Frankly Speaking

Frank Gillispie

As I sit to write this I am filled with anger. My anger was directed to three events, two of which deserve it. The third event required that I read a story with an open mind to understand what the creator was saying. That is what makes anger so dangerous. It can lead you to very false opinions.

The three events have no connection other than my reaction to them. They are: the hypocrisy of the Don Imus critics, the cursing of the Confederate flag by the head coach of a major Southern university, and a very provocative art display in Atlanta.

I have never been a fan of Don Imus. I dislike his crudeness, his senseless insulting of everything and everybody. Nor am I unhappy that he is off the air. The problem I have is that his prime accusers, Al Sharpton and Jessie Jackson have no standing to criticize Imus. These two race baters have made
insulting remarks racial remarks about other races, and are quick to defend any and all black racists. Both of them rushed to Duke to join in the attacks on the three falsely accused athletes simply because they came from wealthy white families.

So I was not in a good mood when I saw the video of the University of South Carolina football coach Steve Spurrier cursing our beloved Confederate flag. I did not think it possible that someone in that position would try to blame a scrap of cloth for his failure as a coach. Yet that is exactly what he did. I watched the clip from his talk and you could probably seen the steam from my ears.

Here is the problem. It is very easy to let anger take control. The frequency with which people try to blame the South and its icons for their problems is astounding. They attack all things Southern with great anger, and anger begets anger.

So when a story from the Atlanta newspaper crossed my computer about an artist who displayed U.S. Flags with the slogan “Politically its OK to hate the white man" my own anger jumped another level. I was about to write a column lambasting the fool who would make such a statement.

Well, I sensed that I was in danger of letting my anger get the best of me so I did as I was taught as a child and counted backwards from 10 to 0 to calm myself down. And it is a good thing that I did, I forced myself to read the entire article. By doing so, I found that the artist, a young man named Alvaro Alvillar, was not saying that he considered it OK to hate whites, he was simply drawing attention to a current truth.

It is OK to hate white men in today’s society, especially Southern white men. Say something bad about any other group and you will be roundly criticized. Insult anything white, and you will likely be praised for your words. Had I let my anger get the better of me and not finished the article I would have been guilty of the very thing I was so angry about. So I will try to make it a part of my life to control my own anger.

But it is hard to do. Today’s Atlanta’s newspapers announced that Cynthia Tucker has been given a Pulitzer prize. That same woman who never misses a chance to attack all things Southern was handed that great prize. How could anyone think she deserved such an honor. That makes me very mad. Gurrrr.

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