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Show RIVER otherwise this country wouldn't be in the shape it's in-but we've got it all figured out how to win the next one. We're gonna let the niggers burn down Detroit, Chicago, Washington, D.C., then we'll pick up our guns and march right through 'em." He howled with laughter and pounded on the steering wheel, probably as amused by our discomfort as by his joke. Sam drove through the black section of Helena, a pretty sorry place. Generations of families relaxing in the warm Sunday afternoon covered the porches of the sagging gray frame shacks. They'd be smiling and laughing, taking it easy, but as soon as they saw us their faces froze into blank stares as they silently watched us drive by. We drove past two young blacks carrying dismantled shotguns. "See that," said Sam. "They know better than to come out of the woods with those guns in one piece. If d be the last mistake they'd ever make." He told us that whenever any of the blacks got together or threatened to make trouble, the white men would run all the black men out of town. Sam warmed up and starting expounding on the race war that he saw as imminent and inevitable. I sat and listened to all this crap. I was scared. When he picked us up, I figured he had some crazy friends out in the woods who'd love to use me for target practice, so I sat and listened to his bullshit and didn't say anything. Sam took us to a grocery store and offered to pay for the food we bought. He invited us over to his place to eat and spend the night, but we begged off and he took us back to the waterfront. He left us puzzled: aside from his irrational obsession with racism, he was a nice guy. My silence and cowardice left me feeling sick. We got on the raft and left Helena behind. -200- |