Sports victories!
My thinking is very convoluted right after I wake up, but then the good thing about writing a blog you don't advertise is you can be as convoluted as you want. So! I dreamed about an Australian character from a U.S. soap trying to explain why Americans are fascinated with British royalty. I need to record my dreams for a final anthropology paper and, ridiculously, I'd moved my notebook from bedside, so I got up repeating the bits of dream I could remember after the alarm went off.
Two reasons: because "the day's residue" can appear in dreams days later, and because it was better than dreaming about bin Laden's death.
Not watching real time television after it happened (curses, TiVo!), I first got the info checking the weather before sending my daughter off to school. The news crawl announced Osama bin Laden killed and I responded much like I did when my mother told me Michael Jackson died: Where'd you hear that dumb-ass rumor?
Then the talking heads came on and I accepted that it was (probably) true. They showed the footage of the compound and I cringed at the blood. They showed the celebrating flash mobs and I found myself stuck between understanding and revulsion. A guy's dead, people; that doesn't mean that war is over. What are you celebrating?
But he wasn't just a guy. He was the boogie man. Of course there was a "ding dong the witch is dead" sort of thing going on. But why so...so whatever that was?
My sleep addled brain made the connection that I might not have gotten otherwise. I'd seen that scene before years ago when traveling through the a strange neighborhood. Years before the U.S. cared about the soccer world cup, Brazil won--I guess their first win in decades. And Brazilian-Americans took to the streets in this area. It was like a happy riot. No looting or fighting, but I did sit in the car in shock as a car was over turned. Hundreds danced and sang in the sort of display we see all the time--often not so peacefully--by the "victors" at the end of a major game.
Hundreds leave sports' arenas shouting about their win, having never touched the ball. Here in Boston (with no interest in sports in general, I don't know if this is true for all pro-teams), one isn't a Red Sox fan, one is a member of Red Sox nation. When the team wins, we all win. And that's just against another team playing with a ball on a field.
"Our team" killed the boogie man.
Many of us cannot morally cheer the death of anyone, even if we appreciate it as a victory. Others are immediately more practical thinking more of what this means for national security. Good. It would be ghoulish if we had all responded by chanting USA as though "we" had just won Olympic gold. But maybe we of cooler heads can cut the others some slack. It's been a long war. While most of us are sincere about supporting the troops, more and more of us just want it to be over. Whether we thought it was wrong headed to start or we've seen too many lives lost for so little gained...Maybe it's the scandal of American soldiers doing unspeakable things or even just the economics of it....We've had enough. We want our brothers and sisters home, and for all the talk of troop withdrawal, there seems to be no end in sight.
We needed the win.
03 May 2011
11 March 2011
Conservative lies
A while ago, a bunch of graduates (and not-so-graduated) from my former high school friended each other on Facebook. It was like the reunion only worse (no alcohol or pool tables to distract) and better (got to experience and/or watch some real friendships emerge among people who didn't even speak to one another when we were teens). One of the most fascinating aspects has been watching how this group reflected the political macrocosm.
By and large, there's nothing to see; for the majority, politics seem to be something that the rest of us inflict upon them and the most involved they get is posting "Voted" on election day. In the right corner, there were three particularly outspoken conservatives and their less outspoken "dittoers". On the left, we had--and still have--a spectrum ending in the most curmudgeonly progressive I can imagine. Note that there *were* three on the right because one spewed such hateful contempt that I "defriended" him. Oh, and let's not forget two libertarians: one very politically active and one just wanting to be left alone with his right to bare arms.
I told you that so I could tell you this: One of the right wing buddies from childhood recently posted, "Kid walks out of the welfare office and hops into a 42,000 dollar charger srt8 with rims that have to be around 4 grand. What a joke the system is." Seriously? Oh, and the lovely comments from the dittoers like "probably sells crack, too."
Really, I had intended to let it go. I don't live in this man's head...maybe he DID see it. Maybe, but probably not. So it could have been the bullshit factor that kept this in the back of my mind as I otherwise went on with my life. There was undoubtedly a touch "but he's otherwise such a good guy" weighing in. Either way, his (probably fake) observation was met by a conversation in class yesterday...
'America in Global Context' is a 400 level American Studies class, so it's populated by a small handful of American studies majors (and that one Criminal Justice guy) with graduation in sight and classes that can't help but overlap. When I settled in yesterday, two students were talking about their shared period before where a young woman announced that she doesn't "believe in welfare and these people should stop having kids if they're too poor to take care of them."
Wow.
I listened quietly while one of them shared how, when his father left them, he and his mom were on welfare for a little while. Going through the process was demoralizing as the caseworker treated them like unwanted beggars. There was the constant return to the office before being accepted into the system since they always had to bring some other piece of information without getting a simple list of everything needed. His mom didn't use the money to buy him a new car with super rims, though. They splurged on luxuries such as food and electricity for the months until she found work.
Another student joined in on the conversation, describing how she needed assistance for a time and both her struggle to get on it and the struggle to get off with road blocks on either end.
It's funny how the conservative narrative is all about those (imaginary) people (of color) who live high on the hog from welfare. The story they tell themselves never seems to include the little facts like how the money provided by transitional assistance is never enough to live on so you can pay for your heat OR for your lights. There's no mention of how, if you're not on section 8, which covers only the smallest fraction of those who need it, you come off assistance owing months of back rent on top of the mess made by paying one utility one month and another the next, so for a long time (or forever) you owe more than you make. Oh, and no more "food stamps" so welcome to life on ramen noodles and the dollar menu at the local fast food joint.
I can't quite figure out how that translates into $42,000 cars with 4 grand in rims. Maybe the "kid" he saw leaving the welfare office works there. Or maybe my buddy just made him up. I mean, the last time I heard of a brand new Cadillac parked in front of a housing project, it was from the same guy. How is that this middle-class white dude who works full time and lives in a suburb that has a median income (according to Wiki) $52K plus....how does this dude end up spending so much time in front of welfare offices and housing projects?
Is the new conservative pastime trolling for welfare fraud? Who wants to stop for a beer after work with friends or unwind in from a game when you can spy for brown people behaving badly?
More likely, this is one of a handful of lies passed around so certain people can feel self righteous about treating certain other people like crap. I mean, if it were true each time I heard someone's cousin's best friend's white dad didn't get a job he was the most qualified for because of affirmative action, the unemployment rate among people of color would be 0%.
I don't have all the answers, but I know I'm smelling bullshit.
By and large, there's nothing to see; for the majority, politics seem to be something that the rest of us inflict upon them and the most involved they get is posting "Voted" on election day. In the right corner, there were three particularly outspoken conservatives and their less outspoken "dittoers". On the left, we had--and still have--a spectrum ending in the most curmudgeonly progressive I can imagine. Note that there *were* three on the right because one spewed such hateful contempt that I "defriended" him. Oh, and let's not forget two libertarians: one very politically active and one just wanting to be left alone with his right to bare arms.
I told you that so I could tell you this: One of the right wing buddies from childhood recently posted, "Kid walks out of the welfare office and hops into a 42,000 dollar charger srt8 with rims that have to be around 4 grand. What a joke the system is." Seriously? Oh, and the lovely comments from the dittoers like "probably sells crack, too."
Really, I had intended to let it go. I don't live in this man's head...maybe he DID see it. Maybe, but probably not. So it could have been the bullshit factor that kept this in the back of my mind as I otherwise went on with my life. There was undoubtedly a touch "but he's otherwise such a good guy" weighing in. Either way, his (probably fake) observation was met by a conversation in class yesterday...
'America in Global Context' is a 400 level American Studies class, so it's populated by a small handful of American studies majors (and that one Criminal Justice guy) with graduation in sight and classes that can't help but overlap. When I settled in yesterday, two students were talking about their shared period before where a young woman announced that she doesn't "believe in welfare and these people should stop having kids if they're too poor to take care of them."
Wow.
I listened quietly while one of them shared how, when his father left them, he and his mom were on welfare for a little while. Going through the process was demoralizing as the caseworker treated them like unwanted beggars. There was the constant return to the office before being accepted into the system since they always had to bring some other piece of information without getting a simple list of everything needed. His mom didn't use the money to buy him a new car with super rims, though. They splurged on luxuries such as food and electricity for the months until she found work.
Another student joined in on the conversation, describing how she needed assistance for a time and both her struggle to get on it and the struggle to get off with road blocks on either end.
It's funny how the conservative narrative is all about those (imaginary) people (of color) who live high on the hog from welfare. The story they tell themselves never seems to include the little facts like how the money provided by transitional assistance is never enough to live on so you can pay for your heat OR for your lights. There's no mention of how, if you're not on section 8, which covers only the smallest fraction of those who need it, you come off assistance owing months of back rent on top of the mess made by paying one utility one month and another the next, so for a long time (or forever) you owe more than you make. Oh, and no more "food stamps" so welcome to life on ramen noodles and the dollar menu at the local fast food joint.
I can't quite figure out how that translates into $42,000 cars with 4 grand in rims. Maybe the "kid" he saw leaving the welfare office works there. Or maybe my buddy just made him up. I mean, the last time I heard of a brand new Cadillac parked in front of a housing project, it was from the same guy. How is that this middle-class white dude who works full time and lives in a suburb that has a median income (according to Wiki) $52K plus....how does this dude end up spending so much time in front of welfare offices and housing projects?
Is the new conservative pastime trolling for welfare fraud? Who wants to stop for a beer after work with friends or unwind in from a game when you can spy for brown people behaving badly?
More likely, this is one of a handful of lies passed around so certain people can feel self righteous about treating certain other people like crap. I mean, if it were true each time I heard someone's cousin's best friend's white dad didn't get a job he was the most qualified for because of affirmative action, the unemployment rate among people of color would be 0%.
I don't have all the answers, but I know I'm smelling bullshit.
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