A White Christmas

This is a big subject that takes a lot of research to get the statistics right but I feel compelled to write about it as I finish the last chapters of the book by Isabel Wilkerson “The Great migration” if you haven’t had a look at it buy it and read it is a splendid journey. So I was thinking about how does one approach the subject of fairness and opportunity and the idea of what we interpret as a fair playing field without noticing that decade after decade since the first African set foot on these shores, that the opportunities have been almost nonexistent as far as the average everyday man and women looking for a peaceful safe place to live and good employment. How would others who were like the Jews but the far worse off African Americans have survived? Would they have ghetto’s like they did in Poland but still desperate and in full force today in every American city, would they resort to a life of crime to support a life addicted to drink and drugs because how much resistance and unfairness and debasing hatred can one man face? Honestly how would an average white American man survive say Jim Crow? How would the average white American man survive the unfairness and cronyism that exists keeping him out of any type of employment that would indeed lift him out of poverty? He would be in the exact ruin that the average African American man who is uneducated and possibly ghetto dwelling, post jail or worse a death curse, death before 30, this is what he faces today. So I say it is miraculous we have such a bright light in President Obama who is fighting the very system that has continued to keep us (who are blessed to be of color) down. What is the face of the billionaire? He is 50 plus white and entitled. How many Billionaires of color who are African American? I can think of two Oprah and Johnson from BET. There has to be a few more. This is out of hundreds and I think it is reflective of the unspoken cronyism, the racist radical, okay not all conservatives are racist maybe but I will say it; The racist radical conservative RIGHT. Yes Mr. Murdoch. Now as I think this I hear my friend Julie say nothing is viler then the smug liberal who fancies him or herself not racist but in fact is the worst kind. They are closeted in their racism…Okay so this lack of opportunity it bleeds over to woman and children this dominance but it is still so present and damaging and sadly difficult to see it changing either because it may be biological the survival of the fittest. Or so systemic it will take decades to shift. Go Occupiers! Finally in sports a sanctioned form of slavery where some athletes are compensated but not until they break free of the shackles of college football and ownership of NCAA where billions are made for a chosen few on the backs of talented majority African American athletes. Again another horrid imbalance of power sanctioned by institutions across America, when people hint that racism is dead, I laugh and say look to the street look into every corner of every American city and see the color of poverty, it is brown and it is female and it is children. Look at the faces of privilege, what color is it? It is White.
Tell me with a straight face that racism is dead…I think not. It is a gloomy message but the holidays bring it out of me because there is something systemically wrong about Victorian Christmas when so many are suffering. Peace.

Ouch!

It just occurred to me that this country the USA has a daddy fixation and it is expressed through the GOP race. We want a big cat to come and rescue the economy like magic. Just wrinkle their big daddy nose like bewitched and save us. Only the caveat is we cannot feel the effects of the newness. I know for fact that most mortals would not be able to do or be doing a good job(as the President) with this political climate or structure or deficit. Nonetheless we expect our president to do just that and I feel the deal with the devil (Newt Gingrich)that seems to be the GOP race will in fact present a threat to President Obama. Imagine a Newt world seriously just sit back and imagine the most racist divided weird world were all of us have to carry our passports to say visit Manhattan? Misery! I am going to say something I mean with my whole heart. I want all of the racist baby boomers to expire and open up the field so the younger generation can fix this mess. It is true we need a giant overhaul we need to exclude corporations from the process. Until that becomes the normal we will never see prosperity in this country because tax loop holes designed to protect corporations will prevent us from getting our fair share of taxes that support our programs that encourage our young and protect the old and needy so until those loop holes are closed we will never get out of the red. Pray for us.

Integration...at home.

Is it racism that is underneath the deep hate for Obama and maybe hate is a strong word, maybe its aversion? To what you ask? To his intelligence, his swagger, his soft stance, in his style or his passive aggressiveness where on the surface we think he is treading water but in fact he is rooting out dictators and despots being a ninja badass. Unlike his predecessor he is actually doing something to help us... I have a few friends who are staunch conservatives which is code for they don’t have any friends intimate friends of color who want fiscal prioritizing meaning profits at all costs who dislike this man in office because he is “other”. Now I hold faith that these people are possibly ignorant for fear of the new and I hold that one day we will each be more tolerant of the differences we each have. Till then I am amazed by the entrenched racism and how many of us are blatant in practicing it. Maybe I am a bigot against bigotry which isn’t good either. Still we have an economy to build up a country to help and love and support and it is important that it start at home in our smaller circle, it’s important that we examine our hearts. Do we have a diverse group of friends? Do we help others who need us by volunteering for the less fortunate? Are we quick to extend friendship where it isn’t going to benefit us? Do we fear the intelligent and the informed? I pray the conservative right can rescue themselves in morality and ethics and all things good because watching the run up to the GOP primary listening to the republican candidates makes me shudder in fear. I find myself holding “them” in judgment like I fear they hold us who are liberal and of “color” and who support Obama for another term.

Winter Solistice

Yesterday I was walking my two dogs both large breed sport dogs, Abby and Jeppe. We had almost finished our walk when we turned a corner to go home, after sprinting up a steep but small hill, there in a stand of bushy young pine trees that are approximately 12 feet tall hiding in the dense young trees was a young buck, a two pointer with a bright white tail and a full thick coat. Now I wasn’t expecting him or him us but my female shot ahead and was running after him as he bound and leapt above her head. When I realized that the noise wasn’t the two dogs but one chasing a deer I was lucky to see it. I looked up to full body view of the young two point buck leap over and away from us as my female gave chase for a moment. My male didn’t quite register what was happening because he had his head buried into the back of my body which he does occasionally as we run up the hills. He does this and it makes me think he is pushing me or helping me run up those hills because compared to them I am very slow. So by the time he registered the deer it was way too late. This buck looked like Santa’s and it made me realize that the creator of that myth did a good job in describing the way they move. This creature shot up in the air as if defying gravity it was thrilling for the milliseconds I saw it in front of me. Later that day I took the doggies out again they do need to walk as much as possible as do I. There in the same stand of trees or bushes was a creature, something big and I suspect it was our young buck. He is now our young buck and we like him. This must be his nest and it spooked when it heard us walk back there again. It was in the exact area of where we saw him earlier. We didn’t actually see it as it shot through the stand of trees down the hill in the opposite direction as we were going. It made me squeal as we obviously disturbed him. Now I am hooked and as we went further into the woods I saw females, three of them near the part of our park I call the low land. We have a park where I live that is made up of three attached parcels of land that make up a 60 acre wood and it is all ours. I walk in it every day and I love it and realize I am lucky to have a “park’ and boy do we know it. I get to relax and enjoy nature. I am happy to announce that we share it with a big beautiful buck, and more very healthy looking deer and I bet that is why I sometimes we see proof of hunters in my wood. We have a lot of deer so I support hunting with permits of course and conservative practices. Still I am delighted to imagine that our wood is home to many beautiful creatures and what a blessing it is to share this magical wood with them. No matter how frustrated and cranky or put upon I feel I smarten up when I remember my good fortune and I have a lot but what really jolted me was seeing that creature as it shot high into the air just above my head. It was as if winter was announced as being almost here.