Nuts... x 2

xxx
I wondered not long ago how those nice pink hammers floating around Ace Hardware, and other, stores in support of Breast Cancer research came to be in existence. It seemed like an odd choice of tool, although my daughter Meghan was so proud to buy them for her mother and step-mother, and both recipients were thrilled to receive them. There is a "blow against sexism" quality to them, to be sure, and that's a very nice touch, indeed. I guess I was just thinking that maybe a pink "Shed (flash)Light on Breast Cancer" might have worked better, or maybe even a nice pink set of "Tools Against Breast Cancer".

For a few days before the Jesse Jackson comment about cutting Senator Obama's walnuts off came to light, I had been thinking about what we might use as a symbol for Testicular Cancer. Obviously, Jerry Lee Lewis should be our official crooner, what with his "Great Balls of Fire".

Just yesterday morning I was telling Gino and the gang at my local Ace that I had solved the dilemma: a Nutcracker. High-quality, stainless steel, with beautiful blue ceramic or porcelain handles, that work equally well on small nuts, like almonds, or bigger nuts, like walnuts. After all, all nuts were not created equally.

But what caused this usually-blunt-but-eloquent spokesperson for social justice to utter such a comment about Senator Obama? Purportedly, it was Barack's Father's Day speech. I don't get it.

For brevity, I have cut three paragraphs from the speech, and I present them here in sequential order, but understand that there was a lot of speech in between paragraphs 2 & 3.

But if we are honest with ourselves, we'll admit that what too many fathers also are is missing - missing from too many lives and too many homes. They have abandoned their responsibilities, acting like boys instead of men. And the foundations of our families are weaker because of it.

You and I know how true this is in the African-American community. We know that more than half of all black children live in single-parent households, a number that has doubled - doubled - since we were children. We know the statistics - that children who grow up without a father are five times more likely to live in poverty and commit crime; nine times more likely to drop out of schools and twenty times more likely to end up in prison. They are more likely to have behavioral problems, or run away from home, or become teenage parents themselves. And the foundations of our community are weaker because of it...

...I say this knowing that I have been an imperfect father - knowing that I have made mistakes and will continue to make more; wishing that I could be home for my girls and my wife more than I am right now. I say this knowing all of these things because even as we are imperfect, even as we face difficult circumstances, there are still certain lessons we must strive to live and learn as fathers - whether we are black or white; rich or poor; from the South Side or the wealthiest suburb.

Did I miss something? A black senator from Chicago, talking to a predominantly-black audience about parental responsibility- something that statistics show significantly affects both white and black families- includes a comment that frames his audience as "...black or white; rich or poor; from the South Side or the wealthiest suburb." Yet, somehow he has talked down to the brothers and sisters.

What needs to happen here is for somebody to buy a nutcracker, though I'm not sure what size, but with or without nice blue handles, place them appropriately on the Reverend Jackson, and squeeze sufficiently enough to increase the obviously-lacking oxygen to old Jesse's brain...