Peace (Please Educate All Children Equally), your self-appointed Negro Correspondent is back for another round. Now that we're back in school, it seems as though Armageddon and the Day of Judgment has again eluded us (whose calendar are we following anyway?).
Ironically, there I was in New York City all ready for my 40 acres and a mule (or was that milk and honey - I always get those promises mixed up) and all I got was a night of bad network programming.
After being a wide-eyed tourist in New York City for several days, I took a lot of notes on my post-Sept. 11 observations. While the garbage men still forget to pick up the trash in predominately black neighborhoods, they're doing a good job of cleaning up ground zero. Now that Giuliani is done doing his job, real heroes, i.e. "hero" policemen, are finally being distinguished from "killer" cops.
Firefighters are heroes because they were family members and friends and not sensationalist media creations. Oddly enough, there was a noticeable absence of cookie-cutter patriotism. It seems plastic flags and gaudy sweaters still aren't chic in the Big Apple.
In the land of a million tongues, a common language has emerged, one of compassion and kindness (one fellow, with his elbow in my left kidney, even paused to say "excuse me" as he barged through the crowded subway train gauntlet-style).
In Babylon, paradoxical First Amendment-violating logos like "In God We Trust" and "United We Stand" aren't on every window and bumper sticker because people still believe in Allah, Buddha, and Jehovah (and occasionally Jerry Garcia). "Diversity," as in divided, was never an issue - just ask John Rocker.
It is obvious in an area of the country where Confederate flags are now rivaled by the Star Spangled Banner (for the land of the free, and the home of the slave), that there's truly "no zealot like a convert."
Unlike Bush's foreign policy (let's pick on them next), my visit to Babylon reminded me of the many problems in Muncie. The ghetto laureate Jay Z once said, "A wise man told me, 'Don't argue with fools cause people from a distance can't tell who is who.'" This quote has served as the basis for my New Year's resolutions.
I figure I should stop wasting my time trying to get university students to read books outside of class when there are high school students who barely know how to read at all. I should stop complaining about the price of residence hall dining when people are starving right here in Muncie.
In the fattest nation in the world, I should stop trying to convince
everyone to stop eating pork (although almost every major religion condones it).
I've also decided to celebrate my birthday in January as opposed to July,
because it's the thought that counts (you know, kind of like Christmas).
I've also come to the realization that brothas with shaved heads wear silk 'do-rags because their scalps are cold and that Dick Cheney has been cloned, and the real "commander in chief" is dead.
Finally, besides swine (see above), I'm swearing off all biographical movies about black (revolutionary) athletes with horrible screenplays.
Write Anthony at athead@bsu.edu
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