"Normally, I have very little respect for David Scott Anderson. However, his harrowing account of growing up black in gang-infested sections of Los Angeles under the watchful eyes of Tookie Williams’s Crips is one of the more poignant pieces I have seen in a while, and well worth a read."

Evolution-Nextstep

I picked up a lot of links this week from Right Wing blogs on the Tookie Williams piece. I am sure from quite a few who shared the above's "Lack of Respect," for David Scott Anderson. Cool... Thanks for the link and the compliment. Let me share a little story with you.

Twentyseven years ago I was attending the funeral of my father when I noticed a lone White Gentleman sitting in the back of the crowd. He was about the age of my father, and I assumed he was someone who knew my Dad in the days of his youth. After the services I approached him to thank him for coming to the services. I noticed on his finger a Knights of the Ku Klux Klan ring. Being the young, "radical," that I was, I was just about to toss him out, when my mother came up and spoke to him. "Mr. Williams, thank you for coming," she said. He looked at her with tears in his eyes and said. "Ms. Elsie, yo man was one of the best men I have ever known. He was a gentleman and a credit to the Negro race." The, "Negro Race," comment, again rubbed me the wrong way, but my Mama held my arm tightly, letting me know to keep my mouth shut. Later my mother said. "He was Ku Klux David, but he loved your Daddy. He was one of his oldest friends, and despite their differences, they had a RESPECT for each other that you may never understand...

It took me a long time to understand what she meant. But now at 45 years old, I finally do. So take a look at my blogroll, and then at my list of guest bloggers. Many of them are people I dissagree with almost daily. But I respect them all. The only people I dont respect, are those folks so set in their own hatred for oppossing points of view, that they CAN'T respect another point of view. Those are the people I don't respect. Because they forget the very reason this country was founded... So that all could worship and BELIEVE as their hearts guide them to believe. I don't lose much sleep over people who don't respect me because of what I believe, or whom I choose to vote for. History will determine who among us is right and who is wrong. I am content to wait until that history is written. In the interim I will continue to believe as I believe and speak what I believe. After all, isn't that what America is about?

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Posted by: Qusan at December 19, 2005 09:58 AM