BANG! BANG! In Savannah!

Using song titles as my status updates on Facebook everyday is often fun, sometimes challenging and occasionally offensive to readers.

I've done this for years now and the issue is trying to never repeat a song.

After a while it's harder than you think.

Some days songs pop right inside my head but on others I have to go searching ... occasionally I'll use the first song I hear on the radio or listen to whatever's playing at "The Breakfast Club."

It's fun and others seem to like it quoting lyrics in response which, in turn, brightens my day.

It's a happy way to start things off every day.

The other day I posted "Micheal Elliott heard BANG! BANG! ... I must be in Savannah."

The song could have been Sonny & Cher's or the recent version by Jesse J (who I've seen in concert because of the girls I live with!).

It seems there's a shooting a day in Savannah, a city I love though it no longer loves me back.

BANG! BANG! drew lots of responses but the last was from an African American friend who chided me ... "Really? ... Stereotype."

I think it's funny "political sarcasm" which is a dying art of discourse in the United States. Mark Twain, George Carlin and John Stewart best represent the fallacy of taking politics too seriously ... which of course everybody does these days.

Just ask Buddy Carter.

My African-American friend and I have a long history, meeting when I taught a class on "Community Organizing" at Savannah State University, a historically black school.

She was great! An older student determined to make her life better and I was so impressed that when she graduated I hired her.

We worked together until I left Union Mission, Inc. but we've kept in touch through the years.

I'm uncertain as to how she concludes I stereotyped.

A lot of shooting takes place in Savannah.

It's mostly because of an utter absence of leadership ... politically, religiously, civically, educationally, racially ... all propped up by the News ... or lack thereof.

Savannah is among the national leaders in promoting the "Us Against Them" lifestyle.

It's easy to see ... just count the number of "Gated" Communities ... the big pockets of poverty ... the size of the every growing jails ... a bloated judicial system ... and the number of cops (and the number of cops who are arrested and convicted).

It's what happens when there's no leadership.

Savannah is a beautiful place and still takes my breath away when I'm downtown.

Though when I am, I'm forever looking over my shoulder because ... BANG! BANG! ... you just never know.