Sounds of the French Quarter

Sounds of the French Quarter

New Orleans, LA

Keep Your Private Hands Off My Public Option!!!

The question of whether or not people are still listening to the health care debate is yet another example of how sad news agency reporting has become. Yes, I mean you CNN (and any other mainstream news media that has done similar reporting). While this has been drawn out for far to long, it has spelled out how ignorant and misinformed America is to topics such as national policy and world historical figures.

Obama is Hitler, seriously? Or for that matter our President is a far left liberal-facist-communist-socialist-nazi that is trying to open direct access to health care for those who cannot afford it. The man is literally trying to extend the lives of many by providing them with the same benefits that congress has. As a result he has been labeled antichrist. Thank you Barney Frank for your candor in your town hall meetings.

Obama Care is a false label for the Health Care Reform bill. Yes, President Obama did start the process of asking for reform but it was Congress that drafted the original bill with respect to the President's expectations. Not to mention there has been a clear attempts for this bill to be inclusive for both parties. Not surprisingly, those who are being paid by the private insurance companies and interest groups are trying to "kill" the bill for the sake of their overly-stuffed wallets and purses.

Racism seems to be a big topic that has hit the nation's metaphorical fan. You can only imagine what happens next. Has racism played a role in the nation's response to the President's health care proposal. Yes and No. Yes, a great deal of the nation's right-wing conservatives have direct racist commentary towards President Obama. But you say Obama countered that racism is not why the public has been in opposition to his administration. Of course he is going to say that, imagine if he said yes. The United States would turn inside out from rage and anger if a Black president admitted to White America being racist (it's not a far stretch though). But let us be clear, racism has to do with physical attributes, not political. One cannot be racist if they are politically opposed to another. However, depicting the President as a witch doctor and holding signs that tell the President to go back to Africa have racist overtones. So do signs that depict the President as Hitler. Simply yelling, "You lie" is not racism on the other hand. Rather it is stupidity and a lack of respect for the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES! Something the democrats and liberals were accused of during the previous administration. Oh, how quick we forget (Fox News). The U.S. does not need more Joe Wilsons, i.e., ignorant confederate supporting politicians who claim to be morally and ethically justified in their deceitful actions. Nor do we need more Glenn Becks that claim to speak the truth but constantly spread false notions of fear and inaccurate information AND CALL THE PRESIDENT A RACIST! Seriously Beck, would you ever call any of the White politicians in Washington a racist. Sure you would, as long as their liberals, right?

Needless to say, our country is far from being free of racism. The first amendment does not block bigotry but it does protect against defamation of character and yelling "fire" in a public space. I think it is time we hold ALL news media agencies accountable for the information that they spread. This is almost an impossible task for the government cannot get involved without looking like a totalitarian institution. It is the publics responsibility to hold these "reporters" responsible for the deceitful information they consciously spread. Let us put integrity back into news reporting.

Racism in the National Parks...Ha!!!

This is just too typical.  An innocuous story on why there is only one African-American park ranger in Yosemite is turned into another round of anti-guilt patrolling (click on the title to this blog to get to ABC's blog page by Jon Stossel).  It is very surprising that there is so much online about this report.  Well, actually I am not surprised because every time there is a report about race and anything, there is a blogosphere orgy about how crazy black people are for thinking that race embeds everything.  

For instance, one comment on Jon Stossel's page reads:"what a crock! come on people- we haven't had slaves for almost 150 years.  Quit blaming slavery for everything! If minorities don't want to visit the National Parks-their loss!  Just quit blaming racism and slavery for every discrepancy in society".

First of all, if you watch the video there is no mention of racism in this report; there is mention of one man's view on how slavery impacted African-American's view of nature, but that is not a claim that National Parks are racist.  And just to drive home the point, a park cannot be racist, only people can be racist.  

Second, the report is more about how African-Americans feel about their relationship with the natural world, and not about how the park goers at Yosemite are being racist to the park ranger Mr. Johnson.  The reactions to this report are pure hyperbole and nothing else.  The report was attempting to show a man on a mission to "reconnect" African Americans to "nature".  Is it assigning blame to anyone by commenting that perhaps slavery affected African-American's view of nature and the "soil"?  This is not a new idea; check out this book for more information: 

Restoring the connection to the natural world: 

essays on the African American 

Environmental Imagination By Sylvia Mayer (2003)

or African American environmental thought : foundations 

 by Kimberly Smith (2007)

Here's another comment from a different blog:  (http://www.moonbattery.com/archives/2009/08/slavery_makes_b.html)

"I'm sure that it has nothing to do with the life of government dependency the left has inflicted upon them, which keeps them close to urban centers that provide the left's oppressive entitlement programs" 

Or perhaps this one is better:

 "What a bunch of garbage. This yahoo thinks he is some sort of ex-slave and that all the blacks(not african americans) problems are because of slavery. Blacks problems are because of themselves! They choose not to better themselves and cling so tight to the slavery culture of past generations that they know nothing of. Slavery of the blacks in the Americas is almost nothing compared to the slavery of other races, cultures and creeds worldwide.I have three words: Get over it."

Wow, and I though Jon Stossel's page was bad.  

Revelation

I recently had a sit down with my grandmother which started with talking about the proposed health care bill and ended on our family history. My conversation with my grandmother always start with one topic and end with a new understanding of our family tree and history.

Growing up I have always assumed my identity was straight forward. My last name was Italian (actually Siciliano di Ustica) and my mother was Trinidadian, therefore, I was Trinidadian-Italian-American. However, I knew deep down there was French-Cajun in my blood but I never sought to find out just how much, until now.

Through much deliberation it was finally understood that I am more French (Cajun) by way of Nova Scotia than Italian. This is a revelation because my family has always self identified as Italian. I pointed this out to my grandmother and even she has admitted that this is the case it was never really understood. My guess, it is the way of the "West", one takes their father's last name therefore you take his identity as well. Needless to say, a lot is left out, especially in America culture and identity politics (it is my opinion). Therefore, for 26 years of my life I have been mistaken. This does not however change anything about my love for Italian culture, i.e., way of life, music, food and language.

It is important to note, this does not change the fact that I am half Indo-Trinidadian. Just the other half is a little Siciliano di Ustica and mostly French-Cajun.

Political Simulacra

I am truly impressed with the conservative political machine right now.  Not impressed with the tactics or the message, but by the abundance of meaningless power.  This is the age of "political simulacra", defined by the engagement of mass amounts of people for a cause that has no substance and virtually no factual truth.  It is truly astounding that so many people could be caught up in the black hole of health care politics and know virtually nothing about the "real" issues at hand.  There are legitimate concerns that need to be addressed, just as President Obama took upon himself to do (and he is doing it very well, I must add; watch the Portsmouth town hall, it's incredible politics).  Yet, the simulacra is still winning (read ‘Public Option’ in Health Plan May Be Dropped: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/18/health/policy/18talkshows.html?ref=us).  Rather than an education tour of America, the "town hall" meetings instantaneously morphed into political refuse, where fear-mongering and hooliganism reigns supreme.  And behind it all there is a media juggernaut that is watching its deeds spread like wildfire.  We are suckers, the lot of us, tuning in to the mass political simulacra.  

The Culture Wars are back

We are back in the 1960s.  I thought that it was kind of scary to have lived through the 1950s during the last eight years, but I am equally tired of living through another failed "Great Society".  Here we are at the cusp of one of the greatest chances in our lifetimes to overhaul our society to face the onslaught of a broken economic system, a failed health care system, and a threatened environment (to name just a few).  Yet, all we do is fall into deep partisan rancor, splitting each other apart through lies, deception and slogans of totalitarianism and fear.  It is terrible to think that we might never, and I repeat never, get any "real" reform in this country.  Yes, we have staved off some of the more extremist factions of our society from ruling the majority, but we have also shot down some of the best policy that our people can devise.  And that is where we are today.  We would rather go through another cruel cultural civil war than actually reform our society to meet the challenges of our modern world.  Is it deception, or is it true mediocrity and, dare I say, "idiocracy"?  

If it were only this simple...

If it were only this simple...

New Orleans, LA, USA