Another winter day in Kona. Walk, swim, read, and try to remember all I forgot about fonts. Working on a little project for The Asylum which involves PhotoShop and “Thank You” in lots of languages. Languages with lots of fonts. Photoshop is pretty old school about fonts. If it doesn’t have the exactly correct font you get a nice empty rectangle where a squiggle should be. At least in my Photoshop. With my settings. Once again. not complaining. It bets doing crossword/Sudoku puzzles to ward off dementia.
Have I mentioned how not surprised I am that all manner of middle age white men and perhaps a younger black man seem to have behaved badly in my state of legal residence? When Carlton talked about the lead up to the Civil War, he referred to Virginia as the Queen of the Slave States. Of course, after May 21, 1861, Richmond was the capital of the Confederacy.
As Carlton became a civilized human person, he came to regret not the way he himself treated those who were not white but that he did nothing to stop the way a black classmate of his was treated at VPI. 50 years too late, Carlton contacted the man and tried to make amends. Irving Linwood Peddrew, III ultimately had a building named after him. A dorm. Which is appropriate. Because he was not allowed to live on campus.
Did I mention that Carlton’s class ring had a Confederate battle flag on it. So did Irving Linwood Peddrew, III’s ring. Cadet Peddrew was not allowed to come to the oh so important “Ring Dance” with his girlfriend. Apparently, girlfriends got little miniature class rings at that event. As a result of this final insult, Irving Linwood Peddrew, III left Virginia PolyTec and did not graduate. This was where Carlton felt he totally failed as a human person. Carlton was in a position of leadership and could have potentially changed things. At the very least he could have boycotted the dance. But, Carlton did have to give his girlfriend her miniature class ring with the tiny Confederate flag.
And this is why I am not surprised by the goings on in the Queen of the Slave States.
But Wait, they still do this Ring Dance thing at Virginia Tech. Google turned up this for The 2019 RIng Dance.
Since the early date of 1934, Virginia Tech’s premiere tradition titled Ring Dance has embodied what it means to become an upperclassmn. Those who attend the dance are encouraged to enter the dance wearing their date’s ring around their wrist. Halfway through the night, each person is asked to exchange rings with their date, thus officially signifying the rite of passage from Junior to Senior year at Virginia Tech.
That is all completely outside of my college experience. Thank goodness.
. . .
Civilization, in fact, grows more and more maudlin and hysterical; especially under democracy it tends to degenerate into a mere combat of crazes; the whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary. H.L. Menchen In Defense of Women (1918)