Growing up in Georgia in the 1970s, I always felt that the bad old day of Southern prejudice (偏见) and ignorance had passed and that we were1a new South built upon hard-won racial equality, charity and the sense that no one was 2 than anyone else.
I'm not so3anymore. Lately, I feel like our moral compass has been4, spinning to intolerance, greed and meanness.
In times of 5, I put my faith in Elvis Presley, who6the South's better angles. He was a hard worker, and 7 he lived the high life, he never forgot that he had been born into 8. I don't think you'll 9hear an interview with the man when he didn't express 10for all that life had given him.
And he was a self-made talent, perhaps the11entertainer of all time, born in a two-room shack(棚屋) in Tupelo, Mississippi. I've been there many times, reflecting on what it says about America .Greatness can be born12.
Elvis was famous for his generosity—13cars, expensive gifts and other handouts to anyone in need. That's how the Presleys14 the Great Depression(1929-1933). His father Vernon was a laborer who was often out of15, and the Presleys relied on the kindness of family and neighbors to get them 16 the hard time.
Today's politicians please the crowds with messages that praise the rich and powerful and think of the poor as 17 their fate18, the crowds believe that their problems could be solved if only the poor people below them didn't 19 so much. To blame an immigrant (移民)for “ 20 ” a job, instead of the CEO who won't pay a living wage.
Yet, I still believe, as Elvis once said, “Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it can't go in a way”.
