Good Ole Boy

Coming from the southern culture where "good ole boy" has the very telling use of a negative connotation, I was a little hesitant to bring this one to the table, but, it is a telling use of the southern culture here in our United States of America, and since I got started in my career and learned how political everything in education is and was, as soon as I started hearing the telling phrase 16 years ago, "good ole boy", I quickly figured out the use of that language meant a lying windjammer that was full of hot air. Some man who walks softly in the community and placates with whatever his peers want to hear so that he can run with the big boys, another telling use of language in our American society. They want to fit in and be with the in crowd of their southern peers who make decisions which affect all of the rest of us in education and not out. They don't want to be the ones who "kick against the pricks" as Paul did, in the biblical sense before his conversion to Christianity. In the years that have passed, every time I hear the telling use of "he's a good ole boy", I know right away what that means, and even the tone and volume of the person's voice will change when they say that phrase about so and so. Personally, I know that the word has negative meaning that brings to mind dishonesty, under the table kinds of thinking and manipulations, and just sheer politics; we all know that those kinds of manipulative activities and attitudes go on in our culture and society on different levels and forms. It kind of also has the ring to me of "klu, klux, klan" which "good ole boy" is not nearly as malicious or evil in imagery or reality as that title, but still, it does have the tinge to it of an exclusive group of men in southern culture who are not necessarily on the up and up as far as motivations and forthrightness are completely concerned.