Fearless (Instruction Guide on HOW to be a Superhero)

Fearless (a testimony) © 2011 by Honea Byrne THE SCANNER- I plugged in that police scanner thinking I could hear something cool. Amazingly, it worked transmitting crimes for known youth gone wild. In most cities I’ve been in, ..Martin Luther King Jr. BLVD.. has been the part of town that I’m not supposed to be in. Better lock your car doors around the poor folk-GET your kids out the public school because those “folks” will beat them up. They don’t need to work because they are poor. The government take care of them. A reported burglary of a house; statistically, thereis a ninety percent chance that you’ll never see your belongings again-Reasons why? The police don’t have time to look in every pawn shop from here to Memphis. in the 1950s there was forced segregation. Fifty years later there is voluntary segregation. If you’re living in an upper class neighborhood your home or car maybe broken into a handful of times-and if your poor-getting burglarized is a way of life. A typical day in the life of the day job (secret identity): Teaching “THE KIDS” again about Hitler. I’m walking around for the first few moments cuing the students to stay on task-then I’m adding tiny facts of what I consider will get their attention. “You know when Ice-Cube was popular in 89′ with lyrics like, ’I'll control your mind like Hitler.’ Proceeding, I add in the fact that jewelry has its namesake from Jews-compare it to bling bling-add in the rhetorical “How many are killing each other over gold crosses? Or, are wearing crosses while killing each other?” YEA-I took it far left and he (the history teacher) looks at me strange for a few seconds. Then he adds a few book facts of Hitler taking over countries. My mind clicks back to a decipherable logic. I dig into my bag. Pull out my Poppa’s old WWII identification tags (dog tags) for show and tell. And by what I believe truly to be God’s Grace we reached their young minds. I take notice of Morgan wearing a shirt that had what I guessed to be his favorite rapper’s face on it. Underneath the face were the words “Rest in Peace July 3, 2008.” No, he’s not a rapper. With utmost earnestly, almost nonchalantly, he tells me that the face is of his father. Morgan’s father was shot in the face point blank range. The origin: You figure that a chance at a normal life was something not meant for you. The normal life: mid thirty year old with kids in school, family vacations, a loving wife to have and to hold, $50,000 plus a year, and what ever other benefits are involved when your rich and descent. There’s a past haunting you. A childhood that would have led you to any hope of normalcy. If you would only have been brave enough. Now is your time to make it right. “Son, catch the ball!” he ordered and I don’t know why I just stood there. I was supposed to catch the ball. But instead it hit me in the face. I cried. There went my father’s dreams of me being an athlete. 1985: Kelly was a cute grade school girl I was utterly infatuated with. But I wasn’t good enough to be her man. She left me for someone more handsome. After that, I told myself that I would make her want me one day. My father had bought me a bench with a 150 pounds in concrete weights. When she dumped me I started working out. And in a way I been working out to make her want me ever since. “Plain to see you can’t change me cause I’m going be a n%gg# for life.” Repeated that line over and over with tear filled eyes. Yea, some of us thought it was so cool to be bad asses until we got our asses beat when we met one, or/and ended up behind bars. Others thought it a rite of passage. We thought it was cool to be crazy until we were locked in asylums. Others thought it was a rite of passage. At a high class suburban public school his peers would recite rap rhymes and it was so attractive to them to hear all the profanity, and the story telling of an exciting life. My father was furious at me for listening to rap. The music was raising me and many of my peers because so many parents had to work to provide a good quality of life. There is a beast out there. This beast is brainwashed slavery: 1st of the month government checks, teenage pregnancy, sexual transmitted disease, this is youth branded as money. This is what “some” wanted prior to integration, a reason to call “folks” heathens. It’s a hate that hate made. This beast is everything I mentioned and more. Around these parts they call this beast “The Blues.”