More About the Good Old Days

I can't even begin to cap on this, Al Sharpton wants a DNA test. How could anyone outdo the news that former South Carolina governor Strom Thurmond's family once held Rev. Sharpton's great-grandfather as a slave.

Now I'm sure all of us have ancestors we could just as easily do without but hopefully most of us have rejected some of the more disgusting ideals and beliefs they held dear. It's called progress.

Not Strom. He never disavowed his support of segregation his entire life, he was just a little quieter about it in his twilight years. The public disclosure shortly after his death in 2003 that he had fathered an illegitimate daughter with an African-American woman who was employed as a maid by his family certainly blew a giant hole in the legacy he intended to leave in the public memory. This latest bit of scandalous history can only pale in comparison.

Truthfully I don't think it reflects all that much on Strom much as I loathed everything about him. Everyone knew exactly what he and most of his kindred were all about. If anything it reflects a great deal about the good voters of South Carolina who held this unabashed and unapologetic, hypocritical racist in such high esteem that they elected him to represent them time and time again, both as a Democrat and then later as a Republican. Shame on all of you.

Another strike on all the social regressives out there. Don't even try your "well, Clinton got a blow job" chant. Oral sex with another FREE and consenting adult just doesn't quite stack up on the moral outrage scale when held up next to "owning" fellow human beings or at the very least not disavowing the practice and fathering a child with a woman you considered to be unworthy of drinking from the same fountain as you. I'm disgusted to even be part of the same species as you.

Those of you too young to remember when open discrimination and outright abuse of targeted groups was not only acceptable but often a matter of public policy, keep in mind the past is not that far in the past. We can't afford to elect one social regressive. Not one. I don't care if the group they are targeting is Black, Hispanic, people of some particular or no faith, or same-sex couples, we cannot condone discrimination or any position of lesser legal status for anyone.

If you are Black and hate gays, get over it. If you are White and hate Mexicans get over it. If you're gay and hate Blacks get over it. Do whatever you want with your personal life and choices, just keep it out of the public domain. The minute we accept or embrace intolerance towards any group we've opened the door on a past better left in the history books. If you want to walk this path I can't stop you, just don't come crying to me when they come for you.