The Countdown - 31

[clauderainsrm.livejournal.com]

In 2000, I started hearing about an old ex-Navy Seal named Rudy Boesch who on the first season of Survivor. I would hear his quotes and wonder why the hell no one had voted this offensive guy out. I couldn't understand why he was so beloved.

Then I actually saw him - and the comments made a lot more sense in context of who he was. He's a guy who was born in 1928 and spent pretty much all of his life in the military. There is a huge cultural divide between the world as he knows it, and the post-internet existence.

When he was featured during the Survivor reunion in 2013, the reaction to him was *much* different.

The words he used hadn't changed. The respect that he had for Richard Hatch hadn't changed. The world around him had.

I think there are a lot of Rudys out there, wondering what the hell is going on.

It's easy to dismiss it as "homophobic", shut them out and wait for them to die.

But I know that my own grandparents said some of the same things, with far less affection. I'm sure other people had family members who have, not because they hate gay people, or minorities, or anyone else. But more because they just were never exposed to any different ideas. Changing minds comes slowly - and, from a historic perspective, more and more blocks seem to be falling into place these days that it's definitely too fast for some to adjust.

Which doesn't make them evil. It just makes them wrong.

Nor should society sit on it's hands to finally right some of the injustices, waiting for people to catch up. Of course it shouldn't.

It just feels like there is a growing trend of further segmenting the population, and people are too prone to attack each other rather than listen and educate.