The Colin Powell endorsement of Senator Barack Obama came as a surprise this morning - to me anyway. I knew there were discussions and media speculations a few months ago, but crossing party lines is a serious matter. I imagine it was not a decision former Secretary of State Powell took lightly.
I would guess that in addition to the criticism he expects to come his way, Powell also thought about how his endorsement will affect Senator Obama's campaign. An endorsement does not necessarily have a positive effect. Will this endorsement emphasize the issue of race, which Obama has tried ardently to downplay? Will the discussions of Powell and his tenures as Secretary of State and U.S. General upstage the presidential candidate's campaign?
We can expect that Fox News and other supporters of John McCain will try to discredit General Powell's service and insinuate some surreptitious reasons for his resignation from the Bush administration. Some of Senator Obama's supporters may question Powell's reasons for announcing his support and wonder what he expects in return.
If the well-respected Powell anticipated all this and still made the decision to voice his support for the democratic candidate for president, then I can only hope it causes others to pause. If Powell who has held high office in the Republican party - and whose name was bandied about as a possible candidate for president himself - thinks Obama should be the next president of the United States, then I hope that other Republicans who vote exclusively along party lines take a look at the other side.
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Saturday, October 18, 2008
I went to the circus - finally
When I was in preparatory school the circus came to Jamaica. I was ecstatic when one of my mother's friends offered to take my brother and me when she was taking her niece. We got dressed and my mom told me to sit inside while I waited. I apparently did not take her seriously and I was soon at the fence talking to my friend next door - more than likely boasting about going to the circus.
My mother did not take kindly to being disobeyed, no matter what my reason. Needless to say, I did not go to the circus that night - or any other night. Since then, I have been haunted by images of spellbinding acrobatics, death defying feats performed by animal trainers and the captivating voice of a pudgy ring master announcing thrilling big-top acts. When a friend offered me her extra tickets to the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey circus I jumped at the chance to go, and to take my two young sons. I was finally going to see the circus.
Then I went to the circus. Some fantasies are not meant to be realized; the dream is too often better than the reality. I don't think I have been so disappointed since my college graduation present turned out to be a PDA and not a car.
Not once, while I was sitting in bumper to bumper traffic heading to Newark two nights ago, did it occur to me that the show I had been waiting to see for more than 20 years would not meet my expectations. I never thought I was in for hours of mindless prancing about, Cirque du Soleil rejects and the un-funniest clowns I have ever seen. Who knew elephants were so stinky and that show horses crap in the ring?
After paying $20 for parking, $40 for useless light-up toys, $26 for two orders of chicken fingers and fries and two bottles of water - and passing on the $15 sno-cones - the best sight of the evening for me was not in the ring. It came when I saw my son's eyes lit, bright and big as he watched Joanna the white tiger stand on her hind legs and dance with her trainer. If you don't get to see the circus as a child, then you should get to see the wonder of the circus in a child's eyes.
My mother did not take kindly to being disobeyed, no matter what my reason. Needless to say, I did not go to the circus that night - or any other night. Since then, I have been haunted by images of spellbinding acrobatics, death defying feats performed by animal trainers and the captivating voice of a pudgy ring master announcing thrilling big-top acts. When a friend offered me her extra tickets to the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey circus I jumped at the chance to go, and to take my two young sons. I was finally going to see the circus.
Then I went to the circus. Some fantasies are not meant to be realized; the dream is too often better than the reality. I don't think I have been so disappointed since my college graduation present turned out to be a PDA and not a car.
Not once, while I was sitting in bumper to bumper traffic heading to Newark two nights ago, did it occur to me that the show I had been waiting to see for more than 20 years would not meet my expectations. I never thought I was in for hours of mindless prancing about, Cirque du Soleil rejects and the un-funniest clowns I have ever seen. Who knew elephants were so stinky and that show horses crap in the ring?
After paying $20 for parking, $40 for useless light-up toys, $26 for two orders of chicken fingers and fries and two bottles of water - and passing on the $15 sno-cones - the best sight of the evening for me was not in the ring. It came when I saw my son's eyes lit, bright and big as he watched Joanna the white tiger stand on her hind legs and dance with her trainer. If you don't get to see the circus as a child, then you should get to see the wonder of the circus in a child's eyes.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Donkey seh di worl nuh level
I cringe every time a black person is on the news doing something stupid and/or illegal. I know I should not take ownership for the misdeeds of others simply because I have the same skin color. I also know that there are people who will judge me based on those behaviors. More than that, I know there are those who look to those images and behaviors as proof of what they already think. Now in my fourth decade on this earth, the persistent thought of race is new to me. Other than the uproar Buju Banton's Brownin' caused in the late 80s and some self-deprecating phrases in our vernacular, race in Jamaica is primarily the domain of historians and academics. For good or for bad, the people on TVJ and CVM news look like me. Reports are not prefaced with racial descriptors and there are no color tallies of the victims or the perpertrators. There are no celebrations of color firsts and there is no need for affirmative action policies.
It is undeniably different in the United States. With the black senator from Illinois close to being the next president of the United States, race is a constant undertone, if not always explicitly verbalized. It appears to me that the people who speak out the loudest about race are those on the fringes - those incensed that the negroes are not grateful for what they have and those being crippled by the white conspiracy to keep the black man down.
Senator Barack Obama himself is fodder for the argument that black people in American have no cause for complaint. One Talk of the Nation (National Public Radio) listener lamented on Tuesday that more than equal, now white people were being prejudiced against. The white mother of teenagers said she will not vote for Obama because he is black and she thinks it is unfair that her daughters will not have the opportunities he had. I am not sure exactly what opportunities that woman was referring to. It may be that she, like many others, assume that every successful person of color benefited from affirmative action policies.
I have not made up my mind about the wisdom and/or fairness of affirmative action, but I have heard good arguments from people I respect on the merits of leveling the field for black students, professionals and entrepreneurs. One thing I know for sure is that affirmative action does not reward the undeserving or the unqualified. It says to companies and college administrators look at the best available across the room. If Senator Obama did benefit from such a policy (and I have seen or heard no evidence that he has) it is because he was among the best. His candidacy is not so much evidence that all things are now equal, but more so of his intelligence, ambition and his refusal to accept that they are not. As my husband says, we will know things are equal when a black George W. can be president, ie drug and alcohol abuser with a C average and a record of low performance in every job he has ever had.
Things are not equal, but anyone who would argue that black people are no better off than they were 40 years ago needs to put down that heavy chip from off their shoulder. Today, economics plays a much greater role in dictating the outcome of a child's life than his/her race. It is true that many black families are below or near the poverty line. It is true that black children in large numbers go to schools that are overcrowded and that do not prepare them adequately for college. It is true that many black people live in neighborhoods that are plagued with crime and violence. It is true that many of the social ills that ail the black community are the direct result of years of discrimination and oppression.
It is also true that equality does not mean easy. We may need to study more, work longer, and push harder against those doors to opportunities, but this generation makes it easier for the next. Maybe one day donkey will say the world is level. (Ask a Jamaican.)
It is undeniably different in the United States. With the black senator from Illinois close to being the next president of the United States, race is a constant undertone, if not always explicitly verbalized. It appears to me that the people who speak out the loudest about race are those on the fringes - those incensed that the negroes are not grateful for what they have and those being crippled by the white conspiracy to keep the black man down.
Senator Barack Obama himself is fodder for the argument that black people in American have no cause for complaint. One Talk of the Nation (National Public Radio) listener lamented on Tuesday that more than equal, now white people were being prejudiced against. The white mother of teenagers said she will not vote for Obama because he is black and she thinks it is unfair that her daughters will not have the opportunities he had. I am not sure exactly what opportunities that woman was referring to. It may be that she, like many others, assume that every successful person of color benefited from affirmative action policies.
I have not made up my mind about the wisdom and/or fairness of affirmative action, but I have heard good arguments from people I respect on the merits of leveling the field for black students, professionals and entrepreneurs. One thing I know for sure is that affirmative action does not reward the undeserving or the unqualified. It says to companies and college administrators look at the best available across the room. If Senator Obama did benefit from such a policy (and I have seen or heard no evidence that he has) it is because he was among the best. His candidacy is not so much evidence that all things are now equal, but more so of his intelligence, ambition and his refusal to accept that they are not. As my husband says, we will know things are equal when a black George W. can be president, ie drug and alcohol abuser with a C average and a record of low performance in every job he has ever had.
Things are not equal, but anyone who would argue that black people are no better off than they were 40 years ago needs to put down that heavy chip from off their shoulder. Today, economics plays a much greater role in dictating the outcome of a child's life than his/her race. It is true that many black families are below or near the poverty line. It is true that black children in large numbers go to schools that are overcrowded and that do not prepare them adequately for college. It is true that many black people live in neighborhoods that are plagued with crime and violence. It is true that many of the social ills that ail the black community are the direct result of years of discrimination and oppression.
It is also true that equality does not mean easy. We may need to study more, work longer, and push harder against those doors to opportunities, but this generation makes it easier for the next. Maybe one day donkey will say the world is level. (Ask a Jamaican.)
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