“The Good Ol’ Days”

They’re Planning on Bringing Them Back 

Acceptable behavior in the 'Good Ol' Days'

Governor Jan Brewer sticks her finger 

in the face of President Obama - Jan. 25, 2012

We have to take our country back?   We hear this ringing throughout the Republican and Conservative rhetoric that permeates our airwaves currently.  The same rhetoric that is tinged with racist and segregationist ideology from the days of yore.  Only now, in 2011/2012, they usually have a more politically correct way of expressing those same feelings that have long lain dormant put persisted nonetheless.  Some politicians, whether through gaffes, emotional breakdowns, or inexperience state their feelings overtly and proudly, regardless of the consequences at the polls.   Recent incidents demonstrate that these no longer dormant feelings have brought an increased disrespect to the office of the President, simply by virtue of the occupants skin color.  Take our country back from  ‘Whom’?  Didn’t we have a legal presidential and congressional election in 2008 and again in 2010?  Aren’t our leaders the people we elected.

These politicians have been emboldened by the laid back attitude of the larger populace (who seem to think someone else will handle it) and the popularity of the Tea Party attack plan.  Recently, I I found it to be amazing that none of the presidential candidates would stoop (or is that stand tall) to correct an incorrect statement by one of their colleagues when they say something that is overtly untrue or even an outright lie.  When Rick Santorum went along with an audience member in one of his Florida meetings who accused President Obama (once again) of not being an American and said that someone needs to be working to get him out of the white House.  The gist of Santorum’s answer was that ‘he was doing his best to do just that’.  No outcry from the Right to demand that he corrects the impression that he was going along with her accusation.  How about the "You lie!" shout during the President's speech before the joint session of Congress in Sept. 2009.  The posturing, walk-outs 

and tantrums thrown over the debt ceiling debate, which eventually led to our country's credit being downgraded.  Newt Gingrich constantly referring to the President as "the food stamp president" and saying that President Obama "knows how to get the whole country to resemble Detroit."  Senator Mitch McConnell's bold proclaiming that his main objective as Senate Majority Leader is to make sure that Obama is a one-term president.

Rush Limbaugh, less than a year after President Obama was elected,  saying that he wants to see this president fail.  The rantings of Former Fox News host Glenn Beck declaring on the air that the president "hates white people" and "the white culture."

Take your right to vote seriously.  The power you show at the ballot box will help determine the direction this country will be going in over the next four years.  If you take it for granted, there is a group waiting that has demonstrated that they are willing and ready to return us to a time when things were extremely good for them and the rest of the citizens were on their own.  Safety nets!  Who needs them?  They need more money for Corporations and millionaires so that their leftovers will trickle down to the rest of us.  It has never worked and it never will!

The Conservatives and the Republicans in particular want things to go back to the way they were.  The good ol’ days!  What exactly were the good ol’ days?   A bigger question is who exactly were they good for? 

Acceptable behavior in the 'Good Ol' Days'

Angry white crowds heckling Elizabeth Eckford   

as she approaches Little Rock H. S. - 1957

They were the days when no African-American or Hispanic would even dream that he or she had a chance at being the leader of the free world.  They were the days when voter’s rights were determined on the whim of a majority population who did not consider minorities to be even citizens, much less human.  They were the days when separate but equal was the accepted attitude of legislators, the courts, and the average American as well.  The days when your very life could hang in the balance if you were accused of doing something the majority populace in your vicinity didn’t like or allow.  They were the days when a family member could be abducted in the middle of the night, only to be found beaten and hung in a nearby tree at dawns early light.  The days when you were not granted employment based on your merit, because you had none!  The cruel, unjust and violent Jim Crow Days are mostly associated with the Deep South but were evident in employment, real estate and economic practices all over America.   The 'good ol’ days', who wouldn’t want to go back?  Right?

Acceptable behavior in the 'Good Ol' Days
George Meadows, lynching victim
Jefferson County AL, January 1889

Me, for one!  I am sure I represent a lot of the not so silent majority out there who are still hoping for someone else to handle it!  The reality is that we each, individually, have to fight back to make sure it never happens.