Vince had to buy a half terabyte hardrive to store the video converted from all the super 8 cannisters my family had stored away in various boxes. As a child, I remember a couple of times watching them projected on a big screen in the garage. Since then, they’ve sat unusable, tucked away and vaguely remembered.

This Easter, I plan to surprise my family as we gather in Carthage with DVD versions of several hours of precious family memories. Like many post WWII families, there are soundless flickering images of travels through America’s heartland. And then there are more recent video of things like me moonwalking to Michael Jackson records in the 1980s… 

Imagine if Bill and Hillary Clinton brought their daughter to the church of a white racist spewing hate for 20+ years, got married by him, gave him money year after year, had him baptize little Chelsea, and then put him on Hillary’s campaign.

Would you vote to help put an end to racism in America or would you brush these actions aside in favor of yet another sip of the sermon?

Aunt B. has another eulogy meme for WKRN, this one following the departure of our political blogger Adam Kleinheider. I responded there, so go chat it up. Her post comes as we launch the new WKRN.com and Nashville Is Talking.

Here are some photos I took after the rain this morning. One of the things I like about comparing them to photos from about three weeks ago is seeing things wake from their winter slumber.

The Green Mountain boxwood hedge is loaded with buds just like this same time last year. A year ago the hedge was about 2 1/2 feet tall. After the April ‘07 freeze, I had to cut the hedge down to two inch stubs. They are now over a foot tall and will hopefully double that this year.

According to Barack Obama, Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright is more than your average campaign supporter.  Rev. Wright is Obama’s “spiritual mentor,” performed the marriage between Obama and his wife Michelle, baptised his children and inspired the title of Obama’s book “The Audacity of Hope.”

Rev. Wright is described as a member of the Obama family. As recent as last night on Fox News, Obama referred to Rev. Wright as an “uncle.” Given his strong family and spiritual bond with the Obama family, it’s hard to believe Rev. Wright wouldn’t be invited to the White House under President Barack Obama.

In Rev. Wright’s most recent speech (watch the video) on behalf of Obama’s campaign, he reminded voters that ”Hillary ain’t never been called a nigga” and implored “negroes” to make race a deciding factor as they choose the Democratic nominee for president. It’s the worst example of hateful and racist rhetoric to date being injected into the 2008 presidential elections by a member of a campaign. Here’s my transcription of the video:

“Jesus was a poor black man who lived in a country and lived in a culture that was controlled by rich white people. The Romans were rich. The Romans were Italians, which means they were Europeans, which means they were white, and the Romans ran everything in Jesus’s country.

It just came to me within the past few weeks, y’all, why so many folk are hating on Barack Obama. He doesn’t fit the model. He ain’t white. He ain’t rich. And he ain’t priviledged. Hillary fits the mold. Europeans fits the mold. Gulliani fits the mold. Rich, white men fit the mold.

Hillary has never had a cab whizzed past her and not pick her up because her skin was the wrong color. Hillary never had to worry about being pulled over in her car as a black man driving in the wrong lane.

I am sick of negroes that do not get it. Hillary was not a black boy raised in a single parent home. Barack Obama was. Barack knows what it means to be a black man living in a country and a culture that is controlled by rich, white people. Hillary can never know that. Hillary ain’t never been called a nigga. Hillary has never had her people defined as non-persons. Hillary ain’t had to work twice as hard to get accepted by the rich, white folk who run everything, or to get a passing grade when you know you are smarter than that C student sitting in the White House.

Oh I am so glad that I got a God who knows what it is to be a poor black man in a country and a culture that is controlled by and run by rich, white people.”

In July 2007, black leaders held a funeral for the “n” word at the NAACP annual convention. Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick gave an eloquent eulogy imploring those gathered to bury the “n” word once and for all.

“Today we’re not just burying the N-word, we’re taking it out of our spirit,” said Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick. “We gather burying all the things that go with the N-word. We have to bury the ’pimps’ and the ’hos’ that go with it.”

He continued: “Die, N-word, and we don’t want to see you ’round here no more.”
[NAACP delegates ‘bury’ N-word in ceremony - AP - 07-09-07]

Watch and listen to Kilpatrick this week resurrecting the “n” word on live television in what was supposed to be his report card to the people of Detroit. Mayor Kilpatrick, who lied under oath about an affair with a top aid, instead lashed out at opponents by lumping them in with racists.

Vince took the recycling to the recycling center. It came to 51 pounds worth of cardboard, plastic, tin and aluminum. This accumulated since we last made the trip in early December.  We calculated our recycling keeps about 60 bags of trash from ending up in the Middle Point landfill here in Rutherford County. We produce about a bag of trash per week.

Here’s a piece from the Murfreesboro Post (06-12-07) about the landfill.

In Jan. 1988, ROMAC sold its 200 acres to BFI for $10 million.

“I was stunned and realized that the political world was a pretty rough place,” Bullen said. “That event was the last that anyone expected. … People were totally stunned.”

BFI opened Jefferson Pike (Middle Point) landfill’s gates to local trash in the spring of 1988 with an expected lifetime of 20 years.