open thread friday

(thanks to ziem at the peace train )

this is going to be a rambling about a little bit of everything (except the kitchen sink).

it is my fond wish that 'nappy headed hos' are the three most celebrated words in the western hemisphere right now. not so much for defending the words, but because they may have been the straw that has broken the camel's back and a signal to the end of hate spewed on the airwaves. apparently, the right wing hate-rhetoric spewers think that there is some 'vast left wing conspiracy' to take them down. my thought is- folks are sick of hearing poison all of the time. when you have limbaugh- on his thursday show- calling the shooter at vtech a 'liberal' because he was 'ranting about religion and rich people'- that's poison. not only that, but he insulted the young people who attend vtech by implying that they aren't taught anything but left wing ideals. neal boortz is quoted as spewing that the kids at vtech were cowards for not fighting back- and let's face it- the right did not take long at all to exploit the whole incident as a platform for pro-gun legislation.

as for imus himself, well, he stirred the pot alright. i don't think it's a bad thing. now, before you get your panties in a wad- i am not defending imus- i never even listened to him. i just think it has gotten folks talking. now-- we need to get doing!

oprah (keep reading) had a two day forum on the whole issue- and i read through the overview and there was a lot of common sense. of course, you had some of the usual politically correct pap being spewed- and she did have sharpton on- but i feel the stirrings of hope because of---again- the young people. the kids at vtech, the rutgers ladies basketball team, and on the oprah show, some of the young ladies at spelman college- they have a different world view than the ones we typically see in the media. they look at the world differently because it is a markedly different world than the one most of us grew up in. if we could get more of these young people engaged and involved, perhaps we could oust these old cold war neo con bastards and their left wing toadies. i'm just sayin.'

anyhoo- i give jason whitlock credit for speaking out along a different, less popular vein when he wanted to 'thank you don imus. you have given [the black community] an excuse to avoid our real problem." he believes that his community needs to take responsibility for allowing the hip hop culture to define them instead of respecting themselves enough to demand respect from others. hmmm....personal responsibility. there is a reason that there is a glorifying of the gangsta culture and prison culture- one that you don't hear about much. 1.4 million black men- 13% of the total black male population- has been incarcerated in this country. think about that- and then think about this- black folks make up about 15% of the drug users in this country but 37 percent of those arrested on drug charges, 59 percent of those convicted, and 74 percent of all drug offenders sentenced to prison.

in a country who can't tell a shia from a sunni or a korean from a chinese person, we have those in power who tell us that we are spreading democracy to the middle east and beyond. my thought is- we picked the wrong country. i think it is fantastic that we think that we have cornered the market on consumerism and democracy- and yet we don't even know what's going on in our own country.

so what does the future hold for us? i am not going to say because i tend to be a pessimist. it doesn't look good though. with hate media kingpin limbaugh saying that there isn't any global warming crisis because (and try not to snort liquid through your nose) "the president says there isn't and i say there isn't. so don't worry about it,"- i mean with authority like that we must be going to be ok. or not.