I have a confession to make: I hate the white supremacists, KKK, neo-nazis, fascists – whatever name the far right demonstrators are calling themselves today – as much as they hate me. So there.
I need to go back to my high school civics class where the teacher should instruct me to write on the blackboard at the front of the room:
“Hate is not an American value, tolerance is.”
“Discrimination is not an American value, inclusion is.”
“Violence is not an American value, dialogue is.”
Complete this sentence:
When I think of America, I think of…
What do you think of?
(Send me your answers in the comments section please.)
Like this:
Like Loading...
About Sheila Morris
Sheila Morris is a personal historian, essayist with humorist tendencies, lesbian activist, truth seeker and speaker in the tradition of other female Texas storytellers including her paternal grandmother.
In December, 2017, the University of South Carolina Press published her collection of first-person accounts of a few of the people primarily responsible for the development of LGBTQ organizations in South Carolina. Southern Perspectives on the Queer Movement: Committed to Home will resonate with everyone interested in LGBTQ history in the South during the tumultuous times from the AIDS pandemic to marriage equality.
She has published five nonfiction books including two memoirs, an essay compilation and two collections of her favorite blogs from I'll Call It Like I See It. Her first book, Deep in the Heart: A Memoir of Love and Longing received a Golden Crown Literary Society Award in 2008. Her writings have been included in various anthologies - most recently the 2017 Saints and Sinners Literary Magazine. Her latest book, Four Ticket Ride, was released in January, 2019.
She is a displaced Texan living in South Carolina with her wife Teresa Williams and their dogs Spike, Charly and Carl. She is also Naynay to her two granddaughters Ella and Molly James who light up her life for real. Born in rural Grimes County, Texas in 1946 her Texas roots still run wide and deep.
I'll Call It Like I See It 
Abraham Lincoln .. Louis Armstrong .. Hank Williams .. Emily Dickinson … Jackie Robinson .. Bob Dylan .. Eleanor Roosevelt .. Clarence Darrow .. Herman Melville … Howard Hawks
Regards Thom
LikeLiked by 4 people
I love these, Thom! Thank you for the list!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks to you.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Freedom first, but then in recent years I have felt embarrassment and regret. Our system does not work the way we were taught in 7th grade civics, and I’m disappointed.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Me too, Robyn. Maybe it never did for all of us, and that’s a disappointment all on its own. I had hoped we were getting closer.
LikeLike
…the Constitution and Bill of Rights serving all our citizens EQUALLY and extended to guests of this country as they visit, work and study here, in what hopes is safety.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Exactly, Ann…for us AND our guests. Well put.
LikeLiked by 1 person
All the Americans I know are wonderful people, Sheila (like you). So it’s difficult as an outsider to see what’s happening in your country and wonder who all these idiots are. I guess every country has it haters and ugly side. People who have a sense of entitlement and think they are superior are those I tend to avoid like the plague – but if they’re running the place, they can be very hard to ignore 😦
LikeLiked by 2 people
I appreciate your comments, Dianne. I sometimes worry so much about how people in other countries must feel about us now. I try to write to counteract hate in my blogs – to encourage the positive. Sometimes it feels like swimming upstream must feel. We must keep the connections going – the RUC and your American friends!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Freedom … and we’re still working on it for everyone.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thanks, Bob…it is a work in progress.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Freedom! and to be proud of our country and her leaders…its pretty simple- or i use to think it was.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks, Cindy – yes, Freedom is what it’s about – and used to be pride could be in there, too…now, not so much.
LikeLike
. . . hope. I just can’t allow myself to believe that a country that elected Barack Obama, supported healthcare for all, recognized the importance of protecting our environment, and worked to guarantee that two people who love each other can marry can let hate win. At least, I don’t want to allow myself to believe that. So I cling to hope.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Good for you, Miss Harper Lee…we will cling with you.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I added your comment to my post…thanks!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I love the responses you’ve received. We all want to believe in what’s good and right. There’s a power in that.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I agree, Miss Harper Lee. I loved these responses, too.
LikeLiked by 1 person