Nobody Is Divided

Nobody's Opinion. "Don't get out of the car." I said to my husband. "There's black men."

We had been driving down into the city of St. Louis on a Saturday night and pulled into a parking lot of a real dive-looking bar in order to look at the fireworks bursting over the Arch in downtown St. Louis. Out of the bar had come four very big black men, going to their motorcycles to put on helmets, and we were white people in a black neighborhood: and trust me...unwanted white people. It was a hot night in the city.

Downtown...whether it's Detroit, Philadelphia, or the South Side of Chicago...if it's a hot summer night, and you are white, you do not venture downtown. And you don't want to get out of your car. The gangs have the city. They shoot at each other all the time, and if they see you are white, they might take a shot just for the color of your skin.

So goes America.

As we pulled out of the parking lot at Mach-One speed, I was still trying desperately to get a view of the Arch and the big firework display. It was July the 3rd, and because I'm a sucker for fireworks, I had suggested we just go drive down by the Arch and pull over somewhere and watch it from our car.

Dumb.

Throughout all the years that I've lived here... downtown fireworks over the Arch was the best place to see the biggest and best show. Most of the time, there was a "white" band playing...or someone like Ray Charles...singing "God Bless America." I have so many fond memories.

But, as soon as we turned toward the city, I realized we were in a sea of black. Stuck in traffic.

"There must be a famous black band playing tonight." I said. Better make a U-Turn and get out of here.

I soon realized that the city had given the blacks the town on the 3rd, with the act of Legend. I read in the paper the next day that on the 4th, the B-53 Bombers were playing. Instead of mixing up the musical acts downtown as always...entertainment for both blacks and white, they had changed it this year.

The whites are no longer the majority in St. Louis, so it's only fair that the blacks have their own night with their own music. They wanted their own private party. But still....this giving everyone their own racial night of celebration was not exactly uniting America on its birthday...and I wondered if this was happening in other cities?

Is this the new Black President's idea of America? I have no doubt at all, that it is.

On Sunday night...they had fireworks again downtown...but we went to watch the fireworks in the town right outside of St. Louis--- St. Charles. The crowd was all white. We put our chairs right on the muddy bank of the Missouri River, not far from where Lewis and Clark started the expedition to explore the West. And it was a great spot. You could watch the big River flowing past at dusk, and think of Mark Twain, and times gone past.
Behind us, we could hear a big gathering of Spanish speaking people, meaning they would rather not go downtown either.

And it was the first time in my life that I had to listen to Spanish while watching a fourth of July display...it was...strange.

To English speaking people who don't speak Spanish, trying to listen to it, is like going 90-miles an hour down the freeway while texting your friend, drinking a hot cup of coffee, and eating a taco at the same time. I have NO idea how they speak so fast. They sound like caffeinated ferrets. And because I can't understand it, I try not to listen. One of the ladies had an America flag tee shirt on...and a smile. There were no dirty looks from any of them..so they were it seems...for one night...one of us.

There were a few blacks in the crowd...but I doubt very much if they were afraid of getting shot.

In the background was a band playing every song of Crosby, Stills, and Nash, and some they didn't even know they had written. I swear I heard the line "two cats in the yard...life used to be so hard..." at least three times.

Of course, all us white honkeys felt...safe.

So, here's the problem. We have three dominate nations that make up the United States. All have their own cultures, their own history, their own music, and our President is trying to add one more: Muslims.

In order for the freedom that made America the greatest country on the planet, these three cultures must unit...or freedom dies.

Will there be a leader who can unit all three cultures? Is there a man or woman who can convince the blacks, the whites, and the Spanish that it is in their best interests to fight the tyranny in Washington D.C., together?

Will we see a leader who can show that freedom, property, and individual rights come from a system of capitalism, and the ideas of our founders? Someone who can fight for the little guy against the global goliaths?

Will the blacks and the Spanish wise up to the fact that sooner or later, they will only get so much from handouts?

Benjamin Franklin had it right when he said that: United we stand, divided we fall...and this nobody is divided about the possibility that there will be a leader that will appear and say: "Do you people want to unit as one? Or ALL become global slaves? "

I sure hope so....and I pray we all rise up to follow them.

The day that I could get out of my car in America just to watch fireworks in an American City...any American City and not be afraid, would be a grand day of freedom.

I hope I live that long.