After listening to StonedSilents's speech on the street not long ago, it got me to thinking just how busy the streets were at one time.   Was it a good thing even then?  Fuck if I know.. I mean sure,  I have a lot of opinions and I'm sure some valid points to be made, but you know, my Wise Guy card isn't exactly a 'wise ass' card so I will leave pure opinion to much wiser... scratch that... higher ranked men.  However, I was glancing over some old letters and writing pieces of my kin only to come across my late uncles personal memoirs.  Among them I found these notes and I hope you will all find them enlightening and refreshing..

People wonder why Ive grown so quiet and they just dont see what i see or understand the way things actually work.  its all a game and you just have to know what buttons to push, when, add a little sprinkle of lucky bastard spice and BAM!  You've got a shot at being your on boss.  But whos really pulling the strings?  Ah, now I've got your attention...

I wander the streets and I can't help but laugh at the characters I come across daily.  The most entertaining undoubtedly are the young punks acting ten ranks above their own trying to fill shoes that older, higher ranking gangsters wear only because they allied themselves with the right trigger men early on; you know, the usual bump and grind mafia personnel.  Neither are contributing anything progressive to this thing of ours and with due time all they will be is a name on a wall.  For some, this wall is the pinnacle of achievement and the forging of a personal legacy.  They obsess over the infamy to the point of having cathartic experiences day in and out. Usually these instances lead to some sort of pissing match, cat and dog turf warfare, city wide regicide of Made Men, Blood Feuds, Rogue Coups, hiding the car keys.... Real sick shit you know?  

Really all I see is a 'coming together' of an old crusty turd with a warm and fresh pile of shit.  Sure, in most cases new is refreshing, but not when it's a warm pile of shit smeared in your face day after day with the expectation it will one day grow old and find a spot in the grass to serve as land mark for all newcomers to tip toe around!  Walk on eggshells?  The next time someone throws that metaphor at you, force them to walk barefoot around a football field with 10000 dog shits and see if the sun still shines out their ass.  Ok, enough with the metaphors and time to truly divulge into the heart of the matter...

We want leaders plain and simple.  No, not the guy who runs around getting his ring finger kissed because he's entitled to respect through rank - You see, we seek; We yearn for a leader who challenges our own level of commitment to a cause; a family.. A man who honors his own code and not just limited to those of Omertà.  And dumbass with a fear of bullets can blindly follow a rigid code of "shut the fuck up" ethics.. It takes a true leader to honor his followers with something much more.  And these men are the rarest breed of all.  So rare are these men that when we find them, we usually do not understand, respect, or acknowledge their own greatness until they have long faded away.  Is it blindness?  A curse?  Are we too stupid or too caught up in our own name that we lose sight of the palace beneath our feet?

I wish I could shake the hands of every man that ever stood out from the crowd and put in a concerted effort to at the very least, be an entertaining character for his followers if not an inspirational example of how to conduct oneself in all matters of business and personal integrity worth honorable mention.  Too many leaders simply stand high up on the mountain waiting for their number to be called with the assumption they achieved something great.  The last time I recall, greatness didn't wait around for anyone and it certainly wasn't considered a "station of life" - fuck, I don't even remember that station of the cross in Church.  I must have been fucking sleeping through that Mass... 

But why do so many leaders wait in line for their chance to slap a name on a wall, call it family, and expect all of the ass kissing and tax raising to be equated with ass kicking and hell raising?  Fuck if I know.  If a bear takes a shit in your house, is your house now the woods?  Fucking so many life questions....

The real question is why?  Why do so few of these men ever come to being?  Is it chance?  Timing?  Opportunity?  Did their shortened stay at the top of the ladder lengthen and glorify their legacies more?  Did it hinder their potential as they were cut down so early on?  What was it that made those men so different from the young slobs and old Neanderthals I see running the streets today?  I don't think there will ever be a clear answer to any of these questions, but I know one thing is certain.  If greatness alludes us, only into the mirror we need look, and unto ourselves the blame placed.  Greatness does not allude great men... Unwise and unfit men allude greatness.  

We can be the peak of the mountain, the most challenging slope, harshest climate and greatest challenger to our closest brethren... Or we can be that steamy pile of shit, gagging all hopes of tangible fondness only to grow old and mark a small piece of earth as our own shitpile of what could have been.  The choice is, has, and will always be ours.  I know I will not sit idly by, waiting for the day my hand is grasped and kissed out of respect for office, rank, or merely for the sake of process.  I'd rather have my legs kicked out from under me, climbing the mountain only to land face first in that pile of shit down below.  At least that way, face down, you can see up close what you're striving not to be and what you know what you aren't - a hot steamy and/or old crusty pile of bullshit.

Ok I'm hoping my uncles words will help she'd some light on what Mafiosos thought what seems like ages ago about the same topic we discuss through and through.  

You know I feel it always will be and probably has been a subject raised by many. My opinion is simply put and may not be the same as others. I feel wholeheartedly that we as a majority always have the power to control who takes leadership. Yes, many want the ability to one day earn the respect to be called a leader, but may never see it. However those who achieves such, they did so with their own tactics and became successful in doing so. If the masses don't like it, then the masses have the numbers to change it. I respect your uncle's words, and hopefully we can try to all prevent being a steamy pile of cold/hot shit.