Buyers and Sellers of Bitter Butter 2016 (A rewrite of Bitter Butter of 2000)



This article was first written in 2000 when George W. Bush began his first term. There had been an extended battle for the presidency and ballots were being hand-counted in Florida as the nation looked on. It came down to a Supreme Court decision in favor of Bush who won the electoral vote. Al Gore won the popular vote though some have disputed those results as well. A few sore losers have never got over that court ruling and never gave Bush a chance. Instead, partisan and racial bitterness has continued to plague politics even though in 2008 America elected its first black President, Barak Obama. This month we celebrate the birthday of the late Dr. Martin Luther King for his inspiring words and work on behalf of civil rights and freedom.



Betty bought some bitter butter, but the bitter butter was too bitter for the better batter, so she bought some better butter for the bitter batter and made the bitter batter better!



Spoken quickly this tongue twister has been useful, over the years to impress small children with my verbal skills. Teaching art for nearly a decade gave me a front row seat on the state of the American child and family. I have seen the frustration of a child who cannot find a crayon to match her skin color. I made a point of ordering the multi-cultural art supplies that are now available. In January our art lessons included making posters about MLK. Children are more malleable and accepting of differences but they do pick up tensions and attitudes from adults like veritable sponges. The problems lay with the adults not the kids, initially.



I yearned for the kind of eloquence Dr. King was noted for to sooth and inspire those who had taken offense during the extended and contentious election season, so I took some time out to jot down some thoughts under the influence on my drug of choice, caffeine, at a bookstore coffee shop. While waiting for something profound to percolate up with consolation and healing for my irate, disconsolate African-American compatriots, my eyes fell on a poetry display. If only I could soothe angry, frayed emotions with a poem or an essay as persuasive as those of the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.



I hungered for the right words…a soft answer to turn away wrath.

But what did I know sitting in suburbia without a person of color in sight except on the cover of a poetry book by Nikki Giovani, whose writings I remembered from college. I considered buying the book in hopes of broadening my understanding and cross-cultural bridge building. I began to read but after reading one, two, then a third poem, I suddenly felt I was in the wrong aisle. Ms. Giovanni was not into bridge building, but actually was calling for bitterness and reverse racism…bitter butter!

I put the book back on the shelf and the bridge collapsed into a sea of negativity. Instead of soothing words I got my Irish up.

How many Bettys are buying this bitter butter? How many spread it on their toast each morning and serve it up to their kids daily like they did during “the Troubles” in Ireland?

The recipe for peace and progress calls for better ingredients.



Unfortunately, a decade later, President Obama used his January 13, 2011 Tucson speech to lecture the nation about goodness. What he lacked in content he made up for in length. He took advantage of the tragedy to infer that the violence of a deranged anarchist is preventable if we all quiet down and live in harmony. He called for “public healing and civil discourse” while shamelessly or cluelessly, transferring guilt to those who speak out. “… let us use this occasion to expand our moral imaginations, to listen to each others more carefully,” This from the same person who said about his determination to foist the Health Care monstrosity on the nation…"if they bring a knife to this fight, we'll bring a gun."

He went, on and on and on and ended up souring what should have been a soothing speech from one leading by example.

In 2016 we are seeing racism flare-ups as the "Black Lives Matter" mantra is repeated when a black person dies at the hands of the police. President Obama never fails to use these tragedies to call for more gun control even though the greatest gun violence occurs in cites like Chicago, NYC and Detroit where gun laws are strictest. How long will these harangs go on?
Martin Luther King born January 15, 1929 and assasinated in 1968 said in 1965:

    "I know you are asking today, "How long will it take?" (Speak, sir) Somebody's asking, "How long will prejudice blind the visions of men, darken their understanding, and drive bright-eyed wisdom from her sacred throne?" Somebody's asking, "When will wounded justice, lying prostrate on the streets of Selma and Birmingham and communities all over the South, be lifted from this dust of shame to reign supreme among the children of men?" Somebody's asking, "When will the radiant star of hope be plunged against the nocturnal bosom of this lonely night, (Speak, speak, speak) plucked from weary souls with chains of fear and the manacles of death? How long will justice be crucified, (Speak) and truth bear it?" (Yes, sir) I come to say to you this afternoon, however difficult the moment, (Yes, sir) however frustrating the hour, it will not be long, (No sir) because "truth crushed to earth will rise again." (Yes, sir) How long? Not long, (Yes, sir) because "no lie can live forever." (Yes, sir) How long? Not long, (All right. How long) because "you shall reap what you sow." (Yes, sir)"

 ..."How long? Not long, because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice."

(Please see my previous post about the movie Selma which I recommend)


Chris Noonan Funnell

Free lance writer/Columnist











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