Do not make the mistake of thinking that because my conclusion is the same as another person's that my reasoning is the same
Solomon Mason (aka S-Train) will not be blogging anymore in the forseeable future. I just had a conversation with him around 10:03pm EST and he would like to express his gratitude for those who have been supportive of this blog and his current situation. The level of extremely hateful e-mail the Mr. Mason has received in the past 24 hours coupled with numerous phone calls from to our office from delinquents has made him feel "numb" and unable to write. He expressed to me that there is a slim to none chance that he will blog again.
Mr. Mason is a client and good friend and I'm upset at this turn of events. However, Mr. Mason's long time good friend Aysel Alves is taking over his blog. She will be keeping the s-train.kaphmedia.net domain for the time being until she changes the look to suit her tastes. I have agreed to keep this blog and her future one on this server.
For those of you who have links to entries in this blog, they will stil be active when Aysel Alves or just Aysel takes over. The comments section will remain open for this entry and the previous entry only.
Best regards,
Tyrone Steels II
Vice-President & Co-Founder
Kaph Media, Inc.
[email protected]
And as for you, Jim:
Posted by: jim long at October 11, 2003 11:39 PM
You will just have to live with your fear.
Posted by P6 at October 12, 2003 12:51 AM | Trackback URL: http://www.prometheus6.org/mt/mt-tb.cgi/1951"Live with my fear"? hey, I'm a realist, S-Train's got a Mossberg 590, I've got a Remington 870. What's the difference?
P.S. Have you got a gun?
I'm so tempted to drop a whole lot of vim and vigor up in here, P6, but, according to Aaron, I'm the martin to his malcolm.
I read blogs and journals under the assumption that what I'm reading is true, at least true in the way the author perceives them. The "actual" truth in this virtual space is rather secondary.
What's more important is how I react to it and how others react to what is said. That's what saddens me here.
If S-Train was Kim Du Toit and recounted the exact same tale where the racial makeup was flipped, would the same people who are challenging Train be challenging Kim? (and please note I'm only using Kim because he would have acted similarly in the same situation)
What about Train's story creates this voracious skepticism and need to debunk it? What about the fallout makes a person delight in seeing Train leave his site to someone else? Train, at least today, feels uncomfortable in his real world enough to stop talking about it in this virtual one and the response is "What are you running from, Mason?"
No, Mr. Mason, even though he has done nothing to disrespect you. No courtesy in the slightest.
What's that all about? What about his story disrespects you that you feel the need to taunt him after, if you're wrong, has been the most traumatic week in the man's life?
And aren't you smug, Mr. Long? Your presumption is that he is running from your prying eyes. You have no idea what he is doing. With people seeking to know about him and his family outside of his wishes after being attacked in his home, his reaction to this seems most genuine.
Quite simply, the man has a family to care for after a tragedy and his own sanity to deal with after nearly killing a man and nearly being killed as well. Your nonsense and the nonsense of others who didn't care about Train before Thursday is awfully meaningless.
Fuck you, Mr. Long.
Damn, p6, I tried real hard to stay civil.
Jason:
You were civil enough.
What really annoyed me is the fact that S-Train explained why he didn't give out all those details and still the harrassment continued.
(Just in case)
Why am I replying? Guess I'm just hard-headed. Look Andrew H. I don't know you and you don't know me from a grain of salt. I can't give you a news story or details until the court case is over. And why are you here anyway? Are you blog-police? Are you trying to ding a "attention getter"? Why man? Why? Explain? And if your foolish enough to believe that every crime is covered by the news, you need to get examined. Man, things have happened when I lived in Detroit that were 10 times worse than my situation and nobody said squat. Just leave, man.
Posted by S-Train at October 11, 2003 01:57 PM
And like you said in the other thread Jason, shootings just don't get the coverage it used to.
Anyway, I suspect we all have the same suspicions about where the need to challenge this came from. And I'll give Mr. Long this much—he said it was because he didn't want the story seen by Black Americans that there's hordes of white Americans out to get them.
And Cobb wrote:
They claimed that S-Train made up the story to cover for his hatred of white people whom he just couldn't wait to shoot. This is what was said on the website.
and I don't even want to know what site he read that on.
But I already thought we thought that hordes of white people were out to get us?
Damn, I'm reading the wrong stuff.
What really gets me about this whole thing is that it was the RACIAL element that S-Train's detractors chose to try and debunk his story. Like, "Oh, that would never happen. Two white men trying to run a black family out of a mostly white neighborhood? Never!"
Cracker, please - what are you smoking? Do you live in a cave or something? Umm, what country do you live in, anyway? Because it sure isn't the same country I live in. As for that "Jim Long" character - who doesn't even have the guts to use a real e-mail address...here's what I think about HIM:
His comments at S-Train's were semimoronic, but two points that he made stood out. One, that "black people would use this as another excuse to whine about racism" and that "blacks are a 'violent people'". The first point just goes to show what he is REALLY afraid of - that maybe black people have a damned good reason to be concerned about masses of whitefolk out to get them. Second, this statement about black people being inherently violent simply illustrates - in the most forceful way - that he is a classic racist. Anytime someone proclaims their own race or group to be inherently "better" than another simply by virtue of biology is meeting the dictionary definition of a racist.
Asshole. Makes my stomach turn. And makes all of MY race look even worse than S-Train's original post did. Thanks a lot, dickhead.
Jason:
You gotta stop reading ahead of the class, man. The rest of us haven't gotten that far yet.
Kelley:
We do know the difference (this is one of the few times I feel comfortable saying I'm speaking for The Black Community).
We can even tell when someone means well and is just doing badly, if given a chance.
Meanwhile, you think Mr. Long is a pain in the ass, think what the Larry Elder types mean to Black folks…the guys that write the shit guys like Long refer to when they need a negro to back them up.
I'm an NRA type and a CCW holder, but I'm late to this flame. If the events occured as described, God bless S-train. If not - so what, it's a good story, and does less harm than 100 urban legends I could list. (like, don't worry about arc welding while wearing contact lenses, they won't fuse to your eyeballs).
I hope that he'll take up blogging again under a different name. His writing is lucid and clear, but with practice could become quite wonderful. Continuing to write - under this name or any other - would be a gift both to us, and to himself.
Hi,
1) I apologize for the typo when I entered my E-Mail address. I have corrected it.
2) D, thank you for the spelling correction. If I'm not the world's worst speller I close to it.
3) I seem to have come off as disrepectful toward S-Train. Guilty (I think he fabricated the entire story) but I mean NO DISRESPECT to anyone else. You'll say "What about
that 'violent people' comment?" Guilty, I shouldn't have said that, please allow me to retract it. I am sorry I said it, I apologize to you all.
4)IF S-Trains story is true I have only the greatest admiration for him. The actions were appropriate and commendable; anybody breaks a window in my house at night and crawls through is going to catch a load of 00 buck shot. I have never attacked S-Train's defense of his family and his home; I've only questioned whether it
really happened.
5)If Kim du Toit had claimed to have fought the battle S-Train fought I would have applauded with the same vigor and, yes, I'd ask to see some substantiation "by the mouth of TWO or three witnesses the matter shall be established." Deu. 19:15. S-Train is witness #1, the arrest reports are witness #2 ( and these can't be located unless S-Train points us to them-which he refuses to do). Respectfully, do they exists? If they do they are PUBLIC records, anyone has the right to view them.
6) Jason, I have no desire to pry in S-Trains life. He published his story on the web for all to see and now he claims some "deal" with the lawyers and the police forbid him from talking about it- fair enough, I'm not asking him to talk anymore about the incident, get P6 to get a police station location from S-Train and put it on his web site.
7) P6 "don't make the mistake....that my reasoning is the same." I'm beginning to understand what you mean, these discussions have been a real education for me.
8) Richard R. " so what, it's a good story"? Hey, TRUTH MATTERS. If S-Train is a good writer and wants to write fiction stories they should be identified as just that-fiction.
Jim:
You'll say "What about that 'violent people' comment?" Guilty, I shouldn't have said that, please allow me to retract it. I am sorry I said it, I apologize to you all.
If you didn't mean it when you said it, I can't imaging WHY you said it. If you did, I can't imagine what you're apologizing for.
It's not possible to pretend you didn't say it. That's not said out of anger or bitterness; it's the simple truth.
"don't make the mistake....that my reasoning is the same." I'm beginning to understand what you mean, these discussions have been a real education for me.
Good.
S-Train is witness #1, the arrest reports are witness #2 ( and these can't be located unless S-Train points us to them-which he refuses to do). Respectfully, do they exists? If they do they are PUBLIC records, anyone has the right to view them.
You can see them if you can find them. If he publicizes the details, he runs the risk of being accused of polluting the jury pool.
And he said that. Several times.
Satisfying the curiousity of uninvolved bystanders isn't worth running that risk.
He wrote to VENT, not to brag.
Now, consider your own reaction. Plant that reaction in the heart of a person who is of like mind with the one who broke in.
Think about what you're demanding…with no right to demand. And back off.
P6,
I said it and I mean it. If I were driving through an inter city community and my car broke down I think I'd be dead within three blocks ,if I tried to walk out ,simply because I was white. That's just reality. I am apologizing for my choice of words and an arrogant attitude.
You defend S-Train saying "If he publicizes the details, he runs the risk....of polluting the jury pool." No one is asking S-Train "to publicize the details", just state the police station address. Is that unreasonable?
Say, you agree "You can see them if you can find them", I've read that you're S-Train's friend why don't you reveal the location of the police station? There is no risk to S-Train in that.
Even Pubicola says its reasonable for a person to request corroboration.
Back off Jim.
I don't give a shit what anyone says.
seconds later: let me be very clear so you don't have to ask again. Train was venting because he was stressed. He has done that now.
Your belief simply doesn't matter. Hell, mine doesn't. So this is the last response you'll get, outside the possibility of getting your ip banned for a day. Pick another topic, have another conversation, but I have nothing more to say to you on this topic.
If you can't live without verification, you're just going to die, that's all.