Good Bye 7-11

The 7-11 at 107th and Blue Ridge Blvd. went up (or should I say down) in flames last evening. This store has been an integral part of the Ruskin Heights community for over 40 years. The present day store was not the genuine article, but a johnny-come-lately. The original store was smaller and is now a child care center just behind the store that burned.

Who would have thought it would burn and not die a natural death that comes from too many robberies and a decaying neighborhood. Not I. So the question on all our minds is this: Will they rebuild it? And if they do, will they come?

Thank you Jason Whitlock!

Jason, you get it! Don Imus isn't the problem... he's a symptom. The problem is the double standard within the black community. If something is wrong, it is wrong for everyone regardless of race or religion.

Why we would allow ourselves to be led down the path of be living the "victimology" being spewed by the not so "Reverend" Al and the bigoted "Reverend" Jesse? I guess it is a whole lot easier to point fingers at idiots like Don Imus and say "he's the problem" than to try to really fix the issue.

Thank you Jason for understanding what the real problem is.

Kansas City Star, The (MO)2007-04-11 - Imus isn't the real bad guy

Reprinted from Jason Whitlock's column in the 4/11/07 Kansas City Star:

Instead of wasting time on irrelevant shock jock, black leaders need to be fighting a growing gangster culture.

Thank you, Don Imus. You ve given us (black people) an excuse to avoid our real problem.
You ve given Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson another opportunity to pretend that the old fight, which is now the safe and lucrative fight, is still the most important fight in our push for true economic and social equality.

You ve given Vivian Stringer and Rutgers the chance to hold a nationally televised recruiting celebration expertly disguised as a news conference to respond to your poor attempt at humor.
Thank you, Don Imus. You extended Black History Month to April, and we can once again wallow in victimhood, protest like it's 1965 and delude ourselves into believing that fixing your hatred is more necessary than eradicating our self-hatred.

The bigots win again.

While we're fixated on a bad joke cracked by an irrelevant, bad shock jock, I m sure at least one of the marvelous young women on the Rutgers basketball team is somewhere snapping her fingers to the beat of 50 Cent's or Snoop Dogg's or Young Jeezy's latest ode glorifying nappy-headed pimps and hos.

I ain't saying Jesse, Al and Vivian are gold-diggas, but they don't have the heart to mount a legitimate campaign against the real black-folk killas.

It is us. At this time, we are our own worst enemies. We have allowed our youths to buy into a culture (hip hop) that has been perverted, corrupted and overtaken by prison culture. The music, attitude and behavior expressed in this culture is anti-black, anti-education, demeaning, self-destructive, pro-drug dealing and violent.

Rather than confront this heinous enemy from within, we sit back and wait for someone like Imus to have a slip of the tongue and make the mistake of repeating the things we say about ourselves.

It's embarrassing. Dave Chappelle was offered $50 million to make racially insensitive jokes about black and white people on TV. He was hailed as a genius. Black comedians routinely crack jokes about white and black people, and we all laugh out loud.

I m no Don Imus apologist. He and his tiny companion Mike Lupica blasted me after I fell out with ESPN. Imus is a hack.

But, in my view, he didn't do anything outside the norm for shock jocks and comedians. He also offered an apology. That should ve been the end of this whole affair. Instead, it's only the beginning. It's an opportunity for Stringer, Jackson and Sharpton to step on victim platforms and elevate themselves and their agenda$.

I watched the Rutgers news conference and was ashamed.

Martin Luther King Jr. spoke for eight minutes in 1963 at the March on Washington. At the time, black people could be lynched and denied fundamental rights with little thought. With the comments of a talk-show host most of her players had never heard of before last week serving as her excuse, Vivian Stringer rambled on for 30 minutes about the amazing season her team had.

Somehow, we're supposed to believe that the comments of a man with virtually no connection to the sports world ruined Rutgers wonderful season. Had a broadcaster with credibility and a platform in the sports world uttered the words Imus did, I could understand a level of outrage.
But an hourlong press conference over a man who has already apologized, already been suspended and is already insignificant is just plain intellectually dishonest. This is opportunism. This is a distraction.

In the grand scheme, Don Imus is no threat to us in general and no threat to black women in particular. If his words are so powerful and so destructive and must be rebuked so forcefully, then what should we do about the idiot rappers on BET, MTV and every black-owned radio station in the country who use words much more powerful and much more destructive?

I don't listen or watch Imus show regularly. Has he at any point glorified selling crack cocaine to black women? Has he celebrated black men shooting each other randomly? Has he suggested in any way that it's cool to be a baby-daddy rather than a husband and a parent? Does he tell his listeners that they're suckers for pursuing education and that they're selling out their race if they do?

When Imus does any of that, call me and I ll get upset. Until then, he is what he is -- a washed-up shock jock who is very easy to ignore when you're not looking to be made a victim.

No. We all know where the real battleground is. We know that the gangsta rappers and their followers in the athletic world have far bigger platforms to negatively define us than some old white man with a bad radio show. There's no money and lots of danger in that battle, so Jesse and Al are going to sit it out.

Racism is wrong... no matter what color you are

Racism is wrong... no matter what color you are. And I have met as many black racists as I have white racists.

Unfortunately for Don Imus he happens to be white and moderately famous so the brew-ha-ha is larger than if Joe Local said it. I remember when Jessie Jackson called New York "Himey town" and didn't apologize for days. But oh well he is just Jessie Jackson and entitled to a few goofs...

And what about Chris Rock and other non-white comedians who spew a litany of racist and sexist remarks? Shouldn't they be held to the same standard? I've grown up in the age of "what up n - - - - r" and if that is term is offensive for me to use, it is offensive for anyone of any color to use.

If it is wrong, it is wrong.

What is "Racially Insensitive"?

While I certainly don't condone what Don Imus said about the Rutgers women basketball players, I wonder why this country doesn't put the same emphasis on racial remarks when they are made by non-whites. It seems to me that there is a double standard for that type of behavior. It's okay for black sports figures and music stars to talk about "Black Ho's and Bitches" and being "nappy headed", and use the "N" word but not anyone else?

Oh please, you can not have it both ways and expect most people take your concerns seriously. And where is the Reverend Al when the foul-mouthed music stars are getting their awards? Right in the front row...

Global Warming OR An Inconvenient Truth

Several times in the past few days I have heard remarks on global warming - most to the effect of how this could be true due to the extreme cold snap we've been having. While I don't profess to have as much knowledge on the subject as ex-VP Al Gore, I do know that weather patterns change and have done so for hundreds of thousands of years.

While I try to be ecologically minded in my day-to-day life, I am fed up with private jet traveling, SUV driving, mansion living, spend-happy celebrities who try to tell me I should be more concerned with "global warming". Hello? Is the inconvenient truth only for us commoners? Your lifestyle adds a whole lot more pollution to the atmosphere than mine but amazingly you can tell me what I should be concerned with?

Al Gore, you need to set your own house in order before you start preaching to the world.

Letter to the City Council on Ordinance 061247

The voters of Kansas City chose a new direction a week ago last Tuesday. That new direction is not compatible with passing this controversial ordinance at the last minute against the wishes of so many south Kansas City residents and their newly-elected representatives.

Incoming 6th district councilman John Sharp has made numerous public statements in support of our position. Additionally, incoming 6th district at-large council member Cathy Jolly does not support the City's plan and has asked for a different solution that does not hurt the community.

I respectfully ask that you grant them and the other new council members the courtesy of allowing them to work with us to devise an alternate plan.

Mayor-elect Funkhouser recently blogged about the situation here in south town and it will be easier for him to build a consensus if this project is put on hold.

As a part of the community, I do not believe that building a bridge of this magnitude is good for either our neighborhoods or the city as a whole.

Please just say "NO" to condemning private land to build the "Chuck Eddy Memorial Bridge"!