Remember the story that the Pregnancy Center was pushing a scare-based, anti-sex, anti-gay, totally ineffective sex ed curriculum on local schools? Fluvanna took the bait. #
News and meta-news about Charlottesville, VA, since 2001.
Sideblog
Police announced this afternoon that their investigation into what was initially believed to be a fatal fire on Rugby Avenue is now a homicide investigation. #
The Virginia Supreme Court has denied George Huguely’s appeal. His second-degree murder conviction will stand, WRIC reports. #
In a carefully worded story, and not citing specific sources, WTVR reports that forensic evidence belonging to Jesse Matthew Jr., the main suspect in the disappearance of Hannah Graham, matches forensic evidence collected during the investigation of Morgan Harrington’s 2009 murder. #
In the wake of Hannah Graham’s disappearance, and the evidence that came from private security footage, city officials are revisiting the question of installing security cameras on the downtown mall. #
Both Charlottesville Registrar Sheri Iachetta and former Electoral Board member Stephanie Commander have turned themselves in to the police on
foursix and four felony counts of embezzlement, respectively. #Ten years ago, the National Institutes of Health budget doubled and schools like the University of Virginia built massive new research facilities. A decade later, those buildings remain largely underutilized. NPR visits UVA in this story on the effect of federal binge and spurge spending in the sciences. #
In 2012, Council approved a new student housing complex on West Main—now some council members are questioning whether what they were shown matches what was built. #
The Architectural Review Board has approved a bike-themed mural on West Market, below the McGuffey Art Center, although at least one member expressed concerns that it might look like the bicyclists were riding away from Charlottesville’s downtown. #
City Police Chief Tim Longo is meeting with city leaders to work on protocols regarding the use of military surplus police weapons in Charlottesville. #
A 100-year-old Colonnades resident received military honors for her service in the WWII Women’s Army Corps #
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No one who cares about their kid’s education lives in Fluvanna. If it should happen, they will go the extra mile for private school.
We must accept that some localities are ignorant and want to remain so.
Liberals bend over backwards to accommodate, respect, sometimes worship every ethnic and religious minority in the area, no matter how few adherents are found here, with one exception.
The exception? Virginia rednecks. They get no respect for their heritage, traditions, solidarity, community.
Every aspect of their culture is ridiculed, from the fridge on the front porch, the tires discarded in the front yard, the incest and the moonshine, to the historic intolerance for book learning.
Charlottesville liberals feel they are better than no one in the entire world … except rednecks.
Why is that?
Horace, you’re dealing in nothing but sterotypes here, from your Virginia rednecks with fridges on their porches and tires in the yard sleeping with their family members while they drink moonshine and shun books to your “liberals.” No where do you describe an actual human being (which is a very different thing than the cardboard cutouts you’re waving around).
Which is fine, if you like that sort of thing. But understand that you’re not in fact sparking a productive or meaningful conversation. It tends to work better when you bring researched real-world examples to the table.
Horace, you are doing the same thing you accuse Charlottesville liberals of doing, accusing all Fluvanna residents of not caring about education and wanting to remain ignorant. I hope you really don’t believe that.
Speaking as someone who came from a non-wealthy rural Virginia family, I have seen the stereotypes you list being applied to all of us.
But what does that have to do with the obviously-biased sex ed program the Pregnancy Center is pushing?
Another redneck stereotype is after all the one that they don’t exactly lead celibate lifestyles. Thus reasoning, that makes the Pregnancy Center guilty of disrespect for redneck culture!
Yes, it is true that often those identifying themselves as liberals who would never dream of employing prejudiced stereotypes to black people do not hesitate to express their disdain for lower-class white people from the rural South.
True of much of the media too. Look at all the ridicule, the cruel attacks heaped on Britney Spears , much of it based on the fact that she came from the small Lousiana town of Kentwood. To people with this mentality, no matter what she achieved, how many hit records she had, she was still “white trash.” The irony of it too is that compared to many Hollywood celebrities her slip-ups and misdeeds were trivial. I have said before that I cannot recall some public figure treated so cruelly with so little reason as this young woman was.
On the other hand, I would say that the stereotype of liberal disdain for rural culture took a serious blow in the 60s when the hippie movement , the counterculture, embraced bluegrass and country music, in the wake of the folk revival. On the other hand, I have known those of conservative political leanings to call country “hick music.”
I had to come to terms growing up with aspects of this culture referred to, But I came to learn that one can reject the bad things, the racism and sexism, the religious fundamentalism, the violence, and still cherish one’s Southern heritage. Expressed magnificently in the song “My Southern Home” by singer/songwriter Meg Christian, originally a Lynchburg native and one of the founders of what was called “womens”(or sometimes “womyn’s”) music in the 70s.
Yes, I suppose I could be called a “redneck” if someone were so inclined. I love my Dukes Of Hazzard DVDS(the tv show not that stupid movie that smeared the Dukes name),pro “rasslin”, Johnny and Hank and Merle-and yes believe it or not,Britney-. Don’t hunt but think it a great activity.
Let me close by recommending a book,Born Fighting, by our very own Senator, Jim Webb. It explains what we are,where we come from,and also why in the recent decades the message of the Democratic Party has not resonated among those who were once among its loyalist supporters. It blows a lot of the assumptions held by both conservatives and liberals about these people-my people-out of the water.
It’s just so simplistic to say “rednecks are like X” and “liberals disdain rednecks.” It overlooks the gazillion complexities that characterize real human beings. It’s the kind of thinking you get from TV — broad strokes, easy to remember, no need to continue thinking once you’ve locked in the stereotypes. It would be a lot better if we’d stop talking about labels and talk about real people instead.
While I agree with most of what you say, regarding Britney Spears I have to disagree. Normal people don’t just walk out in public wearing a “dress” the size of a small t-shirt and no underwear. If your average “redneck” did that they’d be arrested for indecent exposure and registered as a sex offender.
Personally I feel a bit sorry for her, even if I do find her music frighteningly bad. It’s a stretch to say that singing that kind of mass produced artificial dribble constitutes being a musician. I barely have to walk a mile anywhere in the county to cross paths with someone of more talent. That said, here’s a pretty funny cover of one of her songs by Richard Thompson.
Interesting that there is someone here who cannot understand the world except by anecdotes. Which is what “talk about real people” is … anecdotes about individuals.
Traditionally, education by anecdote is ranked just ahead of faith as the least effective path to truth.
yes, because straw-men & stereotypes are totally the path to truth.
Yes, rednecks may very well be the last surviving species, like roaches after a nuclear disaster. But talk about rednecks versus liberals is not what is at stake here. And before I close on this subject, I want to state there’s a vast difference, in my mind, between people typically referred to as ‘rednecks’ and ‘rural country folk’: the latter are most often respectable, hard-working, relatively educated people working the land, whereas the former are typified by their lack of ethics. One can easily spot the difference by how they treat their habitat: is it enhanced by their presence or degraded to a heap of trash? In fact, the same test is true for city folks.
But back to the real subject… Fluvanna has distinguished itself for poor judgment. The sex ‘surveys’ are an outright attack on parental sovereignty. A private organization has managed to slither into our public schools and extract valuable and potentially damaging information from our children. They have no real accountability and the whole process is certainly not for the educational benefit of our children. And although I feel parental ‘notification’ is nearly not enough, Fluvanna didn’t even bother with that. Perhaps this matter does come back to rednecks after all: another characteristic of these beings is their capacity to be controlled by demagogues such as those at “Worth Your Wait”.
Regarding Britney Spears, all you have to do is look back to the Woodstock/Flower Child era to see simialr attire.
There is a piece of information that is pertinent to the discussion. The DVD Best of the Johhny Cash Show(which ran from 1969-71) came out a few years ago. It contains some interesting interviews with people involved with the show then.
One is with Penni Lane,the hairstylist. She relates how when Linda Ronstadt appeared on the show she wanted to perform wearing a very short dress and no panties, saying “I sing better barebutted.” However at the insistence of June Carter Cash who said “not in front of my Johnny she’s not going out there barebutted” and so she had to cover up.
Not sure what the point was of including this spicy tidbit on DVD, but my reaction is when hear about Britney or Lindsay or any of the rest doing something like that- whats the big deal, like it never happened before, back in the hippie era.