Orwell, right again

Is it inevitable that anything will decay into its' opposite? Contemplating the violent racism of Israel, it's hard not to conclude so. To quote one of its founding fathers, Uri Avnery:

THE ARCHBISHOP of New York announces that any Catholic who rents out an apartment to a Jew commits a mortal sin and runs the risk of excommunication.

A protestant priest in Berlin decrees that a Christian who employs a Jew will be banished from his parish.
Impossible? Indeed. Except in Israel – in reverse, of course.
The rabbi of Safed, a government employee, has decreed that it is strictly forbidden to let apartments to Arabs – including the Arab students at the local medical school. Twenty other town rabbis – whose salaries are paid by the taxpayers, mostly secular, including Arab citizens - have publicly supported this edict.

What century is it, again?

I read this Washington Post article a couple of days ago, and I still haven't managed to really grasp that this is an article from 2010, not 1970:

Tuesday, April 13, 2010; 2:58 PM

A federal judge Tuesday ordered a rural county in southwestern Mississippi to stop segregating its schools by grouping African American students into all-black classrooms and allowing white students to transfer to the county's only majority-white school, the U.S. Justice Department announced.

And just to add to it, there have been letters to the editor and a spattering of web posts and comments defending this as 'part of our local culture', and 'making more sense for the local residents' ... the white ones of course, because they are the ones that matter, I assume.

I mean, seriously, these people still don't get how wrong this is? I should go and see how far away this county is, from the Mississippi county that cancelled their prom/dance rather than letting a lesbian couple attend it (and then snuck around the federal judge's order and their own promises on the dance), as the attitudes obviously dovetail comfortably. (See this article for details)

Edit: the answer would seem to be, the other end of the state, so I guess it's a statewide thing. Ha! if only that were all).

I suppose on the bright side, just when I think Arkansas is irremediable, Mississippi again overtakes it in the race for the bottom.

Ingrained

Well, we had a surfeit of guests - first Ray came for the weekend, which was, as always, a good thing: as more or less my only friend in the flesh here, and a fellow wargamer. Sadly he was pretty sick this visit, and we didn't get to play a game, just sat around, mostly bitching about how bad the current rules & lists are, and floundering about trying to find a superior alternative. The current leaders for that, btw, are WRG 6th Edition, now a venerable 28 years old I think, and Armati, also not exactly fresh out of the gate, but so be it.

As always though, we stayed up very late watching movies & talking ... well, yattering on endlessly to be honest, about anything and everything. One thing that does disturb me about Ray is his seemingly reflexive sexism & racism, which - I'm not sure - either underpin or grow out of his elaborate & well-defended republicanism/conservatism. I know this periodically drives Cat absolutely wild, and occasionally leaves me aghast too, but it's a bit late to be trying to change his behaviour, so we both let it ride: besides, he has been a very staunch friend, and is in general such a good-hearted guy, it more or less just puzzles me that he hasn't grown out of that, for some reason.

Then we had 2 of Cat's friends over for lunch yesterday while I was working from home. They brought a grandson, and also their mother, and while the others were smoking, I had a fairly lengthy, and to be honest horrifying, discussion with the mother. Her racism was not just overt, but a bit breathtaking. Of course, she would be in her 60s or 70s, and I guess it may not be untypical for her generation, and for someone who grew up in rural Arkansas.

Naturally, as our guest, I didn't challenge these attitudes - they were too obviously deeply felt and strong, and having a blazing open argument over it was hardly going to change her mind, just upset everyone & terminate the visit, and possibly Cat's friendship. It did serve me as a reminder that these people are still around, and still oozing their poison where their grandkids and great grandkids can hear it, and probably absorb at least some of it.

Perhaps I was wrong to let it slide, when I think on it: that is the sort of attitude that does allow it to continue to fester. But I don't seem to have a strongly confrontational approach, and that sort of thought usually occurs to me only far after the fact.

One other thing she said almost did trip me into a heated argument though, and it's something I hear a -lot- of in the US: 'Oh they ain't poor, there's plenty of jobs if they wanted to work, they just don't want to work'.

Of course, I've heard this arrant nonsense everywhere I've lived - it was practically a mantra for Robs' Mob, and for most of the National Party, and it's endemic in bits of UK society, but over here it seems even more widespread. It always drives me a bit nuts, especially in times like these when there's 11% unemployment and we're going through a fairly severe depression*.

The truth is, people DO want to work, with amazingly few exceptions. Even when it is barely more than the dole, and sometimes when the net (after transport & such) is less than it, people will work, at the most amazingly wretched jobs, for disgustingly little pay.

Waitressing in this country, for instance. The legal minimum wage here is something like $7.25/hour now - except for waitresses & waiters, who have a special exemption to be paid a minimum of $2.13 .... and trust me, the number of places that pay more than the minimum is extremely small, even in quite high-tone places. The assumption is that they will make this up and more in tips, and most americans who have never worked these jobs assume that they not only make it up, but make very good money on top, just from tips.

I doubt it, severely. From what I've read and heard, there are an awful lot of tightwallets who tip minimally or not at all, and most waitstaff struggle to even make an extra $5 an hour to get to the usual legal minimum. Of course in the tightening economy, tips are one of the very easy economies: while it is 'customary' to leave a 15% tip, it is very easy to squeeze that - plus of course quite a few people just cut dining out to a minimum or nothing.

Our visitors on Monday both work as waitresses in the weekends, and one - an extremely good waitress and very popular - used to clear about $100 a day on the weekends, i.e. about $12 an hour, which is, well, OK, but hardly overwhelming. This has fallen by over 50% in the last year, so she is now getting $50 a day net ... after paying for travel, about an hours' drive each way, it leaves very little money indeed. Naturally she's looking for a position closer to home, but - also naturally - there's damn-all of them available in the current situation.

I wish I could make these people who bang on about plenty of jobs if you want them, see exactly what rubbish they are talking: and what wretched jobs are actually like. But then, I might as well wish for the moon :/


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*That's a word that gives me a wry smile: originally it was called a crash, but that upset people, so they changed the word to a crisis - after a while that sounded too alarming, so they just called it a depression, something softer-sounding and less scarey. Of course 1929 screwed the pooch on that, so they switched to recession.

It all means the same thing tho - the economy is explosively shrinking, shedding jobs as though it were deciduous. At one point recession in the 80s started sounding scarey so they tried contraction, but that never caught on. You now have the ludicrous situation that some of the TV talking heads, exhibiting their complete cluelessness, argue about whether the current fiasco is a depression, or 'just' a recession. Duh.

These guys really are crazy II

OK, off the top of my head:

• The health reform bill includes Death Panels that will cut off any older people from health care to keep them alive
• The health care bill will fund abortions! With your Tax Money!*
• Health Care reform will Bankrupt the Health Insurance Companies! (though noone explains why that is a bad thing)
  
• The health care bill means faceless bureaucrats will dictate who your doctor is
• The health care bill will introduce Socialised Medicine (whatever that is)
• The health care bill will mean rationing and you wont be able to get care that you deserve
• The health care bill means illegal immigrants will get free medical care! (not that anyone explains what is actually wrong with that concept)
• The health care bill is just like Hitler's policies (yes, seriously, that was pushed out by the NRCC)
• Health care reform will take so much money out of Medicare so old folks wont get health care because there wont be any money for it.
  
• Obama is running out on the troops in Afghanistan
• Obama is going crazy and pouring troops into Afghanistan
• Obama is betraying the country by not nuking and invading Iran (while still involved in Iraq and Afghanistan, not that that is mentioned)
• Obama is betraying civilisation by not supporting Georgia and launching an invasion of Russia, NOW!
• Cap and Trade is a TAX and will destroy business and make everyone poor
• Spending money on a depressed economy is crazy and will unbalance the budget
• (leading to) Roosevelt didnt solve the Great Depression, it would have gone away by itself and he did more damage than good
• Plus, Roosevelt didnt solve the Great Depression, it would have gone on forever except for WW2
• Oh and WW2 doesn't count as stimulus spending, because. Just because. (these 3 usually in the same paragraph).
• Obama was born in Kenya and his birth certificate was faked.
  
• Michelle Obama is a crazy vengeful radical black woman who will .... well, thats never clear
• Obama is a crazy communist vengeful black man who is going to get revenge all whites
• Women should no longer get the vote (they vote for Democrats too much)
  

I'm sure there's a lot I'm forgetting, but that was just completely off the top of my head.

The thing is, these are all complete lies. They don't have any underlying basis of facts, they are just crazy ranting. And they are all broadcast, not by crazies crouched in basements, but by prominent media personalities, and repeated and echoed by the bulk of the media - TV, newspapers and internet channels. Some of them keep getting dragged up, again and again, even though they are comprehensively refuted each time.

And about a quarter of the country sucks all these up, repeats them, screams them endlessly, and will not listen to reason.

What's more, they are hyping themselves into such a frenzy of threats, menaces, and violence, that I fear that at some point someone will start acting on it, and people will start being murdered.


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*Frankly, aside of this being a good idea, the idea that you should have a veto over how your tax money is spent is ridiculous: you dont get to withhold taxes for a war you disagree with, or for other policies you may find deeply offensive.

These guys really are crazy

From ABC news:

President Obama at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation dinner last night, discussing false claims made about the health care reform bill, told a little anecdote.

"I was up at the G20 -- just a little aside -- I was up at the G20, and some of you saw those big flags and all the world leaders come in and Michelle and I are shaking hands with them," the president said. "One of the leaders -- I won't mention who it was -- he comes up to me. We take the picture, we go behind.

"He says, 'Barack, explain to me this health care debate.'

"He says, 'We don't understand it. You're trying to make sure everybody has health care and they're putting a Hitler mustache on you -- I don't -- that doesn't make sense to me. Explain that to me.'"

Well, I can't explain it. As far as I can tell, most of what is called the right wing in this country has gone completely insane because a black man is in the White House and (I'm guessing) they automatically assume he's going to screw the white race as badly as they have done to his race whenever they've inserted one of their own into the office. When I say insane, I do actually mean insane, this is not political rhetoric. They believe things that are blatantly obviously false and do not relate to reality, and then act on this and expect everyone else to act on it.

I don't think it's quite possible to realise how crazy they are, from outside the country. I'll try and provide some examples tomorrow & following, but ..... just the insane bullshit advertising that is getting run in prime time (paid for indirectly by deeply crazy right wing millionaires, of which there are a terrifying number), are just utterly incredible. Big deep booming scarey voices telling you that the Health Reforms will mean that old people will be denied all medical coverage and left to die, or that you wont get to choose your own doctors but faceless Washington bureaucrats will tell you who you have to see and what treatments you can have. And this stuff is running 4,5,6 times an hour in some program slots.

It's hard to believe it doesn't have some effect, but it's such an utter and total lie: and yet it doesn't even get denounced in TV 'news' or on a lot of the print media (buy thats a slightly different rant). You know, when the Clintons were talking about a vast right-wing conspiracy to pull them down and destroy them back in the '90s, I thought, yeah, yeah, right, sure: how could there be such a conspiracy. Watching them try to destroy Obama over the most idiotic of lies, I see what they mean. It's not a conspiracy per se - that would be logistically impossible plus half the conspirators would kill eachother if they met in the flesh - so much as an automatic and unspoken way of thinking, a modus operandi, which operates whenever the right sort of target pops up, and seems to be where all the old KKK-style open racism has been channelled.

To try and explain my political leanings, I keep telling people here that this country has a party of dangerously right-wing extremists, and then there are the Republicans as well - definitely in the ha-ha-not-funny category of joke, as far as I'm concerned. Of course they all look at me like I'm just pulling their legs and noone could actually think the Democrats are right wing. Oh, so wrong.

The really sad bit is, in England I'd be a centrist, and back home probably centre*-right (although I'm not sure I could ever grit my teeth long enough to vote National, Little Bobby Muldoon did a pretty good job of inculcating that feeling).

* I do find it alarming how much my spelling is deteriorating here, I'm starting to write center, color, Theater .. akk!! I'm sliding into decadence, and it's not even any fun!!!

Immigrants

They really do seem to have the strangest attitude to immigration here, given that the whole country is essentially all quite recent immigrants*, voluntary or otherwise. Legal immigration, as I found, is onerous, time-consuming, expensive, and quite petty-minded: plus with all the changes and whimsy inflicted by what G W Bush was pleased to call an administration, also quite contradictory, badly-specified and confusing ... of course, in all fairness it might have been like that before him too, but the whole overreaction to Sep 11 seems to have laid several additional layers of confusion on top.

But with illegal immigration, things are just dreadful. These are people who invariably are here to work, and have jobs. What's more, in almost all the cases, they are doing dirty, unpleasant and often dangerous jobs, for terrible wages (being illegal, they don't have to be paid the legal minimum), and are often treated terribly on top of that.

Of course part of the disgusting part is that they put up with that because it's still better wages, and often better conditions, than they can get back home, wherever that may be: but that's a different topic, for another day (solve world poverty? sure thing, just after I've done the cure for cancer, and before I devise the end of all racism. World peace is still impossible even on that scale). But because they are being treated marginally less terribly than they are accustomed to, is no excuse to abuse or exploit them, either.

However, there seems to be a general rage, at least among the right wing, and much of what passes for the centre in this area, the so-called Independent voters, directed at illegal immigrants*** sneaking into the country, paying no taxes and using up all these valuable services, like health care at Emergency Rooms.

Which is ridiculous on so many levels it's hard to know where to start. First off, they may not be paying income taxes (although they might well be, & certainly their employers often withhold such taxes), but they are certainly paying sales taxes, car taxes, and so on, all the other taxes and pseudo-taxes that are imposed. Of course, if they did pay income taxes, the amount collected would be very modest at best, given their rate of pay.

Secondly, they're not free-loading - they are doing disgusting jobs that no American is willing to do, at least at anything like the rates of pay offered, and everyone else is benefiting from the fact that those jobs are getting done: either in cheaper goods & services, or in services that don't fail which otherwise would fail. How can this be a bad thing?

Frankly, I think it is the immigrants that are being ruthlessly exploited, and that American society at large is gaining enormously, and would be considerably less affluent, without them. The fact that there are an estimated 12 million**** of them in the country shows how essential they are.

One thing I find endlessly amusing is the right-wing idea that they should be rounded up and sent 'back home'. Aside of the total chaos of trying to enforce this and enact it - a nightmare of
malicious accusations, wrong identities, and shameful abuse - the impact on society, especially in the south-west, would be terrifying and disorienting. Worse, the same right-wing loons would then blow a gasket about the expense, and the terrifying expansion of government power, and how the new Immigration Police needed were Obama's new BrownShirts (again).

Occasionally, right wing politicians try to suggest some way of resolving this, like giving them all long-term visas or creating a guest-worker status. This inevitably leads to their being politically savaged, and either recanting hastily (cf John McCain) or being utterly politically destroyed.

I know many on the left would love to do this, but the whole anti-immigrant thing (conflated by deepseated racism) seems so widespread and deepseated, that they need political support from the right as well, and I can't see that happening: both for the reason above, and because at the moment the whole of the right seems bound and determined to refuse any slightest hint of cooperation, no matter how visibly beneficial it might be for the whole country. Or, to put it simply, they've gone crazy.

I'll end with this charming little anecdote:

When Miriam was 15, her parents trespassed into the United States from Mexico.

Now in her mid 20s, the Wilmington resident still doesn't have citizenship but has become familiar with the health care system.

In the spring, she and her husband -- who both work as custodians -- were admitted to St. Francis Hospital in Wilmington for two days with pneumonia.

When they were released, they faced bills amounting to more than $4,000 and were put on a payment plan that eats up about one-fourth of their combined paychecks.

"I'd rarely go to a hospital because I can't afford to pay for it again," said Miriam, who is not being identified due to her immigration status, through an interpreter. "If I get sick again, I won't go to the hospital unless it's really serious."

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* Haven't got a clue what Native American** attitudes are, as they seem pretty scarce around here (not surprising what with all the depopulation, massacres, and relocations of course). Lots of people who claim to be 1/16th or 1/8th this or that - never something as scarey as a half which might carry, yanno, racial connotations). Not that that would ever happen in New Zealand, naturally :)

** And apparently American Indian is derogatory & been replaced (which I pretty much get, once told, after all what do they have to do with India?). I wonder how long it will be before they twig that America/American is also an imperialist label and they find a word in one of their languages to substitute for it? I would guess some activists have probably tried this already and had the idea kicked to death, as Americans do nationalism & chauvinism exceptionally well (almost to a French level, really).

*** Of couse this is usually meant as short-hand for Mexicans, whereas a lot of the actual immigration is from south america & the caribbean. But then, most Americans dont see any difference between the various Latino nationalities anyway.

**** Who makes these estimates and how, lord only knows, but I'm sure this estimate when made, was deliberately inflated to make more impact of one sort or another. I'm also fairly sure that reality has probably caught up with, and possibly overtaken, the estimate.

A passing observation

Amanda quoted:
He argues that far from being merely angry over the “confusion” over stupid shit like who pays the tab at dinner, men who are lashing out at the broadening gender roles are angry that they’ve lost patriarchal power over women.

Which I found very interesting in light of my rave of a couple of days ago. Not that I disagree - not at all! But it seems to me the same rage and temper tantrums is driving the racist storm, and the republican backlash - simple pure anger and outrage at losing apparently-permanent privilege and power (as to why Republicans would think this is eternally theirs, well, they're right, dammit! and everyone else is not just wrong but sinfully and willfully wrong, so of course they deserve permanent power).

Unfortunately, I dont think there's any diminuation in this outrage likely - the anger may be banked and less obvious, perhaps. The solution, rather grimly, is to outlive them: each generation seems just a touch more openminded and egalitarian than the last one (and that seems to go back a long long way).

The intersection of ugly and mean

I've found it extremely strange here, since the election last year: it's like half of the Republican party (and all the further right parties, like Constitutionalists, Libertarians, etc) have gone utterly barking mad, and are resolutely refusing to recognise that they legitimately lost the election. They're not claiming vote fraud (like the grotesquely obvious stolen election of 2000), but rather, some (many) are alleging that the President isn't actually an American, and the rest are just having a totally childish tantrum and denying reality, without providing any reason at all why they should still be controlling everything.

It's really quite frightening - I mean, they may be a relatively small proportion of the populace (perhaps 10% overall?), but 10% of 300million is still a lot of people - and most of them seem to be concentrated in the deeply racist south (hello, Arkansas!). It's not like they're subtle about the racism of it, either - one of the most common howls of tantrum is, 'Give me my country back', which, um, well, it's right here, it's just a tiny bit less totally-controlled by old rich white guys (and really, it is only a tiny change, unfortunately).

But their hysteria then gets preyed on by the more cynical right-wing operatives (mostly not actually Republican Party leaders, to be fair): ridiculous and appalling lies are circulated, and swallowed whole, every time - and as quick as one gets batted down, the next one pops up.

All that would be more or less standard operating procedure, in many ways, but the media here have so comprehensively abandoned any sense of duty or responsibility to the truth, that they do little or nothing to stop this, quite the reverse (in fact explicitly the reverse when it comes to Matt Drudge, and to Fox 'News').

I guess this is more or less inevitable - as news has become just another form of entertainment, the lowest common denominator operates, and the most sensationalist news stories are seen as 'winning' - whether they actually get the most viewers or not. Instead of ignoring or scoffing at an obviously ridiculous lie, they actively promulgate it, and at the same time seek the most sensationalist opposition to the lie, to create 'drama' and 'story', without ever taking an editorial position on the subject - any subject.

That form of dispassion is all well and good on topics where reasonable people disagree, such as a lot of policy ideas: but it is utterly abhorrent, and a disgusting lapse of ethics and reason, when the topic is one that only crazed, totally unreasonable people would disagree - but these are the people the media are now giving equal footing, and treating as serious people with subjects worthy of discussion, rather than dismissing or ignoring, or ridiculing (and here, Fox News and the Wall Street Journal - Murdoch operations - are specifically and comprehensively more guilty than the rest of the rotten shower).

I know that a lot of people, here & overseas, grew to loathe GW Bush (eventually - 9/11 bought him a lot of goodwill on all sides, which he frittered away in the most foolish of ways, in my opinion) - and some of the extreme left became quite unhinged and came up with ludicrous, preposterous stories about him & his government. But, these were seen as what they were (are) - crazed lunatic extremists, worthy of neither debate nor attention.

Obama's opposition, on the other hand, has sprung forth fully-grown, a veritable Cadmus' harvest of enmity, and have been widely and consistently reported, interviewed, summarised and debated, at every turn of the clock. This poison is, I think, gravely weakening the whole political process in this country.

In the end, politics is about letting everyone have their say, and in the nature of things involves most big segments of the populace having a turn in power, for longer or shorter. If the lunatic right is going to insist on having it's own way, with menaces, violence and threats of assassination, and if the elected politicians get scared into permitting this (which I wouldn't blame them too much for**), then it can only lead to an even greater explosion from the wide majority who have been again excluded from power. How long do they remain inert, sheep to be shorn by the interests of the extremely rich - banks, insurance companies and credit card companies, in essence?

Well, probably quite a while, they have been so comprehensively blinkered by propaganda.

So, how to make sure the politicians pay attention to the actual opinions of their voters? well, there's the trick, isn't it? Californian direct-democracy certainly looks pretty tarnished :) I guess I better get myself to the next local Town Hall, tho, and put my money where my mouth is.

Enough blither for one day

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** Well, OK I probably will - but it's hard to resist menacing violence, it takes a lot of willpower, over a long long period.

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Update: In case you think I exaggerate on how crazy people are getting, let me just cite a couple of examples from yesterday (and there are some every day)
From Steve Benen (Political Animal):

One of the protestors, in particular, brought a unique perspective.

Diane Campbell of Kingston, N.H., held a sign with Mr. Obama's face superimposed on a Nazi storm trooper, a sign, she said, that was made by her chronically ill mother.

Her mother's hereditary autoimmune disease is treated with expensive transfusions of gamma globulin, paid for by Medicare. Her sister, Louise, was born with no arms and one leg, and is also covered by Medicare, the government-run, health-insurance program for the elderly and disabled.

"Adolf Hitler was for exterminating the weak, not just the Jews and stuff, and socialism -- that's what's going to happen."

Now, my goal is not to pick on Diane Campbell, whom I do not know. She's quite clearly confused, though, and has come to believe some ridiculous lies. Campbell has apparently been so enraged by the right-wing nonsense she's been told, she feels entirely comfortable going out in public with signs comparing the president to a Nazi, and telling a reporter, on the record, that health care reform is comparable to Hitler's Holocaust.

But let's not overlook the irony of Diane Campbell's situation. Government-run, taxpayer-financed health care has kept her mother alive. Government-run, taxpayer-financed health care provides treatment and care to her sister. Based on the descriptions, it's safe to assume the costs associated with treatments for Campbell's mother and sister are enormous, but taxpayers and a socialized health care system pick up the tab. What's wrong with that? Not a thing.

Except, of course, that Diane Campbell is now trying to convince people that health care reform is both radical and dangerous.

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It was a painful clip that quickly made the rounds. At a town-hall event hosted by Rep. John Dingell (D) in Michigan, a local man named Mike Sola brought his wheelchair-bound son to confront, and scream at, the long-time lawmaker. He was eventually escorted from the event by police.

Yesterday, Sola appeared on Fox News, arguing that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid sent "thugs" to his house "in the middle of the night." He added that he's prepared to use "lethal force" against "the person" in the future, before arguing that health care reform would "sentence our families to death" because "old people" would be "discarded."

It was very sad to watch. Sola's son has cerebral palsy, and their family has experienced difficulties that I can scarcely imagine. It's not surprising that he and his family would want to know how health care reform would affect their lives.

But the poor man has been fed so many lies, he apparently doesn't realize what he's saying. Mike Sola, who I suspect is entirely sincere, actually believes that Democratic proposals would kill the elderly and the disabled. He seems to have no idea that his beliefs are not in any way grounded in reality.

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Welcome to 1951, hold onto your temper

This is the sort of story that doesn't usually make it into foreign papers or TV, but we see a spasmodic drumbeat of this sort of stuff. This one is particularly rancid and left me gagging. I'll quote Pam Spaulding (who has a more complete version):

The staff at the Valley Swim Club in NE Philly must have stepped into the DeLorean and took a spin back into the days of segregation, as 60 kids were turned away from the pool there and apparently the people at the Swim Club didn't mind their inner bigot surface for all to see.

"I heard this lady, she was like, 'Uh, what are all these black kids doing here?' She's like, 'I'm scared they might do something to my child,'" said camper Dymire Baylor.

The Creative Steps Day Camp paid more than $1900 to The Valley Swim Club. The Valley Swim Club is a private club that advertises open membership. But the campers' first visit to the pool suggested otherwise.

"When the minority children got in the pool all of the Caucasian children immediately exited the pool," Horace Gibson, parent of a day camp child, wrote in an email. "The pool attendants came and told the black children that they did not allow minorities in the club and needed the children to leave immediately."

..."There was concern that a lot of kids would change the complexion … and the atmosphere of the club," John Duesler, President of The Valley Swim Club said in a statement.

Excuse me, what year is this? Am I watching a rerun of a scene in Far From Heaven (2002)? There was a scene in the Todd Haynes film, set in the 1950s, where a black boy, the son of service worker at a Miami hotel, dares to step into the hotel pool. His father rushes and pulls him out, but it’s too late—the white people in the pool race to get out of the “contaminated” water. Apparently that’s the kind of “change they can believe in” at The Valley Swim Club.

Contact information for the club is here. This is so outrageous that I’m almost unable to type.

I don’t see anything on the membership app asking about race, so when do they determine you can’t join—when you show up?
-------------------

Of course, by now the club has taken down its contact page, and in fact it appears any online vestiges of itself have been scoured. I can't imagine why.

However, to give a better taste in the mouth, there's an addenda:
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After the treatment the kids attending Creative Steps Day Camp received from The Valley Swim Club, a private school has welcomed the children to swim in its pool. (NBC):

[T]he staff at Girard College, a private Philadelphia boarding school for children who live in low-income and single parent homes, stepped in and offered their pool.

“We had to help,” said Girard College director of Admissions Tamara Leclair. “Every child deserves an incredible summer camp experience.”

The school already serves 500 campers of its own, but felt they could squeeze in 65 more – especially since the pool is vacant on the day the Creative Steps had originally planned to swim at Valley Swim Club.

“I’m so excited,” camp director Alethea Wright exclaimed. There are still a few logistical nuisances—like insurance—the organizations have to work out, but it seems the campers will not stay dry for long.

And to sweeten the deal, the owners of Gumdrops & Sprinkles treated the kids to a free day of candy and ice cream making.

A true american hero

"Colleagues called Stephen T. Johns "Big John," for he was well over 6 feet tall. But mostly friends recalled the security guard's constant courtesy and friendliness.

"A soft-spoken, gentle giant," said Milton Talley, a former employee of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, where Johns was killed yesterday in the line of duty -- shot, authorities said, by an avowed white supremacist who entered the museum with a rifle. (...)

"There are no words to express our grief and shock over these events," the museum said in a statement, describing Johns as "an outstanding colleague who greeted us every day with a smile."

Johns, a 1988 graduate of Crosslands High School in Temple Hills, lived in an apartment in the Temple Hills area. Friends said he had a son."

What greater heroism than to give your life, to deny a lunatic with a gun from access to hundreds of school children & unarmed tourists behind you?

More later.

Arkansas people

Hmm, and we didn't make it out again last night, either - Cat spent the bulk of the day at something called Patchy Quilters, where they seem to have really not been very nice to her (just ignoring her & not including her). It's the 3rd or 4th time she's attended them, and she seems to get badly handled by them every time, so she won't be going back there.

But it left her in a foul mood - at first she decided to go spend the evening with Betty, her friend, who has a Monday night sewing group: but then changed her mind, and spent the evening at home, reading (and stewing, I think).

Oh well, the people here really are quite peculiar. Some of them are tremendously friendly, and a lot of them are initially charmed by our funny accent, but ... there seems to be so much sexism, and so much scarcely-hidden racism, at every turn.

Cat had agreed to perform dog-sitting for our next-door neighbours (who have 4 dogs), so spent several evenings over there last week, acclimatising the dogs to her presence, and she was quite shocked by the open racism they exhibited to her (something they wouldn't expose in 'mixed' company, but, well, that's how that goes).

Holly, the wife, took us to their favorite diner for breakfast on Saturday, and sure enough, it was 'authentic American southern diner', complete with couples (all with the male sitting on the outside, the women against the wall, in all the booths), and of course Confederate flag and lots of Southern Pride bits & pieces. Shame, as the food was actually very good, but still, we won't be going back there.

I should emphasise, I suppose, these people (our neighbours) aren't ignorant or stupid - he's a psychiatrist, and she's a senior teacher - but they still seem to have this overlay of automatic racism, and they don't seem to feel any need to try and rise above it. I know I have plenty of unconcious racism still, but at least I struggle against it, at least I know it's wrong. That doesn't seem to have fully penetrated, in Arkansas.

More pontificating tomorrow, I hope.