This being Veterans Day, I'd like to share one of my favorite Marine Corps
boot camp stories. On the third day, we were introduced to our Drill
Instructors. The recruits sat on the floor with their knees in their chests,
eyeballs glued to the drill instructors as they introduced themselves, one by
one. One guy, a Sergeant, came out and started talking about how, in the Marine
Corps, there were no "black" Marines, or "white" Marines--we were all just
MARINES! This was 1980, the country still identified itself along race lines on
many topics--the Supreme Court's Bakke decision was still fresh on everyone's
tongue. I'm thinking: "Wow, this is great! No distinctions, no prejudice,
just a bunch of Marines! Great!" Then the next thing from his lips was:
"We're just 'light-green' Marines and 'dark-green' Marines!" (SMH!!) Oh well, so
much for that experiment!
I wrote earlier that on Election Day, it took close to four hours to
cast my ballot, the longest I've ever taken to vote in any Presidential election
I've participated in. Right after the balloting, I posted a few observations from
my "eternity" standing in the polling line--some were sincere, some are kinda
snarky.
When we got home (a little after 10:00 p.m.), my wife and I didn't have to
wait long for the election results, "Uncle Baama" (as one little kid, waiting in
line with his dad, kept referring to President Obama) had won easily. In the
days prior to November 6, many of my Black friends would send email messages and
Facebook pokes about the importance of voting, and often included video clips or
photos reminding folks my age (55+) of the dark days of segregation and the
fight for voter rights in the South. The emails would be very blunt about how
important it was to vote in this election (re-electing Obama) because the "fear"
or implied "threat" was we (Blacks) would be forced, by
hooded (and un-hooded) thugs, back down the road to the good old days of Sheriff Bull Connor's fire hoses
and police dogs, tear gas, warrantless arrests, church bombings, picnic
lynchings, and out right murder! The implication was, as Blacks, we had an
OBLIGATION to vote to prevent American from again sinking into that abyss.
Quite frankly, I was a little offended by the heavy-handed imagery of those
messages, mainly because I'm convinced that America has long ago turned the
corner on that kind of overt, blatant, institutionalized racial prejudice,
bigotry, and race hatred. I want to believe we are past that. Sure, there are
individuals out there who will always think in those terms, but that's not the
majority of Americans, and I did not believe that's where Romney or the GOP were trying to
take us this year. There was no need for concern that if you didn't vote for Obama in
2012, that America would backslide to its days of apartheid.
But I'll be damned if, during the coverage of the election results, many
news anchors, guests, and so-called "political experts" (especially on Fox
News) weren't actually blaming Romney's loss on race! These people were
actually upset that "minorities" had the temerity and the gall vote in the
manner and number that they did! I couldn't believe my ears that by voting, we
(minorities) were to "blame" for Romney's loss. These clowns were saying crap
like:
- "...the white establishment is now the minority..."
- "...it's not a 'traditional' America anymore..."
- "...this is the new America; this isn't your father's America
anymore..."
WTF!! I could not believe I was hearing this!! Is this America?!? The
thing that saddened and (and pissed me off) the most is the fact that when I
look back on it in retrospect, both sides willfully played the race card. It
seems no matter what we do or say as a nation, in the end, it all comes down to
race! (damnit...) When the heat is turned up, someone's going to shout or
whisper or insinuate the "N" word, or the "C" word, or the "S" word, or the "J"
word. The funny thing is, when I was standing in that voting line, there was
one other thing I observed that didn't impress me enough to note, and that was
the colors of the people standing around me. I was surrounded by people of all
colors, races, nationalities, languages, and creeds--a nice "stew" of
Americanism. To keep my legs from going numb, I walked up and down the line
just watching folks with my ears falling on this or that conversation. There
were whites, blacks, Indians, Asians, Hispanics (or is that "Latinos?"), Arabs,
a Russian couple, Africans--it just seemed like "people" to me. It never
dawned on me that we were still "black and white" and "minorities and
majorities." After listening to the jerks on Fox News, I don't think I want to
see a "traditional" America again, but I guess we are "light-green" and
"dark-green" Americans.
Pity!
