Everyone who has cats know what I am talking about cats don’t have a boss or owner, they are the boss and own you.
We first had 4 Lady cats sadly one past away, but dealing with 3 lady cats is more then enough.
Okay why this subject ?
My profession is Handyman/Painter and a couple of months ago I had an encounter with a cat on the job.
I was at this job painting some doors, and the owners have 2 cats one called Ninja and the other Nixon.
At a certain point Nixon ( a female, weird name for a cat who is not male) Came a bit to close to my just painted door.
So what I usually do is to “ shuuu “ the cat away with a hand movement and sound, now in normal circumstances a cat just backs away and go somewhere else.
Well I came in for a surprise this grey striped little kitten started hissing at me with her teeth, showing ears back and one paw up stretched out with the longest nails on it I ever saw.
Astonished and flabbergasted about her vicious reaction I for two seconds got really scared.
But my thought on this was that you can never show to a cat or any other animal that you got frightened by them.
So my natural reaction towards this hot headed feminine was to raise my voice to let her know I wasn’t pleased and I got some water to throw at her to cool her off . And yes she ran off.
To come back 15 minutes later with BIG black eyes and following me with every movement that I made, so yet again water, resolving in an attacking mode moving both paws towards me with claws that really could injure you.
My only out here was now to stump on the floor and put my vocals way up, that I was not accepting her attitude. She settled, (for now)
Meanwhile Ninja the other cat just observed us with a look like
“ you guys figure this all out, just don’t bother me”
He was the opposite from his sister, he loved to be Pet and just did his own thing, that was sleeping. 90 % of cats their live is sleeping.
So to come back to the crooked cat “ Nixon” ( is it in the name ).
I figured if I would try the soft nice side of me we could come to a ceasefire. I gave her some chicken from my sandwich what she liked and pet her on the head that she let happen for a short moment, to come right after my fingers with a biting movement.
Pointing at her not to do that made her more and louder snake like hissing then before. The only wise thing here was just to ignore this cat, I blew it in the beginning with her and that couldn’t be solved anymore.
When the owners came home and I told them about my encounters with Nixon they both mentioned, “ She just wanted to play with you. “ Believe me I like to play with a woman
but not like this.
Meanwhile my 4 cats live their life, I mention 4 but now we only have 3 left as One ( Sage ) was found dead on the road hit by a car, may she rest in cat heaven.
The names Jewel, Mother of Maggie who is the mother of Sage and Mina. Jewel is the oldest, not the boss but she stands her ground if needed, likes a lot of attention and love cuddling. Maggie has more authority although getting on age she mellows more often, for a long time I had a love/hate relationship with her but now we are on better terms with each other. Then we have Sage and Mina 2 sisters they totally don’t like each other hissing and screaming at each other like two chickens who just got beheaded and don’t know which way to go. Since Sage is gone Mina mellowed a bit more too. Guess the universe solved this problem for us. Mina could be described in her behavior like Nixon but she accepts me more as authority, lucky for me. So cuddling is what she likes also but only on her terms when she has enough she will let you know and if you don't respect that you will find that out. Her sounds that she makes then is a good sign to stop for me.
The essence of this all.
Cats can be very cute lovely and therapeutic, but when they have their attitude on you better watch out and move out of their way.
Sounds a lot like our humans huh.
Last word; So what possessed “ Nixon “ to be so aggressive?
It was me, I invaded her space and she stood up for herself.
Was this the right way for her to react, I don’t know, but what I do know is that cats have emotions and feelings and are more human then we think. Next Job with cats around I will just let them be.
Thanks for reading,
Frank
Saturday, May 14, 2011
Sign of Times, the year 1982, Atomic Café. Birth of the Atom.
“Wait on the authorities and relax.”
After watching the movie “ Atomic Café “ I needed to put this story on my Blog I wrote it a long time ago and put it on another Blog from a friend but now I wanted to put it here to.
Please read it and then watch the FREE movie Atomic Café.
Then you will understand that in the early days and years of atomic adventure most of the authorities and public did not know what they were dealing with.
And even if the authorities knew, they did not care so much for the safety of their people.
But after seeing the destruction of 2 A - bombs on Japan you would think that “they” would be a bit more cautious.
After watching the movie “ Atomic Café “ I needed to put this story on my Blog I wrote it a long time ago and put it on another Blog from a friend but now I wanted to put it here to.
Please read it and then watch the FREE movie Atomic Café.
Then you will understand that in the early days and years of atomic adventure most of the authorities and public did not know what they were dealing with.
And even if the authorities knew, they did not care so much for the safety of their people.
But after seeing the destruction of 2 A - bombs on Japan you would think that “they” would be a bit more cautious.
| Written by Frank | ||||||
| Tuesday, 20 July 2010 03:50 All of us know about Uranium, Radium and radioactivity, but how and by whom were they – and their unique properties -- discovered? | ||||||
Naively, radioactivity became a fad in 1920s America. Radium was used in all sorts of products ranging from toothpaste, wrist watches and beauty products: women used to use them to remove warts and unwanted hair. Thousands of Americans drank or injected radioatvie solutions for its then thought cure-all effect. von Scholocky, an amateur artist, found some other strange but interesting uses for the stuff. He invented a radium painted crucifix that glowed in the dark. The girls who worked for him also painted their teeth with radium so they would glow in the dark, too. Although glow in the dark teeth may have been appealing in those days, an unfortunate side effect was that they contracted bone cancer, something that's sure to ruin any amateur artist''s day. Perhaps one of the more helpful uses of these strange substances was that Radium and Uranium were found to have a strange property: they both emitted mysterious X-rays – a technology used to this day which has helped millions around the world. People began to wonder if amateur artist's teeth and Mary Curie's cookbooks might not have some other useful applications – say, a weapon of fast and unimaginable power born from the primal energy of the Universe for instance? Only America, with the help of Britain, was willing to bet the rent and pay two billion dollars for a bunch of foreign types, recruited from war-torn Europe, to work in a secret laboratory in the New Mexican desert and sit around clapping erasers together until something blew up in their faces. This was the the birth of the first atomic bomb, otherwise known as the Manhattan Project. Name: Trinity Born: July 16, 1945 Birthplace: Jornado Del Muerto (translated, it means journey of death) New Mexico (suits well, right?) Explosive Capacity: 19 kilotons Hospital: Los Alamos New Mexico Nationality:, American Race: Plutonium Blood type: A Father: J. Robert Oppenheimer God Father: Albert Einstein Legal Guardian: Harry S Truman Siblings: Little boy (Hiroshima August 6, 1945) Fat man, (Nagasaki August 9, 1945) During the countdown for the first ever atomic explosion, Los Alamos radio stations broadcast a lullaby: Tchaikovsky’s 'Serenade for Strings'. How oblivious they were in those days, to play a beautiful piece of music as a prelude to such a devastating event. Trinity was born with a blast, seen for 250 miles and heard for 50 miles. It was so bright it could have been seen from another planet. Even a congenially blind girl named Georgia Green riding in a car 20 miles distant, saw a momentary fleeting light. There were many eyewitness accounts: “From the east came the first faint signs of dawn and just at that moment there arose as if from the bowels of the earth a light not of this world. The light of many suns in one. It was a sunrise such as the world has never seen. A great green super sun . It is possible that if the first man could have been present in the moment of creation when God said “ let there be light” he might have seen something like what we saw. “ (William Lawrence, the only news reporter allowed to witness Trinity) “Well, It was far more violent then I expected. There was this enormous fireball, by then already turning yellow and red moving up and soon the whole sky became filled with violet radiation. I was naturally complimented that my damn machine worked. To me it seemed like the last moments of the earth, that perhaps the last human beings then will see the same thing that we have seen. “ (George Kistiakowsky Los Alamos bomb scientist) Hiroshima, a city the size of Houston. US military orders had been given not to fire-bomb it, as had been done to many other Japanese cities; Truman wanted a few virgin targets on which to test the new bomb’s effectiveness. The generals called the bomb Little Boy. The pilots, who didn’t understand the bomb too well, called it the gimmick or the pumpkin. Scientists, who understood the bomb all too well, called it the Beast. When the bombs blinding purplish light exploded none, of the pilots noticed any sound. Oddly neither did most of Hiroshima’s residents. Co pilot Lewis screamed either: ”My God! What have we done. “ or “My God, Look at the son of a bitch go!” When asked later, he couldn’t remember which. The tail gunner gave an oddly culinary description of the holocaust: "Fires are springing up everywhere like flames shooting up out of an huge bed of coals……It’s like a mass of bubbling molasses". “The mushroom is spreading out” Lewis said “I looked out and saw a city boiling.” By some estimates 300,000 of the 344,000 inhabitants of the city were killed. (the Hiroshima city government conservatively estimates 200,000.) “I looked out of the window at the branch of a willow tree. Just at the moment I turned my eyes back into the old and dark classroom, there was a flash. It was indescribable. It was as if a monstrous piece of celluloid had flared up all at once. Even as my eyes were being pierced by the sharp vermilion flash, the second building was already crumbling.” (Kataoka Osamu, a schoolboy, caught in the Hiroshima bombing.) It was possible to tell where people near ground zero had been standing by the thin circles of white ash on the ground or the faintly greasy grey spots of the surfaces like tile and stone. The amount of matter converted into energy by little boy weighed about as much as a small coin. “No man, in our position and subject to our responsibilities, holding in his hands a weapon of such possibilities, could have failed to use it and afterwards looked his countrymen in the face.” (Henry Stimson, Truman’s secretary of war) Christian, Jewish, and Hindu civilizations have this (nuclear) capability. The Communist powers also posses it. Only the Islamic civilization is without it. But that position is could change… "We will eat grass or leaves, even go hungry but we will get one of our own.” ( Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, former Pakistani prime minister) During the Cold War, the U.S. started testing more and more. American citizens had to deal with all the tests, not knowing how dangerous, this all was it is astonishing to read about how the public kept dumb or have been told not to worry. Americans around the testing sites and far beyond would soon find out. A message from the Atomic Energy Commission, in 1957: "You people who live near the Nevada Test Site are in a very real sense active participants in the Nation’s atomic test program." After the United States had completed its third official atomic test (Nagasaki), It began testing in earnest. Some of the testing was done on South Pacific islands. A lot of it was done in Nevada and Utah, and once during operation Wigwam, an A bomb was blown up off the coast of San Diego. At its height 4 bombs a month were being set off. The AEC set up bleachers near the test ground so the site secretaries, carpenters and plumbers could watch the “pretty bangs “ When the Nevada test began, the scientist had to improvise radiation sampling devices out of Electrolux vacuum cleaners. Residents in the path of the fall out began to find their hair was… falling out. Leukemia and Cancer was rising dramatically. Once 4,000 sheep 50 miles away turned out dead, and once, 150 miles away, a herd of goats caught in a cloud of fallout turned blue. Once all the way in Rochester, New York, fallout fell on the Kodak Company plant and ruined a huge batch of film. Two Colorado Scientists noticed their state’s radioactivity levels were going up. The Governor said “ they had a screw loose “ and “should be arrested “ When dangerous levels of strontium 90 began turning up in milk and babies teeth, public pressure forced a moratorium and finally a ban on above ground testing. So, about 12 bombs a year were tested underground but at least 24 of them got away and released radioactivity, above ground of course. There was even an organization in Utah called Downwinders who would keep you posted by sending you a postcard with “site, date and explosive power." Dick Powell began filming The Conqueror, release date March 1956. Starring John Wayne, Susan Howard and Agnes Morehead, in the sand dunes of St. George, Utah, a year after the 1953 test shot “Dirty” Harry a 32 kiloton A-bomb had blanketed the entire area with fallout. Decades later the three actors and their director were dead of cancer, nearly have the 200 members of the film crew had also contracted the disease. When an official at the Defense Nuclear Agency got the news he murmured, “Please, God don’t let us have killed John Wayne.” PLEASE COPY AND PASTE THIS LINK TO WATCH ATOMIC CAFE http://www.imdb.com/video/hulu/vi3624928281/ Trying to keep the public on ease and not to get worried, all kinds of efforts were taken to keep the danger and information about radiation at low key. We know better now, we hope. Thanks for reading, Frank |
Thursday, February 10, 2011
" Segregation " meaning > " the practice or policy of creating separate facilities within the same society for the use of a minority group "
To be honest with you, I did not know what this word meant till 5 years ago when I came to the States.
In the 50 's and 60's ERA it was a word to be used a lot.
anyways in my vocabulary this word does not exist.
Okay, why this subject?
A couple of days ago I was Googling around and I typed my birth date 10-12-1959 just for the fun of it.
To read what was going on on this day in 1959, well it wasn't so much that came up.
But suddenly this stroked my attention it is about a man,
Now that it is Black History Month, I wanted to share this with you all.
His name is John Howard Griffin, and his story is something to be told what was going on in the 50-60's era.
His desire to know if Southern whites were racist against the Negro population of the Deep South, or if they really judged people based on the individual's personality as they said they prompted him to cross the color line and write Black Like Me. Since communication between the white and African American races did not exist, neither race really knew what it was like for the other. Due to this, Griffin felt the only way to know the truth was to become a black man and travel through the South. The internationally distributed Negro magazine Sepia in exchange for the right to print excerpts from the finished product financed his trip. After three weeks in the Deep South as a black man John Howard Griffin produced a 188-page journal covering his transition into the black race, his travels and experiences in the South, the shift back into white society, and the reaction of those he knew prior his knowing the book was published and released.
John Howard Griffin began this novel as a white man on October 28, 1959 and became a black man (with the help of a noted dermatologist) on November 7. He entered black society in New Orleans through his contact Sterling, a shoeshine boy that he had met in the days prior to the medication taking full effect. Griffin stayed with Sterling at the shine stand for a few days to become assimilated into the society and to learn more about the attitude and mindset of the common black man. After one week of trying to find work other than menial labor, he left to travel throughout the Southern states of Mississippi, Alabama, and Texas.
November 14, the day he decided to leave, was the day after the Mississippi jury refused to indict or consider the evidence in the Mack Parker kidnap-lynch murder case. He decided to go into the heart of Mississippi, the Southern state most feared by blacks of that time, just to see if it really did have the "wonderful relationship" with their Negroes that they said they did. What he found in Hattiesburg was tension in the state so apparent and thick that it scared him to death. One of the reasons for this could be attributed to the Parker case decision because the trial took place not far from Hattiesburg. He knew it was a threat to his life if he remained because he was not a true Negro and did not know the proper way to conduct himself in the present situation. Griffin requested that one of his friends help him leave the state as soon as possible. P.D. East, Griffin's friend, was more than willing to help his friend out of the dangerous situation that he had gotten himself into and back to New Orleans.
From New Orleans, traveled to Biloxi, Mississippi and began hitch hiking toward Mobile, Alabama. Griffin found that men would not pick him up in the day nearly as often as they would at night. One of the reasons being that the darkness of night is a protection of sorts and the white men would let their defenses down. Also, they would not have to be afraid of someone they knew seeing them with a Negro in their car. But the main reason was of the stereotypes many of these men had of Negroes, that they were more sexually active, knew more about sex, had larger genitalia, and fewer morals and therefore would discuss these things with them. Many of the whites that offered Griffin rides would become angry and let him out when he would not discuss his sex life with them. One man was amazed to find a Negro who spoke intelligently and tried to explain the fallacies behind the stereotypes and what the problem with Negro society was.
Many Negroes he encountered on his journey through the Deep South were very kind and opened their hearts and homes to him. One example of this is when Griffin asked an elderly Negro where he might find lodging, the man offered to share his own bed with him. Another instance was when Griffin was stranded somewhere between Mobile and Montgomery and a black man offered him lodging at his home. The man's home was a two-room shack that housed six members of his family, but he accepted John into his home and refused any money for the trouble saying, "he'd brought more than he'd taken."
In Montgomery, Alabama, Griffin decided it was time for him to reenter white society, but he also wanted to gain knowledge of the area as a black man. So, he devised the technique of covering an area as a black and then returning the following day as a white. What he found was, as a black he would receive the "hate stare" from whites and be treated with every courtesy by the black community. As a white, it would be the exact opposite, he would get the "hate stare" from blacks and be treated wonderfully by the same people who despised him the previous day.
After a few days of zigzagging across the color line, Griffin decided that he had enough material from his journal to create a book and enough experience as a black man so he reverted permanently into white society. Crossing over into the white world was unsettling to Griffin, if only because of the way the same people who despised him previously due to his pigmentation treated him. The sudden ability to walk into any establishment and not be refused service was also a shock after having to search for common conveniences days before.
After returning to his hometown of Mansfield, Texas Griffin was not widely accepted back into the community he once knew. Many of the residents of the city were racists; therefore they considered him one of the 'niggers.' The racists even went as far as to hang Griffin in effigy from the town's stoplight one morning. This prompted him and his family to leave the area until the situation considerably calmed down.
Various television and radio hosts as well as magazine interviewed Griffin and newspapermen after the book was made public. His main objective was to educate the public of the situation in the South and people couldn't help but hear about it. Whether or not they accepted the information was not up to Griffin, but he did his best to make the knowledge available.
This book relates to American history because it takes the reader into the Deep South before the Civil Rights Movements took hold and shows what it was like to be black.
In the Preface, the author states "I could have been a Jew in Germany, a Mexican in a number of states, or a member of any 'inferior' group. Only the details would have differed. The story would be the same." The details he mentioned were he being black and in the South, and the story is of hatred and racism directed toward him and others like him on account of those details. The account he related showed America and the world that race relations in the South was not the pretty picture it was painted as. Instead, he showed the daily struggle of the blacks to survive.
Griffin's bias is that white Southern Americans of that period were racist toward the African American population. The only thing altered from before he entered New Orleans to after was his appearance. He dyed his skin a very dark brown and shaved his head, his clothing, speech patterns, and references had not changed and every question was answered truthfully. If people did judge others by their qualities and qualifications, his time in the Deep South should have been fairly uneventful. Instead, there were daily quests to find rest-room facilities, restaurants, stores, and various other 'conveniences' that he took advantage of before he crossed the color line. During his stay in New Orleans, blacks were forced to use specific facilities designated for them and they were usually few and far between. Other than the Greyhound station or other public buildings that blacks were allowed to enter, there were no facilities that were at par with the ones the whites had access to. His now black skin also prevented him from entering any store and purchasing something to drink, instead he would have to find a Negro Cafe. These Cafes were not nearly as numerous as the many places the lowliest white could acquire a drink. The color of his skin also prevented him from gaining anything other than menial labor job, although his qualifications could easily get him any number of positions if he were white.
“ . . . I walked toward Brennan's, one of New Orleans' famed restaurants . . . I stopped to study the menu . . . realizing that a few days earlier I could have gone in an ordered anything on the menu. But now, though I was the same person with the same appetite . . . appreciation . . . and wallet, no power on earth could get me inside this place for a meal. I recalled hearing some Negro say, 'you can live here all your life, but you'll never get inside one of the great restaurants except as a kitchen boy.'"
The above passage represents just one of many instances where he was barred from entering an establishment solely based on his pigmentation. As stated before, Negroes were not permitted to enter many restaurants, but libraries, museums, concert halls, and other culturally enhancing places were also barred to him even though there was no formal law against them entering. The many stereotypes of blacks being intellectually inferior just made it easier to deny them access because they did not have the mental capacities to appreciate it. It became apparent to Griffin that because the black population was widely uneducated, they would never be able to succeed in life. One of the things inhibiting their education was the inferior quality of schools and the inability to enter establishments such as libraries and museums. The whites usually knew this and used it to their advantage to keep the black population subordinate.
In my believe I don't differ color, but all around you there is still lot's of examples of different behavior towards person's if they have a black,white,yellow,red or even green color.
Experiencing every day life with the thought, will I be accepted or treated with respect do "they" look at me as a person or as a color?
As a person would be the right answer. So think about this whenever you interact, meet, or socialize with one of these colors, will you then Judge,Label or be Prejudice?
Great example that acceptance is still a silver plated thing is how President Obama is treated.
For me he is a hero taking on this public task.For lots of others he is still a 2 colored President, who can't do right whatever he does.
Within American Caucasians he is too black and within African Americans he is too white.
Plus he has to deal with every other color in between.
(My wife, JilI thinks that any labeling about any race is ridiculous and insulting and I agree with her.)
My Point? That with all white Presidents race wasn't an issue but ever so more i have the feeling that this sitting President is not getting the Respect that he deserves.
My true believe is that if we leave out race,religion and look at each other only as another person our society could live in a more tranquil,serene and peaceful world.
And isn't that what we all want?
Some links here, about John's book and on you tube a documentary is made about his story.
http://thebestnotes.com/booknotes/Black_Like_Me/Black_Like_Me01.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynDbJG9OLy8
Frank
In the 50 's and 60's ERA it was a word to be used a lot.
anyways in my vocabulary this word does not exist.
Okay, why this subject?
A couple of days ago I was Googling around and I typed my birth date 10-12-1959 just for the fun of it.
To read what was going on on this day in 1959, well it wasn't so much that came up.
But suddenly this stroked my attention it is about a man,
Now that it is Black History Month, I wanted to share this with you all.
His name is John Howard Griffin, and his story is something to be told what was going on in the 50-60's era.
His desire to know if Southern whites were racist against the Negro population of the Deep South, or if they really judged people based on the individual's personality as they said they prompted him to cross the color line and write Black Like Me. Since communication between the white and African American races did not exist, neither race really knew what it was like for the other. Due to this, Griffin felt the only way to know the truth was to become a black man and travel through the South. The internationally distributed Negro magazine Sepia in exchange for the right to print excerpts from the finished product financed his trip. After three weeks in the Deep South as a black man John Howard Griffin produced a 188-page journal covering his transition into the black race, his travels and experiences in the South, the shift back into white society, and the reaction of those he knew prior his knowing the book was published and released.
John Howard Griffin began this novel as a white man on October 28, 1959 and became a black man (with the help of a noted dermatologist) on November 7. He entered black society in New Orleans through his contact Sterling, a shoeshine boy that he had met in the days prior to the medication taking full effect. Griffin stayed with Sterling at the shine stand for a few days to become assimilated into the society and to learn more about the attitude and mindset of the common black man. After one week of trying to find work other than menial labor, he left to travel throughout the Southern states of Mississippi, Alabama, and Texas. November 14, the day he decided to leave, was the day after the Mississippi jury refused to indict or consider the evidence in the Mack Parker kidnap-lynch murder case. He decided to go into the heart of Mississippi, the Southern state most feared by blacks of that time, just to see if it really did have the "wonderful relationship" with their Negroes that they said they did. What he found in Hattiesburg was tension in the state so apparent and thick that it scared him to death. One of the reasons for this could be attributed to the Parker case decision because the trial took place not far from Hattiesburg. He knew it was a threat to his life if he remained because he was not a true Negro and did not know the proper way to conduct himself in the present situation. Griffin requested that one of his friends help him leave the state as soon as possible. P.D. East, Griffin's friend, was more than willing to help his friend out of the dangerous situation that he had gotten himself into and back to New Orleans.
From New Orleans, traveled to Biloxi, Mississippi and began hitch hiking toward Mobile, Alabama. Griffin found that men would not pick him up in the day nearly as often as they would at night. One of the reasons being that the darkness of night is a protection of sorts and the white men would let their defenses down. Also, they would not have to be afraid of someone they knew seeing them with a Negro in their car. But the main reason was of the stereotypes many of these men had of Negroes, that they were more sexually active, knew more about sex, had larger genitalia, and fewer morals and therefore would discuss these things with them. Many of the whites that offered Griffin rides would become angry and let him out when he would not discuss his sex life with them. One man was amazed to find a Negro who spoke intelligently and tried to explain the fallacies behind the stereotypes and what the problem with Negro society was.
Many Negroes he encountered on his journey through the Deep South were very kind and opened their hearts and homes to him. One example of this is when Griffin asked an elderly Negro where he might find lodging, the man offered to share his own bed with him. Another instance was when Griffin was stranded somewhere between Mobile and Montgomery and a black man offered him lodging at his home. The man's home was a two-room shack that housed six members of his family, but he accepted John into his home and refused any money for the trouble saying, "he'd brought more than he'd taken."
In Montgomery, Alabama, Griffin decided it was time for him to reenter white society, but he also wanted to gain knowledge of the area as a black man. So, he devised the technique of covering an area as a black and then returning the following day as a white. What he found was, as a black he would receive the "hate stare" from whites and be treated with every courtesy by the black community. As a white, it would be the exact opposite, he would get the "hate stare" from blacks and be treated wonderfully by the same people who despised him the previous day.
After a few days of zigzagging across the color line, Griffin decided that he had enough material from his journal to create a book and enough experience as a black man so he reverted permanently into white society. Crossing over into the white world was unsettling to Griffin, if only because of the way the same people who despised him previously due to his pigmentation treated him. The sudden ability to walk into any establishment and not be refused service was also a shock after having to search for common conveniences days before.
After returning to his hometown of Mansfield, Texas Griffin was not widely accepted back into the community he once knew. Many of the residents of the city were racists; therefore they considered him one of the 'niggers.' The racists even went as far as to hang Griffin in effigy from the town's stoplight one morning. This prompted him and his family to leave the area until the situation considerably calmed down.
Various television and radio hosts as well as magazine interviewed Griffin and newspapermen after the book was made public. His main objective was to educate the public of the situation in the South and people couldn't help but hear about it. Whether or not they accepted the information was not up to Griffin, but he did his best to make the knowledge available.
This book relates to American history because it takes the reader into the Deep South before the Civil Rights Movements took hold and shows what it was like to be black.
In the Preface, the author states "I could have been a Jew in Germany, a Mexican in a number of states, or a member of any 'inferior' group. Only the details would have differed. The story would be the same." The details he mentioned were he being black and in the South, and the story is of hatred and racism directed toward him and others like him on account of those details. The account he related showed America and the world that race relations in the South was not the pretty picture it was painted as. Instead, he showed the daily struggle of the blacks to survive.
Griffin's bias is that white Southern Americans of that period were racist toward the African American population. The only thing altered from before he entered New Orleans to after was his appearance. He dyed his skin a very dark brown and shaved his head, his clothing, speech patterns, and references had not changed and every question was answered truthfully. If people did judge others by their qualities and qualifications, his time in the Deep South should have been fairly uneventful. Instead, there were daily quests to find rest-room facilities, restaurants, stores, and various other 'conveniences' that he took advantage of before he crossed the color line. During his stay in New Orleans, blacks were forced to use specific facilities designated for them and they were usually few and far between. Other than the Greyhound station or other public buildings that blacks were allowed to enter, there were no facilities that were at par with the ones the whites had access to. His now black skin also prevented him from entering any store and purchasing something to drink, instead he would have to find a Negro Cafe. These Cafes were not nearly as numerous as the many places the lowliest white could acquire a drink. The color of his skin also prevented him from gaining anything other than menial labor job, although his qualifications could easily get him any number of positions if he were white.
“ . . . I walked toward Brennan's, one of New Orleans' famed restaurants . . . I stopped to study the menu . . . realizing that a few days earlier I could have gone in an ordered anything on the menu. But now, though I was the same person with the same appetite . . . appreciation . . . and wallet, no power on earth could get me inside this place for a meal. I recalled hearing some Negro say, 'you can live here all your life, but you'll never get inside one of the great restaurants except as a kitchen boy.'"
The above passage represents just one of many instances where he was barred from entering an establishment solely based on his pigmentation. As stated before, Negroes were not permitted to enter many restaurants, but libraries, museums, concert halls, and other culturally enhancing places were also barred to him even though there was no formal law against them entering. The many stereotypes of blacks being intellectually inferior just made it easier to deny them access because they did not have the mental capacities to appreciate it. It became apparent to Griffin that because the black population was widely uneducated, they would never be able to succeed in life. One of the things inhibiting their education was the inferior quality of schools and the inability to enter establishments such as libraries and museums. The whites usually knew this and used it to their advantage to keep the black population subordinate.
In my believe I don't differ color, but all around you there is still lot's of examples of different behavior towards person's if they have a black,white,yellow,red or even green color.
Experiencing every day life with the thought, will I be accepted or treated with respect do "they" look at me as a person or as a color?
As a person would be the right answer. So think about this whenever you interact, meet, or socialize with one of these colors, will you then Judge,Label or be Prejudice?
Great example that acceptance is still a silver plated thing is how President Obama is treated.
For me he is a hero taking on this public task.For lots of others he is still a 2 colored President, who can't do right whatever he does.
Within American Caucasians he is too black and within African Americans he is too white.
Plus he has to deal with every other color in between.
(My wife, JilI thinks that any labeling about any race is ridiculous and insulting and I agree with her.)
My Point? That with all white Presidents race wasn't an issue but ever so more i have the feeling that this sitting President is not getting the Respect that he deserves.
My true believe is that if we leave out race,religion and look at each other only as another person our society could live in a more tranquil,serene and peaceful world.
And isn't that what we all want?
Some links here, about John's book and on you tube a documentary is made about his story.
http://thebestnotes.com/booknotes/Black_Like_Me/Black_Like_Me01.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynDbJG9OLy8
Frank
Monday, January 17, 2011
Why this blog?
Hi to everyone who landed on this blog.
So yes, " why this blog" ? Very simple, just because I can and I want to share all my thoughts that i have interest in with you all.
So many sites and stories are already to be found with every passing second on this fast pacing medium we call internet.
I intended for years to contribute on my own way in my own language with my own view and look on all type of
situations in life that we bump into, to be heard and now finally I am giving it a shot.
Mind you I am not a writer, but I do want to write.
You could describe me as a critic and widely minded, so here you have my definition.
Criticism is a common aspect of all human expression and need not necessarily imply skilled or accurate expressions of judgment. Critical judgments, good or bad, may be positive, negative (in dispraise), or balanced (weighing a combination of factors both for and against). Since all criticism must be regarded as having a purpose, a critic may also be definable by his or her specific motivation. At its simplest, and for whatever reason, a critic may have either constructive or destructive intent.
If it does not even make any sense to you what I put down here sometimes then just forgive me, and i sincere apologize.
What i would like from you when your reading my articles,opinions or stories is to give me some feedback, bad or good.
Again I am not a writer i am just an individual who likes to give his comment on everything what is going on in the world.
Now 51 and still going strong having some life experience I consider of myself that i can give a honest comment on lots of subjects.
Since I am Dutch, living in the USA my look on life and every new day, gives me a double advantage about everyday life.
Approaching it from a European stand point and American with my lovely Wife Jil, who keeps me with my feet on the
ground if I would rise to much above myself.
I hope you like what i put down here.
Soon to come
DutchFrankie
So yes, " why this blog" ? Very simple, just because I can and I want to share all my thoughts that i have interest in with you all.
So many sites and stories are already to be found with every passing second on this fast pacing medium we call internet.
I intended for years to contribute on my own way in my own language with my own view and look on all type of
situations in life that we bump into, to be heard and now finally I am giving it a shot.
Mind you I am not a writer, but I do want to write.
You could describe me as a critic and widely minded, so here you have my definition.
Criticism is a common aspect of all human expression and need not necessarily imply skilled or accurate expressions of judgment. Critical judgments, good or bad, may be positive, negative (in dispraise), or balanced (weighing a combination of factors both for and against). Since all criticism must be regarded as having a purpose, a critic may also be definable by his or her specific motivation. At its simplest, and for whatever reason, a critic may have either constructive or destructive intent.
If it does not even make any sense to you what I put down here sometimes then just forgive me, and i sincere apologize.
What i would like from you when your reading my articles,opinions or stories is to give me some feedback, bad or good.
Again I am not a writer i am just an individual who likes to give his comment on everything what is going on in the world.
Now 51 and still going strong having some life experience I consider of myself that i can give a honest comment on lots of subjects.
Since I am Dutch, living in the USA my look on life and every new day, gives me a double advantage about everyday life.
Approaching it from a European stand point and American with my lovely Wife Jil, who keeps me with my feet on the
ground if I would rise to much above myself.
I hope you like what i put down here.
Soon to come
DutchFrankie
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