Sharing My Peace
Mostly Carlton and Tre and
I traded nods the past few years while I walked by their home with my pups and
one of them was out in their front yard with their handsome husky who, by the
way, is really well trained.
I know this because one day
the front door opened and the husky bolted out and darted across the street to
where we were standing. Cody and Haley didn’t react and neither did Tre’s dog.
Just a lot of sniffing. Tre hurried across the street, quickly
picked up the large pup and carried him home.
Monday, June 8, Carlton
stopped his car on the street, rolled down the passenger window and asked me a
question. I heard the words chin up bar but my early morning brain hadn’t heard
those words together for over 40 years so I said, “excuse me?” He said the
phase three more time and I finally got it.
I was soon to learn that
Carlton, Tre and their roommate are medical students at the U of A. Carlton
likes to work out on a chin up bar which he frequently used at the Miles
School. The school is also designated as a neighborhood park.
He recently was told he
could not use the equipment any more. My reaction was, to quote, “I hate this
f***ing world.” You see, Carlton and Tre and the roommate are Black. I got mad
immediately. Carlton smiled like well, what’s new.
The next day I handed Tre a
letter because he’s the one who answered the doorbell. In it I stated that
Miles is a neighborhood park which was championed by the mother of my good
friend Bob Aguilar. Instead of going around and around with the school, we
(mostly Bob) are going to build you a chin up bar. It will be portable so you
can take it with you when you graduate or give it to someone.
Bob was so inspired
he built the chin up bar in three days. It’s 10 feet tall because Carlton is
tall and as a kid I loved chin up bars but hated when my feet touched or were
close to the ground.
That’s my friend Bob and he said he is “feeling pretty short at 6’4.”
Click on the above grainy video to see Carlton work out. He shows a whole lot of strength highlighted by the fact that he gets his head so far above the bar.
Opening Up
The moral to the story
After the chin up bar was
completed and we delivered it to Carlton’s home, I thanked Carlton for having
the courage to be open enough to approach me. That helped open me to a new way
of thinking.
I grew up peacefully. We
had childhood diseases, but polio in the 1950s was something else. For years,
my mother isolated the four boys from all summertime activities. So social
distancing is nothing new to me. That was a spooky time and the images of the
iron lung terrorized me. See for yourself.
From then until now, few
white folks have thought about what it is like to be apprehensive just walking
around. They and me, too, were peaceful. Now along comes the Corona Virus and
suddenly everything you do could lead to illness and death. So now when you are
out you look at everyone trying to avoid harm.
The Black Community lives
this way all their lives in America. You’ve heard the expressions: Driving,
walking, bird watching, barbecuing, running, painting your home while Black.
The New York Times just
published an in depth article on how white Americans are waking up to the fact
that the injustices and the inequities facing Black folks in our country is way
worse than they thought. They are starting to think hard about racism and are
doing hard stuff to make it better like facing their insensitive behaviors with
respect to other races.
Myself, I going to take
what makes me feel at peace and offer that to my neighbors, Black and White and
Brown and whomever. I love landscaping—since I have a terror of a weed
whacker—so I am cleaning up Carlton’s home. He’s a student who rents but is expected
to keep the property weed free, with no provided tools, of course. So now
Carlton will have the peace of a spiffed up home.
Read The New York Times
article and think about how you can wake up and share your peace. If NASCAR can
turn from the pinnacle of Confederate Flags and deep seeded racism to
incredibly racial sensitive in a matter of weeks, we can surely make living in
America really peaceful for all of us.
Our largest donor who
provided over 200 lbs. of dog and cat food each week has decided to support
other charitable groups. This means I need help to get the word out to Miles
neighbors who might be interested in donating to PACC weekly. Just let me know
if you have someone in mind and I will gladly make a presentation.
This week’s donation was
84.9 lbs. of pet food and $55.00 in checks. In addition, there was a dog toy, a
cat collar, a Bark treat bag, a dog lead, a large bag of doggy diapers, a face
mask, a dog collar and 4 pill bottles.
See you Sunday,
Peter
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