Kansas Loses; America Gets Its Racist On

This past Friday evening, I drove down to the Indianapolis International Airport after work to pick up my mother, who had been visiting my sister in San Diego for a week or so. She had texted me before I left work that she had made it to Dallas and was about to board her flight there, so all was as expected. I left work a tad early to make sure I was there by her 6:35 arrival time, but received a message from her as I was sitting still on 465 that her flight had been delayed, and she was just leaving Dallas about 90 minutes behind schedule. Not really having a plan, I decided to just continue to the airport and wait there.

After walking around the perimeter for a bit, I settled in one of the modern-styled, plastic chairs and pulled out my phone. Fortunately, the airport allowed a complimentary wi-fi connection of decent speed, and I had some time, so I began to cycle through my usual surf list: CNN, BBC, Facebook, e-mail, and WANE or INC for more local information. It was on one of these latter two that I saw a story that within an hour, Ann Coulter and Todd Starnes would be speaking at the Grand Wayne Center (I was a little surprised that the same article indicated there were still tickets available). Of course, I've never been a fan of Ms. Coulter; I find it odd that someone can call herself a "Christian first and a mean-spirited, bigoted conservative second", and I oppose calling people "retard" or "faggot". But, I digress; I can simply say I was aware of who she was - the second name I had never heard. In the consequent Google search I learned that he was host of "Fox News & Commentary" (which begs the question, as their tagline is "We report, you decide", why it's not just News, without the Commentary?...again, I digress). That was about the end of my allotted wi-fi time, and just as well, as Mum was arriving shortly according to the flat screen update. I got us some grub on the way back, and enjoyed a decent weekend.

While it wasn't on my radar for the weekend, I learned Monday morning that Miss New York won the Miss America Pageant. In itself, this information was of little concern, even with the winner Nina Davuluri being the first with a familial heritage from India. It was the flood of ignorant tweets and re-tweets that caught my attention, and reaffirmed my belief that we've not progressed as much as we like to think we have, as the American public (Click here to relive my dismay). I was somewhat comforted by reminding myself that anyone can sign up for Twitter and say just about anything, and that these people were not media figures or necessarily even people who were being taken seriously. But just as I was about to dismiss the ignorance with a shake of my noggin, I noticed a name that looked familiar: a Todd Starnes.

Yes, apparently his personal favorite did not place in the final five (much less emerge as Miss America), and so he decided to join in the racist chorus. She doesn't represent American values, the process was rigged, must secretly be a Muslim...sound familiar?

If history is any indicator, they'll be saying it for years to come.