Jack Fu wrote: > > * I didn't know that there are woods and parks where you can get > away from mean city streets and take a walk through the woods. > (BTW, I used to live in NYC and, before I had a car, I took public > transportation to some nice places where there are trees, streams, > etc.)SNIPPED > > * I didn't know that for an annual fee of 10 dollars (not sure > about the amount) I can get a NY Public Library card and read and > borrow books there. (Oh but where is an underprivileged kid like me > going to find 10 dollars?) Actually library cards in NYC are free; have been for over a century. > > It reminds me of what used to be called the White Man's Burden: > If only Big Shot Great White Man would educate me on how I can get > to a place with trees and streams, on how to find where I can learn > a skill, on how to avoid getting pregnant, on the importance of > wearing a raincoat when I go out in the rain so I won't catch > pneumonia... then I would be lifted out of my slough of despond and > become a happy and fulfilled person. I am not sure I follow you. But this is as good a time as any to tell my Lone Ranger and Tonto story. The pair are riding across the plains when suddenly they see a band of Indians following them along the ridge lines to either side of them. The pair gallops faster only to see that the way ahead is cut off by another band. The pair wheels around to retreat to find the way behind them blocked. The Lone Ranger turns to Tonto and asks "What do we do now?" Tonto looks him up and down and responds "What do you mean we, White Man!" I guess you hada be there. > > It goes on and on. Okay. I was manning a watertrail booth at the Yonkers Riverfest on Saturday along with other environmental interest groups that had booths there (For non-New Yorkers, Yonkers is a large town on the Hudson bordering on NYC on the north). Along came an African American woman in her 50s with several of her teenage sons. I guess I must look like a sympathetic type. And so she and her sons almost all at once asked "What is that thing over there? We can see it from our apartment and have looked at it even through binoculars but we don't know what it is." I looked at what they were pointing toward. It was the Palisades, a line of igneous rock cliffs up to about 300 feet high that run for some 15 miles on the New Jersey side of the Hudson. The boys had lived there in Yonkers all their lives and she probably a good portion of hers. They did not know about the Palisades, honest. The Yonkers Riverfest had bought them out and wandering into our exhibits area; they had decided to ask because of the event's river focus. At the next booth it so happens was a Park Ranger with an exhibit on of all things, the Palisades Interstate Park. He was able to hand them a map and some brochures and talk to them about the wonders of this very special place within minutes of their urban world, which I am sure you probably visited when you lived here. And we told them how to get there by public transportation. Jack, did we somehow do something wrong or that you may find offensive in helping those people out? > >> As various minorities arrive into the mainstream there is > something more to life than work. > > Really Ralph? I never knew that! I don't know why but I am always saddened when I see a person turn to sarcasm. It is such a waste and so mean spirited. I have never understood why anyone ever resorts to it. best, ralph -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Ralph Diaz . . . Folding Kayaker newsletter PO Box 0754, New York, NY 10024 Tel: 212-724-5069; E-mail: rdiaz_at_ix.netcom.com "Where's your sea kayak?"----"It's in the bag." ----------------------------------------------------------------------- *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced/forwarded outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Mon Sep 25 2000 - 22:48:53 PDT
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