History

After the long-awaited election, voters, volunteers, and donors all over America waited to see if their efforts had paid off. My efforts had paid off, because Barack Obama is the next President of the United States. He's the first black president we've had, and to think we elected him after one of our worst presidents got two terms in the white house. John McCain gave a really sincere speech for him, which I admired, that he was able to put his feelings aside and congradulate Obama. On Facebook, I, along with some of my friends from Hyde Park, changed our profile pictures to Obama for the day, and was excited that he won when I heard the news. (Obama's from Hyde Park, so that was a big part of the "Obama profiles") Don't get me wrong, I like some of McCain's ideas, but he had promised to fight a clean campaign, which he didn't, and because of that, he's filled the minds of supporters with hate and violence towards Obama; at a McCain rally, supporters were shouting "Off with his head!" at Obama. On facebook, things are scary, since Facebook friends made comments such as "We are oh so screwed" and "Go back to Indonesia" and worst of all "He's not my president" on election night. Hopefully, America can see past prejudice and hate that Palin had been spreading and that had been around for centuries, and accept this man as our next President. He's not a socialist, a terrorist, or a threat. He's a smart man, and maybe soon people will get past their hate and realize that.


He gave his acceptance speech in Grant Park in Chicago, the scyscapers lit up for the occasion. My motorcycle was broken then, but I would have loved to attend, and instead watched the event on TV. I loved seeing the reaction in Martin Luther King Jr.'s church, where his daughter and a huge crowd cheered and celebrated. I could imagine Nas, and how he must feel, since he had high hopes for Obama. Eminem, I bet, is glad the war will come to a close soon, since his previous albums showed strong feelings towards the war. Jay Z, Kanye West, Will. I. Am., Busta Rhymes, Common; I could imagine them all celebrating the night. Whether or not you supported Obama or not, history has been made.

Busy sunday

It feels great to be blogging again after months of nonstop Facebook! This Sunday, though was busy and not at all spent lazily surfing the net. I got to meet Hillary Clinton today. My dad and I were invited by this family to hear her speak, and to meet her in person. The place was really small, and filled with fancy-looking people, which made me feel uncomfortable. When Hillary walked in the room, however, I didn't feel nervous anymore. It was her birthday, so we all sang Happy Birthday to her before she gave a short speech about Obama and how we need to get more democrats elected to the senate and congress so that Obama's plans will be able to get passed. When the speech was over, she shook hands with people and said hello to familiar faces. I was luckily able to shake her hand, and my dad got a book written by her signed. I got my picture taken with her as well, but not with the camera I'd brought. (Hopefully they'll send it to us) I was impressed that Hillary was working so hard for Obama after their rivalry in the primaries, and that she was able to joke about her temper during the speech as well. To be able to meet in person someone like Hillary Clinton was an amazing experience, and I left feeling incredibly lucky. Later on in the day, since I'm in Global Activism Club at my school, I got to return to Chicago to go to a walk to protest the violence in Darfur as well as in Chicago. The event wasn't huge, and was held in Grant park, (where Obama might be speaking on election night) Fewer than 70 people showed up, however kids from many different schools came and held protest signs as we walked. There was a raffle when we got pack to the park, with computer chips as prizes, but mostly people just wanted to be there to protest and make a difference.

So it was a busy Sunday for me, and though I didn't get to spend much time at home as I normally would have, yet a lot had happened in that one day that made it a great day for me.

Sarah Palin: Mother. Wife. Moose-hunter. Our next VP?

By now, I'm sure you've heard about McCain's choice for Vice President: Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin. For someone who is for denying a woman her right to choose to have a baby, and who wants to make shooting wolves from a plane legal, Palin is surprisingly popular in the polls. I'm a girl, so don't accuse me of being sexist. Of course a woman can be President or Vice President of the United States. But when Hillary Clinton ran for President, the right-wing media was nothing but sexist. She was actually smart, and she was mocked by Republican and Democrat men while running for President. Now, when a woman with no original opinions and who has sought porkbarrel projects for the small town she used to be the mayor of might be he next VP, Obama's being accused of being sexist if he even remotely questions her backwards policies. She also has no experience and has never been out of the United States more than one time, when she visited troops in Kuwait. She was the mayor of Wasilla, Alaska at one point, but Wasilla's a small town with only 6,000 residents. She served as Governor for only two terms, and graduated from the University of Idaho. Obama worked as a community organizer, and worked to help the homeless. He had also worked as a civil rights attourney, and had served in the Illinois senate from 1997 to 2004. He was also elected to the U.S. senate in 2004 as well. He has been outside of the country many times, and months ago, had gone to visit troops in Iraq. McCain's one strong point against Obama was that Obama "Lacked experience." Now, he goes and nominates someone with even less experience for his running mate. She is a better speaker than McCain, and she is a good debater, using smiles and a soft voice while interrupting the opponent and playing the gender card if Biden will interrupt her while she's speaking. However, think about it: John McCain's 72 yeas old. If he dies, then Palin will be the 45th president. Would you want Palin as President, despite all the hype over her?

The Protest (As told by the Winnetka Greaser)

Today, at New Trier West, Rev. Meeks and nearly 2,000 protesters came over, along with a few media trucks. In the parking lot across the street from the school early in the morning, FOX News had set up TV cameras by the road, and a blond-haired woman from FOX was getting ready to report. Their truck was parked alongside my motorcycle,* and right nearby was an ABC news truck. I found out that many students, when being hounded by FOX or ABC, (CBS would come later on in the day) would walk past the reporters without saying a word. Because of a story about a girl over at the Winnetka campus who told the reporters something that they ended up changing to make her sound more like the stereotypical "Winnetkan," Many students were afraid that by talking to reporters, they were vulnerable to be smeared by the news. Some students' parents, however, kept their kids home from school because of protesters, which I didn't think was rational because the protesters were just kids their age, some younger or older, but only by a few years. Just because they were from the city, do parents have the right to envision them as dangerous gangsters? Anyway, the kids and parents protesting went into the Cornhog auditorium and into the gym in the F building to try and register, which they knew they couldn't actually do, though registration tables were set up and administrative staff were running registration booths. The registrations were meant to be symbolic; they were meant to draw the attention that not everyone could go to New Trier, though it was a well-funded school. When walking outside to get to different classes in the buildings, students would occasionally see CPS (Chicago Public School) students that were protesting; students could tell who was a protester because most of the kids and adults wore orange shirts. The New Trier kids and the CPS kids, like with the reporters, didn't talk or stare at one another, but some New Trier kids would wave to the kids protesting, and some would wave back. Later on in the day, Meeks and the protesters left the Freshman campus to have their rally. Meanwhile, at New Trier West, students were back to talking about who was dating who and what kind of iphone everyone had. However, the protest was not completely forgotten. The freshman from Northfield campus still had had a normal day in spite of everything, yet, once again, students may not yet quite understand how much of a difference a bigger fund means to a school on the south side of Chicago, or in the city itself. If the fair funding issue was taken more seriously than it is at New Trier, and if students could get an even better understanding of how important equal education is, and if New Trier did more to get most students involved, than students would be able to help other schools, and see this as a big issue, like they would healthcare, or global warming. Look at how different a school like New Trier(Left of the page) is than a school like DuSable was (Right of the page). (DuSable spent only 7,000 per student.) I'm not saying that New Trier is this blessed place, or that it should be the only one supplying other poorly funded schools. The Illinois Government is the place that should be adressing the issue, which is what Rev. Meeks intended. Students at New Trier should help the Government realize this as well.

This Tuesday, Rev. Meeks is going to, with maybe three thousand people, protest the lack of funding for Chicago public schools at New Trier West. New Trier spends $16,000 per student, whereas in Chicago public schools, only $10,000 per student is spent, and in some schools on the south side of Chicago, only $7,000 per student. Rev. Meeks is a senator, who is trying to get two bills passed; one will create equal funding for all Illinois public schools, and the other, which will most likely not get passed, which Meeks knows will not get passed, will allow any student to go to any public school. Hyde Park, on the south side of Chicago is a rich neighborhood. However, it's an economically diverse place. Most upper middle class Hyde parkers, however, would send their children to private school rather than one of the three public grade schools, which are nice schools, but have more kids in each class, and aren't nearly as advanced as any of Winnetka's three public schools. ( When I moved from Hyde Park, though I went to the private school only because my dad taught there, I was surprised to hear that dance and service classes.) Also, even in the private school, there were no anti-bullying programs, or special education for kids with special needs. There are also neighborhoods on the south side that are far worse off than Hyde Park, with schools that don't have drama classes, or plays, or many different clubs to choose from. Schools with outdated books and few teachers and very few counselors to turn to if a student was having problems. Because of few supplies and teachers, students won't be as eager to learn or to get an education. I think that Winnetka should do more to help underfunded schools, because, and I'm not trying to send the "count your blessings" message, despite the stereotypical spoiled brats that people think of when Winnetka comes to mind, there are a lot of kids at New Trier who, if they could, would march with the protesters tomorrow.

A CD I Recommend

Sorry I haven't been blogging in a while, but there's this new CD out that I recommend for people interested in rap, politics, and the Obama campaign. Nas's new album was originally going to be called N-----, but because of protests from the NAACP, was left untitled. This is a very powerful album, and you can tell that by just looking at the cover. (The cover shows Nas's back covered in whip marks that form the letter N.) There are some amazing songs on the album, like Sly Fox, which is about how the right wing media, particularly FOX news, uses untrue, biased facts and racial prejudice to scare people and to get them to vote against Barack Obama. From the song: "The fox has a Bushy tail and Bush tells lies that Fox trots, so I don't know what's real." Another great song on the album is called Fried Chicken, which is about the food that racist white people associated with black people. One of the most powerful songs on the album is called N.I.*.*. E.R. (The Slave And The Master,) which is about institutional racism and racism today. From the song: " 'Cause anytime we mention our condition, our history or existence, they callin' it reverse racism..." That line stood out for me because I recognized how it related back to the right wing media, and how they try to terrify mostly white, middle and upper middle class people into believing that if a black person makes a statement about centuries of racism in America, they are un-American and must be reverse racists when really America is to blame for it's history of Racism, and the fact that after we've had two whole centuries, we still haven't given reparations to African Americans. I liked how the album ended with the song Black President, which is about Obama, and sends the message that despite America's racist past, and the fact there is still racism and there are still racists out there, we were able to nominate Barack Obama as the Democrat Nominee, and hopefully, we will be able to get him elected as the next President of the United States. It was one of my favorite summer albums, and I think that you should check it out.



Also, two of my other favorite rappers, Eminem and Missy Elliott both have new albums coming out this fall, so you could check those out as well.

Pastor Problems

Have you heard of what Obama's former pastor, Rev. Wright said? How unpatriotic! I mean, "God damn America?" That is the most insane thing I've ever heard! If you've heard reporters, TV channels, or just regular people saying stuff like that, then they've probably never heard of Rev. John Hagee, who had endorsed John McCain months ago. Hagee had been saying things more controversial than Rev. Wright would ever dream of saying, for example, "And they the hunters should hunt them; that will be the Jews. 'From every mountain and from every hill and from out of the holes of the rocks. ' If that doesn't describe what Hitler did in the holocaust you can't see that." Hagee had been making comments like that in a sermon, calling Hitler a "hunter" sent by God to help the Jews reach Israel. He also said that "Those who came founded Israel; those who did not went through the hell of the holocaust." Hagee had also made comments about the Roman Catholic Church, calling it "The Great Whore." Unlike Obama, John McCain had accepted the endorsement and until months later, had denounced the endorsement. Some might argue that McCain hadn't known what Hagee had been saying, but the point is that Obama had dennounced Wright's endorsement right away, while McCain should have known about Hagee's comments, and then dropped the endorsement right away. After hearing of Hagee's comments, I wondered why the media wasn't making such a big deal about him than they were about Wright. Isn't Calling Hitler a hunter sent by God to hep the Jews reach Israel worse than saying "God Damn America?"




Source of Hagee quotes: The Huffington Post