In the South, one learns that folks don’t always say what they mean nor do they mean what they say. “She’s so pretty in the face” means “she’s big as a house.” And everyone knows that “bless her heart” means anything but a blessing.
Then, there are the unspoken things…anything that is too unpleasant to say out loud. When one asks about a friend getting test results from the doctor, and the answer is, “Yes, and she’s going straight to M. D. Anderson,” the diagnosis is understood. No need to leave the word “cancer” hanging in the air. Sometimes it can be a little more overt. Question: “That youngest girl of Erma’s—did she ever marry?” Answer: Exaggerated lip motion, mouthing the word “lesbian” silently, followed by an eyebrow arch, slow lid blink, and ending with a tilted-head, knowing look at the questioner. Just a few samples of how Southerners can get the message across without ambiguity and without actually saying what they mean.
But the single subject that virtually no one brought up in conversation nor was it alluded to when I was child were certain events that happened in Dallas. (Picture me now, head tilting, waiting for you to nod your head that you know what I’m talking about.) Even when the shame had subsided to the extent that it could be talked about, it was in hushed tones focusing on which conspiracy theory seemed plausible. The horror of it is so vivid for me because my earliest complete childhood memories center around it and how the adults in my life reacted to it. So vivid, in fact, that I walked out of a black tie dinner some years back where Martin Sheen made a completely tasteless joke about being a Democrat overly concerned about coming to Dallas. But what do you expect from Charlie’s father?
So I was knocked out when Mr. Donald J. Trump of Queens, New York (not the Upper East Side by a long shot) actually alluded to something that I’m afraid to google for fear the Secret Service will show up on my door before you can say, “John Wilkes Booth.” But, did he really allude to the possibility of that?
I’m not sure, but it is pretty clear that anyone supporting Trump because he means what he says and says what he means is arguing a specious point. Someone who actually means what he says doesn’t need to send out a phalanx of surrogates offering a clarification. Someone who actually says what he means isn’t subject to his opponents, many in his own party, making political hay with his ambiguous words. Anyone who says what he means and means what he says doesn’t communicate using a bunch of sentence fragments strung together with an “although” and a “maybe” and an “I don’t know.”
Trump did expect us to read between the lines. I’d like to tell you what I think he meant, but I’m meeting friends for drinks in a couple of hours and don’t have time to freshen up AND take a meeting with the Secret Service.
