Photo

Reblogged from Lavender Labia

On the 57th anniversary of Rosa Parks's refusal to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus earlier this month, President Barack Obama visited this historic bus at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African-American History in Detroit, MI. He sat in the seat she, a revolutionary staunch political activist (not the feeble little lady most of us have been brainwashed into conceptualizing her as) wouldn't get out of. We went from it being against the law to sit at the front of the bus when there was a White person without a seat to re-electing a president of African descent in 57 years. 

That's within my father's lifetime. I hope he sees this photo and remembers taking me to sit in that seat when he lived in Detroit. That was 2005, and I was overwhelmed by our progress. Now it's 2012 and I'm so torn between wanting to cry in celebration of how far we've come and wanting to cry in desperation at how far we have left to go.

#4moreyears

Reblogged from Serenity in Perspective

As the numbers first started coming in on Tuesday night, I'll admit that I was scared. I groaned every time a state in the South was called for Romney, trying to placate myself with constant reminders that they'd already called Texas and we were still waiting for California/The West Coast as a solid entity. I pulled at my hair and curled up on the couch, unwillingly envisioning life under the Romney-Ryan regime. I was afraid that we'd lost America again, that robber barons had somehow become vintage and cool again. 

As the night wore on, my tension dissolved into laughter, laughter and joy as Obama-Biden proceeded to take every single battleground state. Laughter and joy as we re-won the White House by over a hundred electoral college points (side-eye at Florida taking 48 hours to come in). Laughter and joy because y'all had me shook, America. It still really worries me that 58.6 million of you thought that Romney was better suited than Barack Obama to take care of this country, but that's not something we need to worry about right now. (#rememberwhenMittRomneywasrelevant?) 

Reblogged from Tudo Bom(b)

As the night wore into the next day, my laughter and joy swelled into pride. I am so proud of us, America. It was one thing to fall in love with rhetoric of hope and change and a face the color of which seemed to usher in a new era of American leadership in 2008. Obama's 2008 campaign tugged at your heartstrings, I know. We were history in the making. Voting for Obama in 2008 was easy. Voting for Obama in 2012 was a little bit harder for a lot of us, I know. It is another thing entirely to re-elect a president whose rhetoric of hope and change rang a little more hollow than many of us would like, even if the circumstances surrounding that hollowness were out of his (or anyone's) control. It is another thing entirely to say we're not totally pleased with the way the last four years have gone, but we know that our best chance of success lies in you. It is easy to fall in love. It's hard to stay. 

I'm proud of America for giving Barack Obama four more years to carry out his dreams. I am proud of Maine, Maryland, and Washington for voting to allow same-sex marriages in their states (although I fundamentally disbelieve in the validity of the majority voting for the rights of the minority because civil rights should not be left up to public opinion), and I am proud of Minnesota for refusing to ban same-sex marriage. I am proud of New Hampshire for electing our nation's first all-female delegation. I am proud of the country as a whole for electing the most women to ever serve in the Senate, and I am proud of Wisconsin for openly lesbian senator-elect Tammy Baldwin, of Hawaii for Asian female senator-elect Mazie Hirono and for Hindu-American combat veteran representative-elect Tulsi Gabbard, and of Illinois for disabled veteran female representative-elect Tammy Duckworth. I am proud of LA for Jackie Lacey, the county's first Black District Attorney. I am proud that Todd “Legitimate Rape” Akin, Richard “Rape Is Something That God Intended To Happen” Mourdock, Allen “We Are Not Going To Have Our Men Become Subservient” West, Joe “Abortion Is Never Necessary to Save the Mother’s Life” Walsh, Roger "Some Girls, They Rape So Easy" Rivard, Tom "Having a Baby Out of Wedlock is Similar to Rape" Smith, and John "On the Rape Thing...How Does More Violence Onto A Woman's Body [i.e. Abortion] Make It Better?" Koster were all soundly defeated. I am proud that it seems that America stepped up and realized that women matter and healthcare matters and equal opportunity matters and the ACTUAL middle class (i.e. not people who make $249,999 a year) matters. I'm proud that America remembered who and what it is made of. 

But don't get it twisted--don't mistake my elation for satisfaction. We still have a helluva lot of work to do before this country lives up to the words and ideas it was founded upon. This post is just to thank all of you for keeping us moving in the right direction. 

I'm really impressed with the way Obama has handled Sandy.

I don't think any president is ever really prepared for a natural disaster to ravage the country, but Obama has handled Sandy with nothing but speed and grace. 

I'm sure that none of us need a refresher on the atrocious nature in which the Bush administration refused to deal with Katrina, but just in case, let us not forget that it took Bush four days to allocate any relief funding, four days in which people were stranded on the roofs of their homes without food, water, shelter, or medical attention, if they were lucky enough to still need such basic amenities. Let us not forget that during those four days, Bush was vacationing in Texas and then he flew over Katrina in Air Force One on his way back to DC, presumably so he could see the damage everyone was making such a fuss about for himself. Let us not forget that Dick Cheney literally tore power crews away from restoring power at two hospitals in New Orleans to make sure that the pipeline that carries gas from Texas to the Northeast wasn't interfered with--a wonderful display of federal priorities, if you ask me. Let us not forget that then-Secretary-of-State Condoleezza Rice went to see Spamalot on Broadway the night Katrina hit and spent the majority of the following day shopping in Manhattan. Let us not forget the one time I agreed with any public statement Kanye West made.

Character isn't created during moments of crisis--it is revealed. The things that actually matter and don't matter to our leaders become painfully clear. And I don't know about you, but I want to be secure in knowing that the people who are on the ground being affected by a crisis are at the top of our leaders' priority lists.

Enter Barack Obama. Enter "Superstorm Sandy," as she has come to be known, in the final days of his campaigning, another hurricane that hit this country worse than we were expecting. Cut to Barack personally calling Cory Booker, mayor of Newark and one of my favorite politicians in the history of ever, at 12:30 in the morning to talk with him about the crisis when the entire city of Newark lost power.

Cut to Barack jumping in on a conference call with energy executives on Tuesday to remind them that "restoring power to the millions of Americans who lost electricity during Sandy is a top priority." Cut to Barack putting aside the party line and teaming up with Republican Governor of New Jersey Chris Christie to do on-the-ground touring of the destruction in New Jersey, of him holding distraught victims of the storm in his arms.

I've heard there are people in New York criticizing Obama for how long it's taking for Manhattan to get back together, but I think New York as a city--especially Manhattan--has enough resources to get itself back together. I'm glad to see Obama in middle-of-nowhere small-town New Jersey where people are expected to be without power for weeks. What does him calling Booker or talking to the energy execs really do, some critics ask. Well, I can tell you what it does for me, someone lucky enough to be in the path of the storm but not really damaged by it--ironic as this may be, it gives me hope. It makes me feel safe. There is literally no way you can argue right now that Obama doesn't care about regular people living their everyday regular lives in everyday regular places. We matter to this man. We don't matter to the party that is criticizing him for responding too early, as if help has a strict timeline that starts with wait-and-see.

My vote for Obama-Biden is already in the mail. Today is the last day for early voting most places around the country, so I suggest you put your shoes on, grab your ID/voter registration card, and get thee to the polls. Regular everyday people are counting on you.

Want a little ice for that burn, Willard?

Reblogged from 18° 15' N, 77° 30' W

Photo

Reblogged from Lavender Labia

Seriously, because if you are a person of color and/or a person with a uterus and/or a person who makes less than $250,000 a year (which SOME PEOPLE think is "middle-income." Sheesh) and/or a college student and/or un/underemployed and/or a senior citizen and/or a parent and/or an educator and/or a person who cares about any person(s) who falls into one or more of the above categories, the quality of your life absolutely does.

How can you not want this guy around #4moreyears?

If you really think the guy who, judging by recorded statements alone, is clearly debating himself, would do better by this country...go back to Britain or wherever you came from. I can't even. 

This hits me deep.

Reblogged from Tudo Bom(b)

"If your success is defined as being well-adjusted to injustice and well-adapted to indifference, then we don't want successful leaders. We want great leaders who love the people enough and respect the people enough to be unbought, unbound, unafraid, and unintimidated to tell the truth."

--Cornel West

(via Happiness Runs...) 

As we've discussed, I love Cornel West. I vehemently disagree with a lot of his current political opinions right now, though, and that's fine. I can do both. If we couldn't love that which we find problematic, we would be either loveless or ignorant. 

I think Barack is that leader. That's what my absentee ballot that went out in today's mail says, and I hope it's what you'll say sometime between now and Tuesday too.

T-1 week til the election = this blog is unapologetically Probama.

Reblogged from Potato Pancakes:

 

This is ridiculous. And awesome. And NSFW.

I think the first verse is the best.

I missed this Obama at the debate last night...

(source)

I need to register to vote in DC...

Reblogged from Jack & Jill Politics

"Some see this as class warfare. I see it as a simple choice. We can either keep taxes exactly as they are for millionaires and billionaires, or we can ask them to pay at least the same rate as a plumber or a bus driver." --President Barack Obama, speaking about the American Jobs Act this past weekend

OMG CUTENESS OVERLOAD

Now y'all know I will never be the kitten in a teacup kind of cuteness-exclaimer. My cuteness-exclaiming is over an excerpt from an NPR interview with President Obama:

MARTIN: All right. Well, before we let you go, you've got a big birthday coming up in two weeks. And it's the big — can we mention this? — the big 5-0.

OBAMA: You know, I feel real good about 5-0. The – obviously, I've gotten a little grayer since I took this job but otherwise, I feel pretty good. And Michelle, you know, says that, you know, she – she — she still thinks I'm, I'm cute, you know. And I guess that's — that's all that matters, isn't it?

BIGGEST AWWWWWWW IN THE ENTIRE WORLD!

 

When History-Makers Meet

This warms my heart a little. The iconic Norman Rockwell painting, entitled "The Problem We All Live with", depicts little six year old Ruby Bridges marching determinedly between US Marshals on her way to her first day of first grade at New Orleans's William Frantz Elementary School. Her mother's staunch support of the Civil Rights movement led her parents to respond to a call from the NAACP for young Black children to take a placement test to determine if they were academically eligible to integrate the all-white school district. Though five other students passed the test, only Bridges enrolled in a new school, thus becoming the first African-American child to attend an all-White school in the South. She was met with an angry mob outside the school, who cursed, shouted, and threw things, but she never showed an ounce of fear. She was the future. 
And on Friday, she met someone I'm sure she never imagined being able to meet within her lifetime--Barack Obama, the United States's first President of African descent. 
I will never forget the night of November 4, 2008. I will never forget being in Pennsylvania with the College Democrats, going door to door trying to get the last reluctant would-be voters to the polls before they closed, and witnessing what can best be described as an explosion of joy as the state was called in Obama's favor: shouting could be heard from the surrounding households, people in their cars honked their horns and screamed out the window. It was a huge victory. Upon getting back to campus I ran to the Carl A. Fields Center, where they were having a watch party for the election results. As the night went on, and the blue began to outnumber the red on the map of the country, I felt an excitement unlike anything I had ever known--all my campaigning, all my postering, all my voter-registration-drive-ing, all my phone-banking, all my HOPE aside, I don't know if I ever really thought he would win. But there it was, unfolding clearly before my eyes...I witnessed history. When the final decision was announced, the joy and excitement in that room was palpable. I will never feel emotion like that again in my life. I have photographs that do some justice to what happened...I don't have the words to describe it. We, roughly 18-22 year old fairly privileged (as Princeton students) AfroCarribedescendedfromslavesandmaybeAmericans, felt like the world had opened up and something great had been achieved.

And if that's how we, the young and only somewhat aware, felt at this moment, I cannot imagine being Ruby Bridges. I talked with my father, who marched with Malcolm X, and my grandmother, who marched with Dr. King, about this moment, and I can barely understand their reactions. They have witnessed much more history than I have. We have all played small roles in shaping history. Ruby Bridges, much like Barack Obama, molded it with her own two hands. They have gone boldly where no one before them had gone, and Norman Rockwell's photo can have no better home than the walls of the Oval Office.  

This post is not meant to be a Debbie Downer...

 

I usually have something witty and cute to say about life in general, or my life specifically, like how they say change is the only constant in life, but today I want to take a moment to recognize that that volatility makes life really really fragile. Not only in the oft-talked-about highs-and-lows/rollercoastery ways, but just in the ideas that it can change irrevocably in the blink of an eye, and it can be over just as fast.

"When a tragedy like this strikes, it is part of our nature to demand explanations, to try to impose some order on the chaos and make sense out of that which seems senseless." -- Barack Obama

 National tragedy this week in Arizona: Six regular people living their regular lives decided to go out and participate in democracy--crazy idea--and it cost them their lives, some of which were long and full, but others of which were truly just beginning. 14 more people were injured, with various degrees of severity; their lives have been changed forevermore.

Princeton tragedy: We lost a Tiger this week. A freshman girl from Virginia, who lived in Forbes and played on the softball team. Two of my friends knew her well, and I can't begin to imagine what they're going through because I have never lost a good friend. Her death was ruled "natural causes"; she had evidently been having medically unexplained seizures since May, but had decided to come to Princeton instead of deferring a year to try to figure out what was wrong. I've heard a lot of people commenting that they didn't understand why she would do this, but reading the articles on the homepage about how her friends are mourning her, she wanted to sleep in her uniform, and even her parents called us Tigers her family, it makes sense to me. This place has given me the best years of my entire life thus far, years I sometimes doubt will ever be matched, and from what I can gather, it gave her the best 5 months of hers. And that makes me glad. I just...she was (relatively) fine at dinner the night before, and they found her dead in the morning. Just like that.

Something that has the potential to become a personal tragedy: Okay, I'm being melodramatic. But I'm worried. So I've been pretty quiet about this because I don't know what to think, but things have escalated to the point that it must be shared: my father has been in and out of the hospital for the past week-and-a-half or so. This may be more information than you need to know, but he woke up last Thursday morning with a full bladder and couldn't go. The pressure just kept increasing and increasing so he went to the hospital and had to get a catheter put in. That was in for a week--and he missed work for a week--and when they took it out this Wednesday, he still couldn't go. Now they're saying he has to have surgery next week, and they're going to run tests on samples from his prostate, which means prostate cancer is a feasible explanation for what's going on right now. How do you go to bed one night feeling relatively alright (my dad has high blood pressure and diabetes) and wake up the next morning showing potential signs of having CANCER?! He gets regular checkups and everything! My mom says I'm worried about nothing right now, but I can't help it; I'm freaking the fuck out. 

Too much has happened this week. The world is a crazy place, and our time in it could very well be shorter than any of us imagine. So LIVE your life, okay? Drake has some new song out with Nicki Minaj (said in a disgusted tone, but the reason behind it is another story for another time) in which he says, Every one dies but not everybody lives, and he's entirely right about that. I'm NOT going to say to live each day like it's your last, because let's be real: you'd probably end up in jail or in the hospital or do something to directly cause it to be your last.

I will say this though: I was doing this self-affirmation exercise for a while last year but I stopped: at the end of the night before I went to sleep I would think about one positive thing that happened that day, one thing that made that day worthwhile. It sometimes meant actively taking steps to make something worthy of this title happen each day, and that's something I want to start doing again. It's something EVERYONE should do, because whether we like to think about this or not, your whole world could turn upside down, inside out, or just plain dark overnight.