Racism, I’m sick of it.

First of all, let me be clear and say that I think the “concept” of “race” is really ignorant.  It has no basis in biology, though it has singular longevity politically.

Notions that people are “black” or “white” are simply, and scientifically, stupid.

Ethnically, we all have historical and cultural uniqueness, useful for everyone to learn from.

But this concept called “race” is beyond silly.  It’s dangerous.

I thought Ashley Montague had this sorted out decades ago.  But, apparently not.

Consider this excerpt from a recent editorial in the Washington Post:  “Could it be, as members of the Congressional Black Caucus are charging, that the signatories of the letter are targeting Ms. Rice because she is an African American woman?  The signatories deny that, and we can’t know their hearts.  What we do know is that more than 80 of the signatories are white males, and nearly half are from states of the former Confederacy.”

The “Ms. Rice” in question isn’t Ms. Condoleeza Rice, a black woman these same signatories had no worries with.

It’s the Ms. Rice who went out blaming a video for the murder of a US Ambassador.

Yes, Susan Rice is black.  She must be highly motivated and, as it appears to me, she is highly intelligent.

So was Richard Nixon.

People need answers, even from people who happen to be African American.

To imply that such people, who demand those answers, are racist, is racist in itself, and is more a projection than a diagnosis.

We need to grow up.

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Flipping the Bird

As if Black Friday wasn’t enough, a number of major retailers are going to open their doors on Thanksgiving Day.

Now, if cash registers are running, people have to be running them, and if some are shopping, that means others are working.

They’ll be working on what’s supposed to be a major national Holiday.  Traditionally, it’s been a time to give pause, and extend gratitude.  This year it has become another day at the office.

So the issue isn’t that we’re fast becoming a secularist society, but more, a consumerist country, where the opportunity to buy things supersedes the importance of considering why it is that we have Holidays and perhaps buy things to begin with.

Has anyone stopped to notice that if Holidays aren’t so special, then there’s no point in expending huge sums of money in reference to them?  Thanksgiving is more than just a starting line for the mad dash to December 25th.  Christmas with a cash and carry emphasis isn’t Christmas at all.

Personally, I’ve always held a great respect for those working shifts at the local ER or firehouse, especially on Holidays.  But forcing folks to leave traditional family gatherings to stock shelves and ring up sale items is a sad disgrace.

Thus, it seems that we are giving thanks for the fact that we don’t have to give thanks!  We are free to buy, and to work.

Always.

No power, still?

Rich is a Long Island guy I met while serving down at Ground Zero.  Rich is the guy you’d want with you if zombies really did run amock, or if a cataclysmic meteor was soon to smash into our blessed Terra Firma.  He’s that good.

So, I called him today to hear how he’d come through Sandy and the snow.  He’s fine.  He’s into survival mode, and thriving as few others could.

But he’s without power!  Still.  12 days and counting.

He’s not on the Long Island shoreline.  He lives well inland, with 200,000 others who have yet to get any kind of definitive answer as to when they can turn their lights on.

I was taken aback by this because the “mainstream media” have largely ignored this incredible reality.

No endless looping of sad footage of desperate people.  No endless, talking head harangues about FEMA, and what the FEDS are not doing.

Why is that?

VOTE!

Today is a great day.  We vote!

Ignore the cynics, who masquerade as intellectuals. VOTE.

Vote for your candidates, and don’t whine if they don’t succeed. Elections have winning and losing built in.  It’s about respect.  Come Wednesday morning, we’ll have a President elect.  The incumbent or the challenger.  Whoever it is will be a human being, who is entitled to our congratulations, and a commitment to make our country better.

We’ve got a pretty good thing going here in America.  Let’s act like the leaders we are, by default, and let’s act like the fellow citizens we are by design.

The Hurricane of 1938, Global Warming?

The New England Hurricane of 1938 made landfall on Long Island as a Category 3 storm, on September 21st.

Over 600 people lost their lives.

More than 50,000 homes were severely damaged or destroyed.  50,000.

Today our warning systems are miles better than what used to be.  Technology held aloft in airplanes and launched in satellites is pretty darn good!

And yet, disaster is always local.  If you lose your home, at any time, it’s as bad for you as if thousands of others did too.

All of us in the Northeast want power restored ASAP.  I know that was my desire.  Still, for most of us, we are far better off than anyone was only about 80 years ago.

I think it’s a shameless disgrace that the Governor of NY and the Mayor of NYC have tried to turn Sandy into a Global Warming/Climate Change issue.

Nice try!  That might work, if not enough people know their history.