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I have some unconnected thoughts that have been rattling around in my bean. You know; the kind that occurs over and over again through the years that you mostly ignore, but that you never quite purge? I mean, they’re not earth-shattering thoughts or even all that profound. Many began when you were an inquiring child, and maybe you even once asked an adult about one or more of these brain farts and were told, “Oh, that’s just plain silly” or the most prevalent adult answer of all, “BECAUSE!” So you tried to purge the persistent and annoying notions forever, which eliminated some, but not all. The stubborn ones remained to come around and bug you again every few years or so; maybe even stayed away for a decade, but like an obstinate wart recurred over and over again… …which brings me to my first unconnected thought. Why do we use the terms “white” and “black” to describe people? Aren’t we really just different shades of brown-beige denoting different continents of our origin? See, here’s the deal: when I used to paint with oils, we used the seven primary colors to create all others. The color white is the presence of all colors. That’s right, you mix them all together and you get white. (However, to save time we had a big tube of white.) You want gray? We didn’t mix black with white. Blue and red were combined with a touch of yellow ocher depending on the particular shade desired. Black is defined as the ABSENCE of all color. Remember the old term, “colored people”? If we apply oil painting logic then so-called white people are really colored people (presence of all colors), and so-called black people have no color at all (absence of all colors). Invisible albinos! When, as a child, I brought forth this baffling mystery to adults they’d give me a confused (and mildly pissed-off) look and said, “Get out of here, kid. Don’t you have more important things to think about?” Seems like labels drive wedges between people…like they invite the kind of behavior illustrated as follows… As a teen, I read about a Bantu tribe in Rwanda that lived mostly in peace, but like all of us were infected with the human condition of envy, greed, etc. So, like the rest of us, once in a while they killed each other over one issue or another; and like the rest of us, would collect allies to fight with some other guy’s allies. Our good old human DNA at work, right? Well, like the black-and-white mystery above, as I read about the Bantu after the arrival of Danish and German colonists, more puzzling thoughts entered into the onboard computer between my ears. The colonists decided to create two tribes from the Bantu: Hutu and Tutsi (which are also the names of real tribes). They did this by measuring certain physical attributes, like width of noses, and assigning the Bantu to one phony made-up tribe or the other. Madness, right? Then, the Danes made the Tutsi minority side (that is, the one that looked the most European) the plantation overseers, and the Hutu majority the workers. When Rwanda gained independence from Denmark, generations of envy-driven hate bubbled to the surface, and the two sides began killing each other in staggering numbers: 1972 – 100,000; 1993 – 500,000; 1994 – 800,000. My thought was why didn’t somebody say, “Hey, everybody! Just f**king stop this madness! Just because some crazy Europeans created this utter nonsense doesn’t mean we have to propagate it!” Seems like an example of “learned ignorance”… Another thought that just surfaced from the way-back machine… Remember the days when as a kid you peddled your bike all over town on a steamy hot July afternoon? Was there any better, refreshing feeling than pulling into a Sunoco station, sucking down a Nehi orange soda, and sticking the air hose down your pants? Just sayin’… In my young life, and today I still wonder why some Islamic extremists hate us so. I mean, on a personal level we’ve not done anything to earn that, have we? Finally, after working and living in the Middle East including Egypt, UAE, and Saudi Arabia I think I found part of the answer. They believe we have a totally corrupt and immoral society that worships only money; hence, the Great Satan reference. They point to Lady Gaga, Madonna, the Kardasians, Donald Trump, and others as proof of nonsense and worship of money derived from idiocy… I concede their point, but don’t know why it should create so much hate… Under Islamic (Shariah) law those sporting tattoos and/or either living or advocating homosexuality would receive the ultimate penalty. I advocate neither, but since these actions have no affect on my life, that is, if my neighbor wants to look like someone working a carnival midway or take up with someone of the same sex, I don’t care… Why must we be tolerant of Islam, but not Christianity? They have more similarities than differences, and the former is more judgmental… Credit card companies seem like predators... An annual fee charge card would make more sense, IF money grabbing is not the goal. In fact, when the Shah was booted from Iran, the interest-charging bankers were among the first to become lonesome for their heads. When I was young I was told that America has some problems (that have escalated during my lifetime), but is still the best place in the world to live. Seems like a very arrogant statement… Since traveling the world I’m not sure that’s so… From my Middle Eastern experience and returning home I observed that in America laws are made by men, but may be changed for money… Money gets the ignorant and clueless admitted to so-called exclusive venues. Case in point: the Hollywood mental giants (so-called “good” one–percenters) had a rally to fund Obama’s re-election campaign, which is okay since he's their guy. One rapper in attendance made this comment about Romney: “He a ho’.” Nice. With those kinds of language skills and such an intelligent thought process, I’m sure the guy could be a brain surgeon if he wanted… With money as the main criterion of personal worth, gentility takes a hike… Here’s a typical American comeback to my criticism: Oh yeah, he’s got more money than you! In our country this suggests his opinion is more valuable than mine… I rarely watch the so-called news channels on television because they aren’t “news” at all; they’re editorial opinions about the news. I have no problem with them being OP-ED; just change the label—truth in advertising and all that… Anyway, some female commentator on MSNBC, which I believe is now NBC News because Microsoft opted out, was going on about what benefits illegal immigrants DESERVE! I’m thinking they deserve the Constitution like the rest of us, only to discover later from this female harpy, that if I support the Constitution I’m an extremist. I believe on helping the helpless, but not the lazy or clueless… If I run behind schedule and miss Ash Wednesday services, I wonder if it would be all right to get some ashes to put on your head from an outside-the-building ash tray… I mean, if your heart’s in the right place… With respect to the wart and Great Satan references above, are American physicians and dentists guilty of not curing a simple problem because to do so is not cost-effective for their “business”? Are we having expensive pills shoved down our throats to treat symptoms, but not the root cause, because the physician gets a nice kickback from the drug companies (and it keeps us coming back)? Even though I have an inside source that says this is the case, I’m treating it as tribal knowledge (opinion, if you will) not fact. That said; here is my personal experience… In 1991 I lived in the Houston area. One day I discovered a wart on the plantar area of my left foot. Fortunately it was in an area that caused no pain and zero discomfort. I had our family physician cut it out. It was back within a month. I had it removed again. Damn thing returned. This cycle recurred four times. After I moved to the Indianapolis area, the invader was removed three more times; the last time in an operating theater where a laser penetrated halfway through my foot. Same result. Another doctor prescribed some medication for $200 a tube that had no effect. I also tried every over-the-counter wart removal remedy. No luck. In May of this year, 21 years later, I was in a bike wreck and taken to the emergency room where it took a young physician about three and a half hours to stitch me up and put me back together again. I showed him my plantar wart. He said, “Oh, just put duct tape on it. It’ll disappear in a matter of months”. I did and four months later it was completely gone. I asked if this remedy was common knowledge in the medical profession. He said it was, but not profitable. After spending thousands of dollars and 21 years with that wart, I now look at doctors with suspicion and lower esteem… I hear the “Money, Money, Money, Money…” theme song of Donald Trump’s show in the background of my mind. Those are my unconnected thoughts for the moment. I’ve finished the first draft of my latest novel, and now face the seemingly unending process of rewriting and editing. Even so I’ll get back to you before the end of the year… Cheers! Copyright by Gene Myers, author of AFTER HOURS: ADVENTURES OF AN INTERNATIONAL BUSINESSMAN (2009), Strategic Publishing Group, New York, NY – a hilarious account of the author’s overseas travels; and SONGS FROM LATTYS GROVE (2010), PublishAmerica, Fredericksburg, MD - a mildly sinister, but amusing work of fiction. Both are available from Amazon and Barnes & Noble, and available in Amazon Kindle and Nook formats. Visit www.myersamazon.com
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white, black, Bantu, extremists, money, warts,
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