The view from the mountaintop

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once famously stated that he'd had a dream about reaching the mountaintop and seeing a brand new day from that lofty vantage point. He predicted he would probably not be allowed to get there with us, but urged us to strive on without him. Has that day finally arrived? Well no, not quite. But it certainly does seem to be in spitting distance.

It was a fairly big deal when America's first handicapped president was elected. The selection of the first Catholic to rule from the oval office was a major leap of faith. A non-Christian U.S. president would signal the dawn of a new day far surpassing our current willingness to support Israel. Perhaps we'll never have a president who was not born an American citizen, so Arnie will have to settle for governing California and being a Kennedy-in-law. Eventually a woman will become commander in chief, an event that will be both transcendant and transformative. I know it pains many that it will not be happening this year. But as I see it, no greater leap can be taken by this country than the one from kidnapping Africans from the cradle of civilization and forcing them into bondage and servitude to the day when the first African American takes the oath of the highest office in the land. That occassion will be beyond epic, beyond description until seen with our scarcely believing eyes, yet it may only be months away from becoming reality.

Senator Barack Obama's work is not yet done of course. There's still the pesky general election to compete in. The Republican party will throw everything they can at him. Will more Reverend Wright-like stories emerge after extensive digging into his past and present? Will a smear campaign be effectively waged that appeals to the darker nature of people who fear difference and reject legitimate integration of our society? When the votes of democrats, republicans and independents are all added together will there be enough Americans willing to hand over the role of commander in chief to a black man? No matter how inept President George W. Bush has been and how closely the democrats manage to tie Senator John McCain to his failed policies and stubbornly wrong mindset, will racial bias (never mind that he is biracial, aka half white) or an idiotic insistence that nobody with a name like his can really be a Christian(religion probably being the only disqualifier even more potent than race) cause this country to elect more of the same old same old over the potential for legitimate change?

I say potential because who knows how much Obama would actually be able to change and accomplish as president. In four years he'd certainly get some important things done, such as getting us out of an unnecessary war for starters. Given eight years he might be able to significantly alter the way the business of politics is conducted in our nation's capital. Then again, his noble intentions may simply run into roadblocks he'll be unable to hurdle. Or worst case scenario, his strongest detractors could prove to be right and it will turn out that Obama is basically a self serving smooth talker no different than the typical politician, merely having a better tan.



From what I've been able to glean from his words, stated in debates and interviews and speeches as well as written in his books, Obama is a fine man who I believe can be a great president. What I also understand is that the day an African American holds the highest position in this land is the day that monumental metamorphosis will begin to take place in inner cities throughout this great and greatly improving land. No longer will a little black boy or girl say that at best they may be able to someday become a basketball player, or a singer/actor/strip club dancer, or a nurse, or a drug dealer, or a teacher, or a preacher, or a soldier, or a high school graduate, or a baby's mama or a missing in action baby's daddy. They will say they're not quite sure what they'll become because all of a sudden there no longer seems to be strict limits imposed on their future. They will express gratitude for the efforts of countless others before them that brought us to this long deferred place, proclaim that at last our past history of legally sanctioned racism and dehumanization has been overcome, and gladly lay out plans to be whatever it is they most want to be because why should they settle for anything less. They will dance with joy for awhile on top of that mountain and then head down to reap rewards only to be found in the valley of true equality.
- Roy Pickering (author of Feeding the Squirrels) http://www.synergebooks.com/ebook_feedingthesquirrels.html

Link of the day: http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/fightthesmearshome/

**It's quite depressing that a web site like this had to be created in the first place, but one major negative of living in the internet era is that misinformation can be spread in very little time with the greatest of ease to all corners of the earth. For some reason the truth seems to travel much more slowly and not nearly as far.**

Diligence, Penny Pinching, Political Obsessing, and Pity

It's been about a month since my last entry. I intend to add to this blog more frequently and regularly going forward, though in my defense I have not been guilty of idle hands. Over the past several weeks I'm happy to say that I've been working on my novel "Matters of Convenience" on a pretty regular basis. The manuscript has surpassed 400 handwritten pages with its end on the not too distant horizon. At such a pace it's entirely possible that I'll complete the first draft by summer's end and will have it ready to submit to literary agents and/or publishers before the close of 2008. Not only have I been diligently working on my novel but I also penned a book in poetic form geared to toddlers that is waiting for accompanying illustrations by Erin. It has not been copyrighted so I won't post it here yet, but I am rather proud of it. "Baby's Day" is its title and Ava was the inspiration, particularly during the period when she was getting upset on a regular basis about being brought to daycare Monday - Friday. Erin and I did not want to leave her in the care of others and head to our day jobs any more than Ava wanted to be dropped off, but as a family that requires both our incomes we have no choice in the matter. I suppose "Baby's Day" was written as much to cheer Erin and I up as to give our daughter a more positive perspective on the situation. It's my sincere belief that once Erin has contributed her fantastic artwork to go along with my simple words, if/when published our book will be a welcome addition to the libraries of many working parents with young children. Stay tuned for Erin to give you a peek at an illustration or two from it. We definitely intend to create more children's books. Our second one will probably have an adoption theme.

Speaking of which, we're planning for our second child so that means we need to budget accordingly. As summer quickly approaches we'll hopefully find plenty of ways to make it the best one of our lives without breaking the bank. This is a potential topic to write about going forward. Last I checked, being flush with cash is not a requirement for fun. A lack of funds simply makes it a bit more challenging, which could in turn could make the results of our research more rewarding. There is plenty of wonder and laughter for us to experience without daunting price tags attached.

My obsession with Barack versus Hillary continues, as does my disappointment with the Clinton camp for doing their best to scare less enlightened voters away from Obama by portraying him as a man with strong racist, militant, unpatriotic ties. She isn't too far from proclaiming (with plenty of supporters helping to spread her ugly message) that a vote for Obama may as well be one for Reverend Wright, Al Sharpton, Mike Tyson, OJ Simpson, Louis Farrakhan and whoever else makes certain sectors of White America nervous. Barack Obama is not a perfect man or a perfect candidate, and he will not make a perfect president. But if given the chance I do believe in his potential to be a great one, and if Hillary Clinton is to get the opportunity ahead of him (which still seems doubtful) I only hope that she does so fair and square rather than appealing to the darker natures of an older and/or lesser educated demographic that clings to the past of our great imperfect nation rather than embracing the future envisioned by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

The police officers who shot and killed Sean Bell on his wedding day as the 23 year old man left the strip club his bachelor party was held at have been acquitted. Perhaps it actually was a fair verdict. Maybe those police officers truly did see justifiable cause to fire 50 times at unarmed men. It's possible they really believed they were in danger and needed to shoot before being shot at first. I don't know precisely what took place on that fateful night with absolute certainty. What I do know is that Sean Bell is dead, his daughter is fatherless, his loved ones will find no peace from the legal verdict so need to look elsewhere for solace, and that black men scare certain people. Amadou Diallo frightened cops with his wallet, causing them to pump 41 bullets into him. Barack Obama continues to scare off Hillary Clinton's strongest base of support. I'm sure I've made someone somewhere nervous at some point by my mere presence. It doesn't make me angry anymore so much as sad.

That's all for now. Take care.

- Roy Pickering (author of Feeding the Squirrels)

http://www.synergebooks.com/ebook_feedingthesquirrels.html

Don Imus sticks foot (and leg and torso) in big mouth

I do not listen to Don Imus' radio show, other than catching a few minutes of the televised version here and there. So I found it interesting, though certainly not surprising in lieu of recent events, to learn upon doing a google search that over the years Imus and characters on his radio show have:

* compared the appearance of black NBA players to apes
* called award-winning black New York Times journalist Gwen Ifill "the cleaning lady"
* referred to award-winning black New York Times journalist Bob Herbert as a "quota hire"
* referred to residents of Harlem as "molignans" (the Italian equivalent of "coons")
* referred to the black wife of former Secretary of Defense William Cohen as a "big-haired ho"
* called tennis players Venus and Serena Williams "animals"

And in a July 19, 1998 interview on "60 Minutes," Imus admitted to hiring a producer specifically "to do nigger jokes" for the show.

Somehow he managed to get away with all of this relatively unscathed. He may be the only "shock jock" with name recognition reasonably equivalent to Howard Stern, who is no friend or fan of Imus, but also no stranger to censorship. As a writer, I'm not a big fan of censorship myself. As a human being, I'm not a big fan of racist, anti-woman rhetoric. As a guy who appreciates a wide range of humor, I understand that insensitivity may not be politically correct, but it can often be damn funny and not especially mean spirited. I'm not a big fan of women's college basketball (I don't even watch the men. When it comes to sports, I typically stick to watching professionals), so perhaps I cannot speak intelligently about the Rutgers team. But if I was to make a blind guess, I'd say that probably not every one of their nappy headed players is a ho, that not every ho on the team is nappy headed, and that a pretty high percentage of them are probably neither nappy headed nor ho'ish. In fact, my research shows that the team includes includes a class valedictorian, a future lawyer and a musical prodigy.


Repercussions are coming fast and furious. Sponsors such as American Express Co., Sprint Nextel Corp., Staples Inc., Procter & Gamble Co. and General Motors Corp. have pulled ads, the televised simulcast was dropped, Imus has been suspended without pay for two weeks, he has suffered the indignity of issuing a multitude of insincere public apologies, and he has become precisely what he likes to deliver - a punch line. Yet this is not considered by some to be ample punishment. They want Don Imus to be fired. His apologies ring false to them, and the assertion that his cruelty was unintentional holds little credibility. Perhaps Mr. Imus has a point. We all know how easy it is to accidentally refer to someone as a nappy headed ho. I'm sure I've done it at least three times today. And someone who merely gets paid an enormous amount of money to speak on public airwaves can't possibly be expected to pay attention and be held accountable for every little thing he says, right?

Don Imus may be too much of a money maker to be fired by CBS for a faux pas they're surely praying will quickly go away once something even more ridiculous takes place, like Britney Spears and Paris Hilton becoming a televangelist duo. Or the resurrection of Anna Nicole Smith to proclaim that her daughter has no biological father, but was the result of an immaculate conception. And if enough outside pressure is mounted to force the network's hand, Imus will no doubt land on his feet with someone else in no time flat. He has already stated that he's sick and tired of apologizing, the one piece of honesty that I'll give him credit for. But if he expects me to believe he isn't a bigot, he may as well try to sell me the Brooklyn Bridge while he's at it. And if he expects anyone to side with his decision to make derogatory comments about a group of college girls who were fresh off the sting of defeat in the NCAA championship game, he may need to search long and hard among his most ardent supporters.

I bet he thinks that if a black comedian said something equally offensive about white people, not merely as much grief would result. And you know what? He'd be right. Is this fair? Maybe not, but plenty in life is unevenly distributed. Call it reparations or affirmative action or whatever you wish, but after being dragged from Africa, enslaved for generations, followed up by decades of separate and unequal treatment that has black people perpetually scrambling to reach equal footing in this country (great strides have surely been taken to date, but have we arrived in the Promised Land that Martin Luther King Jr. saw in his fantastical dream? Not quite), the right to tell a few jokes at the expense of the oppressor has certainly been earned. Just try not to overly paint with too broad a stroke.

Don Imus does not have any problems catching a cab or being offered a job after acing an interview, and he probably does not make little old white ladies in the elevator extremely uncomfortable simply by his proximity. He is not considered to be less intelligent or articulate or even an inferior swimmer simply based on his melanin count. So no, he has not earned the right to call someone he has never even met and whom he knows next to nothing about, someone who could be my mother, or sister, or daughter a nappy headed ho and expect to get a laugh from me.

The line between playful tease with comedic intent and a personal hang up about members of a different sex and race is not all that fine. My advice to Don Imus is this. If you're too blind to see the line and distinguish which side you're on, don't go anywhere near it.