This past weekend I watched that classic black movie "Car Wash". It was a trip back to the 70's, when everythang was everythang, and cool was spelled "kkul'. My wife and I watched and laughed, enjoying this trip down memory lane. At the end of the movie came, for me, the point of the whole thing.

Ivan Dixon's character Lonnie is confronted by Bill Duke's character Abdulah. Abdulah is angry and he has a gun. He demands the money that Lonnie is placing in the safe. Lonnie tells him that he will not give him the money, that there are too many young black men in jail now, and he will not help him be another one.

Abdulah threatens to shoot him if he doesn't hand over the money, and Lonnie simply tells him he will have to shoot him to get past him and to the money. The tension of the standoff heightens until Lonnie eases his way to Abdullah, carefully eases the gun aside, then embraces Abdullah who ends up crying on Lonnie's shoulder saying again and again, "It's all falling apart. It's all falling apart."

The viewer is left to decide, not the fate of Abdullah the would-be robber, but the identity of Lonnie, Abdullah's intercessor. Who is he, and what role did he play in the drama? Was he really a sell-out, Uncle Tom who was only trying to protect "the man's" money? Or, was he really Abdullah's hero, saving him from a life of crime and certain imprisonment? Lonnie was truly the hero for he saved two lives that night. Abdullah's and his own.

Here was an unemployed warrior, Abdullah, who was completely misunderstood by "the man". He was fired, which triggered anxiety that he was not equipped to handle. He panicked, and fell back on the only thing (supposedly) that he knew, rebellion against the white power structure in the form of crime. Truly, it was a crime that "the man" didn't understand, or care to understand the young, black warrior, but because "the man" created the system he was the one to decide what was a crime, and therefore who was the criminal.

Lonnie understood this, though, and even went to the man to plead Abdullah's case after he was fired. He tried to get the man to understand by explaining that if he would just take the time to get to know Abdullah he could see him as he truly was - a young black man who had lost his purpose in the white man's world - and even possibly reconsider his employment.

For without some purpose Abdullah was sure to roam the streets of America and be drawn into the negative elements. Or, as Jesus would put it, the path that leads to destruction.

When Lonnie could not get through to "the man", his last resort was to reach Abdullah, who was, after all the one who needed him most. You see, "the man" did not realize that by saving, or employing (re-employing) Abdullah, he would be saving himself. It's a deep thing, so follow me.

He rejected Abdullah, thereby rejecting his own salvation. Lonnie, the true hero, true warrior, understood and risked his life by placing himself between "the man" (his money) and the unemployed warrior, Abdullah. Lonnie, dedicated to saving the life of Abdullah, stepped in the line of fire, and saved Abdullah's life, thereby saving his own life. It wasn't the money he was concerned about but Abdullah. This is where we as a people must go.

I can think of no better example, no better demonstration of warrior hood, than what Lonnie did in this fictitious drama. We must, as black men, look down the wheel of time and see the destruction ahead of our young warriors, and ourselves, and put ourselves in the way.

We must divert our young black men from this path and back to the path of our ancestors. The term warrior must be more than a word; it must become a concept, a level of service that we as black men, young and old, strive to achieve in our everyday lives.

The white man has turned his back on us. He has shut us out. He has no place for us, or our sons, in his world. As the old saying goes, "this town ain't big enough for the two of us." We must turn our backs on him and everything he has. We must turn to each other and see our own reflection in our sons. In this way our sons will begin to see themselves in us.

They will see their future and we will see out past. In this way we will complete the circle of life for the black man, and the black community as a whole. It is the destruction, the elimination of the black man that has put us in this situation. The white man has removed us from the equation in our own lives! We must put ourselves back into the equation.

Let "the man" have his jobs. We can make our own. And our first job, the first post, first position we must reclaim is that of the black warrior who stands at the gate of the black community and guards it against any and all predators. The white man is a predator.

Don't get me wrong, not all white men are, but the white man who represents the white power structure is, and it is he who we must watch for and protect against. You average white man, or woman, is not really our problem for they too are manipulated by the white power system. Be that as it may, we must be careful and not allow any to get by us because we have not learned to distinguish between the average and the white power rep.

There are a lot of "Abdullah's" out there. There are a lot of "the man" out there. There are too few "Lonnie's" in our world today. Too few. We must begin to do as God instructed us to do, and that was to "be fruitful and multiply". We must find those few "Lonnie's" and begin to make more of them. We must seek them out, but we must be careful not to confuse brute strength with inner strength and intelligence. The warrior is on the inside.

We can deliver our sons from the gangs and streets, gangster lifestyles and drugs by giving them fine examples like Lonnie, by being like Lonnie ourselves. He was a lowly car washer, not a bling-bling, pimp-style, slick preacher type. The warrior is found on a deeper level, at the heart of a man. That is our purpose, and that is our first duty to our communities. It's time to get to work black men.

See you next month

© 2005 By Dan Hardman

Brother Dan Hardman will be keeping the Black community informed on issues concerning the church and righteous living. Visit regularly for new information that could help you overcome and make the best of your everyday experiences.

To subscribe to Hardman's column join the Afromerica email list to receive new information as it is updated. Or E-mail D Hardman at: essaysfromchurch@edincorporated.com

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