It was a very peaceful drive in this morning. One thing stood out particualry from the morning drive. I crossed this bridge over water. Above the water was a sort of light fog. Inside that fog/mist were tiny spinning eddies or little slow moving tornadoes spiraling down toward the water. Of course, at my unmentioned speed, I only got a glimpse of it. I wondered if I should have stopped to take a photo. I cannot explain what I saw; but now I am relating to you what I thought I saw. I was listening to a Bruce Springsteen CD. Born in the USA had just finished and 41 Shotes crawled out of my speakers in surround profundity. In the hush of my fog-glimpse; the lyrics of this song made more sense and this blog held its place in my mind until now. The lyrics go like this and refer to a national story about the police slaying of an unarmed West African immigrant in the Bronx that I hadn't heard of:
41 shots
41 shots
41 shots
41 shots
41 shots
41 shots
41 shots
41 shots....
and we'll take that ride
'cross this bloody river
to the other side
41 shots... cut through the night
You're kneeling over his body in the vestibule
Praying for his life
Is it a gun, is it a knife
Is it a wallet, this is your life
It ain't no secret
It ain't no secret
No secret my friend
You can get killed just for living
In your American skin.
41 shots
Lena gets her son ready for school
She says "on these streets, Charles
You've got to understand the rules
If an officer stops you
Promise you'll always be polite,
that you'll never ever run away
Promise Mama you'll keep your hands in sight"
more...
First things first: I got NO beefs with the po-po. They have an incredibly hard job...very little glory and mostly guts. There are very few limits to what the "human" can do in his quest for the bottom of the barrel.
I saw Springsteen in concert. I must confess; he was absolutely mezmerizing! I watched his band take several breaks; he never did. He was at least 50 yrs old; but time hadn't robbed the Pied Piper of wind or song. I watched bewildered as he ushered thousands of people into oceans of emotion with his haunting twang. He NEVER lost contact with the audience. Unbelieveable. Anyway....
The line that I find most provacative is "You can get killed just for living in your American skin." I think of the soldiers in Iraq who cannot afford to guess if the old lady or young child coming toward them is a friendly or hostile, having to choose between right or wrong vs what must be done. War is what it is, you can leave all that "white picket fence ideology" in your sparkling white porcelin comode...nobody's shooting at you. Your SUV has seat warmers and air conditioning and you will just keep buying and using as much gas as you want. The defenseless are the fuel of America...their sweat, their work and if necessary, their lives. (oops...getting off point) Soldiers, police, teachers, preachers, marriages......we're all at war. The enemy may come in various forms; but he is never visible. That's the magic of making us all fight each other. Nothing is as it appears.
I confess...every blue light behind me, gives me pause. I would also confess that the last speeding ticket I got was given to me by the most polite officer. I don't know if that's normal; I just know it ain't always so. I "choose" not to judge all by "one." The same should be said for different races of people, religions and etc. However; we judge most things by stereotype because we have burned our hands on the stove enough...so it becomes our snap judgement before later evaluation, that "that's hot," (no Paris pun intended).
If there is anything I learned growing up in the deep south; it's that everyone doesn't play fair or by the rules, life isn't fair, the world owes you nothing, people can be mean. But in all this, we "choose" our response. Evil is like dominos...its hard to stop them all from falling if that first one goes.
No comments:
Post a Comment