American Blog

Mr. Vass also writes for www.blackentertainmentblog.com. This is the first part of a 3 part post. The other portions can be seen at the link above.

Rodney King, Amidou Diallo, Sean Bell. Each of these names evoke an image to everyone who hears them, and for many of us a feeling as well. For me it evokes fear. It’s just that simple. I’m not unique many Black Americans, especially males, share this fear.

 

Face it, life is not the most fun as an African American male in these days if there ever was a time that it was. Let me explain. I have never been arrested or charged with a crime (I did get a ticket once though). I have never dealt drugs, though I grew up with many that have. I’m from the Bronx, and my family was far from rich. I have seen more than half of my friends and associates die or jailed by the time I left high school. That’s not a glorious thing, nothing to take pride in, just the facts.

 

The first time I had a run-in with the police that I can easily recall was in a train station. The officer (Black) was busting my testicles about my train pass (a day old) and made me pay full fare, which irritated me and I started to argue with him. His response was to reach for his gun and told me to go on my way. I was with 4 friends, 3 of them women, who dragged me away [I was a bit of a hot head back then, but not violent]. I was 17, in high school and taking classes at City College, 5’ 9”-ish and weighed about 110 pounds or less. [Yes I was skinny; some might say I still am] I was equal no threat to a full grown, armed police officer yet he was preparing to bring out his gun on me just because of my words.

 

In college I was walking down a street at about 12 midnight or a bit later. I was going to get some cigarettes at the newspaper stand which was the only store open at the time. As I was crossing a well-lit main street a police car pulled up, 2 officers (white) popped out the car, drew their guns and started to question me. As I was being questioned the radio was blaring about the suspect they were actually looking for. A white male, about 6’ tall with blond hair, who was wearing the same color jacket as my pants, and was in site of another police officer 5 blocks away from me. Say what you might, but I don’t look like a blond white male, and considering I was under a street lamp at the time, with an open jacket and 22 I’m not sure why then felt the need to have drawn guns on me in the first 5 seconds they saw me.

 

In Los Angeles, a few months after the Rodney King riots as I recall, officers pulled over a car I was in. I was in the passenger side seat, the driver was a Korean American friend of mine named Danny. In the back seat were 2 of our other friends from work and they happened to be white guys. We all were about 24-26. It was Friday night, about 10 or 11pm, and we were driving down Hollywood Blvd. Once we were pulled over I had an officer immediately by the door, gun pointing at my face, telling me to put my hands on the ceiling of the car. Danny was treated to a similar reaction, then he had to get his identification, all the while I had my hands on the ceiling of the car. Several times throughout this process the officer on my side kept asking the 2 white guys in the backseat if they were ok. Once the officers were sure the car wasn’t stolen, and that neither Danny nor I had any warrants we were told we could go. When we asked why we were pulled over, we were told we were driving suspiciously. We were on our way out to go to a bar, hadn’t had a drink yet, and had circled the block once looking for a parking spot. I guesstimate we had been on Hollywood Blvd. a total of 5-7 minutes and did not hold up any traffic. [Probable reason, which everyone in the car agreed on, was that they thought we had jacked the car and they didn’t like the look in the way we were seated] …

 

Mr. Vass is author of www.blackentertainmentblog.com and www.mvass.com :

Ok, so there are a few things to speak about. First I want to give my condolences to the family and friends of director Mr. Robert Altman. For those not familiar with his work, Mr. Altman was the director for the films M.A.S.H and The Player. Both are great films. Those who are younger may not realize this but it was the film that was the inspiration for the television series M.A.S.H. Mr. Altman had a manner to capture the oddity in life in his films, whether that oddity deals with war or the movie industry. While these were not his only films they are favorites of mine. His ability to convey such themes will be missed as far to few escape the ‘cookie cutter’ themes found in today’s landscape.

Another loss, though not as great, is the news that Mr. Peter Jackson has been bumped from the production of The Hobbit. If you are not familiar with the book, it is the first story in the Lord of the Rings books. This book is the one that starts things off, introducing Bilbo Baggins (Frodo’s uncle) and introducing the One Ring and Golum and the ring’s power in the fateful battle versus Smog. [Yes I read all 4 books back when I was a young teen] Considering that Mr. Jackson garnered 3 billion dollars in movie receipts for the 3 films, and numerous awards for each film, while introducing millions of new fans to the original JRR Tolkein books I don’t know what New Line Cinema is thinking. Of the many attempts to tell these stories this has been the only one to actually get it right. Directors have been trying for decades, using every format you can imagine and not one was successful prior to Mr. Jackson. While I was looking forward to The Hobbit, I now fear what it will be. This may well be a failure of a film on a level New Line Cinema can’t imagine (much like the profit from the 3 films). We shall see.

The next thing I will speak about may take a lot more space, it’s Mr. Michael Richards. Yes I’m going to address the Laugh Factory incident.

This is what I think, what do you think?

Mr. Vass is author of www.blackentertainmentblog.com in addition to owning an online store at www.cafepress.com/nova68 (with great holiday gift ideas) :

Ok, just a few quick thoughts as getting everything set for the holiday purchases and work are keeping very busy.

I have to speak about Congressman Charles Rangel. He has renewed his efforts to pass a reform in the military re-instituting the draft. Of course virtually every Democrat has come out and stated they won’t support him in this decision. Representative Rangel has made his case based on the fact that there would be no war, in his opinion, if the sons and daughters of our nations’ politicians and the citizens they represent were potentially in harms way.

While this line of though has some merit, it is not my reason to agree. Yes, there is a fear among politicians to increase the number of white American sons and daughters that may be killed in fighting in defense of the nations’ policies. That seems factual considering the press to highlight the military as an option for the poor and minorities.

I find that serving in the military is an honor, and possibly an obligation. In times of peace I have no problem with a volunteer military. Those that do chose this option help to maintain the rights and lifestyle that is the daily life of every citizen. It has been the blood and sweat of all those that have and continue to serve that drives millions to seek out our nation as the best place in the world to live. This choice to offer their lives to support and enable citizens to make poor choices, or beneficial ones, is not something that can be bought and definitely not cheaply. On this point I disagree with Rep. Rangel, to a degree. Some do chose to join just for the future potential benefit in gaining an education, and many are minorities. But I feel more do so because they realize that for all the faults of the nation, this is the greatest nation in the world.

But I need to add that this is not a time of peace. Also the youth of this nation, whether African American, Latino/Hispanic, or any other minority, are in desperate need of self-discipline. In the world today we have the rampant use of drugs by kids of all ages, as young as 13 in some places. Kids today look up to and idolize violent entertainment figures, and the slang is filled with derogatory language that is misused to convey common pleasantries. For Black American kids there is a huge amount of dropouts (in males – 70%) and single parents. In the inner city many teens and young adults seek out lives in criminal pursuits – due to the money and public image portrayed in music videos and media. This says nothing of the failure in education across the nation. This screams a need to improve the self-discipline in the youth of the nation.

Given that, and the fact that I love this nation, I feel no reason why a draft would be a bad thing. To my knowledge every NATO nation has some form of draft. Like Greece, where everyone serves 2 years after high school. Not a big commitment, but enough to change a life. Is that to much to ask of a citizen. President John F. Kennedy once said “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” Perhaps we need to teach a bit more than ask for rote memorization and the question of a draft wouldn’t be fearful.

I’ll speak more on this shortly.

This is what I think, what do you think?

 

Mr. Vass is author of www.blackentertainmentblog.com and www.mvass.com :

From the glad to the terminally sad. Of the things in the news of late I’m happy to hear that Comic”>http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061116/ap_en_tv/ap_on_tv_comic_relief”>Comic Relief will be back and raising funds for Hurricane Katrina victims. Some may recall the program, which this year will be simulcast on HBO and TBS simultaneously. I have been a fan of this charity fundraiser since it’s inception in the 80’s. Mr. Billy Crystal, Mr. Robin Williams and Ms. Whoppi Goldberg should all be commended for their efforts.

It is often rare to see a true benefit show done by stars, especially of the caliber of these 3. There is no question that any one of them can command top dollar ticket prices to put on a show. And yet unlike other entertainers and benefit concerts, every dollar raised actually goes to help people. Originally the program was a way to help the homeless, a group of people often forgotten about here in America. Too often no one notices those that need the most help, or ego interfere with getting the money to where it will do the most good. I feel that this is not true in this case. Sadly the only other televised fundraising program I believe in is the Jerry Lewis MS marathon. So on Saturday take a moment and laugh, then take one more to make a donation and help those who need it. Remember it could just as easily have been you in need.

On a far less serious note, and quite sad is something I saw and had to check out. There is a guy who is selling his soul online. Yes That is what he is doing, www.winmysoul.com . It’s not some kind of devil worship site or anything bizarre like that. Well not as bizarre anyway.

This guy is giving up the right to make certain decisions for himself, taking orders and direction for his life from the winner of the bidding process. This isn’t some joke site. The guy was on Fox News today being interviewed about this. It is his opinion that this is his last option in improving his life.

The guy is a loser, in my opinion. Anyone who is so desperate and without self-respect as to give up on guiding their own life and allowing people to bid on controlling it needs Social Darwinism. In other words his genes should not be allowed to continue to pollute the human gene pool. How does someone just give up like this?

I don’t care how bad things are, all anyone needs to do is to make a decision and then stick to it. There are few things in life that can’t be changed by 90 days of directed action. If this guy can’t do that then nothing else will work either, I think.

And as far as I can tell this isn’t some desire for 15 minutes of fame. Though if it were I think it would only be marginally better than what it is. I won’t link to his site, but you can go there if you wish. As for me, my advice is free because I really don’t want his soul or a connection to him. Spend 90 minutes and set some realistic goals, then spend the next 90 days trying to achieve them. If he were to really try, I’m sure his life would improve.

This is what I think, what do you think?

Mr. Vass is author of www.blackentertainmentblog.com and owner of the onlne store www.cafepress.com/nova68 :

So did anyone see the latest game by the Scarlet”>http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaaf/news?slug=ap-bcsstandings&prov=ap&type=lgns”>Scarlet Knights? This is the college football team for Rutgers University. [I went there] It’s amazing. The team never could get past .600 when I went there. Every year there were exclamations about how the team could go the distance. Now, some 20 years later they are finally doing it. The team is now rated #6, which is a great thing. Now if the university administration could only improve. Last I heard being in undergrad there was still the old R U screw. I guess I can’t expect everything to improve at once.

Another odd item for this weekend was the fact that a suicide”>http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061107/od_nm/germany_suicide_dc”>suicide attempt sparked a bit of a fight. Now there is no question that kids in America are screwed up, in general. It seems that we are not alone in this aspect though. As a young woman was contemplating jumping of a roof in Germany, a group of teens were shouting for her to jump. Call it rude or whatever it’s just sad. Perhaps even worse is that the crowd that had over 100 people, including the teens, did nothing to stop the kids. The only ones to speak up were homeless people. I’ll say it again, only the homeless people bothered to try to correct the teens. Somehow this lead to a fight involving some 40 people. After the fight was over the woman was talked off the roof. Maybe the German teens thought this was part of filming of a European version of Jackass. I’m trying to give them the benefit of the doubt. I have no answer for the other adults in the crowd. Cheers to the homeless that chided them. The town this happened in should by them all a nice 3-course dinner for their efforts, at the least.

In the line of odd events here is something really rare and weird. 2″>http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061108/ap_en_mu/rappers_arrested”>2 rappers actually had gun charges dropped. Yes they actually are not going to be charged with gun possession; though they were in a van with others that did possess loaded weapons. Of course David Brown does have a stabbing charge (that he plead no contest to) to his credit. Remember that he is part of G-Unit, how could you not expect them to have some kind of criminal arrest. I mean they couldn’t sell any records if they didn’t have a rap sheet (document of criminal record in police database – for the wannabe fans/criminals/rappers).

A weekend of surprises I must say.

This is what I think, what do you think?

Mr. Michael Vass is author of www.blackentertainmentblog.com and www.mvass.com. In addition Mr. Vass is owner of the online store www.cafepress.com/nova68 : 

Just a quick thought here. To all the Marines of the nation, past or present, I wish you a happy birthday. Today the Marine Corps is 231 years old. Throughout this tim the Marines have safeguarded the nation.

Regardless of what any citizen may think, Marines have defended the ability of citizens to question and argue about the politics of the nation. It is the sweat and blood of all the armed forces that allows the freedoms all citizens enjoy.

So for all those that have given the ultimate sacrifice, or served with the knowledge that such a sacrifice may be needed, I say thank you. Like my father and myself, the fact that this is the greatest nation on the planet has not been unnoticed.

For all the problems that may exist here I am glad that this is the nation of freedom. I’m glad that there are still some of us that are willing to do whatever it takes to ensure the nation continues.

So to all the armed forces and the Marines directly, I wish you a great day. You are not forgotten and you are appreciated. Thank you for what you do. I could not have this blog, nor convey my thoughts without you.

Happy Birthday Marine Corps.  Simply said “God, Country, Corps, Family.” Or in other words Semper Fi.

Mr. Michael Vass is author of www.blackentertainmentblog.com, www.mvass.com, and owner of an online store found at www.cafepress.com/nova68 :

I find it interesting that there was noticeable coverage on Mr. Bill Cosby today. By now I’m sure most have heard that Mr. Cosby settled the lawsuit from a woman alleging sexual assault. I won’t get into the terms of the case; it’s not relevant to what I am interested in. What could I be interested in? The coverage itself.

Take a moment and think of when you hear about today’s news. The coverage may have been short, 35 seconds to a minute or so, depending on your station but the coverage was national. To my knowledge every station mentioned this, and while I don’t watch the gossip television shows I imagine they had a small spot on it as well.

Now think back and tell me when you first heard about Mr. Cosby in Los Angeles? For those that need more help remembering the announcement, he was there on October 29, 2006 and I wrote about it Bill”>http://www.blackentertainmentblog.com/2006/10/bill-cosby-fights-good-fight-103120061.html”>Bill Cosby fights the good fight - 10.31.2006.1 on the 31st. Now how much coverage did that get? I don’t recall hearing a single thing about it. That pisses me off. How about you?

The media is far too ready to mention the downfalls of any entertainer or celebrity. In my opinion when that individual is of color, any color, they are even more persistent in their actions. But let there be a positive action and there is nothing said. I may get on the case of various entertainers and celebrities, but I try to mention the positives as well, even if I don’t agree with it. Whether that is Madonna’s charity to children, Ms. Oprah Winfrey’s various comments and contributions overseas and in the nation, Mr. Michael J. Fox’s support of stem cell research, or the innovative programs by Ice Cube. I’m only one man, they are multinational media conglomerates.

What is wrong with the media that positive news, about change and improvement of the lives of children as well as adults, is not worth spending time on. When things go wrong there is no end to the coverage, especially if there if a famous name attached. But they can barely be bothered to mention good news for 30 seconds more than once in a day. When that news involves African Americans, Latinos, or any other minority group (perhaps with the exception of women – which I don’t see as a minority anyway) it’s even more rare, even if they are celebrities or entertainers. At least in my memory.

[If anyone has hard numbers or facts that disputes, or confirms, my thoughts above please post them or at least send me an email.]

I just find it frustrating. What about you?

This is what I think, what do you think?

Mr. Michael Vass is author of www.mvass.com and www.blackentertainmentblog.com in addition to owning a online store.

Now this is something to look forward to. Fellow duffers rejoice, most of us may never be able to play”>http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap_travel/20061106/ap_tr_ge/travel_brief_woods_golf_design”>play a round of golf with Mr. Tiger Woods but there is something that is almost as good coming soon. If like myself you are far from a 0 handicap and you fail to have net assets in the 7 digits or better, then most likely you will have to go to a golf course designed by Mr. Woods to get a feel of how he sees the course. Yes that’s right, Mr. Woods will now follow in the footsteps of Mr. Arnold Palmer and Mr. Jack Nicklaus.

I can’t imagine what a course might be like that Mr. Woods finds fun or challenging. I do know that I want to play it though. I would suspect that it could have many of the challenges found on the best courses in the world, like Pebble Beach, Agusta National, St. Andrews, Pinehurst and others. Considering the chances of a 25-30 handicap playing all those courses, this may be my best chance. A suggestion though, once the course starts construction start requesting times because I think it will get booked fast. If it’s even open to the public that is.

Oh, has anyone seen the show House? A friend recently got me into watching it. A smart show that is quite compelling. Sadly its opposite Eureka (which is currently airing repeats thankfully) but it is worth watching. I love the sarcasm and bitter wit of the lead Dr. House. I’ve seen 2 episodes now and the current sub-storyline is interesting. The cop is definitely out to make a statement. Impressive acting. And Mr. Khadeem Hardison is now on the show. He looks good as the best defense lawyer in the city. Personally I’m glad to see him back on any screen, as I enjoyed the conversation I had with him back when I was working making music videos. The coming episodes should be good television.

This is what I think, what do you think?

Mr. Vass is author of http://www.mvass.com/ (Vass) as well as owner of an online store for custom designer clothes.