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by statueman from Los Angeles

Last Post 1 day, 3 hours Ago


Everybody can Change
May 13, 2008 | 8:40 PM
Category: News
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When I was growing up in small town southern Illinois I found out that I was the first black man in a lot of things in that town… all before the age of 10.  I was the first black man in many white folk’s houses.  I was the first black friend of many boys my age and by default the first black to ever sit down to dinner with their families.  As I grew up I was constantly asked if I considered myself white or black and it took me quite some time to understand the question.  Oh I had plenty of black friends and was soon known for getting the black friends and the white friends together though that was easier said than done.

 

It’s sad because the town I lived in hasn’t changed much.  The same racial tensions my age group experienced has been conveniently but decisively passed on to the next generation.  Also my area is still the victim of much false Christian teaching equating color with character and interracial marriage with national security issues.  Now I am a Christian and a conservative republican fundamentalist style one at that but I reserve prophecy for future and not past events.  So to say that the mongrel hordes are coming is well… too late… might want to start heading back to Europe.

 

You see I was born with the civil rights amendment in 64 and at the age of 3 in 1967 the law against inter-racial marriage was taken off the books and of course Sidney showed up for dinner.  Soon after a charming but not too educated white couple started sing “Those were the Days” and were quickly followed by a black couple singing “Moving on Up”.  But before that Uhura kissed Captain Kirk and TV stations got bomb threats and I tried to write myself into the Star Trek plot but Gene told me it was too soon.

 

So here we are… one grown up mixed kids impressions of very mercies of God at work in a country he was blessed to be born in.  God Bless America land that I love stand beside her and guide her with the light from the lamp up above!  So now we hold these truths to be self evident that people can and should change in order to form a more perfect union and insure domestic tranquility.  But how can we re-habilitate what was never habilitated to begin with?  We gotta learn to be crazy about one another and not just go crazy on one another.  Do we really need a book to tell us God is Love?  Do we really need laws to make us a civilized society?  Do we really need churches to show us how we de-segregated but never integrated?  Well… yes, yes and no.

 

What the next step is I don’t know…  But we better find out… Cause we can’t go on pretending to be color blind when the big pink elephant in our living room is more than just a drug and alcohol problem.  We can’t keep pretending to know the answers when they present no solutions.  We can’t keep on doing the same things the same way and expecting different results.   We can’t keep on shaking our heads and throwing our hands up in despair when bowing our heads and holding hands in hope and prayer might just get us the help we need.

 

Philadelphia you are the birth place of my… of “our” freedom and the apple of the eye of each and every American Citizen and peace and freedom loving folks everywhere on planet earth.  Rocky Balboa perhaps said it best after his fight in Russia (Rocky VI) when the crowd went from booing him to cheering him on…“If I can change, and you can change, everybody can change.” 

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Member Comments Total Comments: 21
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Menamouse read my blog
May 13, 2008 | 11:29 PM

Statueman, Thank you, I meant everyword I said. I've read your blogs, I agree with some, not all of them. I am also a Conservative Republican (for the most part) I am definitely a fiscal conservative, I am in the middle on some social issues. Anyway, I am not opposed to torture (at least not water-boarding) unfortunately, when you are dealing with animals the only way to beat them is to do it at their own game. You can not reason with terrorists, they hate us more than they love life and that is a formula for disaster if we try to reason with them.
statueman read my blog view my photos
May 14, 2008 | 12:58 AM

Thank you Menamouse

I try to be the type of person folks like to disagree with.

My main focus here in the philly myfox is to offer the hope of solution because I believe those solutions are there.

Big believer in 'ask seek knock' to 'get find open' the unemployed resources that are presently working on more interesting material.

The M1 Abrams tank is a lovely 40 million dollar weapon that a mere staff sergeant can operate with a crew of 3. But it is obsolete in a low intensity conflict like the one we are experiencing now in the middle east.

So too it maybe that our police forces need augementation and re worked command structures. We need to reign in the bad lawyers who keep the system stuck so they can make a buck.

There's plenty of social workers who wouldn't mind spending one weekend a month doing something that would improve the social condition of the next armed robber.
CristyLi read my blog view my photos
May 14, 2008 | 11:57 AM

Xiexie (Thank you) for your comments and your experience, will look forward in reading more of your articles. I have been writing a lot about the devastating earthquake in one of my other Blogs that you may be interested in and may find at:
http://cristyli.blogspot.com/
statueman read my blog view my photos
May 15, 2008 | 1:29 AM

Thanks CristyLi,

I had a look and wow some pictures really got me. Did you see my blog at myfoxLA entitled "Don't Boycott China Olympics" ?
LJ69 read my blog
May 15, 2008 | 9:17 AM

I was raised during the 60's. I went to a school that was approx. 65% white 40% black and 5% hispanic and other races. We were all socially interactive since kindergarten and although I was aware some of my close friends were black..(and I'm sure they was aware I was white) but we never discussed it. It was never an issue. Even when Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated...the next day there was NO problems in our school... somehow we understood we personally had nothing to do with it. I think part of the success of our school was that we wasn't forced to be together. We chose to be. ..and another part ..our parents didn't interfere ... i was never told ... why did you bring "him" to our house ... and i always felt welcomed when at their houses.
statueman read my blog view my photos
May 15, 2008 | 1:11 PM

I started out in Los Angeles and the mix was great there and the race thing not so pronounced in kindergarten and grade school 70-71 in LA... But when I was in school in 72-75 in Southern Illinois I assure you the demographic changed for me and all of the sudden I was living in a town that was somewhere between Mayberry and Good Times. Two Mexicans and one Indian lived in town and everybody knew them. Do you hear the Twilight Zone melody in the back ground? "I am the Night... color me black."

Anywho... to this day the town is still clearly having deep seated problems in that regard and St Louis is also still clearly divided along racial lines. Once in the 1980 we had a race clash at my High School where I went out and put myself between the two groups and looked back and forth at them both as if trying to decide which group to join. Got both sides laughing... the cops seemed to appreciate it and I went back to my Analytical Geometry class to pats on the back.

This is my country... I know what I've seen and I've seen racist thinkers of both persuasions change. (Wow on the news they're talking about same sex marriages as I write this... maybe we should not change too much?)
LJ69 read my blog
May 16, 2008 | 6:23 AM

A city becomes racially divided when parts of the city are no longer economically viable. We are a society that likes to put the blame on anything but ourselves and tend to look down upon or feel superior to the inhabitants of those parts of the city which are not economically viable. There is a degree of validity to those feelings since we all have the same opportunities in this country to suceed. Philadelphia is a wonderful city made up of many diverse peoples and flavors. When i was a boy (many years ago) people went to the Jewish neighborhood to buy textiles, clothes, sewing needs. The Italian neighborhood to buy fruits, cheeses, cheesesteaks, vegatables. Chinatown for a romantic date and dinner. All these areas made sure that their shopping areas were safe. There was one area however we never went to. That was Harlem. Because it wasn't safe. Not even safe for their own inhabitants. But it would of been nice to be able to go there, and maybe enjoy the city's best ribs, or greens, or whatever. Harlem was never economically viable and thus looked down upon.
statueman read my blog view my photos
May 16, 2008 | 9:23 AM

LJ69,

You know... all rhetoric aside I think that folks would do well to share as you have just done without the overiding assumption that "it must be their fault". The truth is that when you have a group of people from China, or a group of people from Italy, or a group of Ethiopians you have something more co-hesive and socially viable in this country... you have something more workable and positive and socially mobile then when you have a collection of former slaves from god knows where.

It's sad to me that folks turn a deaf ear to people when they mention this. I'm a creole who grew up with a strong family group with a lineage and social structure within the family. But I remember haveing friends from the "projects" down the street who thought my family was wealthy... which by comparison...

Anywho... I hear you. But what is the next step cause Lord knows we gotta do sumptin. If we don't then Wright will be right.
LJ69 read my blog
May 16, 2008 | 9:43 AM

these former "slaves" actually have an advantage over other immigrants. They are black. Recognizable. So what works against them in many incidents (racial profiling) can work for them. The next step for them is to get their act together. The good people of the community (which is the mass majority) need to take over their neighborhoods. Firstly, they need to shop, spend, hire, in their own community. So when one of their own opens a store ... don't rob him, smash his windows in, or make it unsafe for others to shop there. If this mentality was followed, there would soon be more shops. It don't happen overnight, but it happens.
LJ69 read my blog
May 16, 2008 | 9:49 AM

I remember when Camden was a premier city. Beautiful stores, neatly trimmed homes, industry. RCA records got their start there. But during the 60's the demographics began to change. The stores soon was being robbed ...and slowly one by one they began to close and pull out of camden. What was once a beautiful thriving town, soon became a war zone. No need for this ... the community was already thriving ... all the inhabitants had to do was take pride in their community, shop there, and continue to make it so others could shop there. (as they had done for years) There is an expression .. it goes .. Don't s*hit where you eat.
statueman read my blog view my photos
May 16, 2008 | 10:02 AM

Yeah well LJ69 now you know why the civil rights amendment passed so quickly. Divide and conquer by economic integration. In 1960 there were more black owned businesses, townships and stronger black family groups but with the welfare system and the integrated work force and the whites only signs taken down the balance shifted and ooops... no more strong black economies cause now we can poop where you eat.

Don't be all that and a bucket of chicken with such patronizing know it all remarks unless you've got something more viable than the gospel according to whatever mutual admiration society you belong to. Some folks would help black people most by not trying to help black people... cause sambo will take your food and poo*p where you eat.
LJ69 read my blog
May 16, 2008 | 10:35 AM

lol where did you go to school? the jessie jackson school of adjectives? You stream a good line of verbs but in the end you say nothing. I'm not patronizing a bit ... I'm not the one who fears the police and i don't live in a ghetto. Economics is the key to freedom. You can either heed the advice or coninue to shine shoes, kill each other, and walk carefully to avoid the poop on the street. ... and when i say you i mean the community, not you personally. My only help to the black man would be to patronize his shops once his neighborhood is safe
statueman read my blog view my photos
May 16, 2008 | 10:49 AM

I did like Jessie Jackson... still do really. He's just a man. Like me and you... talking our own lines of bull about the country we care about.

You know my main point to folks is I don't know what to do about the ghetto and neither do you so stop with the barfly subtly racist rhetoric.

"continue to shine shoes"

You know LJ69, when I visited Europe in a very short period of time I could tell the difference between a Frenchman and a German, I could tell the difference between a Norweigen a guy from Denmark. But I could never tell an Italian...

you know why?
statueman read my blog view my photos
May 16, 2008 | 10:49 AM

CAUSE THEY ALREADY KNOW EVERYTHING!!!
LJ69 read my blog
May 16, 2008 | 12:45 PM

From your lips to God's ears ....
statueman read my blog view my photos
May 16, 2008 | 1:09 PM

My only help to the black man would be to patronize his shops once his neighborhood is safe. - LJ69

Wow... there are no safe black neighborhoods I guess? My goodness... we'll get right on that so that you can 'start' patronizing.
LJ69 read my blog
May 16, 2008 | 1:39 PM

Well i can see this is going nowhere ... i put in what i know to be a viable solution and you continue to push it to a more personal level. Starting with catholicism and right up to your remark about italians. You simply have lost any credibility you once had with me. Ciao
ibejim read my blog view my photos
May 16, 2008 | 1:56 PM

Maybe I could tell statueman a story about "a man named Jed?"
ibejim read my blog view my photos
May 16, 2008 | 2:42 PM

Or, perhaps, a little "rheumatiz medicine" would help us all?
statueman read my blog view my photos
May 16, 2008 | 2:46 PM

LOL yeah a whole pool full of it for my fundraiser when I run for mayor of Los Angeles...
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statueman

I'm a retired vet who loves to come up with donut shop solutions through soup kitchen prophecies. My goal is to encourage the growth of alternative sentencing through "habilitation" programs. These quiet unsung organizations need our quiet unsung support. (Edit May 24, 2008, Of course since then I've been getting into more interesting material.) _________________________
I don't delete comments in my blogs as I don't like it when folks delete mine. (Edit June 11, 2008 - I have and will delete posts argueing about interpretation of scripture.)(Edit August 18, 2008 - I've decided too delete the comments of folks who continually use offensive name calling.) _________________________
Mc Cain by a landslide for President (See Archive January 2007 "A Muslim for President?") _________________________
Hillary to quit the primary on April 25th following an unwanted revelation. Oh well... scratch that one! _________________________
Brook White for the win on Idol Oh well... scratch number two... I wonder who'll be our next president? So far my predictions are not doing so well.

Member Since: 10/30/2006


 

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