LESSER OF TWO EVILS

Let us let go of our innocence and embrace reality.

Anytime you are voting, you are voting for the lesser of two evils. Well, at least I hope you are. But lets not take this expression out of context. It is not necessarily the fault of any one politician, it is the system. The system is evil!

Just because capitalism is the best system the world has seen, it does not mean it is the right one.

So how can I be making these claims? Well...

Guy A wants to drill Alaska VS Guy B who wants to put money into clean energy

Guy A wants tax cuts for the rich VS Guy B who wants to tax the rich
AND SO ON, AND SO FORTH

So, depending on personal belief, one guy is the right guy, and therefore not evil. I am with guy B all the way, so how is he still evil?

Well... Even though I agree with all the things guy B wants to do, what about all the other things I want done that will see no progress?

Guy B is better for a number of reasons, in my opinion, but he is still discouraging our children from thinking by allowing standardized test to be required. Now teachers have to focus ONLY on getting their students ready for these tests, and that they can't teach anything else. So now we have a noneducational education system that not only wants, but needs people to be incapable of thinking critically.

Guy B is also evil because of his personal interests. He is not going to be willing to do something potentially good if people don't understand and down the road will cost him votes.

And the list goes on and on.

Because the system is what is evil, choosing the lesser of two evils is unarguably necessary.
So please, don't discourage people from voting because they think all of their choices are evil. Try to understand why they would make such a claim and start thinking more realistically about what is going on in politics.

Thank You.

talking white

Recently a friend introduced me to one of her friends who is Jamaican. He moved here when he was young, and frequently goes back to Jamaica. She asked him to tell me a story that he had told her from when he was young. About half way through the story, my friend stopped him and said to him, what's wrong with you? You're from Jamaica, talk like it. You're talking too white.
He looked at her and replied by saying, what are you talking about. I'm speaking english, how do you talk white? She told him to put more emphasis into his accent.
This made me think of the movie Crash when an actor in the movie was told to speak more black, which just confused the actor like in this situation. It's bad enough that there are stereotypes as to how people of a certain race behave and dress, but also how they must speak. To me it's like saying, youre lesser than others of your race or not even a member at all, if you don't speak like the rest of them, or fit the overall stereotype of that race.

Obamamerica

I am not a Barack Obama supporter. I question his motives and also don't like the fact that he is supported by corporate banking shills. I see a large dichotomy between what he preached about in his campaign and what he is actually doing. Having our future sold into taxation and continually widening the gap between the rich and poor isn't much of a change. Now, most peopl are cool with me stating that i don't like the guy but if i start getting into my reasons for not liking him, people either assume that i am a racist or that i am a consperiacy theorist. Most of these people preach about how riduculously ignorant a person has to be to be racist, but pay little attention to how ignorant they themselves are to the way our government works. My arguments have nothing to do with his race except for the fact that he is the first black person to SELL us the idea of America and make sure that his friends who paid for most of his campaign ($1.5 billion dollars) don't lose any money. Just because he is black doesn't make him any less of a puppet than George Bush. It is just a lot harder to read between the lines with him because he is a better liar, er, speaker than Bush was. Why is it taboo to be skeptical about politics and why do people get so worked up about his race? (beyond the whole "touchy feely" look how far we've come argument. I know, and must say that i am absolutely tickled that we live in a country where big business finally gave us a black man as one of the two options we had for president. That doesn't change a damn thing.)

My eyes are open

I live in Avalon in Upper North Mankato, and for two years I've had different roommates. I live in a community where my neighbor across the street is a little old lady who has nothing better to do than sit in her rocking chair and watch everyone else. Within the last two weeks, I had a new roommate move in. Within two days of that roommate moving in, I received a notice on my door that I have an "unauthorized guest" living with me and that if I don't have them become "authorized" I am supposed to become evicted as of April 6th. To have a roommate authorized, they have to summit a criminal background check, and fill out an application. Like I've said, I've had many, many roommates in the last two years, but this roommate happens to be black. It bothers me how fast my neighbors around me called the park manager and told her about this new roommate, even though they've known about and have met my past roommates. That this roommate is the only one that has bothered them.

I guess my point is that I never really realized that racism still exists in everyday life . I live in this world where all my friends are very open-minded and we aren't racist. We strive to promote love and equality. It boggles my mind that this happened. Through this class, my eyes are being opened to the struggles of the hate and racisim that is still happening today in our very own neighborhoods.

"be the change you want to see in the world"

Media

The other day I had the TV on while I was sitting in room. I normally have the TV on just as background noise, but I rarely watch it. I was sitting there, reading for another class when it caught my attention and I began to watch it. It was a movie that was made I would say in the early 90s and it just about killed me to see what was happening. This black guy was running through some town because he was late for something and just happened to run into a white man standing in the middle of the sidewalk. The white man freaked out and claimed the black man was trying to take his things. The white man was a rich business man and had called the cops. While the black man was in the back seat of the cop car, the white man and the cop were talking. One of them, I'm not sure who, said something along the lines of "He's black, he learned to steal before he could walk." My jaw about hit the floor when I heard this. I could not believe that this was on public TV around supper time. How many families in America watch TV during dinner? I know mine always did. I realize that this was a movie and wasn't intended to hurt anyone, but this is why we get the stereotypes that we do. I know it makes for a "good movie" but was it necessary to say these things? I think that if our media didn't have the things in it that it does, we would be closer to being "equal" than we are.

Class today

I just wanted to comment on something that was said in class today. It was said that high school kids that yell things out the window of their cars at other races are not racist. That they were just doing it because of their friends and to look cool. I disagree with this. True they may not do it while they are alone, but that does not make it any less wrong! There are many crimes in history that would not have occured if there wasn't a group mentality present. The fact remains that they were still crimes. High school kids are a product of their enviorment and their families. They should have to face cosequences for their actions. It is not okay to hurt others with words or in any way. They should learn while they are young so they don't grow up to be big racists jerks with the power to really hurt others with their ignorance. We were all in high school at one time or the other and not all of us did this I am sure. It is just wrong.

Seth and I talked about this after class. We were talking about a UFC fight and the announcer said something like, "Jones is in the red shorts and Micheals is in the white shorts." then Joe Rogan said, "Or, Jones white and Micheals black. Why doesn't anyone say it like that?" The other announcer paused and said, "I don't know?" Now was Rogan being to forward or does it matter? Was it wrong for Rogan to identify the fighters like that?