Father's Day, Zen, Juneteenth Part 4

I mentioned Ollen Hunt in the previous post. He fought in Italy in WW II as part of the Buffalo Soldiers. He's been an Anchorage resident since three weeks before the 1964 earthquake.





2wenty (John) is another local boy. He was giving away cd's of his rap album Cold Summer, a title most Alaskans can relate to this year. I believe in free speech. I think there is good rap. At its best, rap expresses the frustrations and/or the hopes of the singers. At its worst, it merely copies the themes of misogyny, alcohol, and drugs, and a macho male power trip. I'm afraid this CD falls into that category. The vicious treatment of women as sex objects in the CD disturbs me greatly.

The contrast between John's very polite and respectful way of talking to me and the meanness of the lyrics is striking. I'd guess this Bartlett High school graduate and athlete is simply doing what he thinks he needs to do to make it in the rap world. What a shame. One could say, "hey, he'll grow out of this." Or "He's not like that in his real life." One could say that, except for the damage these types of lyrics do to women. Since I didn't hear the CD until I got home, (and I suspect he wouldn't have been allowed to play this at the celebration) I couldn't ask John about the lyrics and why he felt the need to rap them.


A toast to serendipity. The next person we talked to was dealing with the victims of sexual assault. Barbara Bachmeier who is in charge of Women Serving Women Veterans, an organization for the victims of the worst rap lyrics is the subject of the next video. But, women were being assaulted long before rap came out, so my intent is NOT to blame all sexual violence on rap. Barbara works to get the military and the VA to take women's sexual assault claims seriously and to provide women in the military with the medical care they need following sexual harassment and assault. You can reach her at

WSWV
PO Box 100723
Anchorage, AK 99508
[added August 9, 2008: http://www.wswv.blogspot.com/]