The Interwebs Don't Lie

*** continued from previous post ***

"Well that may be," Carl said, "but do you think he'll really make it to the White House? Or last long if he does"

I ignored the assassination angle.

"Funny that," I said. "Supposedly, if he's elected they are going to paint the White House on Jan. 19th, just before the inauguration. It will then be known as the 'Black House'." This statement was met with puzzled looks all around. "It's true. I read it on Wikipedia. The interwebs don't lie."

Martha giggled. The only one, but as you know it's more of a response than I usually get.
Mark grinned. "You know what Carl means."

I sighed. "I do. That is certainly a concern but hopefully it won't come to pass."

"I don't know. Just seems like you guys are pretty fast with the guns down there. And with race relations what they are, well. . . " he let his voice trail, as if the rest of what he was thinking didn't need to be said.

"Don't you think if he's elected there's going to be rioting?" Mark asked. "Seems like you guys could tumble into a civil war pretty quickly."

Mom and I exchanged a glance. Rioting? Civil war? Just what kind of an impression did these Canadians have of our homeland? The guns maybe, but civil war? For a fleeting moment I panicked. What if these uber Canucks were right and we, too close to see the forest, were unaware that civil carnage was about to sweep our shining shores?

"I seriously doubt that. I'm sure there would be some unhappy campers, but civil war? No. I don't think so. That sounds like a lot of effort, and the lower 48 isn't that ambitious. Shoot, if we let Bush and Cheney steal the 2000 election without so much as a whimper from the general public, I don't think that electing Obama is going to cause chaos in the streets."

"But all those 'Red' states, eh?", Mark said, spreading his hands over the table as if he were referring to a map, "they aren't going to be happy are they? And with how it goes between blacks and whites, seems to me you guys would be ripe for problems."

"Those 'red' states are kind of a misnomer. A media construct. It's really more of a few hard-core Blue states, a few hard-core Red states, and the rest are varying shades of purple. But you don't hear that because absolutes make much better TV. And as for race relations . . . well, we've come a long, long way in the last twenty years. Even farther in the last 40. Are we there yet? No. But I don't think it's as big of an issue as you think."


*** the journey continues ***