masculinity isn’t dead.
they just tried making us a bad word.
but I sure as fk didn’t listen.
a real-life SLEDGE story:
after I retired from hoops I built my dream home in a beautiful neighborhood with a park overlooking a creek and the ranges. the families all have an open door policy so on a given night 10-20 kids are out playing in the neighborhood, roaming from house to house. it’s how it was when I was a kid. how it should be.
a few nights ago my step-daughter and her friends came sprinting home after dark. they were SCARED. they told me a gang of big kids were down at the park and had called out to them, said “come here little girl” and had chased them up the street.
I’d heard enough. I donned my black hoodie. I always carry my leatherman on my left hip and when I go for a walk with my wife I stow a kid-sized aluminum baseball bat up my sleeve. just in case.
my wife had scootered ahead to check it out and as I neared the park I heard some asshole say “check out the scooter chick.”
I got down there and saw 15-20 shapes lurking in the shadows in the park. I stomped straight at them, searching for the biggest one. he was a big kid. maybe 17. I walked straight up to him until I was looming over him, keeping an eye on the others to make sure none moved to take my back.
“what the fuck are you doing here?” I growled.
the kid’s eyes got real wide. “Should we go?”
“Yes. and if I see any of you here again we have a fucking problem .”
they got the fuck out. fast. and never came back.
part of me wishes they had.
Actor Anthony Mackie: "For the past 20 years, we’ve been living through the death of the American male, they’ve killed masculinity in our communities…"