Decoding Skorman: Nappy Head

originally run 4/25/11

re-running because i'm watching skorman's effort to close the drake power plant

and also for black history month

All right folks...I'm gonna ask you:  Do you know what flava is? Have you ever had some in your ear?

In the story below, you will read that Rosemary Harris-Lytle -- president of the Colorado Springs chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People -- called Richard Skorman "the man who brought flavor to Colorado Springs"...and that prior to him, the city of Colorado Springs had been "bland...Wonder Bread bland....Thank God for Richard and the flav-uh."


Oh?   


Well, Rosemary, I gotta ask: what flavor, exactly...the flavor of matzah? Because that's the flavor of unleavened white bread, which is much like a saltine cracker...and is comparable to the flavor of Wonder Bread.


COME ON!!! Do you know how many times I've been told that I act and talk "too white" by the Black-Enough Police of Colorado Springs?!? 


IF RICHARD SKORMAN HAS FLAVA, THEN HE IS ALSO A NAPPY-HEADED HO...AND ROSEMARY'S FAMOUS CHICKEN-DIPPIN' SAUCE IS GREAT IF YOU'RE THIRSTY FOR A GLASS OF WATER.


I don't get it.


Rosemary's unconditional support of Pete Lee and his Restorative Justice fluff made me think a lot less of Pete, of course, and certainly less of the NAACP -- but this actually made me think less of Rosemary...who at this point strikes me as willing to say or write whatever's necessary to keep the white liberals and socialists feelin' satisfied...but isn't nearly as amenable towards black folk who might benefit from the same sort of bolstering.


In closing, all the stuff about Skorman and what a great dude he was during the Hurricane Katrina stuff is more ado about nothing much...yet another endeavor that was actually the doing of Tim Gill and the Gill Foundation.  I had a chance to meet one of the Hurricane Katrina survivors, and I gotta tell ya -- that "cleaning lady" turned out to be a plain ol' Loosieana Crackhead who Colorado Springs would have been better off without.  I'm not saying that about all of the hurricane survivors -- indeed, I find that story still very tragic and sad.  But whatever -- that's what I have to say about it. 

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GREEN TECHNOLOGY NEWS February 21, 2009 AROUND TOWN:  Community pays tribute to 'Poor Richard' (Gazette, The (Colorado Springs, CO) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Feb. 21--He's the love-and-peace hippie who started his local restaurant career sporting an earring -- not exactly the norm for fellows in the 1970s -- with his curly long hair in a ponytail.

Now an admitted "old hippie," Richard Skorman faced friends and admirers to receive the top annual Citizens Project social justice award Feb. 12. Called the Divine Award, it's named for group founder Amy Divine.

A suit and tie replaced Grateful Dead-era shirts, and Skorman's hair was pulled back in...oops.  As Mary Lou Makepeace wrote in a tribute, "he now has less hair, in fact, NO hair."  During the combination roast and love fest at The Warehouse, the 1975 Colorado College graduate from New York by way of Ohio heard himself saluted for environmental advocacy, protecting human rights, being a community activist promoting dialogue between polar opposites and working to better his community through the political process.

When he opened his first business endeavor in the mid-1970s, a downtown eatery called Poor Richard's Feed and Read, he really was "Poor Richard," wrote Makepeace. Then his businesses grew as he added a bookstore, an independent movie theater, cafe and wine bar and a toy store. He was elected to the city council and chosen vice mayor.

All the while Skorman served others, his friends said, going back to the early days of his restaurant when he turned the lunch hour over to employees several days a week so he could cook at the soup kitchen.

Roaster-toasters Jerry Heimlicher, Sharon Berthrong, Makepeace, Jodie Allen and Annie Oatman-Gardner echoed one another that Skorman "sees the good in every person." "Even Doug Bruce," quipped one presenter as the crowd burst into laughter.

Skorman's wife, Patricia Seator, teased that after he had lunch with a particularly unlikable local sort, her husband returned with some positives about him, and she wondered whether there was anyone anywhere he didn't like. Skorman's reply: "Saddam Hussein." "Don't give me that," she retorted, telling him that if he had lunch with Hussein he would have come away with something good to say about the man.

NAACP head Rosemary Harris Lytle called Skorman "the man who brought the flavor (pronounced with a Southern "flav-uh") to Colorado Springs. Lytle said she had bemoaned that her city was "bland ... Wonder Bread bland." After Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans and "Colorado Springs threw out the welcome mat for the survivors. Richard was the one who made it happen. Thank God for Richard and the flav-uh." 

The man of the hour said that in his community and the like-minded Citizens Project crowd he sees people who love their neighbors and love the land. He marvels that "I can go around the city and see things I had a hand in. We've made it a better place and we're not done yet. Colorado Springs needs people like us." Then he helped the Rev. Dennis Mose with a rousing singalong encouraging all to let their little lights shine, "Let it shine, let it shine." 

Cheering on Skorman were Citizens Project's Barb and (on Egyptian drums) Jeremy Van Hoy, board President Amanda Mountain, Cyndi Parr, Marjorie Noleen, Dolores Quinlisk, Lura Lee, Craig and Gail Johnson, Mike Maday, Jim Woods, Margery Layton, Margi Duncombe and Zoa McGuire, Shirley Killeen, Jane Ard-Smith, Pete Lee, John and Kathy Crandall, Vickie Follick, Bruce Helm, Jay Patel, Richard and Christy Stettler, Connie Dudgeon, Michael Duncan, Sharon Friedman, Barry and Vickie Noreen, Peg Bacon and Kimberley Sherwood.

Copyright (c) 2009, The Gazette, Colorado Springs, Colo.