Transcripts

Senator Obama's excellent speech on race 2008:
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/03/18/america/18obamaspeech.php

President Bill Clinton's speech on the same subject in 1995:
http://www.afn.org/~dks/race/clinton-e6.html

Both are excellent and ask serious questions about the state of our union in terms of race. Both have very similar messages and portray a nuanced understanding of different sides of the race issue. Both sadden me as they make me think of how Bill was accused of racism in South Carolina and how Obama is accused of playing the race card simply because of his race. Things are better than they were in 1995, there are more minority faces on television and in higher offices for example; probably due much more to the silent work of many more ordinary people than the president. I have hope that whether it is Clinton or Obama, things will only get better.

For more excellent historic social justice speeches (including some from Hillary) check this link:

http://www.sojust.net/speeches.html

Just Call Me HusseinLien123

While I'm not an Obama supporter, I do detest stupidity. If you haven't heard or read some right wing idiot named Bill Cunningham has been continually referring to Barack Obama as Barack Hussein Obama as if attempting to make a connection between Obama's and terrorists. It's really dumb and so in solidarity with the Momocrats, I hereby rename myself husseinlien123 today and support the fight against stupid small minded bullies like Cunningham.

Being named Lien, a Sino-Vietnamese name which seems impossible for most monolingual English speakers to pronounce correctly, I can testify to some pretty horrifying butchering of my name. (I prefer just "Lin" by the way.) Most of the time this tripping over my name is innocent. Communication for my work for example is done over an instant messenger system or email more often then phone or in person and so most of my coworkers these days see my name before they have to speak it. Typically in meetings or conference calls where I'm speaking with coworkers for the first time, there's some butchering going on. "Lee-in" or "Lee-en" are understandable, though a number of users seem to be incapable of switching to the preferred version, "Leen" is awful, and "Lion" usually allows me to use my other talent of shooting someone a "WTF?" look.

No one has made me feel bad about my name in a long time, hell, the last time someone did it was fourth grade. Fun variations of my name (according to my tormentors) were "Alien", "Line", or in a strange twist of actually pronouncing it correctly, "Evil Lynn", He-Man was popular back in the day. We were 8 (Bill Cunningham is how old?)

--husseinlien123

It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad Mad World

The world, I'm sorry, the arrogance of that statment...a bit more clarification, the United States has gone mad. J commented today in his sad and weary tone which revealed his state of neglect that he had lost his wife till November but I doubt that he is alone as spouses and significant others abandon their loves for the excitement and potential "change" of an election year. For the past month and a half I've been devouring political news any chance I could during breaks in work, generally sticking to CNN, MSNBC, Newsweek, Time, BBC, New York Times, uh...basically most of what you would call major news organizations (minus Fox). So far what started as a race between a number of democrats with similar ideas and proposals has whittled down. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama generally agree on 90% of the issues. They both have decent records as senators and human beings. She's worked for the rights of children and women while he's worked for poor communities. She's helped get legislation related to health and education through congress, he's helped get anti-poverty, anti-weapons proliferation legislation through. Both of them, are flawed and human and are politicians who flip flop.

I posted and then took down something similar to a week ago mainly because this isn't a political blog, but then, this has seriously taken up a lot of my free time lately. I don't have any updates or responses to anything else because I've been consumed as if all of a sudden the presidency makes a bigger difference to my day to day life than my local government and local issues, which it doesn't. Still no matter how much I like one of the candidates over the other or how much I would accept the other if he won the nomination (because even if I don't agree with the details of his education, healthcare, and Iraq plans, he probably won't nominate conservative anti-abortion justices to the Supreme Court as McCain probably would); I want this primary season to be over.

For all of the high ideals that both candidates wished they and their supporters stood for; the world is a far uglier place and concepts such as racial solidarity and feminism begin to become as authoritarian and intolerant as racism and sexism. The longer this race goes on, the uglier both candidates become to me. The sad part is, it's only partly their fault. The candidates fight and make up and then fight some more, while the rest of us, the pundits and the supporters fight each other.

****
What I'm talking about in the last paragraph is related to the following two articles.

Black Ohioans Backing Clinton Feel the Pressure to Switch

NY NOW: "Betrayal!"

Cravings and Stuff

I missed posting yesterday because as J pointed out, I was passed out from work and school which caused me to stay up an unconscionable amount of time. So that is why, the entire day I've been thinking about what to write about when I got a few free moments. Perhaps something about something I heard on NPR this morning regarding voting. How every vote counts and many elections are much closer than people think; that we live in a purple nation and that the primary colors of red and blue are far to simplistic. I thought about how I when I register to vote, I am not going to pick a party because I too am purple. To describe me as democrat or republican is also far too simplistic as I see positives and negatives in both parties. I admit though that I'm a deep bluish purple.

I was also thinking about another topic relating to the latest post from Matt Harding over at Wherethehellismatt.com. I guess Matt had met a black man, named Lloyd, who had lived in Thailand for seven years but felt that he couldn't belong there because he felt the people were racist. Matt and his friend being white men, replied with the typical white response of how they had similar experiences in places like Africa. Matt realized how inadequate this response was and in my comment, I said I wished white people would just acknowledge that they could never understand. But again, I was thinking about that situation and how nothing anyone could say could make things better or at least more equal. I thought about how, even I, as a minority, but an Asian American, could never understand what an African American feels. We have some stuff in common but to be honest, it's much harder to be black and I can never know what that feels like. I thought about how Matt was honest with how he felt his answer was wrong. I appreciated that.

I thought a bit about how my job sort of sucks and maybe I should write about that. I thought about how I should bully J into writing a post about the kids since he spends more time with them than I do these days. I thought about being honest about how I miss them when I have these long hours that need to be done and how far away my goal of finishing this degree feels. But in the end, you know what I REALLY want to write about now that I'm at it? I really want to write about how I'm absolutely craving a Vietnamese egg roll, a cha gio.

Who the hell am I kidding? I'm craving a whole lota cha gio/lumpia/egg rolls, whatever you want to call them. The crispier the better. I can imagine eating one right now. Dipped in a bit of nuoc mam/fish sauce/nam pla whatever you want to call it; the crunchy, savory, sweet and spicy hitting my taste buds all at once. So that was the real impetus for me tonight, the thought of some egg rolls I don't have in front of me. My diet is SO in trouble and huh, I did write a little bit about what I thought about after all.

Why? And Other Questions

Sometimes, I avoid the news. When I'm really busy, I like to forget that the rest of the world exists. It's easy to get caught up in work and make whatever you're doing the most important thing there is, it's easy to focus sometimes when you know that there are some really fucked up things out there that you can't do anything about. Like this incident, it will probably come back later that perhaps the family or some adults around the house were mistaken as rival gang members, but that won't matter; two little girls were shot in the head in a drive by shooting in Hayward, CA on Monday. For all my talk of compassion, there is so much anger I feel as a mother of young children that this could happen. There is so much I can't understand about how coldblooded someone would have to be to open fire where children are obviously playing. What is wrong with our world and society that could have produced such uncaring and monstrous people? And more importantly, what can any of us do? To help? To heal? To fix? To prevent?

CONGRATULATIONS DEMOCRATS!!! YAY!!!

I love the Colbert Report, "You people have one more chance. Don't screw it up this time!" EXACTLY!!!!!

10 Things

DON'T FORGET TO VOTE TODAY!!!! (If you are in the US, a US citizen, and above the age of 18.) Lien's Top 10 Reasons for Voting 10) Because you can! -- I can't vote as I'm not a US citizen (long story that has much to do with irony, laziness, money, and the LONG slow wait for the ultimate bureaucracy that is the former INS, former BCIS now USCIS...no, I'm not an illegal, sheesh). 9) Because contrary to what many people think, you are not an individual and you don't really matter if you don't vote! -- Your voice does not count, it will not be heard, and no one will truly care for your best interests if you can't or don't (hence all the laws affecting illegal immigrants and children). 8) Because, according to P. Diddy, you'll die! 7) Because you can't complain about the state of the country unless you do. --And if you do anyway, it doesn't matter what you say because you didn't vote and therefore have no say. Which is why it doesn't really matter that I like complaining about the god awful schools or the crime rate or how I can't believe that a man who looks like a white hairless chimp (with the brain of one) could be elected president. (No offense to any chimps who might be reading.) 6) Because the state of the country depends on you. -- Related to 7. 5) Because it's your money they're spendin'. -- TAXES ARE YOUR MONEY. If you want to have a say in how it's spent, vote! 4) Because the laws and lawmakers affect your life or the lives of your loved ones. -- Duh! 3) Because you have to be a role model. -- Thanks Eliaday. 2) Because you need to take a break from work. -- I'm ready for a beak, are you ready for a break? Great! Let's go! 1) Because Starbucks is bound to be on the way. -- Mmm...coffeee, must have coffee...my child can spell frappacino.

Prop 85

(Update 11/08/2006 12:54am: Per CNN.com with 75% of precints reporting, it looks like Prop. 85 will NOT be passing. Thus, barring any freakish events that I shall not name less I jinx it all, let me throw up my arms, dance a little dance, and scream at the tops of my lungs, "YAY!!!!!!!!!!") If you live in California and are a citizen, please vote no on proposition 85. You can click on the picture for more information. Prop. 85 would require teens to notify their parents at least 48 hours before obtaining an abortion. Why should you vote No on prop. 85? Here are a few reasons (and Citymama has an excellent, better written post on why we should all oppose). THIS IS NOT ABOUT YOU. Because I will not accuse you of anything (you’re reading my blog after all). Let’s admit one thing, that most of us have a fairly benevolent attitude towards the human race and assume that most people are decent. Maybe you think that a law that would prohibit teenagers from getting an abortion without notifying their parents at least 48 hours ahead of time would be a great idea because, gosh, what parent WOULDN’T want to know. Indeed, if it were my child, I would want to know if she were pregnant, and I hope that I would be a good enough parent to deserve her trust and confidence. I hope that I would be the type of parent who would understand enough to help her make the decision of whether or not to keep her baby on her own through counseling and medical care. I hope that I would be the parent who would not yell, scream, berate, or beat my child if I found out she were pregnant. And I hope, that any perceived disappointment from me, would not be a deterrent for my child to come and speak to me if she were in this sort of trouble. No law is going to help me have that kind of relationship with my daughter and there are many parents out there don’t have that relationship with their daughters. There are many people out there who would harm their children if they heard this news either physically or mentally, and indeed, I have known some girls who have suffered blows and emotional abuse from parents who were not so understanding or welcome of the news that their daughters were pregnant. Prop. 85 puts girls in these types of families in danger. THIS DOES NOT STOP ABORTION. Contrary to poplar belief, abortion is not new and has been practiced in societies world wide for as long as societies have existed. When someone wants to get an abortion, they will find a way including ways which might not be safe; forcing a teen to confront her parents when she feels that it is not a viable option could force her to attempt to take a more dangerous route to ending her pregnancy. THIS DOES NOT STOP TEENAGE PREGNANCY. What’s that? A law says we shouldn’t have sex because if we get pregnant we have to tell our parents if we need to get rid of the baby…ppffffft, we’re teenagers, what could happen?? Teens will have sex no matter what laws are out there. And in case you don’t, I remember all sorts of crap when I was a teen about how it was impossible to get pregnant (the first time, if you do it a certain way, blah blah blah). You will have better luck stopping teen pregnancy through the advocacy of your birth control method of choice (including abstinence if you’re into that) than with Prop. 85. One of my pet peeves is laws aimed at preventing teenagers or children (ie people who cannot vote) from doing such and such. Why? Because they almost never solve anything and only provide the perception of action, this is been shown time and again with curfew laws for example. My point is not that we should do nothing, but again, if you want to prevent teenage pregnancy and thereby abortion, then please, support education regarding birth control. I cannot stress that enough.

You children cut that out this INSTANT!!

The older I get, the more I realize that adulthood and maturity are all a front. The more I read the news, the clearer it becomes that I am not the only one. The conflict in Lebanon is one that troubles me deeply. The recent UN (US) resolution is not going to solve anything. It is just a temporary break in a new war. My friend tells me that I should not take sides, but the actions of Israel and the United States in this matter are really troubling to me. Israel has a right to defend itself, I agree. As a member of the UN and a recognized nation on the map of the world, it should have the right to defend its citizens and its statehood; but to able to invade another country on a whiff of trouble...is...insane! (Some will disagree with me that it was a mere whiff since some missiles and two kidnapped soldiers are very serious indeed, but enough to invade a country because some group within its borders, not the actual government of said country, were being stupid??) The fact that the US condones Israel's actions without question is a slap in the face of Muslims everywhere and will no doubt create even more hostility worldwide. Fundamental Islamists DO NOT HATE US FOR OUR FREEDOMS. THEY HATE US BECAUSE WE UNEQUIVOCALLY SUPPORT ISRAEL. I am NOT an anti-Semitist or even an anti-Zionist. I'm not even anti-war. Some conflicts do require military action and death due to warfare is as old as humanity but people will agree with me that we should try not to go to war if at all possible. As one of the most powerful nations on the planet, perhaps we should encourage other nations to do so as well. I don't pray often, but I will for the mother whose child dies at 11:59 on Sunday.