First off and foremost my family has served in the Armed Forces since I can remember. My grandfather was in the Korean War and one of my uncles was in Vietnam. I RESPECT the men and women who defend me from the people that would want to cause us harm for whatever insane reason it may be. So this tale is coming from a place of showing respect to them and all the other soldiers out there. THANK YOU!!!!
So I'm sitting in Bomba. (My favorite place to people watch here in Asheville NC) I'm carrying a American flag and a idea strikes me. Show how we are all one community by having people of all races stand and wrap the flag around them. I like to just jump on ideas sometimes. I do believe in planning out everything now thanks to some very talented helpful folks I surround myself with, but that day I wanted to just dive right in. So I did!
As always something else happened that I was not expecting.
You want to make a guess at who came up to me the most? Let me put it this way. What made up this country from the beginning? Foreigners. All smiling, All friendly and All open with the eyes of ,'This is New and I like it!.' A High majority folks. I did have some of my friends see me an come over for a snap shot. Very Cool and I DO appreciate it a lot! I would randomly pic people out by how they looked at me sometimes. The ,'What are you up to faces.' got me the most! I wanted to see a Rich Man and a Poor Man standing side by side. Alas, it is downtown Asheville,where I have spent more time than ANY place in Asheville, So there were few and far between a black man downtown, besides myself. I'm not rich so...Maybe I should've take a selfie with a rich guy! Shown here by this buzzfeed video. A couple of things BUZZFEED. 1)Drinking your own weight in beer. NEVER in the history of History has been a good thing. Just ask Freddy 'Drank he's own weight in Beer' Godlumpski. You can't, you know why? He's dead. 2) I'm pretty sure we lost our title last year of Beer City. 3) Your number 5 should be Number 1 on that list. People USED to come here for the Art. The beer thing has been in recent years.(Not taking anything away from these amazing breweries* it's just Not the truth of Asheville. 4) Most important to me. It's not all white. I have plenty of friends of ALL colors. Your video is one sided. END RANT.
I RAMBLE....A LOT! :)
Anyway, I enjoyed my time with the folks that came up to me or that I approached to be in this showing of community. It filled me with hope and despair. Why?,Sadly I was denied by a few black folks. Apparently saying, 'Excuse me ma'am or sir.' means "Hey!!! I'm about to ask for some change." It slightly broke my heart. (I get it from all sides, one more than others. I'm just trying to be creative folks!) Surprisingly the first person to come up to me was a sweet Chinese girl of the age of 12. She was with her family and wanted to show her patriotism by draping the flag around her. A hour later I had what I was looking for in the time I had there. Love and Understanding! Some of the couples sat and watched me from the porch of Bomba and all of them got up and came over to me afterwards. I loved your smiles and our interactions together. I just wish more people saw that we are all in this together. A shift needs to be made in our mindsets in order for us to survive on this rock. To watch it all and how it plays out is like watching the scariest horror film of all time called Man. I can promise you that me personally. I am not here to destroy you. I am here to help build you up. Period.
