Being an Officer...a Black one.....is sometimes hard. [Howard Rollins from "A Soldier's Story"] Sometimes being an Officer is difficult....not because of hard tasks, short timelines, or all of the worries involved in the care of your Soldier's, but the aura of professionalism and objectivity that you must display at all times. There have been many times that I have wanted to make a comment, yell, cuss at someone, or otherwise let my personal feelings be known about a subject, but unfortunately I could not because of my position. Let me tell you about two incidents that bothered me in particular. I was in Dallas Ft. Worth airport waiting to catch a flight on the last leg of my TDY trip to help a returning unit at Ft. Sill. As I went to my gate, I saw 4 Sailors in their black uniforms gathered at the gate...one was large and white, the other three were black. There was very little room, and many of them were standing intermingled with civilian airline passengers...
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I couldn't find an e-mail address and wanted to contact you, so I used this latest post to do it.
I appreciated your post "Black Republicans" and cited it in a recent article of mine which may interest you. I'll paste the letter I wrote to the man who wrote it below, which will explain the connection:
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Dear Dr. Smith and publishers(s) of The Black Commentator site,
I have written a critical article about your piece, "Coretta Scott King goes home," which also includes an analysis of some of the recent remarks of Harry Belafonte. It is my routine policy to let people know whenever I have made reference to their Internet papers, so that they can have ample opportunity to respond if they want to. You are most welcome to visit my blog and comment and interact, in the comments section underneath the article:
Dr. Martin Luther King "Stood For" Childkilling and "Gay Marriage"??!! Thoughts on Odd African-American Ultraliberalism (E.g., Harry Belafonte)
http://socrates58.blogspot.com/2006/03/dr-martin-luther-king-stood-for.html
Obviously, by the title, and as you'll quickly see if you read my paper, I think very little of your opinion on many levels, yet I assure you that none of my disagreement is personal, and that you would be treated with kindness and respect on my blog, should you visit.
As a bit of personal background, I have been interested in race relations issues for almost forty years now. I grew up in Detroit and my interest was sparked by the Riots in 1967. I have read works of Dr. King, Malcolm X's Autobiography (a most impressive work) and other classics on the topic such as The Invisible Man and Black Like Me. I majored in sociology at Wayne State University in Detroit and have a great love for the city. I believe very strongly in Dr. King's integrationist and colorblind vision. How that is best to be applied in today's society would, of course, probably be a bone of contention between us. But my motivations in this regard cannot be faulted, whatever you may think of my political views.
Perhaps you would like to come comment on my blog. I hope so. These things need to be talked about, and your amiable, charitable approach is one I think is necessary for that to take place, whatever the political differences.
Great family photos and sharp blog!
Cordially Yours,
Dave Armstrong
e-mail: erasmus@ic.net
After that, I was writing to you. Sorry about that . . .
Dave Armstrong