For a lot of people I know, this place would not be their cup of tea. I also imagine that for a lot of people who know me, they wouldn't expect me to like it here much either. Everything here kind of goes against my personality. People here are often set in their ways and change seldom rears its beautiful head. You can blame that on reconstruction. After experiencing that, who would like any new idea? Though I am originally from this state of place and mind, I am obviously of different life experience and perspective. I get impatient at strangers who want to talk all day to me. I dress different than most white men down here, and I don't refrain from cussing around women. I also find the politics down here to be slightly more juvenile than they were in Illinois (hard to imagine, but true). The worst of it is that the air down here actually parts my hair, I mean it actually makes it look on purpose most of the time. I cant stand that! But in spite of all of these things, I really like it down here. I really do. Let me give you a little info on this fine town.
The city of Birmingham has a lot of faces. The face of the civil rights movement is seen in its downtown environment. Literally the only reason to be in this part of town is to visit the civil rights museum, and maybe to speculate at the co-mingling of tall buildings, abandoned buildings, and under-developed land (Henry George help us). It takes all of five minutes to realize the only white people down here are either headed to a business meeting, or lost tourists. Where did they all go, you say? Well that can be seen by anyone on highway 280 during evening rush hour. This strip of prominence is classic white man's land. The further east you drive to get home on this road likely correlates with your declining desire to pay taxes. I myself actually live close to downtown on 280 with those too wealthy to care. I moved here for 4 reasons: the area is a small community of 3 "village centers" that I thought my wife would like to explore, its just down the street from the zoo and botanical gardens, other than the golf course (I hate golf courses, worst thing to come out of Scotland) nature here seems to expand unfettered, and there is a killer whiskey bar nearby.
Trendy five points for me carries the face of its patron saint, Courtney Cox, so I don't often associate with the area. Unless of course this involves a trip to the blue monkey, a bar with sleazy lounges, generous martinis, and extra olives. The rest of the city is a convoluted mess of roads interspersed with small town growth and shady forests. The one thing I have left out here though is the one face that speaks for the city as a whole. Martin Luther Ki. Yeah right. Go to Selma for that one.
The city if Birmingham is bisected by a long ridge running east-west. The ridge only has one hole in it in fact, and that's the hole white people had to blast out of it to escape to the south. In the middle of this ridge, perched as the master of the city, stands a 57 foot statue of the god Vulcan. Why? Well you're about to find out. The god of the christian city of Birmingham, Vulcan, is a monument to the rapid growth of the steel industry that gave birth to Birmingham at the end of the 19th century. Before then, Birmingham was just a smattering of small towns connected by interstate highways. The city dedicates its existence to the steel industry established here, which a had an effect on the city similar to sticking a hose in the mouth of a squid. I say squid here because the steel industry, while in its hay day, also covered everything in black soot. Ah yes! Fresh black soot!!!
Nowadays, the city has winded down since the decline of the steel industry in the 1970's. There's no more soot, thank God, but good old Vulcan still looms over the city, reminding many what they would like it to be once again: a cash cow. However, much of the opportunity has gone to Birmingham's ugly sister Atlanta (ugly because she was the burn victim of arson when she was a child). Atlanta got the big airport. Atlanta got the Olympics. Atlanta got the Ying-Yang Twins, and the list goes on and on. All the while, Birmingham has acted hamstrung over the decades concerning the skeletons in their closet and what to do about them.
Lets be honest. Blacks and whites down here don't agree on anything, save Jesus. It's not the overt racism of Birmingham's past, nor is it really all about the covert racism so prominent in cities like Chicago. It really all boils down to the fact that neither group likes how the other behaves. It's more of a cultural issue, really, than anything else. And before fingers start flying, lets get something straight. The intolerance is fueled by both sides in this matter. It is true that the whites have most of the money in Birmingham, but the blacks hold the political power, and have done so for some time. The whites want Birmingham to be the city of old, with unbridled (untaxed) economic growth, while blacks want their piece of the pie (taxes). Amidst all the wealth and beauty, no one feels like they have enough, and most people are used to murmuring comments concerning the behavior of the other color in public. All Vulcan does is serve as a bad reminder, and a poor example of prosperity. Who wants their role model to be some guy who stands around and admires his shaft all day anyways?
I say we throw Vulcan over the side, and into the deluge. Leave him to his fate. But in turn we need someone to replace him. Let's keep it Greek, but lets not make him a god. How about just a good role model? Greek, mortal, role model, dammit J.P., who could possibly fit such a bill?!?!
A month ago I was leaving church with my brother, and while driving home we were arguing this very issue of racial relations in Birmingham. It was your classic debate over these issues, and to my shame I will admit that I might have quoted Gandhi. It was heated. As the conversation turned into an argument, something caught both of our eyes at the approaching intersection. Both of us stared in silence as a black man struggled to move his dead car out of the way of traffic. The thought crossed my mind to do something, but I was in the left lane and w... ok, I'm a bastard. Happy? But I was looking to see if he was going to be all right when a black SUV stopped behind him, and out came a white man and his three kids, ready to help this man move his car to safety. Given the conversation we were having, we were speechless over what we saw for quite some time. I got a little emotional as well (It was manly, damn you).
When Odysseus left whatever island he left where his men were turned into pigs, he was warned about the harpies he would come across on his journey. When he and his men finally encountered them, great efforts of reason were attempted by the men to keep themselves from the influence of their music. But this did not stop their temptation, and they gave in to the music of the harpies, drifting ever closer to meeting the fate of so many people before them. Then a sound came from the opposite direction, playing an even more beautiful tune. This music, played by Orpheus, was what saved them from their doom. Orpheus had realized that debating the pros and cons over the struggle against the harpies was of no use. Human emotion acts on such a faster level than human reasoning. When consensus is sought, well, no one lives long enough to achieve true consensus. Only a different tune would work at this moment; an action that was more desirable than the temptation they wrestled with. Influence is a powerful thing.
A statue of Orpheus would serve as a reminder of this. Not a god or monster, Orpheus serves to us the idea that racism can be resisted. There really is no use debating who is wrong in the issue. The only thing that will save humanity from racism is a different tune, one of good examples that encourage us to improve our behavior by improving the lot of others in life. I was blessed to see what happened on the road that day, and I hope that this story will somehow become a part of why I moved to Birmingham.
"We live in a universe not of clocks but of clouds" - Jonah Lehrer, Wired Magazine
The full article, "Breaking Things Down to Particles Blinds Scientists to Big Picture", can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/27usx3q
