Tab Gilbert taking a contemplative break from hiking and taking in the view of Weiss Lake from a cliff in Cherokee Rock Village: Glynn Wilson

Tales From the MoJo Road –
By Glynn Wilson –

CHEROKEE ROCK VILLAGE, Ala. – If the conservative Republicans on Fox News, talk radio and social media are just going to go on and on calling liberal Democrats “libs” and talk endlessly about “sticking it to the libs” while Donald Trump and Elon Musk go about dismantling the United States government and disrupting and destroying American democracy in the fake news DOG name of “efficiency,” I have a suggestion for a new name for them. If a liberal is a lib, then why are we not going on MSNBC and Facebook calling conservatives “cons?”

“Let’s stick it to the cons by telling the truth,” I say.

Being “woke” is not a bad thing. It’s called being awake and educated and listening to the science, not just making stupid shit up and doing it your way no matter where the actual highway leads.

You can see how this monicker fits, right, since these so-called conservatives really are not politically conservative at all in any accurate historical sense. William F. Buckley, Milton Friedman and Ronald Reagan were conservatives. Many conservatives in the 20th century actually believed in “conserving” the environment, not destroying it at will for the sake of pure capitalism.

These Republicans are simply cons who are trying to copy the mob boss mentality of Don the Con. They are grifters and con artists, selling the uneducated, ignorant masses a “con job,” like every televangelist preacher who ever took to the airwaves and asked for money “in the name of the Lord.”

Another name for this, of course, is political propaganda.

This is a prime example of the kind of idea that comes from turning off the damn cable TV and talk radio and social media and doing some original thinking of your own for a change, preferably in nature.

My buddy Tab Gilbert and I spent a few days off the grid this past week camping at a place you probably didn’t know existed, probably because no one seems to want to tell the real story of the history of the place. It’s a hidden mountain ridge 1700 feet above sea level near Noccalula Falls in Gadsden where Creek and Cherokee Indians lived for thousands of years, dating back to the last Ice Age. That was before European settlers came across the Atlantic on big boats and discovered it and wanted them removed from the land so they could have it and ultimately destroy it for themselves.

Camping, Hiking and Rock Climbing at Cherokee Rock Village

Some humans seem to be by nature a destructive species, especially those who deny the concept of evolution itself and want to believe deeply that a god gave them the right to fuck everything up.

I’m here to tell you that if there is a God, he or she ain’t happy with this situation. If these people do not want to believe the scientists and experts who are now all going to be fired and stoned to death like the lepers of the Old Testament, then we might as well tell these dumbasses it was God’s will when their houses are picked up by massive tornadoes and hurricanes and deposited it in some ravine in splinters. When the fires and floods come to take them away, maybe they will believe it was God’s wrath.

“Repent” you stupid sinners, because Mother Nature is not happy with how you’ve treated this once beautiful planet.

It certainly seems that nature is out of kilter these days, whether you “believe” in global warming and climate change or not. On Thursday, after we spent a fine spring afternoon setting up camp, the wind started blowing in from the northwest at upwards of 15 miles per hour and created havoc with the atmosphere. There were not many small cells of rain showing up on the Weather Channel iPhone app, until that cold wind collided with the hotter southern air, and then wham, we were sitting inside in the middle of a hail storm. I kid you not and have video footage to prove it.

Then the temperature dropped precipitously, and without heat powered by electricity, it became a couple of nights of hunkering down in a van and a tent waiting out the cold storms in the dark.

By Saturday the rain was gone, but the wind then turned and came at us directly from Canada for awhile, then finally moderated and the clouds gave way to sunshine. By Saturday afternoon the rock climbing clubs from Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina and even Louisiana began their ascents of the cliffs and sandstone boulders, and we hiked in between the rocks from one end of the impressive natural area to the other.

Early Sunday morning Tab packed up to leave early, but I hung around all morning nursing what was left of the fire and packing up slowly over the last of the coffee.

Looking at the calendar, I have two more weeks to kill in Alabama before making my way back through Tennessee, Virginia and Maryland to Washington, D.C.

It feels like killing time. But maybe it’s just time killing us all.

More Photos

Watch for rocks overhead while hiking among the sandstones at Rock Creek Village: Glynn Wilson

A view of the impressive sandstone structures at Cherokee Rock Village: Glynn Wilson

A view of the impressive sandstone structures at Cherokee Rock Village: Glynn Wilson

A view of our campsite at Cherokee Rock Village: Glynn Wilson

A view of our campsite at sunset at Cherokee Rock Village: Glynn Wilson

Tab Gilbert hiking among the shallow caves at Rock Creek Village: Glynn Wilson

Tab Gilbert hiking among the shallow caves at Rock Creek Village: Glynn Wilson

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