They are at it again.  Yes, they are tired of being oppressed by the white establishment so they are going to burn down a few of their neighborhood stores, steal their neighbor’s cars and burn them and generally become lawless citizens.  It is much like the 3 little pigs telling the big bad wolf. ” you aint blowing our house down, cause we burned it down ourselves” .  Nanny  Boo Boo.  Does the wolf give a damn how your house came apart?  He got you out in the open and didn’t have to do a thing.  He just had to sit back and watch the little pigs set themselves back a decade or so in their march to justice and equality.

Will the establishment rebuild the city of Baltimore?  Yes.  Will it be a better city?  No.  Why?  Because they are going to have to spend the taxpayer’s money to rebuild something that was already there instead of building something new.  Instead of progress they will be involved in recovery.  Will the city be able to entice new businesses to come into certain areas of Baltimore and open new stores where others have been burned out?  I damned sure wouldn’t go there to seek my fortune.  What would fire insurance cost per month on a building that is being erected on a lot where the previous building was burned in a riot?  Oh, lets open a liquor store down there where the riots were.

I heard numerous people state on TV last night that the rioters and looters were just people who were fed up with police brutality, lack of jobs and opportunities and other social ills.  They werent grieving for the young man who died while in police custody.  They were just fed up with oppression.  I don’t believe that for a minute.  They were thugs, thieves, unsupervised high school students, etc, etc.  They can blame their situation on anybody but the problem is with themselves.  They lack moral fiber.  They lack a work ethic.  They lack desire.  They simply think it is easier to hang around on the streets and do nothing but bitch about how bad off they are.

I have long advocated that the USA needs a civilian work training corp like the CCC’s of the depression era.  An organization that can train people while working on the infrastructure of our nation.  Give some disadvantaged young people some of the things they desperately need.  Work ethic, purpose, skills. etc.  These riots could give us an opportunity to get something like this off the ground.  Let judges offer those who are so intent of ruining their cities an opportunity of doing good instead of going to jail.  20 years in prison or 5 years in our training program.?  20 years lying around getting prison tattoos or 5 years learning how to be a heavy equipment operator or a surveyor or an electrician or brick mason.  You would get a uniform under both scenarios, you would be fed but the thing is, the prison uniform and food just wouldn’t be as good.   You couldn’t change into your civies if you were in prison.  You can’t go out on Saturday night if you are in prison.  The pay is not the same.  You can’t build a better place to live if you are in prison.  You languish instead of flourish.

We will have to watch a month of media coverage and finger-pointing concerning whose fault this was, who should have done what and when and nothing will be accomplished. Our leaders will tsk, tsk, for a while and kick dirt and generally raise hell about the situation but nothing will be done.  It will lose front page coverage quickly because something will come up involving one or more of the folks running for office.  There will be a scandal about something someone should have disclosed but didn’t.  We will lose interest.  The folks who owned the liquor store wont lose interest but they wont get back what they lost either.

Tell the wolf he doesn’t have to blow, its gonna fall down by itself.

Gary

My wife watched the Diane Sawyer interview of Bruce Jenner last evening and I caught snippets of it on my trips to the kitchen.  I am not sure I heard anything that I had not already surmised.  Bruce has some emotional problems: some relationship problems and some might say he is nutty as a fruitcake.  He went into great detail about his desire to dress as a girl during his formative years.  He liked wearing dresses, headscarves, etc.  Even in his days as a decathelete he wore his hair in a bob.  All that is alright I guess.  I have some suggestions that he might have tried.  An Indian outfit is kinda like a skirt and the indian headdress is almost a headscarf, if you use you imagination.  Maybe he should have just always volunteered to be the Indian chief in a game of cowboys and indians.  I will have to tell him that marrying into the Kartrashian family certainly didn’t help in his attempt at gender identity.  That bunch will denut you quicker than a range rider in a Louie Lamour novel.  I cant imagine the fight that must have gone on between him and the old lady of the clan about who used the mirror first in the morning.  She claims she was stunned about Bruce’s revelation.  B/S.  Wasnt it a clue when Bruce applied blush in the morning?  Were his lips always so puffy pink?

Go ahead and get the operation, take the shots, do whatever it takes to get the transformation complete.  I can promise you it will not make you a very good looking woman.  You can wear all the skirts and high heeled shoes you want but your are gonna be a guy in a girl suit.

Now, here is a request to all the females I ever knew, if you and I ever had a date, of any kind, please do not reveal at this point in life that you secretly wanted to be a guy.  If I ever saw you at Boulder Courts swimming pool in your swimsuit, please do not make the revelation.  If you ever dated any of my friends, mum is the word also.  If you and I ever shared a locker room, do not tell me now that you always wanted to  be a girl.  We are too damned old and too near the end for you to make such a revelation.  Gut it up and live the rest of your life as God made you.  I just dont need any surprises.

GC

Corpus Christi was the center of the Tejano music world this last weekend.  The first of, many I am sure, Fiesta de la Flor was held in remembrance of the late great singer, SELENA.  This was her home and the place she was killed.

The city was inundated with as many as 50,000 fans.  A festival venue was set up in the downtown area and rides were furnished for those who could get tickets.  Needless to say, it was a sell out.  I did not attend.

I remember the day her fan club president killed her and that, truthfully was the first time I had ever heard of her.  I have spoken to many who were in the same cloud of darkness as I was about the “Flower” of Tejano music who lived in our midst.  If we had only known.  Shortly after her death her father built a museum here in town and truthfully I had never seen a soul at the facility until Friday of last week.  People were parked for 6 blocks trying to get in to the museum.  A local benevolent had erected a statue of her down town on the water front and that has been a pilgrimage site for years.  They have to repaint the left breast of the statue about every 6 months as people seem to rub the paint off that particular spot.  I have seen the statue a couple of times but did not fondle it in any way.

Hero’s and heroine’s  are good things.  They are good for the people.  Some show qualities of leadership, love of our nation, and various traits that are beneficial.  I have never been too much in love with entertainers as anything other than entertainers.  I liked Elvis, have been to Graceland, but I didnt buy a t-shirt nor do I own a black velvet painting of the “King” of rock and roll.  My hero’s are people a little closer to home, my father, my grandfathers, men of the community who led our nation in a recovery process after WW2.  (mothers, grandmothers also).  Men and women who survived the great depression and the dust bowl days of the 30’s.  Those people are worthy of being legends.

Gary

We had a reunion this last weekend.  We missed those of you who could not attend but understand that we cant always do what we want, when we want to do it.  You are forgiven.  Those of us attending talked until the point of not having much else to say and then we went to bed.  Going to bed is influenced by the fact that this was our 54th year since graduation.

We rehashed old memories, relived some times that were probably better forgotten but some of the tales allow the legends to continue.  Some tales were funnier retold than they were when they happened.

Try as you may, to forget or deny, that cliques existed in our time in high school, time has a way of overriding those silly thoughts we had as to who was cool and who wasnt.  When reuniting with each other you find that everyone has been successful as parents, some as grandparents and human beings in general.  You only remember the very best about your fellow students and that is well worth the time and expense it takes to attend a reunion.  I try not to miss one and hope that others will make an effort when another is scheduled.  You will be surprised how easy it is to slip back in the position of being a long lost friend, some one I call a “forever friend”.

Gary