ALPERN AT LARGE - One of the nicest things about being on vacation with my family in the Great American Southwest is that I can get an idea of just how crazy things are with the world from abroad...while staying current with that craziness thanks to both the printed and Internet media. And we do appear pretty crazy in the aftermath of the Zimmerman/Martin verdict!
And I mean "we", and not "you", because I am as guilty as any on being addicted, obsessed and overly focused on Los Angeles, California, national and international news as any. My focus on Mobility (trains, cars, etc.) as a way to improve our Economy, Environment and Quality of Life is a hobby or compulsion that most (including myself) find both interesting but pretty nerdy (as in "get a life").
But I'm also a dermatologist...a skin doctor...and yes, that makes me as medically focused as I am psychologically focused on the differences that skin features like "color" can make on an individual.
I've been physically attacked and had my medical school admission efforts threatened because of my skin color--all a mere two generations after my being an Eastern European Jew would have made me "non-white" in the eyes of many.
I've heard young Asian-Americans (particularly males) comment on the negative features quotas have had in their own career advancement, I've counseled patients of all ethnicities (particularly Caucasians) on the negative medical and cosmetic results of tanning, and I've both treated vitiligo ("Michael Jackson disease") patients of all colors while healing African-American patients ask me "how to be white like Michael Jackson".
All pretty sad and silly...but that's human nature and our reality. Just like there's 35 shades of "black", and that there are "white" people darker than our own "black" president, and that--considering how individuals of all ethnicities intermarry and produce wonderful, smart and sturdy children--it's pretty safe to conclude that skin color is as defining to a person as eye color or hair color.
So I guess I'm pretty lucky to work as a dermatologist for a medical group that has leaders and followers of all colors, and where the color of one's skin is considered ridiculously irrelevant. I've been loyal and true to the several African-American doctors I've worked for--all of whom knew darned well what challenges and backgrounds they had to overcome--but who led not by being a black man/woman...but the RIGHT man/woman.
And ditto for the Asian, Indian, White and Filipino doctors currently leading my group. Really, folks...as with eye and hair color, and in a world where Latino George Zimmerman is labeled "white" and half-white President Barack Obama is labeled "black", aren't we all just getting a bit overly-obsessed about all this?
While those of you who might label me a "nerd" for pursuing an Expo Line not only to help Mobility and provide an alternative for the I-10 freeway, but to bring the different geographic and ethnic neighborhoods together after the L.A. Riots pulled us apart...aren't those carrying on, and on, and on, about the recent court case in Florida the real "nerds"?
Or are they just trying to continue their control over our thoughts, actions and even things we are allowed to say?
I admit to regretting that President Obama's words about the tragic death of a young 17 year-old man hyped up an issue during a Presidency that (so I thought) was supposed to be beyond race, but when Tavis Smiley opens up his mouth and bemoans how President Obama was pushed to the podium recently to talk about the verdict, what is the president to do?
What can Obama say that won't infuriate someone...even when that someone is adding to the problem?
Count me in as being much more concerned about chronic black unemployment than a tragic but singular case of a Neighborhood Watch wannabe taking matters idiotically into his own hands--and an adrenaline-laced, testosterone-laced teenager who paid the ultimate price for, well, being a teenager.
The megatragedy of chronic black unemployment, the breakup of the American family--which affects all families of all ethnic groups today--and the devolution of the American male (most notably impacting African-American males) are all issues that face us as individuals, and as families, and as communities in ways that make the tragedy in Florida pale by comparison.
The megatragedy of the Detroit Bankruptcy is by far more threatening to us all as a nation--and, arguably, to "black America"--than to any testosterone-induced tragedy the media can come up with, particularly since all the shootings, maimings and killing of black Americans gets remarkably short shrift by this same media.
And before we get all condemning of the Bankruptcy of a "black" city like Detroit, let's not forget about the Bankruptcy of a "white" city like Stockton or of a "brown" city like San Bernardino. When it comes to bankruptcy of a major city, it's ALWAYS bad--and the only color that comes to my mind is "green".
Furthermore, the lack of motivation by today's employees--certainly aggravated by our nation's employers being some of the worst Corporate Citizens in history spells doom to any true recovery to our current economy, which is probably a Second Great Depression because we're still being propped up by the federal government.
There is no economic or psychological recovery for us, and there is no uniting of our once-great nation, unless we focus less on what gets slammed into our collective consciousness by the media (either left-wing or right-wing) and more on what affects our OWN daily lives.
So if we want to complain about Washington or our local city/state issues, maybe it's time we complain more about jobs, the economy, and our individual freedoms being taken away because that truly affects our personal goals. If we want to talk Immigration Reform or ObamaCare, again let's talk about how that also will affect jobs, our daily lives and our personal goals.
There's plenty to excoriate the President, Harry Reid and John Boehner about...but the tragedy in Florida probably shouldn't rank the highest in our list of complaints...and if it does, then it may reflect more on the complainer than anyone or anything else.
Perhaps it's good to be reminded that the toughest, most ethnically-mixed team that marches out in the Olympic opening and closing ceremonies is always from the United States.
And perhaps, as so eloquently stated by a ranger giving a delightful tour in one of the abandoned and beautiful and mysterious Anasazi ruins in Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado, our great country with all of its wonderful people--both past and present--really can and should focus on the right things to bring us all together. We really can be, and will be, one people if we so choose.
Maybe the answer is that we all need to get out a bit more, and focus on our collective similarities, rather than to wallow in our relatively miniscule differences.
We know what tragedies exist in both Florida and in our local and national economies...but how are YOU doing right now?
(Ken Alpern is a Westside Village Zone Director and Boardmember of the Mar Vista Community Council (MVCC), previously co-chaired its Planning and Outreach Committees, and currently is Co-Chair of its MVCC Transportation/Infrastructure Committee. He is co-chair of the CD11 Transportation Advisory Committee and chairs the nonprofit Transit Coalition, and can be reached at [email protected] This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. He also co-chairs the grassroots Friends of the Green Line at www.fogl.us. The views expressed in this article are solely those of Mr. Alpern.)
-cw
CityWatch
Vol 11 Issue 59
Pub: July 23, 2013
