WEEK OF JUNE 4-10, 2020 www.FloridaWeekly.com Vol. X, No. 31 • FREE Emmy-winning Florida filmmaker’s latest creative venture is also a vehicle to accomplish good. At Home Feathering our nests in these troubled times. A14 X PHOTO BY MILA BRIDGER; ILLUSTRATION BY ERIC RADDATZ / FLORIDA WEEKLY BY ERIC RADDATZ PHOTO BY MILA BRIDGER; ILLUSTRATION Peace X is his John Biffar BY ROGER WILLIAMS rwilliams@fl oridaweekly.com OHN BIFFAR HAD TO ASCEND, BUT with little time left to do it. Spike Lee’s newest Old story in a new body: His “Da 5 Bloods” and more films J oxygen tank was running dry, fresh to stream. A22 X leaving him airless far below the surface of the Atlantic off Cape Verde, 350 miles east of the Sen- egalese coast of Africa. To compound the problem, Long John, as they call him, had been filming in a cave. And, at 6 feet, 7 inches and about 250 pounds, his body requires a lot of oxygen. “It was the last dive of the trip and I wanted to get as much SEE PEACE, A10 X Staying focused Lacking self-discipline? Here are five ways to develop it and reach your goals. A16 X Collector’s Corner The eyes have it with this doll. 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I was approaching my 15th ditional history books or by teachers in my feet,” Woody Guthrie sang, in birthday in Colorado, having been born school or by parents or grandparents, Roger WILLIAMS “Going down the road feeling bad.” 11 years before the 1964 Civil Rights Act, or by pastors or rabbis or coaches or They hurt mine, too. We’ve all had two- making me a classic baby boomer. anyone else. [email protected] dollar shoes on that damn road, and But this is equally as true: No matter Nothing in my American life, no mat- they always hurt our feet. how nice some of us are, or how much ter how hard or unfair on occasion, will I don’t treat any one person differ- He had it a lot harder than I ever did, white people have suffered or endured ever require that I step out a door in ently than another, at first glance, no like a lot of other good ol’ white guys, without complaint on behalf of them- any nice neighborhood of any city in matter what color their skin is. No mat- including some of my own friends and selves, their families and the nation — the land of the free and the home of the ter what sex they represent, what lan- family members. They went off to war, that includes white women and white brave and risk being excluded, threat- guage they speak, or which religion they saw and experienced the most hor- non-heterosexuals, who have also lived ened, arrested, beat up or killed, simply embrace — as long as they don’t tell me rific events in the world and came home in a land of inequality — it has nothing because my skin is white. which I should embrace, too. without some of their friends. Or they to do with what happened to a black No history of immigration in the How about you? grew up in Depression-era poverty with man choked to death by a white cop in United States — the Irish, who included I’ve experienced some hardships in parents who didn’t love them — with Minneapolis. some of my forbears, or the Italians and my life, including three days with no parents who suffered from addictions It has nothing to do with whether you in particular darker-skinned Sicilians food until the next paycheck arrived. that destroy hearts and opportunities — vote for the Democrats or the Republicans. who included my wife’s forbears, all of Another time I shot deer with a .22, and managed to survive with relatively It has nothing to do with whether you whom had it pretty hard — can ever be heated with wood and grew a big gar- stable, productive lives and this singular can see black people now in Congress, compared to the centuries-long throt- den to feed my wife and son for two quality: they could love and they by- or in leadership positions in the military tling, enslavement, abuse and second- years, since I didn’t make enough in my God loved their children. or the corporate world. Or living and class treatment of African Americans by job to pay rent, maintain a car, buy food And none of us have ever rioted and playing in formerly all-white upscale European-American whites. and write bad poetry. broken into Target, burning down busi- neighborhoods and country clubs. Or Not specifically by me, and not spe- I worked three jobs at once to pay nesses because we didn’t like the injus- whether you are married to a white cifically by you, either. We specifically for college. Later, I let people yell at me tice of it all. women or man, eat in the same restau- didn’t mistreat them. morning to night, people who forced me That’s all true, like this: Dr. Martin rants, drink from the same water foun- But by us collectively, since August to shave my head, do hundreds of push- Luther King Jr. never broke into a Tar- tains, attend the same schools, shop in of 1619. And we haven’t ended it. ups and sit-ups on a drill deck, run miles get, either, after girls were blown up in the same stores, suffer from the same You might not like to hear this and I in boots and hold my rifle straight out churches and young men driving Mis- pandemics and behave like idiots or don’t like having to acknowledge: We in front of me in the sun for extended sissippi roads at night were stopped angels, either one — just like white killed this black man in Minneapolis, periods while they kept yelling at me, and shot to death for peacefully pro- people and others. and other black Americans, because we loudly. On four hours of sleep or less. moting civil rights, and 3,446 African But it has everything to do with let a bad white man in a blue uniform How about you? Americans were lynched between 1882 how nice guys like me —people who represent us. I’ve had to hold people while they and 1968, according to the Tuskegee never think of themselves as racists And we let it happen because we got died, lose people when I wasn’t there Institute. That was the year a white guy because we don’t judge individuals at up in the morning, saw nice guys look- to save them or hold them, and try to shot King with a Remington 30-.06 from first glance and we’ve suffered too — ing back at us from the mirror, and told forget people I loved, who didn’t love about 70 yards away while King stood can’t recognize how different this is. ourselves that was the best we could me back. on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in The fact is, white nice guys haven’t do. ■ Introducing... 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