Friday, March 21, 2008

Correction

Please don't take my last post to mean that I want you to vote for Hillary. Until the democratic supporter is decided, I'm behind Obama.

Obama will probably be on of my favorite people even if he's not the nominee. His speech was so important. Yes, it was during an election and a reaction to a somewhat negative situation. No, that's not ideal. But this is when the man has the stage, this is his opportunity to make his words heard, and I admire him for them just the same.

I think I should write more about his speech and what it meant to me. In order to do so, however, I'm going to have to get into a lot of things about my past, my experience as a Chapter 220 student in integrated schools, my struggle with race, and how his speech brought that all together. That's going to take a while. To be honest, I have to finish up a job application right now, so I shouldn't take the time.

But I did want to clarify my current support for Mr. Obama, my conviction that he is a fabulous orator, and that his speech should be heard by all, not just in snipits on Fox News.

And how sickening it was, after listening to his speech, to hear the news outlets wondering what "black people would think of his speech." I wonder if they listened at all.

~Kristen

Monday, March 17, 2008

Gender and Politics

This is a great article about "Post feminism" and gender issues in politics these days. This really captures how I feel, particularly about the gender issue in regards to Hillary Clinton. I didn't vote for her, but I deeply understand the huge support she has from older women, and why her candidacy is important. In some ways, I wish she weren't the wife of a former president, or didn't have some of the connections she does. It is important that this nation have a woman president just for the sake of having a woman president. That is not something that I say lightly, but it is true.

Until people stop laughing when a man shouts "iron my shirts" at a female candidate just as they would if a white man shouted that at a black candidate, the blinders to gender and sex inequities will still be firmly in place. I am not satisfied to live in a nation where the most powerful people are old men and the pretty young women who destroy their careers.

~Kristen

Saturday, March 01, 2008

Yuck! Plastic Living In the Oceans!!

You have to take a look at this story. Why isn't it getting any press here in the states? Why don't we know that there is now so much plastic trash in our oceans that we cannot hope to clean it up?

I'm just flabbergasted. Here we talk about maybe cutting back on plastic bag uses, and no one even thinks to bring this up? This is one of the ways in which our over-use of petroleum and petroleum-based products has impacted the earth, and not a way that we normally would think of.

We should probably be discussing this.