Saturday, March 3, 2018

How I broke my conditioning growing up in the South?

Don Hudson You are my favorite Clemson alum ever, Ron! I actually met some brain surgeons at the Medical College of South Carolina who went to USC and Clemson, respectively, and never attended a football game. But you are the enlightened master
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Ron Alexander Georgia Tech Engineer?
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Don Hudson A Gt dude...I spent the night in the Clemson courthouse/jail one night on the way back from Atlanta to Charlotte when my credit card was overdrawn. I find the south's preoccupation with sports fascinating....and that you and i are political soulmates. My senior year i spent as the gopher for the King familys law firm, so Atlanta was way different from the South. So I am particularly gratified when a graduate of the football factories finds the Jesus of the poor!
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Ron Alexander I used to own a home in Atlanta, and did some volunteering for Jimmy Carter Center. Also, I was blessed to do some work with King's daughter and the Dalai Lama in San Francisco with Children of War. My political stance is not popular with most at Clemson, but it has gotten better overall. I am proud of the way it has gotten better academically also.
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Don Hudson I heard cu is better academically...i know Harvey Gantt and he says the school cannot understand why he does not want to speak in the strom center.... and dabo and his evangelical football team is a bit hypocritical...but I loved deshaun and thought he was the best football player in acc history and a very gracious person....but right-wing supply-side Jesus is phony.
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Ron Alexander When I was a teenager, a friend and I rode bicycles to watch Harvey get enrolled at Clemson. This was a year after Meredith at Mississippi and all that violence. We went to see all the famous news people, and thankfully there was no violence.
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Ron Alexander I have considered writing a book about Dabo called THE ZEN OF DABO. He may be evangelical, however he has a bit of mystic in him quoting Gandhi and King and coming up with some original quotes that are more Buddhist than Christian. Most people find him to be a refreshingly genuine person?
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Don Hudson I'm a bit curious about him....i admire some of his success and methods.... but I think evangelical Christianity is a false gospel that has done so much destruction to America that I don't cut anyone any breaks on that. If you read One Nation Under God, you realize that Billy Graham was handpicked by corporate America and William Randolph Hearst to destroy the New Deal, which is horrid enough to have him lying in the Rotunda as part of this GOP theocracy, but to have football coaches use it to promote a violent sport that we know is leaving men's brains damaged....I'm not very forgiving of someone calling on Jesus to help recruit against a school that is not taking the Lord's name in vain this way. Further, when a star football player is sticking his hands up opposing players butts....that's classless and mean . That's the Dao of Dabo too. ....
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Don Hudson Actually, the best thing for me was watching UNC cheat for 18 years, then get no punishment...It helped me understand the unlevel playing field to the point that I no longer care about college sports....too much about the rich get richer while kids are dying of poverty all over the world. .I think, I hope it helps my ego deflation to have my school stink in revenue sports.....
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Ron Alexander Actually, I am not close to what is actually going on inside athletics, as I have not been up there in years, but growing up there, and older brother playing, I became a fan, and use watching as an escape mechanism. Now, I am enjoying basketball, and glad the Tigers are not a one and done teams. I am glad the FBI is busting some of them. A neighbor was one Pete Maravich, whose Father was coaching the Tigers at that time, and I became really addicted to basketball (as a fan that is, as I was too slow and not athletic enough to be a decent basketball player, although i practiced for many many hours.)
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Ron Alexander How did I become a progressive growing up there? In 1963 I was in lab at Clemson. My parents were still democrats as their parents. I had heard nothing much negative, mostly very positive, about JFK, except some mutterings about him being Catholic. Therefore, I was shocked when I heard he was assassinated. However, I was equally shocked when my lab partner started cheering. I asked him why? He told me "my Mother will be happy as the Republicans can now be in charge." This is first time I had come in touch with that kind of homicidal political hatred, and of course, shortly thereafter MLK Jr. and RFK. It turned me left, and to this day, l have not experienced this type of meanness from Democrats, and see it increasing from the right. It kept increasing from my relatives getting addicted to Fox propaganda to the point I could not stand being around them, and subsequently being disinherited. A price for losing my conditioning and gaining my freedom!
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