T-10, Political Views and Paranoia Click here to comment

10 days left! First thing I did today was go to the computer. Got an email from Meetup.com about stuff happening in Denver which sparked curiosity about what’s going on in LA. I check the website and start browsing stuff happening this week near the 9-triple O-4, and of course the list is long. This catches my eye:

A small snicker, I only briefly imagine what that’s all about. I peruse the list just to see what’s going on tonight (Maybe I can check out some place called Mozambique tonight, saw it twice on the list).

Then I wonder about Dayton, OH, as I’m apt to do these days, and wonder if meetup is used there. So I switch the location and the list is short, but something catches my eye:

I mentally hmmm out of concern. What is this 9/11 truth? So I google “9 11 truth” and start reading the webpage. Top article about someone who wrote a book called End of America, referring to Army Times about an article referring to quelling civil unrest by our military, and how we’re becoming a nation run by martial law once city at a time.

Does this concern me? Yes, but I would like to think that all manner of obstacles and power checks that I personally know are in place would stop something like this from ever happening. We have great leaders in our military… Air Force, Army, Navy, and Marines. I’ve been in for 4 years as an Airman First Class/Senior Airman/Staff Sergeant and plan to go on as a 2nd Lt and beyond, and I can say as a fact we have great leaders from within the military. We are all professionals at arms, and we all swore to protect the president of the United States and the Constitution. Said article refers to us answering directly to the president, which is true, as we are the executive branch of government, as in we as the executive branch put into action/enforce the law. The executive branch, however, does not simply consist of the military, but also your civilian police and FBI, and pretty much any enabler institution that brings the letter of the law to physical realization.

But we know this. My issue is that what isn’t said in said article is that we as military members have a choice to disobey direct orders when there is a clear reason to do so. You won’t find Army troops shooting civilians protesting in Washington DC… it’s funny, because the article cites a demonstration from World War I veterans… yet our nation has allowed even larger peaceful demonstrations since then. Million Man March, anyone? The let’s-fall-down-in-major-intersections-in-an-attempt-to-stop-the-”American-War-Machine” protests from just a few years ago, which, by the way, were dealt with by the civilian police force. Anyway, you won’t find the military shooting peaceful demonstrators. If, God forbid, the situation ever came where we were ordered to do such a horrible thing, that would be in direct contradiction of the rights granted to us as residents of this great country by the Constitution, which we swore an oath to uphold and defend upon entry to service, free speech included. We can say “no”. Perhaps we’ll get fired or in trouble, but people such as the author of End of America and the folks that participate in 9/11 Truth tend to forget that regular human beings are what operate the military. Sure we might be trained and conditioned to react in a battle situation, but we aren’t trained to lose our humanity. When I push myself to run in the morning, I think about my parents, my sisters, my friends, my brothers and sisters in arms, and then… I think about the murderers. The rapists. The people who hate me because I joined the military. The people who don’t understand and don’t want to understand why I do what I do. And you know what? I run harder. I push myself at work to do what I do, because these people are America… the people I love, and the people that I don’t. There are no romantic thoughts of being a hero for just the good, flag-waving people of our country up in this head. All I say is to someone who may spit at my feet is “You’re welcome.” Spit in my face, and you’ll get a knuckle and teeth sandwich.

Then, as if to put the last nail on the coffin for the credibility of the website, I look further down the page at an article talking about how Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW):

From 911truth.org front page:

HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. – One hour before the final presidential debate of the 2008 campaign, fourteen members of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) marched in formation to Hofstra University to present questions to the candidates. IVAW had requested permission from debate moderator Bob Schieffer to ask their questions during the debate, but received no response.

The contingent of veterans in dress and combat uniforms attempted to enter the building where the debate was to be held in order to ask questions about poor veterans’ healthcare and supporting war resisters of the candidates, but were turned back by police. IVAW members at the front of the formation were immediately arrested, and others were pushed back into the crowd by police on horseback. Several members were injured, including former Army Sergeant Nick Morgan who suffered a broken cheekbone when he was trampled by police horses before being arrested.

As my TI from BMT would say when she caught one of us doing something crazy, “Oh really? Really? ” Private organization requests permission from what is essentially a private debate run by a private company. Request unanswered-slash-denied. Okay, perfectly acceptable. Whatever broadcast company Bob Schieffer works for (I can’t remember at the moment) has the right to bar private citizens from entering their private event. That’s like me barring IVAW to march into my backyard to protest, hell to the fuck-no. Go stay on the government-owned sidewalk.

Then the phrase “attempted to enter the building” is quite benign but doesn’t describe the manner in which they attempted. They’re already not invited, why are they still attempting to get in? Isn’t that considered trespassing on private property? I can only imagine that on the use of force model, they went from cooperative to resister, passively or actively I don’t know. I understand that private citizens were allowed to watch the debate live, like university students and such. Maybe if the IVAW guys didn’t arrive in such a showy manner they would have been let in. I don’t know. All I know is that “no means no”, and if IVAW as a group was not invited to participate in the debate, then IVAW as a group should not have tried to march in and circumvent the wishes of the event holders.

I Ctrl+F4′d that window with a snicker. Those 911truth guys are just conspiracy theorists, and the truth is much less complicated than what they wish.

Anyway, after this I was reading up on Law’s blog, and came upon a link pointing to the hypocrisy of the Democratic party. The article didn’t talk about how Obama specifically was a hypocrite, but rather various other people in the Democratic party who portrayed a disdain for the very people they’re supposed to be supportive of, the lower and middle class. It got me to thinking about my own political stance. I’ve always considered myself independent, and as far as the spectrum goes I’m left of center. When I make decisions on political views, it’s because I have a personal reason to do so, and not because all the cool people are/aren’t doing it. I re-evaluated what party I’d identify with, and I think I should just sign up to be a Democrat. I had a discussion with Law a while ago and I think we still disagree on signing up to a party without 100% adopting its views. I originally asked why he didn’t just join a political party so he could vote in primaries, but he said he didn’t agree with any political party. I see it as working within the system to bring about the change that I want. He sees it as being dishonest, being “Republican” without actually being Republican. I see it as a party name, he sees it as the identity of a party. I’m gonna get the chance to visit with him and Cookie this weekend so I’m sure we’ll argue that all we want. I’ll probably get pissed, but that’s just because I’m a hothead. I think I’ll register Democrat when I go to Dayton next year.

Also, I already voted for this election by going directly to the county registrar in Norwalk. I voted for Obama because I’d rather him be my boss instead of McCain… Obama just seems to have a clearer view on what he wants happen to our country than McCain does. I wanted McCain to win the republican nomination in 2000, but this year I don’t want him to be president… it’s a different time, and we’re in a different place, and we need a different leader. That’s my personal stance.

I voted no on Prop 8, not because I have gay friends (which I found out a few months ago I do), but because I thought about it and maybe it’s time we tried this out. Lord knows that the average straight person around here doesn’t think marriage is sacred, what with all the people who marry for reasons other than love (fucked and got pregnant, need citizenship, girl just wants a doctor for a husband, Britney Spears and her 48-hour vegas marriage, crazy high divorce rates, etc.) so the “sanctity of marriage” is already lost… it has been for quite some time. There are gay couples that wish they could get married, that love each other very much… the law should protect them just as much as it protects the people who marry only to take advantage of the perceived benefits.

So yeah, no on Prop 8 because I think in this secular day and age it’s really an irrelevant issue, and the sooner we get it over with the sooner we can focus on the things we actually need. Ridiculous pay increases and better incentives for teachers and nurses, anyone? I’ll pay obscene amounts of money for a great teacher for my (future) kids. I want nurses to be happy so if I wind up at the hospital I’ll get some good healthcare. Knowledge and health are the cornerstone of a thriving society. Without that the infrastructure built on top will topple over. The workforce becomes dumber and dies sooner. Clean methods of power? You betcha, I heart solar energy and high-efficiency wind power generators. And I personally harbor the crazy notion that space travel will be the next gold rush–after we figure out the power situation. I mean, we’re making money on wall street now by other people making money? Oh really? Really? I want a buck in my hand to equate to a dollar worth of something else I can hold in my hand. I’m just saying we can get resources from space if we just went out and looked. Let’s resolve every other earth-bound problem, then we can look to the stars for the way distant future fate of our race. But that’s back-burner head-in-the-clouds thinking for now. Let’s secure democracy for all. Quality healthcare for all. Awesome education for everyone. That’s what we need to be doing.

Phew! That was long. I have no idea why I blab on so much about random crap, and I barely get out. Hyperactive mind, I guess. Well hasta tomorrow.

Nigger is a state of mind. Click here to comment

Damn right I dropped the N-word.

I rarely ever think about race. When I deal with a white person, I don’t ever think of what the difference between how I perceive myself versus how others perceive me… I just have business to take care of, and I’ll present myself in a professional manner… any snide remarks about my race are ignored… that’s just the way things go sometimes.

I never refer to myself as a Flip. For those that don’t know, that’s a supposed derogatory term for someone of Filipino descent, such as myself. My first and only encounter with this, unfortunately, was with another person who happened to have a half-filipino ethnic background. The day I met this person, he asked me if I was a Flip. I responded “no, I’m Filipino,” with as stern a look I could muster, and I didn’t hear about it since. I’ll nip that shit in the bud–I’ll be damed if I let someone start that racial “only between us” name shit.

Which brings me to the title of the post… Nigger is a state of mind. Certain folks will occasionally call each other that when they’re in a social mode I can only describe as “among friends”. Note that I say “certain folks”, because if I wanted to say “some black folks” I would have said “some black folks”. I choose the phrase “certain folks” because apparently it’s not just some black people using this word… on occasion some non-black people will call each other that when they’re socially among friends. “My nigga” or “Nigga please”… when used among friends, it’s not derogatory. I know it’s among friends and sometimes considered in style, but calling others “nigger” is wrong all the same for various reasons. But that’s not what I’m discussing in this post.

I’m trying to get to the core of a problem that some American minority communities have, which is racial identity. Someone tell me how often Martin Luther King Jr. referred to himself as a nigger. Someone tell me when Rosa Parks said “Nigga, please” in casual conversation. I’m willing to stake my pride as a human being that these words were never uttered by these and other true champions of civil rights. I’ve been watching and thinking, and have come to the conclusion that Nigger is a state of mind. When someone identifies themselves as a nigger, it’s not because they’re black, but rather they accept and possibly adhere to a certain culture that advocates blaming circumstances beyond ones control as the cause of some kind of failure. This is probably a difficult concept to grasp, but I have no idea how I came to this conclusion except by riding the train of rational thought on the matter. I’ve concluded that you don’t necessarily have to be black to be a nigger… that sounds crazy and is a bit unnerving but it’s true. I’ve on occasion heard non-blacks of various backgrounds use this phrase to refer to themselves and their friends. I don’t have the whole concept nailed down yet, but the core of my perception of Nigger is that you don’t have to be black to be one, regardless of what some black niggers may tell you or due to the background on the word itself.

My gut feeling on this is that once a person starts using “nigger” or a similar ethnic slur in casual speech (”Flip”, in my case), in their mind they accept the unfortunate perception that as hard as they try in life, they won’t get as far as other successful folks. I’m purposely vague here as I haven’t nailed down what the perception of “other folks” is… I want to say “white folks” but again the image of a successful person is different to everyone, and when I think of successful person I’m thinking of my parents, or a group of people like Bill Gates, Will Smith… yeah. Alot of different folks. A person who uses racial slurs in everyday speech as a method of identifying with someone of the same ethnic background thinks less of their own race, for whatever reason… that much I’ve been able to discern. I’m not a “Flip”. I’m an American of Filipino descent, trying hard to make a living, gain social status–just generally trying to deserve living in a good country. Although I personally feel like I’m doing things later in life than most other folks, I think overall I’m doing alright.

It’s vague, and I’m still trying to form my conclusions revolving around the word “nigger” and the frame of mind someone has when they use what is supposedly a very severe ethnic slur among friends. I value all input one may have on this subject, and even if you call me crazy, threaten to report me to my squadron commander, whatever… it’s your right to say so, and I’ll approve the comment. I’ve been wrong before, but each time I try to take away the lesson from the situation so that I won’t be wrong in the future. But as of right now I stand by my words in this article until given insight otherwise.