No body believes me.

[ER]

I can't believe anyone would doubt you about seeing rioting in the Bronx in the 1970s. It sounds completely believable to me that you would have witnessed something like that since you were there. Plus I think you're an honest person who tells the truth.

[RCMerchant]

Rc, I believe you. No doubt you have been through some serious Sh*t in your time. I remember some of the things that youve posted about, and Ive always found it interesting. You have some stories to tell. Most people dont. They live there simple little lives in a box. I think maybe thats why sometimes people dont believe things, because they themselves have never experienced anything out of the ordinary. If it didnt happen to them, then theres no way that it could happen to you, right?

Hey Rc, I like to ask questions and pick peoples brains. It probably wasnt just one thing but, what do you think was the cause of the riots in the Bronx?

Why? I know EXACTLY why we had the mass walk out in the school. DeWitt Clinton High School. They trashed that place on the way out. It was because they stopped the school sports  program because there was NO MONEY. The city was bankrupt. That was all those inner city kids had. They went apes**t. Nobody in the goverment cared.
And that's the reason why they have riots ANYWHERE. Who gives a f**k in "the heartland" America about a bunch of poor n****rs in the Bronx?
DO YOU?
When you got nothing-you got nothing to loose. Your forgotten. Your angry.
Perkins. He was a big bald head guy who EVERY one was scared of. When I first met him he told me he was gonna "beat my ass" if I didn't do his school work for him. I told him f**k you. He was my friend after that and had my back. "Michigan got heart!"

[RCMerchant]

I believe you. I saw this documentary:

http://youtu.be/Y_8mCJB7GSU

But seriously, there's a reason they set movies like THE WARRIORS in the Bronx in the late 70s/early 80s.

 

Yeah. The only problem with that is those folks are white. I rarely seen a white face in the Bronx. I saw one other white guy in school. And I didn't like him  He was an a***ole. Most of the white folks were old. I lived with my Gramma who had lived there since the 1940's. The white folks moved out years ago.

[ER]

To answer your question, RC, as bluntly and as honestly as I can, no, I don't care a great deal about the abstract suffering of people I don't know anymore than they care about my own life. (Plus in 1979 I was an infant.) That's reality, whether it ought to be or not.

I am divided between some Christian duty to feel love and compassion for all others, and the Darwinian-influenced animal in me that thinks survival of the fittest is this world's true rule and the elimination of competitors for the planet's resources is a positive thing.

I guess I may not know until my last breath which side of me wins, the part that genuinely tries to live by Christ's Golden Rule, or the predator who follows natural selection. I have been told by psychologists that I am highly amoral but also empathetic.

After all, are we animals or are we made in the image of God? If we're animals, destroy, take, survive. If we seek to imitate some goodness we feel came from a mysterious source that may be God, be kind, share, be giving.

All I can say is I think I have done more good for other people, including complete strangers, than others have done for me. Sometimes at personal cost.

[RCMerchant]

I NEVER had a black person jump my ass, try to rob me, or any of the things that are sterotyped by folks who don't know inner city blacks they see in movies. They were cool. I had problems with Italian a***oles when I lived in Long Island who wanted to be gangsters. Watched too many movies. Don't get me wrong-there were Mafia motherf**kers all over Long Island. I didn't f**k with them-they didn't f**k with me. It was the punk ass wannabes who f**ked with me. It was ok. Me and Glenn and Richie had no problem putting the scare on there asses.

[RCMerchant]

To answer your question, RC, as bluntly and as honestly as I can, no, I don't care a great deal about the abstract suffering of people I don't know anymore than they care about my own life. (Plus in 1979 I was an infant.) That's reality, whether it ought to be or not.

I am divided between some Christian duty to feel love and compassion for all others, and the Darwinian-influenced animal in me that thinks survival of the fittest is this world's true rule and the elimination of competitors for the planet's resources is a positive thing.

I guess I may not know until my last breath which side of me wins, the part that genuinely tries to live by Christ's Golden Rule, or the predator who follows natural selection. I have been told by psychologists that I am highly amoral but also empathetic.

After all, are we animals or are we made in the image of God? If we're animals, destroy, take, survive. If we seek to imitate some goodness we feel came from a mysterious source that may be God, be kind, share, be giving.

All I can say is I think I have done more good for other people, including complete strangers, than others have done for me. Sometimes at personal cost.

Of course. Why would you care. Yet  you should. Because there are a lot more n****rs in this world than in your tiny universe. And if one day they rise up and kill your family because you don't care, don't be surprised.
Your "Christian values" are hollow. They are a veneer for selfishness. Not very "Christian".
Don't even start with me about this phony "GOD" bulls**t.

Darwinian natural selection??? WTF does that mean? That whites are better than others???  Are you insane? Social problems start riots-not biology.
If those kids in the Bronx had the same advantages as most white America there would be no riots or ghettos. The reason there is more crime and gangs in black neighborhoods is because white America put them there. Because they don't care. People like you.

[RCMerchant]

Your reply sounds more like an excuse than anything else> "Oh- I did this and I did that and I love God". Why did you bother to write anything at all except to hear yourself talk and vindicate your own beliefs that you are better than others?

[ER]

By natural selection I guess I mean the constant competition for resources, for supremacy, for strength. All you can do in this cruel life is try to be stronger/smarter/faster/better hidden than what challenges you. If someone comes for us we can try to survive. We can try to be ready. It's all you can do.

My entire house are yard are a would-be kill zone.

Personally, mate, I like my odds.

[ER]

I like you, Ronny, but you sure do whine a lot.

[RCMerchant]

I like you, Ronny, but you sure do whine a lot.

HAHAHAHA. Haha...HA! er...ha.

There might be bloodshed-but-

[ER]

More honesty?

Okay, just like the whiny Catholics in Northern Ireland always talking about how they hate the British would have been slaughtered in the streets of their precious slums without the British keeping them alive, so minorities in the United States could not survive without whites.

And like those Northern Irish Catholics, all minorities seem to do sometimes is complain.

There you go. Real enough for you?

But, yes, I completely believe you saw riots. A bunch of inner city types rioting and destroying their own schools and infrastructure is hardly scarce. After all they didn't build the schools or businesses or houses, they paid no taxes to support them, why should they respect them? Why should they value what they stand for? Why shouldn't they trash and burn them? Someone else will give them more  money to rebuild so they can complain about their miseries.

Yeah, hard to care about barbarians, RC. Barbarians who blame others for their own problems?

I started off saying I believed you. That you're honest. So you are. But you're also an endless complainer and your own worst enemy and I'm a decent enough person to take you seriously enough to tell you that, unlike most people here who seem to condescend to you like you're amusing. I don't. I respect you and tell you the good and bad about what you say. I like you but you owe yourself better than you give yourself.

Whoop Dee do you saw a riot.

[RCMerchant]

More honesty?

Okay, just like the whiny Catholics in Northern Ireland always talking about how they hate the British would have been slaughtered in the streets of their precious slums without the British keeping them alive, so minorities in the United States could not survive without whites.

And like those Northern Irish Catholics, all minorities seem to do sometimes is complain.

There you go. Real enough for you?

But, yes, I completely believe you saw riots. A bunch of inner city types rioting and destroying their own schools and infrastructure is hardly scarce. After all they didn't build the schools or businesses or houses, they paid no taxes to support them, why should they respect them? Why should they value what they stand for? Why shouldn't they trash and burn them? Someone else will give them more  money to rebuild so they can complain about their miseries.

More honesty?

Okay, just like the whiny Catholics in Northern Ireland always talking about how they hate the British would have been slaughtered in the streets of their precious slums without the British keeping them alive, so minorities in the United States could not survive without whites.

And like those Northern Irish Catholics, all minorities seem to do sometimes is complain.

There you go. Real enough for you?

But, yes, I completely believe you saw riots. A bunch of inner city types rioting and destroying their own schools and infrastructure is hardly scarce. After all they didn't build the schools or businesses or houses, they paid no taxes to support them, why should they respect them? Why should they value what they stand for? Why shouldn't they trash and burn them? Someone else will give them more  money to rebuild so they can complain about their miseries.

Yeah, hard to care about barbarians, RC. Barbarians who blame others for their own problems?

I started off saying I believed you. That you're honest. So you are. But you're also an endless complainer and your own worst enemy and I'm a decent enough person to take you seriously enough to tell you that, unlike most people here who seem to condescend to you like you're amusing. I don't. I respect you and tell you the good and bad about what you say. I like you but you owe yourself better than you give yourself.

Whoop Dee do you saw a riot.

Yeah, hard to care about barbarians, RC. Barbarians who blame others for their own problems?

I started off saying I believed you. That you're honest. So you are. But you're also an endless complainer and your own worst enemy and I'm a decent enough person to take you seriously enough to tell you that, unlike most people here who seem to condescend to you like you're amusing. I don't. I respect you and tell you the good and bad about what you say. I like you but you owe yourself better than you give yourself.

Whoop Dee do you saw a riot.

Wow . Just f**king wow. Your true colors are flying. I don't have to reply to that. It speaks for itself.

[ER]

Okay. I'm showing my true colors by saying I am part of an unappreciated majority? By saying we do more for others than others do for us? By daring to suggest less screaming about possibly non-existent victimization and more hard work might pay off? By saying, uh, yeah, the only people I know of who riot and burn their own neighborhoods are in the inner city? And they seldom pay taxes?

I live each day treating everyone I meet with courtesy and when applicable respect. Do you?

I know people who share my race that I wouldn't trust farther than I can throw them, and people of other races I'd trust with my life. White, black, brown, yellow, red or anything else, if someone is honest, hard-working and is doing his or her best, that person has my respect.

Despite how mixed up he got, I think Malcolm X had a HELL of a lot of good ideas about hard work, honesty, education, and a people supporting itself. Ever read him?

I used to gather books to donate to prisoners, a lot of those prisoners were probably Hispanics and blacks, and you know what, I couldn't have cared less, if they wanted to read I was glad to do my bit to help them. Ever gathered books for prisoners, Ronny?

I also happen to think a generation and a half of blacks being aborted since 1973 is sickening , and capital punishment, which has killed a lot of black people, is a disgraceful atrocity. If I hated minorities, wouldn't I say abort and fry them all?

In high school I used to volunteer at a church food bank which sent virtually everything into the inner city. Ever volunteered at a food bank helping people in the inner city, Ronny? (For that matter, how many atheists run food banks?)

At seventeen I stepped up to undertake service for a cause I found worth putting my life on the line for. What were you doing at seventeen, RC?

At nineteen that same decision saw me putting my life on the line to help people I didn't know, whom I'd never meet, who weren't even in my country, and I am proud of what I did. It saved lives. It helped others. What were you doing at nineteen, Ronny? One of the members of my team was one of the most admirable human beings I've ever known, and he was blacker than sundown in a canyon, and he had less patience for anyone blaming others and acting like a barbarian that I do. He came from a slum but he sure didn't stay there. So what's your excuse for not rising in life, RC?

I could have gone to a posh east coast college. I chose a different life. I live simply. I grew up middle class among rich relatives. I was among the poorest of where I went to school, a rich school, where I went largely because I EARNED scholarships. Did you know that? I didn't whine, I fought my way into a school that didn't necessarily want someone like me in there.

My husband and I run a business that employs ten people. I work at another family-owned business that sees even more get their livelihoods that way. Ever given anyone a job, RC?

My husband is not the product of privilege. He was born a bastard to an unwed teenaged mother in a city with about 20% unemployment in a place where the rust belt meets the coalfields. Today he owns a business.

My mother's native people will tell you they've always been "the n****rs of Europe", but they're proud of what they are, they don't let anyone keep them down, they shove their way forward asserting they're as good as anyone and a damned sight better than many, and a lot of people could learn from that attitude. They may sing about their sorrows but they sure as shooting don't whine. Whiners are tiring. Whiners are failures.

I pay more in taxes than I'd like, supporting others by doing so, but I pay them because I am proud of my nation.

I give more to charity than I'm always able to give. I give money to panhandlers more often than not. black, white, whatever.

I have never been arrested. I've never even had a speeding ticket. I'm proud of that, and it makes me impatient with others who repeatedly commit crimes.

If you're going to tar and feather me as something horrible, maybe you should measure yourself against me.

But, yeah, as I said to start off with, I believe you.

[RCMerchant]

Yeah, ok, your a great humanitarian.
I posted this as a a thing that happened to me .
You took it as a personal affront.
Why- I don't know.
You can babble on for pages and pages about anything and every thing and I write something personal and you jump me.

[Allhallowsday]

...I started off saying I believed you. That you're honest. So you are. But you're also an endless complainer and your own worst enemy and I'm a decent enough person to take you seriously enough to tell you that, unlike most people here who seem to condescend to you like you're amusing. ...

Uhm, you do pull out the soapbox don't you?  Ron is amusing, but if anyone here "condescends" to him, I don't see it.  He called and we talked last night for at least an hour.  We agree about most things, but hardly everything.  I don't think you really know him, but see only one side.