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Well I had company this past Sunday as the Ravens destroyed the Texans 41 to 13.

It was nice to have family and friends with me on a Sunday afternoon again!

Today was Veterans Day and I found a great picture of Pop, John Henry Arrington Jr.,  that I just had to post remembering he was a WWII veteran. I have a lot of pictures that I downloaded to computers that I have lost as there was no hard copy of them. This is one I’m glad I found a copy of even though I had another with his famous smile on it I was at least able to find this one!

Well John Henry Jr has been gone now over 2 months and he is sorely and deeply missed by many but especially me. Pop and I shared a Friends and Family AT&T phone account for over 8 years and I just can’t bring myself to delete his number from my phone book. I had to close his account and transfer my number from his account to my own and it was the hardest thing I have ever had to do. I have often pulled out my phone in the past couple of weeks and out of habit started to hit the speed dial, just to check on him, only in mid act to remember he is no longer among us the same way he was.

I pray my father is looking down on me and watching over me as I will forever miss him and his love and support. He always seemed to call when I was at my lowest and either inspire, challenge or even infuriate me in ways to make me do better.  I am however once again looking for work or my next contract as the contract I was on was not renewed for fiscal year 2009. I hope he knows though that this time I tried very hard to stay put and that it is my desire to finally do what he wanted of me for so many years and stabilize my life in one spot. Unfortunately at the moment that does not appear to be possible where I am in Baltimore or even on the east coast as all the more serious employment contacts I seem to be making are all in the central Midwestern area & Great Northwestern coastal part of the US and it looks as if I will be hitting the road once again. As I have spent a lifetime on the road this is nothing new to me. Of the past 20 years I have spent 16 of it traveling, away from home, on travel or moving from city to city and following the work. Who knows maybe the next move will be my last but wherever I am know that I am always watching and listening and I am always family. I ask that everyone pray for me and send John Henry Jr a little word while you are at it that, “Joel is OK and keeping a really good attitude about the twists and turns in his life.” Amen.

Two of my oldest friends in the world came by a couple weeks ago to share a couple of football games and some comraderie with me.  Jim Stevenson, in the royal blue shirt still lives in the MD suburbs near Capital Heights, MD but his parents still live in Highland Park, MD right around the corner from where the late Clarence Roach, Godfather to my Oldest Brother John Henry III, lived when we were growing up.  Byron Lyon, in the light tan shirt, moved from the MD area a couple of years ago and now lives in Rocky Mount, NC. I’ve known Jim since I was 6 and Byron since I was 8,  as Poncho Roach and all of us grew up together. Well I had not seen Jim and Byron in over 5 years so it was a good day all around and we had a lot of fun. It was a day of renewal for us as we have known each other now for over 40 years. I am known by one and all of their families from their parents and their children to their spouses and siblings simply as “Sugar Bear” and have always been made to feel welcome by all of them. In fact in 2002 whem I was in DC taking care of my terminally ill daughter and working for Care First and the US Dept of Transportation instead of living in a hotel I stayed with Byron and his family for an extended time saving me a lot of money and giving me a chance to establish myself during an extremely critical time. Byron still travels back to MD on a regular basis and I have been invited down to Rocky Mount to join Byron and his family for Thanksgiving. I may not make the trip to NC but the offer was greatly appreciated none the less. Byron, Jim and I have always been as close as family and I thank God for both of these men and for their friendship & love over these last four decades. Thank you Byron and Jim for a very good day!

True friendship multiplies the good in life and divides its evils. Strive to have friends, for life without friends is like life on a desert island..to find one real friend in a lifetime is good fortune; to keep him is a blessing.
~ Baltasar Gracian

I thought I would share several videos from Election Day 2008 and some follow on pictures from Wednesday 11/5/08.

Election Tuesday

On Wednesday it took almost three hours to get a copy of the Washington Post.

The 2008 election results couldn’t be more divinely ordained than what they are in this moment.  President elect Barack Obama has overcome a multitude of challenges in his life and this presidential race.  I applaud Barack and Michelle for remaining above the fray as they led an impressive campaign.  While there are many of us who can remember an era when segregation was the rule of the day, and for some the remembrances are still very much a part of our memories, let us not taint this victory with thoughts of hurt and bitterness.   Rather, let us be joyful for the change that has come and know that this change could not have happened but for our collective experiences on the path to freedom and equality.  All of the underground railroad runs, the marches and sit ins, the peaceful non-violent demonstrations, and yes the blood, sweat and tears of all who came before.  Now is not the time to relive the past, but to move on to a much larger and brighter moment in the future.  In the words of a very eloquent and creative soul — “And still I rise.”

You go Barack!!! Bring basketball to the White House.  You go Michelle as you bring soul, rhythm and color to the White House.  You go Sasha and Malia, with your new puppy, for you bring the childish laughter and joy to hallways in the White House that have not known such as you before.  I am proud to be an American, for now in this moment it has included me and those who look like me.  While my father John Henry Arrington, Jr. was in the hospital, he watched CNN coverage of the campaign every evening.  He knew that change was coming and I’m sure in his own way, he lent his energies to the success of the election.  Way to go Dad!

Thank you America for believing that “Yes, we can!”

Last night I watched history made. Last night I saw the promise of America fulfilled. Last night I saw a people raised from the depths of depression to the pinnacle of pride. Last night I saw the street interview that usually causes the hair on the back of my neck to stand up as white reporters seem to find the most ignorant black person in the crowd to interview get the surprise of their lives as normally unintelligible speech turned to undaunted eloquence. Last night I saw and I experienced my own rebirth. I may not be as old as some but I have dealt with my own share of racism. I have lived from Miami to Detroit, from Topeka to Phoenix, from Manchester to Richmond and so many points in between and in so many I have felt the heavy hand of racism. From the old white bank teller with 5 pounds of pancake makeup on her face and a bouffant hairdo from 1965 in Hoover AL, who decided a young black man should not be able to write a $3000 check on a starter check and openly tried to disrespect and eventually used the “N” word with me to the police in Monroe, LA who openly showed contempt for the black prisoners but gave me preferential treatment because they thought I was “white.” I have experienced the backwoods attitudes of Dillon and Sumter, SC, to the racial profiling of Topeka KS, Richmond, VA and New Orleans, LA. As a child I heard the hushed comments from “white’ women in the stores about how well behaved I, and later my brother and I were for “colored” children.

I have been the only or one of the only blacks in so many instances. From Junior High School forward I was never in class with the people in my own neighborhood or even many blacks. The same three or four black girls were my only company from class to class and year to year outside of choir and gym because it was not cool to be too smart. I experienced the great division that separates so many of us as I became a National Merit Scholarship Semi-Finalist and because my “white” guidance counselor had no idea of what to tell a “black” student who wanted to go to college, I saw an opportunity few achieve slip by me. In fact I was so alienated from my own kind through jr and sr high school that I chose to attend an HBCU, one of my biggest mistakes, for all the wrong reasons and because I so wanted to belong. Even there though I was looked on as an outsider because I was too something, too light complected, too fat, too smart, too whatever. I experienced the incredulous reaction of my own peers when they found out that I had received college credit before ever taking a class and in the same breath I experienced the petty betrayal of so called educated black instructors who were more concerned with building their own egos than they ever were in helping students. At work from the mid 80s on I struggled as the only black or one of just a few in most of my assignments. When I worked as the Secretary of HUD’s LAN Administrator I was the only black on the team. When I worked for the US Senate and The Congressional Support Teams I was one of two or three blacks. As a project Leader for the RTC I was the only black and when I worked for the AEC I was the only black on my team. This pattern has held true even until today. Outside of the majority American whites that still make-up the bulk of the people on most contracts, even newly displaced Europeans from the break-up of the USSR are more plentiful most of the time than “Black” Americans. Among the minorities I work with foreign born Africans, Middle Easterners and Asians dominate the numbers on the contracts I usually am a part of, with one or two black American males and three or four black American females being the norm on larger projects and one or two period being the norm on smaller ones. I have worked for giants in the industry such as American Express and been a minority amongst minorities. I have been the only American, much less black American on contracts dominated by Middle Eastern H1B visa holders. I have managed contracts of offshore groups in Banglore, Dubai, and other places while watching Americans be put out of work. Last night I hope I saw all that end. Last night I hope was the beginning of a re-dedication to American principles and American workers and the end to tax breaks for people who import cheap labor or export jobs from the US.

Last night I saw and felt a lot of what I consider problems slip away from the face of America. I saw an intelligent Ivy League educated “black’ man become the next President of the United States of America and today I heard from many, many sources that it is no longer a bad thing to be smart. Last night I saw Jesse Jackson, and Oprah Winfrey cry tears of joy at the confirmation of Barack Obama as the 44^th President elect of the USA. I listened today as countless interviews with what I consider to some degree to be media clowns and circus performers who typify the absolute worse stereotypes that “White” America and others have of us, take off their jester costumes and respectfully address the fact that for the first time in our lives we can truly and truthfully without reservation tell our children, “You can be anything you want to be if you work hard enough,” Racism may not be dead in America yet, as the interview with the old redneck just North of Biloxi, MS showed when he said, “I don’t believe it a nigger is going to the white house.” The fact that CNN bleeped the interview and then pulled it immediately does however give me hope that racism to a large degree may be on its last legs even as entrenched as those last legs are. The fact that they aired the interview at least once does however show that the sensationalism of racial conflict and the associated foul and demeaning rhetoric that currently flows on the internet blogs and abounds with racial epithets and slurs concerning everything from Obama’s parentage to his wife and children’s’ place being somewhere other than the “White House” is still protected by our right to free speech and illustrates the attitudes of many racially prejudiced people here in the US still.

Last night I saw my own dreams realized and I pray that Barack remains safe and has the opportunity to really start and commit real change in the US. Barack will be in my prayers daily and my hopes as well. His presidency will define for many of us a new beginning and a new level of professionalism as well as personal achievement. Obama will represent to many a new attitude in America and I can only pray that we live up to it in terms of personal respect and opportunity. Last night I saw an almost united America and I saw hope for the future of it. Last night I saw blacks who have never had much to be proud of beam with pride over the accomplishments of a single man. Last night I saw the culmination of the efforts of thousands of young people, legions of older people, a multitude of Baby Boomers, coalitions of a vast array of supporters and many racial groups. Last night I saw America say enough of partisan politics and business as usual. Last night I saw America turn its cheek to mediocrity and say an intelligent black man had worth. Last night I saw America turn its back on ignorance and absurdity and embrace education and achievement. Last night I saw and I felt what was for me the first time in my lifetime genuine camaraderie between blacks and whites. Last night I saw a large percentage of “white’ America help realize a greater “dream” for not only blacks but all of America. Last night I saw a “New America” born. Last night I saw hope reborn to all of us, Black, White, Hispanic, Asian, American Indian, in fact all Americans no matter their ancestral background. Last night I saw the greatness of America and the fulfillment of a promise. Last night for the first time in my life I had personal pride in my country and I was truly proud to be an American. With all that in mind, and historically, the significance of this moment I pray we march steadfastly into the future. Good Luck to us all. Not just “Black” America, or “White” America, or “Latino” America but to “ALL” America! God Bless us all!