Snoooooow? Noooooooo!

The weather folks in Memphis are so excited today! Rain, dropping temps and a chance of flurries this afternoon! Wow. The weather has been almost perfect in Memphis since we moved here, so the weather nerds have not had much to get excited about, other that Katrina and then Rita moving through. But let a front move through that might dump some snow on the capital of the "mid south" and the 'nerds de weather' jump all over it! The morning commute was rainy, which of course caused hundreds of more accidents, so I can't imagine the evening commute if snow begins to come down. I am getting out of dodge this afternoon by 2:30 or so and miss all the potential fun!

MLK Day passed and it seems that more and more folks are respecting the work and leadership of Dr. King. As a father of a mixed daughter and the husband of an African-American, I can relate maybe more so than most middle aged white males to the trials and tribulations African-Americans have had to overcome. With the help of Dr. King, Rosa Parks and many others, the "playing field" is much closer to being even than ever before. The thing I would like to see happen is that many more young African-American males embrace Dr. King's teachings. Dr. King wished for an American were people were judged by their character, not by the color of their skin. Well, my thing is, you have to have character to be judged by, right. The "hip hop" culture has to be one of the worst things to happen to this society. It embraces all the things that are perceived as "negative" characteristics - sloppy dress, uneducated, rudeness, drugs, alcohol and others. But, for those young African-Americans, male and female, that stay the course, go to school and do the things that our culture embraces positively, the future is just as promising as any other person in today's US. Well, that is my take on it.

Some times I think that African-Americans feel that all white folks have an advantage of some sort just by being white. This may be true to some degree and at some subconscious level, but I for one had to work my a-- off to get through school. My family was not wealthy and I qualified for many of the same loans that African-Americans have access to. If I had an advantage, it was due to the support of my family and the fact that I never really considered NOT going to college as an option. Truth be told, I went on for my Masters and Ph.D. because I didn't want to face the "real world" until I absolutely had too! No one ever handed me anything just because I was white! However, I know that many white folks treat non-whites differently and with less respect just because of skin color, so African-Americans have to deal with much more than 'whitey' on a day to day basis. So far, my daughter has been spared much of what many "mixed" children go through, many times having to take crap from both sides!

Like Dr. King, Dr. Gearheart prays for a day when our society does not measure the worth of other simply based on the amount of pigmentation in their skin. I really think God made us so different physically to see how we deal with it. I think racism and prejudice are sins and that God would not want those traits in heaven!

Anyway, time to get ready for lab.

Good day