Who's That Man In The Mirror Staring Back At Me?
Tonight I am not posting any restaurant review nor am I bantering back and forth with friends and foes here on Teak Door. Tonight I am taking a look at myself. I am talking to and arguing with myself. Some posters here may take some jabs at me and that is fine. I have taken some jabs at myself tonight as well.
I am, or maybe I was Chitown.....as I am not sure who I am tonight. There are many guys with the nickname Chitown in Chicago, but I am the Chitown of the Edgewater neighborhood on the far North side. I grew up rough and tumble, but even though the streets were my classroom I still possessed some degree of dignity, maybe a sort of streetwise class or old school chivalry. We did not throw down for just any reason. Maybe it was defending the family name or a best friend. Sometimes all you had was your family name and you had to take to fists to defend it.
Sometimes you fought for those that could not defend themselves. Like Dougie. Dougie was a scrawny autistic kid that was constantly picked on. No one cared for Dougie, not even his own family. I would fight for Dougie and did several times. I remember he was cornered in a restroom stall by several boys and they were chanting "rats rats". Now Dougie had an EXTREME fear of rodents. So these boys got a whipping by Chitown that day. To this day, if i am back home, I can always find Dougie hanging out by the local supermarket and I always have a long talk with him. I care about Dougie.
Other times I have came to the defense of a woman being abused. The group of friend's I ran with would put the smack down on a man for hitting a woman in our presence. We would turn a bar into a tag team wrestling mat and punish a wife beater breaking tables and chairs if need be. I hate those that abuse women.
I love dogs. There are some dogs I know that I like better than people! I never put the hurt on anyone for abusing a dog, but that is because AI never caughh anyone doing so. But if I did, there would have been hell to pay.
So tonight, I had to take a long, long look in the mirror and ask "Chi are there?"
"What has Thailand done to you?"
"Are you in there"
Here I am living in Thailand where people just do not care about anyone. Lives are expendable, dogs die on the street of who knows what (thinking of Hairy the mangy dog on the soi that I posted a pic of), and NOBODY really gives damn. Human rights are trampled daily. The rich Thais tread heavy on the poor, the mafia and loan sharks are merciless and no one cares. I see it in their eyes. People are a shell here and many have no hope and no one cares, not even themselves.
Thailand - Land of Smiles, destination of world travelers and fun seekers galore. What a lovely country where a whole generation of Burmese people have grown up in refugee camps. What is the result of a people that are born raised and buried in a refugee camp??? Lao Hmong in a refugee camp without the basic essentials needed to survive and the UN is not allowed access. Freedom of speech is oppressed and even if it was 100% allowed the masses would fold to the "upper crust" Thais wishes to shut their mouths and take what ever is crammed down their "Thai Smiling" mouths.
What has become of Chitown? Is the Edgewater neighborhood so far away? Have I forgotten how I defended the "Dougies" that were too weak to make it it wandering the halls of Senn High School?
