A MAGA Republican Wants to Keep Satan at Bay
While Georgia apparently welcomes the Devil – or, at least, did so in 1979 – Jake Hoffman wants to make sure he is not welcome in Arizona. Or should that be “she?” It? I skipped “Devil’s pronoun day” in parochial school.
Charlie Daniels sang in 1979, “The Devil went down to Georgia; he was looking for a soul to steal.” Apparently, no one stopped him. He wandered about freely until he met a young fiddle-player named Johnny and challenged him to a fiddle contest. Johnny bested the Beast, who surrendered his fiddle and slunk back to Hell.
Jake Hoffman wants to be Second Fiddle. He wants to play the Devil out of Arizona.
The Rage Master & Things We Swallow
Meandering and Memories in a Desert Park
My paternal grandmother thought of herself as poor. Whenever she used the phrase, “poor people,” she included herself, whether or not she added, “like us.” My grandparents were solid middle class. They owned their home outright, drove a late-model Pontiac, and bought a color TV before my parents did.
But to Grandma Sarah, they were poor. My grandparents were born in Tucson in the late 1880s. They were from the Hispanic community; both were native Spanish speakers. On March 20, 1880, the railroad came to Tucson and stitched the country together. People moved west, some stayed in Arizona, and Tucson began to change. Many of the new residents didn’t understand the culture, language, or traditions. Some regarded Hispanics as second-class citizens. My grandfather’s supervisor once admonished him to stop speaking Spanish at the workplace.
I suspect Grandma thought herself poor, at least in part, because of that bias. We sometimes swallow things we never fully digest. Many of our countrymen exude fear and anger. What awful thing did they swallow?