Richard Lee Scruggs III
Bio
From the slums of Chicago, born & raised
In the projects is were I spend most of my days! Surviving & striving never relaxing the cops were so rude
The teachers didn’t really care so I did most of my learning outside of the school 🤷🏿
Stories (11)
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I’m So Confused
In the year 2022, I just heard the Republican’s Upper House Minority Leader rant about how obvious racist policies are to ensure the integrity of the country. I’m a father of three & mentor to others, and I can’t honestly tell those I lead that this country is truly inclusive to nonwhite citizens. What I hope for is the spread of truth. Sad to say America’s truth is an ugly one! Kindness is the easiest act, to me, once you are self-aware. I truly do my best to learn every day, create every day, love every day, & reflect every single day! It’s hard to walk a path of enlightenment and not see beauty in everything! Then you’ll work to nurture that beauty! So, kindness is a given in my lifestyle. I strive to embody these principles and hope my children supersede my ambition. Something I cannot do is lie to anyone I lead, love, or respect. Here are a few reasons it’s hard to be of “African descent” & blindly believe there’s inclusion in the hearts of politicians in America. We can march, sing, destroy cities, and write poems until the cows come home! As long as money controls politics here, black people as a whole are in danger!
By Richard Lee Scruggs III4 years ago in The Swamp
The Mighty Glenn
To my dearest friend, The summer of 1998 was a weird one for me. I was 14 years old back then, so I didn’t truly understand how I longed for structure in my life. My anxiety was kinda buzzing as I walked up the stairs of Dunbar Vocational Career Academy. I was so used to the way an elementary school day was scheduled. I was unsure of my new horizon. My cousins made me think it was every man for themselves in high school. So of course I was nervous. A couple of days before I went to the school, I was invited to join the freshman football team by then-freshman team coach Patrick Jerome. Coach Pat called me & told me to come up to the school and see if I would like it. So, there I was ready to embark on the next steps of my life. In search of worthiness or a feeling of belonging. Unbeknownst to you at the time, I had a rough childhood. My biological father was verbally & physically abusive towards me. I still loved my father & wanted nothing from him but to love & be proud of me. My father had a rough upbringing as well. He was part of the Great Black Migration, being he was born in Mississippi in the 30s and then moved to Chicago as a young boy. My grandfather was an actual slave in Clarksdale, MS & beat that hopelessness and despair as a father into mine. My father would tell me how my grandfather would “whoop” him & that I got off easy. I digress, back to our first meeting! So, the summer of 1998 at the steps of Dunbar High School on the southside of Chicago stands me. I’m kinda scared yet hopeful I find a safe place to grow. I enter the doors by the foyer & there you are, sitting with Dr. Hall. I introduced myself to you both & asked if I could speak to the freshman football coach. Dr. Hall informs me that you are the head football coach & your name is Glenn Johnson. I already knew this from going to the Prep Bowl (Chicago’s Football City Championship) in ‘97 & ‘96 with my park district Taekwondo team. I was a fan of the school’s mascot. It was an ancient Egyptian King & Queen called the Mightymen & Women. You looked me up & down & told me I was an offensive lineman. I only played linebacker in elementary school, so I disagreed. You were humored by my talking points. Later on, in my sophomore year, you told me since you met me you believed I was very smart. I could tell by our first conversation. You held such a mean, stand-off, commanding, intimidating nature to everyone else but I swear I thought you were funny from the beginning! You took me on a tour of the first two floors of the school. We talked about sports, the city neighborhoods, & music. Then we ended at the athletic area of the school. You took me into the main gym where a lot of championship banners hung. You asked me what program had the most banners. I said football which did by a landslide. You shrugged your shoulders and walked off saying I’ll see you around Scruggs.
By Richard Lee Scruggs III4 years ago in Humans
Souls Adrift
My home is so beautiful at sunrise. The land is at peace. The entire forest, adjacent to the town I’m from, is littered with songs of the birds as the sun's rays pierce through the trees. Most of the animals hide throughout the night & rejoice once they can frolic. Deers, bears, mountain lions, foxes, & all sorts of game live in this beautiful place. The forest is also home to an ancient creature my people have fought for thousands of years. The creature stands about 20 feet tall, has massive wings, & breathes out fire at will. My people, due to living close to this creature, over the centuries became a warrior clan.
By Richard Lee Scruggs III4 years ago in Fiction
A Thin Line
On the island of Pangea, there was a different type of being. Not all the way human & no longer just sentient energy. This new form of being gestated on the planet known now as Earth. Millions of years ago, beings of pure light discovered the newly forming planet Earth. It poured a liquid substance from the sky for nearly a thousand years upon the light being’s arrival. Then suddenly a large explosion made a more tangible substance emerge from the two parts hydrogen/one part oxygen substance that surrounded the planet. The light beings watched as hundreds of thousands of years passed as life forms formed. The new life came in all sizes! One of the light beings decided to adapt elements of this new world to further experience this new way of creating. The light beings were from a reality before the one we know. Creation was more controlled where they were from than here on Earth. The light being who decided to touch & unexpectedly merge with Earth would signal a being from their home. The act of merging two different entities of immense power summoned Djehuti, the bearer of Law and Intelligence! As law descended on Earth the other light beings followed. The first light being to merge with Earth fell into the more tangible substance. The light being noticed the constant duality in every element on this planet. Once the light being emerged from the Earth's surface it developed a brain-type organ. It wanted to store all the information it was receiving about this planet. Then the light being formed an optic extension of the brain to view all its surveys. Then it developed an extension of the brain to pick up vibrational waves. The light being then split all these organs into two. So there floated a brain with two sides to it, with two eyes, & two ears. A long extension flowed from the bottom of the brain into the ground. The newly formed being thought it wanted to sense what was going on inside of the ground and liquid, so it developed a string that observed the different elements, atoms, and cells in the ground and liquid. Soon millions of strings flowed from the brain down a tube that became hardened like stone. This was to protect the strings feeding the brain information from the ground and liquid. Djehuti watched & took account of this astonishing feat. Djehuti watched for thousands of years as the light beings spread throughout the Earth developing in the same manner as the first of them who descended.
By Richard Lee Scruggs III4 years ago in Fiction
The Sacred Tree
Legends of a tree in Southeast Africa spread throughout most of the continent in ancient times. This tree shined & glistened like a diamond. It was weaved with a special metal that could not be penetrated by most modern deforestation equipment. The metal was sentient & not of this planet. The shamans of my tribe pass down the tale of a mentor who fell thousands of years ago when my people first settled on their land. The chief of my ancestors tasked a squad of hunters to see what the Gods had blessed them with. When the hunters of the tribe went to the crash site for reconnaissance, they saw the mentor in a huge crater. The warriors witnessed the mentor glow & hum, then melt into the ground. The area was too hot to get close to the mentor, so with that information they returned & reported it to the chief & shamans. The shamans were intrigued by the event. They have studied & witnessed mentors who landed on the planet. This occasion had never happened. After a couple of days, the head shaman became curious & walked to the crash site. What he discovered made him fall to his knees in amazement. The grass had already started growing & the crater had become a small sapling. The ground & saplings were glowing in the sun like jewels. The shaman got to his feet, walked to the baby tree & reached for a leaf. Once he touched the sapling a vibration was sent through his body & he saw a vision. He saw a hooded Wiseman and a warrior made entirely of smoke, with a visor the shape of an M glowing a bright blue as his face, wielding a sword he made from thin air. The vibration shook his brain to the point he heard perfectly, “Protect me.” The shaman told his chief about his endeavor. The two decided this was the tribe’s duty to protect the tree decreed by the Gods. The tribe tended to the land around the tree and over the centuries the tree grew massive in size. Many shamans would be contacted by the otherworldly entity within the tree. Either by touch or a dream the tree spirit, as it was called, would guide our tribe.
By Richard Lee Scruggs III4 years ago in Fiction
Westside School
During the spring of 2008, I got acquainted with the oldest son of the mother of my future daughters. This young man's name is Haryu Wooten. I met his mother at a poetry set on the Westside of Chicago. Me & Haryu’s mother soon started living together and she became pregnant with my first child. This would be her third. Haryu’s little brother was only 1 year old and was so full of joy & wonder when we met. Haryu on the other hand showed extreme focus & comprehension for a 2-year-old! The day I first met the pair of young lads, they were with their father & their mother introduced us all. The youngest boy crawled to me, hugged my leg, & smiled. While Haryu sat, arms folded looking visually upset. It was like he knew the whole situation and did not like it! Which intrigued me in a way I never had before. I love science fiction, chess, football, & other matters of strategy. Yet at 23 years of age, I still did not know I was a teacher. I thought I was solely an artist. Boy, was I wrong!
By Richard Lee Scruggs III4 years ago in Confessions
All’s Fair in Love & Basketball
Game 2 of the 1991 NBA Finals, the Chicago Bulls got their first Finals victory! Chicago Stadium, the home court of the Bulls, was near the Henry Horner Housing Projects. There lived a 12-year-old boy who dreamed of being an NBA Superstar like his idol Michael Jordan. The young man would practice his basketball moves during any free time he had on his hands. His mother would say, “l know you love basketball Glenn, but education is most important!” His mother & father worked hard to instill good values in Glenn. Glenn loved & respected his parents. He was an honor roll student at his elementary school. He wasn’t the most popular kid in his class due to his extreme focus. He alienated himself to perfect his basketball skills and stay on top of his studies! He once heard Michael Jordan say, “You are only as good as you practice & prepare. I try to be great at everything I do. I can accept failure, but what I can’t accept is not trying!” Glenn lived by this mantra. Once at an AAU youth basketball tournament, Glenn scored 29 points & 11 of those points were in the fourth quarter. If you watched the film of the game his dad recorded, you will see the uncanny resemblance of Jordan’s game. The kid even played tenacious defense. In his room, you would not be able to tell what color the walls were due to the Jordan paraphernalia! Everyone spoke highly of the kid. Glenn was the type of kid you would not expect to break his curfews or sneak out of the house. Yet after watching the impressive performance by the Bulls in Game 2 of the NBA Finals, he could not help himself! He thought, I’m 10 minutes away from the stadium. I could just go down there & be back & no one would notice. He was mesmerized by the thought of actually seeing Michael Jordan in the flesh. He had tried so many times & failed but he knew Jordan was right down the street! At that moment he jumped out of his bed & got dressed. He snuck past his parent's room and headed down to the arena. He was only one block away. His eyes glowed with the lights from the stadium. He was about to cross the street when two Chicago Police squad cars cut him off. One almost hit him because the driver jumped the curb. A woman who was just robbed cried in the back seat of said police car. She really could not remember the accounts of the horrible ordeal she just endured. I am not sure why but she assured the officers that Glenn robbed her. She was robbed right after the game was over. Glenn was still in thought in his bed while the lady was being stuck up. The real perpetrator ran toward the housing project Glenn was coming from. As the police rode the lady around, for only 4 minutes, she saw Glenn & said, “Him!” The police didn’t hesitate, they made a U-turn and pulled up right in front of Glenn almost hitting him! The officer who was driving jumped out with his gun drawn screaming at Glenn. Glenn was terrified. He turned around and ran. The officer in the passenger seat hopped out to chase Glenn, but before he fully got out of the car his partner shot Glenn four times! Glenn fell face first smashing into the concrete. If the gunshots didn’t kill the young man, the fall did. The kids at his school were truly hurt. They held a vigil for him the night the Bulls won the Championship. I think he had a closed-casket funeral. Potential gone to waste. Were there any charges on the officer who killed this child you might ask yourself. Just remember this was 1991. Laugh out loud yet crying! All’s fair, right?
By Richard Lee Scruggs III4 years ago in Fiction
Carnage in Queens
I authored this story to spread awareness of the rise of young black girls presumed missing in Chicago. I held from the Windy City yet grew up loving the characters created by Stanley Lieber, Jack Kirby, & Steve Ditko. I wish the Avengers could help with the state of the world now, so I will write.
By Richard Lee Scruggs III4 years ago in Fiction
