This will the last THINKING ALLOWED for about a month.  We are in the middle of making plans to pack ourselves and gifts into a car that we hope will give us good gas mileage – something that it has not done since our last extended trip when gas was so much cheaper. We shall see what we shall see.

I found so much to think and write about that the choice for today has taken me most of the day to get it sorted out while thinking about the wheelchair and walker that must accompany us.  Carol has mastered most of the intricacies of planning the route and where we will stop.  We will have to make many stops in between destinations because she will have to stretch her legs.  That BLACK BOOT will dictate how far she can go and places that we will have to negotiate with great care.

But one of the things that I found interesting instead of our own problems is the presence in Palm Beach County of “supremacist groups” that are raising their ugly heads because of the “Obama factor”.  “White Power” groups have been part of the American scene since before the Civil War.  The present groups of crazies are direct descendants of the KKK such as “Stormfront” and other hate and militaristic groups that love their guns and superiority of anything less than pure “Aryan” white-only Aryan Nations.  Whether Neo-Nazi, “Skin-heads” or any other underground groups of disenchanted and those feeling disinherited because a “Black” man might win the presidency, the facts are that there are a lot of groups out there that have not bought the traditional American dream of inclusiveness. These are dangerous un-American people who HATE.

These groups are well funded and have many ghost-like supporters who constitute a large membership that by any other name would be called UN-American.  They have websites and are prolific publishers of the traditional anti-Semitic, anti-Black and anti-immigrant material that, although consistently shown to be false, continues to be read and believed by a host of “Americans”.  The feeling of being soiled because non-Whites are so much a part of the “common man” pictures we all carry around in our heads is made worse by the candidacy of a man who is half white and half African. This group is not only active in just peddling hate but will be a factor in the coming election. 

If Barack Obama is elected we can visualize a well-organized and well-financed resistance to a Democratic controlled Presidency and most likely majorities in the House and Senate.  A confrontation between official “All included under one umbrella” and those neo-Nazi, KKK, White Power and White Aryan Nation types can be predicted.

I will look forward to sharing my thoughts on these and other matters when we return in late August. Meanwhile, think about it and maybe support the SPLC and other such groups (Southern Poverty Law Center).