Random Thoughts on Obama, Wright & Race

Sorry for the non-linear manner of this post...like the title states these are random thoughts...

First of all people have to realize there is a difference between racial and racist. When someone is being racial they notice color but the racist not only notices color but makes judgments based on it. Mr. Wright is a racialist, most Americans are, but is he a racist? Perhaps but not because of anything in the speeches being looped around the clock. Neither does his physical actions indicate so.

Anything that blacks do for social advancement that does not fit the conservatives ideal of how we should do it is considered racist.

I do not consider Obama a sell out for distancing himself from Mr. Wright's controversial statements. I understand the position that the ever sensitive white America has put him in.

I have resisted for a long time from calling conservatives racist but when they constantly throw our shortcomings as black folks in our face and then turn around and get "huffy" when we point out the flaws of their community.

Like I said...random.

Culture Clash

Gotta Love Family

It seems like I am always the last one to be informed about family events if informed at all. It has been like this even when I was younger and still lived at home. I do not know why this is, maybe it's something about my personality, I don't know.

I wasn't even informed about my sister's wedding rehearsal until the day before and I was one of the groomsmen, at least I guess that's what I was, I was never really sure. So I was not even able to be there for the rehearsal because that was hardly enough time to request the day off from work. By the way, I had never been in a wedding before so I had no clue what was going on.

Just last week I was invited over to my sister's house via text message for a birthday party that was happening the next day. I didn't even get a 24 hour notice this time, I got the message about 10 that evening. Again, not enough time to arrange to get time off of work. The message didn't even inform me of whose birthday it was, I knew it wasn't my sister's because she had just had hers the week before. It turned out it was her husband's and our uncle's birthday. It would have been nice to be there as he is an uncle I don't see that often and he almost died awhile back.

I think it was last July 4th that my family had a party. I worked early that day specifically so I can enjoy the day with family. But they decided that 3pm wasn't early enough so they decided to get together at some ridiculous time like 11am. Now my family is not one of those families that really "parties" so by the time I would've showed up everybody would've been long gone. I mean it is Independence Day! It is Summer! Get together in the afternoon and hang out for fireworks in the evening. Nope, couldn't do that or else I might have actually been able to be there.

My sister asks why I never come over. Well, it might be because when she invites me if it's not the day before it is literally like an hour before! I have a job, that doesn't work for me. Even if my job wasn't an issue, come on! Maybe I have plans??? To be fair, when she calls me to come over an hour before it is usually because they are cooking and it was just a spur of the moment invite, but still, if those are the only invites I'm getting don't be surprised when I rarely visit.

She also asks why her and her husband never come over to my house. Good question. I have invited them on numerous occasions, have even given them a weeks notice but they never show up. So after awhile you quit asking. Now, it is just an open invite, come over when and if you can and care to.

Overall though my family has been great to me. There would be something wrong if everything was perfect. But I do like to be around family and it would be nice if I was more in the loop, I mean, besides extended family there is only three of us, but I am not holding my breath. That's just how things are, I've let them know before but it always puts them on the defensive so I just leave it alone.

Responsibility Hypocrisy

Six days after the destruction of the world trade center towers, President Bush visited the Islamic Center in Washington “to denounce incidents of prejudice against Muslim Americans.” He was attempting to defuse the national outrage against the attackers and prevent a violent backlash against Muslims living in America.

Since then, government leaders and the media have worked hard at establishing in our minds that most Muslims are peace-loving and the terrorists are fringe extremists.

But the line between the two remains very blurred. “Unfortunately, it is not so easy to find Muslim leaders who have genuinely renounced violent jihad and any intention, now or in the future, to impose Sharia (Muslim Law) on non-Muslim countries,” writes Robert Spencer, author of several books on Islam. (From some random post on Myspace.com)

The thing about this is that Muslims speak out against terrorism all the time but what more do we want them to do? It's like we expect them to form their own anti-terrorist terrorist group to terrorize the terrorists because after all Muslims are supposed to be violent so why can't the moderates be violent against the extremists...sounds ridiculous when you actually say it out loud but I believe this is what a lot of people are thinking.

Also on the other hand, when the shoe is on the other foot and Christians are fucking shit up no one expects the Christians to stand up against their extremist compatriots because when it comes to Christians we can draw a distinction between the two sides but with Muslims we tend to think of them as all one congruent group.

The facts are that a lot of moderate Christians actively detest extremist Christianity as do many Muslims detest extremist Islam (and even die for it) but the difference is that we as a society don't expect the Christians to be obligated to do so but feel that it is absolutely the Muslims responsibility to do so.

Sunday Shanninigans

I witnessed a couple of interesting things last Sunday. The first incident happened on my morning commute to work. I was on the bus, there was an elderly man in a motorized scooter up front. As the bus took a turn the man, along with scooter, fell to the floor. No one came to the man's aid except for a couple of women, one in her teens and the other a senior citizen, they were together. Now the interesting part is that this man who was obviously a Christian gentleman dressed in his Sunday best on his way to church and so was about two thirds of the rest of the passengers, many with Bible in hand. None of them and I repeat, none of them came to this man's aid...a fellow Christian. These two women? They were Muslim in complete Islamic garb. Don't get me wrong, this is not a stab at Christians, I know many good Christians that wouldn't of hesitated for a moment to leap to this man's aid, regardless of his religion. And at the same time this is not an attempt to promote Islamic ideals. However, this does go to show that you can't judge a book by it's religion so to speak.

The other incident that witnessed this day? Well, I was at a fast food restaurant and as I was waiting for my order a man and his two very young children (boy & girl) came in to order after me. The kids were both extremely dirty and looked to be a real handful for this father (who by the way was a soldier dressed in fatigues and from the bits of conversation that I caught sounded like he was about to be shipped out soon, didn't catch where exactly...has nothing to do with the story just a bit of interesting information). As this man was ordering his son was trying to climb up on the counter. The man gave him a swift slap on the butt. The boy then bent over, reached down the back of his shorts...at first I thought he was just rubbing his bottom because it hurt but no, he was digging! And he continued to dig for a good thirty seconds. He then removed his hand from his shorts, looked at his finger, which the tip was in fact brown. He then wiped it on the counter, then on his dad's uniform, then he touched all over the cup lids and straws and after they sat down was rubbing his hands all in his dad's face...pops was oblivious to what his son was doing with his hand earlier. The kid was young but he was old enough to know better. It was hard for me to eat my food because all I could think about all the things he had touched and if anything I had came into contact with any of those surfaces. Moral to the story...you never know what just happened before you got there, no matter where it's at. Nasty...

Christian Victim Complex

It seems that everywhere in the World Christians always complain about being victims of intolerance. I just had a conversation with a woman who claims that it is common in a certain West African country for Christians to be despised and looked down on. Now, I am no expert on this country but I have been there on occasion and retain close ties to it. I am certain that there is at least some intolerance towards Christians there as no country is immune to these types of attitudes (not just towards Christians from non-Christians). But in my first-hand experience and second-hand information from knowledgeable sources I am certain that it is not the norm. This country is about 95% Muslim and if they wanted to treat the Christians as second-class citizens or worse the Christians would be way outnumbered. Yet if they were so anti-Christian why would they celebrate Christmas? Why would they have a huge church in the middle of their capitol city? Why would Christians be protected by their constitution? Christians have for far too long cried victim. The days of Rome are over...shit, they own Rome now! Yes, there are places in the World where Christians are jailed and killed simply for being openly Christian. But this is true of every group of people in one place or another...Christians have no special claim to this. In fact, Christians have the most followers of any religion World wide! And in many places where they claim to be victims, especially here in the USA, they more or less run the country and have done so since the beginning. Christians historically have been intolerant of other faiths and although it ain't right, a lot of the intolerance towards Christians now is a reaction to that! This woman mentioned that when people that she knew (or heard about) in this country converted to Christianity it put a strain on the families and they were often times kicked out of the home...now I was not there so I can not say that this was the situation but I can completely imagine, based on the Born Agains I know here, they were probably constantly trying to convert the rest of the family, telling them that their beliefs were wrong and that they all would perish in Hell if they did not accept Jesus into their hearts and that is what probably caused the strain...not their conversion to Christianity but their constant disrespect for the other family members beliefs.

Black pups face doggie discrimination

Dark-coated pooches tend to linger in shelters the longest. Big, black dogs are often the last to be adopted from animal shelters — a phenomenon known in pet rescue circles as "black dog syndrome." Read complete article here.

Although this article says NOTHING about racism how much do you want to bet that the conservative talk radio shows will pick this up and complain how the liberal media is now trying to make issue of white racism against all things black including dogs? haha you know it...

Re: Good Old Christian Terrorism

This is a response to a blog...actually it is more of a response to the responses of that blog...Click title above for original blog...

I follow Abrahamic scripture. I am not Jewish, Christian or Muslim yet at the same time, in a sense, I am all three. I know, sounds contradictory, but it works for me.

With that said, it astonishes me how so many of the faithful from any religion can claim to be so tolerant and yet in actions and words prove that they are not?

It amazes me how when someone from one’s own religion commits a heinous act that somehow they must not be true believers of that religion…yet when someone from another religion commits a heinous act that is just proof of what the other religion is really about?

It is a false belief that any one religion is about peace or violence. When it comes to the Abrahamic faiths it is both about peace and violence. It is obvious from the Torah, Bible and Qur’an that God states there is time for peace and time for violence. Destroying whole towns? Soddom & Gomorah? That was terrorism right there! Right and wrong is a human invention separate from God. Yahweh/Allah is a God of peace and violence as it serves His purposes.

As I have stated, I believe in the God of Abraham but I do not believe that my way is the only way and I derive this belief from scripture…the same scriptures that many that believe in the same God as I seem to miss. God works in mysterious ways so who am I to question?

At one time I was an agnostic with atheist leanings…I did not appreciate back then when the religious would try to convert me. As now as a religious person I still do not appreciate it…you see, no matter how religious you are, even if you are of the same basic belief system as them they will still try to convert you to their exact way of believing. I do not try to convert others so do not try to convert me…I am open to sharing and if what you have to say is truly the one and only way then your attempts at conversion would not be necessary…I would be compelled to believe, wouldn’t I?