Why Ferguson is such a personal outrage

This is NOT the post you think it is. 

As a man of bi-racial heritage, I find it difficult to swear racial allegiance to one “race” or another. Like I have shared with my four bi-racial children, when two people of two different colors come together and create life, that child is now a unique and distinctly different "color." When you mix red and yellow, you get orange. Orange is now a uniquely separate thing with its own properties and identifying characteristics.

Seeing things through a racial filter has-at best–always been tough for me. There were a lot of different nationalities of kids I played with growing up in my inner-city  Boston neighborhood. As an adolescent, I played with  2 Ethiopian kids (brother & sister), 2 Haitian brothers, a bi-racial boy, two white kids (brother and sister), 2 Black kids and another white boy who lived above me (it was a 24-unit, four-story tenement). We knew nothing about racial segmentation. Nor did we care, we were too preoccupied with having fun together, rain, sleet or snow.

So when a young back man is gunned down by a white cop (the young man was unarmed and the cop shot him six times at point blank range), I'm stunned. Not by the event, not even by the outrage of the multi-nationality of the protesters. I am not even off-put by the scores of police using dictatorial-style military tactics to ‘disperse’ the crowds. I am appalled by the reactions of those of us who are so far removed from these events and yet have so many opinions about it. 

Facebook and Twitter exploded just hours after the news broke and the chose-up-siders went to town. Memes that explained outrage over how a black cop shot a white guy and that got no news coverage, where were the protesters for that? Really? What about the two black guys who beat up a poor white US veteran and the story never got any media play (something I find astonishing since we all somehow know about it). Then there’s the multiple stories of how the young man, Michael Brown, had (allegedly) robbed a convenience store of a cigar a day before being killed. He stole a cigar. When did the crime for THAT warrant an immediate execution-style death?

Here’s what we know; a young man (who was slated to start college course two days after being killed) was gunned down by an officer. I don’t know what the officer’s motives were, I wasn’t there. But 10 shots were fired. Ten. Six found their mark. Two to the head, four to the body–anyone else find this excessive? And a white cop, Darren Wilson, patrolling in an all-Black neighborhood, that has had a history of racial tension with the police, is not a good backdrop. 

The brutality of the police was mind-numbing to me. The dismissal that this was not a racially motivated event. The police chief of Ferguson said, in a press conference, "this was not an excessive use of force the officer, discharged his firearm not many more then two times.' ("Not many more?")

Tear-Gas, rubber bullets, footage of cops antagonizing and goading protesters. Name calling (albeit on both sides) made me ashamed and fearful for our country. Did I really watch a news clip of a police officer calling people who are outraged and fed up with injustice “animals?” What the hell? Its a scenario as volatile as any imaginable. 

The specter of racism hangs over every facet of our society. It has not gone away. It will not go away. Not until every single factor gets addressed. It is NOT okay that anyone loose their life over anything. Period. Even if Mr. Brown was charging the cop, they are trained to put someone down with non-lethal force. But that's not what happened. If this was a white man, he would have been pepper-sprayed or tazed. You know it, I know. The officer Wilson knew it. And now, Michael Brown, son, friend, would-be college attendee knows it. But the cost of acquiring that knowledge cost him his life. 

This all brings me back to when I was playing with children from a spectacular number of nationalities and ethnicity when I was growing up. I knew nothing of race, each kid was as fun as the other and figuring out how to play with so many kids was our challenge, not race. 

My offering for progress. 

In 2013 I traveled to Atlanta and met a life-long friend and his wife (he’s Jewish BTW) and we all went to DragonCon, the big Sci-fi convention held there every year. While there, we attended a panel of stars from the great Sci-Fi series Battlestar Galactica. A panel which included actor Edward James Olmos. In a giant exhibition hall of nearly 5,000, he explained how his belief system informs him that there is but one race… the human race. That nationalities are just political excuses to divide us and drive derision. 

He then challenged the crowd to embrace and spread this vision and to recite the catch phrase of the colonial fleet. We all stood on our feet to utter, in fist-pumping unison the prophetic words; “So say we all!” The entire throng chanted back “So say we all!” Exchanging this phrase back and forth, louder and louder until the thunder of more than 5,000 people shook the very halls of the Atlanta Hyatt’s convention center. Remembering It still sends shivers down my spine. 

Edward James Olmos is right. When there is no black race or white race but just a human race, humanity can truly take a step toward bettering itself. If it had happened sooner, young Michael Brown would be alive and in his first semester of College today. And the national tarnish of racism would be a distant memory. 

So say we all. 

Five things to remember when you know everything

An open note to all children: Don't wait another moment! 

Go conquer the world while you still have it all figured out.

So, it's 2013 and children are smarter than ever. It's true. Empowered by the internet those born after 1992 in this country have grown up with the entire, combined history of humanity at their fingertips. The movies, the games, the entertainment; it's all so overwhelming. This generation has everything-and I mean everything–at their disposal. 

And they know it. 

You can't argue with this generation. You can't reason with them, you can't even impart knowledge, religion or spirituality of any kind. This isn't to say we shouldn't try–just that it's important for parents, educators and concerned adults to know, kids only half listen to anything we have to say. 

So since they all know everything already here are some useful tips to anyone currently age 20 and younger:

1. Parents know nothing – Have parents ever been cool? Ever? Of course not. They can't be, I mean, it's not like they know what it's like to be a kid, right? They don't know what it's like, to get up and day-after-day go do the same thing and like… gosh, like do stuff for a couple of straight hours and stuff. Hah! Next you'll be telling me they actually used to BE kids…
2. Hard work is too hard, don't do it – things like businesses, relationships, careers and life goals are such a waste of time. Why try at anything when you can "chill-lax" from an already difficult life filled with school, chores nagging parents and gaming? It's not like hard work gets you anything right? I mean, all the cool kids, they just have stuff handed to them and it's all bar-b-ques and baseball game box seats–all day everyday. You don't need to work hard, you need to win the lottery!
   
   Fun thought! – And don't forget to complain that you never win the lottery despite the fact that you don't play and you're under-aged.
   
   
3. TV is your friend – Just think of all the wildly successful super-celebrities who started their career by sitting on the couch and eating snacks until dinner time. These incredibly famous and wealthy super stars of inertia (non-existent though they may be) are imagined proof that doing nothing pays big.
   
   Fun Quiz! What's better than TV? YouTube!
4. Dream Big! Be sure to spend quality time worrying about people who don't worry about you. You know, important stuff like asking; who's cool? Answer? Anyone under 25! What are they doing, what's their favorite YouTube video, who did they break up with yesterday? These are vitally important facts that are worth untold hours and even days of your time. Be sure to stalk your favorite band on Twitter. Because, of the hundreds of thousands of fans they could want—YOU'RE the one they've been waiting for!
   
   Fun fact! Stalking also works amazingly well on athletes, musicians, politicians, actors and popular kids at school. What's a little restraining order between you anyway? I mean, why live YOUR life, when someone else is doing it better, right?
5. School is for chumps – Duh! This one one is wicked easy! School gets in the way of all kinds of fun stuff like X-BOX and PS3 time, FaceBook updates, porn, eating pizza with friends and watching YouTube videos where each one is funnier than the last.
   
   Honesty, all you're ever going to get out of school is friends, self respect, a potential life that might matter, a future, a sense of purpose, sports, a sense of community, a place to expand your mind and parts in the school play. Who needs any of that when in just ten short years of eating snacks in the living room and watching TV you can fast track yourself to Type 2 diabetes, hypertension, obesity, eyestrain and lethargy?

So what's it all mean? Time to live it up! Your folks will live forever, so why prepare for the future? That's hard and tough when instead you can eat Funyuns, send endless text messages that start and end with LOL and veg-out watching cartoon marathons. 

Remember, anything anyone ever accomplished took a bunch of time and was wicked hard. Why do any of that when you have 500 channels and pretzel M-and-M's?

Dumber & Dumber

"OMG! Like–No waaaayyy! OMG! LOL! Like, Fo' Sho!"

As far as I can tell, today's teenagers are exactly the same teenagers we were. So much for progress.

"All of this has happened before, all of this will happen again."

Every geeky sci-fi nut knows these famous words from the hugely popular ScyFy series, Battlestar Galactica (2004–2008)–and how much those words can resonate with our present-day lives. Nowhere is this more evident than in the modern lives of America's 21st century adolescents and teenagers.

Spaceman Spiff gets pawned by–Mom?

Like every generation before it, today's 11-19 year-olds believe they are the first to attempt to 'get away' with things that are against their parents wishes. You know the usual suspects; sneaking alcohol, breaking something and hiding it, stealing candy from a local drug store or super market. Or the holy grail of sneakiness; surfing porn.

Look gang, we were smart back in the day. And we were cool. We went out did stuff and got caught. Eventually. Every last one of us.

Every. Last. One.

You see, to my reckoning, approximately zero people get away with breaking the rules. Sure, sure, you can Google "unsolved mysteries" or criminals that have gotten away, blah, blah, blah. Thanks for missing the point. The point isn't to do a head count of all the sneaky, under-handed stuff we and others have gotten away with–no, dear reader, the lesson is that you will get caught. Period. Someone, somewhere knows something is wrong, I promise you.

Even if that someone is you.

An open note to America's youth. Since I know my kids and several of their friends (and teachers) read some of these posts, I thought I would take this moment to remind you all of a few things you may either not have learned or have already forgotten. Feel free to take notes (that would be copy and paste for most of you), as you review, reflect on how ANY of these thoughts might apply to you. Ready? Let's begin.

Aren't they all?

1. Naughty, naughty. Porn is is the ultimate online temptation. But did you know, today's ISP's allows parents (you know the ones that pay for and manage the internet access) to see your computer's activity online by ID number, so erasing the history in your browser does not stop us from knowing what you're up to. Also, the house's dwindling lotion supply is often another hint.

2. Busted! Store surveillance–it's been a retail fixture since the dark ages (for most of you, that means before 1985) and if you are using a five-finger discount on acquiring things like gum, candy and magazines, they know what you're doing–and soon, so will the police.

3. Whoa–go and let your light shine down. Hiding stuff under your bed? Really? You do realize this is one of the FIRST places we (parents) look when we are looking for something that's missing, right?

4. You are NOT the first ANYTHING. You are not the first child to smoke pot. You are not the first kid to steal a sip from your parent's liquor supply. You are not the first kid to watch internet porn. Speaking on behalf of all parents, we all did it–and we all got caught. You'll get caught, too.

5. Riddle me this. Every teenager over the course of human history, believes he or she knows everything, or is at least smarter than their parents/guardians/chaperones/authority figures. It's genetic. We were smarter than our folks, too. We didn't get away with anything either.

Today, teenagers have so much more to contend with then teenagers from just 20 years ago. Texting, sexting, porn, 500-channels, YouTube, Twitter, FaceBook, Pintrest and home-made drugs on top of acne, self-image concerns and raging hormones. It can be managed. Remember that your focus and your behavior determine your life.

And the choices you make have a tendency of following you for a long, long time. I know it sounds dumb but trust me.

Been there, done that.

I'm not your friend! (yet)

Stranger Danger! Social media is letting a lot of new people into my life–and I think I like it.

For those of you old enough to remember the 80's song by Rockwell; "Some body's watching me"–I am sooo there! If you are plugged in to any type of social media web site, social smart phone App or chat board these days, then you have been exposed to the online world of social networking. A virtual place where you have Avatars, profile pics and obtuse descriptions of yourself to tell the world who you are, what you're all about and what you are up to; moment-by-moment.

And we're all hopelessly addicted.

I mean, how many "friend requests" on FaceBook have you answered in the past year? I don't just mean long lost high school buds or someone you worked with once upon a time. Those folks, to me, are more or less what FaceBook is for. No, I mean the completely random Twitter Zombies or the unknown FaceBookers who read some random comment you made on a mutual friend's page? Or maybe they are simply looking to pump up the number of friends on their friend list. So what? Who cares? I care. So you have asked to be my–uh–"friend"? Oh well, since we're friends, come on in!

It has been long rumored that FaceBook pays special attention to people with friends lists of a certain volume. I guess the thinking is, if this person has 5,400+ followers, they must be important. They're not. These people are no more or less relevant than you or I. They just spend more time than we do building lists of fictitious "friends" for some yet-to-be determined master-plan for world dominance. Clearly, they don't spend their time doing far more constructive things–you know, like ranting about social media conspiracies on do-it-yourself blogs.

I just can't seem to get away from sharing me with the world, my thoughts and opinions (haven't you noticed?), my favorite foods, colors, movies, video games and graphic novels (that's a fancy name for $20 comic books that will later get made into blockbuster movies!). And there are so many ways to get connected, my head spins—or maybe those are just the eyes on my XBOX 360 Avatar–hard to keep track of at this point.

And so it goes, as the Mythos of Me continues to grow, I am swept into a tidal pool of self-actualized relevance. I am my own best/worst PR engine and I just might be the most important human being on Earth. At least I think so, the world just hasn't discovered me yet. Don't worry, though, I'm working on it. I believe, as the saying goes, there's an App for that.

As a good friend once jokingly shared at a recent high school reunion; "I love me some me."

Amen, brother. Amen.

Knock it off already!

Smart Phones have dug themselves into our pockets and our lives—and self restraint is nowhere to be found.


I am now the proud owner of an iPhone 4S! As a devoted Apple computer minion, I couldn't imagine a more fitting way to round out my arsenal of social connectivity then by adding the world's best, fastest most sought-after Smart Phone. My home network, is now a thriving apple hub of metal and plastic models of the world's friendliest computer. To sum it up, my iPhone is the bomb–and I am afraid.

Very afraid.

Don't misunderstand, this phone is more powerful and has more features (comparatively) than two of my older Macs. No, what I mean is this phone–it has a way of consuming your attention, your focus and your day.

Ever been at the movies and had someone's Smart Phone light-up half the theater because they just had to check the latest twitter about Aunt Mildrid or what their favorite movie star is up to (by the way, exactly NONE of them write their own tweets or monitor their own Facebook pages). Or maybe you've been behind a fancy, slow moving SUV, moving roughly 22 mph. When you finally pass it–you guessed it–they're on a phone. What about the girl in the grocery store treating us to every detail of her boring-ass workday to a person on the other end who is just as disenchanted as we are. I have even heard stall-squatters in the men's room answer phone calls – while pinching a loaf! Are you kidding me? Dude, not only does no one in the bathroom want you to hear you promise to pick up eggs; milk on the way home to wifey, but—are you sitting down for this? oh yeah, you are–she can HEAR you on the toilet, dummy!

This overabundance of social disregard is due to the ADD Smart Phones have inflicted on all of us. I know, I get it. I'm guilty too (well, not of the bathroom stuff, that's just gross!).

There is a delightful charm these gadgets provide for us that makes us feel connected, be in touch and literally have the world at our fingertips. The number of traffic accidents has never been higher, work place productivity has never been lower and our fellow human beings have never been so distracted in the course of human history.

It has been my experience that none of us are using these phones to 1/1000th of their real capacity. Email, FaceBook, Twitter, you don't need a HAL-9000 for these. However, you do need a little common sense. We could all use a little less time in front of our three-inch screens and a little more real-time connectivity. Whoa. Did you see that? Hell, now even the real thing sounds like some social media initiative.

Maybe we're all doomed. Or maybe, we just need to unplug. The bottom line is–opps, gotta go… I have a new challenger on Words with Friends–!