The Longer I Live, The More I Understand.......By B. Chambers

     I once heard Richard Pryor, in one his routines say, “You don’t get to be old being a fool!” Unfortunately I now believe the opposite is true. You don’t get to old being a wise man. Let me tell you what I mean.
     For my young brothers and sisters reading this blog I’ve been around a little longer than you which means I have seen and heard more than you. I’ve seen dogs let loose on our women and children. I know what it is like not to be able to go into a movie theater because of the color of your skin. I lived through the riots and saw the “for colored only” signs. I saw the segregated schools and department stores and the assassination of King, Kennedy and Malcolm. I’ve seen my uncles, aunts, grandparents, and cousins, etc., get together at a family gathering only to be fighting and threatening to kill each other after a couple hours of drinking.
     I have also seen us sticking together as a people (Black People). I’ve seen us living together in a poor environment (the projects) and helping each other; Living together as a true community. Most of us didn’t have anything but we shared what we had. I’ve also seen a lot more; I just want you to understand where I'm coming from.
     Now, to my point. As I have gotten older things have started to become clearer to me. I regret that this has taken so long. You see, I now realize that I have grown old being a fool. If I was a wise man things in my life and my family’s (my black people) lives would be a lot different. As an example we would not be killing each other, beating and abusing our sisters/brothers, our babies wouldn’t be having babies; Black people wouldn’t be at the bottom of the totem pole, as they say, around the world and nigger wouldn’t mean a thing to us. Just to name a few things that would be different if I was a wise man.
     Fortunately, I still have the greatest gift our Father gave us and that’s my mind. So I have to start using my mind. I need to be more analytical. I need to be more like Mr. Spock (Star Trek) and think logically. Use my mind to interpret the data coming from my five senses.
     Knowing what I know a wise man would have acted differently. I do know that I haven’t seen any progress for my people during my life time. For any Black man to say that we have made progress in our life time makes him a fool. All we have gotten is a promise! A promise that if you are a good nigger (which in Greek means something dead) and do as you are told then you will live forever in heaven with Jesus. I know some will say we have more opportunities now as a people then we have ever had. My response: For being a good nigger! As you can see I haven’t buried the word because I am being honest with my self. There is no way we can call ourselves Black men and women because we are nothing like the original black Kings and Queens that once walked this earth. If we were like them, I would have never seen the things I have seen and still see in my community and in the world. If our ancestors saw us today, they would be ashamed. And since we’re not true Black men and Women then what does that make us?? Dead….A Nigger! No one wants to be Black. We’re at the bottom of the barrel around the world, Period! How dare we call ourselves Black men and women?
     When I look at Haiti I ask myself questions like, is God in control? Is God the all knowing and all wise? Is he all caring and loving? Does anything happen without it being his will? If the answer is yes to these questions then it begs the question is God messed up OR are we messed up? If God is God than he caused the earthquake bringing all of the suffering and death we now see in Haiti. So if we’re not the ones messed up, which I believe that we are, then God has to be the one messed up and just gets pleasure out of seeing us suffer.
     You don’t get to be old in this system being a wise man. You might just reach a hundred being a fool. We need to see this world for what it is and stop lying to ourselves. Just think, if we didn’t believe in the promise (Heaven) we would have to admit to ourselves that we were afraid OR we would do something about our situation.
     What I’m going to do and what I’m also asking you to do is let your mind grow. Let it guide you by keeping it real. I would rather go with what is logical than with a promise for the unreal or unproven. Death for sure will come to us all but why surrender your life only to become one of the living dead, because you are afraid to die? You don’t get to be old being a wise man because a wise man would rather die than to live as a slave or a nigger.