From the "For What It's Worth Department"

Dear Younglings:

This wasn't exactly what I had planned for my second post to this blog, but in light of current events, here goes:

So...TVLand has pulled reruns of "Dukes of Hazzard." 

I didn't even really watch the show in its heyday; I don't watch it now. I wasn't a fan, but it's a big part of American Pop Culture. This is a slap in the face to the cast & crew of a successful program that still has a huge fan base. Here's my Tom Wopat story:

After their reunion tour in the early 2000s, Wopat, and co-star Sonny Shroyer (RIP), signed autographs and posed for photos for THREE hours after playing a 90-minute concert. Every kid & adult who stood in a line that stretched all the way around the Springdale Rodeo Arena got to have their moment with Luke Duke & Deputy Enos. That says a great deal about the kind of men they are. I've been around a lot of entertainers, and this was a rare sight to see.

Both Wopat and John Schneider still have very active careers. Wopat performs regularly, and will be in Livingston, LA for the 4th of July. John Schneider is a co-founder of the Children's Miracle Network and can still be seen in movies & TV. I'm not sure about the rest of the cast (most have passed on: Denver Pyle, Shroyer, James Best, Sorrell Booke), but I'm sure they didn't spend their time being racists, or whatever else they might be accused of just for being on a television show that featured a Confederate Battle Flag on the hood of a '69 Dodge Charger. They seemed like good people.

I've tried to lay low on the whole flag thing, but pulling a 36-year-old TV show is a little ridiculous. I assume Andy Griffith and any of its franchises are next? Those were "Southern" shows. The Battle Flag probably creeped into one of those episodes somewhere. "Designing Women," maybe? Dixie Carter passed in 2010. If she were still alive, would Hollywood make her change her name because it's "offensive"? 

I don't believe the South will rise again, any more than I think Texas would ever be able to secede and become its own country. (Mainly because it would really chap my hide to have to go through customs every time I crossed Stateline Avenue after coming back from the mall.) But I do hate "Southern Bashing." I can't help where I was born and brought up. Having lived in other parts of the country, I always had to brace myself for that "look" one occasionally gets when I explained I was from Arkansas. Someone even had the gall to ask, "Do you really have bacon with every meal?" (No joke!) I think I said, "No, but I wouldn't have minded!" Then I had to tell them that I did actually wear shoes and every place I lived had indoor plumbing.

"I got one-a them edu-ma-cacions, too!!" As well as all of my teeth.

It's also no secret I'm a "Gone With The Wind" fan, of both the book and the movie. One thing you have to remember is that Margaret Mitchell didn't create a story where the South won and slavery continued. WE LOST, and she didn't sugar-coat that. And the rest is FICTION.

In fact, the smartest character was Mammy, who never put up with any of Scarlett's junk. And...it's not a "happy" story. Scarlett lost her favorite child (Bonnie), her "best" & only friend (Melanie), and her man (Rhett) in the last few pages. So, I guess Karma and Scarlett are one and the same. (Get it?)

One thing I do hate is censorship. And that's the aroma that's in the air here, along with our bacon, our fried okra, and our sweet tea. Take down the flags from public buildings...fine. Pull the image from the shelves of Wal-Mart...go for it. Vilify a harmless TV show and its cast, that's just stupid. Especially one that's pretty "wholesome" compared to what passes for "family-oriented" programming these days. (I'll rant about that some other time.)

Frankly, my dear, that's my two-cents. Then I'll think about something else tomorrow.

P.S. I'm good with the gay marriage thing. And as fellow Southerner Forrest Gump would say, "That's all I have to say about that."