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I'm the son of a mill worker
"I can't wait for someone to say that they were the son of mill worker." (just a little post for genghis)
I'm sitting here reading tpm and eating a nice venison steak. Road kill I picked up a month or so ago. Its hard to poach where I live now in Florida. I haven't been able to poach a deer since I left Bethlehem PA. My father worked at the Bethlehem Steel mill. Fortunately he retired with a nice pension at the first downsizing, several years before they closed down the plant.
I reach for my Rugar (22 cal automatic pistol) thinking about the uncountable squirrels I've killed and fried up. Not in a corn popper like Huck, I use a cast iron skillet. A person's home is their castle its said and even though I live in a 27 foot Winnebego RV, well, its a castle to me. So I do keep a gun loaded and near by at all times.
There was a time when I thought I liked to hunt. I thought I liked wild free high quality meat. I thought I held the second amendment to the constitution as sacrosanct as the first. I thought an armed populace was a necessary check on authoritarian government. I know, "It can't happen here." But now I'm beginning to wonder if it all comes back to the closing of the steel mills in my home town. It's not surprising I got bitter, I cling to guns as a way to explain my
frustrations.
I'm guessing I'm just a bit different than most of the posters here. I'm guessing many will find this post hard to relate to. Spin Obama's little gaffe anyway you want but there's a lot of people in my home town who grew up like me. This was more than a bad choice of words by Obama. Its not going to play well with folks like me. It does seem like obama just doesn't get it and it does seem condescending.
You can take the son of a mill worker out of the mill town but you can't take the mill town up bringing out of the man.
Ah well, it probably won't lose him the election but it surely will move some undecided people into the Hillary or McCain column.
And in case you're wondering, While this was somewhat tongue in cheek none of it is made up. Bon appetit
Comments (11)
Thank you.
I live among and respect people who will find the San Francisco comments very disturbing.
I'm pretty sure I understand what Senator Obama meant to say, and I think I agree with his intent.
But the way he said it was flatfooted, and it's sure to hit nerves, and it's sure to hit nerves with exactly the voters he's trying to woo.
We can face that fact or deny it. If we face it, we can go to work--as the candidate has--on addressing the damage. I vote to face the situation honestly.
April 12, 2008 4:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
What part of Obama's statement do you find fault with?
"You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. So it's not surprising then that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."
April 12, 2008 4:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
My dad was a revolutionary and had guns in the house. He made me and my brother take an NRA safety course. I don't own a gun, but I respect hunters. They were the first environmentalists. I dunno, with all the deer running around here, we could use more hunters. It's sad to see them die of hunger. I'd imagine it's a much harder death. They increased the hunting limits up here, but hunters say they can't really bag anymore than they are now.
I must say, I'm not terribly fond of venison. Kinda gamey unless you really spice it up. I've never had squirrel, but at the rate things are going, I may have to in the near future. My friends joked that when I moved to a town in central Connecticut that I'd have to fit out my vw bug with a gun rack. There are a couple hunting clubs there. I'd rather buy a few chickens, I think.
Guns aren't all good. A boy in my daughters class shot off half his jaw when she was in Middle School. He survived, and the townfolk got together at the fairgrounds to help pay for some of his renconstructive surgery. The kid he was with when it happened got hit by a car later on, and still has a lot of emotional issues. I'd imagine it was a hard thing for a kid to witness. I think I feel worse for him.
I don't think Obama meant what it undoubtably sounded like he said to you. I don't think he's anymore of an elitist than other politicians, which is to say, they all are.
Have you ever read any Carl Sandburg? He loved the Steel Workers, and all of us common folk the elite love to look down upon.
http://www.bartleby.com/231/
I sent a copy of this to a steel worker I know in Colorado.
What we seem to lack are Carl Sandburgs and Mark Twains to speak for us.
Obama speaks well, usually. I think he'll be the nominee. Folks like us can accept or reject him, but we could also vote for him and not like him too much.
I mean, who likes politicians anyway?
Florida has the best state parks I've ever seen. Have you ever gone swimming with the river otters?
April 12, 2008 4:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
I agree, guns aren't all good. When I lived with children I definitely stored my guns differently. I don't want to get into a long discussion of the pros and cons of guns, I'll just say that lots of things are dangerous. Part of living in a free society is acceptance of those dangers and, hopefully, being responsible enough to handle it.
If you're thinking you might need to supplement your diet with home grown meat I'd suggest looking into rabbits. I cut most of the wild game I get into stew meat and toss it into a pressure cooker with beans and potatoes. That seems to absorb and disappear any gamey flavor. Soaking it in the fridge for a couple of days in salt water helps too. Anyway, if you eat it often you get used to it. I'm a botanist/herbalist too and most edible wild plants have a lot of bitter in them. After a while I got to like the taste of bitter.
I live near the Ocala National Forest and I spend a lot of time there, as well as some nearby state parks. I'm kinda getting sick of all the bugs though, never knew what chiggers were until I came here. Hate 'em. If gas wasn't so high and Florida so poor I'd save up some money and move my RV to Arizona or Oregon. Alas, I'm stuck here for at least a couple more years.
April 12, 2008 6:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
The implication is that if a truly progressive, energized, effective Democrat can get elected, he can deliver on economic issues, and then those rust-belt voters will let go of the things they currently cling to.
I'd be happy to see a calm discussion of trade pros and cons,and delighted to see the anti-immigrant thing vanish.
But religion is not a thing people should let go of. It's not the "opiate of the masses." It's about truth and meaning and community, and folks should keep that.
And guns can't be what divide us. There's too much I respect in my neighbors who value them. It's too deep in their understanding of independence, effectiveness, and control of their own lives. I don't feel that concern in my own bones, but I feel it in THEIR bones. It's not something they will let go no matter how the economy works, and after years of their company, I don't even want them to.
Senator Obama's San Francisco statement really sounds as though he's trying to build a politics where people stop clinging to their faith and their guns. Knowing the rest of his message, I'm confident he didn't mean that. But he did say it. And it does damage his campaign. He's doing a good job of saying it over so it makes more sense. But it still damages his campaign.
April 12, 2008 5:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
I thought I held the second amendment to the constitution as sacrosanct as the first. I thought an armed populace was a necessary check on authoritarian government. I know, "It can't happen here."
Doesn't the Supreme Court have a gun case before it right now? I wonder how they will view the second amendment?
I thought an armed populace was a necessary check on authoritarian government.
You mean the administration in office now? The have run amok when it comes to the Constitution.
April 12, 2008 5:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
A good chunk of my family is from Duquesne, Pa--probably among the hardest hit places in the country--just outside of Pittsburgh. However, since Duquesne is like 50/50 white black, i guess Im not supposed to be the targeted angry audience. But this post is quite good. To begin with, I dont think obama meant to insult anyone, but when you say things like this--I can tell you--people are not going to like it. Call them stupid or whatever, but when you live in town of shit and some politician who does not know your life or your struggle comes by and says this, its not going to make people happy.
To Opus hussein X:
While I agree with some of Obama's points, I think everyone is missing key part of the condescension, notabably:
"they cling to...anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."
This suggests that the peoples' whose lives have been ruined by "free trade" are backward for having an anti-trade sentiment. Well, your god damn right they do and they have reason to be. This is not some escapist excuse for their problems. No. It is the reason for their problems. So excuse me if I find someone who is a benificary of this system telling me that my opposition to ruthless trade pacts is an unjustified excuse for my woes, when, in fact, it is among the reasons for it.
So while I think the general point Obama is making is largely true--namely that economic insecurity has led some folks to vote against there interests--his insistence on trade opposition as an excuse is wrong and, by extension, condescending. He needs to tweak this part of his shtick if he wants me to really support him.
Disclosure: I do not support hillary clinton. I supported John Edwards and will continue to support candidates that are traditional new deal democrats.
April 12, 2008 5:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think the main problem here is that Obama speaks in long sentences and talks to people as if they are intelligent adults.
The problem is also that the media has taken a very long transcript of a spoken statement and cherry-picked part of a sentence and has twisted it's meaning into something that no one who heard the actual presentation would recognize.
I don't see any intent in Obama's statement that suggests that he thinks anyone is backwards. Rather, he is pointing out what we all already know: the GOP will always hammer away at the God, guns, gays, and immigrants issue and has always had great success with this tactic with poor, white, rural people. I know, because some of my family buys completely into this message.
April 12, 2008 5:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
"I reach for my Rugar (22 cal automatic pistol) thinking about the uncountable squirrels I've killed and fried up."
Sorry, but that's gross. Yuck! I don't get the whole hunting thing. It's so Dick Cheney...
April 12, 2008 6:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
Dick Cheney kills for fun, rural folks hunt to provide food for their families.
April 12, 2008 6:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
Cheney doesn't hunt. What he does is more like going to a zoo, opening the doors, and killing what ever walks out of the cage. Most people are disconnected from the reality of how and where the food they eat comes from. The quality of it as well as the treatment of the animals and land its grown on would improve if that weren't so.
April 12, 2008 6:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
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