In case you’re wondering about a comment by Kathryn way down back on this post (comment No. 36, I believe), she’s responding to something I wrote on Twitter earlier today:
Driving in Columbia today, I wondered: Do they issue you a “COEXIST” bumper sticker when you move to Shandon?
And to save you having to look, KB said:
They do indeed issue a COEXIST bumper sticker at closing when you buy a Shandon house. Do you get the Confederate flag one when you buy your house in Lexington County or does that cost extra?
You’ll note how that drips with Shandonista scorn. For that matter, my daughter responded thusly on Facebook:
Yeah, but mine’s not on my car since I don’t use fossil fuels, I just stuck it next to my LGBT rainbow and my peace sign on my reusable organic cotton grocery bag.
As a Lexington Countian, let me reply that indeed I do have a Confederate flag. It was given to me by John Courson. It once flew over the State House. But it ain’t a-gonna fly there no more.
Oh, and my wife noted something about Shandon to me just this evening. They might have a lot of nice things we don’t have (such as sidewalks), but there’s one thing they have that we can do without — big ol’ honkin’ cat-sized rats (I added the modifiers) running down the street trying to escape the overburdened sewer system.
Ahem.
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I’ve lived in both places, hysterical!
Darling I live in (on?) University Hill. We look down on Shandon. Poor folk down in the bottom lands.
We eschew bumper stickers. Weighs down the Prius and reduces the gas mileage.
(Actually the University Hill slogan is “Where drunk students annoy drunk plutocrats every weekend.” I myself do not drink much at all.)
I bet y’all got plenty of big honkin’ rats, and ‘possums, skunks, ‘coons, and all manner of varmints and critters out yonder way. You just can’t see them in all the kudzu…
Be kind to Southern, white, liberal, middle-class ghettos. There are only so many of them.
In my experience, also see:
Winston-Salem, N.C. (Ardmore)
Richmond, Va. (The Fan, West of The Boulevard)
They are co-existing with others in their environment. And if you had to deal with that sewer system, I’ll bet you’d have some compassion for those rats.
You’d think the Coexist sticker would go nicely with an Unparty sticker. Same concept. We’re all one with the universe.
Brad really wants to live in Shandon, but he’s too cheap….Dude goes to church downtown, I believe, eats here, drinks here–ought to live here.Pay taxes here. Belong to the community instead of driving thru.
Rats have feelings too, you know. Are they sure the ones in Shandon aren’t refugees from the State House?
There IS NO coexisting with evil.
Those bumper stickers are the outgrowth of an out-of-control mentality that is only fostering stupidity in the face of the evil that is ISLAM. This tolerance crapola has mushroomed into entire departments at leftist universities (e.g., Rice University) whose sole purpose is to paint Islam in a warm, fuzzy, ARTIFICIAL light.
These “religious tolerance” think tanks commence to infiltrate every area of our lives such as “news” organizations (e.g., the Houston Chronicle). For now dumbed-down Americans, this creates an entire community of cowering dhimmis.
Tell me — where has Islam allowed another religion to coexist???
Pest-Indonesia, India, the US, France, Spain are a few places where Islam allows other religions to exist. Christianity has not done such a hot job of allowing other religions to exist, either (think of how England and Spain treated the Jews). Yes, there are radical Muslims, just as there are radical Christians, radical Jews, and possibly radical Hindus (I’m not ‘up’ on Hindu sects). The problem is with the radicalism, not with the religion, per se. Islam simply means “submission to God.” One of its pillars (basic tenets) is charity. I’m all for eradicating terrorism of whatever stripe. Otherwise, lets not demonize others’ faith. It’s the faith we would have, had we been raised as they were raised. FYI I am a practicing Christian, and I’m very aware of the Biblical quotes that can be used to justify violence. I don’t think that they convey the main theme of the New Testament (or the Old) and I don’t think it’s fair to pick bits and pieces out of the Koran either.
Well said! This thinking it’s how we Coexist!
[Correction]
“Tell me — where has Islam allowed another religion to coexist [where Islam is the majority faith]???”
Thank you.
Spain, before Their Most Catholic Majesties Ferdinand and Isabela.
True, examples have been a bit scarce on the ground LATELY…
The Ottoman Empire was quite tolerant during its heyday. Over time Islam has at least as good a record as Christianity. I think Indonesia today has a good record, Turkey, Morocco (?). Egypt has a large Coptic Christian minority which seems to exist unscathed.
I just saw a film from Ireland, Alove Divided, based on a true story from 1957,about how a small town priest and his flock, with his bishop’s blessing, severely harassed (shootings, barn-burnings) the town’s Protestant minority when a mixed Catholic/Protestant couple balked on The Pledge to send their daughter to Catholic school. I’m sure similar things happened in Ulster in the other direction. Christians against Christians.
And Kathryn, did you notice that in this country that after race, the highest number of hate crimes concern religion? Why do I not think that Christians are the ones being picked on?
I thought sexual orientation was the biggest source of hate crimes (which makes your point, I suspect).
It depends on how you define “hate crime” … which is sort of what the whole phenomenon of “hate crimes” is about, isn’t it?
A “hate crime” is a political act, one to which Orwell assigned the term “thoughtcrime.” And writing and defining the hate crime law is also a political act.
The very decision to have such a thing as a “hate crime” is a political act as well — or, at least, a political choice.
And it’s one to which I object. Such things should not exist in America. That’s one of the few points on which I agree with libertarians. Punish the act, not the thought or attitude behind it. The idea that an attitude would be deemed a crime in this country is in its way as ugly as the attitudes such crimes seek to punish. It appalls me that the concept of “hate crime” ever developed in this country…
Yes, it is no worse, or better, if I strike or kill a person because they are of a different race or sexual orientation than because I want their wallet or am in a rage. The fact that I am impinging upon that person’s liberty what matters. The hierarchy of crimes should be based upon effect, not motivation.
Attempting to ban so called “hate speech” is an insidious attack upon the First Amendment,
Hate speech, I agree with you.
Matthew Shepard was killed in a particularly hateful way–far beyond what one might do to simply extinguish life. Victims of violent hate crimes are victimized in especially vicious ways–it is the nature of the crime. The point isn’t to just snuff out the life. It’s to inflict torture before you do it. You don’t see that in a wallet snatching.
Some guy has built a BETTER bumper sticker:
http://doctorbulldog.wordpress.com/2010/02/12/a-little-bumper-sticker-fun/