In Remembrance of Things Past

     I am liquidating my assets. Not only have I grown tired of the clutter they seem to invoke and promote, but let's face it: I need the money. Number one on my list was my comic books. Yup, all 1500+ of them. The hardest to let go of will be my Hulks, as I had been collecting them since I was a wee lad of nine; which is why those must be the first to go. If I can get rid of what I hold most dear first, the remainder will be as nothing to part with.
     As I began going through them, listing which issues I have, grading them, pricing them, that old, familiar smell hit me. Any true collector of literature in general and comics more specifically knows exactly of which I am speaking; it is that faint, musty smell that says, "This is OLD!" What is it about that smell that I find so inviting, so intoxicating, that calls to memory the exact time and place each comic was purchased? I really don't know, but I wouldn't want to be without it. Especially now.
     That smell. More than just carrying me back to those bonny, bygone days when each was purchased, they take me on a journey of another sort as well. I remember in my youth and even well into the latter years of my teens how there was something almost mystical about buying and reading comic books. Aside from the educational aspects reading and collecting presented (I would not have known the definitions of omnipotent, omniscient, or omnipresent, nor learned a myriad of other words, been introduced to mythology, or a host of many other wonderful things if not for comics), there was just something about waiting at the local drug store or mini-mart every Tuesday for the latest issues to arrive, and as I got older and was able to drive, heading to the next town over to visit the most wonderous place of all: The Comic Shop. I was like Alice or the Narnia kids, stepping into another world where every fantastic thing was at my fingertips. No other feeling in the world exists, I can assure you. But somewhere along the way, I grew up.
     There is both a positive and negative to this. On the one hand, I was introduced to comics such as Ralph Snart, Marshall Law, Beautiful Stories for Ugly Children, Alien Worlds--books that have no monetary value but provide some of the best reading ever--which spoke of my evolving tastes, while on the other hand I was now beginning to look at comics from strictly an investor's point of view. I read what I wanted, but I invested heavily in books I would never read, and much of that was the Image and Valiant stuff that was so mass produced it isn't even worth the price of a roll of toilet paper today. It is a humbling experience to see that a book I had invested $20 in is worth less than cover price, but I suppose I deserve that as I allowed the dark side of collecting to envelope me: Speculation.
     So here I sit today, with the last two boxes of comics to go through before I am done and I think to myself...So what? I may have lost money on speculation, and I may be stuck with comics that will never be worth more than cover price, and that's okay because I have some real gems that will fetch a price that--from an investor's standpoint--will make it all worthwhile. I have comics that were signed by Joe Quesada and George Perez, and these will be passed down to my children. But above all else, I have the memory of that long ago and far away when the magic kingdom existed, and nothing in the world will ever take the place of that.

Is Reparations Truly The Answer?

     The American Heritage Dictionary defines reparations as, "Compensation or remuneration required from a defeated nation as indemnity for damage or injury during a war." When blacks ask for reparations, they want money today for what their ancestors were made to endure as slaves in this country. Do they honestly believe this is the answer? Would this systematically end all race-related strife in this country? I think we all are mature enough to acknowledge the answer to this is a resounding "NO!"
     Slavery was an evil thing, yes, but the white man cannot be blamed for this, at least, not as the sole proponents. Slavery began in the Caribbean, where dark-skinned land-owners would travel to Africa and pay the tribal chieftans handsomely for "x" amount of his people, and when the chieftans were met with resistance from their own people he would send them to neighboring tribes, have them kidnap those other tribesmen, and bring them back to be sold into slavery.
     The white (english, spanish, dutch, etc.) businessmen from America and Europe eventually made their way to the Caribbean where they became the barons of the slave trade and took these imprisoned people back to their respective countries and forced them into lifelong servitude. Yes, it happened, yes, it was horrible, but I had nothing to do with it.
     There were organizations that attempted to buy back the freedom of these slaves and relocate them back to Africa (the country of Liberia is an example of this) just as there were organizations dedicated to keeping blacks in their submissive state through bullying tactics, intimidation, mental, physical, and emotional abuse as well as outright killing, but I had nothing to do with that.
     There are many, many blacks who are so mistrustful of whites, expectant of assistance from whites, hate whites because of what slavery did to this country, but I had nothing to do with that. In fact, no white person today had anything to do with what happened in this nation's historic past. It was indeed a bad time, and it was indeed a terrible thing, but it's time to get over it.
     Blacks cannot continue to live in the past, and paying them for how horribly their ancestors suffered will not automatically remove the words honky, cracker, etc. from their vocabulary, and we all know this. "X" dollars in the pocket of every black person in this country as reparations paid by the government will not cause every African-American heart to give way to love and mutual respect for white people. Reparations is nothing more than just another in a long series of free rides when the freest ride of all is continuously ignored: You have the same opportunity as everyone else in this country. The American Dream is alive and well, it just takes hard work in acheiving it. Use it. Become what your parents were unable to become, and blaze a path that will allow your children to become that which you were unable to become, as I do with my children.
     Reparations, affirmative action, racism, prejudice...it all needs to stop. So, do you break the cycle of allow it to continue. Remember, it was Maya Angelou who said, "Not having is no reason for not getting."

Christian is supposed to mean Christ-like

     For those who do not know, I am an athiest. ***GASP!!!*** Yes, it's true. Not a pagan, not an infidel, and not a heathen. Just an athiest, a person who does not believe in the existence of the Biblical God, or any other gods for that matter. Here's the thing, though: I look around and I watch all these supposed Christians doing their everything things in their everyday lives and think to myself how hypocritical these "Godly" people are, and how much easier it is for them to hide behind the thin veil of said godliness to justify their actions, regardless of how unchristian-like or ungodly they may be.
     I am a rare athiest in that I believe Jesus walked the earth 2,000 years ago spreading a message of love, peace, and tolerance, but I believe he was human, just a man like you and I. I look at his message, how I live my life, and how those who proclaim themselves to be Christians live their lives and what I am left with is this: As an athiest, I am more Christ-like than those who believe chanting his name will get them into a magical kingdom in the sky. So do us all a favor, "Christians:" Practice love, peace, and tolerance and stop with the scorn that so easily defines your true characters.

What Price Loyalty?

     I am the proud owner of a Flash Foods loyalty card. I also have in my possession loyalty cards from Harvey's, Winn Dixie, Toys 'R' Us, and a few from merchants I can't recall at the moment. Why do I have these? I am told I receive special incentives every time I use the cards while shopping, and some of the businesses even claim to give a portion of the proceeds my purchases generate to education or some other needy institution; I can only assume their contribution amounts to about one tenth of one percent. I suppose the all-inclusive benefits are reason enough to use these cards--to show their appreciation for my loyalty--every time I go shopping, but truth be told I have an altogether different view of things.
     It really pisses me off that I must present a card to receive special pricing. I was in Harvey's just yesterday and saw a pack of beautiful ribeye steaks. Now, I could have paid $49.95 for these five steaks and been done with it, or I could have presented my "key card" which would have enabled me to make the purchase for $34.99. If I had done the latter, my receipt would have reflected that I had "saved" $15 on my purchase. Well, if Harvey's or any of these other businesses truly wanted to save me time and money, they would cut out the whole card thing and just pass the savings on to me, but they won't. Or is that can't?
     I am not what one would call a conspiracy theorist, but it does make an odd kind of sense that one cannot use these cards unless name and address--and in some cases phone number--are given first to validate the card(s). So then, what are we left with? Why, some agency's ability to keep track of everything we buy. I'm not saying Big Brother is watching us (I mean, let's face it: He's been doing that for quite some time now), but what other reason could these businesses have for doing this? We are pretty much at their mercy. In this bad economy, it is foolish to not take advantage of the discounts that the loyalty cards offer. I just wish I didn't have to symbolically kiss corporate ass everytime I needed to make a purchase.

Analysis of "The Legacy of Generation N"

     "The Legacy of Generation N" by Christine Haubegger appears in Chapter 11 of The College Writer under the heading "Cause and Effect."  Through attempted stabs at humor...Some successful ("...bloodless coup of 1992...", and "We may only be 11 percent of the population but we buy 16 percent of the lip liner."  [173]), some not much so, ("Our children will ask us what it was like to dance without a partner."  [174]), she attempts to map out the impact Latinos and Hispanics have had on this country while enlightening us to her political views and presenting inaccurate and misleading information.
     According to Biography.jrank.org, Ms. Haubegger was born of a Mexican-American mother (does this denote a full-blooded Mexican woman born in the United States or perhaps a woman of Mexican and a second, unidentified background?) while no mention of the race and nationality of her father is given.  She was adopted and raised by an anglo couple who stressed the importance of staying in touch with her Hispanic heritage. Ms. Haubegger graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 1989 with a BA in philosophy, then acheived a juris doctor degree at Stanford Law School in 1992 before founding Latina magazine.
     Does any of this lend credence to her credentials as a writer, especially on a topic such as this?  Philosophy has pretty much been accepted as the truths by which we govern our lives.  In layman's terms, "If it works for you, go with it."  This is the impression Ms. Haubegger has given me in this essay; her truths, her philosophies, her ways of life work for her, and she wishes to impress these upon her readers as well.  By doing this, though, I feel she has turned her back on the race, culture, etc., of the adoptive parents who were there for her when those of Latino descent were not, and this is not something that printing a magazine in bi-lingual format can easily fix, or even excuse.
     I have seen first-hand how ethnic/racial identity crisis can affect an individual, the clashing of two cultures at times dismissing them from both simultaneously or leading them to preference of one over the other.  My children are bi-racial (white/black) and I have witnessed them adhere to my preferences--my likes and dislikes--for a time, then sway toward their mother's, back and forth again before settling into their own identities, which become an assimilation of both cultures and philosophies.  Never has there been a full embracing of one, allowing the other to fall to the wayside as seems to be the case with Ms. Haubegger.
     Ms. Haubegger stated, "Latinos are true Americans." (173) when the fact is that only the peoples indigenous to this country may lay claim to that fact, unless we all fall under the cloak of "Manifest Destino" (173).  We must remember the Mayans, Aztecs, and Incans inhabited Mexico, and while it is true that Spanish Conquistadores forced their language upon the conquered peoples of that region, what is now the United States was populated by Anasazi, Cherokee, Creek, Micmac, and eastern Woodland communities just to name a few, each with its own distinct dialect.
     Ms. Haubegger seems to take a great amount of pride over the fact that Latinos procreate, "...at a rate seven times that of the general population." (173), and she attributes this to, "...natural increase rather than immigration." (173), yet it is important to point out that as of 2005, statistics from the PEW Research Center show 78 percent of all illegal immigrants are of Latino/Hispanic descent with 56 percent coming from Mexico and the remaining 22 percent hailing from other Latin-American countries.  Furthermore, the Latino population in the United States almost tripled from the time she wrote her essay in 1999 to 2006 when it was estimated to be at 44.3 million.  On top of that, the Center for Information Studies estimates the number of illegal Latino/Hispanic people in this country to range from 7-20 million, with a realists view of 11-12.5 million that were never a factor in "natural increase."
     "We are just getting started. Our economic concentration..." (173) sounds like nothing more than a virus infecting its host, which is basically what human beings are anyway as we in no way establish an equilibrium with our ecosystem.  This just seems to drive the point home on a more personal level as population levels continue to increase at the same exponential rates as cost of living, homelessness, unemployment, and overall poverty.
     In the same paragraph (4), Ms. Haubegger speaks of, "...reputation for family values." (173), and while I do not claim to know what happens within the confines of every Latino/Hispanic home, I do know what research has told me.  As of 2007, approximately 70 percent of all adult Latinos and Hispanics claim Catholicism as their theological affiliation (cara.georgetown.edu).  As of 1999, 28 percent of inmates housed in federal prisons in the United States and 17 percent of all inmates housed in state prisons are of Latino/Hispanic descent.  Furthermore, homicides excluded, 49 percent of all victimizations and 43 percent of all violent crimes in this country were done so by Latinos (law.jrank.org).  This should in no way suggest that all Latinos are bad people, but it does shine a brighter light onto the exact nature of the "family values" of which Ms. Haubegger spoke.
     Ms. Haubegger does make a couple of valid points in her essay, those being, "This is going to be a bi-lingual country" (174), and "The American standard of beauty will necessarily expand to include a female size 12" (174).  Bi-lingual, multi-lingual...This country has been in the same position before, as Dutch, English, Nord, Spanish, French, and many other peoples first colonized the lands, their dialects mixing with those of the natives to make what we know today.  So is "Spanglish" next on the agenda?  And how will street-speak, ebonics, and hip-hop fuse with that to create yet another unique dialect?  Is the English language as we know it soon to be extinct, or will mankind once and for all have a universal language akin to Swahili?  As far as the female size 12 is concerned, I for one am happy to see society as a whole embrace the thick thighs and little bowl belly that seem to predominate the female physical form; it is a welcome distraction from the toothpick-thin models the "fashionistas" say we must emulate.  But while I may agree with these things, I do not agree with the fact that Ms. Haubegger almost demands that I accept her truths, her philosophies, her prose as inevitability.  She takes a jab at conservative politics while asking us to accept her liberal views as fact.  She gleefully recounts how, "...a taco-shilling chihuahua became a national icon." (173) while failing to mention that it was Mexicans and Mexican-Americans who protested the ads, demanded a boycott because Taco Bell was telling the world that all persons of Mexican descent were dogs, thus the reason "Yo Quiero" became bi-lingual overnight.
     She makes me feel like a 98-pound woman being raped by a 350-pound man; there's not much I can do about it so I should just lie there until its over, yet I shall not do this.  I will accept that which I choose to accept on my own terms.  I will assimilate that which I deem worthy of assimilation at my own pace.  I am motivated not by racism, bigotry, or even prejudice.  My motivation lies in what I know to be true based upon the facts my research has provided, not personal truths (mis)guided by liberal philosophical beliefs.

Little People...

I have discovered something about myself: I have an attraction to little people--midgets, if I choose to not exercise political correctness. What is it about them that fascinates me so? It has to be one thing in particular for me to single them out. I mean, race is not an issue when I look upon a woman, and neither are age, size, or immediate physical features. Social status, political and theological views...none of these things play a part in how or why I find a woman attractive, so why should physical stature? Always the analyst, I found myself gathering thoughts from others, people whose opinions I respect, and this is what I came away with: "Isn't it obvious?" Mark asked. "You're a pedophile at heart. Their size versus their actual age validates your fantasy." I should have known he would be the one to not take this seriously. Next was Benjamin. "Men fantasize about threesomes, anal, MILFs, grannies, transexuals, and midgets. There's nothing wrong with it." And finally, from Todd, "The problem is you choose to classify these women when you don't classify others, which means the problem is YOU. Change your perception, and you change the reason you think of them as you do. The first time you dated someone outside your race it was a kink, of sorts. Now, it is as nothing. Date little people long enough and it will be as nothing as well." Todd and Benjamin have valid points, and in a weird way so does Mark. And I am still left to ponder this attraction...this fascination...this fantasy.

By Way of Introduction...

Good day to you all,
     My name is Duncan S. Jackson and I am a published writer under the name Duncan McTeague. I can say with all honesty that while reading literature is my love, writing is my passion. I have one novel, All the Pretty Girls, available through Amazon and Barnes & Nobel.com, and have had several poems printed in various publications. I have been a featured journalist on the editorial page of a local newspaper, and have several essays and analyses that have seen print as well.
     I am excited about beginning this new blog, and invite all who care to tag along to accompany me on this journey. Be forewarned: This is not going to be all puppy dogs and rainbows; I will address issues that more times than not prove to be controversial, be it political, theological, sociological, etc. My opinion is not meant to be the final word in anything (as my friend Dennis used to say, "I will defend to my death your right to be wrong"), and I gladly welcome any feedback any who reads this would offer. Please, be tactful and constructive. We are all adults here and should conduct ourselves as such. Namecalling, gratuitous use of profanity...these things are not welcome here.
     For those of you already familiar with my writings, please indulge me as I integrate older posts to this new site. I hope to bring two old for every one new until I am caught up. For those of you not familiar, I ask only that you give me the benefit of three posts before deciding if this for you or not as I am sure by then I will have made some kind of an impact on you. And now, without further ado...