CHICAGO VIBES

I'm here in Chicago and just totally excited about the vibes I'm experiencing. Albeit some of them are not as titillating as I'd like them to be, my hometown of Chicago is still an accurate barometer of what's going on around the world, and I'm just happy to be here and to be able to check things out.

I do not watch the news in California but while here in Chicago I viewed a news broadcast Sunday night and and learned that there was:

• a number 6.o earthquake in Napa, California 
• two police related shootings of one black man and black woman and another individual black man in two different Chicago neighborhoods and...
• a severe thunderstorm watch for the Chicago area on the next day Monday.                                  

All three news items produced negative vibes which gave me an opportunity to find the common denominator for the barometric pressure felt here in Chicago, and the rest of the known world...that common denominator being fear. This finding was confirmed for me as I drove down the Dan Ryan expressway about 1 pm the next day, and saw about 30 vehicles parked under the viaducts between 95th and 87th street. Might not mean anything to you, but here in Chicago we call that expressway 'The Damn Ryan' because of its high potential for accidents, yet nobody ever pulls over unless there's something wrong with the car or the police tell us to. In all my 65 years I have never seen that many people pull over and I know that a part of it was out of fear of the thunder and lightening that was occurring

Don't get me wrong. The fear I recognized was an understandable fear, as was the fearful anticipation and consequence of the earthquake in Napa, as well as the apprehensive potential for a citizen retaliation to the two shootings by Chicago police officers. My contention is that we're living under the auspices of a media induced fear, initiated and perpetrated by the so called 'powers that be', and that the vibes created as a result only serve to keep us worried, unhappy, and wondering what's going to happen next? 

On the other hand there were the positive vibes I got from hearing again that although Chicago's own Jackie Robinson West Little Leaguers baseball team had not won the International World series, they were still the World Series champions of the United States. You see I got a chance to see their last game, and I got a chance to be on the Damn Ryan' where thousands of motorists were on their way downtown to stand in the middle of State Street and watch those young black males demonstrate that they are not a lost cause, and although they might not win every game, they refuse to be defeated. I got a chance to see their black parents, along with white, black, yellow and brown supporters say... "Later for demonstrations and uprisings and terrorism and starvation and disease and killings and all that other stuff going on. We got HOPE right now and it's going to sustain us until." 

Needless to say, the positive vibes are what I'm on now and they're going to sustain me until...that until being immeasurable because I know that things are always going to work out when they're supposed to, and that all our fears are unfounded simply because they're  only comprised of False Evidence Appearing Real. Don't be fooled by the media, or by anybody or anything else ya'll. Whatever negativity is going on...it too will pass because HOPE...which I've anagrammed as Hallowed Opportunities Provided Everyday... is inevitable and ever present. I don't know about you, but I'm living in the now yet still excited about our future. Thanks Chicago for still being my kind of town, and thanks to you for allowing me to share these vibes.

I'll Holla...

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