Life In the Center of the Trailer Park a blog post from http://www.trailerparkkarma.com/karrie-sue/

Then came Facebook. Hate to say it, but it’s true. Now, wherever we live our lives, if we choose, we can be in contact with all those “people I’ve known all my life.” And that’s a true statement for me. I have friends on FB that I went to school with from kindergarten thru senior year, and possibly to junior college, too.

A video was posted on Facebook that called Liberals, among others, unpatriotic and un-American. Now, it’s really okay to have that opinion, as we live in the wonderful United States of America...‘nuf said, right? If it stopped there, no problem, except that such name-calling propagates violence and hatred toward other people just because they don’t hold the same beliefs and values. That doesn’t match our country's values.

Truth is, I don’t even know what it means to be a Liberal, politically. Yeah, I took some government, lots of history, but it didn’t end up in the hard-drive. I Googled it and Wikipedia mentioned liberties and social justice. We’re all for those, but there’s more to it, as we all know.

So, in my six years of teaching, I’ve said pledges to both my country and my state every day I’ve worked. And I’ve brushed up on my history a little bit, and researched some of my own family history, as well. I’m still not big on politics and/or politicians, but I love my country and my state. I've been to the spot where Francis Scott Key wrote the anthem, and it brings tears to my eyes every time.

My ancestors fought in the American Revolution, the Civil War, and other military assignments up to WW II. My nearest relatives spent several generations in East Texas, and my heart is right there in the middle of it. I love it more now than I ever knew I would, having spent all my time dreamin’ of some sorta glamorous escape to anywhere but here! Every time I go home, there are certain roads I take cuz I don’t ever wanna forget what they look like. It’s gonna change, but maybe I can keep it in my mind.

One of those roads is Bascom Road. I’ve taken that road so many times I couldn’t begin to tell you. My great-grandparents and grandparents live near the end, in Chapel Hill. Their parents and grandparents all lived there, too, near Gilley Creek. I wonder what it was like for them; horses, farms, crops, bees, church, cars, schools, roads, television. On and on. It’s been my home longer than I’ve been alive.

And that’s just one side of my family. They’ve all been here a really long time. I imagine yours may have been, too. So, I am East Texas, through and through. And a patriotic American who loves her country. Don’t always agree with it; wonder how the hell it’s all gonna get worked out. I hope it gets worked out without violence, though.

I hate war. I know I use a violent word to express how I feel about violence, but I got no use for it. I mean, I’ve read about the horrors of war; seen it in moving pictures. But never imagined what it would actually feel like to be in a war, killing, fighting for your life and your country’s cause, knowing you don’t have all the details.

That is, I never imagined it until 1988, when a close family member took his own life because of the horrors experienced in WW II.

Growing up under the tenets of the Christian faith, my grandfather learned that we are to love each other as we love ourselves. I was quoted just today at my liberal church that we are to love our enemies, pray for those who would do us harm, etc. And to have seen the death and destruction first-hand... The human life that God created, that we are supposed to love and honor as we do Him -- destroyed, embedded into the mountains.

Now we know it’s Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. So what. Big deal. Give conscience a scientific name that the military and the very country you served denies even exists. Not that he ever talked about it. He kept it locked up inside for 40 years. When he visited Hawaii to celebrate his retirement, the flashbacks began. I’ve read about Okinawa. I don’t want to live it once, much less twice. It’s a very dark place when you are led to take your life.

The shock and trauma of suicide takes the survivors a long time to process. Twenty odd years later, one my grandfather's survivors says “Nothing has ever hurt this bad.” His son laments “I never knew my father.” His wife agrees she never got to know her husband. We all lost our greatest hero. And as much as I hate war, I appreciate the sacrifice the soldiers and their loved ones have made throughout history and the life we are able to have because of it.

So, here I sit in the center of the trailer park. I love my country like I love my relatives and my friends. I accept the crap I don’t like about ‘em, and I love them beyond belief for the value they bring to my life. I may bitch about ‘em on occasion, but I wouldn’t trade my family for another one. I accept the bad we’ve done.

I’ve heard the term “centrist” used as a political position, but I don’t really know what that means, either. The more I think about it, I really feel more Taoist, which has nothing at all to do with karma. Or politics.