| Color Blind Sarasota |
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| Written by Pete Theisen |
| Sunday, 08 February 2009 15:15 |
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How long has it been, 50 years? Since segregation supposedly ended? Now when people talk to me about "Newtown Redevelopment" the first observation I have come to mind is
"Isn't Newtown segregated?" I don't talk much about myself because it isn't about me, but, if I may for a minute, I grew up in . . . Detroit. Not the suburbs of Detroit, Detroit itself. My childhood home at 8121 Robson isn't even there any more, the last time I looked, nothing is, the site of my boyhood home is now empty property. Such is nowadays Detroit. When I got older we moved to a predominantly Polish neighborhood. There became a fad there, of "Pollack" jokes, and the Polish people told them as often as anyone else. Nobody ever had to resign a political party post because he/she had said "the 'P-word'", for heaven's sake! All right, what about the poles? The poles had been enslaved, when they hadn't been outright slaughtered, by the Nazis but when they moved in next door to an Americanized German in Detroit they didn't hold any grudge AT ALL and even were able to laugh about themselves. Isn't it time, 146 years after President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, for an end to all this oversensitivity and manufactured outrage? Let us do each other the honor of being honest. Let us all enjoy freedom of speech as guaranteed by the constitution. Let's not have any words that only certain people are allowed to say. Let's not claim that we know the contents of anyone else's heart or soul. Let us look at each person as a person, not as an (adjective) person. I spoke to a woman at a forum yesterday who said she could go anywhere but if she did people would stare at her. Later in the day I went to Newtown and people there stared at me. OK, how about the next time we find ourselves staring we walk up to the person we are staring at and introduce ourselves? It is a constructive step, and most of the time we will be happy with the outcome. And "Newtown Redevelopment"? Let's not tear anyone's home down. It is OK to "redevelop" vacant land and vacant properties, but not run people out of their homes. If we run a passenger rail line into the Newtown business district it may eventually help business there. |
| Last Updated on Wednesday, 18 February 2009 12:54 |
Political Advertisement paid for and Approved by Pete Theisen for City Commissioner.
