The Land of God, Guns, Grits, and Gravy

So the other night I was watching Bill Maher's show and he had on as one of his guest former Govenor Mike Huckabee. Huckabee was there to flack his new book called "God, Guns, Grits, and Gravy". The book is so named because the purported author claims that is what he replies when he is asked where he is from, the "land of god, guns, grits, and gravy".

Forgetting for a moment that true to his political nature Huckabee can't give a straight answer to a direct question, he went on to define his little corner of the earth as being where civility rules the day, where people ask after your kin folk, have manners, and care about the next fella. Maher chided him that people in California or New York also care about the next guy, but Huckabee countered that he was trying to bring his form of civility to the rest of the country because his was a truer form.

Someone needs to explain to this jackass that there aren't different forms of civility. You either are civil or you are not. Civility does not mean merely asking after someone's family or that person's health. It means actually being concerned with the answer to the question. It means opening up your heart and having compassion for what the other person is going through. It means that not only do you truly care about that other person, but that you want to make sure that no one is ever subjected to the slights, put downs, or out right discrimination that person is or was subjected to. It's about making sure that everyone, everywhere, is treated with respect.

You see Mr. Huckabee we in those states you mock as having no civility in fact have greater compassion for our fellow human beings than it appears the state you hail from has. We aspire to a higher state of civility, one where the color of ones skin, or where they are originally from, or who they choose to spend their life with is of no matter. We in the "destination states" (as opposed to the "fly over states") wish to live in a world that doesn't see diversity as an anathema, but rather as a strength. That's why we take the time to enact laws that make civility a component of justice, a rock in the foundation of society.

So when you and your compatriots on the conservative side of the aisle look to sow distrust and hatred among the population by creating laws that say go ahead and refuse service if you have a personal problem with someone different from you, I have to tell you that you are not being civil at all. You are not standing up for any principle of civility that is recognizable. And hiding behind religion as the bulwark of your excuse simply demeans religion and shows a narrow mindedness that no religious person or institution should abide.

In short Mr. Huckabee and Governor Pence and all the others who defend these laws, your so called civility is nothing more than lip service. Please don't presume to lecture the rest of us on how uncivil we are - it just rings false.