Some of my cousins who are quite a bit older and younger, from rural NC, and evidently even more conservative than I remembered them being, joined me and Callen at the beach for part of the week. Yesterday as we were driving to Harkers Island (see map below), one of my younger cousins asked me who I was going to vote for this year. Having forgotten how conservative some of my family members are, I nonchalantly said 'either Hillary or Obama of course'. My young cousin of 14 said 'you are?'. I could tell she was shocked by my statement. This is also the cousin who later said that she thought that a woman could be a good VP but that men would make better Presidents. Notice I said, that SHE said this. I just don't understand how a woman of today can think such a thing. I challenged her on this and she, as you would guess, had no good rationale for why a woman would not be as good or better in the role of President as a man.
My older cousin who was also in the car noted that she wasn't sure who she was going to vote for. Although she is registered as a democrat, she proceeded to say negative things about both Hillary and Obama and positive things about McCain and Nader. In the course of our conversation, she said that a lot of people believed that Obama was the Antichrist. She went into elaborate detail about how the signs were there. I just wanted to laugh this was so absurd. She later said that her minister had recently pulled up 'all the info' on all 3 candidates (Hillary, McCain, and Obama) and given the info in his sermon the prior Sunday. I would have loved to heard what he said.... It just really amazes me how racism and sexism continue to invade all aspects of our society and how people just do not see it.
As another cousin who was with us at the beach noted - you should never discuss politics and religion with others. How true indeed - especially when the 2 things are so intertwined in the south.
