"Lost In Translation..."

"I choose to run for the presidency at this time in history because I believe deeply that we cannot solve the challenges of our time unless we solve them together - unless we prefect our union by understanding that we have different stories, but we hold common hope; that we may not look the same and we may not have come from the same place, but we all want to move in the same direction - towards a better future for our children and grandchildren."

Thus spoke candidate Barack Obama in Philadelphia on March 2008 as he gave his then defining speech on race relations. It's a pity that the good citizens of Huntingdon Park (a suburb of Philadelphia) failed to hear Barack's speech, but most likely they determined that such words, soliciting the continuing unification of the races, applied to all other Americans but themselves.

Late last month a group of 65 inner-city, minority children - kindergarten through seventh grade - arrived at The Valley Club privately owned swimming pool in anticipation of enjoying a fun-filled afternoon of water activities. The children's arrival evoked an immediate disconcertion among the club members, many of whom expressed verbalized outrage in the form of racial comments that a number of the visiting children heard and were understandably upset by. It apparently made no difference that the Creative Steps Day Care had previously pre-paid a $1,950 fee to utilize the pool on successive Monday afternoon for the balance of the summer; the Huntingdon Valley parent's made it painfully clear that they wanted their children to have no contact with these unwashed invaders from the city. As the club members extracted their precious little one from the pool, one of the fine upstanding female club members, her arms defiantly folded across her chest, stated that she would see to it that the group would not return. I'd like to meet this woman...so I could slap her across her smug face! Perhaps then she would understand in kind the sting of real racism she arrogantly inflected upon those innocent children.

Adding insult to outrage, the Valley Club took continued to take the low road and refunded the Day Camp's fee without explanation. Club President John Duesler, apparently fond of placing his foot in his mouth, later told a local television station that although the motivation for denying future utilizaton by the day camp children to the pool was not racially based, it was done so because several of the members complained that the children (from the day camp) "fundamentally changed the the atmosphere" at the pool. Further attempts by local media outlets to contact Mr. Duesler for follow up interviews have thus far proven futile. Understandable...when the going gets tough the self-righteous snobs find it best to hide under their couches until the storm blows over.

I admit it. I am prejudice. I detest laziness, incompetence and arrogance. Were I a member of The Valley Club I would instantly withdraw my membership and without hesitation look each remaining offending member square in the face and pin their arrogant ears back with a verbal tongue lashing that would last long after the Valley Club's pool had been drained for the fall. No wonder the races in this country continue to look with suspicion and distrust upon one another. Even after 146 years since the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation too many of we Americans still can't even find it in our hearts to allow a bunch of children to cool off in a swimming pool without getting our misguided sense of property all bent out of shape.

Barack may truly believe that as Americans we all share in the common goal of securing a better future for our children and grandchildren. But in Huntingdon Valley, Pennsylvania, that goal still comes with racial strings attached. These conceited egotist should be thoroughly ashamed of their conduct. But my guess is that within the narrow passageways of their elitist minds, that thought remains foreign to each and every one of them.