Dinah Shore, the singer who in 1953 first belted out See the USA in Your Chevrolet, might be dismayed. Driving through municipalities large and small in 2019, an aura of defeat pervades. There are few good jobs or promised infrastructure projects for those Main Streets. Faint hope enters here, and many hopeful depart. This is true for black and white residents. Still, those who stay in hometowns to work for change merit applause, not the low blows of tweets by an heir to a slumlord dynasty.
Our Legacy
President Abraham Lincoln in 1865 referred to “the sin of slavery,” and the route between Florida and New York remains a shame-laced chronicle of this country’s indifference to an historic wrong and our continued wrongheadedness.
Making stops to pump gas at new and bygone-era gas stations prove telling: The stations second as food markets for impoverished locals, reminding us that few shopping options exist save Walmart.
Our I-95 corridor trek normally occasions a night in Savannah, Georgia, with tourist dollars spent on a hotel, meals and souvenirs. But, such a visit in 2019 would suggest we're okay with the state’s scandalous voter tampering, suppression of black votes and misogynistic anti-choice laws. Not so.
The Road Traveled
A pickup-truck looms in the rear view mirror like a spaceship in Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and the driver toys with bashing the tail end of our car. Finally, the high and mighty one surrenders to our speed-limit obstinacy and zooms past, flashing a confederate flag. Big and bad those rebels, state after state. How many Tiki torches rattle around truck beds for the next rally?
Deliverance Belligerence
On roads up North, even when we hang back from pickup trucks flaunting confederate flags, the drivers play out Deliverance games all the way up the Hudson River. Strutting with that flag - a symbol of slavery - and gigantic American flags equals yet another in-your-face way to “Own the liberals.” I forget what they hate about liberals. Latte-drinking? Kale eating? Oh, yeah, defending human rights.
Outright belligerence is not confined to former slave states. In July 2019, stores from Pennsylvania to Massachusetts reportedly stocked one thousand – yes, 1,000 “Feel Better Dolls,” i.e. rag dolls of little black kids - with instructions to slam the doll’s head against a wall to feel better. The manufacturer is based in Westchester County’s Verplank, NY.
We did this. We’re still doing this.
"With Malice Toward None"
It's well past time to honor President Lincoln’s call for action, “With malice toward none." In the current toxic environment, it seems a stretch. And, given the chill that meets appeals for those in need, let alone for reparations for slavery, who knows when we will proclaim the second part of Lincoln's vision: “With charity for all.” Christmas, maybe? Now that people can say it's "Merry."
Reggie Morrisey
Note I: I'll see you in October.
Note II: The song lyrics of See the USA in Your Chevrolet
Love, not hate, makes America great!
Patriot Dream, a pastel by Vincent Mancuso