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Born May 18, 1953; got saved at Truett Memorial BC in Hayesville, NC 1959. On rigged ballot which I did not rig got Most Intellectual class of 71, Gaffney High School. Furman Grad, Sociology major but it was little tougher than Auburn football players had Had three dates with beautiful women the summer of 1978. Did not marry any of em. Never married anybody cause what was available was undesirable and what was desirable was unaffordable. Unlucky in love as they say and even still it is sometimes heartbreaking. Had a Pakistani Jr. Davis Cupper on the Ropes the summer of 84, City Courts, Rome Georgia I've a baby sitter, watched peoples homes while they were away on Vacation. Freelance writer, local consultant, screenwriter, and the best damn substitute teacher of Floyd County Georgia in mid 80's according to an anonymous kid passed me on main street a few years later when I went back to get a sandwich at Schroeders. Had some good moments in Collinsville as well. Ask Casey Mattox at www.clsnet.org if he will be honest about it. I try my best to make it to Bridges BBQ in Shelby NC at least four times a year.

Monday, March 18, 2013

SBC Tea Party Reps Lankford and Gowdy; and Fox News

  I've had interesting experience chatting with D.C. staff of some Tea Party Republicans in last few weeks. Kinda feel like Nick of Trey Gowdy's staff is my new best friend. S.C. Senator Lindsey Graham has a staffer Patrick of Clemson who has been on staff for 18 months but not familiar with Norm Ornstein's Its worse than it looks.

   As much as Graham is on Fox News looks like he could find a better group of crackerjackers for his staff if he's gonna be fair and balanced.

   But here is what's in my craw this morning. Last night Southern Baptist US Rep Lankford of OK was on Huckabee and Fox News. Closed the segment, Huckabee did with a snarky reference to Jeremiah Wright.

   I called the righteous Lankford's office this morn and announced to the gracious young woman, an Oklahoma Baptist student intern, Melissa Rogers just joined the Obama White House as faith based liaison.

   Everybody can read the abpnews.com story.

   Melissa Rogers is an authentic Baptist, not one of the pretenders like Gowdy and Lankford who came of age in Paul Pressler's Southern Baptist Convention. I told the young woman to tell Rep Lankford Mark Noll has a review of Dochuck and Williams he can google at New Republic for remedial education.

   Gowdy and Lankford and their kind displaced the likes of solid mainstream Christians the likes of Waco's Chet Edwards, and my Furman classmate of 75 Baron Hill of Indiana.

   And there was nothing fair and balanced in that Tea Party campaign on 2010.

   So here:

   Giberson and Stephen and their book The Anointed

   Joe Crespino's Strom Thurmond's America

    Norm Ornstein's Its Worse than It Looks.

   STeven Miller on Billy Graham.

   And for Governor Huckabee, come on Gov, if Jeremiah Wright is what ills America, then as an minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ who surely is aware of the Biblical Injunction not to bear false witness, let's do a reading of David Maraniss on Barack Obama before you utter that lie again.

   Look for further discussion and this blog link on the facebook wall of Spartanburg Day School, FBC Spartanburg, S.C. and in the public policy chat at baptistlife.com/forums.

   And of course Rep Lankford's facebook wall and Rep Gowdy.

Monday, March 11, 2013

For Aunt Kathryn, my Dad's sister

Aunt Kathryn was a big fan of Lewis Grizzard. Turns out the current editor of the Ft. Payne Alabma Times Journal is as well and did a column about Grizzard a week or so ago. He was kind enough to publish my letter in Saturday's paper:


The Editors:

I found editor Clemons tribute to Lewis Grizzard a few days ago sparking lot of memories. I liked Grizzard but always thought of Decatur Georgia's Roy Blount to be a better humorist, had a little more substance for the thinking Southerner.
Still Lewis was a card. And upon his recommendation I found myself at Sprayberry's BBQ in Newnan a few years ago. Didn't quite match up to my favorite, Bridges in Shelby, N.C. but the Brunswick stew was first rate.
In early 80's I was living in Rome Georgia, where a sister of one of GRizzard's interests was married to an influential Baptist preacher. Grizzard wrote a tribute published in the Atlanta Constitution about their Mother, who was a big Auburn fan. And word got out he was their guest at Thanksgiving Dinner in those days. Well you never have seen a more proud fundamentalist Baptist preacher in all your life than the fellow was who had Grizzard for his guest.
Before he died Grizzard had married a woman he found at what he called the Peachtree Street Opera House. I think she wore his favorite red dress to the funeral.
He and his cousin Ludlow Porch had some great stories. One of my faves was about the time a stick of dynamite got lit and tied to the dog's tail. He ran under the barn and blew it up. Ludlow said Thank God he didn't run under the house!!!
My fellow Furman alum humorist and short story writer George Singleton carries on with the tradition. The title of his best known collection of stories says it all: "Half Mammals of Dixie."
God Bless Em All, as Singleton says with another title, These People Are Us.

Tuesday, March 05, 2013

Jeb Bush, the S.C. Primary and the Pathway to Citizenship

   Last night on Fox News I heard Jeb Bush discuss his new book about Immigration, and this morning heard him on NPR with a brief analysis of the political implications.
    I am disappointed in the Governor as  he has changed his tune since his appearance on Charlie Rose show last June. Just a few months ago he was for a path to citizenship. Now he is against it and many think it is because he would have an inordinate amount of trouble in early presidential primaries in 2016 with the Tea Party GOP base; especially in S.C. which made his Dad in 88 and his brother in 2000.

    Considerations of S.C. forced his Waffle.

    Keep coming back to this blog as I will be revising and tweaking over the next few days.

   But here are some immediate concerns. The Goldwater Inst STaffer Clint Bolick helped Jeb write this book. Goldwater was a key player in driving the S.C. GOP to the right and now it appears to be going off the deep end. Witness the Numbers USA assault ads targetting Senator Lindsey Graham; read Wahalla S.C. native Mark Powell's novel The Dark Corner, and frame your thoughts with a considered reading of Joe Crespino's Strom Thurmond's America.

    And consider what the conversation will be at Chic Fil A headquarters as Dan Cathy studied at Furman for two years and as recently as 2006 CFA had endorsed the Dream Act. As CFA mentored new S.C. Senator Tim Scott, conversations in the S.C. GOP are gonna be interesting indeed; even moreso for Jeb as Lee Atwater was key in electing his Father President, and Karl Rove saved his brother's hiney in the 2000 Primary.

    I graduated from Furman, not very high in my class, but I got the diploma. Marshall Frady finished there in 63 and consensus is he was the greatest social justice journalist last half of the 20th Century.

   Furman was the last public address or near the last of the Bush 43 Presidency. There is a great chasm between the witness of FBC Greenville, S.C.; and FBC Spartanburg, home of Trey Gowdy, Billy Graham and until a few years ago, Harry Dent's Daughter of ginnybrant.com

    On this blog, and various facebook walls and www.baptistlife.com/forums where in the public policy chat already ongoing is earnest conversation and further links about the Tea Party's Trey Gowdy on these matters, will continue further exploration and what it means for the character of S.C.; Upstate South Carolina in Particular, but the character of the GOP and our nation as immigration reform is upon us.