I was thinking a lot today....here it is. Enjoy.
I'm reading "The Bridge" right now, and it's simply amazing. It digs deep into President Obama's background and makes him seem so human to me. Not that he doesn't seem human, because for the first time in my life (all 22 years) I trust out President and look at him as someone like me (sorta). This book is incredible and Remnick goes into amazing details about all the trials and tribulation of Barack Obama's life. I haven't gotten to the part about the rise yet, I'm at the part about the early life.
What's interesting me is how through HS and college Obama spent a lot of time thinking about the world and how he fit in and who he was. Lately I've been doing a lot of this. It's amazing to read about how our current President spent his young life finding his way. I really recommend you pick this book up.
As a young political science major I find myself pondering my direction and my thoughts on things. In some cases I simply don't have enough experience for certain things to matter much to me. An example was the Health Care Reform. I knew it was a good idea, I knew it would help people. Except, my father, a retired college professor has excellent health insurance. So for me (and just about every other college student) HCR didn't have the urgency of other matters. That was until I went down to MIAMI this winter break. I went down to volunteer for two weeks on Kendrick Meek's campaign. I spent time collecting petitions so he could get on the ballot. I come from a small town in the PA farm lands. I go to school in a small town in the PA farm lands. There was one black kid in my HS, there are some black kids at my Unversity. Needless to say MIAMI was a EYEOPENER. Never ever, had I been a minority in my life. It was incredible to feel like an outsider, to see poverty up close and here the many story about gov't discontent. I got to walk around a real flea market, with numerous tattoo shops,places to get gold teeth, barber shops, and stands with exotic foods. It was amazing to hear people BEG for health care reform, it was THEN that HCR reform started to matter, it was then things began to take on new meaning for me. I still feel like I have a long way to go. Life in a way has been pretty easy for me. Sure I have ADHD, I have fears, stresses, and my parents divorced and remarried when I was young, but it's been pretty simple for me. Being in MIAMI (and not South Beach, I'm talking Opa Locka and Liberty City, Miami Gardens) showed me what the world is really like, and why HCR is SOOOO IMPORTANT.
Today I also came across a blog post from The Fix about government distrust and pretty much hatered. It was a tough pill for me to swallow. I am a political science major and some day I'd like to go to grad school for public policy. To see I trust and believe government works is an understatement. Apparently, I'm having my second minority experience. I wonder where this comes from. Was it Watergate? Was it Newt Gingrich? Bill Clinton's BJ's in the Oval Office? What the hell is it? I believe it's American's stupidity. NO ONE read's newspaper's anymore. They watch CNN and all they get is their horse race like coverage of politics. It's not solid policy talk, it's yelling and screaming about the tea party or Harry Reid and which of them will come out on top. BUT! This IS NOT what politics is about. To me politics is a process is in which decisions are made for the great good of all the people, and done so in the best interests of the people. YES YES, very basic stuff, of course it's not that simple. But, I wonder, how did all this gov't dislike happen. To people really believe the gov't is all this scummy guys fucking broads and stealing their money? REALLY? I mean does government do some scummy things sometimes? Certainly. No of us is free of sin (or whatever). But I can't believe this widespread distrust of the government.
Take Financial Regulation. HOW THE HELL can people believe this is government thinking about themselves? This is Washington trying to take it to Wall Street for bascially trying to take a HUGE dump on the average American. Which they did with smile on their faces. Somehow, people think this is a bad idea. I don't get that. And sure sure, you can say it's too weak. But really, take a government class, compromise, or nothing get's done. THIS, is a topic the netsroots crowd REALLY does not understand. Democrats CANNOT just run roughshod all over the Capitol and the White House just doing whatever they please. I wish DADT was repealed the first day, and that there was a public option and numerous other things. But government just cannot work that way.
SO....that's all for tonight. I have to finish my laundry and get to bed. PLEASE PLEASE comment. Let's get a dialogue going about all this!
Thanks!
-Jney