Omar and pushing

Omar is a particularly disturbing character for me. Mostly because while he isn't romanticized, he is honored. I knew many men like him. Every literary depiction of Satan sort of has the same attitude and convictions. Satan is wonderfully fascinating and complex, and often quite sophisticated. I am not sure how relevant my own experiances are regarding this world, but I suppose it would come out sooner or later. I used to deal Ecstasy, speed, and coke  in Dallas and Houston when I was fifteen and sixteen. There are two classes of dealers the higher "designer dealers" and the "low dealers". I used to deal designers and dealt mostly with older very wealthy men, and then sold to college students (SMU kids love their coke)  but sometimes I had to go over to Oak Cliff and push my product in exchange for some manufacturer information. Omar reminds me of my dealer (higher up on the proverbial food chain) Tony. He insisted that we be clean while we dealt and never cause any sort of ruckus. He said we should remain respectful of the customer and never sell bunk product.  In exchange he provided various and sundry drugs and made sure we were protected.  The trick is, you get addicted. Not just to the drug, but to the money and the game. Simon is particularly good at capturing that aspect of pushing. Omar is excellent at embodying the irony of the entire situation. Yeah, he's loyal but he still kills people. Yeah Tony protected us, but he still gave fifteen year old kids rolls of E that cause permanent neural damage. It's hard because you love them for their honesty but you hate them for it too.