27.8.08

HOG

H4 O1 G2 - Triple word score 27 points

The only hog I like comes in links or slices next to some scrambled eggs and a short stack with some maple syrup.

Living in Milwaukee, there are somethings that are constantly going on but I am able to deal with it: the thinking that there are no black folks in Wisconsin/Milwaukee, constant Happy Days/Laverne and Shirley references, reminders of Jeffery Dahmer and so on. But, there is an annual event that works my last nerve because of how it disrupts my life: the annual Harley Davidson (HD) celebration.

This year marks the 105th anniversary of HD's existence in Milwaukee and this year there is, once again, a party celebrating the creation of this vehicle. What this means is that most of downtown and the east side of Milwaukee will now be filled with HD riders from around the country and a few from other countries around the world who's main goal in life while in Milwaukee is to hook up and meet other HD riders, get drunk, and cause havoc on my commute to work.

The pilgrimage to Milwaukee for this weekend's HD party started yesterday and has royally fucked my commute back and forth to work and home. Usually 94/43 in the early part of the morning isn't very congested because I am going away of Milwaukee instead of towards the city. But because of all of these damned HD riders I now have to suffer in traffic for at least an additional 30 minutes a day because of the several thousand extra cars and bikes that are on the road that are screwing it up for those of us who stay here and don't give a damn about HD's 105th anniversary.

But what really pissed me off are the folks that are uber excited about the onslaught of these folks to this city. As I was caught behind a small convoy of motorcycles, I was able to go slow enough to notice the bridges over the highway on my way home. There were actually people lining the bridges with homemade HD signs, WELCOME cutouts pasted to the chain link fences, folks filming the HD incoming, and little toddlers holding and waving American flags with their parents. It amazed me to see how much this really means to people. Well at least white folks.

Many of the businesses and areas that will profit from this celebration will be folks on the south and east sides of Milwaukee and downtown. Most of the folks that own the businesses in those areas are big corporations (Hyatt for example) and smaller white owned businesses. Very few minorities, especially black folks, own businesses that will be patronized by these HD folks. Trust me when I say that they put in a LOT of money to support the thousands of hungry, sleepy, thirsty, horny, alcoholic riders in Milwaukee.

What kills me about this entire event is the fact that so much news and television time towards this event (and it will be about as bad as the whole fuck.Brett.Farve. fiasco) but when African World Festival at the lakefront decided not to go on this year because of lack of funds or America's Black Holocaust Museum closed it's doors due to not meeting their fundraising goals we barely get a 30-45 second blurb on the news or a small section in the local paper concerning these two legacies within the black community. Let someone act a fool in the city or get shot on the corner best believe they will be all over it hyping it up making us all look bad.

There will not be, however, much media attention on how the HD folks mess up the city and the fights and whatnot that will go on down there. Of course, that will be a side note instead of a major story. It might show up right before the weather report, if we're lucky.

Thankfully this mess will be over by the 2nd. And I can go back to four legged hogs instead of the two wheeled metallic ones.

19.8.08

Priorities

P3 R1 I1 O1 R1 I1 T1 I1 E1 S1 - Double letter score, double triple word score 117 points

Fuck. Brett. Farve.

Over the last month or so we have been bombarded with Brett Farve news because he decided to come out of retirement and drive the NFL and Green Bay Packers crazy with his indecisiveness about his retirement. So for hours on end and days on end we were getting breaking news interruptions during the day about rumors of him coming back. once he finally admitted that he was coming back to the NFL there was back to back coverage of his career, why he retired, why he wanted to come back, questions about whether or not he was going to stay in Green Bay, questions about his appearance in training camp, the issues between him and the Green Bay head coach, responses from former, current, and future teammates, and images of Bring Brett Back crowds and marches for DAYS. ON. END. So while we were getting what seemed to be never ending Farve news, there was a rapist on my block terrorizing the women in my neighborhood.

Fuck. Brett. Farve.

Farve continued (and unfortunately still does continue to) dominate the top story of all four local news stations as well as all of their news time slots: 5 am, 12 pm, 4 pm, 5 pm, 6 pm, 9 pm and dammit 10 pm. His country ex-pill popping ass was the top story; trumping each and every time the more important news of the city rapist that was running amuck. So instead of getting updates on on the description of the man that was overpowering young girls and women in my neighborhood or his latest assaults or additional information that the Milwaukee Police Department had to offer on the rapist; we had to deal with fucking. Brett. Farve.

Apparently, the safety of the city's African American women was not as important as a man making millions of dollars a year to throw around a damned pigskin. Now don't get me wrong, I AM from Wisconsin and football is pretty much in my blood, so I can sort of understand all of the hype and hoopla behind him coming out of retirement. HOWEVER, I understand my priorities even better and his ass coming back was not one of them and should not have been the news stations' #1 priority.

The fact that the North side rapist took second or third place in the top news stories (or even pushed to the segment after the first commercial break) was disappointing to say the least. Media outlets in Milwaukee (and I think I can assume nationwide) have no problem exploiting murders amongst black folk in the hood or low reading scores and graduation rates that plague our children. So I was very surprised that they didn't take a chance to exploit another example of my people fucking up in the community and attacking their own.

This time, however, it was necessary for them to make the story priority because of the dangerously violent nature of the crime and specific targeting of young women. Unfortunately young girls walk the street in my neighborhood at all hours of the night leaving themselves open to predators like the North side rapist. But the news stations barely cared about them because if they did we wouldn't have had damn near 24 hour coverage of the Brett Farve saga.

Fuck. Brett. Farve.

Had the rapist been in say...Glendale or WhiteFOLKS Bay, we'd never hear the end of it. I think I can speak for most of the black folk in Milwaukee that our people, when it comes down to protection from the crazy, are barely considered and are treated more like criminals than victims. We would not have had this problem in predominantly white neighborhoods because there would have been at least triple the police presence than what was seen on my block during the rapist's run. Or had it been a white girl in the hood that had gotten raped, police would have been on these boys out here like black on charcoal...because white women NEVER ask for it, unlike black women.

Maybe one day the media will get learn that fat meat is greasy and issue appropriate and timely reports on the drama and danger that threatens our people in our neighborhood without trying to sensationalize it or blow it up to proportions unknown to man. Yes, we have our issues in the hood and there are some of us that are trying to solve and prevent them from happening. But when something as dangerous as a rapist running around town targeting teen girls needs to be broadcast to help save one of them from the violence of a brutal rape, we need to focus on that and fuck. Brett. Farve.