http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYZre8kEsuw
karl rove rapping. how did i miss this shit? better than crack
miércoles, 22 de octubre de 2008
miércoles, 8 de octubre de 2008
political
Attempting to finally write political... There is so much to write that I have put it off for so long for lack of anywhere to begin. But i have finally found my starting point.
Working for the DNC i go out a few times a week to canvass - part of the 'grassroots' wing. It can be somewhat exhausting to defend my beliefs not only from a human rights standpoint, but on another level that I am not completely comfortable with: why am I campaigning for Obama? While I do believe that democrats have a better record on human rights than Republicans, I am also very critical of them. I also believe that Obama is more progressive and understanding of oppression eg. classim/racism/sexism rather than pretending it doesn't exist. I agree with democrats in the principle, i don't think they have followed through with their plans. Even more so, smaller goverment as in what conservatives supposedly go for will never apply to the military and foreign military aid which seems to indirectly perpetuate human right violations through out the world. my arguement was - if there ever was a republican to drastically reduce the military i would cast my ballot in an attempt at voice through voting.
So the tangent i went on last night was with a democrat turned republican. Needing to waste some time i spent about half an hour with her. The statement that bothers me the most is that people in poverty are lazy. This was in response to my theory that the most wealthy nation in the world should not have such a high level of poverty in its own country (not to mention promoting it abroad). I attempt to offer my rebutal to this, which i did not do well last night because i was so frustrated with the idea.
Without re-looking up the statistics, i am going to recall from memory.
1. the vast majorty of people in poverty are people who have jobs. period. Not people who prefer to beg on the streets because working in low wage jobs is that much more demeaning. People beggin in streets compromises a small portion of people who are actually in poverty. This includes families, people working two jobs on minimum wage, single mothers,
- homelessness: this also includes familes and disproportionately affects women, women with children, and those fleeing from violent home situations.
- Drugs are a vicious cycle in which people are caught up in the system of no education, no job skills, medicate with drugs, lose money. Violence, sexual abuse, and other 'life circumstances' are a major part of drug addition. I believe drug abuse is misunderstood in that people would like to think the drug addiction comes first, which makes the person homeless, or leads to prostitution rather than the other way around. Same goes for psychological disorders. Overwheleming numbers of women who are experience domestic violence develop a psychological disoder in able to cope.
- causes: major causes are lack of education (almost 50% of young people do not graduate highschool, much less with real job skills), affordable housing, capital flight out of inner city neighborhoods, lack of jobs on that middle level: many jobs are needed to keep this society going at a very low education and skill level which is where immigrants are employed and needed. But the next level of widely needed jobs skips almost a 4 year degree. possibly even a masters to ensure a good job. Poverty is a very complex issue. children raised in a community with a very high rate of poverty lack a culture of achievement, postive role models, lack of support from say churches, schools, and other networks that can help out. money thrown at schools with out strenghtening these other institutions will ulitimately fail. dc is an excellent example. sending a kid to a goo school who doesn't have a stable home life or proper diet cannot learn as well.
- now lets talk about oppression. This could obviously go on for many book lengths.. but lets take a stab. Anyone who says poverty is laziness is igoring the fact of widepread 'isms' and of how they have affected history, and continue to inform policy and life within America. Congress recently voted down a bill for equal pay for women in the workplace. republican cited that the age of sexism had ended. Many of the historical protections have been eroded, and rather than employers showing that they are fair, the employee must prove that they have been discriminated against. This comes during a time when women make about 77 cents for every dollar a man makes. This figure places women in the context of a capitalist culture and obsession of how much you make. Yet socially an accepted and traditional role for women is not in leadership positions. This system does not acknowledge women roles within the family - even if they are not bringing in an income. The U.S also has a very high rate of domestic violence and sexual violence. The one factor that all of these attacks have in common is gender. Until this threat is removed from society equality is bullshit.
- role of police: if you are locked up, this makes it much more difficult to survive financially. yet the U.S has a higher percentage of people incarcerated than any country in the world. around 1% is behind bars. Unproportionally by far African Americans are incarcerated at a higher rate than other 'races' (as defined by US). Whites compromise a majority of tax evasion and and 'white collar crimes' even though the dollar amount is more than most theft cases which don't acrue very much jail time. Drug charges however can land you life in prison or a felony charge. especially non violent drug charges. Women with felony charges - which are mostly black are not elligible for scholarship funding, low income housing benifits or food stamps. (the latter part enacted by Clinton in 1996 to cut 'welfare spending'.
this part goes with the above part on poverty. school vouchers = bad. So... poor communities can't afford to send their kids to better schools. And why would you want to send your kid to an all white school if you are attend a majority black low performing black school? why not have that school do better so that children in the same neighborhood can go to school as a community for support, not be among a racial minority, and a long commute - which usually entails no afterschool extracurricular activities. using the school system to perpetuate a culture of obedience and intolerance... to be continued.
Working for the DNC i go out a few times a week to canvass - part of the 'grassroots' wing. It can be somewhat exhausting to defend my beliefs not only from a human rights standpoint, but on another level that I am not completely comfortable with: why am I campaigning for Obama? While I do believe that democrats have a better record on human rights than Republicans, I am also very critical of them. I also believe that Obama is more progressive and understanding of oppression eg. classim/racism/sexism rather than pretending it doesn't exist. I agree with democrats in the principle, i don't think they have followed through with their plans. Even more so, smaller goverment as in what conservatives supposedly go for will never apply to the military and foreign military aid which seems to indirectly perpetuate human right violations through out the world. my arguement was - if there ever was a republican to drastically reduce the military i would cast my ballot in an attempt at voice through voting.
So the tangent i went on last night was with a democrat turned republican. Needing to waste some time i spent about half an hour with her. The statement that bothers me the most is that people in poverty are lazy. This was in response to my theory that the most wealthy nation in the world should not have such a high level of poverty in its own country (not to mention promoting it abroad). I attempt to offer my rebutal to this, which i did not do well last night because i was so frustrated with the idea.
Without re-looking up the statistics, i am going to recall from memory.
1. the vast majorty of people in poverty are people who have jobs. period. Not people who prefer to beg on the streets because working in low wage jobs is that much more demeaning. People beggin in streets compromises a small portion of people who are actually in poverty. This includes families, people working two jobs on minimum wage, single mothers,
- homelessness: this also includes familes and disproportionately affects women, women with children, and those fleeing from violent home situations.
- Drugs are a vicious cycle in which people are caught up in the system of no education, no job skills, medicate with drugs, lose money. Violence, sexual abuse, and other 'life circumstances' are a major part of drug addition. I believe drug abuse is misunderstood in that people would like to think the drug addiction comes first, which makes the person homeless, or leads to prostitution rather than the other way around. Same goes for psychological disorders. Overwheleming numbers of women who are experience domestic violence develop a psychological disoder in able to cope.
- causes: major causes are lack of education (almost 50% of young people do not graduate highschool, much less with real job skills), affordable housing, capital flight out of inner city neighborhoods, lack of jobs on that middle level: many jobs are needed to keep this society going at a very low education and skill level which is where immigrants are employed and needed. But the next level of widely needed jobs skips almost a 4 year degree. possibly even a masters to ensure a good job. Poverty is a very complex issue. children raised in a community with a very high rate of poverty lack a culture of achievement, postive role models, lack of support from say churches, schools, and other networks that can help out. money thrown at schools with out strenghtening these other institutions will ulitimately fail. dc is an excellent example. sending a kid to a goo school who doesn't have a stable home life or proper diet cannot learn as well.
- now lets talk about oppression. This could obviously go on for many book lengths.. but lets take a stab. Anyone who says poverty is laziness is igoring the fact of widepread 'isms' and of how they have affected history, and continue to inform policy and life within America. Congress recently voted down a bill for equal pay for women in the workplace. republican cited that the age of sexism had ended. Many of the historical protections have been eroded, and rather than employers showing that they are fair, the employee must prove that they have been discriminated against. This comes during a time when women make about 77 cents for every dollar a man makes. This figure places women in the context of a capitalist culture and obsession of how much you make. Yet socially an accepted and traditional role for women is not in leadership positions. This system does not acknowledge women roles within the family - even if they are not bringing in an income. The U.S also has a very high rate of domestic violence and sexual violence. The one factor that all of these attacks have in common is gender. Until this threat is removed from society equality is bullshit.
- role of police: if you are locked up, this makes it much more difficult to survive financially. yet the U.S has a higher percentage of people incarcerated than any country in the world. around 1% is behind bars. Unproportionally by far African Americans are incarcerated at a higher rate than other 'races' (as defined by US). Whites compromise a majority of tax evasion and and 'white collar crimes' even though the dollar amount is more than most theft cases which don't acrue very much jail time. Drug charges however can land you life in prison or a felony charge. especially non violent drug charges. Women with felony charges - which are mostly black are not elligible for scholarship funding, low income housing benifits or food stamps. (the latter part enacted by Clinton in 1996 to cut 'welfare spending'.
this part goes with the above part on poverty. school vouchers = bad. So... poor communities can't afford to send their kids to better schools. And why would you want to send your kid to an all white school if you are attend a majority black low performing black school? why not have that school do better so that children in the same neighborhood can go to school as a community for support, not be among a racial minority, and a long commute - which usually entails no afterschool extracurricular activities. using the school system to perpetuate a culture of obedience and intolerance... to be continued.
Suscribirse a:
Entradas (Atom)