Growing up in Los Angeles, California in the 1950s and '60s, as a white child I believed that I was extraordinarily privileged to (A) be an American, (B) be white, and (C) not have to work in a rice paddy in Southeast Asia or otherwise struggle to exist in what was then called "the Third World." Even though my family was poor, we were far better off than probably 85-90% of the rest of the world. My folks taught me that I had to count my blessings, be content with whatever I had, and to do my best to serve everyone in need.
I had relatives living in Indiana, Georgia, and Florida. I was ashamed of them then and am ashamed of those still alive, along with their ilk. My immediate family taught me to value character above all else; to seek wisdom wherever it could be found; and to cherish knowledge, facts and reason. My more distant relatives apparently had not yet received the news flash that the Civil War was finished, their side lost, and they needed to get over it. These knuckle-walkers valued race car rallies (NASCAR, etc.) and believe that wearing face masks in the face of a global pandemic is the sign of being "weak" and subjects people to "government control."
When you mention that they have to wear seat-belts, stop at red lights, send their kids to school, pay taxes, and otherwise obey the plethora of laws, rules and regulations that prevent this society from turning into a basket case, they laugh and tell me that I'm "soft," "brainwashed," and am "just another California liberal."
Are these just outliers? I'm afraid not. The social rot, the abhorrent lifestyles, the use of public media to present decadent/brain-dead entertainers and "influencers" as people worthy of news print, has corrupted us for the last 60+ years. I look at my distant relatives and sigh. These people represent the Trump base---and those afraid to challenge it.
Perhaps my folks will die off, through their self-inflicted idiocy as part of America's "thinning of the herd." Perhaps as the waters of the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico continue to rise, they will be washed out to sea. They, and their ilk, make me ashamed to be an American
