Thursday, August 5, 2010

ENCOUNTER IN PITTSFIELD

I was in The Garden skateboard and bike shop in Pittsfield this afternoon with my youngest and his nephew, who turned twelve yesterday making them both twelve for a few months, and a friend of my grandson's when I noticed a tall teenage boy looking at new skateboard decks.

He caught my eye because he reminded me of someone really specifically. I turned and saw a woman waiting with a younger girl who looked like she might be the teenager's sister. The teenage boy and the younger girl were both what I guess we're calling nowadays multi-racial. The woman wasn't.

I asked if the teenager was her son. She said yes, and then I asked if people comment on how much he looks like our president. She smiled and said that they do. I smiled back and looked at the young man again. He was tall and lean with the same texture hair and the same haircut and even the same features and smile. Maybe a little lighter skin tone, but he did indeed look a lot like President Obama.

He even seemed to have his calm and easy going manner as well. I've been thinking about that encounter all day and how miraculous it is that it could even occur. That I have lived through times when it was illegal for me and my first love who happened to be African-American to even marry in most states to where a "multi-racial" young man can be mistaken for our president.

I am grateful and happy that is the case. But, of course, I am also saddened at how much vitriol and mean-spiritedness there is among some of my fellow citizens toward our president at least in part, whether consciously or unconsciously, because he looks and acts like the handsome, self-contained, obviously confident but well-mannered, even-keeled young man I encountered today in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.

21 comments:

AlamedaTom said...

Well said. I know it sounds overly dramatic, but sometimes I truly believe that our President is too good for us. I cannot begin to imagine what he could have accomplished if the Republicans would have provided even a modicum of cooperation and goodwill.

~ Willy

Robert G. Zuckerman said...

Amen and agreed. President Obama has been carrying the weight of prejudice and mindless, willful opposition on his shoulders since before day one. And yet, he embodies everything that all his detractors supposedly espouse, particularly "freedom" and that "all men are created equal."

Elisabeth said...

Racial prejudice based on something incidental like the colour of your skin still abounds, Michael and it's sad.

When will we ever be able to get beyond that which is only skin deep and attend to what is so much more important, that which lies below.

Thanks for a thoughtful post.

JIm said...

The racial animosity is a crock or at very least, very fringe. Obama and his administration's moves on racially motivated actions come to mind. I suspect the Cambridge policeman was not stupid, Obama's Granny was not a hopless racist and the Black Panthers of Philadelphia should have been prosecuted.

Animosity toward Obama is based on his abysmal performance on the economy, jobs and his continued war on free enterprize and the US Constitution as evidenced by the massive expansion of the Federal Government into areas that are prohibited by the 10th Amendment.

Anonymous said...

do not feed trolls. pray for them.

Anonymous said...

what if the greatest thing to be accomplished in america is that on the soil that soaked up the blood of a race that was decimated by greed sprung a new race that was born out of the blood of all the races that inhabit this beautiful earth, so that we can truly come to ba a race called the human race

JIm said...

Anonymous,
That is not exactly a new concept.The confluence of the races and nationalities has been going on in America since the beginning. If the current man in the White House is an example, the pace is quickening.

Robert G. Zuckerman said...

Not quick enough, Jim. We need more confluence! Of race, thought and intention. To realize that it's not "us and them" but really, really at the core, all "us."

Robert G. Zuckerman said...

http://my.earthlink.net/article/us?guid=20100806/90aa4f13-ea6c-4dc7-8136-b1efc4865f58

This makes me very sad. One week of so called defense funding could easily preserve all the libraries in our country. Another week or two of it could stem the tide of school program shutdowns. And yet we are stuck in two incursions longer than any in our history. Awareness, education and enlightenment are much stronger defense than guns and ignorance based "war." I just spoke with a family visiting from Australia who said handguns are banned there.

JIm said...

Robert, The most dangerous thing for America would be a confluence of America toward the left. Happily we seem to be seeing a major shift back to a political philosophy based on the Constitution and limits on the federal government. It could be a real fun election.

JIm said...

Here is an update on Liberal Racism from folks who have special insight.

Washington (CNSNews.com )8/6/2010 – Black conservative leaders from around the country gathered in Washington on Wednesday to denounce the NAACP for its resolution charging that elements of the Tea Party movement are racist.

“The accusation by the NAACP is just another example of playing the race card because of failed policies,”

Robert G. Zuckerman said...

Ironically, or whatever-ically, it's because of the NAACP that there are "conservative black leaders". And, so you are denying that "elements of the Tea Party movement are racist."?

JIm said...

Robert,
The irony runs both ways, witness; Crystol and most of the neo conservative croud. Ronald Reagan was famously a Democrat and a labor leader. Winston Churchill said, all young with a heart are liberal and all mature folks with a brain are conservative(paraphrase). I myself voted for LBJ and would have voted for JFK if I had been of age.

Robert G. Zuckerman said...

What does it have to be either/or Jim? Cannot one be frugal and yet want all to have health care, for all to have education, for there to be less access to guns and less images of them in the media? Your Churchill paraphrase at face value is insulting to all those young people with hearts and also minds who are striving to be good people and make the world a better place. As well as to mature folks with brains who are not conservative (whatever that means). That you voted for LBJ and would have for JFK indicates that there is hope for you!

Robert G. Zuckerman said...

I meant "why" does it have to be either/or...

JIm said...

It has to be either or, or at least much less expensive socialism because the US
Federal and state governments can no longer aford the costs. The federal and many state governments are going bust. No amount of good intentions to right percieved wrongs can make up for a lack of money. The very expensive efforts to right those wrongs are preventing the US economy and employment from recovering.

Robert G. Zuckerman said...

The condition you speak of is the direct result of the previous administration's arbitrarily, willfully creating two wars that have so far cost in the neighborhood of a trillion dollars, not to mention the well being of our nation and planet.

JIm said...

Robert,
The US debt is currently at 13 trillion, on the way to 20 trillion under Obama's economic plan as scored by the CBO. Entitlement costs make up the major part of the US budget and debt.

JIm said...

Robert,
To put a finer point on it, entitlement spending from the 2009 budget comes to 20% SS, 19% medicare/medicaid, 17% other mandates. Defense came to 23%.

Even cutting defense in half would not solve the problem.

Robert G. Zuckerman said...

You are wrong Jim. I would make a difference on many levels. Citing numbers and statistics is a one dimensional view that does not take into account the multidimensional ramifications and nuances of the bigger, deeper picture. Cutting defense and reallocating these funds in other areas would have exponential benefit and impact.

JIm said...

What ever!! What does exponential benefit and impact even mean. Obama and the Democrats are bankrunpting the country and retarding the economic recovery with the increase in taxes and regulations, some of which have hit, with many more to come January 1st. Obama's abysmal poll numbers are well earned.