...And I have no fear.

I saw this on Jim Wright's Facebook page, and it made me think of something else:

How my mind went from coffee cups to movies, I don't know, but it did. I just know I'm getting sick of these assholes who seem to think they want to go out and fight everybody. They won, or perhaps I should say they "Won" ... And then nothing changed, or at least not much...

...And they're still full of hate.

This was it...this right here...a scene from the 1989 film "Glory" about the 54th Massachusetts Regiment of Volunteers, starring Denzel Washington, Matthew Broderick and Morgan Freeman.

I fucking LOVE that movie, and I have ever since I saw it in 1990 in my American History class in Onaway, Michigan. The film was distributed to schools for free to increase awareness and as a commemoration of Black History Month:

One of the main reasons I hate racism as much as I do...is that I had a Government teacher and a couple of history teachers in high school (conservatives AND Republicans, every last one of 'em) who passionately hated racism and passed that on to most of their students. My, how things have changed...and not in good ways.

[Private Searles and Private Trip are about to fight when Sgt. Major Rawlins steps in]

Trip: Get your hands off me, gravedigger!

Rawlins: Goddamn it! Does the whole world gotta stomp on your face?

Trip: Nigger, you better get your hands off me!

Rawlins: Ain't no niggers around here, you hear me?

Trip: Oh, I see. So the white man give you a couple of stripes, next thing you hollerin' and orderin' everybody around, like you the massa himself! Nigger, you ain't nothin' but the white man's dog! 

[Rawlins slaps him.]

Rawlins: And what are you? So full of hate you have to fight everybody because you've been whipped and chased by hounds? 

Well, that might not be living, but it sure as hell ain't dying. And dying's what these white boys been doin' for going on three years now, dying by the thousands! Dying for you, fool! I know, 'cuz I dug the graves. 

And all the time I'm diggin' I keep askin' myself, "When, O Lord, when is it gonna be our time?" Gonna come a time when we all gonna have to ante up and kick in like men. LIKE MEN! You watch who you callin' nigger. If there's any niggers round here, it's YOU! Smart-mouthed, stupid-ass, swamp-runnin' nigger. And if you ain't careful, that's all you ever gonna be."

Replace the N-word with "Angry, fearful white man" and there you have it.

...You want to know how we beat this Trump thing? We ante up and kick in, and we damned well get as many people as possible to vote in 2018 and 2020. If there's one good thing about it...it's put everything out in the open. We as a nation can't continue in denial of our own bullshit at this point. How do we deal with people who are SO full of hate that they want to go out and fight everybody?

Fight back, we have to, to stop this shit...but like Sgt. Rawlins, we conduct ourselves in such a way that we keep the moral high ground. We have to be better than that, we have to be smarter than that. We have to make America think again, and we HAVE to be willing to deal out a good hard slap across the face, figuratively or otherwise, if that's what it takes.

No, it's not easy...but that's the hand we've been dealt. I for one am tired of this half-ass victory dance bullshit already. Yeah, Trump won...and he can't even find anybody wants to work for him or run a transition team. Trump won...but YOU ain't Trump. Hell, Trump looks like he's in over his head and scared out of his mind.

Maybe that realization will keep him from doing too many stupid things, I hope so.

There's just one thing I keep wondering:

How did conservatism get from "Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" to "TRUMP! ORDER #25!?" 

THAT, of all things, is what we're up against. Ante up and kick in, be the adult in the room. Work, for the night is coming.

...And don't give up, because our ancestors...physical and spiritual alike, didn't give up either.

You know what my favorite scene from that movie is? The campfire scene. Google it, if you've not seen the movie. I promise you won't be disappointed.

• 
  
• Pvt. Jupiter Sharts: [praying aloud] Tomorrow we goes into battle. So Lordy, let me fight with the rifle in one hand and the Good Book in the other. So that if I may die at the muzzle of the rifle... die on water, or on land, I may know that you blessed Jesus almighty are with me... and I have no fear.