NOW I AM THE GIANT

As an African-American veteran I am impressed by how the Buffalo Soldiers, Montford Point Marines, Black Freedom Riders and Civil Rights activists, "Black Firsts," Black desegregators, slaves and the children of former slaves, navigated the treacherous tension of being more American than America wanted them to be.

In a maelstrom of slavery, terrors in the night, false arrests, lynchings, family separations, institutionalized emasculation and worldwide denigrations as being less than human, I lay like a defenseless babe in the mud among the feet of the aforementioned giants.

Anticipating my cries, in order to protect me, these great dark Giants spread their bare feet, enthusiastically lowered their shoulders and resisted with wide backs the weight trying to crush me. With uncommon faith, they did business with each other on Tulsa, Oklahoma's Green St., Atlanta's Sweet Auburn and chartered normal schools like the Haines Institute in Augusta, GA and HBCU's like Tuskegee in Alabama.  They integrated other schools like Central High in Little Rock, AR, and my alma mater, Mercer University in Macon, Ga.

The best of their men rejected the visual and intellectual trappings of slavery while the savviest of their women skillfully multiplied their resources and carried themselves with self respect.

These heroic Giants did all these things and more so I could live as a man on this earth. So I could love my wife on this earth. Raise and nurture my children in peace on this earth. Benefit my community with God given talents while I live on this earth.

Those Giants are dead and gone now. They did an incredible job.

Now I Am The Giant.

The Giants before me would be appalled at how I have allowed my boys to remain boys well into their adult years.

The Giants before me would weep at how I have driven my women into desperate loneliness.

The Giants before me would scream and tear their clothes at how I allow the "new" black breed to portray themselves on reality TV.

The Giants before me did not endure the fire so I could live the way I live now.

In the wake the Zimmerman travesty, the cloud of Giant witnesses around me are reposed on well deserved thrones.

The Giants are watching and waiting for me to rise.

Now I Am The Giant.

I pray to God for strong legs, thick shoulders, a wide back, muscular hands, bellowing lungs, visionary/x-ray sight, a shrewd mind, high-velocity will, a nurturing/stout heart with a pliable obedience subject to God only.

Now I Am The Giant.  And you are too.

- David Neeley