Paula Deen

I think Paula Deen has gotten a bad deal from the press and social media.  Most of the criticism has been about political correctness, not about something terrible that she has physically done. There are currently two other celebrities -- George Zimmerman and Aaron Hernandez -- both of whom appear to have killed black men.  They have gotten more evenhanded treatment from the public than Paula Deen, who truthfully admitted to using the "N-word," but has not been shown to have mistreated blacks physically, much less to have murdered any.  Yet, judging from the public reaction, her crime was worse than Zimmerman's or Hernandez'.  Other football players, including O.J. Simpson and Ray Lewis, probably killed people, but get much less criticism than Deen.  I see a politically correct double standard.  A few people have been less quick to condemn her, including Bill Maher, who of course made his name by making fun of stupid political correctness.  He sees that Paula Deen's accusers are largely narrow minded slaves to political correctness.

People often condemn her for admitting that she has used the N-word.  In essence they condemn her honesty.  But I respect her honesty.  The fact that people don't commend her honesty illustrates the poor character of those who condemn her.  These are people who think it is okay for Wall Street to lie about mortgages and take America to the brink of bankruptcy.

I see the attack on Paula Deen as an attack on the American South.  They hate her Southern cooking, and now they have an excuse to hate her personally.  While what she did is wrong, it was not an unforgivable sin, and her pleas for forgiveness should not fall on deaf ears, as they have in the public media.  The South is not as bad as New York and Los Angeles try to portray it.  One Reconstruction is enough.

Southern Elitism

While thinking about my own experience in the military, as a Vietnam veteran, I began thinking about my dad's military experience.  Most of it happened while I was little, and so I may not remember things exactly right, or may not have understood at the time.

My dad was very patriotic and proud of his military service.  He served in World War II in both the European and Pacific theaters, although I do not think he saw much combat.  He was in the Army in the Dixie Division.  In Europe he sort of chased the war from England, to France, to Germany.  Then he was sent to the Pacific.

When the war was over and he returned to the States, he stayed in the National Guard, I think partly because he liked it, and partly for the money.  I'm pretty sure he liked the other men in his National Guard unit in Mobile.  But then the Korean War came along.  He was called up to go to Korea.  I don't know exactly how that happened.  He may have volunteered to go.  He was a sergeant in World War II, but became a chief warrant officer in the National Guard.

In any case, he went off to Korea, but when he came home, earning a Bronze Star in the process, the National Guard could find to place for him in Mobile.  I don't think the socially connected members of the National Guard in Mobile had to go to Korea; they stayed home and stayed in their units.  My dad went, and had no unit to return to.  He ended up joining National Guard unit in Camden, Alabama, where he had to drive over 100 miles to every meeting.  He didn't really mind this, because he had lived in Camden for several years as a boy.  The fact that he knew some members of the Camden unit from those days may be the reason he was able to join it.

I don't know the circumstances, but looking back, I find it very odd that he went to Korea, when many of his fellow Mobile guardsmen did not, and then could not find a spot in Mobile when he got back.  In that sense, it looks like Korea may have been more like Vietnam than World War II.  In WW II, units were homogeneous, like the Dixie Division.  They went off to war together and came home together.  In Korea, individuals were shipped off on their own to join unfamiliar units already there.  When you came home, you were on your own, too, as most Vietnam veterans were.  For Vietnam, men were drafted at random around the country, then sent for training at different bases depending on their specialty, and then sent off to Vietnam individually to replace some individual who had been injured or killed or who had finished his tour.

I didn't like it in Vietnam, and in retrospect, I think it may have been similar to what happened in Korea.

Stonewall Jackson Arrives

Now we have a new labrador retriever, Stonewall Jackson, although the "Stonewall" is silent, so he just gets called "Jackson."  We missed Dixie so much, we couldn't resist getting another lab.  Although he is also yellow, it looks like he will be different from Dixie.  He is still a puppy, but it looks like he will be tall and thin, with a face almost like a greyhound, rather than the traditional broad, stocky lab build that Dixie had.  So far, he is also more affectionate and obedient.  We hope we don't spoil him by being too easy on him.

Dixie Lee's Passing

As time goes by since our labrador retriever, Dixie Lee, passed on, my memory of her becomes hazier, but I particularly remember our last minutes together.  About six in the morning my wife heard her having difficulty breathing downstairs in her kennel.  We went down to check on her.  The kennel door was open and we sat beside her.  She seemed to feel our presence.  She continued to breathe with difficulty for 10 or 15 minutes as we sat with her, and then she just quit breathing.  It seemed like she felt she could go on, once we were there with her.  She was a good dog in life and death.

Memphis Renames Confederate Parks

I was disappointed to see that Memphis has renamed three parks that honored the South in the Civil War. According to the New York Times, the parks were named Confederate Park, Jefferson Davis Park, and Nathan Bedford Forrest Park.  They are now Memphis Park, Mississippi River Park, and Health Sciences Park.

Almost 100 years ago, Martha Mitchell said the old South was "Gone with the Wind."  More and more of it is disappearing.  I guess there are not many "old families" left in Memphis who remember the old South fondly.  Only the Ku Klux Klan came out to mourn the loss of the Confederate names, which is not a very good character reference for them.  So history moves on.  If the victors write the history, then the Yankees have finally gotten their due, or the most recent victors have been in the Civil Rights struggle, and they are now erasing the old Confederate history.

America is changing, which may be good for America, but it's not necessarily good for me.  I worry that along with America's disparaging the old Confederates, it is also disparaging many of our founding fathers -- Jefferson, Washington, Madison -- and even some Yankees who went along with the compromise to allow slavery to continue when the US was created.