Oh yes we were blessed! I didn't know it quite as much then other than when I was in high school and I walked home down very nice tree lined streets with very nice large, older homes sitting back from well kept lawns. Whereas many of my other classmates took city buses back across town to some pretty rough areas. You know...."the Ghetto". The high school was the oldest in the city and was built for the children of wealthy white families in 1913. There was a little resentment from guys on my basketball team, but I didn't give a shit. They could all hang out and go home together even if it was on the city buses.
So anyway. We were, as kids somewhat aware of the Civil Rights movement,but I can honestly say I was too young to understand it. There were no guns or gangs around and we walked or biked just about anywhere a kid from age 7-14 wanted to go. I do remember teachers and other adults promising things were going to be much better or greater for my generation and we believed them.
Years later, when I was in college out West in Denver, I can remember walking through Denver's City Park with my best friend at the time, Rob Tabon of the Bronx, NY. He had a huge boom box and it was blasting out the top new jam Grandmaster Flash and the Furious 5's "The Message" The song knocked me out upon first hearing it. It was like...finally "My Music" the guys in the group were about my age. What was strange though was my buddy Rob actually lived the lyrics, where as I only mostly knew about that kind of life from friends or people I'd seen on the other side of town growing up. I grew up believing you could do anything you wanted if you really wanted to!
Now as an adult, I see and know pretty much the game here in America. Ask yourself this. Why is it that when we apply for a job, we have to be qualified and have some related experience, but for the top job in the country, a man can be a complete novice
[[some say idiot) and get the President's job?
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