What Would YOU Call It?

There has been quite a flap lately concerning a statement made by an English professor at North Idaho College. If quoted correctly, the firestorm was ignited when she stated she believes in the death penalty. "...first we line up everyone who can't think and right behind them, anyone who's ever voted Republican." Not the wisest thing to say in a classroom in the most red of red states, nor when one of your students was a former aide to one of the most polarizing of conservative Congresswomen this state has ever seated.

The outrage was volatile. She was threatened with sodomy, referred to as a 'bitch"; it was suggested she commit suicide and on and on it went. One suggested she be shot along with other like minded liberals. We have equal opportunity hating going on here. And it isn't pretty.

I use this episode to point out an attitude that has permeated this community to an alarming degree. Hate. We had the Aryans for so long. They hate everyone except themselves and I'd wager that is open to debate.

The natives hate newcomers. Not just Californians. All of them. We beat our wives and abuse our kids and torture our pets. It's in the paper almost every day. Hate.

My husband takes our dog out for a late evening walk before bed time. Barely a night goes by when some NASCAR wannabe does his best to swipe them. At the very least crowding them off the shoulder of the road.

Our street is strewn with empty beer bottles, whiskey and wine bottles; even tampon cases. It is disgusting. Activity is always rampant at Hayden's Croffoot Park after dark - we can see the headlights turn in, shut off and turn on again. It's amazing what you notice while walking your dog. Even before the park was built the area was well know to the kids as a place to score drugs.

A few weeks ago someone whacked our mail box with a wine bottle. We know because they left the bottle behind.

Friday night, sometime before the papers arrived at four a.m., someone took out the box, post and all, flinging the debris several yards. Maybe it doesn't seem like much but this is how it all starts. The dog-walkers, the newcomers, the teachers, whites, blacks, Hispanics, the no-growth advocates, the developers, Republicans, the Democrats.

Why did it begin and where does it stop? The Sunnis and the Shias? Are we doomed to not see in ourselves what is so apparent in others?

On the local level can it be dealt with by more than a smack on the wrist? I don't know the answer because everyone's afraid. We're being very carefully orchestrated to fear fear itself and fear breeds hate and hate breeds fear. Full circle.