{"id":114506,"date":"2021-10-06T15:05:05","date_gmt":"2021-10-06T20:05:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/?p=114506"},"modified":"2021-10-06T15:05:05","modified_gmt":"2021-10-06T20:05:05","slug":"ill-take-my-stand-me-and-donald-trump-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/ill-take-my-stand-me-and-donald-trump-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"I\u2019ll Take My Stand: “Me and Donald Trump (II)”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201c<\/em>There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in our philosophy<\/em><\/a>.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tinkerbell Infidel<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I was in the 1st<\/sup> grade, on the evening of March 7, 1955, when I watched, along with a record-sized television audience, NBC\u2019s live broadcast of Mary Martin<\/strong> and Cyril Richard<\/strong> reprising their award-winning theatrical performance of Peter Pan<\/strong><\/em><\/a>. At the play\u2019s dramatic peak, a fairy named Tinkerbell <\/strong>has drunk a poisoned cup of medicine to prevent Peter from accidentally drinking it. Tinkerbell will soon die unless the children in the audience clap to show her that they believe in fairies.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The following afternoon, my 1st<\/sup> grade classmate Paula <\/strong>sidled up to me as we descended the big staircase to our elementary school\u2019s exit. I was kind of thrilled, because up until then she had always snubbed me. (Being somewhere on the Asperger spectrum, I\u2019ve never been adept at picking up on social cues. But Paula made it so obvious that even I got it.) She asked if I\u2019d watched Peter Pan<\/em> the night before. I said that I had. She then asked if I\u2019d clapped for Tinkerbell. A bit surprised that anyone would ask, I nonchalantly allowed that I hadn\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paula at once dashed off to report this scandal to others. (She never spoke to me again. Or even acknowledged my existence. After what I\u2019d confessed, why would she?) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the time, I was stunned. I thought to myself (naively): It\u2019s only a TV show! <\/em>I now realize, as Shakespeare <\/strong>observed, all the world\u2019s a stage<\/a>, so shows of all sorts greatly matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There have been many similar incidents in my life since then. Of course, it\u2019s not an everyday event. But it\u2019s happened enough that surely its occurrence is more than random chance. (In recent years, I\u2019ve attended more than one public event at which I\u2019ve been too cowardly not to clap \u2014 though I felt like booing.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But How Did She Know?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Paula was the first to catch me committing a thoughtcrime<\/a>, but as noted, hardly the last. Since the only tangible effect I have on the external world is what I eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, at times I\u2019ve wondered why would anyone care<\/em> if I clap for their favored fairy? What difference to others does my opinion about anything make, especially if they\u2019re only guessing what my opinion is? And I\u2019ve also pondered: Why do people (eg, Paula) make the guesses they make?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years after the Tinkerbell affair, my 8th<\/sup> grade social studies* teacher, Miss Witherspoon<\/strong>, threw out a question for our class to consider: To what degree are life outcomes the result of individual effort, as opposed to environmental factors? My hand went up. She pivoted right and called on me. I opined 20% individual factors; 80% environmental. She looked stunned, obviously expecting the percentages would have been reversed (in a \u201chardcore\u201d case such as mine!).\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For my part, I too was shocked. Did she think I believed Einstein<\/strong>, Marilyn Monroe<\/strong>, and Jackie Robinson <\/strong>(to pick three of the most famous people of the era) would have been equally successful in their respective endeavors had they been raised in an isolated region of a rain forest somewhere?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And yet, I felt I must somehow have given off that vibe.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a previous column<\/a>, I listed a passel of acquaintances who made sure I knew they held me responsible for Donald<\/strong> Trump<\/strong>\u2019s election in 2016. I was perplexed by this. Since I began posting on social media (back in 1995), I hadn\u2019t verbally attacked any other public figure with the vigor with which I\u2019d criticized Trump. In fact, I was a dyed-in-the-wool NeverTrumper<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If I was watching a FoxNews <\/strong>program that was interrupted by a phone call from Trump, I immediately switched to another station, wondering: Why does anyone listen to this guy? He has no idea of what he\u2019s talking about, yet he\u2019s barking about it like a junkyard dog. Yet, on-air hosts seem to take him seriously!<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When a biker friend asked on Facebook what was the case against Trump, I responded that he\u2019s spent his adult life immersed in the three most mobbed-up industries in America\u2019s most mobbed-up city (NYC): construction, casino gambling, and show business. (My friend wasn\u2019t at all dissuaded from supporting Trump.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At another point, I made a fuss on Facebook over Trump\u2019s unethical business practices, including four bankruptcies that left a lot of small-fry businesses unpaid. Then there was the phony Trump University<\/strong>, the steaks, vodka, airline, casinos \u2014 a whole smorgasbord of corrupt practices<\/a>. To my surprise, a wealthy local friend replied that that\u2019s business<\/em>. And, that it might be a good thing, considering the \u201cboy scouts\u201d who\u2019d occupied the White House<\/strong> in recent memory. (I wasn\u2019t at all reassured.)\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And yet, it turned out that many people had me pegged as a Trump supporter!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the flip side, many times I\u2019ve said something (out of conscious ignorance) that has greatly triggered a listener. For example, the day after the death of a famous cultural critic, I had some unkind things to say to Rob<\/strong>, a coffee-shop buddy, about this critic\u2019s frequent, bitterly anti-American, public pronouncements. To my genuine surprise, Rob completely flipped his wig. His anger continued for days afterward. (But when he had a medical emergency, we were at once reconciled. He passed on not much later.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though not conscious that I\u2019d offend Rob when I critiqued that critic, was I really innocent? Or was I unconsciously striking back for the hard time he sometimes gave me over political differences?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we met in a coffee shop not long after I\u2019d arrived 11 years earlier, Rob mentioned having moved to Oxford <\/strong>from the Midwest <\/strong>20 years before then. I asked if he\u2019d seen changes in that span, expecting him to comment favorably on social progress (as so many others already had). Instead his face turned scarlet as he raged<\/em> that Oxford had gotten much more racist since he\u2019d arrived(!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those of us who are active on social media all know people who never, ever interact with us \u2014 except to strongly disagree about a topic they know little or nothing about. Some go so far as to make clear that their attack has a personal element, not just an intellectual disagreement. Rob was one such person in my life. But, he wasn\u2019t nasty or over-the-top, or even relentless. Tellingly, his sorties didn\u2019t begin until around 10 pm, and would sputter out after 30 \u2013 40 minutes. No biggie, as far as I was concerned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And yet, might I unconsciously have intended to trigger him as payback for his prior parries?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, returning to the original question: Perhaps I had been giving off a Trump supporter vibe, and was fooling only myself in cluelessly believing otherwise.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[To be continued.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n


* Back in the day, my Grandma Russell<\/strong> taught History and Civics in Pine Bluff High School<\/strong>. By the time I was an 8th<\/sup> grader in New York<\/strong>, the same subject matter was being called \u201cSocial Studies\u201d. Looking back, my sense is that the reason for the name change was to exclude any theory of historical change except the interplay of material and social forces \u2014 as opposed to, say, willful individuals, great ideas, or religious passion. To be sure, Miss Witherspoon did mention the \u201cThree G\u2019s\u201d (Gold, God, and Glory) as the driving forces behind Spain\u2019s explorations and conquests in the Americas. Still, even at the time, the name change seemed to me like a red flag on the field, so to speak, which perception of mine was perhaps a precursor to other people\u2019s perceptions of me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThere are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in our philosophy.\u201d Tinkerbell Infidel<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":123461,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18857],"tags":[18843,19608,6946,19607,19612,5,4,19609,18930,19611,19610,19613],"class_list":["post-114506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-billy-joe-russell","tag-billy-joe-russell","tag-cyril-richard","tag-gaetano-catelli","tag-mary-martin","tag-me-responsible-for","tag-mississippi","tag-oxford","tag-peter-pan","tag-reynolds-russell","tag-thoughtcrime","tag-tinkerbell","tag-trump-university"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/123461"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114506"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114506\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}