Embracing Opportunity

I was never lucky enough to meet any of my grandparents but from the stories I've heard, they were some hard-nosed motherfuckers. They were part of "The Greatest Generation", folks who answered the call to serve Uncle Sam when he was in a time of need... folks who made sacrifices on the home front until everyone made it back. They spent time on the front lines, bought war bonds back home and participated in civilian peace time rationing of goods. They didn't ask, "Why us?" and they didn't complain... they just got the job done. They weren't born with the excessive whining/I deserve everything I want in life gene that my generation has seemed to develop.

I was lucky enough, however, to meet my Grand Uncle Charles McGee. He, along with my Grandmother Ruth Downs, grew up poor but aspired to greatness. He stayed focused in high school, went to college for engineering before leaving to enlist in the Army Air Corps his sophomore year and soon became a fighter pilot once the war broke out. He's one of the last surviving Tuskegee Airmen and flew 409 combat missions while fighting in World War II, Korea AND Vietnam... a still standing Air Force record.



My beautiful grandmother, Ruth Downs

The most awesome thing about my "Uncle" Charles, however, is that he's a black man. He answered the call to serve his country even though, according to a study by the Army War College in 1925, blacks, "... are mentally inferior by nature, subservient, cowardly... and therefore unfit for combat." It was thought that blacks would be good for nothing more than kitchen work and cleaning duties. Even after passing the Tuskegee flight program, they were initially given nothing more than routine reconnaissance missions with zero real danger. Yet he stayed focused and didn't let racism deter him. Eventually, in a time where blacks would be hung just for sitting in a white only section, he was destroying the enemy and receiving salutes from the men who wanted him dead simply because his skin was slightly more dark. He used the hate as fuel for his fire and eventually became one of the greatest fighter pilots in the history of the Air Force. Which is why the thing I love most about my 95 year old "Uncle Charles", as weird as it is to say, is that if you were to talk to him on the phone, you'd assume he was white.

Pride

My ancestors were first brought to this country on slave ships... sold at markets like prized cattle. They worked hard labor day in and day out, being disciplined with lashes to the back if they didn't "perform" well enough. They were told they were nothing but wild animals, useless for anything but being farm hands. They were a prime example that you can break a man physically, but you cannot break his mind.

Viktor Frankl spent time as a concentration camp prisoner, but instead of succumbing to the situation, he sought to discover the importance of finding meaning in all forms of existence, even the most horrid ones, thus, finding a reason to live. In his book, "Man's Search For Meaning" he wrote, "Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms - to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way."

This is something my ancestors luckily took heed to, a thought process most eloquently portrayed in Langston Hughes' poem, "I, Too Sing America". They sought freedom, both of physical and mental chains. They learned how to read and write, even if being caught with a book would mean the end of their life. Blacks learned that power is not always physical and does not always require large followings but that one determined individual can change the course of history. We became leaders and visionaries, but more importantly, we accepted that we could become equals. But then my generation came along with what appears to be the sole intent of erasing hundreds of years of progress in the right direction.



Colonel McGee and his plane "Kitten", named after his wife

Ebonics and diamonds, fancy cars and baggy clothes. The amount of hoes you have being of more importance than the quality of children you're raising... if you're even around. Get rich or die trying, be known as a bad tipper, blast rap songs where the word nigga comprises 95% of the lyrics as you ride around on your 24 inch rims. Do bad in school, maybe even fail out... but hopefully get a scholarship somewhere for being good at basketball. Attend a class here and there, but don't dare participate. Leave for the draft early, bank on the fact that you won't get injured or wash out.

Did you hear that? It was generations of ancestors rolling over in their graves disgusted at what we minorities have become. We are not special and we don't need special treatment. What we need is focus... because we have more inspiring and motivating figures than we even realize. We owe it to ourselves, but more importantly those of the past who would have KILLED to have the opportunities that we have now. We grow up in less than ideal situations but fail to realize the majority of limiting factors that exist are self-made. We, as Americans in general, need a fucking reality check. We could be a great generation if we just embraced our potential. There would be nothing worse than leaving this Earth knowing we never tried to become the greatest possible person that we could be.

"Aim high and never settle."

If I were to die today, I'd just want the following to be remembered: Carry yourself in a way that would make those before you proud. Walk tall and with confident steps. Walls will occasionally make you stop on the path you're traveling... you can go around, over, under or through... but never settle on being stopped. Speak with pride and never forget your history. Make your own history today that those in the future can revel about. Know who you are, trust your instincts and leave this world completely spent having given everything you had to it.