My whole childhood was like that. A lot of crazy stuff, a lot of running from police. Was a local sport, like train-hopping. But that’s all just the gritty side of Cambridge. And even though I’m a rank Righty today, I still love Harvard University all the way, the Square especially. It’s the Crossroads of the World. I was a total Harvard Square rat growing up. Harvard is the Bright Light of Olde Cantabrigia. Harvard was also very active in the community back then, and most likely still is today. Harvard hosted field trips to the campus from schools all over Cambridge. The Agassiz Museum was my favorite. Lots of dead bugs and dinosaur bones. That was Heaven to me. Still is.

So there it is. Cambridge Dark and Light. Of course, as a Harvard Square rat I ran into my fair share of elitist Harvard eggheads, both students and faculty, whose utter contempt for a lowlife Cambridge projects kid like myself could be felt with Hiroshima-like intensity. But given my many experiences on campus, and as a waif wayfarer on Harvard’s Challenge program, I believe most people at Harvard, both faculty and students, could not be more honorable or pure of heart and intent. I’m not going to smash that whole crate because of a few bad eggheads. Harvard has its troublemakers, too. Lots! Just ask former Harvard president Larry Summers. He was run out on a rail by militant feminists.

Fact is, I love Cambridge. Warts and all. Part of my heart and soul, and one of the most egalitarian cities on earth. So when news broke about Dr. Gates’ outrageous charges of racism, I immediately and most publicly called him a bold-faced liar. But not just in defense of my hometown or CPD. I called it based on personal experience. And I called it right on the money, did I not? See, some years back my brother and I, both drunk, were in a confrontation of my idiot drunken brother’s making with five Cambridge cops when I yelled “Your Mama!” at a black cop. We were arrested for disorderly conduct, cuffed, thrown into the paddy wagon and hauled off to the same jail as Dr. Skippy.

That incident took place not five blocks from Dr. Gates’ house. In short, I had experienced the exact same arrest for the exact same charge in the exact same neighborhood by the exact same PD. Who not actually there could have seen how the whole thing went down better? From yelling “Your Mama!” to cuffing to paddy wagon ride to booking in the same jail? Yet Dr. Gates’ hoax cry of racism at whom we now know is one of the state’s top racial profiling experts, President Obama’s Man Show suds-rinsing of Dr. Gates’ crime by sitting down white victim and black victimizer on an equal moral plane in sickening equivocating fashion, is not even the real monster here.

The real monster would have been if Al Sharpton brought his Traveling Racial Arsonist Show to town, which he was ready to do. Big Al lives for incidents like this to spark or fuel smoldering racially-tinged incidents into Towering Inferno proportions. Think about this. Had Officer Crowley been just some regular Officer Joe on the Beat, and not been able to provide the damning refutations of Dr. Gates’ hoax cry of racism, Cambridge, the city of my birth that I love warts and all, might at this very moment be going up in flames, both racial and literal, for Big Al’s race-mongering fun and profit. Just like Crown Heights and Freddy’s Fashion Mart. Nine dead in those two alone. And it would have all gone down over yet another foul race-baiting hoax, just like Tawana Brawley and Duke.

In my city? In my birthplace? He’ll have to kill me first! Over my dead body! Not a rare outcome when Big Al brings his racial gas cans and lighters to town. How Big Al a bullet did Cambridge just dodge? I’ll bet Big Al is breathing a sigh of relief as he watches Dr. Skippy burn in a fire of his own making, yet is even now scouring the American landscape for the Next Big Whitey Thing to torch to the skies. That’s who he is. A black David Duke, as Jeff Jacoby of the Boston Globe so aptly put it. What happens to the next racially-targeted innocent white police officer, his city and his peaceful neighborhoods, when said officer is NOT a racial profiling expert who teaches the subject?

Got an idea. And THAT is the monstrous 800-pound gorilla that is occupying and trashing the Obama Racial Harmony Room, to wit the all-too-profitable and most politically powerful black Lefty racial grievance-mongering Hate Whitey cottage industry in America. It’s got to go. The law, and the law alone, from the cop on the beat to the US Supreme Court, should deal with all crimes and legal matters of race, not the racists themselves. Kind of defeats the whole purpose, doesn’t it? They’re like the black radical version of the Klan, showing up with ropes and torches at even a whiff of white-on-black injustice, real or imagined, wherever it happens in America. Duke Lacrosse ring any bells?

In fact, black Lefty racial grievance-mongering is a HUGE business in America today. With a black President in a 72% white-majority nation, how sad is that? In this Obama Age of Racial Harmony, in particular? Tell me truly. What legal resources and avenues of redress do any and all minority Americans NOT have? The federal and state EEOCs, the ACLU, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and a million other NGOs and government agencies exist, and even live, to redress real racial grievances to the fullest measure and extent of the law. As they should. For ALL races of Americans!

Since news on Dr. Gates first broke, I have been neck-deep in it. It has been my mission in life since to bring him down, and as many of his fellow career race-baiters and grievance-mongers who jumped all over this race-hoax abomination from the word go. Anderson Cooper’s AC360 show called me about my first damning oped on Dr. Gates. The Cambridge Chronicle is reprinting it Thursday. My reports are all on file at my article folder at Digital Journal, including one manic thirty-hour stretch when news was breaking insanely fast and furious.

Lots more deep background on Cambridge, and some very unsavory stuff on Dr. Gates et al. But this has all been a very unsavory episode, hasn’t it?

That monster is growing, people. Worst of all, with President Obama’s direct aiding an abetting by giving Get-Out-Of-Terrorizing-White-Voters-Free cards to the three Black Panther thugs whom career DOJ lawyers wanted to skin alive, and had default convictions in hand to do just that. Why did Obama do it? Aren’t white voters just as protected by the law as blacks in the Jim Crow South? Or are we witnessing a regression of the law in favor of black radicals? When you throw in Obama’s equivocation of Dr. Gates’ crime of yelling racial “Fire!” in a crowded country, it doesn’t look good.

A lot more background in my DJ reports, but here’s two related news items you may find interesting.

AL SHARPTON’S NIECE WANTS REPERCUSSIONS FOR SNITCH WHO CALLED 911

That would be Ms. Lucia Whalen, the woman who placed the 911 call, whom Brittany Sharpton wants revenge served cold on. Ms. Whalen has been insanely persecuted ever since that call, even though she never mentioned race until asked by CPD. Great. Rile up some whack job black racists to terrorize an elderly woman for doing a public service, even for Dr. Gates has it been a real break-in like the one he recently suffered. Like Uncle, Like Niece.

Here are some delightful insights from Facebook on NBBP poll watcher thug-in-chief Jerry Jackson, who will be right back terrorizing, er, I mean watching the polls in Philly:

DISTURBING CONTENT ON NBBP JERRY JACKSON’S FACE BOOK PAGE

‘Killin’ Crakkkas’ is very high on Mr. Jackson’s To-Do List. He also has a very welcoming sign at his home in Philadelphia: “COLORED ONLY: NO WHITES ALLOWED”

I have to tell you, people. I may not be black. But with all that’s going on lately, I’m starting to get an idea of how it felt to be a black man in the Jim Crow South. Tell me why I shouldn’t feel that way. Racial injustice knows no color, people. And Hate is as Equal Opportunity as it gets. Stop The H8!

The most unsettling news story of the last week came out of Philadelphia, where a group of black and Hispanic children of elementary-school age paid for the right to swim at a private suburban club and were denied the experience without cause and publicly humiliated in the process.

While the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton cry racism too often and make a mockery of their cause by exploiting events for their personal gain, sometimes old-fashioned bigotry does rear its ugly head in America.

In this instance, the Valley Club’s president confirmed our worst fears when he offered something far from an exculpatory explanation. “There was concern that a lot of kids would change the complexion … and the atmosphere of the club,” John Duesler said in his initial statement.

Some campers claim to have overheard at least one parent fretting about the sudden influx of 65 minority children at the mostly white club.

True or not, these children were clearly wronged and it’s hard to believe that race didn’t play a significant part in their being tossed from the suburban club on their very first field trip.

Bigotry is not a partisan issue, and to be sickened by this story is the proper human response. America’s original sin of slavery and the stain of Jim Crow make a bad situation almost viscerally unbearable – and warrant a conclusive remedy. This, unfortunately, is our country’s long-term burden.

Many members of the private swim club, removed from its director’s idiotic move, now find themselves in the unenviable position of working round-the-clock to defend themselves and their previously unblemished club. Even neighbors of the institution have taken to the media to distance themselves from the awful act.

“I think they’re knuckleheads up there,” said John Fenton, a local. “I don’t know how you can do that to little kids.”

Whenever legitimate acts of bigotry occur, they should be exposed to the light of day. The media and the legal system – fueled by public outrage – can do the rest. In this case, substantial national and even international news coverage of the Valley Club incident is beginning the process of making the campers whole.

You can read the column in full here.

All it takes is one person to break the ice. Example. Twenty years ago, my brother won tickets to a Journey concert in Worcester, Massachusetts on the radio. We rode a packed WBCN Party Bus out of Boston, but everyone was kind of uptight and kept to themselves, like there were cops in the crowd. So I took a risk and lit up a big fattie anyway. Within minutes, it was like a Cheech and Chong movie. You couldn’t see out the windows. Everyone was laughing, joking, hacking and toking.

So, at the risk of stinking up the joint again, but with the possible reward of jovial comradery and a few laughs, looks like I’ll have to be the first one to light up. The only real question is, will this be the torching that finally gets me arrested?

So be it. Great reward often involves great risk. To be fair, Jimmy Kimmel went to a black barbershop to ask black people what subjects for humor were taboo or not. Very funny stuff. As for me, I’m gonna live a little more dangerously, like Pryor and Bruce. Here goes my comedy career!

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“Did you hear President Obama had to cancel his press conference today? Got his halo stuck in a TelePrompTer!”

“President Obama said he’s unlike all those other presidents we’ve ever had, and he’s right. What other president in American history could fit in at both an NAACP dinner and a KKK rally?”

“Did you hear Newsweek editor Evan Thomas said Obama was like God? In related news, the American Medical Association recommended that journalists covering the President should see their doctors for regular prostrate exams.”

“The Obamas held their first open-to-the-public Easter Egg Hunt today. Thirty thousand guests hid their wallets around the White House grounds for Timothy Geithner to find!”

“In related news, the Obama Administration seized millions of dollars from the accounts of online poker players. Strangely enough, they were all corporate executives who canceled junkets to Vegas on the President’s recommendation. Just goes to show, the house always wins!”

“First Lady Michelle Obama was seen walking around London today wearing a stuffed orange snake around her waist. In related news, former GM Chairman Rick Wagoner was spotted walking around Detroit wearing his ass for a hat.”

“Jimmy Carter was honored by the Palestinians today for his support in helping them toward independence. In this Fourth of July spirit, Hamas revelers set off fireworks on Israel.” (I know that wasn’t about Obama. Just mixing it up, like a good sit-down comedian should. Besides, one Carter’s as good as another when it comes to comedy!)

“Well, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright is back in the news again. Said ‘them Jews’ won’t let him in to see Obama. Seems the Good Reverend is going to unusual lengths to get an audience with his former parishioner. He was last seen roosting like a chicken on the White House fence.”

“Former Obama associate William Ayers is back in the news. Seems he was barred from entering Canada over a forty-year old felony conviction. Fortunately, he was able to catch a ride back with Janet Napolitano, who was just barred from Canada for felony idiocy.”

“As you all know, the President promised to find new homes for the Chinese Uighur detainees at Gitmo. Four are now in Bermuda, and another thirteen will be soon be sent the island paradise of Palau. In related news, the Taliban and Al Qaeda reported a recent upsurge in recruits.”

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I tried to come up with Biden jokes. I really did. But the guy’s a Perfect Storm of Comedy. It’s like trying to make jokes about Curly Howard. How can you top perfection?

So there it is. The ice is broken, and possibly my clean criminal record as well. Oh well. Life’s a laugh and death’s a joke, it’s true. By the way, if any of you have any great joke ideas, or know any great Obama jokes, please post them in the comments section. It’s not like anyone in Hollywood or the media is going to steal them and cash in on them. Have fun!

I can think of no better proof of the victory of the traditional civil rights movement than that these distinguished individuals (and myself) were gathered together under the auspices of the Milken Institute to ponder what to do next. The battles of the civil rights movement so hard fought have been won. To those heroes, on whose shoulders my generation stands I say, “job well-done.” That is not to say that we need not be jealous of our civil rights. It is to say that it is time to shift our focus toward those things that will best guard our victories and secure those blessings for future generations.

Malcolm X described education as the passport to the future, a sentiment that found general agreement among the panelists. All of us seemed to agree that the current public school system was failing our children – not just black children, but all of our children – and that there was a role for civil rights organizations to play in improving public education. The panel was split, however, on exactly what that role should be. Henderson for example argued for dismantling the state run school system and massive injections of federal dollars and oversight, an approach that I see as gulping down more of the poison that is killing us, while others decried the lack of diversity.

Unfortunately, in spite of all the flying rhetoric there was reluctance to amend the notion of government run schools and embrace the idea of publicly funded education.

For 40 years we have poured money into government run schools and yet math and reading scores have remained flat. Class size has been reduced and yet achievement gaps persist. If education funded from the top down is not delivering the results we want, perhaps we need to consider funding education from the bottom up – that is empowering the consumers of public education by allowing the public dollars to follow the students. Those of us concerned with civil rights in the age of Obama should be in the forefront of the fight for school choice, fighting for charter schools and vouchers, fighting against the legal challenges to homeschooling and demanding greater autonomy for principals in choosing staff and curriculum. There is nothing partisan about fighting for the health of public education and against the sovereignty of government schools.

My suspicion is that once parents have choice- schools will be integrated. More importantly the schools will be effectively educating our young people, preparing them to be contributing members of our society.

Civil rights in the 21st century must finally and unashamedly admit that there is a moral component to the enterprise. There was much back and forth among the panelists about the disparate impact of this or that policy, but we as a community are being dishonest if we do not recognize that very often disparate outcomes are the result of disparate behavior, difference of choices and differences in the values one holds and the traditions and institutions one chooses to recognize and support.

We can convene a hundred conferences on education or jobs, but so long as marriage rates are down and illegitimacy is up, so long as we continue to entertain attacks on religious principles in public life, so long as objective notions of right and wrong are looked upon as the province of bigoted unsophisticates we will find ourselves powerless and continually engaged in gum flapping.

Civil rights has always meant the requirement that this nation live up to the “true meaning of her creed” and secure the inalienable rights to life, liberty and private property for all citizens regardless of race. The victories of the modern civil rights movement were achieved because they were built upon this moral terra firma. Until and unless we regain that footing, civil rights organizations will continue to fight for relevance and we will find further victories few and far between.