I found out I had a secret admirer and he called me a racist

not middle aged but I wouldn’t call elderly, followed close behind me and said, “I saw your Dave Chappelle post and you might have thought it was funny but it’s racist.”

Whoa....what? He then jumped stealthily into his vehicle and drove off, not taking the opportunity to hear me reply, “So is Dave Chappelle a racist?”

He sped out into the night leaving me dead in my tracks in that quiet parking lot, wondering, “Am I a racist?”

I definitely don’t consider myself a racist; if anything, I’m an equal opportunity hater. If you are a person who feeds off others, mistreats others, lies, cheats, steals, doesn’t do your job and constantly complains, then no matter what color, creed or religion you are, I’m not going to like you. If you’re a hard working, loving, fair, kind, team-player who’s honest, then it doesn’t matter what color, creed, economic status or religion you are, I’m going to love you.

It bothered me so much that I had to tell my co-workers the next morning. Dianne was flat tore out of frame...how dare this man, who you can’t find on social media anywhere, stalk my Facebook page? And then, creepily follow me, in the darkness of night, alone, to the parking lot to call me a racist?

It’s bothered me so much, that I had to take a poll from the diverse group of people I consider friends to find out if what I posted was racist.

First up was my dear friend Christa, who I have known for well over 15 years. She’s the cousin of one of my best friends growing up, Benita, who actually lived with me for a time during our senior year of high school. Both of these fine ladies are black, and since Christa saw the Chappelle meme on my Facebook page and gave it a like and a “LOL,” I went to her and asked her what she thought.

“It wasn’t racist to me at all and that guy probably just wanted to be a jerk,” said Christa. “You’re good girl, don’t even worry about it.”

My best friend is half Asian, and she didn’t see a problem with it. I still felt a little uneasy, so I went to my friend Janet. I’ve known her for closer to 20 years, when she, gasp, came to this country illegally from Guatemala to make a better life for herself. It was my honor and privilege to be a character witness for her when she applied for her legal status in the United States.

“I don’t think you are racist,” said Janet. “You found the meme funny, as did a lot of people, and you shared it. People are so funny at this particular time; they think everything is racist.”

I finally went to my buddy, Ben, a black gentleman who is as good as gold and is closer in age to my secret admirer than myself. Leave it to Ben to be the voice of reason.

“I personally wasn’t offended,” said Ben, “but from a black man’s point of view, it could be considered racist because crack cocaine is a drug associated with the black community. Thus the assumption.”

But my secret admirer isn’t black. So could he be offended?

The general consensus of everyone was “NO.” They felt he was just trying to, as Christa said, be a jerk. Or was he??? I racked my brain to figure out why this man would follow me out to the parking lot just to tell me I did something racist. Then I remembered when my daughter was still in high school, she would stalk a cute boy’s Facebook page because she had a crush on him. It always confused me why, when in the presence of said boy, she was very standoffish, sometimes to the point of rudeness. Then I remembered the little boy when I was in elementary school who would push me around on the playground and play rough. When I complained to the teacher, he told her, “It’s because I like her.”

Then it hit me: this gentleman has a crush on me! Why else would he stalk my Facebook page, walk behind me so close and creepily, not address me to my face and call me a racist? It’s because he likes me!

Unfortunately for him, at this time in my life, I am extremely happy with my boyfriend, but if I were to ever become available, I now know who to call on. I see what you’re doing now, Secret Admirer. Sending lots of love and hugs your way, and from now on, just talk to me face to face. I don’t bite and I’m definitely not a racist.

Brandi Moorehead-Owczarz is the managing editor of the Calhoun Times. She is extremely adorable and likable, which is why she tends to pick-up Secret Admirers. You can find her on Facebook at facebook. com/ brandi. owczarz or email her at bowczarz@ calhountimes.com.

President Donald Trump’s plan to drop corporate taxes from 35 percent to 15 percent could make the United States more competitive in the world marketplace. It could lead to business expansion. It could create jobs. Along with other sweeping tax measures, it could help institute greater economic growth, helping to solve a wide swathe of social issues. And what’s the leftist alternative? It’s higher corporate taxes. That, at least, is what Hillary Clinton stood for during the presidential campaign, and the consequence would likely be even more anemic growth, fewer jobs and lower wages. The main benefit would be to put wide grins on the faces of progressives who think any move possibly benefitting the rich as well as the poor is condemnatory and should be replaced by more central planning of a kind that stifles the economic exuberance resulting from free people making free choices in a free market.

The contrast is interesting at this particular juncture because so many commentators are busily assessing Trump’s first 100 days in an office he won less because of enthusiasm for what he stood for than disgust at the alternative. So how about a quickie glance at what signals the anti-Trump crowd has given during this first 100 days of what it would give us if in charge.

We would be less a home of the free, that’s for sure. The Democrats have been cursing about Trump rolling back regulations encapsulating liberty and we have had Democratic senators wanting to rewrite the First Amendment to give politicians more power over free speech. Some have sought to investigate those disagreeing with them on global warming and, meanwhile, on college campuses, groups of anti-Trump, anticonservative, narcissistic, spoiled students have been doing their best to shut up conservative intellectuals offering views different from their own.

Some mob episodes have been truly scary, especially when you looked at the anti-fascist fascists wearing masks and dressed in black as they pushed others around and destroyed property. Signs and shouts were less on the order of discourse than vulgarity spilling from leaky brains, much like Madonna when she stood up during the women’s march on Washington, practiced the F-word and said she would like to burn down the White House. Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez himself seems to think it cute these days to go about giving speeches using a four-letter word that stands for feces.

More civil but far more frightening were too many Democratic senators showing in their interrogation of Neil Gorsuch as a nominee to the Supreme Court that they do not believe in judicial decisions based strictly on law and the facts. They simply want outcomes favoring the down and out, which would be an abandonment of rule of law. Without it, our republic folds and everyone is down and out, and that apparently is what mayors and other officials of sanctuary cities want, too. Obeying federal immigration laws is anathema to them. They are above all of that.

Other first-hundred-days things to consider include media bias that cheats the public and dishonors blessed standards. There have been the-skyis-falling attacks on Trump for his own attacks on climate-change plans that accomplish nothing at major expense. Environmentalists have been outraged that he is going ahead with the Keystone XL pipeline shown to be safe by thousands of pages of scientific work backed up by varied federal agencies. Scientists in a recent proscience demonstration in Washington seem to have ignored leftist anti-science positions, which are rampant.

None of this is by way of shrugging shoulders at Trump’s inattentiveness to a crisis-seeking federal debt that could be worsened by the tax cuts. None should like it that he is playing around with new tariffs that would raise prices and cost jobs or that he wants a southern-border wall that would accomplish no more than other methods billions of dollars cheaper. In fact, one of his victories has been to reduce illegal crossings to the lowest in 17 years simply by rhetoric and improved surveillance.

Let’s now focus on the days ahead, not letting Trump off the hook but getting it that not a few of his opponents have a lesser America in mind.