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Reaching Racial Heights
Obama for President,
ChickenBones almost 50, and Rudy at 60
24 August 2008
Peanuts. Shrimp, and Martinis
I also hope that
you're doing something nice for yourself today, like
treating yourself to dinner and a beer . . . Miriam
I have no friends
here at Jerusalem. No, not one, just family folks with
long held grievances. Maybe it is my own doing. I seldom
venture beyond the Village of Jerusalem. So I spent most
of the day watching previews of the Democratic
National Convention on CNN and MSNBC, as the day before I watched
the commentary on the excellent selection of Joe Biden
as Obama's VP running mate. For the Democrat Party all
seem to be shaping up nicely in swinging toward the
center right in order to capture the white blue-collar
vote in places like Pennsylvania and Ohio.
Late in the
afternoon, family members assembled to sing me happy
birthday over cake and ice cream. That was organized by
my aunt Ann, who is still suffering from having both her
knees replaced. It was of short duration. There was one
card but there was no money or gifts.
At dusk I drove out to
Emporia, about fourteen miles south of Jerusalem, which
was paid a surprise visit Thursday afternoon by
presidential hopeful Barack Obama.
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He said he stopped by for
peanuts. He and his entourage of campaign
workers, security agents and a busload of
regional and national press pulled into
Virginia Favorites Ltd., at 1000 W. Atlantic
Street (next to Shoney's on Route 58)
shortly before 4 pm. Entering the
establishment, he told owners Dorothy Bass
and Judy Whittington, and employee Donna
Harrell. "I need some peanuts! I heard this
was the right place to come." He also told
them he was a "peanuts fanatic" who eats
them all day long and that "I am in peanut
heaven here" (Independent Messenger,
p. 1). |
Obama Visits Emporia
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Democratic presidential
hopeful Barack Obama shakes hands with
Dorothy Bass Thursday afternoon during a
visit to Virginia Favorites Ltd. on Route
58. He said he was here for peanuts, but
while in the shop spent a of deal of time
trying to get Bass' vote |
Barack at Shoney's
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Patrons of Shoney's
were pleasantly surprised in the
adjoining parking lot when Barack
emerged from Virginia Favorites. He
stopped to greet them and signed a few
autographs while among the crowd. |
Not too far from
Shoney's is Applebee's, a bar restaurant. The only place
with a bar I
know within 30 miles. I went there for a couple of
drinks and conversation. Blessed, I had both. I had two
delightful Stoli martinis, and a couple glasses of ice water. Soon after I sat at the bar, a younger
woman came in, tall and good looking woman with no
affectations. I looked her way and she came and sat two
chairs down from me. It seems we had the same mind—a
drink and appetizer, and relief from unresolved issues
swirling around in the brain.
At the upper end of
the bar a young black fellow was talking about the
choice of Biden, whom he believed was made for the
working class white guys in his company who insisted
they didn’t like Obama’s name and that they had no
intentions on voting for him. They complained also the company
he kept with Reverend Jeremiah Wright, whom they
believed to be a separatist. Surely, these white
Virginians were the great-grandsons of segregationists.
And they have the historical ignorance to speak of
separatism, as a reason not to vote for Obama. Both
young white guys continued to make such stupid remarks
about Obama. I shut them out.
So it was fortunate
that I had an intelligent woman whose voice was like
that of an angel. We began a conversation over what
drink to order. She ordered a cosmopolitan. It was
reddish, but in a martini glass, with a slice of lemon.
We both ordered grilled shrimp and she in addition
ordered a salad with grilled shrimp.
Her name was
Beverly, an Army master sergeant, who had arrived
back recently from Iraq. I asked her did she shoot anyone. She
said that she was with Logistics, which supplied those
who were shooters. She was on her way back to Savannah,
where she is stationed.
I told her I had been to Savannah, for brief periods,
passing through, and I described it in such a way that
she knew I had been there. But she was a Virginian from
Dansville, which I knew was west of where we were. She
had just bought a house near Emporia. Her husband, her
second marriage, was a guard at the prison up in
Jarratt, not far from Jerusalem. I discovered this fact
late in the conversation.
It seems that army
life is hard on marriages, and she cared little for
country life—the lack of jobs, the lack of interesting
people, the repressiveness of traditional rural life. She
had two grown sons, and a couple of grandkids and she
was retiring from the military in a couple of years,
though she was thinking about spending another year in
Iraq. The money is good, about $60,000 a year. But she
was also considering becoming a contractor, armed
securitypersons who make about a 100Gs a year. . . .
My shrimp arrived
and I told her that I was a teacher of writing and that
I owned a literary website and some of the work that
appeared on the site, including stories and poems, and
that some military people visit the site. I could have
told her much more:
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It is a
site of over 3000 pages made up primarily of
materials on African American life and
culture. But our work has become more varied
than that. It includes Turkish poetry.
Articles from Germany, the UK, Hungary,
South Africa; Juba, Sudan; poetry from
Kenya; visual art work from Toronto, Canada;
Houston, Texas; and the UK. We
have film criticism. We have a writer now on
her way to Montreal for the World Film
festival; and more.
We have articles on
religion, on sports, on hip hop, and other
kinds of music; black librarians;
obituaries; education and Katrina; and
tables of links to pieces by numerous
writers, including Louis Reyes Rivera,
Mackie Blanton, Mona Lisa Saloy, and many
others including Kola Boof and Jim Jordan,
root doctor. We have a great swath of
writings by Kalamu ya Salaam.
We are
a dynamic website; not a weekly, or a
monthly, but a daily update. We have also
culled excerpts of articles we believe
important from alternative as well as
mainstream media. We have done photo exhibits of
church openings and birthdays. ChickenBones
is the most unique broad-reaching website on the internet.
Financial response from our massive audience
is so-so. We barely take in $5,000 a year,
if that much. On that I pay the bills of the
website and give myself a small token for my
services to ChickenBones. I am not
rich, just frugal. I have taken a
stipend only within the last two years of
our seven year history. When I moved to the
countryside, it was partially to cut down on my
bills so that I could build and work
ChickenBones.
ChickenBones is
not only my "baby." In dog years it is
almost 50 years old. It is not only a
personal project, but also a national
resource—a
Historic Website -- Collected by Library of
Congress
The
downside is that ChickenBones: A Journal is
under-funded. Although we pay our internet
service provider (ISP) $70 a month to be
online we still do not have sufficient
bandwidth and power to do all the things we
would like. I had to shut down a day to
recover the power necessary to publish
recent material sent to us. I still think
that too many do not appreciate what is
gained through a site like ChickenBones.
Maybe that is my own fault in that I am not
a great salesman and that probably too often
my own personality overwhelms the wonder of
ChickenBones. |
But I said none of
that. I could have also pointed out the fine words
written to me by Jerry Ward Jr.:
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In the history of African American journals
of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries,
I rank your magazine with Negro Digest/Black
World, which was "blessed" to have the
financial backing of Johnson Publications.
It is required reading for people who wish
to be informed about the trajectories of
thought in the contemporary world. It is a
dynamic, growing textbook that ought to be
used in courses on African American
literature and culture. I am using it as an
external link for the course I teach this
semester on the Foundations of African
American Literature. My students need to
know that academic journals do not tell
us everything. So, thank you Rudy for your
gift to black folks and everybody else. |
If I had had her
locked down at a booth, paying for her drinks and
appetizer, I probably would have ventured into that long
spiel. But she was a beautiful brown-skinned woman who
knew she was attractive, independent and with money and
she did not need to listen to another's extensive trials
and tribulations. . . . She said that there were
soldiers who with nothing to do probably would like to
tell their stories and published their poems. I told her
that none had sent me their writings but that would be a
nice addition to the site. I asked her was she a poet
and she said no. I told her we also had interviews on
ChickenBones. But she did not want that. I felt she
thought she might get in trouble with that kind of
exposure and jeopardize a safe retirement.
I asked Beverly a
few questions and she was forthcoming. She said there
was indeed a huge military base complex near Baghdad,
but there were many more across the country. I asked
were there foreign workers. She mentioned Filipinos and
Ugandans working in the laundry department. I asked her
did she know about rapes. She knew of six in which she
was involved in investigating on behalf of the rape
victims.
The rape victims
were white on white or black on black. The rapist was
usually of a higher grade, among enlisted soldiers.
There was one instance in which the female soldier was
so drunk that she did not recall she had been raped.
Alcohol is illegal in Iraq, even on US military bases.
Unlike Vietnam drugs seem infrequently used by soldiers.
. . . She took a call on her cell phone.
I ordered my second
martini. The green olives in each glass were almost
better then the vermouth but not quite as potent as the
Stolichnaya. She had nearly finished her salad. She was
considering leaving her husband, though not for me. I
got the impression she was rather bored. The stress and
high energy of a desert war zone contrasts greatly
with that of the rural sparse piney woods population of
churchgoing, tradition church folk. She asked me
about the schools nearby because she was thinking about
being an elementary school teacher through a military
program. I told her what I knew from subbing last spring
at the high school in Sussex.
She was considering selling the house
she had just bought and moving to Richmond. She made me
laugh describing the locals and the numerous family
churches and the community bickering. The chairs were
being pulled away from the bar and she was pulling her things
together to depart. It all ended too soon and we had not mentioned
politics at all, or Obama.
Applebee's closes
at ten on Sundays and so Beverly and I said a quick
goodbye. I had to go pee. When I returned she was
nowhere to be seen. The martinis were nice, so were the
shrimp. This face-to-face conversation with the Master
Sergeant about her adventures at home and abroad was a
rare pleasure. And with all the kind responses from my
internet friends, I had a swell birthday.
If you like this editorial
consider making a donation
Birthday Responses
I hope that today will usher in a
year of good health, peace, creativity, and continued
success with your baby, ChickenBones. I also hope that
you're doing something nice for yourself today, like
treating yourself to dinner and a beer, hanging out with
friends, and reading a really good book.
Wishing you all the best, Miriam
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Dear Rudy,
Congratulations on
your 60th birthday. Not many make it up to that age in
this stressful world, and your creativity and
productivity could also be much of that stress. But you
do enjoy what you are doing and it is giving greater
value to others than you can immediately reap any
material reward for. But be sure that your effort and
contribution gives you an undeniable place in the
history of the world, certainly not just of America nor
Africa, for you have a global perspective. I have also
had your journal as recommended reading for my students
as well as colleagues and friends. Yours, Arthur
Edgar E Smith
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Happy solar return Rudy. I wish you
enough. Always, WordSlanger
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Bon Anniversaire Redux,
Felicitations et Bon Souhations Vince
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Happy Birthday Rudy! . . . the
writers club will be getting a little donation off to
ChickenBones when we pick up on our meetings again in
the fall. easy, Eugene
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Peace and blessings
my friend, Happy birthday! I sent you an e-mail this
morning before church. I just noticed that it was
returned to me because I left a letter out of your name.
I can't believe I did that. I want to wish you peace in
the home and heart. Tell Annie and Mama I said hello. I
wish you many more birthdays. I whish you continued
blessings with ChickenBones. Peace and Love, Yvonne
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Hi Rudy, Happy
Birthday To You! Thank you for the three great gifts
of knowledge and communication (and friendship!) The one
and only ChickenBones web site has something for
everyone to enjoy and contemplate. It's a big Shining
Star! Music, art, history, geography, political pros
and cons and great stories! I wish you all the best in
all you do this year with good health and strength to
keep up your excellent work!
"It's been a long, a long time
coming But I know-oh-whoa, A change gon' come."
Sam Cooke Jan 30, '65 Obama '08! Love, Anita
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In honor of your BD...a check is on the way next
week...and I hope others from my crew have sent
something in to support the site...I've passed your site
on to many...and they love it. I do appreciate our past
interactions online and especially...your publishing my
work.
Blessings...you wonderful Black Man... not only today,
but on your actual Birthday, and for many many years to
come for that matter !! I believe...that If you declare
personal Happiness to be yours (as elusive as it may
seem at times ) acknowledge your past/present blessings,
and expect a fruitful, spirited and Spirit blessed life
to be yours...then that's the reality that will prevail
in your life (not the realities of others)...but the
trick is to BELIEVE, HAVE FAITH and then take these
realities that you've created each day... and
own them !! You are truly a brilliant man, and you
should not only continually celebrate the gifts you've
been given...but your ability to pass these gifts on to
others in such a massive and meaningful way. The
Spirit's work is not always easy, convenient, nor
necessarily OUR chosen way.
bev jenai
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Dear Rudy,
May you have a birthday free of stress. You really do
have the weight of the world on your shoulders. I tried
to find your house on a Google map yesterday. I
appreciate what you are doing with your journal. Maureen
is in Minneapolis this week. It makes me feel good that
she is recovering, and now gets around very well. I
woke up screaming two nights ago, and I am certain woke
half the neighborhood.
The newspapers could talk about nothing for the past
week other than Obama's choice for VP, which they
guessed correctly. Boring!
I have not been watching the Olympics, which I really
find offensive. I think they should ban all
nationalistic displays, all flags, national colors and
the playing of national anthems. They should also get
rid of the medals and all other competitive aspects, and
let
the people perform at the highest level of excellence
for its own sake. Further proof that I am weird.
Wilson
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Man shut yo mouf!
Now you've even got me talking like an old man. Looka
heah, Leo, I turned 67 this past Thursday but I don't
feel old. I get tired sometime, but that's because I
stay up well into the wee hours. It's almost 2:00AM now.
Maybe you're eating too much fat back and grease. You
need to mosey on over to the fitness center, or get you
a rolling or walking machine. Or just take long walks.
Have your brain make friends with your heart. Smile
more. Embrace psychology. Meditate. Don't fight it,
Brohim. We love you, man.
MAY THE GOOD LORD GRANT YOU MANY YEARS—Mackie
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happy 60th and thank you for all
you do for us. you are admired and appreciated.
kahlil koromantee
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Wishing you a happy birthday from
Frankfurt. I wouldn't know the date of your birthday,
but mine which was on the 22nd of August seem to be
around yours. Well, I wish you all the best and may
success attend all your endeavours. Franklyne
Ogbunwezeh
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Nice description of your pleasant,
serendipitous birthday evening with Beverly. Kam
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Happy Birthday . . . I wish you many, many
more. Coz, Caroline
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Salaam. Sixty is the new
fifty they say. But to old war dogs like you and me, it means
nothing. I look at the hundreds of young men around me and see their
powers rising and mine fading. I wonder how many battle are left in
me. Then I shrug my shoulders and go on to the next thing on the
list. I guess we should be glad to have a list to check.
Happy Birthday. Despite our
differences, I love you like a brother. amin sharif
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Rudy. Back from
Louisiana. Happy Birthday to you and I'm trying to make
enough money to send something other than the cartoons,
though I hope they help with keeping interest up. 60
was a good age. . . . You've been asking for a photo.
Here's two that I found recently. By the way, I happened
to have this feeling that the ideal Obama would be the
same guy with straight hair and very pale skin. . . .
but he would still be married to that sister. . . . Keep
laughing. Chuck |
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Hey now Rudy, A heartfelt yet belated Happy Happy
Birthday to you. May this year bring you joy,
abundance, and lots of laughs. Be well, and take some
time to smell the Jasmine. LUV, Mona Lisa
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Happy Birthday, Rudy. I wish I
had said this earlier, but I could not check my mail till two days
after. At 60, you have so much to make you happy and fulfilled.
ChickenBones has acquired an appreciable stature, a lot of
influence and widespread readership. I find your industry,
sacrificial and generous spirit exceptionally striking, and your
style quite disarming. May God keep you longer and closer to Him,
and continue to energize you. Wishing you many happy returns of the
day. Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye
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Dear Rudy, I'm just getting
back online after some traveling this summer. I want to join Miriam
in wishing you a Happy Birthday. Stay strong, Floyd
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posted 25 August 2008 |
