Here in Houston Juan Quintero got out of his handcuffs in the back of a police car, pulled a gun out of his waistband, and shot and killed Officer Rodney Johnson and Bubba is mad as Hell! No phone call this time, instead a hard knock on the door. Juan it seems, was not only an illegal immigrant, but he had been previously deported for various misdemeanors. Bubba says if we had A Great Wall of America down there – electrified with gators in a moat – Officer Johnson would be alive today. Bubba is probably right in this case, so I had to change the argument to get him thinking, which Bubba doesn’t much like doing.
"So Bubba, not long ago you came knocking on my door in a huff just like this. Remember you running that light and being ticketed by that ‘uppity black cop’. Boy, did you rail against black cops that night."
"Its not a matter of racism Jite, its all fine and well for them to be fishing off our docks, driving our buses or delivering the mail. Its when they have authority over ME that my hair gets in a knot."
"What hair Bubba? And if that isn’t racism then what is?“
"Lynching and cross burning!” Bubba smugly replied.
"Well Bubba, you are all discombobulated by seeing this as a glass half empty when it’s really full. For now there is one less black cop to lord over you and an illegal immigrant going to the death house. Its a win-win for you. Don’t worry, be happy!"
Bubba knew, I knew he hated Blacks more than he did Mexicans, which was causing him quite a bit of mental anguish. So as often is the case, this was somehow going to be turned in to being my fault. So I got ready to suffer the bad end of the Bubba-stick.
"Blacks and Mexicans are problems two and three," Bubba told me, "Liberals are problem one. If it weren’t for damn Yankee liberals like you, I wouldn’t have to worry about Blacks or Mexicans in my state, my town or in my face!"
Bubba is my friend; we hunt, we fish, and we drink together, after all, living where I do if I didn’t have conservative friends, I would have no friends at all. So in his defense I must say that though Bubba is often quite unpleasant, he is at least honest.