I know.
It surprised me too.
I had no idea.
I'm sorry that I waited til now to tell you all, but honestly, I just found out.
It's been a bit hard to digest.
Telling my brother that I had brain cancer was a difficult moment for both of us but one that helped to bond us in a completely new way.
I'm not sure how he'll take this.
I'm afraid it might undo what the long nights in hospital have done.
The thing is that I voted for Romney and only afterward did I find out that the only reason I could've done so was because I'm (more or less) caucasian and so is he.
This is the shocking revelation that I awoke to after the election;
Quote:
White people—white men in particular—are for Mitt Romney. White men are supporting Mitt Romney to the exclusion of logic or common sense, in defiance of normal Americans. Without this narrow, tribal appeal, Romney's candidacy would simply not be viable.
UnQuote
Apparently, I don't like people who don't look just like me.
Which is a pretty small demographic for sure.
So far, it's Chihuly, a lady that raced F-1, and a tall, black man named Irv that I see every now and again in my neighborhood.
The truth is my main issue is always the same:
Which candidate/party is going to leave me alone most often?
That's it.
What I want from "government" is to be politely ignored.
Nothing more, nothing less.
After that, the question is, "Which candidate/party is going to cost me the least?"
And, usually that comes down to libertarians or republicans.
But because the libertarians don't really have a wide enough fan base, I tend to vote for republicans.
I have always felt that, short of maintaining roads and bridges and making sure those wicked Canadians aren't ready to come screaming across our border, the "government" should, more or less, let me do my own thing, as long as my own thing didn't cost anybody else any of their hard earned money or keep them awake at night or reduce their property value.
It's exactly that type of statement that makes me racist.
I didn't even think to stop and ask, EPPdF, "How many of the imaginary neighbors that you're not disturbing when you're doing "your own thing" are Black? Women?"
And that's the problem.
Or, at least according to the writer of this article:
“The Walking Dead” has become a white patriarchy
The post-apocalypse looks too familiar: White men rule, men of color are invisible -- and women are to be protected
BY LORRAINEBERRYhttp://www.salon.com/2012/11/11/the_walking_dead_has_become_a_white_patriarchy/
Where I saw a show about zombies, she saw an opportunity to promote gender neutrality.
Where I imagined a night on the couch, eating popcorn, and shrieking like a little girl when a zombie jumped out, Ms. Berry saw an opportunity to promote diversity.
As long as your idea of diversity fits her definition of diversity; one of the main characters is Asian and last night's story prominently featured a pretty bad-ass woman of color.
Shit.
I just did it again.
I said, "shriek like a little girl" and I'm sure I just offended thousands of female-American persons.
I'm sorry.
See.
This is the trouble I have with many folks on the left.
So many of them seem to be breaking down every part of our everyday life into smaller and smaller special interest promoting moments that even a show about the zombie apocalypse is just another opportunity to move an agenda forward.
It's tiring.
I don't like being preached to, whether it's by the reformed gangster turned Jehovah's Witness in Bodega Bay, who cornered me one morning pre-caffeinated, or the woman who sees white, patriarchal society keeping the people down in a show about zombies.
Everyone is such a special snowflake nowadays that you have to stop and constantly remind everyone of their very special snowflakiness, and if you don't, it's exactly the same as dragging a man behind a pickup.
Exactly the same.
No difference at all.
Except that, most of us just aren't all that special.
We're just people and breaking us down into our smallest possible demographic unit is not pulling us together.
It pits us against one another.
And that's not really helpful at all.
Pointing out how unique everyone is also highlights their differences rather than their sameness.
We're not Americans anymore but a collection of hyphenated Americans.
(And, starting now, I would like to be referred to as a Pirata-American, thank you very much.)
Which is one of the main things I don't like about Obama.
He could be a source of inspiration to millions of children, regardless of background.
His message could be:
"See what a great country this is.
You can be born poor and raised by a single mom, and with some hard work, some smarts, and a little luck, you could become the leader of the free world.
Whatever it is you set your mind to, you can achieve.
It will be hard, but it is possible to be born at the bottom and rise to the top."
Instead his message is about how, "at a certain point, you've made enough money."
It's about the wealthy paying their "fair share".
It's about rising up to take, rather than pulling yourself up and out.
I find it offensive on so many levels that I'm not even certain where to start.
My brothers and I did all of the hard, ugly, unpleasant jobs that, according to the media, Americans simply won't do.
We bussed tables, changed oil, mowed lawns, worked in orange groves, factories, and fast food.
We hung sheet rock and did home repair and remodeling.
We were "sales associates" and newspaper delivery-men and waiters.
I moved heavy bags of things from one location to another for hours on end for less than minimum wage for nearly two years during high school.
When spring break came around, instead of thinking about getting soused at Daytona Beach, I thought about the extra hours I would be able to work.
A 60 hour week, loading lumber, concrete blocks, and all manner of building supplies, under the hot Florida sun, at that time, meant just about $200.
I spent a month hanging off the side of a 26 story building and a couple months working on an oil refinery in Pascagoula, Mississippi.
Both jobs were hard and unpleasant but I was excited both times to have the opportunity to show what I could do, given the chance.
We were dirty, and hot, and tired, but willing to work.
And we did.
Because we were willing to work hard and because most of us, more or less followed the rules, we are now in better places than where we started.
The people I know that are really successful worked twice that hard and a helluvalot smarter than me.
But, that's not an easy message to sell:
"You're not handsome and charming and you probably won't win the lottery so you better plan on working harder than everyone else in the room."
Good luck getting on the 6 o'clock news with that.
But, here's the thing that will work for most people, most of the time, and be the best thing for our society:
1. Get as much education as you can. If you can't afford college, read everything you can get your hands on.
Part of my personal story that I am very proud of, is how when I was in high school I was not particularly happy about being in high school but I realized that dropping out was a path that was not going to be paved with gold.
My answer was to:
A. Barely scrape by and receive my diploma
B. To read Upton Sinclair, and Hemingway, and Melville, and Kerouac, and the collected works of Shakespeare, and Grimm's Fairy Tales, and Black Elk Speaks, and Voltaire, and most of the books that "you're supposed to read". In short, I created my own curriculum that enlarged the world around me.
2. Don't have babies you can't afford with people you're not married to.
The only advice that "The Source of the Trouble" ever gave me when I was living at home was, don't get anyone pregnant.
3. Get a job and keep it at least long enough to get enough experience to get the next higher position.
It used to be that working your way up from the bottom was, more or less, the only way.
If you do those three things, chances are, at the very least, you will not be mired in poverty.
Then, if you stay a little longer, work a little harder, maybe actually say something like,
"Sure boss, I can do that and then I'll knock out these 5 things too.", you could conceivably get ahead.
But no one wants to hear that.
Hard work is not sexy and often not fun.
But it pretty much always pays off.
http://youtu.be/Xe1a1wHxTyo
BY LORRAINEBERRYhttp://www.salon.com/2012/11/11/the_walking_dead_has_become_a_white_patriarchy/
Where I saw a show about zombies, she saw an opportunity to promote gender neutrality.
Where I imagined a night on the couch, eating popcorn, and shrieking like a little girl when a zombie jumped out, Ms. Berry saw an opportunity to promote diversity.
As long as your idea of diversity fits her definition of diversity; one of the main characters is Asian and last night's story prominently featured a pretty bad-ass woman of color.
Shit.
I just did it again.
I said, "shriek like a little girl" and I'm sure I just offended thousands of female-American persons.
I'm sorry.
See.
This is the trouble I have with many folks on the left.
So many of them seem to be breaking down every part of our everyday life into smaller and smaller special interest promoting moments that even a show about the zombie apocalypse is just another opportunity to move an agenda forward.
It's tiring.
I don't like being preached to, whether it's by the reformed gangster turned Jehovah's Witness in Bodega Bay, who cornered me one morning pre-caffeinated, or the woman who sees white, patriarchal society keeping the people down in a show about zombies.
Everyone is such a special snowflake nowadays that you have to stop and constantly remind everyone of their very special snowflakiness, and if you don't, it's exactly the same as dragging a man behind a pickup.
Exactly the same.
No difference at all.
Except that, most of us just aren't all that special.
We're just people and breaking us down into our smallest possible demographic unit is not pulling us together.
It pits us against one another.
And that's not really helpful at all.
Pointing out how unique everyone is also highlights their differences rather than their sameness.
We're not Americans anymore but a collection of hyphenated Americans.
(And, starting now, I would like to be referred to as a Pirata-American, thank you very much.)
Which is one of the main things I don't like about Obama.
He could be a source of inspiration to millions of children, regardless of background.
His message could be:
"See what a great country this is.
You can be born poor and raised by a single mom, and with some hard work, some smarts, and a little luck, you could become the leader of the free world.
Whatever it is you set your mind to, you can achieve.
It will be hard, but it is possible to be born at the bottom and rise to the top."
Instead his message is about how, "at a certain point, you've made enough money."
It's about the wealthy paying their "fair share".
It's about rising up to take, rather than pulling yourself up and out.
I find it offensive on so many levels that I'm not even certain where to start.
My brothers and I did all of the hard, ugly, unpleasant jobs that, according to the media, Americans simply won't do.
We bussed tables, changed oil, mowed lawns, worked in orange groves, factories, and fast food.
We hung sheet rock and did home repair and remodeling.
We were "sales associates" and newspaper delivery-men and waiters.
I moved heavy bags of things from one location to another for hours on end for less than minimum wage for nearly two years during high school.
When spring break came around, instead of thinking about getting soused at Daytona Beach, I thought about the extra hours I would be able to work.
A 60 hour week, loading lumber, concrete blocks, and all manner of building supplies, under the hot Florida sun, at that time, meant just about $200.
I spent a month hanging off the side of a 26 story building and a couple months working on an oil refinery in Pascagoula, Mississippi.
Both jobs were hard and unpleasant but I was excited both times to have the opportunity to show what I could do, given the chance.
We were dirty, and hot, and tired, but willing to work.
And we did.
Because we were willing to work hard and because most of us, more or less followed the rules, we are now in better places than where we started.
The people I know that are really successful worked twice that hard and a helluvalot smarter than me.
But, that's not an easy message to sell:
"You're not handsome and charming and you probably won't win the lottery so you better plan on working harder than everyone else in the room."
Good luck getting on the 6 o'clock news with that.
But, here's the thing that will work for most people, most of the time, and be the best thing for our society:
1. Get as much education as you can. If you can't afford college, read everything you can get your hands on.
Part of my personal story that I am very proud of, is how when I was in high school I was not particularly happy about being in high school but I realized that dropping out was a path that was not going to be paved with gold.
My answer was to:
A. Barely scrape by and receive my diploma
B. To read Upton Sinclair, and Hemingway, and Melville, and Kerouac, and the collected works of Shakespeare, and Grimm's Fairy Tales, and Black Elk Speaks, and Voltaire, and most of the books that "you're supposed to read". In short, I created my own curriculum that enlarged the world around me.
2. Don't have babies you can't afford with people you're not married to.
The only advice that "The Source of the Trouble" ever gave me when I was living at home was, don't get anyone pregnant.
3. Get a job and keep it at least long enough to get enough experience to get the next higher position.
It used to be that working your way up from the bottom was, more or less, the only way.
If you do those three things, chances are, at the very least, you will not be mired in poverty.
Then, if you stay a little longer, work a little harder, maybe actually say something like,
"Sure boss, I can do that and then I'll knock out these 5 things too.", you could conceivably get ahead.
But no one wants to hear that.
Hard work is not sexy and often not fun.
But it pretty much always pays off.
http://youtu.be/Xe1a1wHxTyo
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