Sunday, January 18, 2009

Ask yourself this question. If you had a chance to change the course of human history, but received serious threats to your life and knew that you would continue to do so with each step you took towards your goal, would you take it?
        Would you endanger not only your own life, but those of your parents, spouse and children? Would you speak to crowds in open air venues where security would be next to impossible and an assassin could literally be in any shadow or hiding in any bush? 
        Would you subject yourself to public ridicule as falsehoods about your character and patriotism were bandied about as if they were gospel? Would you risk throwing away a quiet middle-class existence for the poorest of the poor who are largely ignorant to the possibilities and freedoms which they have been denied?
        Would you martyr yourself for the cause of basic human dignity knowing that in your death there would still be those who would revile the very mention of your name?

        If you answer yes to all of these questions, then you would be my hero just like Reverend Martin Luther King Junior. This Monday January 19, 2009 I'll be standing on the cold streets of Downtown Houston to honor a man who reminded our nation and the world of the words of Thomas Jefferson when he said in one of the greatest oratories in history "We hold these truths to be self evident that all men are created equal." and stated quite earnestly that "justice delayed is justice denied."
         Doctor King was assassinated a year and a half before I was born and my memories of him as of many in my generation are from audio tapes,  grainy film strips of his speeches and this history books that which have been my lifelong obsession. Doctor King's legacy is not simply that of a great black American, but of a great American. He is a credit to those who laid down their lives on the battle fields of Lexington and concord and those who would do so later at Gettysburg and Shiloh.  He makes me proud to be an American. I can't help but be reminded of the words of Bono lead singer of the Irish rock group U2. He said of his admiration of Martin Luther King that his respect came from the fact that Dr. King "Was willing to give a life, but not willing to take a life."

Happy Birthday Doctor King.

Friday, January 9, 2009

Chinatown Requiem

When I was attending the University of Houston I used to frequently go into the area near the George R. Brown Convention Center (where Houston's Second and third wards meet) known as "old Chinatown". There was (and still is) a store from which I could buy different spices for a fraction of what I'd pay at other stores and there were at least a dozen restaurants.
We called it Old Chinatown, because in the 1950s Houston's Chinese community flocked to the area and opened scores of businesses. In the 1980s there was an influx of South east Asian immigrants who settled in the area between the med center, 3rd ward and The Montrose area. This became little Saigon and it catered to the many Vietnamese who initially lived in the fourth ward and Allen Parkway village. In the Late 80s and early 90s Houston's Asian communities began to buy up cheap land in Bellaire and opened several thriving shopping centers and restaurants and the area became "new Chinatown".
Last night as I drove home I glanced to my right and saw the Signs for The Silver House Restaurant, Yit Ing Ho, the Old Chinese Businessman's Association, and the parking lot where in my childhood stood the Borden Creamery. All that remains of my college haunt are a handful of "all you can eat" buffets, two shops that sell martial arts supplies and various other things, the Supermarket where I still buy spices and a landscape that seems to spout either a new taqueria or over priced loft every other day.
Gone are the places where I used to buy small pieces of jade. Gone are the shops where I could find strange little curiosities. The city evolves and all happens in cycles. As much as I hate to admit it, old Chinatown is dead and the handful of smiling elderly shop keepers to whom I give my patronage and I seem to be the only ones disturbed by it.
I occasionally sojourn to Bellaire to where Chinatown now resides, but in it I feel like an old man who lives in his child's guest room. You know you're welcome, but it feels as if you're imposing.


Friday, January 2, 2009

Good Nazis?

 In the minds of simple men history often paints with broad strokes in a series of absolutes. There are good guys and bad guys and all is effectively black and white. Were one to mention the German Army of the 1930's and 40's the general consensus would be of mindless zealots following Hitler's ever order as if it were the infallible word of God himself.
           Adolph Hitler was a vile cancer born of German political apathy which almost killed the entire world. In Valkyrie, his latest and most important film role to date,  Tom Cruise brings to life a hero of the second world war who sadly most Americans have never heard of. His name was Colonel Claus von Staffenberg. Staffenberg lead a group of feild grade officers and generals in a failed assasination/coup which attempted to overthrow Hitlers government and dismantle the SS. 
         Staffenberg and his coconspirators attempted to place a bomb in a briefcase in one of Hitler's staff meetings and while the bomb did go off Hitler's wounds were superficial. Stafflenberg and his cohorts were tried for treason (which they openly admitted) and said that they would rather be remembered by history for having proven that not all Germans agreed with the Austrian despot who forever cast an ugly shadow and the fine people of Germany.
         While I'm not in the habit of writing film reviews I think anyone who does not take the fate of his country or world seriously should sit through this film. As it was once said: "Injustice occurs when good men do nothing."