We Haven't Come All That Far, Have We?

Yesterday I was doing a drive by on the computer, checking the news, killing some time waiting for a producer to fax me some rewrites. I saw this at Shake's Place. She had just gotten a dream job as a netroots coodinator for John Edwards campaign. After a long period of unemployment just about any job is welcome, but, for Melissa to be able to land a job she was so perfectly qualified to do for a candidate she supports in her big heart was serendipity. Perfect.

Then the trolls come out. For the record, let me say that I am not impressed at the way the campaign has handled this. There is far, far worse down the road in this process. The culture warriors and the religious conservatives are running scared. They see all their hopes and dreams blowing up and burning in Iraq. They see their brightest lights having to be "cured" of their homosexuality. They see their dreams of power being dashed. They are desperate. Sun Tsu (5 b.c.e.) in the oft misquoted Art of War spends quite a while on the delicacy of dealing with a desperate enemy. He warns against full out assaults, he counsels the wisdom of always leaving an avenue of escape, he puts forward the wisdom of sometimes not fighting at all, because Men will fight the hardest from an indefensible position. Less philosophical but also true and germain was Clint Eastwood's title character in The Outlaw Josey Wales. "Sometimes it all looks lost, if that happens you gotta dig deep inside and just get pure mad dog mean." That's where the opposition is. They will be trying everything they can think of to disrupt the process of electing somebody who actually isn't insane and blatantly corrupt and willing to follow their dictates on what god wants us all to do. In short, they're nuts people.

In the comment thread of Paul the Spud's piece cited above I noticed the trolls coming out. I saw one, in particular, that was ripe for a little nudge. Sometimes, that's all it takes for them to reveal themselves in all their rampant batshit looney venom. The troll in question was posting under the name "whitebuffalo." I know nothing about this person. I've never seen them post anything before. Here's what I did know, just from the name. It was the "white" that was important to him.

The Souix and other plains nations have a very sacred figure called "White Buffalo Woman." There is no comperable Christian deity or parrallel. White Buffalo Woman brought the sacred pipe to the people. No Native American who respects himself, his culture or the cultures of other nations would do something as trivial as blog under that name. It was very obvious that what was important to this person was the "white."

So, being the brat that I am, I nudged away. I wrote:

oh and i almost forgot, blow me whitebuffalo. as an apache to see a fuckwad like you typing away under the name of something sacred, well, fuck the virgin mary running, it's offensive.

And, just like I knew it would, the shit started to fly. Someone else began to post under the name "Geronimo Was a Pussy." I was counseled to "not get my wigwam in an uproar." I was invited to "smokey peace pipe."

The funniest part was that one of them actually thought I was one of them, and in on the joke.

The racism we face in this society, the separation along lines as stupid as skin color is still here, and clearly drawn. It won't be pretended away or ignored into nonexistence. It only takes a nudge, a little poke here or point of the finger there and out they come in all of their foaming at the mouth glory.

To those who rose to my defense in that thread. I thank you. You showed your colors as clearly as the assholes did theirs. I will be very proud to stand beside all of you in the coming fight. Make no mistake about it, this election is going to be a face to face knife fight. It's gonna get ugly ya'll. Remember though, we can be in beauty even when there's ugliness all around. In the words of the Apache prayer of the dawn

Y'o-sen, bihil hishash aaii diji jooni

(god, may i walk today in beauty)

3B's