As I shared about an hour ago, I just watched one of my very favorite movies ever, Remember The Titans. God only knows how many times I have watched it since the first time I saw it. I turned 60 on 8-25-2014, and I lived through this part of history for the United States, especially in the Deep South. My first taste of integration and how it affected all of us was in 1967 or 68, when forced busing occurred in the middle school where I was a student in Mississippi. To this day, it hurts my heart when I remember this little black boy named Randy Carr, who was in my 7th grade math class. He was the only black child in my little redneck, backwoods Mississippi junior high school back then, because of forced busing to integrate, and God, I just knew he was scared to death, and I didnt blame him one bit. He sat to my right, one desk before mine, and there was a wall there. I was one desk behind him, on the next row, and I used to watch him to see if he was alright. Keep in mind that I was a white kid, who had never been exposed to a black kid, and I was curious, but my heart just ached for him and his being so different from all of us, and having no say in the circumstances he found himself in. When I would walk into class, I would look at him and smile, and he didnt know how to react or what to make of that, because no one else did that. He eventually realized that he could look back at me, shyly, and sneakily and I would smile at him, and he would smile back, but very shyly. God only knows what his family life was like, but he evidently didnt get much sleep at home, because he inevitably would fall asleep in our math class, and Oh, My, what would happen when he did, bless his little heart. Our math teacher was also the football and track coach, and when he saw that Randy was asleep, he made a big deal out of it, and put his finger to his mouth, saying shhhh, and would walk over to Randys desk, and pop his ruler loudly on his desk, startling Randy awake, and the boys would just laugh hysterically. They also threw spitballs at Randy off and on during class, and of course, the teacher/coach, ignored them. It just broke my heart, and still does to this day, and, like I said, I am 60 years old. Integration in Mississippi was a big deal, a really big deal, and I am a part of living history that was made during that time of unrest and of social and cultural changes. It has left many an impression on me, as well as many liberal viewpoints, because I witnessed what can happen when different cultures collide, and it aint pretty, people. Not at all. I could tell you more about this, like when our public high school went into a private Academy to prevent the whites going to school with the blacks, who outnumbered us 10-1, and also, the race riots when I moved to Florida and started my Senior Year of High School. Just horrible and very horrific. Unreal. So, most, if not all, of my liberalism comes from those various experiences I went through, and Im not even going to begin my stories about having very close friends who were gay, and started coming out back then. Wow. I have not only seen a lot of cultural history being made, I have lived it. I thank God for all of the changes since those days. We have a long, long way to go, but thank goodness we have come this far.
Posted on: Tue, 09 Sep 2014 04:23:20 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015