Frankly My Dear

Disgust is a reason.  It is.  Revulsion, aversion, distaste, that “up to your eyeballs" detestation is more than enough reason for not giving a damn.  And so it goes in life, and so that famous line echoes in the mind: “Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn.”  This is from the movie, Gone with the Wind, and it is Rhett Butler speaking to Scarlett O’Hara. 
(It was in answer to Scarlett’s question, "Where shall I go?")
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The man could only take so much.  A gentle gent he, soft spoken, open-minded, always ready to help, slow to judge, slow to indict.  Now it just so happens that a family member (a Christian fundamentalist), constantly espoused hatred, gleefully threatened others with Hell, thought nothing of referring to the President of the United States as a fucking n***** as well as calling Michele Obama a gorilla, and proudly advocated murder by saying that Gays should be shot.  All this while holding her Bible high with arrogance proudly worn like gaudy makeup.  This bad behavior went on for years; this insane nonsense was tolerated for years, although he did chastise gently--he did try reason, education and boundary setting. Yet, all was for naught.

So then one day in the midst of another racist tirade, he simply hung up on her (it was a bit of passive- aggressive, but the oral sewage was just too much.)  So she called right back:

“Why did you hang up on Me?

(Now there was no place for passivity--time to be direct.)

“You keep that racial garbage, your hate, and your homophobia to yourself.  I don’t like it!"

It was a simple request, and it certainly was fair.  The gentle man also schooled her in hypocrisy; he put it thusly:

“According to your theology, God supposedly made everyone, and yet you call Michelle Obama  a gorilla?  Seems to be insulting to your Creator, does it not?”

There was no contrition, no apology, no remorse.  No, there was only pride, arrogance, and a terrible representation of religion.  And when she spit, metaphorically, in the man’s face, the point of no return was reached, the point of “enough is enough” was achieved; the limits of tolerance was breached. 

This soft-spoken man did not like descending to the gutter, yet he knew that there are times when it is necessary--there are times when it is justified.  And so the, Fuck You, was most pronounced, it was emphatic, it was delivered so as to be so sharply outlined that even a blind man would take note of the bold.

And can you believe it?  The gentle man heard her ask, (before he hung up on her--permanently), “Why are you saying Fuck You to me?"

(Frankly, my dear, this has gotten old--humanity is barely visible anymore, and you give your religion a bad name.  Look around at the world, look at the violence, the killing, the mass slaughter, the guns--and how is that any different with you? with your insidious hatred, your name-calling, your evil judgments, your bigotry and your close-minded smears.  Hold that Bible high, and praise your savior and renew, nightly, your condemnation credit.  Why you think you have such right to behave so badly puzzles me no end--frankly, my dear, I have had it with you, your welcome has worn out, I can no longer try to reach you--you are unreachable.  Somewhere the human has got lost, somehow the morality has been slain, sometime long ago in a depraved passage of indecent indoctrination you have passed from the living to the dead, and I can no longer gaze at the rotting corpse.  Abandon all hope, ye who chooses to walk such an evil path.)

As the phone continued to ring (50 times, he estimated) the man could only think of Rhett Butler’s response to Scarlett O’Hara.  Family or no--hatred, homophobia, hypocrisy, racism, and advocating murder had no place in his life.  She no longer mattered.

He did not give a damn, no, not any more.


665 Words
Writer’s Cramp Winner
12-7-15