Thursday, October 08, 2009

Don't Make A Mess While I'm Gone.

I may not have another opportunity, so I will take this moment to say that I'll be out of town for at least a week, as I go up north to engage in the various orientation necessities of what might be my new job. I don't know how much me-time I'll have and to what extent I'll be able to check the blogs and emails. This process will be a week, and should I not totally screw up, I'll then go on the road with an instructor. Whether or not I get to come home first, I don't yet know, though I'm told going right out isn't the norm, which means I'll probably have to go right out. Then, being on the road with the instructor is normally about two weeks, though if I impress it'll be less, if I don't, it could be a bit longer. Assuming I'm acceptable, I would then go home and then report to a terminal in Gary, IN to get a truck and an assignment. At that point I'm officially a road warrior, putting in enough time to be considered experienced enough for a local gig, which is what I wanted in the first place. The company I'll be with handles enough different types of shipping that I could very well find a local gig with them, with less experience than others would demand. That is my hope.

So, while I'm gone, be sure to clean up after yourselves, and I'll try to check via cell phone, if it's not too much of a pain in the ass to do so. Fight nice.

13 comments:

Feodor said...

If I were you, Marshall, I would not get up today.

Not TOO DAY!

So many proud people walking around today.

And just about all black folks are walking around proud today.

Though, I a sure you will disparage the basis of their pride (misunderstanding it as you go), since you are the unconscious racist that you are.

Marshal Art said...

If any black folks walk around proudly because they're black, ask them just how much effort they put into becoming so. What you speak of is a false pride. Call me a racist if you like. You don't possess the intelligence to understand that any more than you do anything else, false priest.

As for yourself, there is little of which one should be proud for being an asshole, as good as you are at it. Say it loud, you're a troll and proud? Doesn't work, fool.

Dan Trabue said...

Yep.

Anonymous said...

Well if your first two posts are indicative of what happens while you are gone, you may as well close shop till you get back. So far, nothing but your comment worth reading. mom2

Feodor said...

I always comes as a bit of surprise to me how nearly solid and predictable is white hegemonic umbrage, and how shallow are attempts by most whites to sound as if they've gotten the lessons of racial harmony.

As if we can expect to really learn what's going on from television like the Cosbys or Oprah, or by being well intentioned and actively rubbling shoulders in liberal hamlets in places like Louisville... or taking justification from the fact that people of color are in my life by virtue of commute, cubicle, even pew.

The dream, still, is not that little (erase color) boys and little (erase color) girls will be able to join hands with little (erase color) boys and little (erase color) as sisters and brothers.

Rather, check that, that is, indeed, the dream of well-meaning white folks... some conservatives, many liberals.

But the whole point is lost in that kind of dream. Erasure of skin color is not the hope of black opportunity and success in America. That is a white hope for the relief of guilt and the provocation of guilt: namely, that when we talk of color, white people have gut responses that are very ugly. As the historian, Roger Wilkins says (and Dan, I 'd suggest you'd add certain books to your reading list) "unless they had superbly extraordinary and unusual parents, every white person has unconscious racist responses."

So, the dream was not erasure of color, as Marshall fondly fantasizes.

The dream, to be extended to all of every identity, is that color and identity is not a barrier to brotherhood and sisterhood: "little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers."

Barack Obama understands himself to be a black American. Partly because of how he identifies, and partly because of how communities have claimed him.

I will not commit moral murder as you all are doing, and tell my child that he will not be a black man in America on the mere fact that I am his father. I have to tell my child that he may as well be proud of his African American/Black Panamanian heritage because there are dark hearts like Marshall and mom2 in the world, and weak hearts like Dan, that will are against his full-fledged rights, powers, and capacity for self-determination in the context of his God-given gifts as a black American, a biracial man, and the privileges and challegnes that come thereby.

Dan Trabue said...

Weak hearts like Dan? What brought that on? That "will are against his full fledged rights??" What's that even mean?

My "Yep," comment was in response to your "I am sure you will disparage the basis of their pride," for what it's worth.

I've no idea what you are talking about, Feodor. Just because I think it would have been more apt to wait until Obama had committed actions to back up his hopeful speech does not mean I am disparaging Obama.

I GET that his election has been inspiring across the world and in the black community. I live in the black community, largely. I've a preacher friend who lives in Morocco who tells us how folk there (in MUSLIM Morocco) took time off from work to watch the inauguration. I GET that. His election IS inspiring and he DID say a lot of the right things and his politics speaks of exactly the right changes from the Bush years.

I just think it would have been more appropriate to wait until Obama had a chance to put into action some of his Peace words before honoring him for being a peacemaker. I sort of get the feeling that Obama thinks the same way, too.

He has enough of the Right criticizing him for being given adulation merely for who he is. Winning this NEXT year, when his policies have actually started producing a more peaceful world, THAT would be more appropriate.

Weak heart, indeed.

Feodor said...

"My "Yep," comment was in response to your "I am sure you will disparage the basis of their pride," for what it's worth."

Sorry, Dan. Since your "Yep" comment followed Marshall's (by an hour and a half) I assumed you were "yepping" him.

You did not indicate the subject of your affirmation.

Dan Trabue said...

My bad.

Marshal Art said...

It is you, Feodor, you simp, who has much to learn about racial harmony if you think teaching a child to be proud of his color is a good thing. It's one thing to teach them that there's no reason to feel ashamed of something so incredibly superficial, but your idea perpetuates that which MLK worked so hard to get through to puss-heads like yourself, that we are to judge each other by the content of his each other's character. You'll be teaching your kid to judge himself by his skin rather than to develop a quality character, values or attitudes. Pray for Feo's child. It will not go well for him with Feo as a father.

Your reliance on Wilkins leaves a bit to be desired, as your reference to him suggests he believes only white people suffer from racist tendencies. He's as much a simpleton as you. Everyone has an inherent aversion to that which is different as well as a natural attraction to that which is familiar. Race does not matter in this. It is most apparent when watching toddlers play together. Race and gender to not matter to them. It has to be taught, and no single race is angelic in this equation. For Wilkins or your to believe this is absolutely stupid and simple-minded. That goes without saying as far as you're concerned. I'll Wilkins some slack and assume you don't understand him any better than you do anything else.

Feodor said...

You defame MLK... and moral sense.

Marshal Art said...

MLK? Moral sense? If only you had the slightest clue about either.

Mark said...

Feo, you idiot.

The dream that little (erase color) boys and little (erase color) girls will be able to join hands with little (erase color) boys and little (erase color) as sisters and brothers is not the dream of only well-meaning white folks... some conservatives, many liberals.

It is the dream of Martin Luther King.

And you are doing everything you can to kill that dream. You racist.

Mark said...

The rest of that quote, you misquoted is, as you well know, "That they will be judged not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."

Somehow you seem to have missed that part. You still judge people by the color of their skin, and it shows every time you put fingers to keyboard.

You racist.