Solace

The news has left me paranoid and depressed. There is too much redundancy with the ten year anniversary and the stories are only of grief. I have lost people close to me and I will grieve forever but I find solace in our good memories. One of my greatest friend's parents chose to have a memorial for her instead of a funeral. The memorial was held on her birthday and her friends and family could celebrate her life and move on with her still in their hearts, versus focusing on our loss and feeling the void that she left. I think that fear is dangerous. I am naturally timorous but sometimes the news exacerbates my stress to levels of delusions. No, I will not seek medication, the way that the media frames circumstances makes the fear logical and inevitable. I hope that everyone is safe and remains that way.

It should come as no surprise that Jackie Onassis made remarks about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. that were derogatory. I have always thought of her as having class but it appears that was only on the surface. These are the history lessons that should be taught in learning institutions because it reveals why racism was allowed to survive--legally--until 1965. Every African-American in the United States was a second class citizen until 1965 and that is me being brutally honest. That Obama became President only 40 plus years after African-Americans becoming citizens is amazing. For that reason alone, I believe it is a historical presidency--not because he is "Black", which he is as much White as he is Black, but because of the huge amount of progress that the U.S. has made since using the National Guard and unfair laws against Blacks to the Presidency. We are still not extending our equality to homosexuals. I will not believe that I live in a fair country until homosexuals are granted the rights to distribute their property as they please and to marry whoever they love.

As a teacher, I would find it very difficult to ever sugar coat the harsh realities of our history. We need new history books to be written that are the antithesis of traditional history. Howard Zinn's book, "A People's History of the United States" is one of the few books that tell history from a different perspective. 

Has America chosen retrogression over progression?

Michele Bachman is proof of American ignorance. I cannot explain how idiotic her viewpoints are and she continues to gain popularity. Her views about homosexuals is truly disheartening, her ignorance about slavery is embarrassing, and her most recent comment about being submissive to her husband in order to be a good Christian is irrational.

Homosexuals are equals. I have said it before and I will reiterate it: we all know someone who is gay but some have not come out yet. It is sad that someone cannot live in a society where they can reveal their true self. I cannot fathom the mental struggles that closeted homosexuals have and I don't understand why Bachman or any other politician can debate such a complex issue that they are obviously completely ignorant of. The homosexual movement cannot be reduced solely to one's sexual orientation. Homosexuals have faced institutionalized and systematic discrimination. I am a heterosexual and I am waiting for the first homosexual president. A homosexual candidate is the only person who would have the authority to speak on the issue.

Slavery--according to Michele Bachman--was great for families because it maintained the two parent household. Her ignorance overlooked the fact that the child was born into slavery, the parents did not have the rights to marry and that slaves did not even have the right to their own name. Slavery is inhumane and for Bachman to insinuate that there was anything positive about living as a piece of property merits a mental evaluation and a history lesson. African-Americans were legally second-class citizens until the passing of the 15th Amendment in 1965. Slavery was race based in the U.S. Racism is systematic and institutionalized. She is clearly someone who has benefited from racism--having the privilege to perpetuate such ignorance and have the mindless follow her blindly.

African-Americans would chose to live in 2011 versus 1860 and women prefer our equal status. I don't understand why the so-called pious Christian women believe that submission will bring them closer to God. If a Wahabi Muslim woman is submissive, it is considered oppression. If an Asian woman is submissive, it is considered oppressive, too. I, too, would rationalize that her husband would be running the presidency if she had to kowtow every time there was a conflict of opinions. Who are these Americans supporting her? Bachman as president will place us in the same year as The Crusades and I used to think Sarah Palin was a bad candidate.

CNN's Black and White Test

I cannot understand how ignorant society is when there is a racist system and we expect that kids will not point to the darkest skinned person as the bad child, the ugly child and assign every other negative characteristic to blackness. Even the dictionary states that black has negative semantic properties and white is the antithesis of black: benevolent.

Obama being elected president has only served to exacerbate such ignorance. The election was supposedly symbolic of equality and racial justice; however, it does not erase the fact that the United States was built on the backs of slaves. Slavery in the U.S. was race-based and the system: racism, helped Caucasians and other minorities while hurting African-Americans and those visible minorities who may have been mistaken for or categorized with African-Americans.

There will always be racism. The media reinforces racism and racism will not end until they study the children in the study that went against saying that the study and showed a complete lack of bias towards all skin tones and independent thinking beyond their peers.