Love Is the Root Politik: Letter to a Faithful Reader

First of all, allow me, please, to apologize to you. I should have gotten back to you sooner. I should have responded when I first saw the notice. But I assure you I am not as rude as I seem. I assure you that I am not arrogant or that I do not appreciate the emails and other correspondence of those who think enough of me to take time out to communicate with me; I am simply a man who is sometimes overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of the tasks I have before me.

And yes, to answer your first question, I do have a number of other white readers, but the funny thing is that most of them, well all except you and another, choose to comment by email instead of leaving comments on the page. I think that they feel as if they will be verbally accosted or something. In fact, for a good while now, I have been carrying on a running dialogue with a Jewish man somewhere in New England. But let’s deal with those issues you have raised.

At this point in my life, I have grown bored of talking about race. I have grown tired of the subject. Yet I feel that I cannot get away from it because it somehow in someway always seems to rear its ugly head. I have friends and colleagues who say that I am fixated on race, that I overanalyze and overreach, that I am perhaps overly sensitive and feel things just a bit too deeply. But how does one feel too deeply?

My graduate school mentor, a black man, followed my blog for a while, then he just abruptly quit, sending me a message that my blog had descended into just another race blog. That’s the exact term he used, “descended.” And he stated further that I had the talent and the intelligence to do so much better and voiced his disappointment in me.

I wish that I could say that he did not hurt my feelings, that I was unaffected by the whole thing, but if I am honest, and that is what I try always to do—be honest, I can only admit that it did hurt. It hurt greatly, and it took me a while to recuperate.

I am comfortable enough in my masculinity to admit my fragility; I break easily. However, I have mastered the art of the stoic dispassionate edifice which is commonly mistaken as strength.
But just to think, I never set out to write about race. I never set out to write about racial issues. You know what I always wanted to do? Don’t laugh, but I always wanted to write love stories. I always wanted to write beautiful stories about black people meeting and falling in love against all odds. I called these my “brown love stories.” But the omnipresence of race and its accompanying issues kept presenting itself, inserting itself, as the main antagonist of any “brown love story” I endeavored to compose; black people loving other black people is truly a revolutionary act.

However, this is what I know to be true about race and its place in American politics and culture. Race is that great divider. All the political rhetoric you hear has nothing to do with politics at all. All those ideals you hear being espoused by both the left and the right in the political arena are not about ideals at all. It is all about money. It is all about power.

And as long as those in power, those with money, can keep the masses divided and resentful of one another because of something so absolutely and utterly inane as race, the longer they remain in power, the longer they control the purse strings of the nation.

Religion works much the same way. You have a select few who claim the moral high ground for themselves while castigating and encouraging discrimination against others. In doing so, they project their own perverted proclivities and repressed desires onto other bodies deemed by a cynical, hypocritical society to be aberrant.

There are many purporting to follow Christ; however, there are very few who conduct themselves as Christ conducted himself.

However, I feel I should stop now; I’ve prattled on much too long. In fact, I may just use this missive as a post since I have spent the time I carved out to write this morning composing it. It’s just that other events of the past week have caused me to be introspective, more so than usual. And writing has always been my means of working through dilemmas.

But I only wanted to thank you for taking the time out to write me and visiting and commenting on the blog. And there is no need for you to feel guilty; both you and I are products of the society to which we were born. Just as I have learned that walking around in a constant and unyielding state of rage is unconstructive and noxious, so too is possessing any measure of guilt for those things you did not contribute to or have no control over.

And what can you do? Perhaps my answer will reveal my naïveté, or better still, my idealism or romanticism, but I do believe that most important thing you can do, the most revolutionary thing you can do, is simply love and acknowledge the humanity of every man. In any and all things, love is always the root politik.

Sincerely,
Max

GOP Nutz Watch Nutz Newz of the Week: Week Ending 07/10/2009

Let’s get to it. Shall we? Deez nutz won’t wait.

Well, this week’s edition could very well be entitled the Sarah Palin edition. That nut stayed in the news practically the whole week. Let’s take the time to examine this nut more closely.

The week began just as last week ended. Everyone was determined to find out just why she resigned. She gave two reasons. At least, I think she gave two reasons. It’s hard to follow her logic. First she stated that ugly rumors and attacks on her family were forcing her to resign. Ironically, after all the completely nutz charges she has made against President Obama, she called upon him to intervene. [See full story here.] There has been no word yet on President Obama’s reaction.

But then she went so far as to threaten to sue Huffington Post blogger Shannyn Moore. [See story here.] But of course her complaints really didn’t have any legal merit but were simply the byproduct of her penchant for overreacting, or as it’s better known in the African American community, drama. All she managed to do was blow up the blogger’s site.

Since I am an up and coming blogger and badly need the exposure, I got a rumor for y’all to help me put out there:

“It has been reported that a woman fitting the description of Alaska governor and former candidate for vice president Sarah Palin was recently seen entering a Memphis hotel room with African American blogger Max Reddick who blogs at soulbrotherv2.blogspot.com. Soon after the pair entered the room, witnesses report hearing the voice of a woman with a nasally, folksy accent scream out seemingly in the throes of passion, ‘Hit me with your stinger, you big, black, bald, beautiful Africanized honeybee of a man, while I check your last post at soulbrotherv2.blogspot.com. Later seen entering the room was a set of multiracial pageant contestant triplets wearing Prince Purple Rain concert t-shirts and pageant sashes that read ‘Ms. soulbrotherv2.blogspot.com’, a Shetland pony, and a midget with a camera affixed with a telephoto lens. Reportedly pictures of the whole affair are posted on Max Reddick’s site, soulbrotherv2.blogspot.com.”

Y’all put that out there for me and watch me blow up!

But continuing, she also singled out the many ethics complaints leveled against her as the major reason for her abrupt resignation. When asked what she would do if she was president and such charges arose, she stated that in that case the “Department of Law” would undoubtedly take care of them.

The Department of Law! There ain’t no Department of Law. She’s just plain nutz!

When she was further pressed for a reason for quitting, she stated simply that she quit because she was anything but a quitter. Huh? Is she trying to pull the Jedi mind trick on us? She’s nuttier that a fruitcake. And I hesitate to use that term because I don’t want to give fruitcakes a bad name.

But rather than continuing on Sarah Palin, I’ll let Keith Olbermann and David Letterman take us out:

And speaking of nutz (literally), let’s look at the GOP sex-capade sideshow.

The governor of South Carolina, Snifflin’ Sanford, seemingly got a pass when the South Carolina legislature forewent impeachment and simply decided to censure him. But that story might not be over yet as evidence surfaced that Snifflin’ Sanford may have used state employees to set up trips to visit his mistress. [Full story here.]

But embattled Nevada Senator John Ensign did not fare so well. This week it was revealed that his parents paid his former mistress almost $100,000 in hush money. However, a spokesman for the family stated that the money was only a gift. [Full story here.]

Let me tell you how I interpret this. John Ensign’s parents paid for him some booty. What swell parents. And to think Mom and Pop Reddick would not even help me with my student loans. Pop Reddick even went so far as to give the student loan people my new address and phone number.

And if the GOP nutz did not have enough problems already with race relations, this week they seemingly hit a new low.

First a top Young Republican official competing for the chairmanship of the Young Republicans laughs at a racial slur against President Obama during a forum on her Facebook page. And when others participating in the forum complained about the racist language, she promptly un-friended them so as to nullify their anti-racist voices. [Full story here.]

When confronted, she fell back on the old Sarah Palin defense—My political enemies are out to get me.

Then New York Congressman Peter King referred to Michael Jackson as a pervert, child molester, and pedophile in protesting the coverage given Michael’s death. Video follows.

Michael Jackson fans quickly came to his defense, though, and pledged to raise money to defeat King. [Full story here.]

And speaking of nutz named King (Are these two related?), Iowa Representative Steve King, in his bid to win the racist of the week award, cast the lone dissenting vote against the mostly symbolic resolution acknowledging the role of slave labor in the construction of the United States capitol. His reasoning? He fell back on that old racist standby excuse of protecting the Judeo-Christian values of this country. [Full story here.]

I know. I don’t get it either. At some time or another, people are going to get enough of wrapping their racist beliefs in the cloak of Christianity.

But as I close, I would be remiss if I did not mention that one of our own nutz escaped from the plantation this past week. Longtime D.C. politician and connoisseur of fine hookers and crack cocaine, Marion Barry, was arrested for stalking his former employee/love interest after she rebuffed his attempts at reconciliation.

I won’t go into the sordid details of the episode here, but you must check the following link for full coverage, perhaps more than you bargained for, of the whole episode. [See full story here complete with audio of his phone messages. And check the cover of publication covering the story.]

And that’s the GOP Nutz Watch nutz newz of the week.

*drops mike and exits the stage* [Yeah, I stole it from you Cunning_Linguist. But it’s mine now. Possession is nine-tenths of the law. Ain’t you heard?]