Lack of Respect or Fire with Fire?

I'm listening to a discussion about how college students are protesting ultra-conservative speakers at their graduation ceremonies, and many people on both sides of the fence are tut-tutting these young adults for choices, citing a lack of manners and an inclination to tamp down free speech.NO.These young people are realising what their parents should have twenty years ago, or more. When it comes to extreme views, based on hate and, these days, very thinly veiled, people like that have lost the luxury of being treated with manners, because they don't afford the same to the majority of their fellow Americans.

The time for so-called polite discourse is over, because these people never wanted that; rather, they want people to keep their mouths shut and listen to what they have to say, then toe the line. You can't fight madness like that by following a model the other side abandoned decades ago.  If freedom is to survive, those who treasure it and, especially, those who depend on it for their safety from these thugs, need to rise up, exactly like these college graduates are doing.

A huge chunk of Baby Boomers turned traitor ages ago, opting for the promise wealth over the ideal of true liberation. Generation X, my generation, is too jaded and complacent to be very effective at all, plus we were the first generation to grow up under the unsupervised shadow of the burgeoning Moral Majority, so many in our own ranks came into adulthood brainwashed, then did the same to their kids, who are even more dedicated to the theocratic movement, which was born out of an intolerance of de-segregation, not a love for foetuses. And the poor Millennials just don't get listened to, because they are so incredibly alien to the former gens, especially the Boomers. (I don't think they're alien, I love Millennials!). Is it any wonder they are choosing more aggressive tactics in a bid to protect what few freedoms they have left?

Was it rude for the graduates of Bethune-Cookman University to turn their backs on Nancy DeVos? That depends. Is it rude for someone who is part of a movement that intrinsically hates non-whites and justifies it with Jesus to presume to make a commencement speech at a college that was created because African Americans weren't allowed in White colleges? The new adult Americans realise something we older ones could not, or would not: You have to give tit for tat, when it comes to irrational, aggressive, narrow-minded people who are about as American as Al Qaeda. The new adult Americans are all Americans' safety net, the only thing coming between us and complete collapse into a Fascist Theocracy.

We should be thanking them instead of calling them names.

Together Again

Granny died on September 4, 1993.
Daddy died on June 29, 2006, the day after his 61st birthday. 
Aunt Tudi died on August 25, 2011.
Uncle Michael died today, a little before 11 AM.

They're all together again and the world is a lesser place without their presence.

Mountain Talk

As I was growing up in Asheville, I'd spend a great deal of time with my great-grandmother, Little Granny (she was 4'10"). Here's a picture of her mother, Granny Mehaffey, who was born on September 9, 1867, and fought a bobcat to the death in her 30s.  If I remember correctly, she was in her 90s when she died, and she had one tooth her head that she would use to eat apples! It's true that the Scots-Irish folk of the mountains are tough as goddamned nails. Nowadays, I'm thinking she would have to go a bit further into the Blue Ridge Mountains in order to be fully understood, since a lot of the language has faded over the decades. Granny Mehaffey probably sounded more like she was speaking a bastard version of Gaelic and German than the modern Appalachian dialect of today. Here are some words I used to hear her use, and some I even have used myself throughout my life. Those I've put in bold.

• Afeared - afraid
• Ary - any
  
• Bald - a treeless mountain summit
  
• Blinds - window shades
  
• Blinked or Blinky - gone sour, usually in reference to milk
  
• Brickle - brittle (Little Granny always called peanut brittle "brickle".
  
• Cat-head - a giant ass biscuit
  
• Clean - used as an adverb meaning "all the way."  "I'll knock your damn head clean off your shoulders!"
  
• Coke - any cola, be it Coca-Cola, Pepsi, or RC.
  
• Cornpone - cornbread (I had a dog named Cornpone!)
  
• Directly - soon, later, after a while, when it's convenient.  "I'll call you back die-RECK-lee."
  
• Fit - fought, as in (and I'm not lying here) "I'm so tired, I feel like I fit fire (pronounced far) all day."
  
• Haint - ghost, spirit, hideous woman
  
• Holler - for hollow, the valley in between mountains
  
• Hull - shell, as in a nut hull.
  
• Ill - bad-tempered
  
• Jarfly - cicada
  
• Kyarn - carrion.  Anything that smells rotten.
  
• Lay out - to skip school or work
  
• Meeting - religious service, as in "Sunday-go-to-meetin'"
  
• Nary - none
  
• Peckerwood - someone you think is an asshole.
  
• Piece - distance, as in, "You'll find the gas station up the road a piece."
  
• Plum - completely.  "I'm plum wore out!"
  
• Poke - satchel (see its origins for real and true. ----->)
  
• Poke sallet - a salad made from the boiled leaves of the poke bush.
  
• Quare - queer, as in the original meaning of the word, which was strange.
  
• Reckon - suppose
  
• Sigogglin - wonky, crooked, out-of-whack
  
• Sop - gravy
  
• Swan (or Swannee) - swear, as in "I swannee!" usually said as you shake your head in dismay.
  
• Toboggan - a toque, knit cap
  
• Tote - to carry.  Also can mean a sack.  So you can tote a poke or tote a tote.
  
• Tow sack - a big burlap bag
  
• Yonder (Little Granny said "yander") - there, as in "over yonder."

Do you use any of these words?  If so, you may have been influenced by us crazy hill folk.

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In case the word "sigogglin" just blew your mind, here's a fine example. Just look at that wonky face!