nomad9

this is a first article of a series of articles i would like to offer and present to you for the next time as my actual work is focussed on collective identity and cultural distinctiveness. now, both do not mean the same and they definitely intend to suggest different things, meanings and approaches. still, we all realize it in the modern, western world: the decline of the community through disintegration of kinship, for one reason. 

here is a good article i've found on the net, accessed on the washington post, 29th january, which i would like you to discover and also to follow the link for the continuous report.

for comments, please use the comment link.

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 The Old Kinship
Team 33 Laments Disintegration of Traditional Values, Ties

By Lonnae O'Neal Parker
Friday, December 29, 2006; A01

It's midmorning on a Friday at the TriNitely bowling league in Crofton, and the four members of Team 33 are in the later frames of their lives, pulling together as a team, trying not to let one another down.

Leadoff man Glenard Hodges, 65, says he needs to set a winning tone with his ball. Anchorman Edward "Shotgun" Garrison Jr., 65, says give him the ball when the game is on the line and he'll bring it home every time. Lawrence T. Thompson, 64, just wants to close every frame. And Ray V. Mitchell, 60, can do the math in his head, letting the bowlers know when they're 20 sticks down and a couple of good rolls would put Team 33 ahead.

Once, they were young men, living in the South, raised by a black community that provided love and sustained attention. They folded into a fraternity of men who preached self-reliance and offered protection, humor and support during their shared struggles. In white places, where a black boy could be jailed or beaten, the world was fraught and perilous. And they might be the last generation of black men who share the memory of being deliberately taught how to walk in the world.

"When we were in the South, that's all we had was each other. We were still competing in school or athletics or whatever, being the best we could be, but we still had the community," Hodges said. And community held you up. Black people have lost that, the bowler said. "We're separate now. Now, we're fragile."

The retired ex-union guys have watched the rules change. In two generations, they've seen some of their deepest beliefs -- in work, family, respect and responsibility -- fall out of vogue with some younger black men. And they've seen their vaunted brotherhood, an answer when the old Negro spiritual wondered how their souls got over, dissipate as black men maim and kill one another over the smallest slights. It's something they could not have imagined as young men, laboring to find their places.

Each of the bowlers on Team 33 has a long view of the lanes. Three of them go back more than 35 years, when they came to Washington and met driving buses -- part of the 20th century's great migration of black people propelled by Northern labor markets and the promise of civil rights. Their lives have been better than their fathers'. They've seen black men make significant social, educational and economic gains.

But now, they say, that promise has shifted into reverse.

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 for the rest of the article, please go to http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006...

edited by jose pascal da rocha 

after a long time of silence and thought about this and that, the meaning of it all and everything else, i just came back to you all to let you know, that globalnomad9 is back, to share thoughts, ideas, and places with the network for the next year. so i wish you all a very good new year's eve and, of course, all the best for 2007, with new adventures, plans, and i will make sure to keep you posted about this and that. have a look at it every once i a while so you are updated about my well-beings and have a look at recommended sites and people. stay warm and talk to you soon! pascal