The Most Special Day of the Year
Feb. 2nd, 2007 09:44 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jakebe
Today is February 2nd. It's also the Snow Moon, Groundhog Day (Puxatawney Phil says we're having an early spring this year!), a Zen mindfulness day (or is that tomorrow?) and someone's birthday, somewhere.
With a day this jam-packed with holidays, it's a wonder everything's not shut down and we're all at home eating cake.
Be that as it may, today is also another late day at work for me; I'm filling in for a coworker who wants to spend his Friday night to party. I wouldn't normally mind, but after recent treatment and another paycheck without my promised raise, I'm a little bit disgruntled. I'll be spending my off time catching up on phone calls and e-mails, doing a little bit of writing, and shopping for groceries. Also, meditating.
2006 was both a great and a bad year in many ways. I'm feeling a lot more...myself now than I have at any time since high school, mostly because I just trust that the people around me care enough about me to let me be annoying if I have to, or accept things they may not take too seriously. A lot of the damage around my high school and college years is finally being re-opened and healed, and all that rest and recovery in Arkansas is coming into fruition now. Now that I have time to sit back and reflect a bit on things, I can honestly say I'm just...grateful to know everyone I know. You folks have been such awesome friends to me, it's amazing. I feel blessed to have known everyone I've known. *binkies!*
In other news, I'm already extremely interested in the 2008 presidential elections, if for no other reason than the Democrats have fielded two very strong candidates who'd make history if they got the nomination: Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama. I think sending Clinton to run in 08 would be a mistake, mostly because she's too polarizing even among her own base to make a very strong candidate. She's been handling herself well enough so far, but by the time the general election rolled around, you'd have to wonder how she would come off against, say, Guiliani. Besides, I'm not sure I entirely agree with her politics. Obama is a lot more likable (which, unfortunately, is almost the most important thing in a candidate these days), but I also dig his politics a lot more. He's the only one I've heard of who seriously considers implementing universal health care any time soon.
Anyway,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
toob pointed me to this article about Obama's potential problem with race, and the issues with our prejudices and attitudes about blacks in this country. As Senator Biden's comments suggest, white America isn't lumping us all together as ignorant, lazy, watermelon-eating scoundrels any more, but the view has been replaced by something almost as troubling -- "good Blacks" vs. "bad Blacks." There's also this perception that the black community turns on its own when one of its members, say, starts to speak proper English, wear clothes that fit, and start hanging out with members outside its minority. We tend to look up to people like 50 Cent or P. Diddy or even Al Sharpton because they represent the 'real black America,' while folks like Obama are really just sell-outs and Uncle Toms that are useless because they aren't talking about reparations or keeping it real.
In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. Intelligent, 'real' black people are all over the community. They're not being ostracized from it (though admittedly some of them are), they're being a part of it. A lot of whether or not a black person is ultimately accepted or not, I think, depends on how strong his devotion to his community is. "Keeping it real" isn't talking about what you think the state of black America is on some news broadcast (I'm looking at you, Sharpton), it's living in your community. Facing the problems, doing something about them...going out to the broader world, but always with the knowledge that you'll return to help out the people whom you've always known. It's pretty much not forgetting where you came from, and really listening to the people you represent. Honestly, Obama does that. Folks like Sharpton and Fiddy don't. And I really believe the black community recognizes that.
But then, what do I know? I left the community for college almost ten years ago, almost never to return. My RaceCard(tm) has been canceled and cut. :)
And finally, the the strongest statement yet by the scientific community that global climate change is man-made, and serious. How many people still want to debate this?
With a day this jam-packed with holidays, it's a wonder everything's not shut down and we're all at home eating cake.
Be that as it may, today is also another late day at work for me; I'm filling in for a coworker who wants to spend his Friday night to party. I wouldn't normally mind, but after recent treatment and another paycheck without my promised raise, I'm a little bit disgruntled. I'll be spending my off time catching up on phone calls and e-mails, doing a little bit of writing, and shopping for groceries. Also, meditating.
2006 was both a great and a bad year in many ways. I'm feeling a lot more...myself now than I have at any time since high school, mostly because I just trust that the people around me care enough about me to let me be annoying if I have to, or accept things they may not take too seriously. A lot of the damage around my high school and college years is finally being re-opened and healed, and all that rest and recovery in Arkansas is coming into fruition now. Now that I have time to sit back and reflect a bit on things, I can honestly say I'm just...grateful to know everyone I know. You folks have been such awesome friends to me, it's amazing. I feel blessed to have known everyone I've known. *binkies!*
In other news, I'm already extremely interested in the 2008 presidential elections, if for no other reason than the Democrats have fielded two very strong candidates who'd make history if they got the nomination: Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama. I think sending Clinton to run in 08 would be a mistake, mostly because she's too polarizing even among her own base to make a very strong candidate. She's been handling herself well enough so far, but by the time the general election rolled around, you'd have to wonder how she would come off against, say, Guiliani. Besides, I'm not sure I entirely agree with her politics. Obama is a lot more likable (which, unfortunately, is almost the most important thing in a candidate these days), but I also dig his politics a lot more. He's the only one I've heard of who seriously considers implementing universal health care any time soon.
Anyway,
toob pointed me to this article about Obama's potential problem with race, and the issues with our prejudices and attitudes about blacks in this country. As Senator Biden's comments suggest, white America isn't lumping us all together as ignorant, lazy, watermelon-eating scoundrels any more, but the view has been replaced by something almost as troubling -- "good Blacks" vs. "bad Blacks." There's also this perception that the black community turns on its own when one of its members, say, starts to speak proper English, wear clothes that fit, and start hanging out with members outside its minority. We tend to look up to people like 50 Cent or P. Diddy or even Al Sharpton because they represent the 'real black America,' while folks like Obama are really just sell-outs and Uncle Toms that are useless because they aren't talking about reparations or keeping it real.In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. Intelligent, 'real' black people are all over the community. They're not being ostracized from it (though admittedly some of them are), they're being a part of it. A lot of whether or not a black person is ultimately accepted or not, I think, depends on how strong his devotion to his community is. "Keeping it real" isn't talking about what you think the state of black America is on some news broadcast (I'm looking at you, Sharpton), it's living in your community. Facing the problems, doing something about them...going out to the broader world, but always with the knowledge that you'll return to help out the people whom you've always known. It's pretty much not forgetting where you came from, and really listening to the people you represent. Honestly, Obama does that. Folks like Sharpton and Fiddy don't. And I really believe the black community recognizes that.
But then, what do I know? I left the community for college almost ten years ago, almost never to return. My RaceCard(tm) has been canceled and cut. :)
And finally, the the strongest statement yet by the scientific community that global climate change is man-made, and serious. How many people still want to debate this?
