I get really scared when I hear a lot of my classmates, friends and peers suggesting that Sarah Palin would be a better president than Barack Obama. These are the same people whose parents voted for George Bush twice, so I can only imagine the brain washing that went on in their households. Probably had Fox News on 24/7 for eight years.
It's just scary to think that these kids, the future of America, the future work force... have these insane notions about leaders. Leaders who have shown their true colours and proven themselves to be useless and worthless as public servants.
I was there was an island somewhere, where there were no politics, no one in charge and no power struggle. Everyone just did their own thing and got along and if there was ever any trouble there was punishment to be decided by the local people as a collective unit. No war and no death or destruction, just people trying to scrape by, like we've been trying to do for thousands of years.
When I think about the future of this country, I get so scared it almost makes me physically ill. Here's hoping my generation can get its act together, or that I stop caring.
Showing posts with label Election. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Election. Show all posts
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Inauguration Day
I'm back at school, glad to be back, but I think the events of today take precedence over anything going on in my personal life.
It's really cool, I think, that a nation can come together to celebrate the entrance of a new leader, and the departure of an old leader. As much as any of us may disdain George W Bush, I think it's fair to say that he did lead us through a great deal of tragedy and turmoil. Though he has more or less left us high and dry and in an economic downward spiral, he led us and we are wiser for it, I would say.
God bless the Obamas and the Bidens, let today go off without a hitch. God bless and protect our great nation.
Definitely a sign of hope. Great things to come I think.
It's really cool, I think, that a nation can come together to celebrate the entrance of a new leader, and the departure of an old leader. As much as any of us may disdain George W Bush, I think it's fair to say that he did lead us through a great deal of tragedy and turmoil. Though he has more or less left us high and dry and in an economic downward spiral, he led us and we are wiser for it, I would say.
God bless the Obamas and the Bidens, let today go off without a hitch. God bless and protect our great nation.
Definitely a sign of hope. Great things to come I think.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
I Don't Matter
I had a presentation on Communism in the U.S. as it relates to African Americans (or as African Americans related to Communism in the early-mid 20th century) in my African American Literature class today. I thought it was fitting, sort of, to have a political discussion th day after we elected our very first African American president of the United States. There were no sad faces today, everyone walked across campus as though a great weight had been lifted off of our collective shoulders. Last night we shouted and cried and danced and prayed with a nation of people who have for so long been divided by the most insignificant of qualities as race, gender, religion, orientation. We held our breath as we listened to the next president of our country inspire hope. I am already incredibly proud of my fellow Americans for seeing past the black and white, the young and old, the old blood and the new. America is certainly on a path toward wholeness.
And yet, there was a sense of despair upon leaving my class today. I have fifteen minutes between African American Lit and Child Development, the only fifteen minutes I really have to myself on Mondays and Wednesdays. The leaves are falling now, not so much falling as sailing, spiriling, whirling. With a sigh they let go of the trees that gave them life and they float to the ground, without a particular landing in mind. They simply float, and land wherever they land. I stood on the path between the main building and the science building today, and kept repeating in my head "I don't count, I'm not here, I don't matter." I feel air and sunshine. I watch the sunlight peek through the dangling leaves and land on my cheek in a splash of colour. I taste the fall afternoons, the cool air whistling around me, sending orange and red and yellow leaves into my path. I walk, and I run, and I sing, and I dance, and I laugh, and I love, and I know, and I forget, and I don't understand, and I am sometimes sorry, and I am almost never right, and I love life, and I hold hands, and I take my time, and I smile, and I breathe.
But I don't count, and I am not here. There is nothing so damaging as feeling as though, because of something over which you have no control, you are being punished. You are poor, and therefore you must be punished. You are black, and therefore you must be punished. You are a woman, and therefore you must be punished. You are gay, and therefore you must be punished. Separate but equal. They let me vote, but my vote doesn't count. They collect my taxes, but I am not a citizen. I can't go anywhere where I dream of going without fear that that anywhere will hate me for me. I can't love freely. I can't live freely.
Sometimes when leaves fall, they don't know where to land. I feel like a leaf, suspended in mid air.
I'm so sorry for everyone in California. I'm so sorry for the families who are affected by this blind hate. I'm so sorry for the children who will grow up thinking, or knowing, rather, that there country does not love them as it should.
I don't matter.
And yet, there was a sense of despair upon leaving my class today. I have fifteen minutes between African American Lit and Child Development, the only fifteen minutes I really have to myself on Mondays and Wednesdays. The leaves are falling now, not so much falling as sailing, spiriling, whirling. With a sigh they let go of the trees that gave them life and they float to the ground, without a particular landing in mind. They simply float, and land wherever they land. I stood on the path between the main building and the science building today, and kept repeating in my head "I don't count, I'm not here, I don't matter." I feel air and sunshine. I watch the sunlight peek through the dangling leaves and land on my cheek in a splash of colour. I taste the fall afternoons, the cool air whistling around me, sending orange and red and yellow leaves into my path. I walk, and I run, and I sing, and I dance, and I laugh, and I love, and I know, and I forget, and I don't understand, and I am sometimes sorry, and I am almost never right, and I love life, and I hold hands, and I take my time, and I smile, and I breathe.
But I don't count, and I am not here. There is nothing so damaging as feeling as though, because of something over which you have no control, you are being punished. You are poor, and therefore you must be punished. You are black, and therefore you must be punished. You are a woman, and therefore you must be punished. You are gay, and therefore you must be punished. Separate but equal. They let me vote, but my vote doesn't count. They collect my taxes, but I am not a citizen. I can't go anywhere where I dream of going without fear that that anywhere will hate me for me. I can't love freely. I can't live freely.
Sometimes when leaves fall, they don't know where to land. I feel like a leaf, suspended in mid air.
I'm so sorry for everyone in California. I'm so sorry for the families who are affected by this blind hate. I'm so sorry for the children who will grow up thinking, or knowing, rather, that there country does not love them as it should.
I don't matter.
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Maverick
Who's the Maverick now????
Congratulations Barack Obama, make this country proud! Please help set us on the path toward whole-ness.
I wish my daddy was alive to see this day. I wish I was back in the old neighbourhood holding Miss Bubba's hand. Barack, you won this for all the kids who dreamed of being president when they were told they would never make it. You won it for your daughters, who have the potential to some day become world leaders. You won it for my daddy, who worked tirelessly for the rights of all people. You won it for Miss Bubba in the old neighbourhood who could never dream outside of Hartford, outside of the bubble we lived in. You won it for Dr. King and HIS dream that has become OUR collective dream. You won it for me, the kid whose parents grew up on a farm in upstate New York and a little apartment in Bayonne New Jersey, the children of immigrants and dreamers, who thought a little house near the projects in Hartford was like a dream. You won it for me and all the people like me, the dreamers and the thinkers and the doers. You won it for me and all the people who are making their lives better, who are taking what our families had to offer us and shaping that into our own fantastic American Dreams. My daddy was there to hear Dr. King speak. He was there to walk with him, to hold his brother Americans and his sister Americans by the hands and sing and wonder and pray. And now you, Mr. Obama, have been given this wonderful opportunity, this unfathomable challenge, of repairing our nation while maintaining your sense of self.
You won the election for all of us, now the task is to lead ALL of us, not just some, into the future. Take me, and my red white and blue, orange yellow and green, black grey and tan, polkadotted and striped brothers and sisters, and lead ALL of us into a brighter tomorrow.
God bless this wonderful country where anything is possible.
And thank God for not passing Question 1 in CT. Be with all those who are still fighting their own battles. Teach this country how to love ALL and respect ALL individuals.
Congratulations Barack Obama, make this country proud! Please help set us on the path toward whole-ness.
I wish my daddy was alive to see this day. I wish I was back in the old neighbourhood holding Miss Bubba's hand. Barack, you won this for all the kids who dreamed of being president when they were told they would never make it. You won it for your daughters, who have the potential to some day become world leaders. You won it for my daddy, who worked tirelessly for the rights of all people. You won it for Miss Bubba in the old neighbourhood who could never dream outside of Hartford, outside of the bubble we lived in. You won it for Dr. King and HIS dream that has become OUR collective dream. You won it for me, the kid whose parents grew up on a farm in upstate New York and a little apartment in Bayonne New Jersey, the children of immigrants and dreamers, who thought a little house near the projects in Hartford was like a dream. You won it for me and all the people like me, the dreamers and the thinkers and the doers. You won it for me and all the people who are making their lives better, who are taking what our families had to offer us and shaping that into our own fantastic American Dreams. My daddy was there to hear Dr. King speak. He was there to walk with him, to hold his brother Americans and his sister Americans by the hands and sing and wonder and pray. And now you, Mr. Obama, have been given this wonderful opportunity, this unfathomable challenge, of repairing our nation while maintaining your sense of self.
You won the election for all of us, now the task is to lead ALL of us, not just some, into the future. Take me, and my red white and blue, orange yellow and green, black grey and tan, polkadotted and striped brothers and sisters, and lead ALL of us into a brighter tomorrow.
God bless this wonderful country where anything is possible.
And thank God for not passing Question 1 in CT. Be with all those who are still fighting their own battles. Teach this country how to love ALL and respect ALL individuals.
Vote
No on Question 1 in CT. Don't amend our constitution just to take my rights away.
No on Question 1 in MA. Do not repeal the state income tax and let the haves continue to get more and the have nots continue to flounder.
NO on Prop 8 in CA. Love is Love!! Separation of church and state!
VOTE
No on Question 1 in MA. Do not repeal the state income tax and let the haves continue to get more and the have nots continue to flounder.
NO on Prop 8 in CA. Love is Love!! Separation of church and state!
VOTE
Sunday, November 2, 2008
The End of an Error
I voted yesterday by absentee ballot. This is the first presidential election that I've been eligible to vote in. I think this means that I am officially a participant in democratic process? Total sense of accomplishment.
We've almost come to the end of the last eight years of backwards governing, of war and tears. There is a sense of joy at the end, a sense of relief. We as a nation and as a world have definitely earned the opportunity to celebrate the end of an error. No matter how the election ends, I personally feel that nothing (including the election of John McCain, possibly excluding the election of VP Sarah Palin the complete and total nut-job) can come close to the tragedy that was the last eight years.
To have come through it: to have joyfully
survived even the happiness - quietly, completely.
First the testings were mute, then verbal.
Who could look back unamazed?
No one has been able, since life lasts
because no one could. - But the infiniteness
of the attemps! The new greenness of birch trees
is not so new as that which behalls us.
A wood dove coos. And again what you suffered
seems, ah, as if yet unlived-through.
The bird keeps calling. You are in the middle
of the call. Awake and weakened
- Rilke 1921
We've almost come to the end of the last eight years of backwards governing, of war and tears. There is a sense of joy at the end, a sense of relief. We as a nation and as a world have definitely earned the opportunity to celebrate the end of an error. No matter how the election ends, I personally feel that nothing (including the election of John McCain, possibly excluding the election of VP Sarah Palin the complete and total nut-job) can come close to the tragedy that was the last eight years.
To have come through it: to have joyfully
survived even the happiness - quietly, completely.
First the testings were mute, then verbal.
Who could look back unamazed?
No one has been able, since life lasts
because no one could. - But the infiniteness
of the attemps! The new greenness of birch trees
is not so new as that which behalls us.
A wood dove coos. And again what you suffered
seems, ah, as if yet unlived-through.
The bird keeps calling. You are in the middle
of the call. Awake and weakened
- Rilke 1921
Friday, October 31, 2008
I'll Take People Who Won't be President for 800, Alex
So I played lacrosse today, and I needed some caffine for my weary bones afterwards. Two of the other girls and I were in a car, driving to dunks, when on the side of a busy section of road we saw a man waving a John McCain sign.
Oh hell N-O. You are not brandishing a John McCain sign near where I live and learn.
So naturally, I rolled down the window and screamed "JOHN MCCAIN SUUUCKSSS!" Much to my disappointment, my sentiments were not well receieved in the car. I was among McCainites. Meh, they're still cool chicks, they're just terribly misguided.
And I got my absentee ballot today. And I'm voting Obama. And I'm voting No on Prop 1. Suck on that John McCain and Caribou Barbie.
The moral of the story: don't wander up and down a busy street brandishing a John McCain sign, because I will be there, and it will be obscene.
Oh hell N-O. You are not brandishing a John McCain sign near where I live and learn.
So naturally, I rolled down the window and screamed "JOHN MCCAIN SUUUCKSSS!" Much to my disappointment, my sentiments were not well receieved in the car. I was among McCainites. Meh, they're still cool chicks, they're just terribly misguided.
And I got my absentee ballot today. And I'm voting Obama. And I'm voting No on Prop 1. Suck on that John McCain and Caribou Barbie.
The moral of the story: don't wander up and down a busy street brandishing a John McCain sign, because I will be there, and it will be obscene.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
CT Vote No on 1
There is nothing else to say. If you're a registered voter in the state of Connecticut, please vote no on question 1. Mr. Blumenthal said it best with "Our State Constitution is the bedrock of our civil rights and liberties. The convention proposal is a risky and costly process. The State Constitution is not a document to be rewritten carelessly." Don't let the focus on the family groups steal your tax dollars for a ridiculous process that could potentially change more than simply who you are allowed to marry.
This election is insane. There is so much more riding on this election that simply which candidate will potentially save our floundering economy.
Barack Obama has my vote (even though I wish Hillary was on the ticket), and he best be appreciative cause this is my first presidential election and I don't vote for just any average joe. And I am most definitely saying VOTE NOT ON QUESTION 1 IN CONNECTICUT and NO ON PROP 8 IN CALIFORNIA.
And P.S. - RACHEL MADDOW IN 2012!!!
Thursday, August 28, 2008
I Want to Believe
I have been a Hillary supporter since the fourth grade, when I cried because another little girl got to be Hillary Clinton when we were doing presentations on historical figures. I got to be Amelia Earhart, and my mom bought me an aviator hat and goggles to wear during the presentations at the army surplus store. Sometimes I still wear them just for shiggles. Miss Earhart is still one of my top three no-longer-with-us heroes (Joan of Arc, Lucille Ball, and good ole Amelia).
I was devastated when Hillary had to concede the nomination to Barack. I sat in the driveway, staring at my Hillary bumpersticker for a while, wondering where we went wrong. Can't a woman be president of the USA? Will it ever happen? Hillary is so perfect for the job. In my heart, Hillary Clinton will always be MY president.
I never liked Barack Obama, and when Hillary lost the nomination I was terribly bitter. I debated not voting at all. I decided, though, that it's unethical for Americans to not vote, and I'm all about ethics.
He has been more in the public eye as of late, particularly with the Democratic National Convention. And it dawned on me.
He's a real guy. He's just a regular guy, living the American Dream. He has a wife, and kids, and a vested interest in the future of this country. He is a young guy, with his own dreams and aspirations. And they all stem from and lead to this American Dream of ours.
I was young when my father died, but I remember him talking about marching with Dr. Martin Luther King. My father was a conscientious objector, and during the Vietnam War when he was drafted, he told the United States Army that he would sooner by shot than shoot another human being, and he was given a different assignment.
When he was young he marched with Dr. King, and shook his hand, and they all marched, and they all sang, and they were all Americans. All with an American Dream.
My daddy makes me so proud. I hope that some day I can be even half the person he was. He had so much love, so much love for every person he encountered. Love is really what this life is all about.
I wish my daddy were alive to see this day. A man and a woman, both running for the nomination to go to the election to the most powerful office in the land. An African American man who will, God willing, take that office and make it great again. Equality. It's what they marched for so many years ago. And here it is, knocking on our doorstep. We have so far to go, but we have come so far already.
"One person's struggle is all of our struggle." Mr. Obama, you have my vote. Make us great again.
I was devastated when Hillary had to concede the nomination to Barack. I sat in the driveway, staring at my Hillary bumpersticker for a while, wondering where we went wrong. Can't a woman be president of the USA? Will it ever happen? Hillary is so perfect for the job. In my heart, Hillary Clinton will always be MY president.
I never liked Barack Obama, and when Hillary lost the nomination I was terribly bitter. I debated not voting at all. I decided, though, that it's unethical for Americans to not vote, and I'm all about ethics.
He has been more in the public eye as of late, particularly with the Democratic National Convention. And it dawned on me.
He's a real guy. He's just a regular guy, living the American Dream. He has a wife, and kids, and a vested interest in the future of this country. He is a young guy, with his own dreams and aspirations. And they all stem from and lead to this American Dream of ours.
I was young when my father died, but I remember him talking about marching with Dr. Martin Luther King. My father was a conscientious objector, and during the Vietnam War when he was drafted, he told the United States Army that he would sooner by shot than shoot another human being, and he was given a different assignment.
When he was young he marched with Dr. King, and shook his hand, and they all marched, and they all sang, and they were all Americans. All with an American Dream.
My daddy makes me so proud. I hope that some day I can be even half the person he was. He had so much love, so much love for every person he encountered. Love is really what this life is all about.
I wish my daddy were alive to see this day. A man and a woman, both running for the nomination to go to the election to the most powerful office in the land. An African American man who will, God willing, take that office and make it great again. Equality. It's what they marched for so many years ago. And here it is, knocking on our doorstep. We have so far to go, but we have come so far already.
"One person's struggle is all of our struggle." Mr. Obama, you have my vote. Make us great again.
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