HE STRUCK FEAR IN MY HEART!

As my staff and I were about to leave the office today, I had an experience that gave me a pretty clear understanding of why some whites react with fear when they see a young black person coming their way on a dark street, in the elevator or walking down the ally behind them.  This experience reminded me of what Juan Williams said to get himself fired from NPR.  I know that we shouldn't feel this way, but unfortunately I agreed with Juan at the time, and that feeling was under scored earlier today.

Right at closing, a young white guy with a pimply face and a back pack just walked into the office and without saying a word, sat himself down, pulled his legs up into the fetal position and placed his back pack on the floor.  After several uncomfortable moments, one of my staff asked if she could help him, and he said "no, I'm just waiting for someone".  At about 5 minutes after five o'clock, I noticed that the blinds were still open, so I went up front to see what was going on, at which point my staff member got up and motioned to the back of the office.  When we got into my office, she explained that this young man had just stopped in, that he had not said much of anything and that she was afraid to ask him to leave because he was acting so strange.  I then went to the waiting area and asked him who he was waiting for and he said his mom.  I asked him if his mother was supposed to meet him at my office and he said no.  Now given the world that we currently live in where people just walk into places and start shooting, I was nervous enough that I decided to mozy back to my office and call the local police.  While I was on the phone with the police, the young man got up and left just as quickly as he had come in, which left me feeling a huge sense of relief.

I really can't remember the last time someone made me that uncomfortable, and as I drove home this evening, I couldn't help but wonder how many times I had heard one of my white friends relate such stories and walk away thinking how stupid thoughts like that were.  Well for everytime I may have had such a thought, I apologize because I've gotta say that kid really made me nervous.  Perhaps you read my blog post about profiling a couple of days ago in which I kind of joked about people that we need to profile.  Well, I have no doubt that I absolutely profiled this young man, but as my mother would say, "better safe than sorry".

I guess that our outlook on life really is formed by the experiences that we have, and that we all have fears, be they real or simply a part of our imagination. I'll try to stay away from spooky white guy citings for the next couple of days so that I can get back to some fun stuff in my next post.  Until next time, I'm Just Sayin, you can never be too careful!

MOM AND THE TSA

I recently went to Arizona to visit with my mother for a few of days and she related her most recent experience with the Transportation Security Agency at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport.  Just so that you understand how stupid these folks are and how ridiculous our security procedures are, here is a description of my mom.

Mom is 86 years old, weighs about 85 lbs, she’s in a wheel chair and oh by the way, she only has one leg! So she gets to the security gate and the guy says to her, we have to check your wheel chair, to which mom says you’re kidding.  The security guy says sorry miss, but it’s policy, we have to check you and the chair.  So mom being mom, says what do you think I have hidden in my chair, and the security person says well we have to check for explosives and other dangerous items that we cannot allow on the plane.  Well mom they finally checked the chair and my mother was allowed to get onto the plane.

Now, I’m Just Sayin, don’t we have a pretty good idea what the terrorist are, look like and where they are from?  Oops, I forgot, we can’t profile those folks as that wouldn’t be politically correct. Just kidding, not only do I think that we should profile for terrorist, I think we should profile all of the following folks as well:

15 to 30 year white guys who don’t have any friends who look and talk crazy, also if they wear long black trench coats, they should be searched at every opportunity.

15 to 30 year old black guys who wear their pants hanging off their butts and wearing head phones and a hooded sweat shirt.

Spanish guys driving old beat up Toyota, Nissan or a Ford Escort with a bent license plate.

Anyone who looks like he might be from the Middle East, especially if their speaking a language that we don’t understand.  Don’t worry about the guys wearing a turban, their Indians.  No, not those Indians, (Native Americans), I’m talking about  Indians from India.

Anyone black, white, or other, driving a Lexus and receiving food stamps or any other public assistance.

All white guys driving pickup trucks and carrying a gun of any kind.

This is only a partial list, so please feel free to add to the list if you wish.   I know it’s so easy to pick on the TSA folks, but they make it so ease, I just couldn’t help it. 

STATE OF THE UNION

I realize that the President gave his State of The Union speech several days ago, and initially I was going to write about what he had to say followed by some views on what those giving rebuttals to his speech had to say.  However after letting it marinate for a couple of days, I’ve decided to give my own view of the State of Our Union, so here goes.

First, to all of those folks who are so shook up by the fact that a black man occupies the office of President of The United States, I say to you that there have been 43 presidents before Barak Obama, and never once did black people start showing up at political rallies with guns.  No one formed a Tea Party to help rile up the ignorant and absolutely no one went out with racist signs, and supported any of the aforementioned idiotic stunts.  If black people could live through the 43  white presidents, it won’t kill you to live through at best 4 years, and worse case 8 years of a black president.

The State of the Union is such that those in power use that power to divide us along racial and social lines, using any means necessary to ensure that we stay divided so that they can hold onto power.  Don’t believe me?  Think about some of the following:

·         Why do people spend millions to get jobs that pay $180K per year? The answer is simply for money and power.  No, not that $180K salary, but all of the money that their receiving from lobbyist who are mostly working against the public interest.

·         Look at all of the people making money off of race.  Jackson, Limbaugh, Sharpton, Beck, Hannity and the list goes on and on.  These people don’t care about the poor and middle class, they are in it for the money.  And please, let’s not forget about all of those in our congress who should be trying to bring us together, but instead use race and class to keep us divided.

·         In America  we have people who  need Health Insurance, but have been convinced that it will help someone who doesn’t look like them, so they would rather do without than help a poor person or someone of another race.  That is the height of ignorance and stupidity.

·         How did we get to a state where we bail out big banks, corporations and insurance companies, but leave the common man and woman to out in the cold.  The strange thing is that black people think that all white people are all crooks who contributed to the financial meltdown, and white people seem to think that only blacks are losing their homes to foreclosure.  Both are false assumptions, and believe it or not, we have all been taken for a ride by those holding power.

So how do we improve the State of this Union?  For starters, if you don’t have a friend who doesn’t look like you, try to seek one or two out.  Now just remember that for this purpose, Asian’s are considered white, and yes, so are rich Hispanics.  Now, once you’ve got these new friends, remember how friends treat one another.  I not only work with my friends, we know one another’s families, we eat at one another’s homes, hang out during non work hours together.  We also treat one another with dignity and respect as well as respecting each other’s views.  Sometimes, that means that we have to agree to disagree, but our differences are not permitted to affect our friendship, after all, if that were the case, what kind of friends would we be?  In 1972, I met a young man from Alabama who became one of my closest friends in Army Basic Training.  He was a white guy, who after we got to know one another told me that at 21, he had never had a meaningful conversation with a black person until he met me.  while I found that unfortunate, I couldn’t hold that against him, as that was the environment in the south during that time, fortunately for me, I grew up in a place where such was not the case.  I haven’t seen James in over 30 years, but I would hope that the lessons that we learned from one another during those 8 weeks are still with him today, I know they are still with me!  When it comes down to it, people are just people.  You would be surprised how much we have in common if you just strike up a conversation with that person that you don’t know and who doesn’t look like you.

People this is the greatest country in the history of the world, and only we can destroy it from within.  If we don’t learn to live together with regard to Race, Class, or Religion we will do to ourselves, what no outside enemy is capable of.  

Good Service Should be Acknowledged

In so many cases in our daily dealings with those who provide goods and services to us, we walk away feeling that we were poorly treated and that the service received is substandard.  When we receive really poor service, we can't wait to tell everyone that we know what a terrible experience we had with the xyz company.  Well I believe that when we receive good service, we should be just as anxious to tell everyone that we can about such service.  If any of you have ever flown Air Tran Airlines, hopefully you had an experience like mine on a recent trip out west.  The people were friendly and helpful, they made every effort to make everyone with whom they came into contact with comfortable and appreciated.  Most surprising to anyone who has ever flown United, American, Delta or the other large carriers, every Air Tran plane left on time and arrived ahead of schedule.  These folks start boarding their planes 40 to 45 minutes ahead of their scheduled departure to ensure everyone is on board prior to the scheduled departure time, what a concept!

In addition to the above, this is an airline that's low cost, has on first class, but a business class that you can upgrade to for a mere $49 to $149 depending on how far you're traveling.  When you upgrade, you get what on most carriers is a First Class seat and comes with a couple of free drinks and better snacks than the rest of the plane.  Now I'm Just Sayin, the extra leg room alone is worth the upgrade price.

If you have occassion to travel in the future, and Air Tran is going your way, I highly recommend them.

Tune in tomorrow for my State of the Union commentary.

AIRPORTS HAIR AND OTHER STUFF

First did anyone know that you can buy wireless while you fly? This is great! Now about air travel. With unemployment what it is, I want to know who imported all these folks from outside the US to work at our airports. For those black people who complain that we don't allow enough immigration from african countries, I bet you haven't been to the airport lately.

Why do people show up looking like they just rolled out of bed? Better question, what makes them think that the rest of us want to see their under garments and the crack of their butts. Why do parents dress to kill and have the kids looking like rag muffins? And people comb your @#$%&* hair before going out in public. I know that everyone's mom told them to always wear clean underwear in case you get into an accident,and to comb your hair.

Ugly people, you have enough problems, so stop going out in public all raggedy and tore up looking. Just a hint, if you don't see the beautiful people with a nose ring, dirty jeans and a bluetoothe in their ear, that's probably not a good look. And don't forget to COMB YOUR @#$%%* HAIR!

Food -As you know the airlines don't feed you. So I leave home at 3:30 to catch a 6:00 flight to Atlanta where I have a 2 hour Layton over thinking i'll be able to find some good grits and eggs. I walk the entire concourse before I find the one place with grits and eggs, Popeye's Chicken. They had lots of what I wanted so I get in line and pay the $4.41 to the smiling face behind the counter. I know you're thinking that dope couldn't possibly have a problem with breakfast for that price. Well normally I wouldn't however my grits and eggs were yep you guessed it, cold as Siberia. Is it asking too much for hot grits and eggs? This is after all the south where at least grits originiated. I did put a suggestion in that they hire that woman who threw the grits on Al Green.

My trip is going great so far (other than the grits ). Both flights have been on time, and I didn't end up next to the 300 lb lady, so life is grand.

DAD WAS RIGHT-TV IS AN IDIOT BOX

When I was a kid about 7 or 8 years old, my brother and I were watching Gun Smoke on tv.  My dad came in from work and asked if our homework was done, and of course it wasn't.  Dad promptly turned the tv off and banished us to our room and as we walked away, he said "If you keep watching that Idiot Box your brain will stop working".  While I don't think that's happened to me yet, I am reasonably sure that much of America have turned into idiots and fools watching tv.  Let me give you some examples.

Have you seen what's on tv? I'm Just Sayin, the cable chanels are loaded with shows like Basketball Wives, Housewives of Atlanta, DC, Beverly Hills, and who knows who the next house wife on tv will be.  How did people like Hannity and Beck get on tv? My mother used to say that for some people, ignorance is bliss, well if that's true the people who listen to those two fools must be extreamly blissful.  I wish it ended there, but the fools on the left are just as nuts! Don't believe me, try listening to Arijana Huffington or Keith Olbermann.  When the best thing on tv is Deadly Women and I Almost Got Away With It, yep we're in trouble. 

The cable company called and said hey what you need is HBO and Skin A Max for $6 each, so I figured why not it get's me away from the other crap.  Truth is that's worse than what's on regular tv, same movies over and over. Six bucks, they should charge 6 cents and give refunds if you don't watch more than 1 movie per month.  Now that's a great idea! I guess I could watch the Biggest Loser, or one of those dance shows, at least that would earn me some points with my wife.

Well enough for now, I think I'll go back to reading my book, my wife is watching the Atlanta Housewives, and their giving me a serious headache.  Yep, dad was right, TV is an Idiot Box!

Hey, "I'm Just Sayin"