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.