Poor William's Almanack and Journal
Welcome
Almanack
Journal
Contact and Feedback
About
Forum
Archives

Rightspeak Glossary

Privacy Statement
Search this site
Almanack

Franklin bifocals Sunday, November 20, 2011

Howard University
[1866 - Howard University is founded by The First Congregational Society of Washington, DC]

Astronomer Edwin Hubble    Astronomer Edwin Powell Hubble    Astronomer Edwin Powell Hubble
[1889 - Edwin Powell Hubble, astronomer, born in Marshfield, Missouri]

Cartoonist Chester Gould
[1900 - Chester Gould, cartoonist, born in Pawnee, Oklahoma]

Actress Fran Allison    Actress Fran Allison
[1907 - Fran Allison, host of Kukla, Fran and Ollie, actress, born in La Porte, Iowa]

Narrator Alistair Cooke    Narrator Alistair Cooke    Writer Alistair Cooke
[1908 - Alistair Cooke, writer, Emmy award-winning narrator, born in Salford, Lancashire, England]

Singer June Christy    The Misty Miss Christy
[1925 - June Christy (Shirley Luster), singer, born in Springfield, Illinois]

RFK - Robert F. Kennedy    Robert F. Kennedy    Robert Kennedy speaking on the stump
[1925 - Robert F. (Francis) Kennedy, Attorney General, Senator, presidential candidate, born in Brookline, Massachusetts]

Tarawa - Marines disembarking to Higgins boat    Tarawa -landing craft enroute to shore

Tarawa -Marines landing on beach
[1943 - Navy, Marine, and Army forces land on Tarawa under Vice Admiral Spruance]


Real Friends

I came to Chicago, Jim.
To Mead House at the U. of C.
Somehow friends did we become.
You were Black, beautiful, and gay.
All these things were new to me.
They still are.
Things that I shall never be.

Together with our band we rushed fraternity.
Laconic Lenny, slow-talking Ed, You, me.
And Johnny who one day a doctor would be.
They did not know that you were gay,
You could not conceal that you were Black.
Nor would you.
You wore your blackness so proudly.

The members pulled us white guys aside to say
They wanted all of us, but could not take you.
The Greek letters were spread across the South
The bigots would not yield to let you in.
The process was called the blackball.
What petty irony.
I believed in their sincerity.

No difference should this have made to me,
And yet it did; I wanted so badly to be accepted.
You said, "Go with them, I have often been rejected."
I agonized, then I rationalized.
You never even sighed.
I went my way.
I had to turn from someone, didn't I?

I failed you, but instantly you forgave me.
Gave me permission to be mean-spirited.
So I went my way, Jim, with regret.
While you remained black, blue, and gay.
But never again could forget you.
We went our ways.
Seldom again did you I see.

It was meant to be that way, I said.
I unsuccessfully told myself it was best.
Always knowing it was rationalization.
The cruelest form of self-deception.
We made our choices separately.
We were trapped
By A Big White Lie.

But here is what you did for me.
You helped me stand straighter, face failure.
To fight to seize some better part of me.
To find a me that would not bend so easily
To racist, xenophobic society.
I vowed to change.
Never again turn from a friend.


William's Whimsical Words:

Never again.

BACKto Fall 2011

. BACKto Almanack Main Page

NEXT PREVIOUS

Almanack | Journal | Contact | About | Forum | Archives | Glossary | Privacy | Search

-----

Content and text copyright ©2007, Will Henry.
HTML and design copyright ©2002, ABC Internet.
All rights reserved.
No claim made as to animated gifs and still jpeg images.
Last updated on November 20, 2011

ABC Mini-logo