My Manifest Destiny...

Actually, this really isn't my "Manifest Destiny"...just my move to Colorado.


Sorry I haven't updated in forever - I've been training in Ann Arbor. About my work in AA: I worked on a project that is working to mobilize public support for the Clean Water Restoration Act. Polluters have been dumping sewage and other crap into the wetlands that feed into the Great Lakes and have been getting away with it because of a recent Supreme Court ruling the term "navigable" water to broad of a term. So the Clean Water Restoration Act is simply seeking to get rid of that word. I canvassed door to door asking for money and public support.





I really enjoyed my time in Ann Arbor. The people at Environment Michigan were great! Very laid back, fun, and goofy.





I'm in Chicago for the night at my Aunt Kimiya's for some respite before my loooong drive to Denver. Here's what my trip looks like:

Two words: yikes, bro. I should be able to blog regularly once I'm out there. In the meantime:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!

Suddenly...a job

All of a sudden I have a job. A real job. And I do mean "all of a sudden": I interviewed over the phone Sunday, whimsically drove to Ann Arbor Monday for a personal interview, and I am leaving Friday morning to start training. That hardly gives me time to pack and say my goodbyes! But I want to get my training in Ann Arbor over as fast as possible so I can get out to Colorado!

About the job...I will be working on a minority-voter registration project. The goal for each office is to register x amount of voters (not sure yet what the goal is) by October. I will be the Assistant Director of the office and my brother Josh is the Director. 60% of what I will do is managing, training, hiring, etc and the other 40% is hitting the streets to register voters.

I think this job is a perfect fit for me right now. It gives me a chance to do meaningful work - I was just going to work at 50's restaurant I've been at for years now. I will get a chance to see another part of the country, and I'm only committed through October. From there I can do what I want (Peace Corps). It is a lot of work for a little money, but, like I said, it is meaningful work and work that could possible make history (given a certain candidate - although this project has no ties with any political party).

I'm excited to live in Pueblo with my brother, but I am also sad that I have to leave so quickly!

Appeasement? Oh please...

I am so frustrated right now. A little bit of this frustration comes from losing to my younger brother in basketball once again, but that all seems insignificant at this point. What I'm feeling now stems from some right-wing idiots. Bill O'Reilly just stated that gas prices and health care have obscured or fight against terror.

REALLY?

Sure, attention has shifted away from homeland security towards our failing economy, uninsured, and sky-high gas prices. But to say that these issues have obscured is, well, absurd. These issues are far from obscure; they are issues that deserve the utmost devotion. Who cares that our fellow countrymen & women can't afford groceries, gas, or medical help?! Iran is scared of us!

REALLY? Obscure?

And then there are Bush's statements that Obama wants to appease terrorists...

REALLY?

Discussion is not appeasement. Talking is not giving in. I don't care how you try to frame it. Obama is not an idiot and he is not about to give power to any terrorists.

I understand people like O'Reilly and Bush trying to push some La-La Land ideas: What with Bush's horrible approval rating, the unpopularity of this war, and the shamble that is the Republican Party. But please, for everyone's sake...come back to reality.

Bloggers Unite: Human Rights

"Bloggers Unite is an initiative designed to harness the power of the blogosphere to make the world a better place. By challenging bloggers to blog about a particular social cause on a single day, a single voice can be joined with thousands of others to help make a real positive difference; from raising awareness for cancer, to an effort to better education systems or support 3rd world countries."

Today's issue: Human Rights. Instead of posting on a specific human rights issue, I'm going to broaden the discussion and talk about the advantage of using human rights vs. civil rights.

The problem with using "civil rights" in America is that it becomes an American problem to be solved by an entity or entities that have some sort of stake in such a problem. An example would be the rights of an immigrant (legal or illegal) worker to standard living and working conditions. If these rights are violated, it becomes a problem involving, but not limited to, the following entities: the 'x' State government, the ACLU, the 'x' labour union, and a civil- or worker's- rights lawyer.

The problem with civil rights being an American issue is that the majority rules in America. Who is left out?: the minority. So when a civil rights issue becomes a minority issue - and the majority of civil rights issues are minority issues - it becomes a minor issue, an issue of the ignored, an issue of the invisible. This leads to overwhelming indifference from the majority, which ultimately makes it harder to uphold the rights of the minority.

So why human rights? Aren't human rights synonymous with civil rights? In a perfect world, yes. But alas, we are far from a perfect world (or country for that matter). The advantage of using human rights is that human rights are universal (and thus it becomes a global issue instead of an issue of a generally racist, chauvinistic America). Why is this an advantage? Well, for one, it is possible for other governments to put pressure on the United States to live up to the standards we set and hold others to because it is an issue of human- rather than civil- rights.

Furthermore, the issue of minority v. majority is a non-factor because it isn't a minority or majority of people deserving human rights, it is 100% of people deserving human rights. Instead of focusing on the fact that a person may be black, brown, red, yellow, white, purple, blue, and so on, the focus can be the fact that a person is human and deserves the rights of human. (I am in no way saying we should erase a persons color because it is an important part of a person's ethnic and cultural identity - rather, we should focus on the right of a human with no regard to their color.)

It is hard for a person of one color to completely understand what it means to be a person of another color (or a person of one class to understand that of another), and therefore it may be hard to empathize or even care about an issue not relating to oneself. But we are all human and we all understand the basic needs of a human. It will be much easier to erase indifference if we can focus on the basic rights of a human instead of focusing on the rights of a civilian (two completely different beings).

What do you think? Too idealistic? You comments are appreciated.

No Name in the Street

I'm reading James Baldwin's No Name in the Street. On the most basic level, it is the story of his life, but more so than that it's a history of the African-American struggle throughout the 60's and early 70's. Baldwin is an candidly eloquent, lucid, critically-thinking writer. I'm only half way through the book, but it's already one of my favorite books.

Anyway, I keep finding passages in this book that really transcend the 60's and 70's. I'd like to share one passage I found particularly relevant (share thoughts/comments below):

Force does not work the way its advocates seem to think it does. It does not, for example, reveal to the victim the strength of his adversary. On the contrary, it reveals the weakness, even the panic of his adversary, and this revelation invests the victim with patience. Furthermore, it is ultimately fatal to create too many victims. The victor can do nothing with these victims, for they do not belong to him, but - to the victims. They belong to the people he is fighting. The people know this. and as inexorable as the roll call - the honor roll - of victims expands, so does their will become inexorable: they resolve that these dead, their brethren, shall not have died in vain. When this point is reached, however long the battle may go on, the victor can never be the victor: on the contrary, all his energies, his entire life, are bound up in a terror he cannot articulate, a mystery he cannot read, a battle he cannot win - he has simply become the prisoner of the people he thought to cow, chain, or murder into submission.

JPB Update

I have finally posted a relfection on my trip to Pohnpei. It was way over due. For those of you wondering, I will still be updating JPB on anything dealing with the Pacific. (Sadly, I didn't update about the Guam primary). Click here to go to JPB.

News: Rebel B.S.

Check out this video news bit about a store in Florida that has banned an employee's confederate-flag-toting truck from the company parking lot. Good for them. The company states they prohibit "rude, abusive, hostile or intimidating" expression. The confederate flag definitely falls under this category.

Do people really not understand what the confederate flag stands for? Don't give me the "Southern Pride" b.s. The confederate flag stands for the confederated who were fighting to keep their slaves as their sub-human servants. I'm not sure how people can look past this? The swastika was once an aboriginal sign for peace, but those feelings certainly aren't evoked today when a swastika is displayed. The same goes for the confederate flag. People can hide behind the "Southern Pride" excuse all they want, but you can't whine when you are held accountable for your actions or when you are judged based on the things you choose say, do, or display.

On a more personal note: A few weeks ago I was at my dad's work and saw a truck with a confederate flag license plate and another truck with a confederate flag decal (this truck also had a decal mentioning something about "Coon Hunting"). I couldn't believe it! My dad said the "Coon Hunting" decal was about raccoon hunting, but what I saw was a something completely different; it looked like a dog adorned in KKK attire. I'm going to try to get a picture up.

I think my friend Nick said it best the other day: "People think we've come a long way, but we really haven't." Sad, but true.