So, what was up with that vaguely political, mildly awkward post about Will/Colbert the other day? Allow me to explain.

I’m from southeastern Virginia: the land of Michael Vick (who went to my mom’s high school), Allen Iverson (who went to my high school), crabs the way they’re supposed to taste, and every single branch of the military. Things get a little more cosmopolitan in the 757 all the time, but alas, some things have stayed unapologeticly bubba-fied. This is a good quality in, say, BBQ. It is a less attractive quality with regards to Southern Poverty Law Center recognized hate groups.

Almost every year since I was a little girl, either the KKK or some other Neo-nazi group has met around my hometown. Sometimes they meet on the historic Yorktown Battlefield, other times just in parking lots. But, from time to time they met in the parking lot of my local public library, which was especially upsetting.

After library school, and certainly after law school, I decided that there was no point in being angry, and really embraced the First Amendment as a way to get over the KKK meeting at my childhood libraries. Let them speak, let them meet, let them sit on horses surrounded by cars in the dead heat of August. If you put something like that underground, keep it away from the public eye, people won’t realize just how *truly* ridiculous it is. Grown men playing army in reproduction Third Reich uniforms in July? Seems super smart. Not going to that restaurant because there are black people and Jewish people inside? Om nom nom, more for me. Hence, my appreciation for people who want speech of all kinds to be out in the open, available for comment.

Also, George Will is a baseball superstar and Stephen Colbert is a secret broadway guy, and these things endear me to them.