Yesterday I might have driven the back way over the Red River in Texas and scooted on up to welcome the President in Durant, Oklahoma---which is usually referred to simply as "Choctaw"---meaning the large casino complex which is the hub of the town.

I actually declined a couple of invites to have lunch in Boston with the President and fifteen hundred of his closest friends and supporters. I passed on the lunch because I didn't want to take $5 K out of my retirement fund, and also, I don't fly, especially half way across the country from Texas. I would like to attend an Obama event some day but I'm glad I missed his trip to Oklahoma.

By now everyone has seen snippets of confederate flag waving Oklahoma folks, some from Texas, who greeted the President in Oklahoma and who as of this moment are still out there.

As an old white guy who grew up in Ohio and has seen this country in its breadth and width, hear me out. I played high school football against the likes of Massillon, Ohio and Mansfield. Get what I'm saying? Appalachia and Scots Irish are in my blood. I eat grits. I crumble up cornbread in a glass of buttermilk and eat it with a serving spoon. So, Bud and Mary flag waver, I know you from the inside out.

If you are waving a Confederate flag at this time, at this black President, it is an expression of racism. Now I grant you that it may also be an expression of Southern pride---but so saying doesn't erase the racism part of it. So if you can't erase the racism context, and knowing how wrong that context is---let's assume you think racism is wrong---why wave the flag at all?  If you wave it, you know it's an insult---because the racism is embedded and the man you are waving it at is black.  You weren't waving it at him?  You just thought it was a good time to drive from Texas and join a rally? Why yesterday? Why a black President?

Knowing that at best it's an insult to wave a confederate flag at a black man---I assume you know this---, you, flag waver, must be highly motivated to do it. What motivates you?

O.K. you want to express Southern pride. I suppose you have a history of attending rallies, even one's with no flags. You celebrate the great authors, like Shelby Foote. You may have even written a research paper on a civil war battle. You toured Gettysburg. You are an entrepreneur whose barbecue sauce is now marketed across the country. You have restored an antebellum mansion in the heart of Mississippi. You have supported charities in the South. If there is a museum in the South which needs funds, you have contributed serious money to get it on it's feet---cause most of your life has been spent celebrating Southern pride. You are even jazz enthusiasts and have attended Mardi Gras. You love Antoine's---that's some great cuisine.

Bud and Mary, did I go too far with the reference to Antoine's---somehow the description of a person with a serious commitment to Southern pride doesn't quite fit you? Does Southern pride really fit you? Just get the idea yesterday?

Well, cousins from Pike county, Ky., who came to Texas to seek their fortune and are still shit out of luck, what you did with the flag waving is to prove beyond all doubt that you have absolutely nothing going on for your miserable selves. So get your white butts back to work tomorrow and hide your confederate flags, they are a symbol of racism---as pure and simple as cornbread mashed up in a glass of cold buttermilk. Now tell me that don't sound good and
I'll tell you that waving that flag at a black President ain't racist.