Hart of Dixie is Good For Us

Hart of Dixie is good for us.

This doesn't mean that Hart of Dixie is realistic. But then our politics aren't realistic, our economic theories about rational markets bear no resemblance to the way the world actually works, and our wars are fought because Democrats are afraid of Republicans.

When I was a kid, my mom was a widow, and I had no idea how men were supposed to behave. I watched  television and learned what fatherhood was all about by watching "Father Knows Best," "My Three Sons," and "Leave It to Beaver." They weren't realistic either, but later when I was teaching college students from the Inner City, I observed the young men I was trying to help didn't get much help from MTV on how to treat women and become responsible. My unrealistic examples were much more useful than theirs. In some cases, I became the male influence in their lives, because as a student wrote on Rate My Professor, "He's not Black, but you can't have everything."

I watch Hart of Dixie because people have values on this show:

 People cooperate together when a storm hits.

Doctors actually care about their patients, and

Black and White people work together to run their town. On occasion, they even kiss each other.

Don't tell me that's not the real world. My students came from South Los Angeles and Compton so I know the facts.

But I've believed since I walked out of a George Wallace lecture at Syracuse University that the world shouldn't be that way. I expected by now we wouldn't still be divided by race.

When I was 15-years-old I ran away from home in New York and walked into a Colored bathroom in Columbus, Georgia. They all laughed at the "Paddy" who was too dumb to know where he belonged.

I couldn't believe this was my country. I hadn't seen this on TV and I was disgusted by it.

When I look at Hart of Dixie I can pretend that America is better and pray it  becomes that way before I croak.