Race!

This seems to be the hot topic of the month, due to some comments made by President Obama, it has even managed to get our attention off issues like health care or the economy, not to say this isn't an important issue. In fact it is probably one of the most important and most ignored issue in America today. Some people like myself are tired of the topic, others are scared to talk about it, some are naive, and others are uneducated, but as tired as we get and as scared as we might be it's something that Americans need to talk about. Race, Racism, and Prejudice are topics we need to discuss and educate ourselves on.

There are so many aspects to racism. It occurs in every race and is not just about whites against blacks. Whites hating Blacks is what seems to get the most attention but it happens every which way. If I had a nickel for every time I heard a "don't you have any cousins who can do construction", "I bet your a good swimmer", or any other Hispanic joke I'd probably be a millionaire. I've had Black, White, Asians, and many other races make those same types of comments. Typically I'll laugh it off maybe even add to the joke and move on. I'm not going to let simple words affect who I am or what I'm trying to accomplish. However, if I had to pay a nickel for every time I made racist ( about every race or religion) joke I would be broke again. Some people feel that by saying these types of jokes one doesn't help create progress, but I feel that through comedy it sometimes is easier to bring these things out in the open, and if we have an open mind we can laugh it off and move on instead of getting offended and sheltering ourselves. I understand there is a terrible past in this country, and it really is horrendous the injustices that the African-American community suffered but we shouldn't dwell on the past and hate each other because of it. The only way to progress is to move forward regardless of who tries to put us down. My grandmother would get upset when she would go the Alamo and say, " This was Mexico's land, they took it from us, ooo how my blood boils". I used to think to myself, " if you love Mexico so much what are you doing here?" and as I got older I thought maybe she is just ignorant and then I realized that it was what she learned, that is what her parents taught her and what her school taught her.

My point is that it's about what we we're taught, what, and how we teach our children. If I tell my kids to be proud of their Mexican roots and that the White men took Texas away from us etc..., then I am instilling hatred in them. If we teach our children to feel hatred because of our past, they will continue the vicious cycle, but if we tell them to learn from our ancestors mistakes and to change their views maybe they can move forward. When Barack Obama was elected president it was a great moment for me because I felt that he not only helped inspire the Black community but all minorities. I felt that if my child had come to me prior to that date and said, " Daddy I want to be President of the USA" I might tell him sure son, but I don't think I would believe it. I realized later how ignorant I was and how I was following the mold of what I had been taught. I didn't need Obama to become President so I could believe my child could become President. I should have believed it could happen and that no matter what anyone said if he worked hard and set his mind to it, he could do it.

There are many who believe racism doesn't exist or that people are taking things to personally. I read a comment, on a story by Jeffrey Wright discussing his recent experience with racism, saying something to the effect of "If a white gets declined for a loan it is because he has bad credit, if a black man gets declined for a loan it's because he is black". While I say we have to put the past behind us that doesn't mean ignore the present. I agree in some cases it may not be racism or it may not be the form of racism we are thinking. Last year I became good friends with one of the kids, Jonathan, in my neighborhood. We would round up other neighbors and play football in the afternoons. One day, while running, he fell on the pavement and was unable to get up from the pain. I happened to be coming home from work when it happened and I rushed him and his mother to the hospital. We arrived around 6:30p.m. at the emergency room. Jonathan started saying he was really hungry but the hospital wouldn't let him eat because they were unsure what he had damaged. The emergency room was not busy that evening and people that arrived hours after we did left well before we did. We left the hospital at 12:30 that night and received horrible service. Jonathan had not been allowed to eat this entire time and was not given anything for the pain until I started yelling at people. I yelled at the doctors and nurses in the area telling them to either give him something to eat or diagnose him so we could go get him a burger. My initial thought was I could not believe how poorly this child had been treated because he was Black, but then after going through everything that happened that evening I realized it had nothing to do with him being Black it was worse, it was because he didn't have health care coverage. I remembered they attended us immediately and asked about insurance, once his mom said she didn't have insurance was when suddenly we started being ignored.

I realize there are cases where people make things up or use racism to try and change a story or maybe to gain something to their benefit, but we can't let those cases make us think everyone is like that and that racism doesn't exist. I was having a conversation with a Black APD Officer last night and he was telling me of a story where he was treated unfairly because he was Black, but then he went to the same place in uniform and everything changed. I could be naive and say he is just imagining things, yet when I asked about the officer involved shooting that recently took place in Austin, Texas he stated that he felt it had nothing to do with race. That it didn't matter what color or race you were, if you drive around shooting guns in the air and reach for the gun in your pants when getting pulled over you are most likely going to be shot. Maybe his respect for a fellow officer is stronger than his ties to his race? I doubt that.

The reality is that racism continues to exist and we need to have open discussions and teach our children differently. We need to let go of hatred from the past and move forward. We can't let words put us down, hurt us or impair us from moving on. I hear Whites say that Blacks just use excuses, and Mexicans are taking their jobs, Blacks say they can't move on because Whites won't let them, and Mexicans are lazy taco benders, and Mexicans say that they can't move up because Whites control management jobs, and that Blacks are lazy people who watch them do all the work. It's the blame game, everyone points the finger the other direction. We are all guilty. We need to move on together and not be afraid to voice our opinions or have discussions about race or racism. Communication is key.

Health Care and the Medias' Focus

Health care outrage goes uncovered is a very interesting and eye opening article written by Paul Begala, a CNN contributor, on June 19th, 2009. The article begins by discussing horrific stories of Americans who lost their health coverage after being diagnosed with serious, life threatening, and expensive diseases through what seems to be loopholes in the system. Mr. Begala then continues to discuss what U.S. Senators are doing to fight the injustices and how amazingly the media is not covering these outrageous stories and instead "found space on the front page the morning after the hearing for a story on the cancellation of Fourth of July fireworks in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania".

This article is well written and very informative. The author provides numerous examples of people who paid their premiums on time and were dropped by the insurance companies. He provides in detail the circumstances by which the insurance companies decided to drop the insured. He lists the senators involved in the defense of the victims and details of the conversations held with the insurance companies. I feel the key to this article was that he pointed out exactly what the different major news organizations in America were reporting the day after the hearing even calling out his own organization for not giving it enough attention; "Yet it got no airtime on the networks, nor, as far as I can tell, on cable news, although CNN.com did run a story."

I did find some downsides to this article. I felt the section where Begala discusses his past with the Clinton Administration, and things he learned along the way were irrelevant to the story at hand. I realize he was trying to explain his point of how or why the media is not focused on this story through the use of comparison however I found it boring and unnecessary to make his point. Towards the end of the article he states, "I understand that Obama's White House team has to juggle a lot of issues; I've been there. And I'm sure the Obama financial reforms have merit. But if the president wants to pass his ambitious health care reform, he's going to have to put other, worthy, ideas on the back burner and shine the media spotlight on the plight of people like Robin Beaton." this I also found unnecessary, it seemed as though he was trying to compare the Clinton Administration to the Obama Administration, and although the Clinton Administration may have had its positives it was not able to accomplish true Health Care Reform or we would not be discussing this today. Furthermore, the Obama Administration has only been in office for 9 months, I think it is unfair to judge the administration's efforts at such an early stage.

Overall it is a great, eye opening article. It is sad to see that the media is more interested in the death of Michael Jackson than the injustices of the insurance companies we rely on to take care of us in a time of need. I would recommend reading the article and to keep yourself informed of these types of situations. Thanks to this article, I will be more careful of what I tell doctors and make sure I know what is being written in my charts.

U.S.A. needs to focus on Heallth Care Not Iran

The article U.S. should leave Iran alone, by Roland Martin on CNN, discusses how Obama is being criticized for being weak because he is not taking a more forceful approach to the crisis in Iran. The author states that he feels, "Obama's measured and calm approach has been right on target, while his critics have been totally off base". He then discusses the United States history with Iran and how our interference in previous years is the reason why Iran is in the situation it is now.

I feel this is a very well written article where the author has done detailed research of his topic and provided facts and history to support his argument. I believe the author makes a great point in that "democracy can never be imported; It must be homegrown". You can't force your belief system on people and expect them to be like you. They have to want it and obtain it for themselves. Even though what is happening in Iran might be horrific or awful we have to let the Iranian people try and figure things out for themselves. Did we learn nothing from Iraq? Why would we want to repeat that all over again? I understand that we want to keep our country safe, but interfering with other countries elections system is not going to make the U.S. more safe or secure.

Roland does a great job in trying to reach out to the general public and trying to connect on a personal level while maintaining his article professional and credible. He does this by asking the reader questions and using words like "Folks". It makes you feel as if he is sitting in front of you talking about the subject. The author also provides dates, names, and details of events and people to support his statements.

After reading this article I feel that even if the reader disagrees with the author he has provided enough history and facts to make the reader think twice about their position on the issue. I would suggest you read this article and send letters to your senators and let them know they should support our president and his stance on peace just like the majority supported our previous president into leading the U.S. into a horrible and unjustified war.

National Health Care a Reality?

In the article Obama shifts into campaign mode on health care, the authors discuss the current progress the Obama Administration is making towards a national health care system. I really enjoyed this article because they explain in great detail the progress that is being made and it is great to see President Obama attempting to follow through on his promises. The article discuses how President Obama has "reversed a campaign stance against requiring everyone to buy health care coverage" in order to support "some sort of individual mandate as long as there's a hardship exemption, If somebody truly just can't afford health insurance even with the subsidies that the government is now providing, we don't want to double penalize them." It also offers great detail as to who President Obama is speaking too and their stances. It seems the Republican Party continues their no cooperation stance with Obama policies. Hopefully the Republican Party will act before it is to late as in a comparable situation in Texas where the Republican Governor decided to not accept stimulus funding and now the state is paying for this mistake.