Rant #1,457: Why? (Part 2)

Coming back from vacation, there were a number of news stories that tickled my fancy, both negatively and positively.

One of those was the intriguing case of Rachel Anne Dolezal, the civil rights activist and head of the NAACP in Spokane, Washington, who was forced to resign, under much pressure from the media, from others, and ultimately, from herself, because although claiming to be a black woman, she was actually caucasian.

Getting numerous Florida-based news stations in our room onboard ship, during idle moments we did watch some television, and let me tell you, they were all over this like butter is to bread.

Why this woman decided to affiliate herself with another race--and justify it all after all of this came out in the open--is beyond my comprehension.

She obviously has some severe mental issues that need to be addressed. She also has some family issues that need to be looked into, especially since her lily white parents were the ones who broke the story, who outed her, stating that their daughter, who had claimed to be black for decades, was actually white.

Did she believe that she could only get her job done if she were a black woman? Did she think that she would not be as effective in her position, or in her station in life, if she was white?

We will never know, but the woman, for all the good that she has done, has a screw loose.

She obviously used some type of cream, or went to the tanning salon often, to get a darker complexion. She kinked up her hair. She was a white woman who could have passed for either white or black in this situation. She wanted to be black.

Now, let's not get crazy here. Nobody said it as a negative to be black, just as nobody said it as a negative to be white. But why did she decide to go this route, which put a mark on whatever good she had done with the organization?

She said she identified with African Americans as a child, and would use a brown crayon to portray herself when drawing her picture when she was a kid.

Funny, pictures that came out of her as a teen showed her to be as lily white as can be.

That doesn't mean she didn't identify with the plight of blacks in this country, which is all fine and good and nobody is going to argue with.

But to actually try to put yourself over as a person of another race--and then justify doing this--is wrong, and leads to major credibility problems, and that is why she had to resign from her post.

This is not a Michael Jackson situation, where a pigmentary probably supposedly led to his skin lightening. And I have a bridge in Brooklyn I can sell you if you believe what he said.

But this woman is not an entertainer, or someone who can get away with such a ruse, where it doesn't really matter, as Jackson sang, if you are black or white.

I will tell you two stories that came up in my mind, from my past, when this story was playing out. I had completely forgotten about them until this incident came up, so I guess they were stored in the back of my mind for safekeeping until I needed to remember them. Funny how the mind works.

Whatever you think about me and the beliefs I have, I come from a very, very liberal tradition and background.

For instance, my uncle, who originally studied to be a rabbi, is a psychologist, based in Westchester, New York. He has had a very successful career, both in his own practice and in academia.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, he was a professor at Lehman College in the Bronx. During his tenure there, he became head of the Black Studies department.

Yes, this white, Jewish boy, originally from the Lower East Side of Manhattan, had become the head of a department representing a race that he did not personally represent.

And yes, there was uproar, and if I remember correctly, he did have to resign ... all because being white and Jewish and leading such a department is not akin to actually being black, a point made by those who opposed his leadership of this department.

However, unlike the woman in the current case, he did not say he was black, but he obviously was fascinated with African American history, did his studies in this area, and was proficient enough in its understanding to rise to head such a position.

This is not as freakish as it might appear to be. There is a link between the Jewish struggle and the black struggle, both history-wise and in this country. In fact, the NAACP, the organization at the very center of this current mess, was founded by both blacks AND Jews.

Back to my uncle ... does this story sound familiar all these years later?

Second story: when I was in school, at I.S. 72 in South Jamaica, Queens, New York, during my senior year of junior high school, we had a variety show, where a group of students showed off their talent on stage of our auditorium.

This took place in 1970 or 1971, when racial tensions were quite high, and quite high in this neighborhood.

To make a long story short, the variety show became a hate fest putting black versus white, with supposed performers spouting hate about whites and Jews. Black Power fists lunged to the air from both the stage and much of the audience, and people were scared, including teachers, about what had happened.

The school pretty much was put on what we now call lockdown, and classes, while they were held that day, were directed toward what had happened. The school was in chaos, and to have held regular classes that day would have been a waste of time.

Rather, a dialogue was encouraged, and that is what we did pretty much the rest of that day and I think into the next day.

Anyway, a girl in my class, Michelle M., participated in our class-wide talk about racism and anti-Semitism and what had happened in the auditorium.

We got into the notion of what it meant to be black, how it differed from being Negro, and what it all meant in the greater context of what had happened.

Michelle M. described to the class in one fell swoop what it meant to be black and what it meant to not be black by saying--and yes, I am paraphrasing all these years later, but not as much as you would think: "You can pretend to be black, you can dress to be black, you can wear your hair to be black, but if you ain't black, you ain't black."

That pretty much sums up this entire current case, doesn't it?

Classic Rant #109 (October 13, 2009): It Doesn’t Get Any Better Than This

Baseball remains king during October, with the Divisional Series featuring all kinds of excitement, even though they also featured three sweeps of four series, with the fourth series being won in four games.

The Cardinals, a team which many picked as favorites to represent the National League in the World Series, fell hard to the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Dodgers’ three-game sweep was highlighted by a botched fly ball by Matt Holliday which doomed the Cardinals in game two. The Redbirds could not get back in the saddle at home in game three, and the Dodgers were victorious.

The Red Sox lost to the Angels, and the series went only three games because the Angels were able to pull out game three on the road at Fenway Park. Jonathan Papplebon--the Red Sox’s usually reliable closer—gave up a few hits when the Angels were down to their last strike, and the Red Sox could not recover.

The Yankees swept the Twins, and two of the three games were nip and tuck the entire way. In Saturday’s game, a horrendous call by the umpire down the left field line may have doomed the Twins, but by placing at least one runner in every inning of the 12-inning game, the Twins blew it themselves by not executing during crucial moments. And Alex Rodriguez turned around his past playoff performance with three big games. (And I thank you, Kate Hudson. Whatever you are doing for A-Rod, please keep it going.)

Only the Phillies-Rockies series was not determined in three games. Bad calls marred Sunday’s game, as did a snowstorm which postponed Saturday’s game. Yesterday's game featured a big comeback by the Phillies.

I just love this wall-to-wall baseball, and I loved the earlier starting times for the Yankees games. I am sure that that will change when they face the Angels on the West Coast.

But if you love baseball like I do, you had to love this past week. I just couldn’t get enough of it, and how can football compare to this?

It can't.

As a Yankees fan, I look forward to this Friday, as the Yankees try to beat the Angels and move to the World Series, which, due to a late starting date, will most likely be decided in November.

Rant #1,456: Why?

The Emanuel AME Church disaster in South Carolina opens up a lot of cans of worms touching on a lot of different things.

Certainly one of them is gun violence.

The proliferation of guns in this country--both legal and illegal--is appalling.

Why anyone feels the need to have a gun in his possession is completely beyond me.

Whether legally or illegally obtained, guns lead to violence. And the ease at which one who wants a firearm can get one is simply ridiculous.

Look, if someone wants a gun, they will get one, often illegally. I am not talking about those who get their guns illegally, which is another story altogether.

But I am talking about those who get their guns legally.

Evidently, the shooter received his gun legally from his parents as a gift.

Why would parents give a gun as a gift to begin with? That is crazy in itself.

And talking about crazy, when you mix a firearm with somebody who is mentally deranged, well, the potential for good is not very high.

Lots more is coming out about the shooter now that the deed has been done, a kid who evidently came from a decent home who somehow went off the deep end.

He got immersed in some anti-black and anti-Jewish sites, reading about how "terrible" each group's impact has been in our society.

He then took it upon himself to right these wrongs, becoming judge, jury and executioner in one fell swoop, killing nine innocent people.

The only outcome from something like this is that somewhere down the line, this young man will go to trial, probably plead insanity--his lawyers will say yes, he did it, but ... -- and he will get the death penalty.

Sounds a lot like what happened in Boston, doesn't it?--a young person so deranged with hate that he decided that he needed to kill people to make some inane point.

And like in the other case, some of those attached to the victims will plead that his life be spared.

And again, that is not going to happen.

In out society, where racial and religious tension has risen to a fever pitch lately, rivaling how it was in the early to mid 1960s, this is simply another case that defies explanation.

I am going to look at it as an isolated incident. I simply don't think this guy is being applauded by anyone for what he did.

But it all goes back to the availability of guns, and I mean legally obtained guns.

There has got to be a way to discourage people from getting a firearm, period.

Look, I am no expert on this subject, but perhaps our laws should make it so difficult to get a gun that it makes people not want to have one, if for no other reason than it is so hard to get.

And perhaps we need a national gun law. There is no reason why one state has a tough law, and the state next door has a lax one. The whole process needs to be uniform in every state in the Union.

Whether it be an excruciating long waiting time, or perhaps incredibly high fees for a gun, something must be done to discourage even law-abiding citizens from wanting to have a firearm in their possession.

And sorry, hunters and other sportsman who use guns for thrills. I don't have any pity for your plight if stricter gun laws are enacted.

Illegally obtained firearms is another topic for another time.

But those obtaining them legally--what is in their heads? Why do they think they need to have a gun?

That must be studied, and something must be done about it.

I simply do not get it at all.

Classic Rant #108 (October 12, 2009): Nobel Choice?

I am sure that you heard that President Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize. I don’t know if this was a surprise to him—by all accounts, it was—but it was certainly a surprise to many Americans, and not just to those who don’t like him.

What has he done in his nine months in office to deserve such a prestigious honor?

Well, to be honest about it, it is hard to tell. He and his administration inherited many problems from their predecessors, the Bush administration. He has set out to make our government more efficient, but many of the problems that the previous administration had he has too.

He still has us fighting wars in faraway lands, with little or no end in sight. Unemployment is incredibly high, and many people have rallied against him in his health care initiatives.

Then why did he receive this award?

As far as I can tell, the granting of this award to our President has nothing to do with this being a consolation prize to losing out on the Olympics. It has more to do with the international perception of him as something of a “game changer” than anything else.

He has incredible popularity abroad, because he is perceived as someone who will change his office to be more receptive to global concerns rather than simply U.S. concerns.

He has already taken stands in the Middle East—basically putting his fist down and telling the many sides of that puzzle to get things done—and he has done this very early in his Presidency. I think many around the world like this stance because they feel that the U.S. constantly backs Israel in this process. I believe that there are many in this world who would like to see Israel go away, and they perceive that Obama is pro-Palestinian and pro-Arab based on his reaching out to the Muslim community.

And you can't have a better middle name than Hussein, can you?

He seems to be a “green” President as a positive, meaning that he seems to be pro-environment. I think many have viewed previous administrations as anti-environment, although we have the strictest anti-smoking laws in the world in the U.S. Many outside of the U.S. don't consider smoking an environmental problem, they don't even consider it a problem.

And, they absolutely love his wife.

And, let's be honest about it, they detested George Bush.

That, in a nutshell, is why he received this prize. The perception is greater than the output, at least right now, and with the prize in hand, I believe that those who voted to give it to him — probably a voting board that is made up of pretty much anti-American, anti-Israel left-wingers — want him to continue walking on this path, and they feel this will encourage him to do so.

Otherwise, in my mind, the giving of this prize to our President--while it is a prestigious prize--is pretty much a joke. I mean, he was only in office a few days when he was nominated, so what could he have done in just a few days and what has he done during his term in office?

And has this award had any relevance since Yassar Arafat won the award?

And I repeat, they just adore Obama's wife.

Rant #1,455: I'm Back

Yes, I have returned home from the sea, back to write once again at the Ranting and Raving Blog.

It was an invigorating trip that my family and I had, and it was good to get away from this column for two weeks.

Honestly, I could use two weeks more.

Right now, my allergies are killing me--what else is new--which goes against what the sea air did for me, which was not give me the least bit of problems with my allergies.

We visited the Bahamas and Grand Turk on our trip, and the world moved on without us during our time away from home.

We had no Internet access, which to be quite honest with you, was a godsend.

Being on the Internet all the time really saps your strength. I enjoy the Internet and all, but it is so nice to get away from it for a spell, it really is.

So much happened while we were away, and while we did have a TV in our room--it was our window to the world during this period away--it did not interrupt our trip at all.

Today, I go back work, which is akin to me looking forward to getting some type of disease. I don't look forward to going back, but going back is something like death and taxes--everyone has to do it.

As far as what happened while my family and I were away ...

Yes, I know about the church shootings; yes, I know about the woman who resigned form her position at the NAACP because she claimed to be black but is actually caucasian.

I know the Yankees have been very up and very down, and I know the Warriors won the NBA championship, and that the Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup.

 
But the vacation allowed me to get away from this stuff, and my main worry was to stay away from getting a bad sunburn, which I was only partially successful at, even with all the creams and sprays that I used.

It was fun, but now, it is time to get back to work both figuratively and literally.

I must get back to work to assure that my son is taken care of jobwise, which hit a major roadblock not of his own doing right before we left.

Supposedly, that has been taken care of now, but boy, is this thing frustrating. But my son will persevere.

One step forward, two steps back, what more can I say?

Once I actually physically get back to work, I will have many challenges ahead of me, including the knowledge that while I am valued at my job, it is not translating to a salary increase, and hasn't for a number of years.

But at 58 years of age, what can I do about it?

I have to say that the time away gave me a chance to reflect on my career a bit, and frankly, it ain't too pretty.

Honestly, I just grin and bear it. I have nowhere else to go, nobody is going to hire me at this age, and although I do enjoy my job, it is frustrating as heck to be spinning my wheels to a beat that is not my own. All the words of praise in the world cannot make up for money in your pocket, and if there was somewhere else to go, I would go there, but alas, I am as stuck at my job as tightly as sardines are packed in a can.

But at least I have a nice vacation to look back on, when I didn't have a single care in the world ... or at least, I put just about everything on the back burner.

But reality kicked in pretty quickly. The first night home, our living room air conditioner died, and our washing machine went off kilter and needed to be fixed for the umpteenth time.

Yes, reality came quickly, and I can only dream about the white sands of Half Moon Cay now.

I am as far away from those sands as I ever have been, but at least I can say that I was there.

And there will be other vacations to ponder, too, but right now, it is time to get back to work.

Let me peal in peace.

Classic Rant #107 (October 9, 2009): Chubbsy Ubbsy, You Might Say

Did anybody see the picture of the 19-lbs. baby that made the rounds a few weeks ago? I have posted one of the photos of this kid here that was in one of the local papers. Here, the baby is pictured next to a normal-sized child, and you can see just how huge this kid is.

I can’t imagine any baby being born at such a weight. I think my son and daughter were pretty normal in the weight area when they were born. I think my son was 7 lbs.-plus and my daughter was 8 lbs.-plus.

Both were good sizes for babies, but I just can’t imagine a woman giving birth to a 19-lbs. watermelon, with the pits.

The large baby’s mom had diabetes, which could have effected the child’s weight. Or it could have been some type of glandular problem, none of these or both of them.

All I know is that this kid is . And I feel for the mother, who must have been in great pain or at least discomfort while carrying this butterball fenormousor nine months.

Incredibly, there have been bigger babies born in the low 20-lbs variety.

How can the human body withstand such a large-sized baby? Will the mother feel aftereffects, even if she delivered with via a Caesarian Section?

And what will the child’s life be as he gets older? Will he continue to be the biggest one (in width) in his class, or will the child be normal in every way as it gets older?

The child was born in Indonesia. I don’t know what they think about heavy kids—and adults—there, but with our American societal obsession with slimness, would a kid like this be the object of taunts and finger pointing as the boy got older if he still retained such a mammoth weight?

We all knew the "fat boy" when we were kids, or at least saw the fat kid on TV. Remember Norman “Chubby” Chaney, the fat boy in the Little Rascals? Chaney actually died from his obesity as a teenager.

The “rounder” one always gets the laughs. Lou Costello, who was actually quite an athlete, chubbed up for his part in the comedy team of Abbott and Costello to help play off Bud Abbott’s thin physique.

And who could forget Oliver Hardy, who looked absolutely huge next to the paper-thin Stan Laurel?

I just hope that this kid can lead a normal life, and that his heaviness either dissipates over time or is not the object of any ridicule.

People can be pretty harsh about such things, but the fact of the matter is that so few people are really naturally thin that it boggles the mind why heavy-set people are made fun of like they are.

Rant #1,454: Off to Sea the World

Yes, it has finally come ... my family and I are going on vacation as of tomorrow.

I have to work today, unfortunately, but come 5:30 p.m. this afternoon, I will officially be on vacation.

I cannot tell you how much I need this vacation, so I won't belabor that point.

All I know is that we will be gone tomorrow, taking a cruise to various places in the Caribbean.

It should be fun, a respite from the usual nonsense that we go through every day back at home.

And no, the comely model who I have posted a picture of is not going with us, but she looks like she is having a lot of fun in the sand and by the water, and we hope to have as much fun as she appears to be having.

Finally, after all the preparation, saving, and gearing ourselves towards this date, the day is just about here.

Let me tell you, I will be counting the minutes until it is time to go.

But anyway, this column will be on vacation, too, until we return, so there will be no new columns until June 22, as I will not have any Internet contact while we are away.

So I hope your time goes well for you, and I will speak to you in about two weeks or so.

Happy vacation to me, and I will speak to you again soon.