What's the Matter with Us?

There were a bunch of us scattered around the back-bay, trying to hook some flounder. I talked to a few later, and one guy spoke of a “Mexican game warden writing him a $105.00 ticket for being white, he didn’t even check the Mexicans fishing there.”

Another man, seeing that we were all getting skunked, told me that the bay ain’t what it used to be. He said that he’d been a commercial fisherman here, “but then they let in all the Vietnamese, and they didn’t have to follow the same regulations as us.”

Jeez, a slow fishing day brings on a wave of xenophobia? I got out of there before the ghost of Millard Fillmore showed up with the know-nothing party to save us from the Papists by shutting down immigration and teaching the Bible in the schools.

So is this a sign of hard times? That we get all tribal? I wonder if cable news has something to do with it. CNN’s doing a thing about copycat noose crimes now that will probably lead to a new lynching craze if they flog it like they have some of their other non-news stories. Maybe this is just a bad hangover from the ruling party using all those code words in their dog whistle politics.

Elvis said a mouthful when he asked “What’s so funny about peace, love, and understanding?”