Confession: I grew up in a right-wing household. But I'd like to give Dad some praise...

[Robeson]

...

...My Dad had an autographed picture of Ray-gun in his home office, and Nathan Bedford Forrest was over our fireplace. Yep, that Nathan...KKK. That was my home growing up.

I, at a young age, saw the errors in my Dad's ways. I didn't give up on him. I educated him. Like many fathers, everytime he hit me with some beligerent non-sense, I answered with a real world response. At some point, the right wing light dimmed in his head, and the light of reason flickered bright. Eventually, after a long self-reflecting process, he changed who he was. The Confederate bullshit was taken off of our walls. He started to actually pay attention.

Why do I say this? It's just that I always want to point out that people can change. Some change for the worse, i.e., see Joseph Lieberman. But some change for the better.

I'm proud of my Dad. He is proof that people can change. Since 1988, he has voted straight-line Democrat in every election. He "GETS" it. This is the same guy who thought Wallace was our salvation in 1968.

Nobody can ever tell me, or convince me, that some people can't change. I've lived it. I know they can.

Never Give up. Never lose hope. Hope is a precious commodity.

[XemaSab]

1. K&R

:patriot:

[NanceGreggs]

2. K & R here, too.

Thanks for sharing this ...

[Heidi]

3. Kick!!!!

:kick:

[Robeson]

4. Thanks Heidi...

...I usually am uncomfortable getting this "personal" in a post, but Dad is getting old, and has worked hard to reverse his earlier self. It shouldn't be for nought.

[emilyg]

5. Kick

[CaliforniaPeggy]

6. My dear Robeson!

This is a wonderful post!

"Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies." From the Shawshank Redemption...

Thank you so much for sharing this great story with all of us...

K&R

:patriot:

[Robeson]

7. Thanks Peg...

...and what a great reference from a great movie...:pals:

[woo me with science]

8. Thank you.

I was getting really discouraged by the "lock them all in a church and burn it down" posts.

[tannybogus]

9. There is hope!

I'm glad you got to see your Dad change.

[malaise]

10. Nice post

K & R

[NNN0LHI]

11. I think you deserve the most praise

My father who passed away in March was never overtly racist. No KKK or confederate stuff. He worked with and had black friends who he would do anything for. He taught me to respect everyone regardless of color. But it seemed as he got older and after many strokes and heart attacks his mind began to fail him which seemed to make him susceptible to the Fox news crap he watched constantly and he became very racist.

I tried but there was nothing I could say to get him back thinking like he did in his younger years. Now my elderly mother is on the same path. :(

She hates Bush and his Republican policies worse than I do and has the depleted investment portfolio to prove it. But she will never vote for a black man even if she were convinced he was Jesus Christ himself who had returned.

I don't know what to do.

Don

[PinkyisBlue]

12. This is a good point to make.

But from another point of view, the Republican party of pre-Reagan may have had different values and morals than the Republican party of today. I mean, look at what Nixon was impeached for: breaking into a Democrat's office.

And look at what the Republicans get away with these days: election fraud, propagandizing the mass media, lying to the world to start an illegal war, funneling taxpayer money to corporate cronies, illegally spying on Americans, legalizing torture, bankrupting the government to enact social change, privatization of government services and responsibilities, failure to follow laws enacted by the the legislative branch, exposing the identity of an undercover CIA agent for political purposes, nepotism, failing to comply with congressional subpoenas, money laundering, inserting religion into the political process, etc, etc. Anyone who supports the Republican party these days is either involved in the corruption or brain dead.

But I still say, good for you and good for your dad. He's one of the enlightened ones. There are still too many people who don't think for themselves.

[K8-EEE]

13. That cheered me up - I recently returned from a trip to France

and after having been away from the Murkin Propaganda Networks and all that RW BS, it seemed when I got home it had all gotten WORSE!! The first thing on the tee-vee was the Paris Hilton/Brit bruhaha....and that was IT practically for the whole first day I got bac, I was like, man this country is just plain fucked up and there's nothing to be done about it.

Thanks for your heartening post!

[indepat]

14. Your Dad is living proof that people can change and certainly most people can: my Dad is living

proof that some cannot change for he has not changed his mindset about anything, not just politics, for as long as I can remember and that goes back to at least pre-WWII. :D

[lynettebro440]

15. Can't agree with you more

even old dogs.......

[Joe Chi Minh]

16. It's confirmation in spades of what Joe Bageant seems to contend: that many,

if not even most, "rednecks" are good decent guys, who have come from a line of people who have simply been woefully under-educated, grievously, economically oppressed for many years, and just as iniquitously misled.

[truedelphi]

17. In 2000, my 88 year old dad voted for Gore.

He explained his first vote for a Democrat for President ever by saying that the Bush guy didn't seem smart enough.

Mom wouldn't talk to him for a week!!

[Robeson]

18. Sometimes, wisdom does come with age....

...sounds like your Dad had it in '88...;-)