HARMON: Twinge of 'white guilt'
This article is about "white guilt" or lack thereof, but I would be remiss if I did not mention a little something about my favorite holiday, not, and that would be the hallowed day of Halloween.
Ah, Halloween, a night when children old enough to drive but just short of being able to buy a beer ride around in pickup trucks disguised as rednecks and look for ways to increase their chances of getting gum disease. It falls on a Saturday this year for those of you who don't have televisions, and therefore it will be the pastors, priests and proselytes who get to deal with them Sunday morning.
I anticipate much fidgeting in the pews the first day of November and rightfully so, as those still riding the sugar high try their best to sit still while singing, "Amazing Grace!" (How sweeeeet the sound). But that's enough about this day that has become more important than Christmas to a lot of folks. Back to the "white guilt" thing.
I had just a twinge of it the other day as I was riding my fairly expensive, but well deserved, bicycle around the lake. It was about four in the afternoon, I had some Otis Redding on the player with Smokey up next and it was a most beautiful day for a ride. Now I don't ride to the black guys' music out of guilt, there's just something about the beat of the music that makes riding a little less boring. So I'm riding along, feeling pretty good and look up and see this blue and white pickup truck that could belong to only one man, Mr. Johnny. Dadburnit.
I'm thinking of all the things I don't need to see on this perfect afternoon, sun shining, low 80s, good sweat going to the sound of "Try a Little Tenderness" it would be that old blue and white pickup truck with that old black man doing something or other over in a flower bed. I stopped. Not out of guilt, mind you, just didn't want him to see me passing by without saying hello. Just wouldn't look or feel right.
"Hey, whatcha' doin," I asked. "Puttin' down some pine straw, " came the reply from behind a bush. "Who is that?" He can't see any better than I can, I'm thinking, so I walk over into the yard and he says, "Hey, you that guy that lives over in country club." We've known each other 20 years. "Yep, that's me," I said.
"You got anything to drink?" he asks. I didn't, but I didn't feel guilty about it because I don't carry water on the bike. "You wanna come by for a beer when you're done?" I ask. Sometimes I'll drop him off one if I have one handy. "Can't do it," he says, "got one more house to do before I go home." He's obviously working until dark.
"I heard you fell out of another tree," I said. He laughed. "Yeah, guess I need to be more careful." I thought, man, this guy does not need to be climbing any more trees, he's had three bypasses and ought to be retired and riding a bicycle around this lake. Now I didn't think those things out of "white guilt," mind you, it just seemed like a man his/my age should not have to be doing physical labor until dark on a beautiful fall afternoon.
Well, things are different today, even though they came a little late for Mr. Johnny. Opportunity exists for anyone led to accept it. Nowadays it's mostly about life choices and motivation, not opportunity. And it's ironic that now, when the world could be their oyster, many black youth miss the boat. I feel no guilt where that's concerned only sadness and disappointment. But that little twinge hits when I see Mr. Johnny, who's intelligence is without question, scattering pine straw at 70 when, if his school system had been better, he could have been listening to "Sittin' On The Dock of the Bay" on a beautiful day as he rode his bicycle around the lake.
The truth is, we didn't treat his generation very well and most of us know it. Today you'll find many black nurses, some of his generation, in various nursing homes taking care of old white folks and going home afterward to take care of the Mr. Johnnys, who are finally wearing out. One thing's for certain, he'll never retire. He can't. Yeah, I get just a twinge, now and then.
Sonny Harmon is a professor emeritus at Georgia Military College. Visit his blog at http://sharmon09.blogspot.com.
This story was originally published October 27, 2015 at 9:53 PM with the headline "HARMON: Twinge of 'white guilt' ."