I grew up in a town where people who didn’t look like me lived on the other side of town, on the other side of the tracks (literally.) The town was, of course, more white than black, and my memory isn’t good enough to recall an accurate ratio of white kids to black kids at my elementary school, but 3 to 1 is my best guess, and is probably close.

I will never forget one particular time when I used “the word.” I can’t recall what grade I was in at the time, but I believe it was either fourth or fifth. After recess, in which my team had lost a particularly competitive game of kickball to a team primarily comprised of black kids, I was angry and let my feelings be known to a white friend in the hallway on our way to the restroom. That’s when it happened. I don’t remember exactly what I said, but I used “the word.” And a black friend in my class, walking behind us, overheard me.

Understandably, he made a big scene and started shouting at me - in the hallway, into the restroom, while I was actually using the restroom. He was angry - and rightfully so - and I was angry, too, although probably more so at the fact that I’d been heard than the fact that I was an idiot. It wasn’t the first time I’d said it, and it probably wasn’t the last.

But what I remember most vividly was returning to my classroom. The word had already spread. When I walked in, I saw a friend of mine staring at me, with watery eyes. She was a good friend of mine. She had been since we were in kindergarten. She was one of my best female friends in my grade. And she was black.

That’s the last thing I remember about that day.

I’ve changed a lot since that day. Growing up in the 70’s, there were a lot of things that were not frowned upon the way they are today. Political correctness had not taken hold of society as strongly as it has these days. You could “get away with” a lot of things that you can’t today without being called on it or punished for it. Things have changed, and most of it is for the better.

I was still a few weeks away from my first birthday when Martin Luther King, Jr. was murdered in Memphis. On this 40th anniversary of that tragic event, I am only a little bit proud of how far I’ve come since that day in the late 70’s, being very aware that I still have a long way to go. I believe we all do. This country has made significant progress since that day in Memphis when King was taken from us, and I believe that, were he alive today, he would praise that progress. But I believe that he would also lament that we’ve not made it further than we have. Despite the advances we have made in matters of race, we’re not there yet.

I honestly cannot remember if I apologized to my good friend or anyone else for my stupidity that day after recess. I believe I did, as she and I remained good friends, and I did maintain a good relationship with all of my black classmates after that day, even the guy who overheard me. I probably haven’t seen either of them since the early 80’s, after I left prior to our 9th grade year to attend a private school. I don’t know where they’re at or what they’re doing these days, but I hope, if they remember this story, that they know that I’m sorry, and that I’m ashamed of my part in it, and have forgiven me.

I find it easier to title a post when there’s a single topic. It’s sometimes more difficult when there’s several unrelated items in a post. So, I’m not even going to try.

It appears that we’re a little closer to the end of the world. The Doomsday Clock has been moved from 7 minutes to midnight to 5 minutes to midnight. Of course, I first learned about the Doomsday Clock via one of my favorite sources of historical information - our good friends in Iron Maiden and their 1984 song “2 Minutes To Midnight“, in reference to the U.S. and Soviet tests in the 50’s that moved the clock to it’s closest to midnight to date. We’re only at five minutes to midnight now, but I’m with the help of Kim Jong-il and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, perhaps it won’t be long until it moves again.

Speaking of doomsday, some are predicting just such a day if Barack Obama is elected president. Obama announced yesterday that he’s creating a presidential exploratory committee. I saw this nonsense from Debbie Schlussel a few weeks ago, and according to snopes.com, this email is being circulated. Despite the fact that Obama is a Christian and attends a church in Chicago, the email claims it’s just a front to get elected and that he’s really a Muslim, and a radical one at that. (I can only assume he is just waiting until he gets elected so that he can unleash all sorts of evil on our country.) I guess that’s what politics is all about now - try to demonize the other guy as much as possible, regardless of facts. You’d think we could move beyond that. Is it any wonder people have such a lack of respect for politics in this country?

The first candidate for the 2007 year in morons list. A Virginia lawmaker says blacks “should get over slavery.” I’m not even sure how to respond to this guy. He’s 79 and in the South, so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, but you’d think that even if he felt this way (which he obviously does), he’d not be stupid enough to voice it publicly. I’m guessing he wasn’t doing a lot of celebrating on Monday.

A chimpanzee at the Little Rock zoo escaped this week and, among other things, raided a fridge and cleaned a toilet. I just thought that was funny. Cleaning the toilet? Apparently it used to be a house pet, so I can only assume that it was required to do chores at home before arriving at the zoo.

Slices

A couple items from the Slices section over at Relevant Magazine:

The cost of the items mentioned in the song “The Twelve Days of Christmas” has gone up 3.1% since last year. Evidently rising labor costs are to blame, particularly for days nine through twelve. The cost for maids-a-milking, however, remained constant.

TV Land has selected the 100 Greatest TV Catchphrases. You can follow the link to see the list, although only in alphabetical order. Starting December 11th, TV Land will begin airing countdowns of the list in order over several days. I was disappointed to find that Phil Stubb’s “Shave My Poodle” did not make the list.

Other stuff I’ve read

I don’t intend in any way to defend Michael Richards’ outburst from a couple of weeks ago. What he said during his standup act was horrible, offensive and clearly wrong. But, I just don’t see this doing much good. Jesse Jackson (not surprisingly) is calling for a boycott of the recently released Seinfeld Season 7 DVD set. It seems to me that most of the people who listen to Jackson wouldn’t be buying this anyway. Seinfeld was never very popular among minorities. And, I would think that most of the people who would buy this - mostly white Americans - aren’t paying a lot of attention to Jackson. Perhaps I’m wrong, but I tend to believe that the DVD sales will be impacted very little.

Are large numbers of men getting pregnant? No, no, just kidding. However, it looks like we will have the pill for men in a few years. It would requre a man to wait several hours after taking it for it to be effective, and would last 24 hours. The pill has one major drawback, according to Dr. David Katz, ABC News medical contributor:

If you forget to take it, then obviously it can’t work.

And that’s why it never will. When women were asked about it, one responded, “If my partner was using it, I would probably continue to use birth control as well.” Good call.

Deer hunting season started here in Arkansas a few weeks ago, and probably in many other states as well. If any of you out there are hunters, a word of caution: be careful out there…

Q: Does Notre Dame belong in a BCS bowl?
A: What this guy said.

I’ve been busy this week and haven’t posted anything. Haven’t actually had time to think about what to post. But, I have been reading a few things here and there.

Blogs

First is a post on Shaun Groves blog that I found a day or two ago, called Show Me The Happy. It references the recent Time magazine article titled “Does God Want You To Be Rich?” The article, as he explains, is (at least in part) about the “prosperity gospel” which is very common among televangelists. He even includes a picture of smilin’ Joel Osteen. Groves goes a little farther, asking questions about how Christians and churches view things in general. While some of us may recoil in disgust at the “prosperity gospel”, other things we do or participate in may really be no different, or at least they’re not too far apart. Check out his post.

Jason Bybee writes about confederate flags, racism, and how we view and value others. It’s a good post worth checking out. See his recent post titled A ring, a bumper sticker and Gary.

Music

In music news, I see that Todd Agnew is releasing a Christmas disc soon. You just haven’t made it yet in Christian music if you haven’t released a Christmas disc. There are so many out there, and so few that are really good. Most seem to have a song or two that stand out, but usually the disc as a whole is not much to get excited about. However, I’m expecting more from Agnew. His first two albums I’ve enjoyed a lot and he doesn’t seem to fit the mold your typical CCM artist. Evidently, he spent six months praying and studying the Christmas story, and has now produced not just a Christmas album, but a musical of sorts. He has included other fellow artists on the disc, and I look forward to hearing it. I hope I’m not disappointed, but based on his work so far, I don’t think I will be.

One other note, after having mentioned several times the newest Iron Maiden album. I was, of course, very much into heavy metal in high school and college, and still like a fair amount of it today. Maiden has always been my favorite, but one of my favorites that came out of the CCM machine was a Kentucky-based band called Bride. They were at their peak in the early-/mid-90’s and their 1992 disc Snakes in the Playground is one of my favorite hard rock/metal albums of all time. So, all that to say that they are releasing a new disc soon. It’s supposed to be “back to their roots”, which will be a good thing. Their stuff of late (since late 90’s) has not been nearly as good as what they did earlier. They may just have run their course, but I’ll have to check this out to see if it’s worth having. They put out some great stuff in the 90’s, so I’d love to hear something that compares to that.

And by the way, the new Maiden is outstanding. Best since 1988.

Sports

When it comes to college basketball, I’m ACC all the way. Nothing else compares, in my opinion. Duke, Carolina, Wake, State, etc. That’s where it’s at, baby. I love college basketball above all other sports of any kind or level. And as I recently mentioned, I can’t wait for November when college basketball resumes play. In the meantime, I watch college football. And, regardless of how many football schools they’ve added, they’ll never be my first choice for college football. In the South, nothing compares to SEC football. So, I’m very much looking forward to two matchups this weekend.

Florida goes to Tennessee, and I anticipate a good game. ESPN says the lower ranked team has won four of the last five. That would be Tennessee this year. They looked great at home against Cal, then had a scare (also at home) against Air Force last week. I’m not sure how good they are yet, but I think this one goes down to the end, and, I hate to say it, but I think Tennessee pulls it out at home.

The other big game is LSU at Auburn. I’ve seen both teams play, and they both looked really good. However, they were both playing against really bad teams, so it’s hard to really know yet. I think most are picking Auburn to win the conference, so this game is huge since both teams will probably finish 1-2 in the West. It’s even bigger for LSU, though, because they have a tougher schedule ahead. They’ll have to travel to both Florda and Tennessee, while Auburn’s toughest road game will be at Alabama - and let’s face it, that’s not been too tough of a game for them for some time now. Seems most people I’ve heard pick this game are going with Auburn at home. Perhaps LSU will keep in mind the cheap call that went against them over there two years ago. I’m going to pick LSU in another one that goes the distance.

In other football news, I didn’t realize that first team punter at Northern Colorado was such a coveted position. I stand corrected. And, I’m not surprised in the least to read this story.

Okay, that’s all I’ve got.

I haven’t found time to post the last week or so. Probably won’t as much in the next week or two, either. On top of that, I haven’t been able to log in for the last 24 hours or so, which hindered this being posted earlier. So, here’s a few items from the last week.

Who are these people?

Here’s a good post on stock photography I found recently over at the Church Marketing Sucks site. I found this a little humorous because, just before we left Alabama last year, our church redesigned it’s website. The new website included photos in the headers of people I’d never seen before, people I was certain did not attend our church. (In other words, it was obvious they were models - they looked like photos from a magazine.) When I arrived here in Little Rock a couple of months later and received brochures on our medical and dental insurance here at work, one of the dental brochues contained one of the exact photos from the church’s website. (I found it odd that members of our previous church had also been modeling for dental brochures.) And these pictures are still on the website today. This all reminded me of this post from last spring by Mike Cope.

French Open

Roger Federer once again came up short at the French Open. He had won the last three grand slams and would have become one of the few to win all four titles, and one of the even fewer to win them all in a row (but not in the same year - which an even shorter list.) Few have won all four titles over their entire career. Only two Americans - Don Budge and Andre Agassi - have managed that feat. Not even Connors, McEnroe or Sampras managed it. This means little, in my opinion. Undoubtedly, Federer will, by the end of his career, be one of the greatest of all time even if he never wins the French (consider the names I just mentioned.) But many believe he could very well be the greatest ever to have played the game when he walks away. Without the French, it may be harder to make that claim. My feeling, though, is that eventually, he’ll add a French title. And I do know that, except for when he’s playing Rafael Nadal on clay, he’s by far the best player out there right now.

Netflix

I signed up for a free trial with Netflix recently. I used to watch a lot more movies than I have in recent years. It’s been harder with kids, finding the time. Plus, my love of reading has caused me to watch less over the years. I haven’t been to a video store for a rental since we moved back to Little Rock. I bought one movie via cable on-demand (Crash) a few months back, but that’s the only rental I’ve made in nearly a year. Plus, I’d rather rent a DVD and have the “special features” (which occasionally are actually special). So, now there’s Netflix. I’ve received a couple already and enjoy the convenience of having the movies come to me. I’m going to test it out to see how I like it. One thing I like the most is the ability to rent obscure or dated films/television that you might not be able to find at the local video store.

Glory Road and Rupp’s racism

The first Netflix movie I received and watched was Glory Road, which I wanted to see in the theater a few months ago but never made it. I enjoyed it a lot. The film, of course, is about the 1966 NCAA Basketball Championship game between Texas Western and Kentucky - a historic game in that Texas Western coach Don Haskins started 5 black players, which was the first time it had been done in an NCAA championship game.This was particularly noteworthy due to the fact that Kentucky, an all-white team from the South, was also coached by Adolph Rupp, who, whether justified or not, has often been cast as a racist.

As one who despises Kentucky basketball, I’d love to cast anything related to it in as negative a light as possible. But I’m not entirely certain Rupp has been treated fairly. Yes, he no doubt had some prejudices, being a white coach in the South during the 60’s. And he did resist recruiting black players until the very end of his career in the early 70’s (but so did many other coaches.) I suspect he was not quite the “Klansman” he’s been made out to be. He was probably no more so than many other white coaches in the South at the time. He coached at Kentucky, so that’s reason enough for me to dislike him :)

It’s been a few years since I read Frank Fitzpatrick’s book about this historic game (And The Walls Came Tumbling Down, which was excellent) so I’m not sure how much embellishment might have been added to the movie, but I think it was mostly accurate and it was very good. The “special features” were good, too, with interviews of Coach Haskins and the players, including a couple of Kentucky players (most notably Pat Riley). This is a great story and a good movie worth watching.

NBA Finals

Speaking of Pat Riley, the NBA Finals started last week. I’ve seen fewer playoff games this year than in a very long time - probably since the early 80’s. That is primarily due to having limited cable and no longer having TNT. If it’s not been on network, I haven’t seen it. And even when it has, I haven’t watched much of it. I watched bits and pieces of games 1 and 2, and it appeared Dallas might end it in four. As I watched most of game 3, which was the first time I’d watched “most of” a game this season, nothing was changing my mind, as Dallas was up 13 with about 6 minutes to go and Miami looked like they’d given up. But they hadn’t, and made a late run to pull out a win in the final minute. Dallas really folded up and should have won the game. But, my guess is they’ll do just that in games 4 and 5 and this will be over in a few days. And nobody will really care.

Most inspirational movies

I watched the latest AFI special last night - 100 Years, 100 Cheers - in which they counted down the top 100 inspirational movies. I’m not going to go over the whole list, but I thought some were lower than I would’ve placed them, but that’s mainly because they’re among my favorites (like The Shawshank Redemption, which I thought deserved higher than #23.) But the top 25 or so was a pretty good list. The top 3 are actually among my very favorite movies - (3) Schindler’s List, (2) To Kill A Mockingbird, and (1) It’s A Wonderful Life. A couple of suprises to me were that Hotel Rwanda was at 90, and Chariots of Fire was at 100. I would’ve thought both would be higher on the list.

Shades

President Bush can’t really catch a break. Yesterday he joked with a reporter about wearing sunglasses while asking a question at a press conference, pointing out that “there’s no sun”, but was later told that the reporter is legally blind. An apology was quickly issued.