Thursday, November 15, 2007
Michael Nutter has it in for himself.
The entire city of Philadelphia has it in for him. I mean the bangers in the street, looking for a reason to put another person in the way or to get themselves out of the way or find the way; the teachers in the school system, looking for another reason to come to work besides their salaries and fat benefit packages; the teachers outside the system, in the charter and other alternative schools, looking for another reason to justify their existence 'cause no one's doling out any sort of government grant money cares a whit about the kids these schools serve; the politicians who fear daily for their existence when million dollar deals continue to be brokered for waterfront development, casinos and racetracks, while the City of the Brotherly Shove has proudly assumed the mantel of Killadelphia; the urban poor Black and Proud who were sold a bill of goods that by changing their name to African-American they would automatically get more respect, and instead have to deal with lip-service that continues to categorize them and refuses to treat individuals as individuals; to a "kinder and gentler" America represented in the mean streets where we all were told to respect other cultures and give them the freedom to call themselves names and celebrate their own violence and be proud of who you are because this new "kinder and gentler" America has to accept that.
Because look how well that turned out.
America is collapsing because we still don't have the barest clue of how to treat each other. Philadelphia is only the most telling community. We will collapse or we will rise up; Philadelphia is the testing ground, because whatever happens here the nation will follow. All of you non-Philly folk out there, don't fool yourselves: we are the 6th largest city in the USA. The rest of you may not think that much of us, don't think that we carry that much clout, but all national movements have to start somewhere.
If we can't contain this cancer that's quickly eating away at us, it will spread. The policies of the old guard did not work, who blithely ignored entire races and classes of people. The policy of the Politically Correct do not work, as entire communities are re-labeled and innumerable behaviors, speech, and thoughts have been categorized, censored and restricted.
This is the defining issue of our times. I will talk more on this in days to come. And for now, Michael Nutter must deal with this swiftly and well.
Or we are doomed.
posted by mark 3:38 AM
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