SAMPLE CHAPTER FOR STORYLINE #3
(CHAPTER 22)
Has not the cycle of discriminatory teachings been one of the most
virulent and egregious influences on humans throughout their existence?
Are not the familial lessons of ignorance and enmity that which slacken
the positive will and poison the spirit of harmony amongst all of us?
How certain are the sounds spoken through blood ties, yet how equally
fearful are these same voices of the inscrutable? Is not that which
reinforces the close bonds of the tribe the same bias which can distance
us all from the global village? How is it that this species is comforted
with the recognition of similarity and the accentuation of differences
at such a facile level, but its fails to alleviate the hardship created
by the resultant chasms of negativity and separation? When will humans
declare the status quo of inequality unacceptable and form a totality of
common ground? When will the family unit be replicated on a
comprehensive and completely inclusive scale? How is belief the gristle
and marrow of our various groups, yet the agent of division for our
idyllic wholeness? Why is our dichotomy of good and evil the obtrusive
catechism of our ethical axioms, however, not the warning light for a
reconfiguration of our generational pedantry?
The Caucasian woman stoops slightly, arthritically bent at the waist,
slurring audible signals to the white boy. Her hand is cupped, craggy
and cringing, forcing the tired, sanguinary veins to the surface of her
weathered and parched skin. Her eyes are a gurgling liquefied mass of
zealousness which shift horizontally between scrutinizing the peripheral
objects of her contempt and focusing their glare on the impressionable
boy at her side. The woman's body is constricted and noticeably
afflicted by a severe muscular rigidity and corporeal fright which seem
to react to her perceived external reality. Yet her entire form speaks
with a self-determined correctness and certitude as she directs and
instructs. The boy is no more than ten and is fully intent on imbibing
the ideas of his mother. He wields a stained and spiked bludgeon with
which he repeatedly strikes a black man. Each blow brings the man closer
to the point of submission and self-annihilation as the boy towers over
him and finds his next spot for punishment and domination.
A black man stands straining his energies, his hands circled on either
side of his mouth as his son stands at his hip transfixed. His teeth
gnash and his tongue coils, conveying expectorations of purulent
vituperative while his pectorals and groin heave and pulsate with a vile
anger and projected frustration. His son, awed at the expressive force
and apparent conviction of his father, stands viewing the object of
derision, indelibly immersed and awash in the lessons of spite and moral
turpitude. His eyes glow with each wave of invective that pass his
singed ears, and his heart trembles with a strange mixture of newfound
power and branded evil. The focus of the man's unremitting disdain is a
slender, reserved man of Asian descent who is walking past quietly, eyes
straight ahead. The man continues his regurgitation and spew of malice,
striving for a warped vindication and posturing for his son with a
diseased pride.
An Asian grandfather stands next to his grandson and whispers. Both
look ahead, but the grandfather's words slip poignantly and pointedly
toward the boy. The lines in the grandfather's face quiver and then
droop as he feels traces of a bitterness he no longer has the strength
to express. His eyes are clear yet burn with the anguish of a memory
unresolved and a pain that sears as it lingers in his heart. His
shoulders tighten and his neck tilts backward as he speaks to the boy,
trying to assuage the curse of his pejorative torment like an infected
cell transferring its ailment to another organism. The boy appears
determined, his mouth shut and his pupils emboldened with the incisive
yet putrescent wisdom, and he aims his sneer and scoffing nostrils at
the Caucasian man who sits before him. With a clarity born of familial
hatred, the boy sucks some phlegm from his throat, purses his lips, and
spits on the white man. The boy suddenly feels his first rush of pride
emanating from his first successful conquest.
Surely the transgressions and agony of one generation are not the only
parameters of thought that can be imparted to its youth. The repetitive
transference of insidious belief remains as one of the most deleterious
obstacles to the enlightenment of human thought and the advancement of
the human species.
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