What I am About

"For me," Canada said, "the big question in America is: Are we going to try to make this country a true meritocracy?  Or will we forever have a class of people in America who essentially won't be able to compete, because the game is fixed against them? [...] There's no way that is good conscience we can allow poverty to remain the dividing line between success and failure in this country, where if you're born poor in a community like this one [Harlem], you stay poor.  We have to even that out.  We ought to give these kids a chance."

-Geoffrey Canada, as quoted in Paul Tough's Whatever It Takes. Emphasis mine.

Confession: I have a little bit of what might be called survivor's guilt, or something akin to it.  Statistically, kids like me -- Latinos, children of immigrants, and immigrants themselves -- have a higher drop-out rate than any other group (17%, while white youth are at about 6%, and Latinos make up 40% of all drop-outs).  Those who do finish high school are still less likely to attend college, and those who do are less likely again to finish in four years, if they finish at all.  Meanwhile, here I sit four days from having my Master's Degree conferred and a month away from working for a university (and not in the dining hall).  I've spent a lot of time pondering the fortunate happenstance of my upbringing, the features of my childhood that planted me squarely on the road to higher education.

As far as I can tell, it was pure, unthinking luck on my part.  I happened to have the father I have, to live the places I lived, to have certain opportunities plop themselves in front of me.  I spent most of my childhood, nomadic though it was, in middle-class white neighborhoods, and I got all the perks that come with that.  I am where I am now largely, maybe primarily, because I got lucky as a kid.  Other kids not so different from me are struggling because they lived in a different neighborhood and got a different education.

Second confession, related to the first: that hits me as incredibly unfair, and it sticks in my craw.

There is much debate on why the poor are poor.  I'm leaving that debate aside for now, because it is entirely irrelevant to my point: no one in their right mind or with a mustard seed of compassion is going to blame a third grader if she can't read.  No one can possibly blame the five year old from a working class family because he starts kindergarten already at a disadvantage compared to his middle class peers. You might be able to place responsibility for an adult's situation in life on the adult because, of course, choices have consequences and people do make some truly terrible choices.

The thing is, there are a lot of kids out there suffering the consequences of someone else's choices.  A lot of these kids aren't squandering their opportunities, they don't have opportunities.  That's not okay.

This reality distracts me during faculty meetings and catches my wandering thoughts when I drive down the road.  I high-jack conversations at parties to talk about it.  It's why I'm moving up to Notre Dame and passing on any of several possibilities to stay in Texas near my family (with whom, as you must know if you've read this at all, I am totally obsessed).  Because the piece of dirt a child lives on should not determine what is and is not available to her. As a human being, and especially as a Catholic, there is no way I can sit comfortably in my good fortune when so many children in my own country are effectively being denied a decent education.

Because every kid should at least have a chance.

Time's Quotes of the Day Often Amuse Me

I will be in Chicago this week, and I think I will have to find this Felony Franks place.  Be honest.  That's awesome.

Political pundit type: "Hey, SNL, quit picking on Obama!" You can't laud Tina Fey's Sarah Palin and get all pouty when Obama gets his turn.  Chill.

Not that I could have ever afforded it anyway, but this guy is never getting a dime of my shopping business: "No one wants to see a round woman".  To use the quasi vulgar vernacular of my generation, WTF, dude?  Has he seen classical art?  Of course, I don't think he's someone I would have taken seriously or shopped from to begin with -- fingerless leather gloves and a formal jacket over jeans with a tacky wash?  Pass.

Harvard Ditches Cookies... oh, and a Library, Too

This article talks about some of the cuts being made at Harvard.  Between the litany of amenities lost, including cookies at faculty meetings and hot breakfasts in the dining hall, is this "by the way" line (emphasis mine):

“Everyone is worried,” said George Hayward, a junior who lives on a part of campus, the Quad, that lost its library to the cuts. “It could be anything next; nobody really knows.”

Perhaps this is the only substantive academic cut -- the article doesn't specify one way or the other -- but it seems to me that closing an entire library at an institute of high learning should merit more alarm than the potential loss of weekday shuttles that run until almost 4 a.m.

I am the last to belittle the difficulties hoisted upon so many Americans by this recession, but at the same time I am thoroughly convinced some people could learn a great deal about the meaning of sacrifice.  Actually, come to think of it, the legions of oblivious well-to-dos who find hardship in their inability to have whatever thy want the moment they want it are an affront to the determination and dignity of people who are working hard just to keep a roof over their families' heads.

Ahhh!

Readers of this blog who know my distaste and distrust of Obamamania (see here, here, here, and here) will understand how freakin' refreshing it is to me to see a big fan of the guy come right out and call him human.

Watching and Waiting

I admit: something about the tenor of this article puts the teeniest grain of hope in me, but my inner skeptic is still unmoved. I hope, and have hoped from the time it became clear he would be president, that I am really wrong about him. It's that hope, along with my continued creeped-out-ness* about the worshipful mass hysteria surrounding the man (and he IS just a man, folks) that makes me ultra skeptical about anything Obama does. It looks good. It's very possibly just for show. If nothing else, Obama knows how to work a crowd.

My seddling hope is somewhat stiffled by the end of the article:

Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Walnut Creek, said she ran into a GOP colleague who had just come out of the meeting with Obama.

"He said, 'He's just so impressive,' " Tauscher said. "I said, 'He's the real deal, isn't he?' But will he vote with us tomorrow? Probably not."

She blasted Boehner and Cantor for urging their members to vote against the package before even listening to what Obama had to say.

"Are you really going to listen to the people who lost the House for you?" Tauscher commented. "At some point, you have to vote your conscience."

First of all, I've yet to read anything that suggests the Dems are seriously questioning anything their Lord and Master has put before them. That's the same irrational, unthinking bias she's accusing the Reps of. Secondly, "vote your conscience"? Tauscher would probably argue she means, "Look at the bill objectively and do what you think is right." What she's really promulgating is, "Lord Obma said this. It has been handed down from on high. You fools, only through obstinate disbelief could you disagree."

But, I'm going to try and be hopeful and fair about our president. You're going to have to give me more time to get to that point with the rest of the politicians in the country.

*Yeah, you read that right. I said creeped-out-ness. If anyone has the authority to make up words, it's an English teacher.

Life

I don't think anything else in our nation is going to function as it ought or could until we, collectively, get our heads right about abortion and the value of the individual human life.



This ad aired on BET. It's especially pointed since the vast majority of babies killed by abortions are African American (Margret Sanger, founder of what is now Planned Parenthood, was buddy buddy with high Ku Klux Klan big wigs, and is on record saying abortion is a great tool for reducing minority populations. Tell me that's not seriously %*^&@$ up).

Coincidences

Has anyone else noticed the concurrence of big things happening this week?

• Monday, January 19 - Martin Luther King, Jr., Day
• Tuesday, January 20 - Inauguration of Barak Obama
• Thursday, January 22 - Annual March for Life in Washington, D.C.

Two things:

Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated not quite 41 years ago. That's not that long, y'all. My heart expands and my eyes well a little thinking that in just four decades, following centuries of slavery, prejudice, and injustice, our nation is now a place where a black man can be elected president. The fact that Obama-mania gives me epic heebee-jeebees doesn't change that; that it was even possible for any non-WASP guy to be elected is something to be profoundly grateful for, and I am. I like that his inauguration will be the day after MLK Day.

Second, on the flip side and back to those heebee-jeebees: Obama has set himself up to be the most radically pro-abortion president ever. All of my prayers for our soon-to-be president have zeroed in on this, and I hope to God he doesn't do the things he has promised to do where the unborn are concerned. At the same time, if we're going to see an end to abortion in this county, it's going to have to come from the "bottom up". Hence, I find it exceedingly convenient that the March for Life will be on the second full day of President Obama's term. It's a reminder to him and to the rest of the country that there are a lot of people here who are not okay with killing babies.

Who said, "May you live in interesting times"? Isn't that supposed to be like a dual blessing and curse? Well, we certainly live in interesting times.

Someone Has Finally Summarized What I Really Mean When I Say I Hate Politics

"Excuse me while I filter my politics through my faith rather than the converse."

Thank you. That's what I've been trying to say.

Michelle Malkin ticked me off the other day. I really don't recall the Holy Father ever saying we should open our borders and let everyone in, but since he's in-line with Holy Mother Church and not Holy Mother Party, he's anathema.

Then again, she also says on her blog that she left the Catholic church, in part, for "its stance on illegal immigration".

Is it just me, or is that just totally backwards?

Lest anyone stumble onto this post and hang me for an amnesty enthusiest, let it be known I'm not. I think people should play by the rules, dadgummit, and people who don't pay and have never paid taxes shouldn't get tax-payers benefits (which seems like a "duh" to me). I also think Christians are called to do what they can to uphold human dignity and preserve families.

Wait... I think I just mixed parts from two opposing political view points. Crap! Take cover! Your monitor is about to explode!

I hate politics. Have I mentioned that?

File Under "Put a Sock in It!" pt 2

I can understand when people disagree with a Church teaching. The reality is they don't actually understand the teaching, but most of the time you can see where they're coming from.

It's when people say stuff that is either utterly ignorant or abjectly inflammatory (and in either case is abysmally stupid) that I get annoyed.

"[Pope Benedict XVI] has issued some of the most hurtful and extreme rhetoric against our community of any religious leader in history, and we want to call him into account for the damage that he's done," said Marianne Duddy-Burke, executive director of DignityUSA.

(The rest)

...Seriously? For the gay cause, out of all of history, Pope Benedict is the most damaging religious leader ever? Not the ones who burned homosexuals at the stake? Or those leaders in Islam who will flat out tell you homosexuals should be killed?

Well, I guess being told you immortal soul is loved but in danger, and that you need to change is a lot more threatening than violence.

Let the Flame Go!

No that anyone asked me, but I agree with this guy:

 

A symbol like that, carried by young people who want to deliver a message of peace, should be allowed to pass.

-Henri Serandour, head of the French Olympic Committee, after Paris's Olympic torch relay was disrupted Monday by Free Tibet demonstrations

(via Time's Quotes of the Day)

 

I'm not what you could call "pro China" or anything, but the Olympic flame is not a symbol of China.  I think it's a darned shame to put the thing out when it not only has nothing to do with any of China's questionable (to put it lightly) policies, it stands for ideals that might, in the long run, have something to do with fixing that situation.

 

The Olympics are, of course, focused on competition, but I have always loved all that "coming together" business.  It's just so lovely and noble and stuff.  Contrary-wise*, I understand wanting to boycott, or something along those lines, which would be more effective and less "random jerk with an agenda" than dousing the flame, ya know?

 

And that's my learned opinion on that.

 

 

*rehearsals for Looking Glass Land are getting to me...

File Under "Put a Sock in It"

I was looking up definitions of "business casual" and stumble on this article, in which a girl about my age was told by a coworker her shorts were too casual for work.  Her response (emphasis mine):

 

"Each generation seems to have a different idea of what is acceptable in the workplace, and in this situation I was highly offended," says Cohen, who works at a marketing firm in Philadelphia. "I was actually not allowed to attend a meeting because my attire was deemed 'inappropriate.' People my age are taught to express themselves, and saying something negative about someone's fashion is saying something negative about them."

...Seriously?  Really?

 

I don't think I need to comment on that, but you, Dear Readers, should feel free to do so.