Today Dad, Drew and myself ventured to Kennesaw today and I must say it was a delightful little trip. The three of us hardly ever have time alone, and today it happened (again, if you include the trip to Six Flags). Last week, we all watched Buster Keaton's silent classic "The General." This movie is great! The film is set during the Civil War and involves a stolen train called "The General." Buster Keaton directs and stars as a southern man trying to stop the train. The film was shot on location and Keaton did all of his stunts. This includes running after the train and standing on the front of it. Dad mentioned the actual General train is located in Kennesaw, so we planned to go and see it. Below is a picture of Buster Keaton in front of The General and me in front of The General. What can I say, I wanted to see how it felt.

Before returning home, Dad told us that we had to visit a little store. He also mentioned that upon entering the store, I couldn't say anything offensive. Well, here's a picture of the store:

And yes, the flag to the left is the Klu Klux Klan flag. The only reason dad wanted us to see it is because "everyone should see this." After visiting the store, I don't think everyone should see this. Wild Mans is owned by a large southerner who has a long beard, kind of like the members of Lynard Skynard or ZZ Top. The store had a bad odor of what dad thought was mold and I thought was racial ignorance. The typical "Obama-Nation" signs really didn't bother me as much, but the one that said, "Where are you Sherman now that we need you?" My jaw literally dropped at the sigh of this sign. There were Lester Maddox political signs all over the place. Dad told us Maddox was a former governor of Georgia who later owned a restaurant and once the civil rights took affect, he continued to "turn blacks away." In fact, there was an incident where a few African Americans refused to leave, so Maddox walks to the back of his place, brings out an ax handle and threatened to beat them if they didn't leave. After that event, many people flocked to this restaurant to get ax handles autographed by the bigot. This is from the guy who has said integrating schools was "ungodly, un-Christain, and un-American." I worried that my car would get beat up if citizens saw my bumper stickers. According to an article in the New York Times (celebrating his death), once Maddox was elected to office, he mentioned that God was his campaign manager. After winning the election, Martin Luther King said, "I'm now ashamed to be a Georgian."

Going to the store was actually good for me. Seeing all of this really opened my eyes even further to how much hated really truly still exists today. Saying that Sherman should come back and burn Atlanta again is pushing the line back too far. I had planned on not talking about politics, but what gets me is how "diversified" America claims to be, however the thought of a half-black president is too much for many southerners. Like Martin Luther King Jr. hearing animosity towards a presidential candidate they refuse to research on because the color of his skin makes me too ashamed to be a Georgian. I had a good long talk with Dad on this subject. There's just too much utter stupidity still thriving in the south. I can't tell you how many times I've been criticizing capitalism and I receive this response: "Well, if you don't like it, leave!" I am now saying if you think Obama shouldn't be elected president because he's black, realize that everyone in American supposedly has equal rights, and if you don't like it, LEAVE!"