old times there are not forgotten; but many of them should be. It's not a "heritage" to be proud of. My friends, I still love (though I know too few of them now). The "southern heritage"? We should see that clearly for what it is: of a piece with American racism and authoritarianism, something that is the true shared heritage of every American.
Except blue women and men, I guess. Still haven't met any of those, though. You think they mean ancient Celtic warriors' lives matter? Yeah, me neither.....
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