Thinking Out Loud

Sometimes I wonder if life will ever seem real normal again. I don't like to think I am going crazy or anything but I am very close to it. I might not be anywhere near crazy. I may be the most sane person I know and everyone around me is flipping out. My reactions to things that have happened is genuine. I think I have my days where I am slightly overwhelmed but quickly pull it back together because I have no choice. You have to do what you have to do make things seem as normal as possible. With that being said, I have a few things on my mind.

In the spirit of black history month I have a though for all the people that don't believe in inter-racial dating. I never knew until this week that Frederick Douglass second wife was white. That makes me wonder if it was 2005 and he did that would people of our race consider him a sellout or not. Would the personal preference override the good deeds and efforts he put into his people? For some people it would.

I am not in New Orleans this week because I am having my own personal Mardi Gras boycott. I don't feel like the city is doing enough remember the people that lost their lives during the storm. It's just like the years when we had record murder rates. Everyone just went on about their business like nothing happened and the same thing is going on after the storm. It must be said that the wrong people perished in that water. Had a few hundred high society types from uptown drowned in their plantation homes, no one would have been concerned about a damn parade. They would have cancelled all of that shit and been having memorials everyday. I am not speaking out of emotion. I am speaking out of knowledge of the place that I lived for 31 years. If anyone doesn't believe me, go to New Orleans and drive around. It's clear what area is priority and what's not.

I don't usually talk about Iraq because its been going on so long that it's clear that the country is on the verge of a civil war and I think it's wonderful. It's not wonderful because I want anything to happen to the troops. They should have been home a long time ago. It's not wonderful because I want to see any of the Iraqi people get hurt. It's wonderful because all black people in this country get to witness the hypocrisy of the American government. America is asking the Sunnis and the Shiites to do something that this country was never able to do. They expect two groups that don't like each other to get along. They want these two groups to put aside years of fighting and bloodshed to make a government work. That is special considering that when Thomas Jefferson wrote the preamble to the constitution, he added words that spoke to the abolishing of slavery and the founding fathers made him take it out. This is also the country that went to war over the right to own black people. How can they expect the Shiites to let go of all the memories of being tortured and slaughtered now that they have enough power and muscle to get revenge. I have always felt that's why any revolutionary action by black people in this country has been infiltrated and torn apart. There is no way the white men that run this country believe that we just want to let bygones be bygones and all will be forgotten. We have to want revenge for some of the things in the past just like the Shiites want in Iraq. That's why they treat us like they have. Of course, we would always feel too inferior to act on it but you get my point.That's why Sadaam had to keep his foot on their throats. No one wants to admit the fact that he really had no choice but to be the way he was if he ever was going to stay in power. America is going to have to do the same thing to keep that place in order.