The Blue and the Green

I find it fascinating how people act on their beliefs. I remember hearing a story last week about a pro-lifer crashing his car into a women's clinic and trying to set the place on fire by lighting up the gas tank. Strangely enough, the clinic not only did NOT perform abortions, but it didn't even give abortion referrals!

I happened to witness a perfect example today of this same kind of thing. I was at the Scottish Games, and for some strange reason, on the hill, there was a cannon, a few civil war re-enacters and a huge confederate flag. I'm not sure what role the Scots had in the fight against northern aggression, but hey...

Anyway, I was hanging out at the Irish tent with a bunch of my friends and several of the regulars from Arnie's. While I was sitting there watching Cairde Na Gael play, I looked over to see a shouting match between a couple of the re-enacters and a couple of guys from the Arnie's crowd.

The main guy doing the shouting at the re-enacters was a guy I've seen at Arnie's quite a few times, and every time, at some point in the evening, he'd have to be pulled aside for a talk from some sort of authority figure, beit a bartender, bar owner or cop. He's the kind of guy that is passionate about what he believes and it doesn't take much to set him off.

Turns out today he had an issue about the confederate flag. Now, I'm not gonna defend the south or the confederacy, but this IS the South. If someone around here has enough pride in them to put up a confederate flag, you'd get a better reaction asking them for a lap dance from their mother than you would asking them to take the damned flag down.

But this guy kept going on about how his family died in the Civil War. He got himself so worked up that he was threatening to kill those guys on the hill. Forgiving the fact that those family members died over 140 years ago, is it so hard to just leave the guys alone? I mean, they're dressed up in full confederate uniforms, at a festival that has NOTHING to do with what they're honoring. Granted, I'm a German guy hanging out in the Irish tent at a Scottish festival, so I have little room to complain here.

One of my friends managed to keep the guy from acting on his verbal threats, but they both eventually got pulled aside by the cops. Being the peace-keeping guy that I am, I walked over by where the cops were talking to the guys, and wound up getting a talking to by the cops as well. I made the stance that while I am "with" these guys, I am not a part of this feud. I kinda just stood back and watched my friend get into an arguement with one of the cops. He was coming reeeeealy close to crossing the line with this cop. He didn't get busted, but I did have to remind him that everyone he's been starting shit with today has had a weapon, either a cannon or a handgun, and it would be advisable in the future to end his agruements about two sentences shorter than he currently does.

The day ended, as far as I was concerned, without incident. When I left the festival, the guys on the hill were packing up for the day, and the guys in the tent were still there, drinking beer.

The thing about his family really got me. You know, I have an ancester who died when his Murphy Bed (one of those beds that you can hide in the wall) went back in the wall, crushed his ribs and killed him. Now, if I was at an auto show and some guy had a Murphy Bed exhibit (much like having a confederate cannon at a Scottish festival), I wouldn't get all bent out of shape about it. Why? Because that guy died long before I was born, and the story of his death had no influence on my life.

But maybe that's just me. I'm the kind of guy that'll just sit back and wonder why a bunch of guys are honoring the losing side of a war that has A) has long since past, and B) has nothing to do with what everyone else is celebrating. Even if it was something more recent, like guys dressed up as Nazis or in Viet-Cong uniforms, my primary emotion would still be utter confusion. Futhermore, I would be more inclined to just let the guys do their thing and look like total idiots in the process.

Speaking of historical misunderstanding, While I was making my way out of the parking lot, the guy in front of me had a bumper sticker that read: EAT BEEF, the West wasn't won on salad. I seem to remember hearing how the people on wagon trains were starving most of the time because of lack of food. The West was won by people who simply survived the trip, and I wouldn't give all the credit to the cattle.