Man! Dude! Session #190

 

(D)ude: Man! Robin Thicke guiltily tried to payout the late great Marvin Gaye’s family members who refused the six-figure offering in favor of court hearings about Thicke’s first number one track Blurred Lines having borrowed heavily from Gaye’s Got to Give it Up. And then you have Paula Deen’s racial indecencies being dismissed altogether regarding the racial slurs and blatant disregard for African American culture. 

(M)an: Dude! Myrlie Ever-Williams said it best at this morning’s activities in D.C. commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the March On Washington. We are on stand still today that favors looking backwards and that we need to flip the coin regarding Stand Your Ground policies by standing our ground for freedom and justice.

D: Man! Let me tell you what I found most heartening in today’s March On Washington! Instead of saying anything out loud, the people peacefully and classily displayed the same color yellow as the Tea Party Republican GOP, but with blue borders instead of the green grass and evil snake! Did you notice that?

M: Dude! I was amazed too at how the marchers peacefully demonstrated the taking back of the color gold from the crassness of division, hate, and intimidation that the Tea Party flag conveys with that horrid rattlesnake emblem.

D: Man! I’ve been trying to find a tea party fiction book for a girl that includes the attendance of an African-American child as well as a Hispanic representative and an Asian invitee too. All I’ve been able to track down is a remote watercolor of an African- American girl pouring tea into the cups of her White-American Caucasian invitees. It is not condescending in any way, but quite heartwarming and inspiring.

M: Dude! Maybe a multicultural tea party picture book for children from all backgrounds, reflecting our changing demographics within the United States and inclusive of all lifestyles as well as their philosophies, is just what we need to get the conversation started as sooner as possible. I really appreciated the way all the speakers made clear at the march today that comprehensive immigration reform and pathway to citizenship is not just for Dreamers to aspire and hope for, but for all of US to achieve from within.

D: Man! There’s a selection of books about a particular African-American preteen named Keisha and her friends. The series is simply entitled The Magic Attic Club where Keisha and her friends play dress up, and are transported into a fairy tale world where fundamental questions are explored alongside the overall storyline.

M: Dude! We’ve come a long way since Hans Christian Andersen and the Brothers Grimm            and Shirley Temple Black! You should be looking forward to taking your nieces and nephews to the latest Annie starring Quvenzhane Wallis. 

D: Man! I’m certain the movie is still in the making, but I do look forward to taking my nieces and nephews to the film when it does come out. Tatum O’Neal’s Paper Moon is already a favorite I share with the kids. It’s been a long time since I’ve checked out the latest movies, but Beasts of the Southern Wild is on the top of my to-watch list.

M: Dude! Talking about youth standouts, that nine-year-old guy Asean Johnson is quite the crusader! The youngest speaker today at the march, he would have continued onwards if it were not for the apparent time crunch due to the multitude of speakers at the march.

D: Man! I think he should be considered in the same league as Malala Yousafzai and the two ought to be assigned to read Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s novels before their next big speaking engagement. It would be the perfect launching of an international literacy campaign, and God knows how many preteens and teenagers need to be given that kind of introduction into the human psyche and the pain therein.

M: Dude! Fyodor Dostoyevsky is a heroic figure for children facing medical and social odds- he had epilepsy and struggled with the condition into his fifty-ninth year.  

D: Man! His characters all have to face such hard circumstances! I really think that gangs and violence could be considerably decreased if The Brothers Karamazov was not only required reading, but also read together in groups and discussed page-by-page. Reimagining Vanya Karamazov’s turbulent reaction to his half-brother Mitya Karamazov’s actions and fate, I always feel like the injustices my father instituted in our home when we were teenagers were nothing at all after all.

M: Dude! What sort of injustices did your father render?

D: Man! Colossal sorts! Enough said!

M: Dude! There is an element of irony in that Vanya is so troubled as to give up, yet Mitya strives on and so does Alyosha. 

D: Man! The keynote address was Reverend Al Sharpton’s, right?

M: Dude! I recorded the entire event just for you. But, yes, Reverend Sharpton’s speech was the keynote and his acknowledgment of the Reverend Jesse Jackson having turned his life around was sincere and moving. He gave a memorable response to Clarence Thomas’ rebuttal that his credentials were sufficient for success without the need for civil rights legislation. The Reverend pointed out that the civil rights leaders then made it a possibility that someone would read an African-American’s resume now.  

D: Man! Reverend Al Sharpton is the voice today that we so desperately need to call out hypocrites like Clarence Thomas and all the male injustices of the United States Supreme Court! Hallelujah! Alleluia!

M: Dude! Reverend Sharpton brought up the need for conducting ourselves with respect and respect for all the women in our lives. Accordingly, we need to clean up our house to clean America of all pain and anger to form that coalition which will unite all of US to get well together, not individually. And, most of all, we must give our youth dreams again.

D: Man! Reverend Sharpton spoke beautifully! I’ll definitely be watching the 2013 March on Washington tonight! Thanks for recording it!

M: Dude! Let the cry for jobs and freedom be heard once again! Let professionals train the rest of US to be paraprofessionals to organize high school dropouts and give them second and third chances as C.T. Vivian proposed, even fourth and fifth might be required right now for many, but this too shall pass with intervention and adaptation! But, then again, according to the Reverend Joseph Lowery, we must be aware that everything and nothing has changed!

D: Man! Alleluia! Hallelujah! Alyosha!