TheBanyanTree: Hoodies **gentle political commentary**

[Margaret R. Kramer]

Our great spring has slowed down for a few days.  It's nasty out there this
afternoon.  The sun is hidden behind thick mean looking clouds and even
though the wind is from the south, the warm air is just not getting here.

 

It's a good afternoon for laziness, so Joe and I are sitting in the kitchen,
each of us with our laptops open, with our heads buried into the screens.

 

I shot around the house this morning, doing laundry, watering plants, and
paying bills.  I have a couple of closets that are asking to be cleaned out.
Even though I'm not a hoarder, I feel like I have way too much stuff.  It's
amazing how much crap I have crammed into little odd corners of the house.
A cool spring afternoon is probably a good time to do a little decluttering.

 

Joe and I didn't win the MegaMillions.  He hasn't checked his ticket yet, so
he doesn't know if he might have won one of the $250,000 prizes or not.  I
checked my ticket and I know I didn't win anything and I shredded my ticket.

 

If I would have won, about 90% of that money would have been set up as some
sort of charitable foundation.  I don't need a lot of money nor do I want a
lot of money.  But it's nice to dream about a new car or unlimited travel or
going back to school.  That's one thing I would do if I won a lot of money,
go back to school and get my master's degree in library science.  It doesn't
make sense because there are not many librarian jobs, but that's what I'd
like to do. 

 

I haven't had a cold for years, but I got one last weekend.  I'm not sure if
it was the cashier at Target, who, when ringing up my items last Friday
night, was continually sneezing, although not on my stuff, but turning her
head and letting loose with a few good ones.  I'm sure those germs found
their way to me, and slithered into my body, and infected me with a nasty
cold.

 

I called in sick to work on Monday, and did something I so rarely do, spent
most of the day on our new sectional reading, sneezing, wiping the snot from
my nose, and drinking juice.  I finished Anne Rice's new novel, The Wolf
Gift.  

 

It's one of my Kindle Fire books.  And the neat thing about my Kindle Fire
is that I can read books in the dark with it.  No need to turn on a light.

 

And if I order a book, I can get it right away.  I don't have to go to a
bookstore or wait for it to be delivered in a package.  I only have three
books on my Kindle, but I'm sure my virtual library will grow.  

 

Currently, I sell my "real" books on amazon.com, so with the virtual
library, I won't be able to sell books any longer.  I usually made about
$100 a year or so selling books, and now that income will be cut off from
me.  So sad.   

 

The Kindle Fire is kind of like a poor man's iPad.  I can check email,
Facebook, Twitter, download music and videos, plus read books.  I'm still
getting used to reading a book that isn't a book.  There is something
special about being to crack open a new book and letting the pages settle
back as I turn them.

 

My oldest grandson was on the A honor roll for this semester.  He's almost
13 years old and in 7th grade.  He's a little math whiz.  I use him as my
human calculator for about anything.  He just does the problem in his head
and within seconds, he has the answer.  He's been a competitor at Math
Masters in grade school and will sub in on the junior high math team when
needed.  He didn't join the math team, because he wanted to be on the
basketball team.  Go figure.

 

And he wears a hoodie.  So do I.  I've worn hoodies for years.  I love the
zipper, the pockets, and being able to pull up the hood when it's cold or
rainy.  I'm sure as middle aged white woman, if I have the hood pulled up, I
won't be thought of as a gang member.  And I'm sure George Zimmerman
wouldn't have followed me and shot me.

 

Obviously, I don't know what happened on that rainy night, but the events
that unfolded are so similar to many other rainy nights in the past.
Someone is identified as a threat, gets killed, and the person or person(s)
who killed are not charged.  Think of lynching for example.

 

Remember those photos from the 1960s when black children were trying to
integrate southern schools and surrounding them were white men and women
with faces so full of hate that you could barely look at them without
cringing.

 

Think of Rodney King.  Stopped by the LAPD for speeding, resisted arrest,
and was cuffed and beaten and beaten and beaten.  If someone had not
videotaped that event, do you think the police officers involved would have
ever been charged?

 

A few years ago, in Wisconsin, a Hmong hunter was hunting on someone else's
land.  Several white men jumped on their ATVs with guns at the ready, and
surrounded that young hunter.  That hunter opened fire and killed several
people.  Not to justify the killing, but can you imagine how frightened that
hunter was?  He lashed out before he would have been killed.  Of course, he
was charged and sent to prison for life.  

 

But if the situation would have been reversed, would the white people who
might have killed the Hmong hunter, been charged with his death, or would it
have been justifiable homicide?

 

It's difficult for us, as white people, who have always been the dominant
race, to understand what it's like to be on someone's radar just because of
our color.  My son, who is mixed, was followed around in stores, and
probably still is, just because he is black.  

 

I had to give him "the talk" when he was going through driver's education,
and so did his instructor.  My son is stopped often by the police, not for
doing anything wrong, but just because he is black.  And in many white
minds, when you're black, and especially young and male, you're up to no
good.

 

Joe grew up in the 40s and 50s.  He was in the Air Force.  If he was
stationed in the south, he was unable to ride in the same cab as his white
fellow soldiers.  Or stay in the same hotel.  Or go to the same restaurants.

 

The "Jim Crow" laws have changed, but the attitudes have not.

 

Joe is a black man, and he has a permit to conceal and carry a gun.  Some
white people can't handle that.  In their minds, blacks should not be armed.

 

Except maybe with Skittles.

 

Trayvon's parents are right to demand answers.  Just from the few things
that have been released, especially the police surveillance video, show that
Zimmerman was more than likely the aggressor.  Because his father is a
retired judge, I suspect there were some "favors" done behind the scenes
that let Zimmerman go.

 

And the police, or perhaps the prosecutor who told them not to press
charges, probably thought the whole thing would be swept under the rug and
forgotten.

 

But this incident and so many incidents like this one should be not be swept
up and forgotten.  This is our country's legacy and it's time we start
taking steps to change the "master hunting down the wayward slave"
mentality.

 

I'll continue to wear my black hoodie, hood up or hood down.  Maybe I'll
start carrying packets of Skittles.  I'm going to do my part to help change
my country's incredible racist attitudes.

 

Margaret R. Kramer

margaretkramer at comcast.net <mailto:mmargaretkramer at comcast.net> 

www.linkedin.com/in/margaretkramer

 

Corpse pose restores life. Dead parts of your being fall away, the ghosts
are released.      

- Terri Guillemets