January 16, 2004
Dobie hates Dean
In a previous post Greg from TN called a piece in the Nashville Scene by Bruce Dobie to our attention. The following is my response to the editor:
Yes, Bush is a "regular old boy" who intimidates the members of the
press by giving them nicknames. He sure did learn that in the South.
Your columnist doesn't know what he's writing about. He's responding to
his own prejudice.
I've met Howard Dean, shaken his hand, heard him speak directly three
times and so don't have to rely on sound-bites filtered by the media.
If I ever get sick (I haven't had to see a doctor for anything in twenty
years, thank God), I'll be grateful for the manners he displays away
from the bedside.
Since Dobie hasn't heard a speech in person, it's no wonder he can't
offer a valid critique. As for lacking "human examples"--that's because
Dean respects the privacy of his supporters. No doubt that's a holdover
from his medical practice. Some habits are just hard to lose.
As regards the bike path that got Dean started--it was one of those
train tracks that the railroads abandon and then expect to be paid for
by the state, regardless of the fact that they were given the right of
way for nothing to begin with. The conversion of railbeds to bike paths
provides a quick study of how corporate subsidies work. (If the parts
of town through which trains ran in Vermont are pretty compared to those
in the South, it just means that the "wrong side of the tracks" is less
significant in Vermont).
Why exactly is it that Southerners are entitled not only to talk about
and judge "yankees" but the rest of the country is not allowed an
opinion about this perennial back-water? Moreover, considering that the
Bush now in the White House never did a lick of work that would actually
turn his neck red, it's more likely that His sojourn in the so-called
"oil patch" was a "hobby existence"--and one he wasn't very good at, at
that.
I lived in the South for twenty five years, until I couldn't take it any
more. One of the main things I couldn't take was the presumption that
one's beliefs and ideas, not to mention one's personal relations, were
open to judgement by every tom, dick and harry in the street. The
concept of privacy and discretion seems to be entirely lacking. It
always amazed me that people could be so rude as to ask personal
questions of people they'd hardly met.
Southerners prejudge. They don't watch what a person does and then make
an assessment; they inherit templates and then judge whether or not a
person fits. So what they've got is a society based on prejudice. It's
not something they develop; it's what they're raised with. And, though
they don't know it, it's what makes them uncomfortable.
Let's hope Mr. Dobie and others like him can get over it.
Posted by Monica Smith at January 16, 2004 02:19 PM