Gunfighter: A Modern Warrior's Life

A Haiku About My Day

Career day at school
"Do you have a flame-thrower?"
Good times with children

Sent on the go from my Peek

Spontaneous Haiku

This came to me while I was working out this morning:

Sane  folks don't like it

Violence without reason

Rockin' The Casbah

An Angry Black Man

I wrote this post on July 20th, 2008, and I never posted it to my blog.  I don't remember what sparked the tirade, but reading, I have to admit that I still feel the same way about what I wrote, so here it is... Straight, with no chaser.  (If you are sensitive, close your ears)

 

I’m a little pissed off today my friends. 

I’m going to talk about something a little different today.  

You see, I have spent a large amount of my adult life being considered a “sellout” by a large segment of my own community.  Since many of you who read this are white… and many from outside the United States, and may not be familiar with that term, I'll explain it.

In the black American community, to be considered a sellout is the same as being called a race-traitor.  Yeah, stupid, I know, but it’s true. 

Here’s the deal.  Many black Americans consider someone a sellout for the following reasons (taken either together or separately):  Maybe she talks “white”.  He might listen to “white” music, some of her friends are white, he is married a white person, she has a “white” job, he dresses “white”, she doesn’t like basketball… You get the picture, right?  Anyway, I have dealt with this most of my life, but have never let it bother me too deeply (at least not outwardly), but today I am not going to try to justify myself to anyone.  I like my life, and the only people I have to answer to about the way I live it are my family and my creator when I face the judgment (and I don’t think that almighty God gives a rat’s ass about the fact that I still play a rockin’ air guitar to “My Sharona”, or that I am listening to The Proclaimers as I type this). 

No, today, I am going to call bullshit on the true race traitors that abound in our land:  Black men and women that are part of the problems in our homes and our schools and throughout or community.  Those buffoons and minstrels that continue to foment the stereotypes that my people labor under are the target of my wrath today.

Here is the list… be advised, if your name appears here, you will be liquidated after the revolution that leaves me as the supreme dictator of the North American Union:

Jimmie “JJ” Walker

Jay Z

Flava Flav

DMX

Bobbie Brown

Fifty Cent

Kanye West

Snoop Dogg

Any rapper whoever used the words bitch or "ho" in their “music”

Diddy, P Diddy, Puffy, Puff Daddy, or whatever that f***ing douchebag is calling himself these days.

Any black man who has worn his jeans pulled down over his ass.

Any black man that has children whom he does not support financially, emotionally, educationally, or morally (you bastards are FIRST!)

Any educated black person that consciously tries to talk “black” when around other black people.

Any black person that wears that stupid-ass “buckwheat” clothing (you know what I’m talking about).  This applies doubly if that black person owns or lives in a six hundred thousand dollar house.

Any black woman who has made a career of shaking her scantily clad ass in a music video.  (What kind of message are you sending our daughters?  How can you live with yourselves?)

Any black person that thinks that it’s alright to get angry when a white person says nigger, but walks down the street calling his own people nigger.

***Note*** the word is nigger, not “N-word”  What are we… nine years old?

You see, my friends, the people that are truly selling out their people, are the ones that spend their time engaged in counterproductive or destructive behaviors.  Criminals, drug dealers, pimps, thieves, hustlers (including race hustlers, do you hear me Al? Jesse?) of all sorts are the causes of so many ills in our communities.  We, the responsible, have to be on guard against them, and provide a counterweight to their influences.  The reason that I listed so many so-called celebrities is because many of the people that I listed have aided and abetted those who perpetrate these social crimes… they have made obscene amounts of money by glorifying these destructive behaviors and the people who engage in them.

It’s time that we as a people stop listening to this filth.  It’s time to stop listening to radio stations that play this garbage.  It’s time to stop dressing like you are a dressed up sharecropper or prison inmate. 

It’s time to stop impregnating anyone you can without regard to the consequences, it’s time to stop shagging guys who won’t wear condoms, it’s time to stop glorifying crime and immoral sexual activity, it’s time to stop being our own worst enemies.

It’s also time to speak standard American English. 

It’s time to take education seriously.

It’s time to be good parents.

It’ time to set an example.

Look, friends, you who have been reading me for a while, know that I go on about this stuff from time to time, but some things are worth saying and worth repeating.  I won’t ever turn my back on this fight, and I won’t. Give. One. Inch.  Look at the tag line of this blog.  I have been a warrior for my entire adult life… I have been continuously trained in the ways of battle from the time I was a teenager.  I don’t quit.  Ever. 

I am calling all of you to do battle with me now.  Join me, won’t you?  It doesn’t matter if you aren’t black.  It doesn’t matter what country you come from.  It’s a safe bet that no matter what your ethnicity or nation, you have people that influence your children and their future with destructive behaviors.  Join me.  Fight them.  Use all of the tools at your disposal.  Use the power of your writing talents.  Use your words.  Use your art.  Use your wallets. 

Look, there are fights that are difficult to win, there are fights that you may never win, but that doesn’t mean that those fights shouldn’t be fought.  The right thing to do is to fight them because fighting them is right and worthy.

Again… I’m calling you out.  You.  Yes, YOU.  If you are reading this, you have to do something.  Whatever you do, don’t sit quietly.  If you do, you are complicit.

You know what to do, now, go get on with it.

30-20-10-0

30: 1979

• I was was about to turn 16, and about to lose my virginity.
• I was in my Junior year of high school.
• We lived in Vauxhall, New Jersey, on May Terrace
• I lived with my mom and my brother, as my sister had recently left for college..
• My father and stepmother lived in Baltimore, Maryland.
• I hated my life and wanted to be out of that town.
• I rode my bicycle everywhere.
• I was in the Air Force Junior ROTC.
• I was in the Chorus... Mr C. was our teacher.
• I collected comic books.

20: 1989

• I was nearly 25.
• I was married.
• I drove a Hyundai Excel.
• I was in the last year of my enlistment in the Marine Corps.
• I was stationed at Camp LeJeune, North Carolina.
• I drove to Forestville, Md every weekend
• We had a pet rabbit (I know.  I know)
• I drank WAY too much
• I used to go to watch live jazz at The Saloon, in Georgetwon.

10: 1999

• I was nearly 36.
• Ihad been remarried for 5 years.
• Soccer Girl was nearing her first birthday, Fast Pitch was almost 10.
• We lived in Woodbridge, Virginia.
• We took Soccer Girl to Disney world for the first time.
• We had a retired racing Greyhound named Duncan.
• I had been working with my previous agency for two years.
• My mother went to rehab.

0: 2009

• I am 45.
• Soccer Girl will be eleven next week.  Fast Pitch is tewnty, and in her third year of college.
• Mrs Gunfighter and I have been married for nearly sixteen years.
• I'm getting a new dog this week
• My hair is turning gray
• All of my irritating aches hurt like bloody hell now.
• I teach Sunday School
• My Mother, Grandmother, and brother have all survived cancer.
• I spend an inordinate amount of time wondering when cancer will strike me.
• I'm middle aged.  Where did the time go?.

My Thoughts on Fort Hood

Most of the people who were recently murdered at Fort Hood, Texas have been buried, and the families and a nation continue to mourn.

What can we say about what happened at Fort Hood?  As soon as the news broke, there were immediate alarms of Al-Qaeda infiltrators in the armed forces, and sleeper cells, rumors of multiple shooters, confusion over which officers fired the shots that brought down the murderer... even arguments as to whether or not the cops had an obligation to say: "Police!  Drop your weapon" (no, they don't, according to Supreme Court case law, in case you were wondering).

I don't really know what to say of the whole mess myself, other than I have a second hand connection to the incident, myself... one of my daughter's soccer teammate's lost her step-father, an Army Reserve officer who was about to go on deployment.

Much has been made in the news about what was going on in the mind of the shooter, a muslim who was also an Army Psychologist.  Was he a terrorist?  an operator embedded in our armed forces to sow terror and demoralize our country?  Was he exacting revenge for American wars in Islamic countries? Was he acting as some sort of holy warrior?  Maybe.  Maybe... or maybe he was just some sort of unbalanced whack job who profaned his religion as an outlet for his mania?

We have lots of questions, and at present we have very few answers.  We may never know the answers, because for the moment the shooter(whose name I will never speak because giving him a name gives him humanity.  I don't want this person remembered as a human) isn't cooperating in the investigation.  We may never know what his thoughts or motives were... but one thing that we do know at this point is that the Army has asserted it's authority to investigate and prosecute this case.  If the shooter lives, and is convicted, he may very well be executed by that army.

Yes, thats right, the Army may get to serve out one of it's own.  How do you feel about that?  Personally, the thought leaves me cold, I'm not a death penalty guy in most incidents, but it wouldn't phase me in the slightest to watch the light go out in his eyes.

What can be done to prevent this sort of thing?  What can we do to make sure it never happens again?  What can we do better in terms of stateside force protection?  The answer is one you won't like:  There isn't much that we can do protect ourselves from the random rogue lunatic... and that's just the way it is.

I feel for all of the families who lost loved ones in this tragedy.

Happy Sunday

I'm sorry, but, I don't have any pithy comments to make tonight.  As a matter of fact, I am in quite the zone at the moment, with a belly-full of tasty home-made soup and Mrs Gunfighter's dulcet tones ringing in my ears from downstairs as she talks to her monster mother on the phone.

I am also teetering on the edge of sleep and wakefullness, as I seriously need some extra shuteye right now..

Do you know what I did last night?  I went to the annual chili cook-off at my church and won third place.

I'll tell you something cool tomorow.

"Sweeeet Caroline!  (bum bum buuuuum!) The good times never seemed so goood.

I've been inclined to believe they never would!"

Oh, sorry... I was listening to the Glee soundtrack.

Yes, I know this doesn't make any sense, and no, I'm not drunk, I'm just not really with it tonight. 

TV Review: Glee

Generally speaking, if I love a television show it is destined to be canceled.  Seriously, almost every show that I love lasts a season, maybe two before it is ended for not having enough support, or because it conflicted with other shows that were just a little more popular.  It gets irritating, especially after the recent cancellation of Terminator:  The Sarah Connor Chronicles.

This fall, with the beginning of the new television season, I decided that I was going to give a few shows a watch to see if the networks could find me somebody to love... and they did.

If you have been watching Glee, you wll have been watching the breakout hit of the season!  I don't usually gush about television shows, but this one is really good.  Glee is funny without overselling the humor, dramatic without being morose, and just good fun.  The fact that it has music that is well done and doesn't grate on my ears is just a bonus.

The basic premise of the show is that a young teacher agrees to take over the Glee Club at a small-town Ohio high school.  The Glee Club is demoralized and only has one or two members, none of whom can be remotely considered cool.  While the new teacher tries to recruit people, he is stymied at every turn by the creepy coach of the cheerleader squad (who calls them "Cheerios").  Anyway, the usual dorks v. cool people premise plays out in it's usual way, but is made that much better by the music, which is really good.

I suppose that if I cared, I could dissect this show and figure out reasons to hate it, but I'm not going to.  Why not?  Because the show is fun, thats why, and I think that if more people had more fun, they would sleep better, live longer, have more fulfilling sex lives... and they'd quit being such tools.

The Way of The Gun

An awesome movie, according to many of my colleagues. 

Apparently the level of training that the actors displayed in the realm of shooting and gun-handling was superb.

Do any of you own this movie?  If you do, are you willing to lend it to me.

Thanks,

GF

Fatherhood Friday: Music To My Ears

Do you ever get tired of:

"I want a bicycle, daddy ($$)"

"I want to go to Great Wolf Lodge daddy($$$$)"

"Daddy, help me with my home work, please"

"Daddy, will you sing me a song?"

"Daddy, can you fix this for me?"

"Daddy, I lost my music book"

"Daddy, I'm hungry"

"Daddy, I'm hungry"

"Daddy, I'm hungry"

 

You don't?  Neither do I.  My daughters love their daddy... and they NEED me, too.  I'm not just a potted plant.

I wouldn't have it any other way.

This post was brought to you by the Fatherhood Friday community.  Give us a visit over at The Dad Blogs, and see what your brother fathers (and sister mothers) are talking about today.

Thoughts on a Thursday

• It is incredibly rude to use a book store like it's your own library.  I get really bothered when I am browsing through a book store while people are sitting in the aisles, clearly doing homework or research.  I tend to kick them, step on them, or glare at them until they move. 

• When shopping, or buying fast food, or talking to a mechanic, or anyone else who wears a name-tag at work, you will find that you get much better results when you look the person in the eye and use their name when speaking to them.  People tend to be more helpful to customers that treat them like real human beings.

• As I type this, I am listening to Amy Winehouse's "Rehab" song.  You know, despite the terrible, tragic train-wreck of a life that that young woman is living (at least from my perspective), she can really sing.  Talent is talent... I just hope she doesn't die young.

• I am going to review two television shows over the weekend:  Trauma and Glee, so come back and visit.

• I'm making Apple cider/Stout, chicken chili tomorrow... I'll bet it's going to be good.

• I want to buy a good Netbook computer for Mrs GF... can anyone advise me?

• I am sometimes troubled by my friends who don't believe in God.  Not because of their lack of faith... that is something that everyone has to figure out for themselves.  No, I am troubled because so many people who don't believe in God smugly look down at those who do as being stupid or gullible.  None of which means that I am ignorant of the fact that there are many people of faith who have similar views of people that don't believe as they do.

• Mrs Gunfighter is in Atlanta, and I am looking forward to her coming home on Sunday.