I’ve been thinking about racism quite a bit most recently. I think I have written about this before, but I grew up in a very racist community. The Ku Klux Klan often held rallies in our near our town and our Black population was zero. I grew up thinking there were Blacks and their were Whites. I was not aware of Asians or Latins or anyone else on our planet. My parents were educated and did not teach us to be racist, and we often had conversation about Black Folks as the other students at school would talk about them. And when you are 8 or 9 years old generally you just echo the sediments of your parents anyway, and there was not much confusion about how everyone’s parents felt.
So with the Zimmerman trial over folks are still talking about the verdict. Trayvon Martin was 17 when he was killed. That in itself is just sad. It is even sadder that some folks feel that the planet is better off without him. He smoked pot. It has been reported that he stole jewelry. Hell two of my White friends smoked pot at 15 and 16 years old. One is a doctor and the other a lawyer. If we had internet, they may have taken pictures flipping of the camera and wore hoodies as well. But today they are productive in society and have no criminal record. Trayvon will not get those opportunities as he is going to be dead for our time on this planet. Regardless of who he ran around with, who he idolized, and how he dressed he had opportunities ahead of him to be something other than many have him made out to have been. At 17 damn near all of us are stupid and make bad decisions.
Although I believe the verdict was correct, I don’t like how folks are still attacking Trayvon Martin. This case has done nothing to help race relations although over time it could be used in open dialog by open minded youngsters to learn about being able to tolerate our differences.
I’m not an overly religious guy. I have Christian philosophies and as we all know I have my faults and do not live by every one of the 10 commandments. As a youngster and even today, I never got the Jehovah Witnesses. They say they live by a strict interpretation of the Bible and that is fine with me. The issues I have is with Christmas, The Pledge of Allegiance, Birthdays and war. I get war, but I know my Father enlisted on December 8, 1941 the day after Pearl Harbor was attacked. He was bitter about the JW’s not fighting in war to protect our freedoms, etc. My good friend said he would not stand for The Pledge of Allegiance, because that was putting our Country before our God. I was not quite buying that, but in the end, I can live with it. I just can’t agree with it.
That leads me to the Japanese. I don’t know much about the Japanese, but they did bomb Pearl Harbor and Professional Wrestling often made them the villains to bring out the hate in the audience. They did the same with the Germans (I am part German) making them out to be Hitler loving. Hitler was big on the master race but he did not seem to be part of that master race when you looked at him.
Now I am ok with the Japanese, the Germans, The Muslims, and people from everywhere. I don’t know their History, but I know that as Americans we can often believe we are better than others. I prefer to say different and just judge a man on his merits.
Now I have one Asian issue, and it is stupid. So just agree that I am stupid and try to remember that in the end. I love my Asian friends and in many cases cannot tell what flavor of Asian a person is by site. Someday I will have to write about the 18 year old Vietnamese lady I dated when I was 35. She was a nice young lady and at the least we parted as friends, but probably the age difference was the biggest reason I got out of that relationship.
So hear is my issue: Black Jack….I love the game, but I am not in love with the way some folks play. Of course they can play however they want. The don’t answer to me and it is their money. What ever decision anyone makes at the table does not change my odds at all. Sure their decision can cause me to get a different card that may make me lose, but when I make my decision the odds are still the same. Black Jack is a mathematical game. Asian’s are generally thought to be mathematically gifted, but I very seldom see an Asian guy that uses Math to his advantage. It is not just the Asians, as I am sure it happens with people of all race, but given a 15 or a 16 and looking at a 10 value card, you are fucked. However if you take a card you will lose less money over the long haul than if you stay. Yet folks at the Black Jack table are always trying to out guess the cards. Why do I care? It is however only a card game and it is there money. It just really bugs me and the truth be told, I wish everyone would just go home and let me and the dealer play heads up.
I will work on getting over my prejudices. I hope everyone else will join me and try to be more tolerant.
It is Friday afternoon. Please be careful on the roads and hope to see you soon.