Behind Closed Doors

We have a community up here...but they are mostly further reaching than our immediate neighborhood. People we've met over the years, teachers, artists,doctors, store owners, museum curators, carpenters, sign painters...etc. Most share common ideals, politics, and dreams... When we went to a funeral for a neighbor boy/man (30 years old) the other day, we were tossed in with many in the local area we usually just wave and say hi to...people who know who we are, but we aren't exactly sure who they are. Our lives are fairly visible since I often write editorials in the local paper, actively attend meetings on environmental issues, plus...the local paper did a several page article on our homestead with a lot of photos of our place and us which created a lot of buzz...and my wife has clients who come out here who, I'm sure, yak about her and her studio. Well...at the gathering following the funeral...everyone is so nice to us and all. I appreciate that. But the intelligence level seems 'different'...some of the folks seemed retarded or stoned...one wall at the house is filled with Elvis memorabilia...another was NASCAR...one wall had shelves full of bottles of alchohol surrounded by sets of drinking glasses...a collection of cigarette lighters with little lights twinkling inside... There was a bulletin board type of thing which had items posted that apparently were important to them...there were pictures of women's body parts...like a pointy breast saying left turn and another pointing the other way saying right turn... At the bottom was a Department of Natural Resources mock-up tag (Y'know for deer...a doe tag like thing) that was a...NIGGER TAG...this entitles bearer to kill one nigger this year...etc.... I realise that all around us (and you) in this country are hidden feelings and actions going on behind closed doors...women being beaten...children abused...racist and angry people...who smile and wave when you see them. Who have pictures of Jesus next to their nigger tags.