We’ve all read the stories and seen the videos of the man hurling his shoes at President Bush. One would expect that people would be in support of his imprisonment if our soon to be former President had any love in the country. That doesn’t seem to be the case, and having a few friends that run the gamut of Arab and Tibetan and Tamil it seems that generally speaking there is a wide range of support for this reporter that threw his shoes.
It’s interesting to me because if one side says, “we liberated the Iraqi people” and the iraqi people are saying, “good bye and good riddance” where is the disconnect? Something is wrong if people that are generally well read and intelligent are not happy with what has and is going on. Of course, maybe they just dislike President Bush as a human being? Who knows…..
On a different subject, I was pretty pleased to see the Blackwater Mercenaries being charged. Whether it goes well for the government is a wholly different issue though for certain.
History has been made here today. I was a part (if but a small part) of that history. I am most pleased with how this Election has finally turned out.
Update 05NOV2008
Grant pointed out that this first picture that depicts Hope and Progress as their message shows Obama as being every color but black. That’s an interesting insight and I can only say that I was focused more on the immediate visual message rather than a more accurate depiction of the man. I was in a hurry and didn’t stop to ponder it. I dig the point for sure, I also agree with the point, but ultimately my laziness and hurried post (frantic with joy! lol) lead us down this slope I put us on. Grant, I’m sorry! Don’t take away my share of hot Asian girls!
On a more serious note. This is really a momentous occasion for me as an American. It’s the first time that what I see going on around me isn’t just talk. It’s not just “You can be President if you want.”, because that has always been followed up in reality with “as long as you’re not a woman and as long as you’re not black”. Some people may disagree with that, but if you’re not a minority growing up in poverty or growing up struggling to stay out of poverty, I don’t think one can really understand the minority mind set.
I believe it’s so important to live above “the man is keeping me down”. That’s not an excuse to not try to exceed in everything you do. So many people fall into that mode of never trying to accomplish anything because they were taught to be defeated by people that either were defeated or were also taught to feel defeated. No, we don’t have it easy as minorities. Yes, the particulars in the majorities can make it difficult for us and have made it difficult for us some times, but that’s the struggle.
Obama’s election signifies to me change not only in politics but in one very important element of society that directly affects me. That element is the struggle. All of the arguments I’ve had in my life (and I’m only 28 and I do not compare it to the struggle of the MLK Jr. era, that would be folly) all of the suffering I personally endured growing up and even today. It wasn’t in vain. My son will be able to be President one day and it isn’t just words. It’s a reality today.
On a side note, Obama’s speech was both humble and powerful. Watching it all unfold on television and in IMs with people I know from other countries, Australia, Thailand, India, China (including Taiwan), they were so happy. I was so happy. It was beautiful and memorable. I wept during his speech, and will cherish this day for the future of my son.
The traits I have seen in this Election Day
Obama Wins! History being made today. For once, I am most proud.
Today is simply an amazing day for me. I’m participating and witnessing something that I didn’t think I’d get a chance to participate in nor witness. First, the turn out of young black voters in my neighborhood was just phenomenal. From the “not worth spit hoodlum” looking characters to “young community college student” characters to “just graduated high school” characters. I’ve voted at this place several times and in one presidential election. The turn out of young black voters was nothing like this. Every single voter in my polling station was an Obama supporter. I didn’t see one individual without an Obama pin or an Obama flyer in their hand. Simply amazing.
Secondly, I’m participating in what could be a historic moment for the United States. I figured I’d be long on my way to the grave before a serious black candidate came to be and actually had a shot at winning; however, I was obviously wrong. I don’t expect too much, but I can’t really contain my excitement at what I’ve seen just in my area. The votin landscape is just so different than anything I’ve ever seen and I’m a part of it, that feels good.
That doesn’t mean I dislike you if you vote McCain, that’s your perogative. It does mean that you hate interracial people and blacks though. I’m just sayin’. You should feel ashamed that you woudl vote for someone that is a. Republican and b. white.
That’s a joke, no one get upset. If you voted for McCain, it really is your perogative. It doesn’t make you my enemy lol. It makes you America’s enemy…well not really…it just makes you a vote for a Republican. I don’t think there’s anything really wrong with that…promise. ^_^
On a serious note, the line at my polling station was hours long. I was there 30 minutes after it opened and had a 5 hour wait basically. People who arrived 30 minutes before the polling station opened waited for approximately 3 hours. There has never been a line that long since I’ve been voting there. Amazing.
This is a call for information (or an RFC if you like)
I’m not too terribly knowledgeable about the minutia of how our financial crisis began and then brought us to this situation that we are in now. I’m sure others more knowledgeable than myself can provide information or links to information that will bring me up to speed. I have my own link, which I received in an e-mail:
Has any one seen this video/show and agreed/disagreed/had no opinion with it? If so, what side of the fence are you on, if you’re on a side at all? If you disagree, is there any information that was witheld that could make this meager piece of information I was passed be a little more useful to me in forming an opinion and if this affects my voting in November? If you agree, is there any information that would help support your stance.
I’m not asking because I’m lazy, but I just am not sure with all of the information out there with regards to the finances of our country right now, and google knows there’s a hell of a lot, where to start. If I had just a starting place that is at least pretending to be unbiased (not turning it into a partisan issue) then I’d be happy to read.
I’ve seen several articles talking about terrorists using twitter to communicate with one another. It’s such sensationalism. Anyone that wanted to communicate with anyone else could be using Twitter as well. The media outlets really like to scare people, it’s kind of weird. Of course a terrorist could use Twitter. A terrorist could also use a telephone, or write a letter, or use a cell phone. They could use sign language, or morse code over via lights in a house or flash lights, or whatever.
The point is, I don’t see any articles being published as if it’s the newest threat to our functioning society because a terrorist might decide to sit down and plan something using a good old paper and pencil. They did it to hackers way back in the day, and they still do it today. Technology creates fear among those that don’t know much about it. All this does it get the paranoid people up in a tizzy and give the bright idea to some politician to spy on us some more. Next thing you know the most sensational news story we’ll see on the front page is, “Stash of Computer Equipment Destroyed in Raid”. None of us will be able to possess them for use other than being monitored in our own homes, or something silly like that. We’ll be living in a society as depicted in Equilibrium, which by the way is a good movie. You should see it if you haven’t already. You can view the trailer at the end of this post.
With domestic spying seeming to become more popular regardless of how harmless it might seem or however improbable it may seem today that it will usurp our rights online or just walking down the street, I believe the course of action to take is really simple: Encrypt Everything. I encrypt everything on my laptop because I don’t want it to be stolen and someone have access to my data, but I really only encrypt things that are of real value to me on my desktops. That’s going to have to change I guess. I don’t use Twitter (because I’m not a terrorist hehe), it’s a highly annoying tool to me. 140 character posts without any real conversation, just updates to people’s lives on a regular basis. To me it was rather tedious to deal with; and besides, I have a cell phone if I want to sms something to someone.
A good example of what is happening with these articles about Twitter a possible tool for terrorists is the same thing that happened to me in High School. It was the early/mid 90′s and having access to the Internet in school was very new. As soon as I heard we had access to it I spent my entire class period in American Literature in the computer lab researching cancer for a science project. Don’t worry, I’d already finished my American Literature work the day before. This included finding a chat room that offered medical information in Yahoo! Chat. There was actually (before lamers and l0sers started filling up the chat rooms and advertising sex everywhere or spamming the rooms horribly) discussion about medical things. People were asking questions and what seemed like fairly knowledgeable people were actually answering questions and providing links to information.
Anyhow, a teacher walked up to me and looked at my screen and despite the page and a half of notes that were pretty much direct copies of what people told me about what I was looking up and links written down, her sole focus was on the fact that someone said “shit” on the screen. So they banned chat rooms in the school. They went on to ban Internet access for a while from students as well. It was a totally unnecessary action at the time, but it turned everyone that used the tools as intended into “criminals”. It doesn’t matter that most people had no idea about chat rooms or how the Internet functioned at all because they didn’t have computers at home. What mattered is that it _could_ feasibly lead one to something unsavory, but in my opinion that’s true for getting up in the morning. So should we ban that too? Eventually Internet access became heavily filtered and the students were able to return to using the Net, but that doesn’t change the fact that similar things happen in society. Society is much slower to change than a school with a thousand or so kids.
That’s probably very over the top, about getting up in the morning. I am aware of that, I’m just using it as a tool to bludgeon one over the head with the point. Just because something can be used for nefarious purposes does not make that something evil. It’s important to mention that the last article I read concerning twitter and terrorists did say that nothing of this sort has been done yet. That’s good; however, it only takes one politician or one organization to pick up such an article and begin the process of making Twitter unfit for use by people who have some expectation of not having the rest of their life spied upon because they happen to say something a little off color on Twitter.
