I thought I’d share an e-mail exchange I had with Kathryn Fenner regarding her reaction to our speaker at Rotary Monday, S.C. Agriculture Commissioner Hugh Weathers. I like Hugh and think he’s done a reasonably good job as our commissioner, which is why we went ahead and endorsed him over another guy I like a lot, Emile DeFelice. Hugh doesn’t have Emile’s flash, but he projects a certain quiet competence.
Kathryn is less impressed, and particularly didn’t like some of the asides with which Mr. Weathers salted his speech Monday. In particular, she didn’t like a crack he made about folks from elsewhere named “Joe” whose last names ended with an “i.” I remembered the remark (although I still don’t recall the context), but it didn’t bother me. Maybe because I was born here; I don’t know.
Anyway, here’s our exchange. Kathryn’s comments are in blue:
He would have been the most boring speaker if he hadn’t felt the need to pepper his remarks with xenophobic (people from outside the South) and other offensive remarks. People who weren’t born here in SC deserve equal respect from their elected officials, and people whose last names end in “i” are not usually very happy to be linked with the Mafia. Got laughs though!
Made me feel like bolting, except my (Buffalo, NY born and raised) mama taught me better.
I wish Emil had won. “Agribusiness” may play well with Rotary, but I’d rather put the state on my plate. Maybe I don’t belong in Rotary anymore…..
Of course you belong. Your name doesn’t end in a vowel.
Just kidding. Don’t tell Tony Soprano I said that (don’t know if you ever watched the show, but he was always griping about being mistreated because “my name ends with a vowel”).
My nephew’s mother’s maiden name is Nunziato. Ask anyone who knows him if he’s an asset to our state since moving here from Massachusetts.
Actually either of my nephews, Ben or Dan. Their sister Addie isn’t half bad (immediate past dance teacher at Ashley Hall), and their sister Carolyn is still in college, but shows every sign of following in their footsteps.
DeFelice ends in a vowel, doesn’t it? sigh
What exactly was the point of having Hugh Weathers speak to us?
See now, you’re going to put me on the defensive because we endorsed him…
Yes, you all endorsed a lot of candidates who turned out not to be so hot, some even who many of us thought weren’t so hot to begin with…
Let’s hope you have learned from your time outside the bubble…
So again, what exactly was the reason, do you suppose, Robin felt Hugh Weathers just had to talk to us? I almost bagged it yesterday, except that so often I have been pleasantly surprised by the speakers. This time I was surprised at just how vapid, yet offensive, someone can be and still get elected to public office.
You’ve led a sheltered life… I’ve talked to a lot of
people who have a lot less going for them than Hugh does.
You say I’ve endorsed a lot of folks who turned out not to be so hot. What
makes you think I thought they were so hot to start with? [I failed to come back to this point. I was going to say something about the fact that LOTS of people we endorsed weren’t so hot, but we endorsed them anyway, because they were at least better than their opponents. But that doesn’t really apply to this case, since I liked both Hugh and Emile. Maybe that’s why I didn’t complete the thought.]
Here’s the thing about Hugh: He was appointed by the governor to replace a
crook we elected. Our position is that the governor should appoint that
position, rather than having it elected. Therefore, until he did something
wrong, Weathers being in that position was a reflection of the way the
world should work.
I really liked Emile. But I knew that Emile appealed to a sort of
back-to-the-Earth, we should all eat whole foods and give up the internal
combustion engine, worldview that had been a part of my makeup since the
70s. In other words, he appealed to me, but would he appeal to the farmers
this office is supposed to deal with? Wouldn’t they be more likely to
trust and cooperate with a mainstream farmer type like Hugh Weathers?
Also, whenever we talked about “Put Your State On Your Plate” — Emile’s
strong suit — with Weathers, he praised it, and talked about his own
efforts to do the same thing, only sans the catchy slogan. And it seemed
to me that while your average SC farmer would sort of see Emile as a
hippy-dippy agricultural dilettante and maybe not work with him on those
grounds, they might want to get on board with Weathers in doing the same
thing. (And I don’t mean to criticize Emile with that characterization;
the thing is that he appeals to the vestigial hippy in me. Emile is a guy
who started “farming” in his backyard in Olympia, à la Oliver Wendell
Douglas on his Park Avenue terrace. And I just really thought SC farmers
would take him about as seriously as the farmers around Hootersville took
Mr. Douglas.)
In other words, Weathers wasn’t nearly as hip or as cool, but I thought he
just might be more effective at getting the same cool things done.
This is an example of the way that we endeavored to temper our gut
reactions with sober reflection, and endorse responsibly. And I think we
succeeded in doing that in this case.
Now that I’ve done all this typing, would you mind if we put this exchange
on the blog? We need to get a good discussion going about something, and
this seems likely — although I would understand if you didn’t want to
share all of this…
I suppose you might as well. I might bookend it with the actual words of Weathers, if you can get them….You’d think he’d realize that people of Italian descent do not appreciate the stereotypical link made between them and the Mafia. People who weren’t born here are still his constituents, even if they live in Beaufort.
As far as his locavore efforts, I wanted to ask him what he’s done to encourage the kind of truck farming that might give us a better chance at eating locally (and I would think those foods might actually put more money in the farmers’ pockets). I mean collards and peaches and boiled peanuts are nice, but it is rather hard to find locally grown produce outside the Rosewood Market, Emile’s All Local Market Saturday mornings and, believe it or not, Walmart….Publix had Georgia-grown broccoli this week. w00t!
Truck farming and “agribusiness” are generally not the same thing.
and I wonder if the farmers might be more inclined to listen to Emile if they realized how much money he nets on his hogs….
K-9
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As long as we keep electing the same good old boys, we’ll keep getting the same results.
I bought some meat from Emile one day down in the Vista and spoke to him briefly. My gut told me he would have been a breath of fresh (manure scented) air for South Carolina. Which means he can’t win. At least not for another couple decades.
As a transplanted Yankee who’s been in Columbia for almost 20 years, I have experienced the “you ain’t from ’round here” attitude. It permeates the entire social structure: churches, schools, business organizations, youth sports.
Progress will come at a glacial pace until the locals start accepting the fact that clinging to mediocrity because it’s comfortable is not a prescription for moving ahead.
That being said, there are some lifetime locals who are more open to accepting us Yankees. And we’re both better off for it.
p.s. My ancestors on my mother’s side don’t have a vowel at the end of their names, but since they are Finnish there are a bunch of extra vowels in there. (I’m the grandson of Lempi Aliina Paananen)
The Italian remark was about dealing with “the New Jersey vegetable Mafia” trying to hawk Certified SC grown products. People of Italian heritage are widely known to be unhappy with being characterized as Mafiosi.
…at least in places where there are more than two ethnic groups.
The xenophobic ones were about how he would go down to Beaufort and it seemed like he was in Ohio (this was not indicated to be a good thing).
I bought scallions at Walmart on Garner’s Ferry Road today, which scallions were in a bag branded Rawl. As I am actually from around here, I looked closely and saw it was from Pelion, SC. Walmart did not advertise this, although in the past I have seen the Certified SC Grown logo on signs in their produce department. Emile DeFelice makes some right tasty pork in a very humane way, but he also has managed to create the very viable All Local Market every Saturday. Just imagine what he could have done with the whole state.
Why is it that I feel compelled to justify myself by giving myself that value-added identifier–“I was born and raised here,” much as I point out that I am a USC alumna (and not an ALUMNI as so many, including USC officials, insist on saying. One is an alumna or alumnus; it takes at least two to make alumni/alumnae)? I never heard anyone feel the need to point out that they were from Illinois or Maine in either of the seven-year stretches I lived there. In fact, native Mainers are oddly a bit embarrassed around Portland to admit that they are natives.
My Germanic roots are very consonant heavy, but does that make me a more trustworthy person than the multi-vowelled? Does someone whose family only came here to South Carolina seven years before she was born have less to say to advance civic discourse than someone whose ancestahs were Lords Proprietors?
I was appalled that a public official felt it was okay to be dismissive of people who emigrated to our state — bringing much needed dollars and education (the Sun City seniors are noted for their active volunteering in the Beaufort schools). The “I’m just a dopey farm boy” Kenneth-the-Page act was not worthy of the office….and yet he got big laughs.
I know, I know— “how many feminists does it take to change a light bulb?” Answer: “That’s not funny.”
It’s just that I remember feeling like an outsider in my public elementary school –“What church do you go to?” “St. Paul’s Lutheran” “Luthern–is that Chreestian?” I can only imagine how the handful of [gasp] Catholics felt, not to mention poor Julie Wolfe and David Sawilowsky, our token Jews. Many of the most talented of my Aiken High classmates whose parents were from away left as quickly as they could. Some have returned, and enrich our state–but a good many have not. Such a loss…
“In other words, Weathers wasn’t nearly as hip or as cool, but I thought he
just might be more effective at getting the same cool things done.”
Still feel the same way? Hugh has been an unmitigated disaster and must be held accountable for the $100 million debacle he calls a farmers market. Please read more on the site and our facebook.