Black in America...So Now What?

So I spent some quality time with Soledad O'Brien and CNN for the first time in close to a year. I had anticipated CNN's "Black in America," because I had a feeling that the documentary would be done fairly well. I didn't know what would be done fairly well, but I knew it would be worth watching. Well, it was. However, it recited the problem very well but didn't have much in terms of solutions.

I thought it was more useful, to non-Americans (by culture, I mean). A friend of my wife was here from Nigeria and he found it very interesting. Although like me, he wished more time had been spent on talking about the solutions to the issues.

It reminded me of how far I had come in America as a Nigeria-American, personally, and especially professionally over the last two decades. Change has occurred, but not as much as the mainstream media may believe. I've yet to work in a department where a person of color was in charge. For all the talk of Barack Obama, the media can conveniently forget that his mother is white. That has got to count for something. Also, whenever I've seen a person of color in a position of power outside
Human Resources (what we used to call "Personnel"), they've been of a fairer complexion. I think only Eric Dyson spoke to this. Particularly its role "within" the Black American community. Well, other black non-American communities too, in my experience.

So solutions? Education, check. Personal responsibility, check. Role models worthy of emulation, check. Environment conducive to success, check? Getting out of our comfort zones, check.

Bike Week - Laconia 2008

Well, another Bike Week in Laconia, New Hampshire has come and gone. And yes, it rained, as it has every year, save one, in the fourteen years I've made the ride up from Massachusetts or back.

This year, it was just me and Big Bertha (he rides the Ninja ZX-11, left). My ride is the Hyosung GT650R (right). Never heard of it. Most bikers I've spoken too haven't either.

The plan was to have about six of us do a grand ride. But alas, we are all dads now so our time is not always ours and some gents had to decline our annual adventure at the last minute. It doesn't bother me one bit, as I'd rather have them be good dads to their kids, than good riding buddies, if I had to choose one. Really, I want both :)

Oddly enough, this was the first year since we've all been dads that our bike weekend didn't conflict with Fathers' Day, at all.

We left Medford, MA late Saturday, at about 9 p.m. and peeled up Route 93 North towards Concord, NH. I love riding at sunset, the breeze is just right, and the sky is a motley of red, orange, pink, yellow, and purple. Concord is about the halfway point to where we usually stay in NH and gives us the opportunity to enjoy some spirited riding before a late dinner.

Normally, after dinner we just head straight to Big Bertha's father-in-law's place to rest up for our day of chilling and riding in Laconia. However, Big Bertha suggested since we were closer to Laconia then we were to our beds, we should do a drive-by. We arrived at Weirs beach at midnight and the place was still awake, albeit subdued (subdued being a relative term). Now quite chilly, we checked out the latest and greatest in bike-ware as well as some good old machinery that, although past their day in the spotlight, still did that for which they were created.

Laconia P.D. were out in full force seeming to be as many as one for every ten people on the strip. By 12:30 a.m., Big Bertha and I had walked the length of Weirs Beach and back to the landmark, bulb-lit sign marking the beginning of the strip. We called our respective misses, and Mrs. Big Bertha commented that we were nowhere where a bed were we. We both grinned and promised to be at her father's place in thirty minutes. We did just that and then passed out.

The next day, it poured, all day. We never made it back to Laconia on Sunday.