Another round of Jesus among the Jackalopes debates with my Texas extended family. I must first of all apologize to all thinking people who live in the great and sovereign state of Texas. I know they exist. Ann Richards and Molly Ivins were from there. Tommy Lee Jones (good progressive Democrat and college roommie of Al Gore) is also a born-in-the-blood son of the Lone Star. I realize this is a small faction of crazies in fundamentalist land who get all the press. In fact, I once lambasted the English playwright (who actually turned out to be a nice guy) who wrote Dubya as a nasty redneck stereotype in "The Madness of King George W" (or whatever the play was called). Dubya, by the way, was born in Connecticut. The Texas accent is fake.

I only got to know my Texas family after my father's death. father left my then six-year-old father and his ten-year-old brother with a quarter each and a handshake and then walked out of their lives. He only reentered it once more and then only briefly. He went on to remarry and have another son amid all his other family. I crossed paths with a lot of them via the internet.

Yes, I got to know my Texas family. I received lots of pictures of members of the family I'd never known. I received big pieces of my heritage, including the Cherokee side. I also encountered something I'd seen only flashes of in my old man. Mind you, my father was a sexist, racist, perverted jackass (his other daughter on my flist would agree with this in a heartbeat), but he was Andrew Carnegie compared to various members of the rest of the Texas clan.

I also can only blame myself. My beloved Great Aunt Bessie (who had escaped east Texas to run a speakeasy in New Orleans, was denounced as a "whore" by that side of the family, and is easiest one of the most decent people I've ever known) warned me. But did I listen? Nooooooooo. She said "they're all a bunch of ignorant idiots". But did I pay heed? Of course not. Why? Because I am, at heart, a moron.

What would have been more stupid, though, is to continue contact with them. So today, I gave them all a fond adieu and said I wouldn't be communicating with them anymore. I grow weary of having to explain why some words are just inherently inhumane and offensive. I'm sick of pointing out to them that several of the US' founding fathers were agnostics. I just can't stand the heat, so I'm getting out of the kitchen.

It's sad but there's no point in continuing contact. I'm honestly beginning to wonder how long we can all stay in the same country as people who genuinely believe that the earth was created in six days (I would say seven, but I'm always reminded he took a day off on Sunday ... sigh ...)

H/W story tomorrow and pieces of new stuff.

Birthday stuff alphabetically -- with goodies!

Happy Birthday, abromeds
Happy Birthday, catalenamara
Happy Birthday, khylara


1 for abromeds, etc.






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