The way I C it.......
God shows himself to us through nature, music, colors, love and food
(naturaleza, musica, colores, amor y comida)
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
GANG? THE YOUNG LORDS PARTY
At the tender age of 14, I was a member of the Young Lords Party/Organization. YLP/YLO was thought to be a political radical gang by many, especially by law enforcement, the judicial system and politicians. My idea of them at that time is that they were a large group of intelligent young Latino leaders striving for a better quality of life for Hispanics and other minorities. Mostly consisting of Puerto Rican college students who were fed up with the injustices carried out by the system against Hispanics and other people of what was then known as third world nations due to racist and bigoted ideas, this group of students banded together, grew and created an organization who were hell bent on making to make things right for their people and for Hispanics to be treated equally. The Black Panthers Party were already an organized group who were making quite a bit of noise against injustice to blacks as well.
My attraction to the Party was provoked by my having a teen crush on one of the male members, who to me was cute and looked so good wearing his YLP green beret. On a side note, he never even knew I was alive. Anyway, I was welcomed and became one of their a go-fers, just like any of the other young kids who walked into the Bronx Division Headquarters office on Longwood Avenue. I was handed a stack of the Party’s Palante newspapers to sell on Southern Boulevard, the largest and closest neighborhood shopping strip. All the stores were there and I would have access to many of the people they wanted to educate. I was glad to do it because I really loved wearing the green beret, symbolic that I was a member.
My mother was very much against them and even more afraid of my growing interest and admiration for the group. She warned me over and over again to keep away from them and told me that she did not want to know that I was on Longwood Ave or Southern Blvd with those 'titeres' (hoodlums) but I did not listen. I felt they were doing something important and I wanted to be a part of it. Going to Jenny's house to do our homework together was my reason for leaving after school to pick up my papers. Mom was pleased that she had gotten through to me. I would take the long way around to Longwood Avenue. Jenny lived a different direction from it and mami always watched me through the window, so I had to make it appear as if I was walking towards my friend’s house, then I took a detour and continued on my way to do my job. I recall a time when THE PARTY had a plan and all of us were to have a share in carrying it out. I was very excited by it because they even allowed the go-fers to partake. For the first time, I felt like I was going to actually assist in making a change for our people. I felt important and grown up.
At midnight, I quietly got out of my bed, got dressed, lifted up my mattress to pull out my green beret with my Young Lords Party button affixed on the front and placed it on proudly my head as if I were wearing a crown. Quietly as I could, I pulled my coat off of the metal hanger in the closet, making sure it did not clang against the other empty ones beside it. My snow boots were next, gloves and then, like a cat treading quietly yet decidedly on its pads, I slipped out of the house. Two of the older female members of The Party, were outside waiting for me when I came out of the apartment building I lived at. I followed them to our designated area, which was just 1 street over upon receiving my instructions, got to work. Assisting the females who will remain nameless for obvious reasons; meaning that, after 20 something years who could remember? I began taking garbage cans buried in snow from the alleys of the buildings and dragging them out to the center of the street where we then dumped the waste into; we continued doing that for about an hour, maybe even longer! It was a mess and looked even worse because of the white blanket of snow on the street. My two escorts returned me home safely and after we were done doing what I now know to be, criminal mischief. Before entering the door, I made sure that I had wiped my boots dry, wiping off any wet spots around the top and exterior once inside and to also place all my clothing back into place. I think my mom must have suffered from OCD because she knew where everything was, which direction they were pointed towards when she laid them out and any other little detail about the items; she would have made a great private eye. My drenched socks which still had frozen chunks of ice attached to the bottoms, I had to hide under my mattress. I can still recall the wonderful rush of pride and accomplishment racing through my body as I lay in bed looking up at the ceiling until sleep quickly entered to claim me.
You may wonder why we had carried out an act of criminal mischief in our own neighborhood. Back in the 60's there was still a lot of racism and it was not only limited to black people but to Hispanics and the Asians as well. The dominant Hispanics in New York City were the puertorriqueños during that era. Ever watch West Side Story? The Puerto Rican gang members were, The Sharks and the white gang members were, The Jets. The Hispanic communities in the Bronx as well as in El Barrio in Manhattan were never taken care of as were the communities where the Anglos lived. Our garbage would be left to pile high in the streets for days until the sanitation trucks would finally be dispatched out to our neighborhoods and take care of business. When it snowed, our streets were always the last to be plowed, sometimes never. Suffice to say that is the reason the Young Lords Party gave out the trash assignment the night I snuck out. They/we had taken drastic means. I always wondered why, if a 14-year-old could understand that concept, why then did so many grownups, not? That night, all of the members of the Young Lords Party had the biggest party ever! Together, we had left a huge mess over all the streets of the Hispanic communities of New York City... and Guess what? The sanitation trucks were all out there the following day and all of our fathers were able to drive to work and our mothers were able to walk to the grocery stores safely without having to climb over snow mountains.
The Young Lords Party had succeeded in forcing the plowing of our communities, removal of trash. We were here and not going away. We had caught their attention.
Sometimes, Drastic Times Do Call For Drastic Means.
Then again,
That's just the way I C it.
ME? AN ADDICT? NEVER!
NEVER
SAY NEVER
Growing up in the South Bronx, I saw many things that most people only see while watching a movie or television.
There is the sweet memory of an organ grinder who stood below our window squeezing out his tunes, later sending his little green monkey dressed in a bell hop uniform with shiny round brass buttons to climb up our fire escape in order to collect the change my parents would toss into his little red cap.
The day came when I never saw the organ grinder or his monkey again.
They had been replaced by young teen-agers breathing into paper bags which covered their nose and mouths. This was a sign of the changes in time.
My parents did not allow me to go out and play anymore unless they were standing outside chatting with neighbors, reading the paper or flipping through a magazine.
I recall when the nice neighborhood community where I grew up in changed.
The police officers who wore white gloves and served as crossing guards for the children to get to school safely were replaced by the white powder named, heroin who stole our safety away and threatened us with death.
When the 60's rolled out and the 70's came in. I was now a teen-ager and saw many of my friends drop out of high school to later learn that they had died of a drug overdose and it frightened me. I would never use drugs.
I would never try something that while standing upright, would make my eyes close, my mouth hang, my voice slur and cause my knees to bend, suctioning in my torso lower and lower towards the ground into a squatting position and yet never falling to the ground.
I felt bad for the parents of those friends who had died of a drug related cause. Back then, it stigmatized and disgraced the remaining family members.
To think of it now, one would believe they had a Scarlett Letter sewn onto their clothing while in public.
I would never become an addict and be spoken of in the past tense, referred to as the one who died of a drug overdose. How humiliating!
Smoking was cool back then. Almost all the grown-ups smoked. Why, even Father Connolly and Father McDonald smoked!
One of TVs favorite dad's could be seen occasionally puffing away on The Andy Griffith Show (1960-1968). Both Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore smoked Kent Cigarettes in commercials on The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961-1966). And unbelievable but true is the fact that The Flintstones (1960-1966) had a tobacco brand as a key sponsor for a time. There were even commercials which showed the animated characters smoking Winston cigarettes.
Remember, Joe Camel, also known as Joe Suave and Joe Cool? Yeas, the ugly camel cartoon promoting Camel cigarettes which teenagers dubbed as, chest breakers; and who can forget the slogans made popular by television, radio and print publications?
"You've Come a Long Way, Baby" (Virginia Slims), "Come to where the flavor is" (Marlboro), "Blow some my way" (Chesterfield), "I'd rather fight than switch" (Tarreyton), Winston tastes good like a cigarette should" (Winston) and dozens of other snazzy catch phrases bombarded millions for years; even though one was more ridiculous than the last, the most laughable had to be L & M's claim that it was "Just what the doctor ordered."
Guess grown-ups were never educated enough to experiment on products that were to be ingested before releasing them to the public back then.
Never, did I think that cigarettes were also a cunning deceitful drug camouflaged by clever marketing to lure, capture and kill as heroin did!
Never imagined that while watching all the ugly as I smoked, that I too was becoming an addict, something I vowed never to become.
Nicotine is a drug and
cigarette smoking is an addiction which I have had for 30 years and am still
battling to end. Never say never.
Lesson learned:
Never say never.
Lesson learned:
Never say never.
That's the way I C it
Click On Lips And You Get A Kiss
A Letter To The One I thought My Friend
MY LONG TERM FRIEND
WHO HAS ALWAYS BEEN THERE FOR ME.
WE ARE APPROACHING OUR RUBY RED ANNIVERSARY,
SYMBOLIC OF 40 YEARS TOGETHER.
OUR BOND IS NOT AS STRONG AS IT WAS;
TIME SOMETIMES DOES THAT.
YOU HAVE CELEBRATED WITH ME WHEN I WAS ELATED
AND COMFORTED ME WHEN MISERABLE.
WHEN OTHERS TOLD ME YOU WERE NO GOOD,
I DEFENDED YOU ADAMANTLY;
THOUGH KNOWING THEY WERE RIGHT.
I JUST COULD NOT MANAGE WITHOUT YOU
AND WOULD DO ANYTHING TO KEEP YOU WITH ME.
AT TIMES, I SILENTLY WONDERED IF
YOU WERE TOXIC TO ME BUT
HERE YOU ARE, STILL BY MY SIDE, STILL WITHIN ME AND
I, STILL CRAVING YOU.
I DO NOT LOVE YOU BUT I NEED YOU.
MY SUSPICIONS WERE CONFIRMED WHEN
OTHERS EXPRESSED THEIR BELIEF THAT MY DEMISE
WILL BE CAUSED BY YOU.
IF SO,
WILL IT BE BECAUSE I USED YOU
OR BECAUSE YOU
USED ME?
ALL DEPENDS ON THE INDIVIDUAL PERSPECTIVE.
YOU HAVE BEEN THE ONLY ONE
TO PENETRATE ME DEEPER THAN ANY OTHER.
WHEN I DO APPROACH MY DEATH
I KNOW I YOU WILL NOT BE ALLOWED
TO BE ANYWHERE NEAR ME.
YOU WILL HAVE NO OTHER RECOURSE
BUT TO STAY AWAY AND I
WILL BE TOO WEAKENED TO EVEN HAVE A SAY.
I WILL LEAVE YOU WITH THIS.....
IF MY DEMISE IS IN FACT YOUR DOING,
I WANT ALL TO KNOW THAT
IT WAS MY OWN DECISION TO CONTINUE WITH YOU;
WELL AWARE OF THE POSSIBLE OUTCOME.
I TAKE TOTAL RESPONSIBILITY FOR MY LACK OF STRENGTH
AND FOR ALL THE TIMES I FAILED AT LETTING YOU GO.
YOUR GRIP ON ME WAS VERY STRONG GROWING STRONGER
WITH EACH YEAR.
I WOULD NEVER RECOMMEND YOU,
MY FRIEND TILL THE END,
TO ANOTHER LIVING BEING.
IN SPITE OF YOUR,
LOYAL COMPANIONSHIP,
I WANT ALL TO KNOW THAT YOU AND ALL OTHERS LIKE YOU,
PERSEVERE IN A POWER STRUGGLE IN ORDER
TO PREVAIL AND PRESERVE YOUR OWN EXISTENCE BY
SLOWLY EATING US AWAY FROM INSIDE OUT.
YOU AND YOUR ENTIRE FAMILY DESERVE,
CAPITOL PUNISHMENT
WHICH I KNOW WILL SOMEDAY HAPPEN.
Well, that's the way I C it.
By the way, The Marlboro Man Died of Lung Cancer
Three men who appeared in Marlboro advertisements - Wayne McLaren, David McLean and Dick Hammer - died of lung cancer, thus earning Marlboro cigarettes, specifically Marlboro Reds, the nickname "Cowboy killers".[11] McLaren testified in favor of anti-smoking legislation at the age of 51. During the time of McLaren's anti-smoking activism, Philip Morris denied that McLaren ever appeared in a Marlboro ad, a position it later amended to maintaining that while he did appear in ads, he was not the Marlboro Man, considering Winfield as the holder of that title. McLaren died before his 52nd birthday in 1992.[12][13]
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