Today I took two short rides: before and after having lunch with my mother and a friend of hers, of whom I am fond.
My rides took me through alongside creeks, swamps and woods, as well as through small-town streets lined with shabby houses and suburban subdivisions full of houses that are imitations or parodies, depending on your point of view, of structures built by Spanish, French and English settlers to this area.
Once again, the weather was delightful. At one point, I even saw two frolicking fawns just yards away from me, and white herons that ambled even closer. People seemed relaxed, even if they were doing home repairs or yardwork. The kids were happy, of course: They had the day off from school.
The reason is that today is the holiday to commemorate Martin Luther King Jr., who would have turned 88 yesterday. He didn't live to see his 40th birthday, and many of the people for whom he fought had even shorter lives that ended as tragically as his. A few years ago, a student of mine who is about a decade older than I am, and grew up in Jacksonville--about 105 kilometers (65 miles) from where I am now--told me about one of those victims: a relative whose flaming body dangled from a tree in Mississippi. As a little girl, she saw that.
It probably wouldn't surprise you to learn that from 1882 until 1968, more black people were lynched in Mississippi than in any other state in the Union. I don't think it would cause much consternation to say that the next states on the list were Georgia, Texas, Alabama and Arkansas.
Florida is right behind them. The "Sunshine State", however, had the highest per-capita rate of lynchings among the states from 1880 through 1940. In fact, Florida's lynch rate, in proportion to the population, was more than double that of Alabama and nearly four times that of Texas!
Today, as I rode through the subdivisions, and the ramshackle houses, I saw many "Trump: Make America Great Again" campaign signs. In fact, I even saw a couple in a trailer park. I don't recall seeing so many campaign signs for any candidate still standing on lawns, or tied to signposts or windows, so long after an election as I saw today.
Now, I am sure that some of those who voted for Trump--and, perhaps, a few who didn't--are resentful that King gets "his own" holiday: something no other individual in the US has. Or, to be precise, no other white individual has.
I can understand, even if I don't condone, what they feel: that they are losing "their" place in society to "privileged" minorities (which, of course, can include LGBT people as well as any number of racial and ethnic identities--as well as "the 51 percent minority"). One thing my own experience has taught me is that privilege is something you don't know you have until you lose it, and the process of losing it is painful and can cause intense anger and resentment.
What I can't understand, though, is something I saw on a news program this morning: People who claim that if King were alive today, he would have supported Donald Trump's election to the Presidency. I tried to understand their arguments, but those of the Flat Earth Society actually make more sense to me.
Of course, cycling and writing have made more sense to me than all of those things ever could. So did those fawns and herons I saw.
My rides took me through alongside creeks, swamps and woods, as well as through small-town streets lined with shabby houses and suburban subdivisions full of houses that are imitations or parodies, depending on your point of view, of structures built by Spanish, French and English settlers to this area.
Once again, the weather was delightful. At one point, I even saw two frolicking fawns just yards away from me, and white herons that ambled even closer. People seemed relaxed, even if they were doing home repairs or yardwork. The kids were happy, of course: They had the day off from school.
The reason is that today is the holiday to commemorate Martin Luther King Jr., who would have turned 88 yesterday. He didn't live to see his 40th birthday, and many of the people for whom he fought had even shorter lives that ended as tragically as his. A few years ago, a student of mine who is about a decade older than I am, and grew up in Jacksonville--about 105 kilometers (65 miles) from where I am now--told me about one of those victims: a relative whose flaming body dangled from a tree in Mississippi. As a little girl, she saw that.
It probably wouldn't surprise you to learn that from 1882 until 1968, more black people were lynched in Mississippi than in any other state in the Union. I don't think it would cause much consternation to say that the next states on the list were Georgia, Texas, Alabama and Arkansas.
Florida is right behind them. The "Sunshine State", however, had the highest per-capita rate of lynchings among the states from 1880 through 1940. In fact, Florida's lynch rate, in proportion to the population, was more than double that of Alabama and nearly four times that of Texas!
Today, as I rode through the subdivisions, and the ramshackle houses, I saw many "Trump: Make America Great Again" campaign signs. In fact, I even saw a couple in a trailer park. I don't recall seeing so many campaign signs for any candidate still standing on lawns, or tied to signposts or windows, so long after an election as I saw today.
Now, I am sure that some of those who voted for Trump--and, perhaps, a few who didn't--are resentful that King gets "his own" holiday: something no other individual in the US has. Or, to be precise, no other white individual has.
I can understand, even if I don't condone, what they feel: that they are losing "their" place in society to "privileged" minorities (which, of course, can include LGBT people as well as any number of racial and ethnic identities--as well as "the 51 percent minority"). One thing my own experience has taught me is that privilege is something you don't know you have until you lose it, and the process of losing it is painful and can cause intense anger and resentment.
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| What are students learning these days? |
What I can't understand, though, is something I saw on a news program this morning: People who claim that if King were alive today, he would have supported Donald Trump's election to the Presidency. I tried to understand their arguments, but those of the Flat Earth Society actually make more sense to me.
Of course, cycling and writing have made more sense to me than all of those things ever could. So did those fawns and herons I saw.
