...I'm okay with being REALITY-based.




Wednesday, July 07, 2004
      ( 8:46 PM )
 
Vent

I am so sick and tired of the vapid way that liberal educators discuss the need for multiculturalism in this country and yet their own academic establishment is filled only with white faces. I'm so sick of the way this country acts like we somehow have a moral superiority to the rest of the world and that we are not destroying mankind with our consumption of the earth's resources and our exportation of hollow values. What, do we think we are not racist because we do not wear swastikas on our coats? Then why do we not name the genocide in Sudan? Why are there not constant screams about the thousands of names of African Americans already on lists that will keep them from their rightful vote this November? Why is it called "standard English" and not "upper class white power English," which is what it really is? Why isn't your automatic response to my question of whether you think there should be reparations to the African Americans, the First Nations, the Hispanic descendents of what was once Mexico, not a resounding and immediate YES! What is a "family value" that values living children less than embryos? How is it possible that in this richest nation on earth, ANY of our children (much less 1/4th of our population) live in abject poverty and go hungry? What is it that makes a six week vacation "laziness" but a 90-hour work week "virtuous?" Why, when in only a few decades, the majority population of this country will be Latino, is there not an equal representation in our government? Why is it a tragedy when a middle class white boy is excluded from a college due to Affirmative Action - how come no one tells him, "well, you'll just have to try harder, pull yourself up by your boot straps, anyone can make it if they try." Where do we think an endless supply of energy will come from while we allow the SUVs and Hummers to destroy our air and our roads? Why do millions go without health insurance or retirement security while the rich whine about their children not inheriting their millions? Why are there thousands of young black men in prison for non-violent, petty crimes while Ken Lay sits comfortably at home for three years after screwing thousands of people's lives? Why is it acceptable that pharmaceutical companies spend millions of dollars advertising pills that give men four-hour erections and supplements that make their penises bigger, but there are children dying because they cannot get medication, people with AIDS begging for just one more day, breast cancer patients and alzheimer suffers hanging on with the last bit of hope? How is it that a white media can endlessly discuss a very real conflict in the African American community as if it had a say in the matter at all? Why do we believe that teachers should be limited in their pay and their benefits, but millionaire athletes and movie stars should get free gifts at their awards shows? When did NOT wanting soldiers to die in a needless war become "anti-American?" When did we give up our power as citizens? Why is it easier to be self-righteous than to do what is right? When will we learn?

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