Make Good Choices

1. You’re right to be afraid… for our youth, our country, and our personal safety. I don’t believe this is a passing fad or a temporary blip. There will be a line drawn in the sand. We’ll all have to decide which side we’ll fight for. Sitting out will not be an option.

2. These choices as voiced here, go back one generation. The Genesis story of Cain Killing Able ends in Cain being cat out with a mark upon him. The idea is propagated that all of his children would have the mark as well. The idea is that the children are made to pay for the sins of their fathers. Combine this with another concept: That you commit crimes and get away with it forever, with no repercussions. Thus the first farmers that brought slaves in to the New World and continued to do so, with slavery remaining alive and well through a few years after the Civil War in Texas, under Federal troops came in and turned all slaves free all over the state as some Texans just did not want to live with the result of the Civil War. While it is known that a lot of slaves were kidnapped by their own people in Africa and were taken to places where they were sold and shipped as, “nearly-free labor,” Whites in England and other countries in Europe made vast profits as did Southerners, some of whom made fortunes on the slave trade itself in addition to Cotton and other farms in the South. It is fair to say, that few people looked ahead and said to themselves, “Down the road, there will be Hell to pay.” They did not visualize that the vast wealth made upon the backs of slaves would eventually come back to haunt them. In fact some of them couldn’t believe it so back that they refused to view slaves as did President Lincoln did: People. Physical characteristics and the color of skin are no excuse to draw distinctions and to treat anyone differently than you’d treat yourself of one of your family members. Since the Emancipation Proclamation, which is a statement that acknowledges that all people are people there has been an unlawful was among some people and people of color, Black people in particular. So bad is that war that clubs like the Ku Klux Klan and many other groups such as the Nazi Party and its off-shoots and certain motorcycle gangs and their off-shoots have continued to promote terrorism against blacks. The law as creation by the Executive and Legislative branches of our government has responded by stating these groups are subversive or terrorist and are against all Americans. Initially saying they represented the “Old America,” found out that they only represented themselves and others for who it was convenient to hate. (That DNA tests often show that these haters have Black DNA in their bodies is lost upon them completely. At the same time, they run around talking about Blacks and what a Black is or isn’t, based upon some percentage formula that is capricious and arbitrary. Beyond Hitler being Jewish, for example, while killing his own kind there needn’t be a lot of examples that shows the conduct of haters to be exactly what it is: “Racism.” Solving the problems that have developed is just one aspect of the Black Lives Matter phenomenon. The sins of your fathers? Wholesale enslavement of different people in different countries on the Continent of Africa to make families rich? It happened. Those families are responsible. And in deed, there are now repercussions. And they are very complex problems. The answer to everything is not just statistics to show how good blacks have it; or, the one word ansewr, “Compliance.” It starts when then is no true science by which all aspects our our country’s current situation can be analyzed. The science is there. It is that it just hasn’t been applied since Emil Durkheim invented science of Sociology in France in 1995. To actually use the science of sociology to root out all the circumstances, has of yet never really been attempted. Instead there have been wars and court rulings. My argument? Those methods simply haven’t worked. And now we are suffering for the sins of our fathers as Americans. Even if our ancestors actually came from somewhere else. AF

3. By the way, if you would like a protest song to embody what’s happening right now, right here, just go back to 1966 and 1967, when Stephen Stills wrote a song, “For What It’s Worth.” it was recorded in December of 1966 and released in January of 1967 and rose to #7 on the charts. Later in history, people thought it was a Vietnam War protest song in point of origin. Initially it was a song about a night club on the Sunset Strip in Hollywood being shut down for traffic control and other reasons by the police of the city. Years later, people looked back and were sure that it was about students at Kent State being shot (not until 1969) and the Vietnam War. Largely on the strength of the song, “For What It’s Worth,” the Buffalo Springfield were eventually inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

4. I apologize. This is “Cars Yeah.” The car involved was a used Pontiac Hearse purchased by a couple of member of the Buffalo Springfield prior to the formation of the band, to help two rockers and folk-rockers including Neil Young, find there way to Hollywood in order to find Stephen Stills so that they might form a band. AF

5. The question IS : “Anyone else fearful today? If so, what can we do to help improve the situation?”

   I and my family refuse to live in fear.

   Many of our forefathers and family members have faced MUCH greater peril. I’m ashamed to think that what is going on around us today even comes close. The catalyst of a pandemic may scar, but not destroy the fortitude of our great nation or the populace to find a cure and peace. Many have lost there jobs, lives, and optimism for the future, but not the voice of equality, unity and justice.

   I also agree some of our youth maybe “making terribly and dangerous choices”, but then again that’s what my parents thought about my generation. I see improvement in the actions of legislation here in Massachusetts. Accountability is being called out by our citizens. However the proof will be in the results.

   I encourage all to listen to FDRoosevelt’s Inaugural address during a very depressing and difficult time in our country. It may give a perspective to a sense of unity and common goals.

   God’s speed all and stay safe.

6. Strange days indeed, to quote John Lennon. As a car guy it is hard to focus on anything cars right now. I have two sons that are police officers in New York and I worry more about them today then when they served tours in Afghanistan. What does that say about the current state of affairs we are in? Then pile on all things COVID. I yearn for the days when I can go back outside and go to a show and just talk cars. Cars are the great equalizer. Tall, Short, Fat, Skinny, Black, White, American Muscle, British Classics. It doesn’t matter. The smell of gasoline in the air is a great equalizer. To quote Rodney King “Can’t we all just get along” and maybe just talk cars…

• Indeed. Scary times Rich.

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