Vampires, love and sex

Got your attention didn't I? I understand if you have a vampire in a love story, the reader is expecting sex within a page or two. No coyness needed.

Dystopian societies is all you can picture for the future. I feel that I live in a dying country in that both political parties are so enamored with power. Its not a matter that they agree to disagree. They disagree with whatever the other wants.

It sounds grim but it is a wonder the United States separated from England and united. James Madison felt like the country was bound to split because we had such disparate cultures to form. Southerners big gripe with Yankees is their endless ability to tell you how things are done. It just so happens this was true from the beginning. The Puritans and their descendants were very idealistic and this is their legacy they passed to us today.

The first year I taught school, the school children asked me if I was a Yankee. I did not have the strong melodic accent of the rural area. I gave them a snappy answer, "Thems fightin words."

Then I stood up and looked at my cheering class stamping their feet, pounding the desk with Southern pride. The class was comprised of African American students. Relief swept over me, I did not want to offend my students. I did not know until then that the desire for equal rights had nothing to do with wanting to change their regional pride.

I am a reluctant Southerner. I grew up in the South and have long roots in the region. I still feel irked when someone whose ancestors came to this country well after the civil war want to put their two cents in. After all, they really don't know how their ancestors stood because they weren't there.

What I don't identify with is the Southern mythology. I know I write Southern literature. There are just glaring faults with Southern society that hurt poorer whites and blacks. What many do not realize is there were very powerful, wealthy black people as there are today.

When Joni Ernst talked about wearing bread bags and being poor, I knew she had never lived on todays $7.25 an hour. If you have had that experience, it is a sight worse than wearing bread bags. It is being hungry, cold and without on a regular basis. A small setback is a huge blow to a family on that income. What ran through my mind is I hoped she never had to experience it.

There are people who have a hard view of people who make little money because they once did. Some of them are making up a bogus story to make people admire them. Others have anger at people they remember or the experience. I felt that anger at one time. In time I understood what my dad meant when he said "Except for the grace of God, there goes I."

So the country may seem like it is going to hell in a hand basket; but it is not. It may even change. Fortunes may change. Joni Ernst is as dependent on the health of world commerce as I am. With so much social media, we are on a troll mixed with idealism binge which should shuffle itself out.

But dystopia, the world has always been a dystopia. We live East of Eden.

Frankly, I think Miley Cyrus could have given us a more informed rebuttal to the State of The Union address. Of course all that long tongue wagging would be strong competition for that sickening sweet tone of "this is all so easy". I would love to see a Saturday Night Live sketch with a Miley Cyrus type character doing a Joni Ernst impersonation.




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