Hope For White People In Alabama

Sometimes I think a huge chunk of our white population has lost its collective mind.

White people, after all, are responsible not only for electing--but somehow re-electing--the worst president in our nation's history, leaving us with a mess not seen since the days of Herbert Hoover.

More evidence of "whities gone wacko" comes with a charming Christmas Day story in The Birmingham News. It tells us that local gun enthusiasts are buying up every firearm in sight out of fear that a Barack Obama administration will somehow make it difficult to get that much needed semi-automatic weapon and ammo.

And get this: One gentleman visited a Birmingham sporting-goods store the day after the election and bought $40,000 worth of semi-automatic hunting guns. Said the store's proprietor: "He said that he wanted to guarantee that his children, his grandchildren and yet-to-be-born grandchildren would have a way to hunt."

Gee, I thought the economy was bad, but this bozo could blow $40,000 on guns. And given his enthusiasm for firearms, I think it's safe to say he already had a bunch of guns.

Now, this gentleman could have put that money into college funds for his grand kids. Heck, he could have even made donations in their names to a favorite charity--say, one designed to help fight cancer or heart disease or hunger or poverty.

But no, he wanted to make sure the fruit of his loins could shoot guns to their hearts content. Makes you feel good about the future of our country doesn't it?

In the same edition of the same newspaper, we find a story that actually does make you feel good about our country.

Joe Openshaw, a retired veterinarian from Bessemer, Alabama, has 11 Christmas trees in his 1895 home. The trees have different themes, and each year, one tree has a patriotic theme.

This year's patriotic tree includes a tribute to our president-elect. It features Barack Obama campaign buttons, plus pictures of Obama and his family. The "Tribute Tree to Our President-Elect" stands in the bedroom of Openshaw's 18-year-old son, Daniel, and won't come down until after the Jan. 20 inauguration.

Openshaw's 22-year-old daughter, Marlow, is particularly protective of the Obama tree. Her best friend said she was going to put a John McCain ornament on the tree, but Marlow said it wouldn't stay on long.

How often have you heard patriotism associated with the Republican Party, almost as if it has been permanently hijacked? But here you have a white family, living in a state with a tortured history on race, showing support for our first African-American president.

Maybe there's hope for our country, and our state, after all.