Explore – Page 4 – Espiritu en Fuego/A Fiery Spirit

Generational Curse? or What is the new definition of Blackness?

Our young people are being fed a steady media diet of mindless drivel which they mistake for supreme wisdom, truth and as an acceptable lifestyle. In the name of “Keeping it Real”, morals, decency and values have been cast aside. Fame & fortune gotten through illicit or illegal means has becomes society’s new aspirations & goals.

Who do our young people worship and hold in high esteem? Snooki, Brittany, Lilo, Kendra, any rapper, Housewives of ________ (fill in the city), Lady Gaga, and of course the latest apostle Charlie Sheen. Of course then there is Hip-Hop. Music that started out as fun, a bit light hearted and fill with societal messages has now become a medium in which our people continue to degrade Black women, uphold illegal lifestyles and program our children into idiocy and foolishness.

Spirituality, Intellectualism, the pursuit of Knowledge are laughed at. Young African Americans have a narrow view of what Black means. Do the Millennials conceive of Black in terms of the baroque painter Juan de Pareja, Aleksander Puskin, Alexander Dumas. Do the names Charles Drew, Hugh Masekela, Maya Angelou, Diana Sands, Diahann Carroll, Verta Mae Grosvenor, Douglas Turner Ward, Roscoe Lee Browne, Cicely Tyson, James Earl Jones, Gloria Foster, Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Gwendolyn Brooks, Langston Hughes, Josephine Baker, Calvin Lockhart, mean anything to the younger generation or have they been conscripted to the dinosaur age? Is Malcolm X and Angela Davis just posters or pictures on T-Shirts?

Despite Disco and Blaxplotation films all the time I was growing up it was stressed and imprinted on us that we must be a credit to our race. We must uplift the race. We had an obligation to do better. Be better. Education was held in high esteem. Teachers were venerated.

Now the new order of the day is how low can I sink, how many clothes can I take off, how much illicit sex can I have and download it onto the Internet, how many curse words can I use in public, how much can I offend and disrespect our elders, in general how low can I sink to be authentically “black”. I find it very sad to see our children not only believing but living the hype.

To Be Young, Gifted & Black

By Donny Hathaway

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QaMzGFVccSQ

Make it Like It Was

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqwdcemkHgc

Since I’ve been laid up for over a week and this pain won’t let me rest I decided to take a walk down memory lane as inspired by the photo of me at around age five or six.

Me at around age five or six — Little Me

Age 5 – I was eating Rice Krispies

Age 50+ My body sounds like Rice Krispies. “Snap, Krackle, Pop!” Every muscle, tendon and joint aches and if I tried to do that Pop and Lock dance from the 70s I’d stay that way!

Age 5: I could eat anything I wanted and as much of it as my little tummy could hold.

Age 50+ My various doctors tell me constantly what I can and cannot eat.

Age 5: Never knew what sickness was. I do remember having Chicken Pox and the Measles but a visit to the doctor, a little calamine lotion, plus extra love from Mommy and Daddy and I was up on my feet in a few days.

Age 50+ I estimate I’ve been in some doctor’s office, sick at home or in the hospital every other month for the last two years.

Age 5: Penny candies.

Age 50+ Advil, Tylenol, Ambien, High Blood Pressure pills, etc…

Age 5: I was very inquisitive, creative and innovative. My parents encouraged and supported me in all my endeavors. Of course as a child I also had endless amounts of playtime. Even when my baby brother couldn’t or wouldn’t play with me I had imaginary friends plus I loved playing with ants. Probably from the ants point of view I was a sadistic child torturing them and they were glad when my Mom called me in for lunch or dinner!

Age 50+ The institution discourages creativity or thinking of any kind. I’m now paid to be a drone, a wage slave, a mindless robot. In fact I’ve been warned by a certain supervisor that any deviation from the expected will result in disciplinary action. So I hide my intelligence and let everyone think that I’m stupid. Makes life easier.

However during the little free time I have when I’m not ill or an inmate of the asylum, I enjoy being outdoors watching people and exploring. I especially enjoy the Botanic Gardens. Any of them, in any borough. I’m not particular. If I could get to the zoo I’d go there also.

One good difference between ages five and fifty-one is that now I hate television. Got rid of the TV back in January and don’t miss it. My vision has diminished so it’s very difficult for me to watch television. Gives me headaches. Plus there is nothing of value on TV anymore. Growing up in the 1960s was the golden age of television; mind you I was watching Felix the Cat and other old time cartoons, a few game shows, Romper Room, Batman, the Green Hornet, etc….

Also unlike today’s parents my mother and father restricted my TV viewing. I did not have a TV in my bedroom. We had that one Black & White RCA Victor vacuum tube television in the living room which my father controlled. To this day I still hate Lawrence Welk and Mitch Miller! My parents were old-fashioned and expected me to spend most of my free time if not playing, then reading or drawing. As a result I could read by the time I was four and was a pretty good artist ages seven to seventeen.

Well enough walking down memory lane. Time for lunch with a side of Advils. Oh yes, the glories of getting older.