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Archive for February, 2008posted by perkiset on Feb 29 Just 6 months after we lost our black standard, this morning we lost our apricot to the same (most probably genetic) problem. These were the finest animals that I have ever had. They loved our family as much as we loved them. They will never be forgotten.
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                          posted by perkiset on Feb 28 WillyP sent me this transcript of an article written in the Kingman Miner. Kingman is a little town in northern Arizona about an hour south of the Hoover Dam. It is fair to say that Arizona has been slow to become un-bigoted - in fact some remnants still remain. I’ve actually heard the word “Nigger” used as slang or in humor many times since I’ve lived here - it’s disgusting how carelessly people can still toss it about and frightening that it is still used in a racist context at all here - I would have thought we as a people were considerably further along than that. But I digress. Kingman, along with other little towns like Wickenberg, Wikieup, Prescott and such still maintain a wild-west sort of attitude and barely-veiled racism. In fact, it was less than 30 years ago that Kingman still had a sign on the outskirts warning “People of color had best not let the sun set on them within city limits[sic].” So it is with amazement and joy that I read the following article. It both describes a healthy evolution for our more backward towns as well as something really different about the Obama campaign. Stephen Gill
Miner Staff Writer A few months ago, I was introduced to a presidential candidate by the name of Barack Hussein Obama. I shook my head and thought to myself, “How can a man in the Bin Ladin - Saddam - 9/11- Taliban - al-Qaida - fanatic Muslims - era ever win a bid for the presidency bearing such a name? Sometime later, I spoke to a friend from Oregon, and I asked whom he thought was going to win the Democratic ticket - Edwards, Biden, Clinton? He replied, “Obama.” I said, “The black guy!” and laughed out loud. I told him he was crazy. “This is America, there’s no way he’s going to win.” My ignorant and tasteless comments didn’t faze him. He instead spoke with conviction in describing his support for Barack. It made me wonder what it was about Obama that had made my friends, a blue collar father of two young children, speak so passionately about him? The last words Josh said to me that day were, “Take a good look at him, Steve. He’s going to be a great president.” So I did, and found out that Obama was born in Honolulu to a black Kenyan father and white Kansas mother. When asked about his name, he once replied, “My parents shared not only an improbable love, they shared an abiding faith in the possibilities of this nation. They would give me an African name, Barack, or blessed, believing that in a tolerant America your name is no barrier to success.” In high school, Obama admitted to using alcohol, marijuana and cocaine, but then he gave them up, saying he had learned to take responsibility for his own actions. He attended Columbia University and then graduated from Harvard Law. In 1990, he became Harvard Law Review’s first black president in its 104-year history. With such an honor, he could have clerked for Supreme Court justices or worked for any law firm on Wall Street and made huge sums of money, but instead he went to go fight in the slums of Chicago as a community organizer and civil rights lawyer. He then served as a state legislator in Illinois until winning the election to the U.S. Senate in 2004. After finding this out, I immediately became a fan. I mean, why not, this country is facing so many head-shaking, heart-aching issues: a slumping economy, a flunking educational system, a major housing crisis, an enigma that is health care and an unpopular war which neither McCain, Clinton, Obama or God Himself could fix in just four short years. And that’s why I like him. We already know what a Clinton administration is going to look like, and a vote for McCain would be a vote for four more years of George Bush’s politics. Obama may lack the experience, but he has the drive, the passion and the ability to break boundaries. The people of all shades and religions who pack stadiums by the tens of thousands to hear him speak are hungry for something they’ve never had, a politician who energizes them, a figure of their generation who gives them, yes, hope and change. They don’t go because he’s black. They go because he inspires. Race is undeniably a factor in all of this. Looking deeper into the significance of him running, I thought about young black boys in the ghettos of America who believe their only chance of living the American Dream is by becoming a rapper, a professional athlete or a comedian - not that there’s anything wrong with that, but those who make it are extraordinarily talented, and those who don’t, well, they stay in the ghettoes becoming ordinary criminals. Just maybe they can look at Obama and say, “I can be a graduate of Harvard. I can be a young charismatic senator. I can be the president of the most powerful nation on earth.” It’s an amazing milestone for this country that we might be alive to see the first black president in America, 143 years after the abolition of slavery and almost 400 years since the first boats arrived on the shores of America carrying African slaves. The U.S. is a great country that has provided great freedoms not only to its own but peoples across the world; however, it can become even greater. Doing so would require people to no longer see themselves only as African Americans, Irish Americans, Indian Americans, etc., but just simply as Americans, remembering and honoring where they came from but understanding they are part of a common idea that is America. Imagine the day when there’s no longer a need for the NAACP, when hate groups like the KKK are debunked and forgotten from this land. Obama cannot do that in four or eight years as president, but he could be a vital component as we fight the war of inequality that still burdens America. That may sound impossible, but things that are possible are only so because people have dared to do the impossible. Samuel Adams once said, “It does not take a majority to prevail … but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men.” My intention in writing this column isn’t to sway people for my own political views but to ask them to take a good look at the man who is setting brushfires of freedom and unity in the minds of not just blacks or whites all across this country, but all Americans, whether they be liberal or conservative, Asian or Latino, rich or poor, man or woman. Thanks WillyP for the inspirational find - I really appreciate it. Bookmark to:
posted by perkiset on Feb 25 Ralph Nader is responsible for the war in Iraq. And just when we thought the race was really getting interesting, Ralph Nader steps in to make a mockery of it all. Let’s face it: The name “Ralph Nader” used to be synonymous with consumer protection, safety issues, consumer advocacy… he was practically a household name in this arena. But in the last 3 presidential elections his name has been mud at best – criminally negligent at worst. Well, at least morally negligent.Simple math: if Nader’s name was not on the Florida ballot in 2000 Al Gore is president. Iraq never happens. Thanks a lot Ralph – lots of great safety and advocacy props there pal. Ralph you have lost your way. You know it is flat out impossible for you to become president – and if you don’t then you shouldn’t be anyway because you’re completely delusional – so why not spend your time in advocacy of a important topics rather than this boneheaded, ill conceived notion YET AGAIN. It concerns me to think that you do not take personal responsibility for the state of our nation today – indeed even the world. You may personally be the largest single Gum In The Works that has ever existed. Stop it. Right now. Please while there is still some good legacy left of you. Hillary, Hillary, Hillary. Strike Two: “Shame on you Barack.” A new low. Sorry Mrs. Clinton – you cannot take credit for all of the good things that occurred during your husband’s administration and yet be absolved of responsibility for the not-so-great things – particularly when you have been so vocally pro-NAFTA in the past, for example. The Obama campaign’s flyer that went out does not cite anything untrue or explosive – it states the facts of how you have supported things in the past yet take no responsibility for them now. Your sudden explosion about it smacks of desperation and tactics, not real political anger. Strike Three: Making fun of Obama and his supporters? Now that is really politically dumb and frankly, insulting. You and Bill – the eternal optimists… trading on hope and a vision for the future that was better than today – making fun of Obama and his supporters as kool-aid drinking rose-colored glass wand wavers? (OK, that’s not what was said – but that was the timbre) That is playground politics at the worst. To have shifted from someone purporting her vision of the future to someone talking about how hard it’s going to be and “[with Obama as president] The skies will open everything will be alright” is the mark of someone that has clearly hit a desperate point. Thank you, for having proven exactly what kind of character you have while under pressure – you’ve made my choice ever so much easier. Since it’s either you or Obama, he gets the support. You lose and rightfully so. Bookmark to:
posted by perkiset on Feb 13 Just a little something to brighten the day - two images sent to me that are just delightfully funny. Have a good one! 
Driving Miss Hillary Bookmark to:
posted by perkiset on Feb 4 Consider this, my right-wing warmongering friends: If we honestly believe that one of the reasons Dubya went to Iraq was to avenge the contract put out on daddy, then is it too far a stretch to imagine that a President McCain would keep us in Iraq as long as necessary to vicariously repair the damage done to him during his 5 year imprisonment in Viet Nam? Clearly, with his rhetoric about 100 years or more, “We are making progress,” “We will win regardless of what it takes.” “With honor” and such he is reliving his Viet Nam through the middle east and feels the pain of the soldiers there. Would it not be better for him to care for his military brethren by bringing them home and retask the money he would put into bullets towards hospitals and care for those that have given so much? Why must we be subjected to McCain’s mental torment over losing Viet Nam at the expense of our economy, our future and most importantly, the lives and health of our youngest and strongest? To our future president: Please, for the love of god, country and countrymen, get us out of that quagmire. Let us start to endure the inevitable embarrassment and national shame we deserve for our imperialist excursions and FINALLY start to learn how to behave as an international citizen nation, rather than the school bully. Let us begin to scab over the wounds we have gut in our national body and our relationships with the rest of the world. Let us begin the process of growing up. Bookmark to:
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Lucas
Spencer
