Glory

Oh my lord, lord, lord... This one here is probably really my favorite movie of all time. I couldn't leave it out. Its the one that got me fascinated with history. It's the one that gave me the first impression of the inequality the US has. Its the one that makes me tear up every time in the final scene and the only one where I'm still like a little kid and hope the ending will change just once. But it doesn't so the teary eyes come. How Black sheep is my old stand by musically, this is the movie thats my stand by. Even though I own the movie and usually its the one the kids pick as their bedtime movie (this one and the Patriot- haha yes I'm turning them into history dweebs) its the one where I stop what I'm doing and watch it when its on tv. I'm terrible at remembering lines-whether lyrics or movie ones, but I know this one pretty well. Besides The princess bride, this might be Cary Elwes finest performance and he gets overshadowed by Matthew Broderick, Denzel, and Morgan Freeman. This is the reason I never just assume the stereotype- of anyone- but especially AAs. True a lot of the time it comes out eventually. Wait I take a little of that back. The real reason I  keep an open mind is because of where I was raised for the first 11 years of my life. East San Diego. It was in my opinion a perfect mix of Mexicans, Asians, and AAs. Our school was actually a magnet school and it even had a decent dose of white people. And to go further, when I first started school, I really didnt have any friends- I was the odd man out. I still remember after about a month in Kindergarten I was close to becoming the kid that everyone outcast and made fun of- probably because of my inability to color the grass green, get the stop sign colors right, and colored the night sky purple. Then Stacey started playing with me. He has always been the guy people circle around Stacey is the guy currently hanging with me in my fb profile pic. I really don't know why or can't remember how, but soon he was hanging around me and I became #2. Fine by me. I to this day wonder what would have happened if we would never have moved to Santee- the complete opposite of multi cultural. I doubt D or me would have fell into the life of gangs- we were too nerdy. I think we would have actually been stand out students, athletes and maybe been an example of kids that made it out. Haha maybe I'm thinking too highly of us. But I think where as in Santee we didnt stand out really, we would have in East Diego. I do know the first time someone called me a beaner was in 6th grade in Santee. I had never been called that- to my face at least- I didn't even know it was racial- I thought it was made up. Then it was explained to me it wasn't. I felt like such an idiot- I think I remember saying a beaner was just someone who ate beans or some shit like that. Anyways Stacey and me were best friends all the way thru 5th grade when I moved to Santee. In thinking about looking back, there was an instance where people stuck with their own. It was the asians during 4th grade and four square. Haha I know silly but check this out. Obviously the point of four square is to get to the number 1 square and hold onto- for those that have never played the game. Hey I don't know maybe this game became obsolete in the '90s. Anyways its not supposed to be a team effort- it should be everyone for themselves. But team asian decided that three of them would team up against the new player coming into the opening square. Obviously the coolest of their click would get the top square and his #2 and #3 would take their spots and proceed to completely attack the kid in the new square. Stacey his brother and me then formed our own and would try to take them out. Christ am I really talking about 4-square on a friday night? haha. anyways it got to the point that our teacher who obviously noticed what was going on, intervened. actually held about an hour lesson on the point of 4 square and how it wasnt a team sport and that if he caught anyone colluding he would ban everyone from playing and we would all spend recess walking around the sand lot. You don't fuck with a little kids recess. So that got everyone's attention. Mr. Thomas- he drove a Z and also worked as a bartender at night at some bar up the street. He was black too and he was also my favorite teacher. He lets us chew gum in class for christ sakes- even gave it out as a reward for when we did good on tests. Maybe that's really what influenced what people perceive as the bias I have towards black people over Mexicans. Maybe I do a little bit. I now realize maybe why the Mexicans in my school weren't close or friendly towards me. I was hanging out with Jabar, Jerome, Stacey, Gueka, LeRoy...etc. and not Gonzalo, Jaime, Jose...(all real names from my school) shit in thinking about it maybe I was considered a sell out. What a shame. Hey I went with the people that accepted me and all I know is I try to keep an open mind towards everyone- except puerto ricans. Haha just kidding. And thats why team, I just had to check out the Magic Johnson Friday's the other day. My profile pic was from earlier this year. It was from Stacey's 32 birthday at the previously mentioned West Coast tavern. His list of invitees was an awesome mix of people from all walks of life, all different races. I remember I mentioned this to him and how he managed to befriend all these types of people throughout his life. his reply?

" Isn't that the point?"
While we're not close I find it very cool that I've known this guy since Kindergarten and that at the very least we hang out on our birthdays. Well thats all I have for this friday night hope everyone had a fun one.


So I guess while writing this I realize the movie cant take credit for influencing me on being open minded

"Tear it up!" haha