Freshly Mugged

In 1987 I was an idealistic college student and every bit the "knee jerk liberal" when my mugging began. I was one of about 20,000 who'd descended on Cumming, Georgia to march in support of Hosea Williams. The previous weekend Hosea had attempted a small march (only about 100 people) on Martin Luther King's birthday in Cumming to commemorate/protest the ousting of the entire black population of Forsythe County in the early days of the century. That march was met by hooded thugs who successfully sent the marchers packing with rocks and bottles. Outrage mobilized a small army of marchers, and a week later Hosea returned with our 20,000.

After marching a couple of miles to the courthouse downtown we spread out over the lawn to listen to the obligatory speeches. Corretta Scott King spoke as well as, if my memory serves, Andrew Young among others. All of them fairly upbeat and positive. Then came Hosea's diatribe.

In fairness to Hosea I'll admit that I don't remember the full content of his speech. (In fairness to myself I'll mention that most of it was unintelligible) But it's tone of self-righteous consternation, the relentless and unrealistic demands, and it's general vitriol were a bit sobering for me. It was in that moment that I experienced the first crack in my liberal facade. This man didn't speak for me. I was there to stand against racist thugs hurling bottles at my fellow Georgians (and for a bit of dangerous adventure, truth be known), but it seemed to me that Hosea was probably there to promote Hosea. Doubt as to the pure righteousness of all liberal causes crept into my psyche for the first time.

This crack opened a bit wider later in the same week. Oprah came went to Cumming to tape a show dealing with the march and the issues, and she had the audacity to include some of the white supremacists. I was thinking "good move" - nothing could expose their ignorance and hate better than a few minutes under the lights on national television. But then Hosea showed up with a few of his faithful to protest Oprah for including the racists. OY!

Thus began a gradual enlightenment on my part. No longer did I automatically cheer on the voices of the left. I'll admit that I usually cheered them merely out of inertia, but a new skepticism had replaced the reflexive spewing of the leftist line. Bit by bit I shed my previously dearly held beliefs when I could no longer square them with reality.

The process has taken an embarrassingly long time. Once you solidly stake out your political/social/philosophical identity it becomes very resistant to change. But over the years as I heard more and more bizarrely nonsensical accounts of political correctness and the more I actually listened to the faulty reasoning fielded by the left the further disillusioned I became. "More money is needed" they cried despite the fact that trillions of dollars spent in the last 40 years only served to nurture our social ills. "Racism thrives!" they proclaimed despite overwhelming evidence to the opposite. Victim, Outrage, Injustice...it goes on ad nauseam. Eventually I found myself pushed so far right that I couldn't see left anymore.

I'm not sure when the exact moment came, but a tipping point was reached sometime over the last two years when I let go of my last vestige of liberalism. And here's my Oprahesque confessional moment: I actually voted for John Kerry in '04. I know! I know! What was I thinking? It's kind of like waking up hungover the morning after the office Christmas party with the vague recollection that you groped the bosses wife the night before. That sinking feeling that you've been a total jerk in front of everyone and the panicky uncertainty of what else you did that you don't remember. Sheesh!

So, there it is. I've finally fully embraced reality at the age of 46 and eagerly anticipating casting my first Republican vote in about a week. My commitment to social justice is every bit as strong as it was that day on the Forsythe County Courthouse lawn, but my understanding as to how to achieve that justice has been revolutionized.

Hopefully I'll have something useful to add to the dialog, and if you've stumbled onto my humble effort I hope you'll visit again soon. Ya'll take care.


A bit of an update: Writing about that march brought back a lot of memories and I did an internet search for some old articles. I came upon this from a guy named Dafydd:

We ended at the town square, where Coretta Scott King showed up, sucking all the energy away from Williams. Williams didn't seem to mind; he gave a great talk, of which I heard about every third word (the speakers were inadequate for the job)... but what I heard, I liked. Unlike the Coretta Scott King funeral -- I haven't forgotten the topic -- Williams' speech was not at all partisan: anybody who wasn't a racist could applaud it wholeheartedly.

Sheesh, talk about a different take on the same event. But in true believer style this guy is willing to brand me a racist since I couldn't "applaud it wholeheartedly".