I had no idea that the job of coroner is an elective job in New Orleans. It sure does open the door to great political ads.
Category Archives: Uncategorized
We are all racists – Cnd.
….My concern with saying we are all racists is that it devalues the word
from what I've traditionally taken it to mean.
Actually he said a lot more than that and I encourage you to go to the comments section and read it in full. Richard's comments turn the post into part of a conversation and makes it much more interesting. And Richard makes an excellent point that I devalued the word racist.
That is not what I set out to do but I can see that is what happened.
We are all racists – I hope
A confession here. I am a racist. I hope you are, too. Not because I think being a racist is good or an ideal to aspire to, but, because I don't want to be the only racist in the room.
To see if you are a racist, let me give you a test. Now for you, this will be a hypothetical test; but it was real for me, so please try to imagine it being real.
I was in a hurry, driving down the freeway in the fast lane. In front of me, also in the fast lane, is a BMW. As I get closer to the BMW, I start going through an internal conversation along the lines of Why buy a BMW unless you are going to drive fast – atleast slightly, illegally fast? And why drive in the fast lane if you are going to drive slower than traffic? I get close and see a custom license plate that says USCMBA and my first thought is What a dork. So I pull over to pass on the right – because he is such a jerk as to drive too slow in the fast lane and with a BMW to boot, it is not my fault that I have to pass on the right.
Now, my question here is What is your opinion of a guy driving slow in the fast lane, in a BMW, with a vanity plate that reads USCMBA?
As I go by, I see he is black. Now what is your opinion?
I immediately went into defense – Well he probably has to dive slow so the racist cops don't pull him over…probably worked his ass off to get through USC which is expensive…his parents worked their asses off, too.
I do want to be clear that this is not all top of my lungs thinking, it is just sort of background noise thinking as I am driving. But I also am aware that my thinking did a 180o turn around when I saw that he was black. A racist reaction. True, a chauvinist pig racist reaction. But…still!
When I first meet someone, I notice their sex, age, and color – in that order, but, sort of, all at once. And I start making pre-judged assumptions about that person. I like to think that I am able to add to those assumptions and change those assumptions as I get more information. And, interestingly, because people are always more complicated than my prejudges, getting to know the person almost always results in more change than addition.
So, where is all this going? I don't know, but yesterday was MLK day and I think we have a long way to go. And I think the United States is doing better than most countries. Maybe that is the best we can hope for on MLK Day.
Best letter of the week
From the Minneapolis Star-Tribune: by way of Swampland @ Time
Dear Pat Robertson,
I know that you know that all press is good press, so I appreciate
the shout-out. And you make God look like a big mean bully who kicks
people when they are down, so I'm all over that action. But when you
say that Haiti has made a pact with me, it is totally humiliating. I
may be evil incarnate, but I'm no welcher. The way you put it, making a
deal with me leaves folks desperate and impoverished. Sure, in the
afterlife, but when I strike bargains with people, they first get
something here on earth — glamour, beauty, talent, wealth, fame,
glory, a golden fiddle. Those Haitians have nothing, and I mean
nothing. And that was before the earthquake. Haven't you seen
"Crossroads"? Or "Damn Yankees"? If I had a thing going with Haiti,
there'd be lots of banks, skyscrapers, SUVs, exclusive night clubs,
Botox — that kind of thing. An 80 percent poverty rate is so not my
style. Nothing against it — I'm just saying: Not how I roll. You're
doing great work, Pat, and I don't want to clip your wings — just,
come on, you're making me look bad. And not the good kind of bad. Keep
blaming God. That's working. But leave me out of it, please. Or we may
need to renegotiate your own contract.Best, Satan
(The actual author is identified as Lily Coyle, Minneapolis.)
Clouds of Dust…on Mars
I am not a big fan of the space program. I would much rather the money were spent on something I consider useful, like a high speed train to Los Angeles. But the pictures that come out of the program are amazing. This is a picture of Falling Material Kicks Up Cloud of Dust on Dunes according to NASA/JPL/University of Arizona.
It is everything I could hope for: mysterious and beautiful. The picture above is a detail of the picture below. About a third of the way up from the bottom and a third of the way in from the left, is a dust cloud kicked up by the sun warming and melting carbon dioxide ice. This is a picture taken on Mars and sent here by a robot!