It's Just an Open Response to Ekow N. Yankah and a couple other THINGS

Dear America,

I believe the children are our are future

Teach them well and let them lead the way

Show them all the beauty they possess inside

Give them a sense of pride to make it easier..

yes, happy tuesday.

and this girl is beginning with the opening lines of a Whitney Houston song, Greatest Love of All! [and my deep appreciation for the mother-lode of lyrics available online....everything from A - Z, including G x]

Becoming a hit, getting the chorus occasionally stuck in our heads, and being completely overplayed for what seemed to be decades, pop culture embraced this cheesy, sappy, sugary sweet song right from the start -- because it was Whitney!  Pretty sure nobody else could have pulled it off...just sayin'.

Gosh, she was gorgeous, and talented, and so full of life!  

Rising into stardom after being raised singing gospel in her church, she made it -- and she did it with her heart in the right place.  What broke her spirit, and maybe her heart, was everything that came with it -- the high life, the fame and fortune that accommodated luxury and indulging in all the things that have the power to change us, inside and out: drugs, alcohol, associating with people who don't have our best interests at heart while partying until the wee hours of the morning.

Although it didn't happen overnight, the fullness of this lifestyle -- the people, the profession, the passion --  preyed upon her, slowly and over time; although she may have tried to correct the course, Whitney lost sight of the greatest love of all and eventually the lifestyle killed her.

The thing is -- what is true for Whitney, is true for all of us -- that being, we are always at choice to change course, to make good decisions, to listen to that still, small voice inside ourselves that knows the way (the right way, right?).

Yeah, we often like to ignore that voice.

But on this day, on the old G Thing, this is just the start of something going on inside my head, across this land we call America, and even across the globe, and it has much to do about nothing and everything. 

If we do nothing -- we lose our heart and soul.

We must do everything to pay attention to our children; I mean, talk about impressionable, right?

So here you go-- in response to an op-ed in the New York Times, November 11th:  Can My Children Be Friends with White People?   by Ekow N. Yankah.  [(@ekownyankah) is a professor at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University.] 

Second paragraph:

It is impossible to convey the mixture of heartbreak and fear I feel for him. Donald Trump’s election has made it clear that I will teach my boys the lesson generations old, one that I for the most part nearly escaped. I will teach them to be cautious, I will teach them suspicion, and I will teach them distrust. Much sooner than I thought I would, I will have to discuss with my boys whether they can truly be friends with white people.

to paragraph six:

As against our gauzy national hopes, I will teach my boys to have profound doubts that friendship with white people is possible. When they ask, I will teach my sons that their beautiful hue is a fault line. Spare me platitudes of how we are all the same on the inside. I first have to keep my boys safe, and so I will teach them before the world shows them this particular brand of rending, violent, often fatal betrayal.

"Gauzy national hopes," Mr. Yankah?  Good one.

Oh dear sir; mine may be pink, but certainly not gauzy; if you wanna conversation about it, let's start at my dreams being pink, and frilly, and happy......and yes, at peace with my fellow man,  no matter the color of skin.

Teach them suspicion and distrust?  Oh that is a fine start. 

Should I be now teaching my little white girl the very same thing, but in reverse?  And when I say reverse, it is in every sense of the word -- as in, ass backwards  and in every possible way taking any of the strides this land has made across race relations to a brand new low?  It's a new low -- given we have seen America at its worst before, and now you want to go back?  This is YOUR answer? 

And in spite of having a pretty normal childhood yourself -- as you say...

Let me assure you that my heartbreak dwarfs my anger. I grew up in a classic Midwestern college town. With all its American faults, it was a diverse and happy-childhood kind of place, slightly dull in the way that parents wish for their children. If race showed in class lines, school cliques and being pulled over more often, our little Americana lacked the deep racial tension and mistrust that seem so hard to escape now.

This doesn't make any sense.

But what does make sense is your anger towards this new president, Mr. Yankah -- that seems to be the root cause:

 Of course, the rise of this president has broken bonds on all sides. But for people of color the stakes are different. Imagining we can now be friends across this political line is asking us to ignore our safety and that of our children, to abandon personal regard and self-worth. Only white people can cordon off Mr. Trump’s political meaning, ignore the “unpleasantness” from a position of safety. His election and the year that has followed have fixed the awful thought in my mind too familiar to black Americans: “You can’t trust these people.”

oh wow..."you can't trust these people."
(no comment)

so sad
so sad
so sad

and as for your rather jaded opinion of Martin Luther King's dream.....

Meaningful friendship is not just a feeling. It is not simply being able to share a beer. Real friendship is impossible without the ability to trust others, without knowing that your well-being is important to them. The desire to create, maintain or wield power over others destroys the possibility of friendship. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous dream of black and white children holding hands was a dream precisely because he realized that in Alabama, conditions of dominance made real friendship between white and black people impossible.

Let me first give you a little two cents on this idea of meaningful friendship; you can't have real, meaningful friendship by group, or by an entire swath of country and Americana all at once.  This kind of friendship is PERSONAL!  It is INTIMATE!  It is shared experiences with another soul, most likely of like minds (again, having nothing to do with color of skin), over a common interest, or something, that grows -- naturally and organically.  And that kind of friendship is rather priceless, if not hard to find, no matter the color of our skin. 

And certainly -- after my fifty some odd years -- sensing that if you find that kind of friend, a certain and steadfast trust comes with it, almost by default, as the two of you have earned it over time and effort and whole lot of mutual respect and love.

Martin Luther King was speaking of this "famous dream" -- on behalf of the Greater Good -- because, I believe, as a preacher,  as a deep thinker, and as an American who truly cared for race relations -- HE truly BELIEVED we could achieve it! 

Matter of fact, I STILL BELIEVE IT!

So - teaching our children well, in my mind,  means teaching our children to believe it, too.

And not only believe it like happy endings in a fairy tale, but believe it in the core of their very being -- as if they were actually raised with the understanding.   Not stopping there, that they can be not only be a part of this dream coming true, like bystanders, but actively apart of this dream  --  intimately, integrally, and honorably connected in the very creation of this dream coming true. 

It does not have to stay a dream.

Dare I say to you, Mr. Yankah -- teaching YOUR children suspicion and distrust is NOT the way.

How many African-American families have been teaching this, do you know?  Has this been a hidden agenda and generational course correction all along, that all of us white people simply don't know about?   [G side note:  the Political Editors at The Patriot Post have just put up 2016 statistics on hate crimes...and it's worthy of a read.]

ah oh.  now look at what you've done; now I'm starting to feel a wee bit angry....

I have to stop thinking about this.  My head and my heart and my soul hurts like a motherf@&***(

Let's go in another direction.

France:  2017
The French courts are considering to allow adults to have sex with thirteen year old's -- only with their consent, of course.   Read all about it, here.  Or  here. 

This being now the occasion, when answering the age-old question of when having sex with a child isn't rape, leads us frantically to another question -- just how in the world did we get here?

Much of the comment feed dwells in the realm of the bad influences arising from the influx and homesteading of families bound to the Islam, which permits the gross, yet widely accepted, allowance for grown men taking sexual advantage of children, beginning as early as kindergarten.

But no matter its origins, France is embracing this new age where sex with children will be generally, and widely, and unconscionably, be acceptable?

As we meander from teaching our children well to protecting them first -- this girl suddenly realizes that we may be going back to the stone age there, as well. ugh.

One last thing in the news, as we play with this idea of teaching our children well, and protecting them as best we possibly can -- let's move on to the GQ's idea of the CITIZEN of the YEAR.........drum roll, please........................Colin Kaepernick.

The guy of mixed race who was adopted by a white couple, given everything he ever needed, and made it to the NFL, only to become the poster child of a downright perversion of the truth surrounding systematic racial bias within police departments nationwide.  [As you know, we have discussed that here on more than one occasion....and we will not go there today....But feel free to read old G things....they will surely delight, but I digress.]

So the CITIZEN of the year goes to the citizen who doesn't even choose to vote?   Who doesn't salute the flag?   Who wears socks pocking fun at the PoPo -- personifying pigs as cops, or is it cops as pigs?  And after being raised in a country famous for capitalism and all the benefits of a free market --  citizen of the year goes to the guy who loves Ernesto 'Che' Guevara  -- a radical,  militaristic, guerrilla warfare fanatic who dreamed of communism healing all wounds and societal issues?  The guy who is now whining his way through the court system because he failed at doing his job, and doing his job well?  This guy is named CITIZEN of the year?  Wow --  if this is the new role model for all of our kids to follow, then we all need to go to our rooms until we are ready to talk about it without yelling and screaming.


Nearing the end of this day, this blog, something tells me more than anything else, the choices that we make, who we associate with, and what we give our attention to, becomes our tomorrow - both large and small.

We have work to do; we have a duty to uphold order, to preserve the integrity of our relationship with the whole AND with each other, individually.  And although this stance is nothing new on the old gthing, it may all begin and end upon what we say to our children.

It will take every parent to tell their children --

"first, I am here to protect you 

and to love you with my whole heart."

Second,

"we must choose to find the good in all people, 

no matter the color of our skin -- 

let us trust each other

 to say and do the right thing, 

no matter the situation. 
AND this begins with YOU, honey --
 be good,
 trustworthy, honest, caring,
loving, and the best
you can possibly be and  
good things will happen."

Third,

 "choose the greatest love of all

-- to love yourself -- 

then, aim to find the Great Spirit inside you

 that guides you, 

helps decipher between right and wrong, 

and blesses you with a unique purpose in life.

--- Finding something Greater than ourselves 

to dwell upon, to place our attention, 

always seems to be a good idea...

For it teaches us good things:

 things like humility and grace,  

instilling an attitude of gratitude and courage, 

even during the most difficult of days 

(and those days will come)."

Oh I could say more,

this girl could probably rattle off a hundred things to say to our children, en masse.

But this is a great start; better than Mr. Yankah's approach, right? 

[Mr. Yankah is off on the wrong foot just by buying into the myriad of false narratives trumped up by the leftist media and liberals in general.  It would do him a world of good just to stop listening to those voices, and listen to what his heart taught him during his childhood....but what do I know; I'm just a girl, you know.   teehee]

The thing is, at the end of the day -- it's a beautiful thing to have this free will playing hopscotch with us each and every day; for it gives us everyday, imperfect human beings a chance to change our ways...to change course... to believe we can become true friends, if it is meant to be....and to believe in Martin Luther King's Dream.

It all begins with the very next step we take, along with the very next words of advice we give our children.

oh this girl can dream 

and believe the dream can come true indeed.

Make it a Good Day, G