Roy Exum: My Garden This July

  • Wednesday, July 1, 2015
  • Roy Exum
Roy Exum
Roy Exum

As the month of July dawns this morning, a walk through my garden shows some flowers blooming, my marigolds dying, and the grass is greener than I thought it would be. But as I look for what’s good and what’s bad, let’s remember that some firecrackers pop while others fizzle. Here we go…

A BANG to career criminal Whitely Bulger, the 85-year-old master criminal who in a recent pencil-written letter from jail to three high school students working on a term paper, apologized for the mistakes he realizes he has made in life and admitted, “The only way to ever make crime pay is by going to law school.”

A FIZZLE to Louis Farrakhan, one of the most racist blacks in America, who just claimed, “White folks march with you because they don't want you upsetting the city, they don't give a d--- about them nine," referring to the black worshipers who were recently killed in Charleston.

It is abundantly clear that he licked all the Popsicle off his stick a real long time ago.

A BANG to Louis Farrakhan, who is trying to organize the blacks for a huge march on Washington in the fall, who just said, “How can we go to Washington and tell the white man we want justice when we are killing each other?"

A FIZZLE to Louis Farrakhan, who thrives on saying the outlandish because the TV cameras love it. He just said, “I don't know what the hell the fight is about over the Confederate flag. We need to put the American flag down. Because we've caught as much hell under that as the Confederate flag." (This man is clearly taking the wrong medicine.)

A BANG to Rev. Higginbotham, the assistant pastor at Chattanooga’s Church of the First Born, who while worshiping with Lookout Mountain Presbyterian Church as its members said prayers and mourned those killed in Charleston, said during his prayer, “Jesus told us to comfort ALL who mourn … “

A FIZZLE to the University of Missouri who just hired biology professor George Smith to teach “Perspectives in Zionism” when this is same man who for years has called the creation of Israel “a shameful chapter in Jewish history.” Smith, a known hate-monger, is part of upper educations’ “progressive thinking.”

A BANG to Bobbie Oskarson of Oregon who, when walking through Arkansas’ “Crater of Diamonds” State Park, noticed something shiny and picked up a 8.52 carat diamond. Now, are you ready for this: over 75,000 diamonds have been found in the park since 1906 and 30 smaller diamonds have been found in the last year due to heavy rains. The largest diamond ever found in the park? That would be the famed ‘Uncle Sam Diamond’ found in 1924 that was more than 40 karats.

A FIZZLE to the six Hamilton County Commissioners who disappointed the great majority of the community when they maneuvered a crafty $900,000 from the county’s rainy day fund for their discretionary benefit. So much for the public’s trust.

A BANG to the news that the fabled Morris Dees, who founded the Southern Poverty Law Center, will be the guest speaker at the eighth annual First Amendment Dinner on July 14 at the Jewish Cultural Center. Like him or not, everyone agrees he is a giant when it comes to the U.S. Constitution and its First Amendment, which reads, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

A FIZZLE to the revelation there is a company called “Crowds on Demand” that supplies actors who clap, cheer, and hold any candidate’s signs when people announce their candidacy, be it for president of the Hamilton County Commission. The company believes that “enthusiastic crowds bring more media attention” and that hiring a crowd “gives a sense of legitimacy for the candidate.”

A BANG to finding that the biggest myth about psychiatric therapy is that “only crazy people go.” Trust me, good counseling keeps you from going crazy. The second biggest myth: Only couples who are breaking up seek therapy. Please!

A FIZZLE to the untimely death of Tommy Rhyne, a great athlete at East Ridge and UT-Chattanooga who was dear to everyone who knew him. My goodness, we need more true characters like ‘Dawg.”

A BANG to Georgia Governor Nathan Deal, a voice of reason in the knee-jerk reaction to our Confederate history. “I’m not closing the door on anything. But we have to be cautious that we don’t get caught up on a sweep of emotion here, and fail to recognize the heritage that is associated with these symbols and these holidays. We cannot deny our heritage and the purpose of many of these is to celebrate that heritage. I’m going to be cautious in that regard, and I would hope that everyone else would as well.”

A FIZZLE for the havoc that was caused when the Girl Scouts announced it would welcome transgender girls. A donor in Washington state immediately requested his $100,000 gift be returned.

A BANG for the Stone Mountain Memorial, which is the largest exposed granite face in the world and has a carving of Robert E. Lee leading troops carved in its side. What are the haters going to do about that? Bill Stephens, who heads the memorial’s foundation, had a hard answer yesterday: “Stone Mountain is preserved by state law as a Confederate memorial.  The law that changed the flag to our current state flag also expressly prohibited changes at Stone Mountain Park. Some on both sides of these issues have said that these Confederate symbols belong in a museum.  Here in Georgia, Stone Mountain Park serves that purpose.”

A FIZZLE that we’ve reached the point the state of California has just been forced to issue a mandate all children must be vaccinated unless a doctor claims it is medically inadvisable. It’s elementary; as polio victims know, vaccines stop diseases.

A BANG for the new study out of Columbia University that reveals a full one-third of Americans own guns, with the highest percentage being white males over 55 years old. Me? To answer your questions, allow me to reply: Yes, yes, and yes.

royexum@aol.com

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