“In the long run, we shape our lives and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we do, and the choices that we make are, ultimately, our responsibility.”
-Eleanor Roosevelt
I was never one, much, to start a
fight. I don’t like fights, bickering or
drama of any kind actually. Why? The people fighting always end up looking
like narcissistic jack asses, who are so full of their own self-importance, that
each refuses to believe that the other may, despite the difference of opinion,
actually have something of value to contribute.
So, people fight because they believe
they know, for a fact, that they are right and everyone else is wrong. Countries go to war, because someone decided
that it was the right thing to do on behalf of everyone else. People swear on the Bible that they speak for
all of mankind when they expound on one subject or another. There will always be someone, somewhere, who
will swear that they speak for everyone else.
It can be frustrating at times; all
those folks that assume that they speak for you and me. Those, which say they speak for me, start out
speaking quite eloquently. Then, as is
always the case when someone disagrees with how they think or what they are
saying, eloquence, dictation and persuasion quickly turns into spitting,
swearing, cursing, rioting, looting and sometimes the taking of a life.
I do not want to return to a time when
race riots and hangings were the standard norm.
I get history. I get that the
battle, for Civil Rights, was hard fought.
I get that the fight is still ongoing.
What I don’t get is why Al Sharpton is trying to move us back to the
1960’s. It’s that damn Bandwagon again.
I appreciate that the verdict, in the
Zimmerman trial, did not go as many wanted it to but regression is not the
answer. It will never be the answer.
I appreciate that Al fights for the
rights of blacks who he feel have been unjustly, and unfairly, treated. I appreciate that he follows the teachings
and beliefs of Martin Luther and Malcolm X.
I absolutely appreciate that both men, Martin and Malcolm, gave their
life so that the quality of mine would be greatly improved.
However things were back then, and I
know from history just how bad they were, I can now use any bathroom that I
feel like now. I can sit anywhere on the
bus that I choose. My son can attend any
school he chooses to without fear of being hanged when he steps onto the
campus, but if Al doesn’t tone down the “All blacks need to rise up and fight like
hell” rhetoric, then I fear that is exactly what will happen.
Telling all blacks to “Do whatever you must to be heard” and “Show the white man that we mean business” is about the most
ignorant thing I’ve heard in decades.
Don’t get me wrong, we, as a nation of people, still have a long way to
go, but I would never spit in the face of my ancestors by proclaiming that my
struggle was somehow more important than theirs was. My grandmother is as white as the driven snow,
and my grandfather is as red as the stripes on the American Flag. I will not, nor will I ever, turn my back on
my own family for the glory of Al Sharpton, or anyone for that matter.
I am not a fan of regression. I am not a fan of the bandwagon.
I was hoping that thing would break down,
or that someone would be desperate enough to wagon-jack the damn thing, strip
it and sell the parts off; no such luck I’m afraid. I hate that wagon. It symbolizes idiocy and ignorance and leaves
behind a trail of buffoonery whenever it passes through town.
I saw it slither its way into town back in
1987 when it picked up a 15-year-old named Tawana Brawley. It also stopped long enough to pick up Bill
Cosby, Al Sharpton, Alton Maddox, Vernon Mason and a host of others. I also watched as it ran them all down.
I thought that would be the last I
heard of it. NO SUCH DAMN LUCK! I was at home, munching on popcorn and
watching a kick-ass movie, when I heard the familiar squeak of well-worn spokes
as breaking news cut into my movie in 2008; when the verdict came back in the shooting
death of Sean Bell. That shooting was
unjustified and took the life of a man who’d done absolutely nothing wrong.
I decided to move thinking, stupidly
as it turns out, that the further I got away from the bandwagon the less likely
it would be to roll down my street again.
NO SUCH DAMN LUCK!
The son-of-a-bitch came through again,
just a year later in 2009, with new wheels, a new paint job, a killer tune-up
and with passengers that should have known better than to hitch a ride on that
damn thing in the first place; beer at the White House anyone?
We can argue that justice was not
served when the verdict, in a high profile case, does not go how we believe it
should have. Sometimes, it goes in our
favor, and sometimes it doesn’t. But,
inciting race riots and dividing the country into two colors, AGAIN, is not,
nor has it ever been the answer. The
justice system, in the US, may not be perfect, but it is our justice
system.
I have always been taught that you
choose your battles in life. If you’re smart,
you choose them wisely.
What can we do instead? We can take the lessons learned, in the
Trayvon Martin Case, and use them as a springboard to change by continuing to
fight the right way. We need to enact
laws that address crimes of this nature with stiffer penalties for those that
commit them. Give the jury some ammo, and
leeway, in how their verdict can come back.
If the jury only has two options, then that’s all that they have!! They can’t make up another option and go with
whatever. And, if the facts in the case
lean more toward one way then the other, they will choose the option that best
suits; even if they’re pissed that they can only come back with that decision.
It sucks. Doing things the right way takes a lot of
time. It’s a slow-as-hell way to get
things done, but they do get done. The
fact that I, as a black female, can walk down the street, in the predominately
white city of Evansville, Indiana, without being gang raped, and left in the
streets for dead by a group of white men while the cops drive over my body and
keep going, IS proof that the fight is being won. The fact that there is a black president in
office speaks for itself. For those of
you just tuning in, whites outnumber blacks 3-1, so white America ELECTED A
BLACK PRESIDENT.
Somehow, that knowledge seems to have
escaped most of those who are rioting and looting. Somehow, that fact has gotten lost amid the
hate and dissatisfaction over the Zimmerman verdict.
Rioting, looting and beating innocent
people to within an inch of their life, in the name of Trayvon Martin, is
sick. The fact that our “self-elected” black
leaders respond to these antics by saying idiotic things like, “black America
is doing what it feels it needs to do in order to be heard,” is asinine. It shows an absolute lack of intelligence and
true leadership on their part; which is why they do NOT speak for me!
The wheels turn slowly. You don’t see results overnight. It takes time, planning and a whole lot of
lobbying to change and update the laws which make up our justice system. Ensuring a better outcome and quality of life,
for those that come after us, is what we need to work toward.
The past is just that. We are meant to learn from it. We were never meant to repeat it. The Zimmerman verdict is now in the
past. Honoring the name and life, of
Trayvon Martin, by beating innocent people and destroying businesses, in an already
weak economy, is not showing strength in the face of adversity.
You do not honor the life of one, by destroying the life of another. That is not "making Trayvon and his family proud." I do not condone, nor agree with, the rioting, looting and destruction of property and life as a way of "justifying anger," because the verdict was "bogus bullshit." I am not going to go next door and pull my neighbor, a white woman who works 18-hours a day at 3-different jobs, out of her home and beat her to within an inch of her life while shouting "That's justice for Trayvon."
I can’t go back and re-write
history. I wish I could. The Holocaust would never have happened; if I
could rewrite history. Slavery would
never have happened. Child abuse and
rape would not exist. Indians would never have had their land, and their way of life, taken away from them. Hatred would not
exist. Prejudice would not exist. Charles Manson would never have been born and
Sharon Tate would be a grandmother ten times over by now. Women would be paid just as much as men, hunger would not exist and poverty would be known to no one, Selma would not have happened, Rosa would
have been left to sit in peace and Martin Luther would be the oldest, longest
standing congressman in Washington. And,
Eve MOST DEFINITELY would not have gone anywhere near that blasted
tree!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hindsight will, and has always been,
twenty-twenty. I hope that we all learn
from recent events. I hope that we do
not fall back on the hatred of the past in the hopes that it will fix the
issues of the present. As always, I hope
for a better tomorrow, and I pray that you do as well.
Oh, and I’d like to offer up an award,
for 1-million American dollars, to anyone with information that will lead to
the hiding place, or location, of that damn Bandwagon. I have been given clearance, via the Justice
Department, to use any and all necessary force in the destruction of it when I
find it!!!
