ORANGES in my car.....

Fort Wayne is known as the "City of Churches". An appropriate description, to be sure!
We have churches...EVERYWHERE!!!!!!!!!
And, we have (I think) almost EVERY DENOMINATION POSSIBLE available....SOMEWHERE in our town.
Not to mention Jewish (two Synagoges, I believe), a Buddist Temple, Jehovas Witness, Hindus, Mormons, Catholics (I do NOT consider them to be "Christians"...kinda long story I'll share sometime....),Wiccans, Agnostics, Atheists and MANY others I have undoubtedly missed.
We also have Nation of Islam......right down the street from where I live.

Now, I am ashamed to admit I do NOT know a great deal about their beliefs.
(I could google it...but I'm lazy like that.....).
What I DO know, is they have a very AFRO-CENTRIC view of religion.
Fine, except I believe that makes them RACIST....in a DIFFERENT way.
Nonetheless, I must state that with all of the Nation of Islam people in my neighborhood, they have NEVER caused me ANY problems....

EXCEPT FOR THE DAMN ORANGES IN MY CAR!!!!!!!!!!!!

Every Monday thru Saturday, there they are, young (CUTE!) Black men in their sharp suits and polished shoes.
At the corner, the main intersection in my neighborhood, at the stoplight.
With bags and bags or bananas, apples, Nation of Islam lierature.....ORANGES.

I swear to you, I get stopped at that light EVERY DAY!!!!!!!!
And then here they come.......
If your window is rolled down, they stick ORANGES in my car, had me a Nation of Islam pamphlet.....and ask me for money.

"Just a dollar, Sister, to pay for the ORANGE"....
I don't LIKE oranges.....TASTE good.....too much work to eat....
And if they don't like WHITE people (and, TRUST ME.... I am SO white....ALBINOS look TAN next to me!!!), then WHY do they want ME to know about their faith?
What do they think I'm gonna do.....STOP being white?

And, if I can accept them and love them for who they are.......why can't THEY do the same for ME???

And if I smile, give them a slight wave...and keep my windows rolled UP......does that make me a RACIST?

My Godson is mixed. The member of the band I manage that I care for the most is mixed. The friend (CRAZY, though she my be) that I have had for almost 30 YEARS!!!!!!......(oh, I... Am.....OLD!!!) is black.
I STILL think Prince is one SEXXY MF (as his song goes...oh YEAH baby...!!!)
I am PROUD to finally have a BLACK (okay...mixed) president!!!
Baby, I hate LOTS of people....but for GOOD REASONS!!!!
If you want to HATE somebody, there are LOTS of good reason, BESIDES their race...TRUST ME!!!

So their they are.....with their ORANGES.....and their literature....and their sharp suits....
And I smile.....and I wave them away.......

Because I am NOT a racist......

But I just DON'T want ORANGES in my car.......

Fallen Heros....

To be fair, I wouldn't REALLY classify the people I am about to mention as HEROS, per say. But it was shorter than writing " people I have liked, enjoyed and/or admired who have REALLY dissapointed me"....... See? That is kinda wordy, don't ya think?

First one, this is from about a year ago, but it still bothers me. When the news hit about the hideous things Michael Vick did to his poor dogs in the name of the "sport" of dogfighting, somehow the topic came up on "The View". Now, I will be honest, I have NEVER watched that show, just not my cup 'o tea, so to speak. But I did see the footage of this exchange.
I could not believe Whoopi Goldberg DEFENDED that slimeball by saying it was a "cultural difference". REALLY? Torturing, drowning, electrocuting and killing innocent animals is a cultural difference? Ooohhkkayyy.
So, I am pretty sure there were lots of people that thought SLAVERY was a "cultural difference", what would Whoopi say to that?
I can't say I was a die-hard Whoopi fan before, but I liked her, enjoyed her work, LOVED her in "the Color Purple". I was really disappointed such a normally intelligent, forward-thinking person could be so ignorant in her views on such a basic topic as animal cruelty. It just made me sad.

Person #2 - Prince. I went through a time of being a HUGE Prince fan! I loved his music, he is a largely self-taught musical prodigy who can play multiple instraments. Not to mention sing, write music AND lyrics. He was unique! He pushed the musical envelope! He could be fabulouly controversial and yet commercially successful. Plus, I thought he was REALLY cute!
Now, all good, extremely famous, musical genius people seem to lose their marbles somewhere along the road. I accept that. And I hadn't enjoyed Prince's last couple release nearly as much. They were okay, but it seemed he lost his edge, his ability to be ahead of the musical pack.
But, imagine my surprise when PRINCE, king of Controversy, Mr. Super-sexy-androginous man, the pusher of every last sexual/musical envelope, announced that he was AGAINST gay marriage!.....WHAT!?!?!?! SERIOUSLY!?!?!?! Are we being punked here? This is PRINCE for crying out loud! He built his career on a largely gay fan base. HOW could he say such a thing?
And not only did he NOT support gay equal rights, but he stated the Bible says it's wrong.....!
Yeah! PRINCE is suddenly concerned with what the Bible says is wrong! Oh come on now!
(For the record, I don't agree with what many people interpret the Bible supposedly saying about Homosexuality. That is for another blog, but if you want to know the TRUTH, check out www.unidiversal.com ).

Anyway, I was quite surprised and dissapointed by Prince. Sigh...another one bites the dust. (sorry Freddy).

But the one that hurt me the most is a musician I bet most of you never heard of.
I was a fan of many Christian rock bands in the 80's. All the greats of my day. Petra, White Heart, Stryper, Steve Taylor, Amy Grant, Leslie Philips, DeGarmo & Key, Russ Taff, Barren Cross, the list is endless!!! But, my one true love of that day was a solo artist by the name of David Meece. Oh, how I LOVED that man! I had my bedroom wall COVERED with pictures of David Meece! I had ALL of his records (yes, boys & girls, actual records,,,I'm old ok?), I went to every concert I could get my poor mother to drive me to! I stalked...uh..I mean...waited for him after the show to get his picture...and drool, drool, drool! I thought he was THE hottie to end all hotties! Plus, he was/is a tremendously talented musician. A classically trained pianist. I was obsessed, as only a teenage girl can be.
My obsession faded with time, but listening to his music brought back fond memories. Ah, youth!

So, this past August (2008) I finally enter the computer age. I get an email addrress! (ok..I'm a little slow with technology...stop laughing!). I get myspace! Facebook! My own lovely little blog that you are reading now.
I reconnect with many friends from the past, and make wonderful new ones! FUN!
One day, I decide to do a search for David Meece on Myspace, and low and behold, THERE HE WAS! Okay, he kinda looked...old...but hey! Who doesn't? Of course, I sent him a friend request.
about a week later, he accepts! Hooray! My old flame, on my page! I put him in my top friends, right in between Harvey Firestein and RuPaul! I was so proud!!
(For the record, I interviewed Harvey Firestein in 1995, and I briefly spoke to RuPaul at the Vortex in Chicago right before "Supermodel" hit mainstream, back in my radio days). :)

So, the election comes, and I am THRILLED that Barak Obama won!! I make new, proud, joyous posts everyday! I call myself Obamalicious....and I am you know!
Then, I notice, David Meece is missing from his place of honor on my page! Hmmm, must have been an accident, I think. I check his page. He added a new song. Something about Dancing with the Enemy. Then, I look through his friend list. Ewww! Sarah Palin? GROSS! Hate that girl!!
Oh, well, there's no accounting for taste.
So I sent him another friend request. I wait. Couple weeks. He accepts again! Hooray, I knew it was a mistake!
Ray Boltz, another Christian singer from the 80's comes out as a proud gay Christian man. Way to go Ray! He releases a pro-gay marriage song "Don't Tell Me Who to Love" (GREAT song by the way!) I make it my #1 profile song.
Shortly after, David Meece disappears AGAIN!!!.....Hmmmmm......this is suspicious......

So I try to send him ANOTHER request... and that worthless little snot BLOCKED ME AS A USER!!!!!!!! WHAT THE HECK?!?!?!?!??!?!?!
You mean I supported him all through the 80's, bought his music, screamed at his shows, to be dissed and blocked because we don't agree on politics?!?!!? OH COME ON NOW!!!!!!!

At first I was strangely hurt, now I'm just mad. And dissapointed that my High School crush turned out to be a narrow-minded, homophobic bigot.
I think THAT is what bothers me most of all. How could I have supported some one so close-minded? Blinded by his dark eyes and beautiful music I guess.

So there you have it. Fallen heros....famous people I don't really know that have let me down.

Okay, Obama....you're my last hope!