Don't Shoot Me (I'm Just The Piano Player)

Don’t Shoot Me I’m Just The Piano Player

By Wilbur

 

            A recent trial in Florida drew my attention but I waited before writing this article.  Several reasons for that.  One, it’s in Florida, and two, it involved a middle aged white man and some black kids.  Seems it went like this: White guy goes to a gas station and sends girl friend in for chips or what ever.  Black kids roll up to the same store and they have their music going.  Of course it’s rap, and of course it’s loud.  Well, the white guy tells them to turn the music down.  Now, right off the bat this is rude. I know, I know, the kids were rude, too, but they’re KIDS.  Now the kids began to shout and leap about.  I’ve seen high school kids do this once before.  All the street stuff, the cussing, the threats, and on and on, BUT, no one tried to pull the guy out of his car.  According to him he became in fear for his life!  He pulls out a pistol and pumps nine rounds into the van.  Now, he SAID he saw “about four inches” of what appeared to be a shotgun barrel.  He killed a boy sitting out of sight in the van.

 

            Kids do stuff like this.  They shout, threaten, show off for the girls, you name it.  This was NOT the knockout game.  This was a bunch of boys pulling into the same gas station the other man was.  Whenever I pull up to a light, or parking lot and experience this I look at the person playing the music and just grin.  I won’t have to put up with his music long and will most likely never see him again.  That having been said kids will often put on a display of bravado. If they’re standing ten feet away and don’t try to open your door just ignore it and drive away.  By the way, no shotgun was found that night. I have had a young man become offended when I routinely locked my door. He took it to mean I did so because he was black.  This was not true.  My Mercedes locks doors automatically.  Of course there were all the treats and “eyeballs” and everything that goes with it.  Uh, he had a young lady in his car so I know what was fueling his indignation.  He DID approach my window and when he did he got a glimpse of my 9mm on the seat beside me.  He stopped, looked at me, and I said, “You were just leaving.”  Whereupon he found better things to do. 

 

            The white man precipitated this entire thing with his statement to turn the music down.  Then he compounded it with his racism.  I hate to use that word, but let me ask you, would he have been as indignant if it had been white boys with two or three white high school girls dancing beside the van to Justin Bieber? Now the real issue.  Now, I’m just a simple ol’ boy from Austin but something in my dim memory tells me you simply don’t pump nine rounds blindly into a van for loud music.  Also, if he were threatened by the boy shouting at him why didn’t he just shoot HIM?  I took several days to write this article.  I was going to include a part telling young blacks that they should condition their behavior so as not to shock or scare the white folk but that nasty old constitution kept getting in the way.  They had a right to play their music, albeit a bit loud, just as much as the white guy had a right to have his girl friend buy corn chips that night.  They went back to the motel room, snacked and watched TV.  Now, I’m an old bastard people, I really am.  Someone really tries to hurt me and I have the conscience of a rather mature cucumber . But, something about riddling a van full of kids with bullets just doesn’t lead me to pile up in bed with some hottie and eat chips and dip.  He did it because those kids weren’t human to him.  Their lives didn’t matter.

 

            This is not George and Trayvon.  That was entirely different.  This is prejudice at the Nth degree.  I’ve had altercations with blacks, yes, but more black kids have held the door for me than cursed me.  Looks like our boy is going to get about sixty some odd years for his wild west show, and that’s good.  Maybe he’ll learn a little bit about how to get along with people who are different from him while he’s there. 

 

            And the GUN didn’t do it, the MAN did. I hope the family of the boy killed finds peace.  It tore me up when the dead boy’s mother expressed her sympathy for the killer having to spend so much time in jail.  The one thing I came out of it was the next time I hear rap music blaring out of a car full of black kids. . . I’m gonna smile, and listen, and wave.  Not because I’m afraid, but because they have as much right to their music as I do, and I KNOW they GOT to hate Country!

 

Wilbur Witt

Austin Texas

http://www.facebook.com/wilburlikethepig

Herb Superb

 

 

 

Herb Superb

 

            “Have you heard the word about an herb superb, take it from a crocker like me. . .” So began iJackie’s flagship video on YouTube back in 2008. If you ever want to polarize a conversation just bring up marijuana. From “Reefer Madness,” to Cheech and Chong the range of opinion is endless. On one hand it is an intoxicating drug (but so is beer.)  It does perhaps damage lungs (but so do cigarettes.) It does entice the involvement of organized crime (but so does horse racing.) It can make people dim witted (but so does the Democratic Party!)

 

            Pot is probably the most maligned drug on the market, partially because it is so easy to get, grow, use and abuse. Its side effects are always being studied, but when compared with meth the difference is clear.  Which would you rather have, a completely wrecked body and life, or a case of the “munchies?” State after state is legalizing it in various levels as the federal government scrambles to at least TRY to continue the war on drugs while wading through a smoke screen on Malibu Beach! On one hand you have studies that claim the use of the drug will shrink your brain to the size of a pea while there are many other very sophisticated papers that tell us the components of the herb will help or cure everything from Alzheimer’s to ED. 

 

            The fact is anything you take into your body in the way of medicine will have some adverse effect.  You have to weigh that with the benefits derived from the use of said concoctions. One glaring fact stands out, however.  Recently Phillip Seymour Hoffman was found dead on his bathroom floor with a needle sticking out of his arm.  If you will note he did not have a joint hanging out of his mouth. You can overdose on anything.  It’s always theoretically possible.  I, myself, overdose on marriage licenses. That, and there is always a segment of the population that will overdo anything.  I’ve watched documentaries about people becoming addicted to just about anything imaginable.  They are out there! I had a relative who was addicted to chocolate.  She would shake like a big bowl of jello if she didn’t get her chocolate “fix,” and folks, I’m talking about ALL the time! If she had nothing else she would open a can of cake frosting and eat it with a spoon.

 

            Marijuana’s legacy is not its potency as a drug, but its effect on the national psyche. People who smoke it get high, but people who don’t flip out! Billions of dollars have been spent since the government declared war on the plant, and there seems to be no end in sight.  It has led to the militarization of our police, overcrowding of our prisons, and a blessing on all the drug cartels that continue to bring it across the border at every break in the fence. Ask yourself, is this worth the return?

 

            Of course, there is the argument that if it were legal then the country would go to hell in a hand basket, but let’s see how that holds water. When I was in California the drug was dispensed with prescription (wink, wink) and supposedly you had to have a medical condition in order to partake.  Medical condition. . . like an itchy foot for instance.  See where this is going folks? Anyone who wished to have some could find some doctor who would find something that the drug would alleviate.  My granddaughter and her little crowd of cheerleading health nuts did not use marijuana.  They shunned people who did.  You see, this goes to the core of who people are, and how they are brought up. People have to take responsibility for their actions.  It’s as simple as that.  Guns don’t kill people, PEOPLE kill people, and joints don’t smoke themselves.

 

            People looking for a way out of reality will always find it.  Drugs, alcohol, sex, chocolate, you name it.  If you need a crutch by golly there’ll be someone out there to make one for you. And people go through phases of their lives.  I’ve seen a week where I had one martini, and I’ve seen weeks where I tried not to draw a sober breath.  Then there are people with just no self-control.  These people don’t become addicts they ARE addicts. They were addicts from the moment the doctor said, “Hey,” and they said, “Huh?”  Can we assure these people complete safety from their actions?  No!  “Oh,” you say, “we’ll just get rid of all the illegal drugs with a big ol’ drug war.  That way no one will ever have access, and no one will ever get hurt.” (Ever hear of bath salts?)

 

            Now let’s turn the coin over. Let’s go from a very expensive drug war to a very lucrative drug business. I will not quote you figures here because you know they are horrendous and when I read a book I usually skip over figures and go to the next paragraph.  I’m just going to state facts.  Fact: We house hundreds of non-violent offenders in various prisons. Someone caught abusing himself or herself and the law says they aren’t allowed to do that. Fact: The drug cartels make so much off of pot the Mexican government squats and pisses every time they even THINK about trying to control the situation. Fact: A tax on grass would be the ONE tax I think everyone would agree with.

 

            Now for a little bit of good ol’ Texas Nationalism.  I just hate it when California out does us in anything.  The realization that a bunch of hippies are sitting over there generating revenue for something we could grow better, sell better, and smoke better irritates me to no end.  They got oranges, they got avocados, they got wine, but by GOD we aren’t going to let them dominate the market on this! As a matter of fact, if I can get this pushed through I even have a brand I’d like to put on the market.  Weird Wilbur’s Texas Best. I believe that Texas would so far out run California that we may not need to sell anything else. But I’m speculating here. 

 

            The day will come, people.  The public opinion is just too great, as is the over crowding of the dockets and prisons.  You will see the day when all states just go with it and Washington will just have to bow to the will of the people.  I guarantee you when that day comes, in true Norte’ fashion, whomever  is in office will very quickly come up with a federal tax on marijuana.  Then all the potheads will say, “World, you got me cornered again.  I’m gonna roll myself another joint.” 

 

Wilbur Witt