Je Reviens

Well, there I sat once again last night to watch the four hour block Spike Lee gave us. I have many things to say, to feel, to think about.

I think I was touched for three main reasons: I was raised on jazz, I have many black friends, and I myself have been pushed aside from those with more money and privilege. I might have gone to good schools, but I will not and cannot forget the way my own color treated me. My parents were educated, but they were union, not corporate Wall Street wonks. They chose professions close to what they believed in. Their jobs were an extension of their personalities, something I have taken with me and copied. And yet, I was treated like white trash. Not so. Working class is not white trash. Not when my father could quote Shakespeare and Moliere off the top of his head. Not when my mother knew every show tune and Streisand song under the sun and could reproduce every note with the touch of a piano or the strum of a guitar. I was not raised with the curse of materialism, I was raised knowing values. Religion. Music. Culture. Books, not television. Hard work, not trust funds. And for this, I was pushed aside. Well, I know the deal. I know the truth. I call it, I see it, and I believe. No one can kill that in me.

It's probably why I see racism and stupidity for what it is. I had a violent reaction earlier this summer with David Whathisface's "Firecrotch" comment on Lindsay Lohan since he never worked a day in his life. She's a millionaire due to hard work. Yes, acting and dealing with a crazy family (I have one of those myself) is hard work. She made her money, she didn't have it handed to her. And not surprisingly, a few black comedians came to her defense! You can find the reactions on YouTube and the internet. Funny stuff, but truth is truth. Grandstanding and telling people "hope and pray" is NOT a plan. And making fun of a teenaged red-head who makes movies is beyond ridiculous.

You're poor? Struggling to stay part of the middle class (whatever the hell that is, I don't know by NY standards anymore) and be 'upwardly mobile'--another phrase I've come to hate--is increasingly difficult in the face of greed, power and political abuse. There's this continual farce I keep hearing about that people supposedly get more mellow as they age. Not me. HELL NO.

I've become more politically active and aware of this country's shift to the right more in the last six years of my life more than ever. Complacency goes hand in had with apathy. Get enough of that, and true evil is born. It's all around us. Have you noticed? I see it every day.

Can't we all get along? is the joke from the Rodney King aftermath, but it's not a joke at all. It's going to take activism--I mean the real militant type from the 60's and 70's--to get people off their asses to see that they're getting fucked. "Well, what can I do?" is the sheepish refrain.

TAKE TO THE STREETS AND YELL. COMPLAIN. VOTE, BITCH, THREATEN, STRIKE, ASSAIL YOUR CONGRESSMEN. Action, not rhetoric. It's the only thing that's going to work. My tax dollars once again might let something like Katrina happen again? We're still dealing with 9/11, and I'm NOT pissed off that Nawlins Mayor Ray Nagin called Ground Zero a "hole in the ground." I've stood there. I've taken the PATH train from there. It's a damn hole, alright. Pure politics and stupidity fucking it up for the rest of us. We are free. To Do. As they Tell us.

UM, sorry. Don't think so. Shut up. Get gone. Here's a quarter, call me when I care.

Thank you, Spike, for telling it like it is. It reminds me I have the right to stay just the way I am. My parents are proud of me. This I know.