Friday, October 2, 2009

Current Issues in Deep Fat Frying

I had a conversation with a friend the other day. A man of integrity who I respect and am grateful came into my life. I call him Coach Green and he is one of those self made men, born in the south in 1942 who became a successful educator, coach and sometimes a philosopher. Coach Green, is still, at sixty seven, a powerful physical presence whose soft voice and genial personality put people at ease. His wife Linda is, well, beautiful in all respects and, more than happy to help you find the bones in the deep fried catfish when you forget to bring your reading glasses to dinner. Years ago, when we were growing up, Coach Green and I sat on opposite sides of the balcony at the local theatres; I went in through the front door and he entered through the side. Through it all (and all was a hell of a lot) we arrived at a few similar opinions. Today, when we can, we enjoy watching a good football game, sipping on a cold “soldier” or playing poker, where he beats me out of money I shouldn’t be gambling with anyway. My respect for this man comes from watching him work with children, listening to him talk about his family and something else. We both raised daughters. Can you imagine your daughter having to go in the side door? Green can and still welcomes this old relic of the sixties (me) into his home. We’re friends who realize our country is in a struggle right now…here and around the world but there’s going to be a serious fight if someone forgot the Crisco for the fryer. But that’s another story.

Our conversations wouldn’t make the Research Quarterly or the New York Times because they involve more important things. Like, what’s wrong with the Braves or haven’t we had enough rain? So when I read former President Jimmy Carter’s comment, "There is an inherent feeling among many in this country that an African-American should not be president"; I called my friend to get his perspective. (I don’t really know that much about our former president, to be honest, except I’m sure he entered the theater through the front) but his comments opened the wound and so we went there. I think both of us would rather have discussed methods we use to hide money from our wives. That’s the way most of us our age are now, realizing the horrible realities of the past but also understanding we’ve got some serious stuff out there in 2009 sitting side by side in the theatre, classroom and bus and we’d better be getting about the business of solving problems. As always my friend gave me some food for thought. “Sonny, it was politically incorrect and poor timing, he said. We can always find reasons to hate people rather than like them, magnify their faults not our weaknesses, but everyone has a right to their opinion, including President Carter. I’ve always chosen to treat people the way I want to be treated.” As always, with Coach Green, I found the guy who sat on the other side of the balcony to be a source of wisdom. And now I’m wondering if that buttered popcorn was something I shouldn’t have been eating all along. I’m not a politician, wealthy landowner, or even all that intelligent but I do know this. The racial issues in this country will not be solved until we find a way to get to know each other. Once that happens, color will disappear and what we will see is….just another person and most of the time a lot like us. You rarely see folks fighting when they’re eating deep fried catfish and I have the feeling that there are a lot of people out there like Coach Green and me…tired of the issue, opinions on the issue, words associated with the issue, and people making money off the issue. What we are concerned about is whether the last check we wrote is going to bounce because our wives bought People Magazine so they could read about somebody else’s issues.

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