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Re: [ Gen. Discussion ] Core of rants about Cp
Posted By: Hot East In Response To: [Gen. Discussion] Core of rants about Cp (MrMr)
Date: Monday, 28 November 2005, at 10:49 p.m.
Back in the day when I went to grade school, I got the crap kicked out of me a couple of times. There were days when I would come out and there would be a crowd and I thought to myself, "Hmmm, I must be one of the guests of honor... too bad nobody told me." Of course, that was during the time of hard drinking men, like John Wayne. True to the time, the kids I got into it with became some of my best friends, just like John Wayne in McLintock - where he's brawling all through the movie and then he sits down with the guy he's been brawling with and they have a shot, rest a while and they're back to brawling. Sure. And then there were my guys, who, when they were growing up, used to brawl all of the time. I told them, "Knock it off, it's dinner time!" and they stopped, ate dinner sitting across the table from each other, then resumed with the fisticuffs as soon as they were done right up until the time they fell asleep. I get it. But that was a different time. All that is an anachronism now when we have to worry about real violence, not an innocent donnybrook a la George Washington McLintock. We also can't spank Maureen O'Hara in public anymore, either (and what a shame that is!). It's just a matter of nature. You take two cats, pull their tails and toss them into a jacuzzi and you're going to see water and fur flying all over the place. Nowadays, when some 8th grader with tattoos and gold teeth rides up to you on some ratty bicycle and says, "Yo, man, gimme yo bling or I'm gonna cap yo' ass," it's probably a safe bet he's not going to grow up to be your best friend. In fact, sometimes preemption is necessary for a course correction. I mean, these little wonders of today aren't exactly Norman Rockwell paintings. Sometimes, you may just have to say, "Kid, you're probably going to spend most of your life in jail. Get used to it!"
It's just different times today. Now, the non-thug kids let their lawyers fight their battles for them. The fighting is no good, anyway. It's "for real" now, and these kids have no concept of what "permanent" means. In all of the video games, they get killed and get to come back after they put a couple of quarters in the slot.
Alright, my family comes from the old country. When I was a little boy, my Nonno Vito used to tell me about how the moustache petes said the streets were paved in gold. When the boat docked, he said it was paved with more like horse crap. Either way, the signs weren't wrtten in his language. He had to learn it. He paid his taxes. He saved up his money and bought a house. He didn't pocket it and head back across the water to live like the oppressive class. In fact, he became a citizen and so the story goes. That's the typical Cliffside Park story. Italian, Polish, Irish, Yugoslav, Armenian, Brazilian, Argentinian, whatever. It's all the same. What's the difference? He wanted to stay. He raised his family here. Sure, his buddies got together and they reminisced in the old language. But they knew enough English to work, join the Army to fight - and maybe even die for for their new country, go to church, become citizens and raise a family here. Migrant workers don't want any part of that. They take and take and take and give back only cheap labor. THEY DON'T WORK WITHIN THE SYSTEM WE CREATED WITH THE LAWS OUR ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES HAVE WRITTEN. THEY WORK AROUND THE LAWS. Trust me, if these people had the spirit that the old timers had (and some of the mew people currently have), I think they would be welcomed with open arms. But it is different. I wish it were not.
A couple of guys and I talked about a "gate," like Maplewood had along Newark, except along the North Bergen and Fairview lines. It was all tongue in cheek, really. I don't think anyone really believes it would work, but what it represents is hope that there are caring people in the community who wish the problems had simple, black and white answers. They don't. They all interrelate. Correct one thing, it affects another. IF the people here were empowered to do anything.
When you see the people here saying, "Ai yai yai... ," you shouldn't be thinking about just talking heads and empty suits, you should be seeing people whose head isn't dead just yet.
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