JONESTOWN TO JONESBORO - THE NEW KILLING FIELDS

The ability (or make that the willingness) to nip something in the bud appears to be one of our (human) flaws. We either think "it" doesn't matter in the long run or we are equally and foolishly convinced that "it" will go away of its own volition. Seemingly, we are inclined not to really believe in evil or, along similar lines of faulty thought, we hold fast to the belief that the "forces of good will automatically take care of "things." Whew! And then life throws us all manner of surprises and revelations that have actually been staring us in our unbelieving faces all the time. Then oddly we query, what went wrong?

Jim Jones came to this town gears ago. He was well received and given entree to large numbers of believers and get-to-be believers. I heard a rather impressive talk he gave at a large local church. He talked about the horrors of poverty (he was right) and the insensitivity of "the system" (right again). I don't recall whatever solutions he offered at the time; but somewhere along the line he held out to many adherents the promise of a new life in a new place. The rest of the story is "horrible history" Jones was - or very soon became - a deranged megalomaniac and snuffed out the lives of many children, women and men who literally and figuratively followed him. He put out signs that he was a nut; but the reaction/response was along the lines explored at the beginning of this DOWN FRONT! (Too few believed it)

A couple of nutty kids - one who had talked about guns on a number of earlier (though neglected) occasions, snuffed out 4 classmates and a teacher. No action was taken to deal with the "signals" presented earlier and no action has been taken (on a serious national level) to - it's been said before OUTLAW GUNS. Outlawing guns would, by simple deductive logic, make anyone who had/carried one an OUTLAW. Case closed.

So we should and we will mourn those who are victims of supposedly unpredictable horror and tragedy. But we really do know the score. We simply(?) don't accept the challenge and courage it takes to look at the scoreboard...and to act accordingly.

KING FOR A DAY

The recent DOWN FRONT! on the Getty began with taking issue with the architectural critic who said that new Getty Museum is "too good for Los Angeles." Well, it occurs to me now that there is more than a likelihood that some people are "too good for the times in which they live." That is highly speculative and debatable, of course. Who, one might ask, is to say? And if it is true, at what point in time can that assertion be made with accuracy? "Good men and women" are seemingly always out of kilter with their historic time. What we say is that they are ahead of their time...with the understandable assumption that in the future, life will have improved and there will be a better "fit" between those same good people and everyone else. Oh, but it were so linear, so simple.

In a strange and wonderful wag, Martin Luther King was out of his cotton-picking mind! He believed that the uplifting, unifying (God fearing and God loving) seeds of his message would find fertile soil in this country His "overcoming" went straight to the heart of the very madness which continues to define this country in spirit and practice.

There was a time when I thought he was simply a mindless dreamer - only because of mg thinking about what was happening in the country at the time. And now I know he was dreamer...get anything but a mindless one. King wanted, hoped and prayed for a kind of America that would indeed be infinitely better - along social, economic and most certainly racial "lines." Everyone listened and sang were truly moved; but the all too often insidious nature of this place wiped his physical body out and relegated his pearls of Social Justice Wisdom to the eternal heap of "nice to hear and know precepts." So we have the annual revisitation of his dream and his monumental life. We have the naming of streets and schools (main in Riverside, CA, USA!), but still...we don't get it, we don't grasp it/him.

Shamefully and get' oh, so realistically, Martin Luther King was a GIANT MAN in a very small place.

WE CAN DO BETTER

Commentator Tavis Smiley recently reviewed the Ice Cube movie, "Player's Club." Despite Smiley's appreciation of the entertainment success of a number of Blacks, he basically dogged the film. [Not having seen it, I cannot put these comments in "Seen On Screen." But I respect Smiley's views and will agree with what he said without reservation. He dogged it because it flagged the many stereotype of the (still up for grabs/abuse) Black female. Smiley mentioned one scene in which a woman is raped and a number of knowing Black men do nothing about it. He made a number of other observations which are in line with much that I find unacceptable about movie and television portrayals of Black people.

But I am especially pleased by his measured chiding that "We can do better." This quick wisdom holds out the hope that there is still enough talent and hopefully enough good sense to take a look at this media giant and decide and proceed with "making" a better image of ourselves. Even knowing that in the Hollywood World, money rules, Smiley cuts through that time-tested lame excuse and says (to the film maker and film takers (the viewing audience) "We can do better." And of course he is right.

BURN. BABIES. BURN AND SMOKE SLOP TIL YA DROP!

News Item: The rate of teenagers smoking has increased. Item #2 - The rate among African American teenagers is almost double that of other teens. There was a time when I would have really tripped out learning something like this. Via DOWN FRONT! I have a readily available social platform which can be put in motion at the drop of a hat or cigarette butt! The buttons are ready and willing to be pushed almost instantaneously. But...(no cigarette pun intended)...l look at some issues differently now. Backing up just a bit to something Tom Joyner said [no, he's not mg new mentor, y'all when reflecting on Jonestown: "We should just outlaw guns!" Straight forward, no nonsense. From a legally enforceable standpoint, just say no to guns. Period. He's right. No, not possible, feasible, expedient, etc. All those excuses we come up with - we call them "logical explanations" - which stand between what we do and what we ought to do. If we don't want children getting hold of their fathers', mothers', friends' other relatives' guns, then those others (I.e., adults) have to be "deprived" (oops, there's that terrible word) of their "right" (oops, there's another one) to own guns! Let's face it, Americans don't want to be deprived of anything! Zero, aught, nothing I Although both are demonstrable killers, the comparison of guns and cigarettes is a stretch. Still the issue goes to the heart of what's legally permissible, what's "good" for the species, and what constitutes sensible human conduct. Gets kinda serious along the way.

Closing thought is just this: Big kids won't discard their toys; why should younger kids dispose of theirs? Like breeds like! Sad, but true. #

"HNIC" LIVES...STILL (4-15-98)

The more things change...well, you know the rest. So, here we go again. First there was the battle with the Merriam-Webster Dictionary folks who rather idIy included what has become the nefarious "n word" or should it be "n" word? Not sooner is that put to at least temporary rest when we find ourselves listening to the truly lame excuse of a dude named Unger who writes for the Boston Globe. Seems like Unger wrote what was supposed to be a complimentary tribute-article about Black scholar Henry Louis Gates, Head of Harvard's African American Studies Department. That Gates heads the distinguished department is fine. That Unger referred to him as head still violates nothing. But that he called Gates the HNIC was a major journalistic line-crossing screw up.

On a personal, historic note, I had never heard the "N" of HNIC referred to as "Negro." In our younger and more brazen days, when we used the expression, we distinctly meant head "n word" in charge. That's what we said and that's what we intended to say. No confusion, no misunderstanding, little harm, no foul! And certainly no long, drawn out explanations...like this one. We were simply being youthfully facetious. The rationale went like this: Just because someone assumed that he - and in most cases it was a he - was In charge (of whatever!! didn't mean that he really was in charge. Rather it was a self-fulfilling and highly presumptive stance. Meanwhile, back in Boston.

Unger screwed up by not understanding or appreciating either the history or the implications of HNIC. But that wasn't the worst part. He jumped the racial [yep that's what it was! line by assuming that it was OK for him to use the expression. Imagine that! I am inclined here to say that in all too many instances we suggest to others that they can take all manner of liberties with us simply because we are too often "loose" with each other privately (somewhat excusable) and publicly (no excuse). Our intragroup name-calling and insult-flinging erupts spontaneously and without forethought. But whether malice is or isn't intended it is still a stretch that others would be at liberty to do the same. What's good for the goose is good for the goose, period. Predictably, Unger doesn't know what the fuss is all about...Or so he says.

EVERY 12 O'CLOCK AIN'T MIDNIGHT

Wow. I sure do a lot of complaining. One could well label it a deliberate effort to go actually hunting for all the shortcoming, the flaws, deceptions and missteps of the human breed. Seems like there is no end to the countless junctures at which people fall decidedly short. And it seems like DOWN FRONT! virtually salivates to point this out. Well, it really isn't quite that bad, appearances to the contrary. With all the "mess" briefly discussed in these pages, the world as we know it remains in tack. California is not any closer to slipping into the waiting Pacific any more than Las Vegas being on the verge of dropping into the desert without a trace - all because of the from the money being "dumped" there daily by hopeful visitors.

There is, to be sure, plenty to moan and groan about. One needn't look very hard. find get, a crisis is only a crisis for one who defines it as such. I am reminded of something Clinton said recently He said that those who are out to get him cannot destroy him, try as they may He admitted to nothing and denied just as much (i.e., nothing). What was clear was his sheer determination to move on with the job to which he was elected. Another wag to look at it is: Clinton was not elected to be booted out of office or run out of town by his detractors. He was elected to...you got the idea.

The naysayers we will have with us always. BUT everybody isn't saying "Nay!" Oddly some are even chiming "Yea" while looking at the same set of circumstances. Now that is pretty crazy; and get It Is all so wonderfully true. Every time the bells toll it isn't the prelude to a funeral dirge.

My stance take is to zoom in on just a smattering of those issues which strike my fancy (at that time) and move one with - even if it doesn't seem so - a reassured and optimistic smile. As bad as it is, as bad it might become, it could always be worse! I find it so much more pleasant to comment with concern than to wallow in worry.