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Friday, August 18, 2017

AM I AN ALIEN FROM ANOTHER PLANET? BECAUSE I WAS ON THAT PLANET'S BUS COUNTLESS TIMES BETWEEN 1956 until about 1966 IN ATLANTA AND AUGUSTA!

When we came from Naples, Italy where I was born to Atlanta in 1957 and then to Augusta in 1960, my Tuscana mother did not drive, so my dad made sure we lived very near a city bus stop. Thus I remember riding the bus with my mom to shop in downtown Atlanta and Augusta and what seem to me to be everyday!

And this is exactly what I saw! Please note the sign for where the white section is. That sign was movable and only the bus driver could push it backwards if there were more whites on the bus or forward if fewer whites. Other buses though had a painted line on the floor with whites on one side and blacks on the other!

I also rode the bus to the movies with my friends by ourselves once we turned 12, yes this was another planet! As we got near our homes from returning from the movies, the bus was empty with just my two friends and me and we ran to the back of the bus to sit on the bus-wide back seat, what we called the funny seat since the bounce over road bumps was the most pronounced!

The bus driver laughed and shouted back at us, "who do ya'll think you are, "n..s?" Yes whites called each other "n...s" as well! And when I worked at the Dairy Queen Brazier from about 1968 to 72, and our employer finally integrated the employees, I was quite shocked to here my black friends call each other the "n" word and when I expressed shock, they told me it was quite common, but they could do it, but not whites.

Finally I remember a brave young white woman sneak to move the white sign forward while the bus driver was distracted so an overweight and sweating elderly black woman could sit down! Bless both their hearts! You can imagine how hot our unconditioned buses got in our over 100 degree summer days!

back_bus


23 comments:

Rood Screen said...

And all the whites, native-born and foreign-born, cooperated with this humiliating system of oppression. Whenever we whites talk about such things, we're sure to mention just how innocent we personally are of it all, and how proud we are of the occasional courtesies members of our delicate race show to our victims.

Fr. Allan J. McDonald said...

DD, honestly, when was the last time you protested at an abortion clinic and tried to counsel a client not to go through with an abortion. And of course, I know that you have always voted for pro-life candidates and that you are politically active in removing the current scourge of abortion from the face of our country. Congratulations. Pat yourself on the back.

Anonymous said...

Father M, while you are at it, tell Mrs. Pelosi to pat herself on the back over her "moral outrage" concerning Confederate statues at the US Capitol. I mean, isn't she a perfect example of a Catholic politician who doesn't leave her faith behind after Sunday Mass?

Anonymous said...

And as soon as someone brings up a person's failures, they're hit with "when was the last time you protested at an abortion clinic".

As long as we keep pushing responsibility on to others - the responsibility each of us bears - for the societal sins and failings in our country, nothing at all will get better.

Not everyone is called or, for that matter, commanded to march at abortion clinics.

Bringing that up is a deflection tactic - and most people see right through it.

Henry said...

Seems to me perfectly legitimate to question the veracity of someone who criticizes acquiescence to the evil of an earlier time—e.g., segregation or Nazism—while at the same time he himself acquiesces to the principle evil of our own time (i.e., the holocaust of abortion). If so, then perhaps it’s fair to question what he’s doing here and now to oppose present evil.

Anonymous said...

It is so strange how some schools are having separate graduation ceremonies for "people of color."

Strange days indeed.

TJM said...

Anonymous,

Turning your argument back on you, then what do I, a person who never had slaves, whose family members never had slaves, and have never harmed an African-American in my life, have to do with racism?

Anonymous said...

Sin is personal.We will all be judged individually by God. Today we have people obsessing over a sinful structure they had nothing to do with(segregation)This is beyond scrupulosity. It was an unjust system that existed at one time and was sanctioned by law but no longer is in effect. Let's now move on and work to end the current evil of abortion.

Anonymous said...

If you think racism is "no longer in effect" then you have been sleeping since birth. Slavery ended, Jim Crow followed. Jim Crow ended, marches in Montgomery, Birmingham, Selma, and Chicago followed.

The Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act are barely over half a decade old, and we continue to see racism - in both directions - going strong.

Honoring today those who supported slavery and segregation yesterday is wrong. Statues are more then mere memorials. In many cases they were erected to express opposition to the proposition that "All men are created equal."

It's not scrupulosity, it's honesty.

Anonymous said...

"our employer finally integrated the employees, I was quite shocked to here my black friends (friends is the important word) ..." Not everyone cooperated with that "humiliating system of oppression." People had the choice to either be racists or not. Some chose to rend their hearts and not simply their garments. For many that was a conscious decision. Though they might not have protested, or tore down statues; they made sure in their heart they did right. A lot of people that protest do so for reasons that have absolutely nothing to do with what the protest is about. Heck, some are there simply because they were paid $$$ to attend.

Anonymous said...


I didn't say and certainly didn't intend to imply that racism is no longer in effect.
My comment was directed towards what Fr. Mcdonald wrote. It had nothing to do with the statue controversy. There are many living today who grew up in a segregated society but were too young to have any responsibility for its existence and did not oppose the court decisions,legislation,and other efforts which ended the practice.

Gene said...

This statue business is nothing but an attack on whites and white culture ...now they want statues of Washington and Teddy Roosevelt torn down. The morons do not have enough sense to see that, if it weren't for the Constitution established by these white founders, they'd still be picking cotton. These men were men of their times, flawed but with vision. Both Washington and Lee did not like the institution of slavery, but understood it as a necessary evil in an agrarian, non-technological culture. Lee freed his slaves before the Civil War, once again citing his dislike of the institution.
The statues have nothing to do with slavery...they are about courage, valor, and determination against overwhelming odds. They represent men who believed in state's rights and self-determination in a clash between an urban industrial culture and an agrarian one. The vast majority of men who fought for the Confederacy owned no slaves and, in the letters and writings of Southern people of the times, slavery is hardly ever mentioned. The outrage is over "the aggressor," the "invader," and "those damned Yankees." Slavery was certainly a political issue, bungled by both the Buchanan administration and the Lincoln administration that followed, but several hundred thousand Southern boys would not have fought fiercely and given their lives for a bunch slaves.
As for this nonsense going on now, it is simply black hatred of white culture...that means all of it from Rome forward. Never mind that it is this very culture that allows them to constantly act out and be obnoxious and that has given them opportunities they never would have had...while the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, and the Industrial Revolution were going on...while Shakespeare, Donne, and Milton were writing, and while Newton was making his scientific discoveries, Blacks were still living in crude huts, making clay pots, and eating the entrails out of wild animals. They were also selling each other into slavery. So, what the Hell do they plan to replace this culture they hate so much with? NFL football, the NBA, and rap music?

TJM said...

Since the left has lost all levers of political power because of the disastrous Obama years, this is all they have. They will lose this battle too. It was comedy gold that Nasty Pelosi wants "racist" statutes out of the Congress, SUDDENLY, after serving in the House since 1987. FYI the crazies in the the Democratic Party demanded in 2015 that Blessed Junipero Serra's statue in the Capital be removed as well. So they are attacking the Church as well. Any Catholic who votes for the Democratic Party is braindead (I guess a higher minimum wage is more important than the abortion issue).

Gene said...

TJM, Preach on, brother!! Amen!

Православный физик said...

I'd argue there is more racism through the mechanisms of law than ever existed during times past. I'd much rather a person be open with their racist views, than use the means of so called compassion to hide it.

I wrote a bit about it at my own blog: https://japotillor.blogspot.com/2017/08/a-different-take-on-recent-events.html

I believe that respect is earned individually, and not through the collective....I'm sure there were many who treated people as individuals and with respect while not participating in the various demonstrations.

These statues have been up for God knows how long, one can't tell me that things have changed so dramatically that suddenly now they're offensive.

But I do suppose if we're going to move statues, we might as well start with the UN, the IRS, and Woodrow Wilson ;)

Unfortunately, I see a lot of blaming the present generation for the sins of the past within the black community. This has always been problematic to me. It has to be tiring always playing victim...I also see much blaming the collective for the sins of the individual, and vice versa as well.

Lord have mercy on us.


TJM said...

Charles Barkley, former NBA Star, said "who the hell cares about confederate statues!" White liberals are aghast because they know better than Blacks what Blacks should want!

Rood Screen said...

Father McDonald,

Your white fragility is showing. I was a member of Operation Rescue back in the '80's, but I would never say that I've done enough to change the evil ways of our nation, nor would I suggest that abortion is somehow excusable because our era accepts it. I would also not say that I have done enough to ensure that African Americans are fully integrated into American life, nor would I speak nostalgically about their many humiliations. Our Catholic Faith teaches us to examine our consciences, confess our sins and amend our lives, which each white American must do concerning race prejudice and general apathy towards our black neighbors.

Fr. Allan J. McDonald said...

DD, do you hear Confession and know the content of white southern Catholics' confessions. I don't know if you live in a non former confederate state, but you need to examine the consciences of those who live there and ask priests you know how often he has heard confessions that highlight personal prejudice on one level or not.

Also read a comment on my What?" Post from Joseph Johnson, do you agree with his padtor's throwing stones at Christ for what the pastor says was Jesus' racist remark to the Samaritan woman. Does Jesus need to repent and go to Confession?

Gene said...

I think you are all crazy to allow a tiny minority of perpetually angry, insolent, pouty, willfully contrary blacks bother you at all. Ignore them. Teach your kids to be polite, courteous but avoid them as much as possible. Teach them that these people are dangerous, treacherous, and no to be trusted. Double Diamond is a sad example of a hopelessly guilty, self-hating liberal who will,
doubtless, register great surprise on his face when some gang banger slips the knife in or guns him down.

Anonymous said...

Gene...is that Gene Talmadge? Thought you were gone----you still have a statue in front of the Georgia Capitol.

On more serious front, Washington Post has article today about a priest in the Diocese of Arlington who is stepping aside after admitting ties to the Klan before he became a priest. I wonder if that is a first?

Anonymous said...

"I think you are all crazy to allow a tiny minority of perpetually angry, insolent, pouty, willfully contrary blacks bother you at all."

Because, of course, the majority is always right....

John Nolan said...

Here's a thought. Were it not for the slave trade, there would be no so-called African Americans who benefit from living in a free and prosperous country. They would still be living in those economically backward and politically corrupt west African countries where slavery remains endemic in the 21st century, just as it had been before the first Europeans set foot there.

There would be no black Caribbean islands whose inhabitants enjoy a vastly better lifestyle than their unfortunate counterparts in west and central Africa. (This didn't stop West Indian governments in recent years trying to claim compensation from European governments for the slave trade.)

The peak of the transatlantic slave trade in the 18th century coincided with the growth of the Abolitionist movement which opposed the trade on moral and religious grounds and alerted the general public to the horrors of the Middle Passage. Islam had no such scruples and the Arab slave trade persisted for eleven centuries. It proved more difficult to eradicate, and was linked to the ivory trade (Arab traders penetrated far inland and the slaves carried the tusks to the coast.) Its suppression by the beginning of the 20th century is one of the lasting achievements of the British Empire.

Incidentally, it is estimated that far fewer Africans survived the march to the coast than survived the infamous Middle Passage, and since it was common practice to castrate the male slaves, many would have died as a result.

West Indians and black Americans are descended from slaves; it's an accident of history and explains why they are where they are. Many of the former have chosen to cross the Atlantic and settle in Britain. I doubt that many would want to settle in Benin or Burkina Faso, or even go there on vacation.

Many Australians (not to mention white Americans) are descended from convicts, but they don't get hung up on it. Irish men and women are quite happy to live in England, and don't resent the fact that England treated Ireland very badly in the past. Regarding American blacks, the issues of economic disadvantage and educational under-achievement are real enough, but blaming it on everyone else won't solve the problem. And white middle-class liberals who encourage them to nurse historical grievances are both irresponsible and racist.

Gene said...

So, maybe Robert Byrd, Democrat and former Klan leader should step aside...not a chance. Libs think that is just fine.

Anon @ 11:57, It is not about the majority being right, it is about them being stupid.