So, I’ve been writing a lot about my relatives that were in the KKK lately, but there is so much more to my family’s story. These relatives were in my mom’s family, but what about my dad’s?
My mom, being the badass that she was, fell in love with a Catholic boy — my dad!
If you’re not already aware, Klansmen hate Catholics for one silly argument — should god be able to talk directly to me or only through the pope? If you ask me, something that ridiculous is a pretty good endorsement for atheism.
There’s a little more. Klansmen asked if you’re loyal to the pope, how can be loyal to America?
My mom and dad dated through high school and college and got married in their early twenties.
As an adult, my dad was not a practicing Catholic. In fact, he’s not very religious at all. But still, there was always tension. There were fights. There were times that people weren’t speaking to each other.
My dad’s a good guy — a hard-working single parent — and he didn’t deserve the treatment he received.
People have died. People have moved on, and now our lives are relatively quiet.
It’s just so amazing what makes a family. It’s like we’re all a bit of everything.
My dad’s family is made up of Catholics, immigrants, railroad workers, and a fire chief.
And my mom’s family wasn’t just Klansmen. They were farmers and suffragists.
Both of my grandpas served in WWII.
I just find this all so interesting and I’m looking forward to writing more. I can’t wait to break out the poetry!
I had never come across anti-Catholic sentiment until I moved to the south. It’s irrational and hypocritical and it’s everywhere in the south…and apparently the mid-west, too. It was such a culture shock to me; growing up, I knew people who were Catholic (and one of my college roommates was Catholic) and it was simply not an issue. The Catholics never bothered anyone.
OTOH, the Southern Baptists were horrible human beings–and quite stupid. A popular meme from my college days was a self-righteous: “Baptists were around BEFORE JESUS.” My comeback: “Does that mean you’re not Christian, then?” and then pointing out that the Baptists came from the Anabaptists, which themselves came from Protestantism, which came from Martin Luther. In the 1600s.
My college years were also the rise of the fundagelical whackadoos, which often were (but not exclusively) Southern Baptists.