Sunday, October 23, 2005

The Godfather


One of my favorite movies of all time is the Godfather. I’m always a bit torn when asked which one did I like the best..I & II are both amazing in their own ways (III sucks), but I can really dig that Corleone family, especially Michael. Although he was the baby boy, he was the one anointed to take over the family’s business. Of course some may argue that things would have been different if Sonny had lived, but I disagree. Michael had to be the next Don, Sonny was too temperamental and Fredo was too weak.



One of the major turning points in the movie was that scene in the restaurant, when Michael is sent to kill the police chief and the rival family head with a pistol stashed behind the toilet in the bathroom. Before he ‘wacks them’, he has a conversation with Barzini over dinner. In this
particular scene, the police captain is stuffing his face, Michael and Barzini just have drinks over the bargaining meeting..but right before they get DEEP into the negotiations, Barzini motions to the police captain that he’s going to ‘Speak to Michael in Italian’. Of course the cop just brushes him off and goes on eating, but the fact is that in the midst of the transaction going down between law enforcement and organized crime, there was still a familial bond among paisanos (country-men) that excluded them ‘white folks’ in the establishment.


Michael wasn’t a native Sicilian, he was a 2nd generation American, so his Italian wasn’t the greatest. He could understand it when it was spoken to him, but he couldn’t communicate his thoughts in it as nearly as good as he could in English. He labored for awhile, between talking through a busted jaw that that same white police captain that was sitting across the table from him had broken a few nights earlier.

So you could just imagine how his mind was clogged with thoughts of having to make his first two ‘hits’ in his life, so he obviously didn’t have a lot of brain capacity or time left to translate his thoughts from English to Italian..so when he got down to the crux of the matter, he just threw off all pretense of trying to speak Italian and said what he had to say in English..’What I want..” After that discussion, he went into the bathroom, got a gun and came back and shot both of them right there at the table in the small public restaurant.

Now, for all ya’ll folks, who don’t know about the Southside of Houston where there’s still a very large remnant of the African slave descendants mixed in with those Texas cowboys on the frontier, we have a different way of communicating that throws some people off. It’s a mix with country people from the woods, East Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama..folks who people grew their own vegetables and had their own chickens and hens, mixed in with a lot of those Creole yella bones and red bones. We say ‘mane’, and ‘what it do’, that’s not to say that we haven’t been schooled in proper grammar, cuz we all have our game to ‘talk like them white folks’, when we know it’s crucial to make that move.

But in the end, when you see us at home, relaxing around our bar-b-que pits with our margaritas being poured up and them dominoes hitting the table..THREE LICKS FREAK!!..we have our own dialect. So to preface this post, I’m leaning closer to my Southside family, so for all ya’ll who don’t speak the language, please excuse me as I speak to my people in my native Southside tongue. I know that there’s a lot of people that’s not going to get all my slang and euphemisms, but you can understand me when I tell you that I’m speaking to my people and I gotta make sure they can feel me and don’t feel intimidated by seeing a lot of words on a page.

You see, a lot of the Southside community doesn’t read..between the illiterate ones, and the ones who never pick up a book to open their mind and sharpen their reading skills, I’ve got to make sure the whole family that CAN read, can feel D. Wash.

In case you didn’t know, I’m from the Valley, it’s all the way in the back of Sunnyside, not to be confused with Paradise Valley which is east of Cloverland (wazzup Robbin!) and North of Hillwood, where my boy Lagette is from (wazzup Gette!).

I’m from that Valley of the Sugar, it’s probably one of the smallest subdivision on the Southside as well as the most isolated. The whole neighborhood is built like a cul-de-sac, with one way in and one way out. Unless you’re going to jump or swim across Sims bayou, (which some Sugarvalley n’gaz have been known to do when them laws roll through the neighborhood serving them felony warrants) you gotta drive down Dulcimer to get in or out of the Valley.

Fortunately, my parents have never had to deal with that knock on the door..

Is your son here?

No. What do ya’ll want him for??

We have a felony warrant for his arrest ma’am.

What that bad az lil n’ga done did THIS time??!!

The worst I’ve had to put them through is having a constable serving a subpoena for me to appear as a felony witness in court, but ya’ll know how that goes when you have close homeboys that’s doing dirt. I’m not saying that my hands are completely innocent and clean, I’m just saying that I’ve never had to hear them say, ‘guilty as charged’ and I’ve never had to cop a plea. But a lot of my friends that I grew up with playing on those Sugarvalley streets everyday had to go that way. I

’m sure our neighborhood has a ridiculously high percentage of men born in the 70’s with a criminal record. Sugarvalley is the hood, but that doesn’t mean we all had to be thugs. We weren’t poor, but we always knew what poor was..cuz we played with them n’gaz growing up on housing, free lunch n’gaz. The houses in Sugarvalley aren’t elaborate. but people take care of their yards and homes and all the kids in Sugarvalley are going to bed with a full belly every night. They might not be eating what they want to eat..but they have something to eat.

So a lot of people start tripping when they learn where I’m from. They didn’t know that Southside n’gaz knew how to communicate their feelings. They didn’t know Southside ng’az could get degrees in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University. Stanford??!!

Where you on some kind of athletic scholarship? No.

No?? Really? You look like you could have been a football player or something.

Naw mane..I knew football wasn’t for me way back in the winter break 1980 when them Jones’ boys put me on crutches for 2 weeks with strained knee ligaments. We were all playing tackle football on the side of their house, me, Vernard, Bubba, George Earl and Hard Rock. Of the 5 Jones’ boys who are grandsons to the late Sergeant Jones, 2 are in prison right now, one is building houses and preaching, one is finishing medical school and ain’t nobody seen one of em in awhile.

People on the Southside know what it means when you have friends that kinda ‘disappear’ for awhile. We always pray for their safety and safe return back to the family, but sometimes we all need to get away so that we can find ourselves. Going out on that pilgrimage of life like Kung Fu..walking the earth exploring our destiny, realizing our past. The Jones’ boys are very much a part of my identity. Ms. Jones used to keep me and Vernard when we were both toddlers and our parents were at work. ‘Mainstream’ kids ate that Gerber and packaged food, Ms. Jones was feeding me and Vernard mashed up hot water cornbread with pot liquor poured over the top of it.

Country folks mane..people may laugh at how we talk, or the more rustic way of living..but it’s real and it’s stood the test of time. It’s how the African slaves survived..learning how to eat good with what they had, which always started with fresh vegetables. Greens, beans, peas, corn, tomatoes, okra, sweet potatoes, watermelon..you could put seeds in a ground and till that ground and months later, the Lord would bless you with a crop to harvest.

It’s where the rubber meets the road ya’ll and it’s a remnant of the African experience that our kids today will have a hard time dealing with if those grocery stores ever closed down. Now I used to think this realness was regulated to black folks while the white folks sat up in their house under air conditioner watching those slaves work their fields. But in actuality, there’s a lot of white folks who are very much familiar with getting out there in those fields and working. Understandably, some of them feel as if the Lord has decreed a hierarchy of human races, with some bloodlines destined to always be servants to other bloodlines. Some of that deep seeded Ishmael and Isaac type stuff.

Although there is an unspoken reality of racial caste systems throughout the world, the Light shines on equality for all.

For there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male or female; for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. – Galatians 3:28.

If you don’t believe that Jesus got up on that cross, you’ll have a lot harder time getting past the shroud of racial prejudice. And I’m not just talking about white folks, there is still a very strong vein of racial hatred against white folks in the hearts of the black community, just like there’s a lot of white folks who think all other races are beneath them. S

ugarvalley is definitely a black community, just like the rest of the Southside of Houston. But when people ask me why I love the Southside..why do I choose to live and raise my children in a lower income-working class community..well, they just can’t feel the value of family. When you live in the hood, where people know yo mama dem and know your uncle’s and aunt’s..your wife’s people..your friends you grew up with..your church members..the people who are teaching our kids in school..you know the barbers and beauticians, the bankers, the truckers, the hustlers..well that’s what being a part of the ‘hood’ is all about.

That way, if I happen to see one of my friends kids hanging out on that corner ‘with them n’gaz’, I can front them out..

Hey! Junebug?? Boy! What ya’ll doing hanging out here?? How come ya’ll ain’t in school??

Uhh..we had off today.

Off? Does your mama know that you’re out here smoking on the corner in the middle of the school day?

Uhh..no sir.

Boy! You betta get yo black az back to school right now !! Cuz you best believe I’mma call her and tell her TODAY…matter of fact..what’s her number?? I’mma call her right now..and all the rest of ya’ll n’gaz need to move around mane..cuz it ain’t nothing for them laws to show up then ALL ya’ll go have some explaining to do…Junebug, you bring yo az over here and get in this car with me!

See what I’m talking about? The Southside is just like a lot of other communities across America, too many of our kids are playing in those dangerous streets and if we don’t teach them something real and lasting that will turn them away from that dangerous path, they’re going to get ran the f’k over, ending up in jail or murdered. And it’s not just our hard heads either, somebody needs to talk to our young girls too and give them a hug. Let them know that they don’t have to have their titties and az hanging out to get a man’s attention and that they don’t have to open their legs to get love from a man.

Whenever I roll through the Valley these days, I’m subject to be flagged down by somebody I grew up with, who happens to be visiting their mama or daddy or just hanging out….

Wazzup witcha up D. Wash!!!!

Look out there Big Fella!! How yo family doing mane??

Oh..everybody doing alright, it’s all good.

Where them books at n’ga?? I’m ready to start servin them hoz up!!!

It ain’t ready yet.

Whatchu waiting on mane?? I been talking yo shit up everywhere I go..people ready for that Real Game!!

You know how it is..I got it cooking, but you already know how I do it, I grind so hard at it, that I make them coffee mugs crack with the fork I use!!

(laughing) I feel ya n’ga!! I peep them context clues!!!

Hmm..yeah,(smiling) you feel me!!..It’s coming along mane..I got my base, but now I gotta hit it with that B-12 to make it fluffy.

OOOOweeee!!! Mane..I KNOW you go be f’king they head UP D!!

The Lord has really blessed me mane..He’s answered every prayer I’ve ever had and I would be a sorry az n’ga if I didn’t open my mouth and tell somebody just how good He really is!

And that’s FO-REAL mane..cuz you know a n’ga like ME know how good the Lord is..I got ran over by a car and was laying in that hospital bed and the Lord came and took care of me n’ga..I ain’t trippin.

I’m telling ya..it’s just that I realized that a lot of people can’t feel em cuz they too caught up with stacking that paper and making it through, that they forget to take the time out and thank the Lord for all the things He’s done for them.

Ain’t THAT the truth! Lot of these n’gaz walking around here acting like nobody ain’t never did sh’t for they black az..Jesus got up on that cross for you TOO n’ga! You just too stupid and selfish to realize it!

Already! But look here mane..since we right here in the middle of the street stopping traffic and these people are blowing to get by, let me gone and make it over here to my momma and daddy house, but you got my cell number, just hit me later so we can go get some brews and chop it up on that domino table or something.

That’s a bet n’ga!

I’mma holla atcha D.Wash!!

You do that! You know where I be. www.servinemup.com!!!

All-READY!

Sugarvalley is the place where I grew up, but our world expanded as we got older, riding over to Reedwood and chopping it up with Pooh or them Meade boys. Slidiing over to Blueridge and hanging out with my boy Curvey, hooping at Sunnyside park, or going back to Cloverland park with them SA Fools..I was never a street n’ga, I just grew up playing with a lot of them. Or as some would say, ‘I have a lil thug stirred in my coffee’.

But so often, my podnas that ended up being swallowed up by the Texas Department of Corrections, whether it’s the County boys or my podnas like George Earl who’s up in Huntsville working on 20 years locked down, a familiar theme among those who got swallowed up by the street is a deficiency of love in their life. It’s hard for a child to make it when he’s constantly surrounded by people telling him that he’ll never amount to anything in life..

Yo daddy wasn’t sh’t and you ain’t go be sh’t either!!

never had to deal with this negativity and mental battering.

My parents and all the people around me constantly gave me love and support..always training me on how to handle things the RIGHT way. And they didn’t just tell me, they let me see their works as fruitful laborers, getting up every morning and doing what they do. My mother’s pots have fed thousands of bellies. From relatives, friends and church members passing through visiting, to full families that have been evicted, or flooded out of their homes and they needed some time to ‘get themselves together’ and back on their feet, my parents roof has been a safe haven for many people making their pilgrimage through life. I’m sure if they would have been around in colonial America, their house would have been a stop along the underground railroad, because both my parents have the hearts of abolitionist.

So now I’m here..D. E. Washington..the youngest child born to The Sailor and The General and God has blessed me to pick up my pen and speak to those of us who Franz Fanon nomed as ‘The Wretched of the Earth’ and let them know that there is a way to freedom. We don’t have to be mired in the shackles of oppression and hatred anymore, there IS a Light at the end of the tunnel, you don’t HAVE to stay mired in that pit of darkness and despair.

When you feed your soul with the Word of the Lord, your spirit will start to grow. But if you constantly feed your soul junkfood, like watching Uncut videos and playing games and watching soap operas and all kinda bullsh’t on TV and on the radio..then your soul does not grow closer to the Lord..and you remain stuck right where you are. Too many people SAY they’re ready to make that move and ‘get their life RIGHT’, but yet they’re steady doing the same things they’ve been doing and expecting different results!

Some people ask, ‘Where the hell do YOU get off trying to tell people what they need to do?? You ain’t no preacher or no professor, you up here trying to act like you somebody daddy!!

Nawww n’ga! I ain’t ya daddy, cuz if I was, I would have whupped your az so that you would realize that YOU ain’t running sh’t either, but your mouth! If you would have had a daddy worth anything, you’d know that already!

Our families in the hood are on life support ya’ll. Marriages are crumbling, parents ain’t raising their kids right and showing them all kinda wrong, everybody is getting their freak on and doing their thang, without realizing that it’s not all about us..it’s all about HIM! People start tripping when you start talking about Jesus, it’s a name that Hollywood won’t let people glorify on screen, it’s a name that people don’t want to hear in their prayers.

I understand that everybody isn’t of the faith, but what I can’t understand is people refusing to examine the Way that He prescribed for us to go. How can you hate when you haven’t even tried Him? On this fact I stand resolute, there is no other name that can save our families today. Some people say we need to just focus on the kids, educating them so they can get good jobs and lead prosperous lives, but if we don’t give them that foundation in the Way of the Lord, then they’ll still be seed sowed on barren land. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole wide world yet lose his soul? When you start with that heart, hitting them where it’s at, that’s when the change will start manifesting itself in their works.

That’s the ‘dope’ that the Lord has called me to push, cuz I’m all about the family mane. And people have gravitated to making the children the focal point of the family, but that’s not the way God meant it to be. We’re supposed to love our children and train them up in the way that they should go.but the focus should still be on that relationship with God, which starts with the man. Once our fathers start lining up to the will and Word of the Lord, that’s when the whole family comes in line to be blessed.

I’m not the only Southside hard head that has been ‘emancipated’, there’s others who have been set free through Christ. One of my closest podnas is from Crestmont Park, he's out there serving em up at http://www.edpce.com/ He and his wife gave me the flattering distinction of being the godfather of not one, but for both of their sons. Before we had the official ceremony at the church for the oldest son, we had to attend a training class that was given by Rev. Kirbyjohn Caldwell, pastor of the largest black Methodist church in Texas, Windsor Village.

It turned out that this was a very small and intimate group (less than 8), so we were able to buckle down and ‘get real’ about what being a godfather/godmother really meant. And it all goes back to the training of the children..in the event something was to happen with the parents, then the godparent is to assume the responsibility of looking after the best welfare for the child.

Rev. Caldwell is one of G-Dubya’s close friends. He gave the closing benediction prayer for both of Bush’s inaugural ceremonies. The first one caused a bit of a stir in 2001, because to close the prayer he said, “in the name that is above all other names, Jesus the Christ,” and called on all those who agreed to say, ‘amen’. Of course, EVERYBODY doesn’t agree that Jesus is the Christ and other’s don’t believe it’s the name above every name and still others that don’t think they should have ‘prayer’ at a presidential inauguration, so the flak came from all different angles. But this year, to close the prayer, Caldwell said, “Respecting persons of all faiths, I humbly submit this prayer in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.”

That was received a bit better than before, but some people still rolled their eyes and grumbled about that Name. Fortunately, or rather I should say all praises be to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, http://www.servinemup.com/ is a completely independent website operated by Servinemup Ink, a publishing company which I happen to own. So I don’t have to front or hush my mouth and speak low when I talk about Jesus..cuz everybody knows when they come here, you’re coming to D.E. Washington’s house, where I’m putting my blood, sweat and tears out for everybody to see. But instead of being ashamed or restrained from saying the Name of Jesus, when you come here to servinemup, you AL-READY KNOW, that as for D and my house, we shall serve the Lord. And I’m serving these boys HARD like the godfather that God has appointed me to be. I know it can come across kinda coarse and harsh with the curse words and ‘n’gaz’, but that’s just the Southside in me. Freedom ain’t as fun if yo homies can’t have none. Do you understand me now?? I’m busting these n’gaz upside the head with that Word..that’s how you gotta do hard heads. Or as Michael Corleone would say, “I’m gonna make em an offer they can’t refuse.”