One Wrong Reason Not To; "This American Life--10/26/08"

I named this blog after a show that I found Childhood Bud and I both liked to listen to, except I think he might listen far more than I do. The show is "This American Life." While driving between job locations yesterday (for I had went to work after a leisurely morning and found myself working between noon and 8pm), this "This American Life" episode rocked my socks off. It's an hour long and I want to quote the whole thing here, but I'll do my very best to summarize what stood out to me.

The show was about the campaigning for both McCain and Obama in Pennsylvania. The radio reporters doing the recording were hanging out with people that canvassed in a PA town known for Democrats and at the U of P state college. In the town, the campaigners were Democrats who, after Hilary had not gotten the nod, were voting for McCain and wanted to convert undecided Democrats to the same positon. The campaigners at the state college were Democrats registering students and urging them to vote for Obama. A third segment was about the Union AFL-CIO's support of Obama, and Richard Trumka's address to Union members about racial issues.

Until that point, I thought the show was just going to major on the virtues of the Obama ticket, as all good lefty radio is bound to do, but then the AFL-CIO brought up race, and the whole message turned for me. It made me realize that although I haven't allowed myself to stay naive about racial issues, I had decided not to put the magnifying glass on the issue. I had decided to focus on the white support of Obama and take comfort from it.

Well this episode pushed it all in my face yesterday and I just wanted to give the readers here a chance to be exposed to the same information.

Highlights (or Darklights);
1) One of the Democrats knocking on doors to sway undecided Dems to vote for McCain was a black male. It was put to him by a member of a family at one of these homes why he wasn't supporting Obama, since he was a black male Democrat. His answer was that he did want to see a black man in the White House, but he hoped it would be at another time in his life because he thought McCain was the better choice at the moment. I was confounded. The man sounded young. He must think there's plenty of time in his life for this opportunity to rise again if Obama loses. I hope to God he's right, but personally--I want it NOW, while the opportunity IS RIGHT FREAKING HERE RIGHT FREAKING NOW. Oh my God! It's like walking up to a pile of a million dollars, and when given the chance to take it you say, "Well, no actually, I like the earnings I make right now. But hopefully some day, I'll find another pile of a million dollars, and I'd be glad to take it at that time--provided all the conditions are right..." WTF?!?

2) The best recruiter in the segment with the state college seemed really obsessed. Almost as a personality flaw. But her technique was the best. She went everywhere on campus to get kids registered. She went to tailgate parties, she was at the games, she was at frat parties where she could hardly hear herself. She never took no for an answer. but one guy, a drunkish frat boy, had a little surprise for her. He showed her (as described by the audio reporter tailing her) his cellphone which had a little animation of Obama's face turning into a monkey. The boy then slurs, "This is what we think of him around here!" The recruiter went directly to another group and continued her dogged pursuit of registering kids. But the radio reporter jumped into a lull in her work to ask her what she thought of that boy's cellphone display. The girl paused, and then her voice grew shaky. She said that she couldn't let that get to her or else it would destroy the energy she had to do her job. The more she spoke, the more upset she sounded though. In a few more seconds, she was heard bawling. The radio reporter said it was because of all the pressure and exhaustion. But I wanted to bawl my damn self. The boy was a student at a college. And to him, one of America's youth, this is an acceptable joke or display of opinion? In 2008 A.D.?!? IN TODAY'S GENERATION?!?!?!?! WTF?!!!!!!

3) The AFL-CIO segment brought due attention to many people who answered by phone about who they were going to vote for, being Union members and Democrats. The show focused on those who answered the canvassers by saying, "Definitely not Obama!" Some said it was because he was a Muslim. Eventually they admitted it was because he was black. Some said they weren't going to vote for "no f**kin' nigger." To me, the most haunting testimony came from a Union phone recruiter who discovered that a co-worker and friend wasn't going to vote for Obama because of his color, and the recruiter never knew that about his friend. The recruiter, a white guy, tells how he tried to reason with his friend, also a white guy, but his friend kept revealing how threatened and hostile he felt being around so many blacks and having to see his kids playing with so many blacks at the school, and how if Obama got in "Jesse Jackson would become one of his advisers and next thing you knew Al Sharpton would be in the White House too." Yeah, right next to Colin Powell and Condoleeza Rice, you forkin' DOUCHENOZZLE. This phone canvasser sounded devastated to discover that his friend, even though they both worked with blacks and ate lunch with blacks, had this mindset.

So now, here is that Richard Trumka video the show talks about;
The most important thing I've heard come out of this segment was the presence of advertisements which said the following "There are many reasons to vote for Barack Obama for President of the United States. But there is one wrong reason not to."

These were the fears I've harbored--oh--I think---all of my life. Yeah. All my life. That the unseen nooks and crannies of the world harbored dark and vitriolic thoughts like these and it would affect me based on nothing I could control or even want to. Things that would see me stomped to death in an alley somwhere.

Another thing said out of the AFL-CIO segment was that this race situation was a thing that was "a two-hundred year-old wound with a sixty year-old scab" and I whooped in my car when he said that. Because it's so true. And I've known this all my life.

But I will still choose to focus on the thing that brings me hope.

DESPITE the truth of this report from Pennsylvania's nooks and crannies, Obama is leading in the polls. He is getting equal airtime. He is a contender. A serious candidate which all my white friends who do not want him to win are all saying they think he will win.

Despite the hatred and ignorance that so many Americans still harbor (and oh my dear sweet Jesus GOD will it EVER stop?!?!) Barack Obama is a black man who this country has "allowed" and accepted to rise to the prominence he has today. A man who in two short weeks may very well become the nation's President. A black American man who all the planet Earth has noticed.

I don't think I can ever make my white friends know how important this is to me personally, but I can only do my best to represent it in this post and hope the right eyes read it. Meanwhile, I urge you to listen to this weekend's "This American Life". Put the information in your heads for future discussion. Let it sharpen your own thoughts about race in America. Let the next sixty years pass with even MORE advancement and even MORE dissolution of hate and fear and ignorance. For the love of all that is literally Holy.

Do it for me.

Loving America

So lately, yeah. I have friends who remain loyal to themselves and their own ideals and beliefs, even when it takes them away from what's important to me. I've learned to accept this. Who doesn't have the right to their own opinion? Their experience is uniquely theirs, so they will formulate a worldview based on what they see out of their own eyes and feel through their own heart.

Okay.

That said, I do wish that they knew how good I felt about being an American these days. I've never ever felt as American as I do right now. I've never felt as accepted in this country, by this country, as I do now. And it's because you guys want Obama.

You want him because you believe in his politics, or because you've always voted Democrat, or you despise Bush, or McCain gives you the creeps, or whatever. But what's important to me is that the color of Barack Obama's skin did not make him illegitimate for the Presidency in your eyes.

So obviously I'm speaking to you, my white people. Everywhere I go and see an Obama pin on a white person's backpack, or an Obama bumper sticker on a white driver's car I feel like I've been hugged and welcomed into my own country. I feel like I finally know how some white people feel when they look at me. I feel like some walls have finally come down.

And it's enough for me. I want Obama to be the President, and if it doesn't happen, I'll understand why. Yes, there are people in my country who will say, have said, "There's no way I'm voting for a nigger!" but that particular voice is the minority. On the whole, those who don't vote for Obama is doing it because they have always voted Republican, or they are concerned about their money and believe that Obama wants to destroy their financial security, or whatever. But most people who will not vote for Obama will choose this based on their own political beliefs, not because of the color of Obama's skin.

And for that, I am thankful. I finally feel like I have my place in society. I finally feel like the ignorant things said behind closed doors no longer matter to my future and the future of my children and their children, and their children's children.

So let the white lady clutch her purse in the elevator when I walk on. Let the white driver lock their cardoor at the stoplight when I'm on the sidewalk. Let the white sales clerk follow me around the store until I'm done shopping. Let 'em. That's their individual ignorance, and it means nothing to me.

My country supports the idea of a Black President.

Um, Duh??

This story is not at all a surprise.

And if you think this guy was the only one out there, you're fooling yourself.

This is why white racism is so terrifying to me. Yes, there's racism in every skin-color group of people, but when was the last time you heard someone of color decide to assassinate a Presidential candidate because he was a white man?

If Obama does not get elected because someone killed him, I will most likely change as a person. And it won't be for the better. Because it has already happened one time too many. If it happens again, I'll need some serious conditioning not believing in complicit guilt by apathy and indifference.

DO NOT LET IT HAPPEN, people. Being black SHOULD NOT be a DEATH SENTENCE.

Who Is Obadiah Parker And How The Hell Did They Get So Cool?

Obadiah Parker is apparently the band's name. This chap is called Matt Weddle, and he is my new mancrush. He even messes up and starts over, and still does the damn thing. The song proper begins at the 1:00 mark and he KICKS ITS ASS.

You betta WORK IT My Caucasian!

??! I just realized something!!! "Caucasian" has "Asian" at the end of it.

Okay, I'd betta go move my car and maybe go to work. ENJOY!!



And then here he is doing a Bjork song, which I've never jeard before in the original, but it sounds like a straight up Christian contemporary song, which I didn't know Bjork sang, and am speedily dashing off now to find her orignal. Meanwhile, I like Matt's haircut better here, but this predates the "Hey Ya" above, so he's grown it out since. :-( And he does a "Hey Ya" in this setting, but whoever made the vid cut it together with Andre 3000's vid, and I wanted one with just this dude.

Anyway. Car is moved, meter is paid for 2 hrs, and I don't want to go to work anymore.

But I will.

Before I do! I found this--explains everything (but has the Andre300 interstitials)!


And here's the original Bjork "Who Is It"

Scare Tactics

Whites to be minority in US by 2050: study

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Immigration will drive the population of the United States sharply upward between now and 2050, and will push whites into a minority, projections by the Pew Research Center showed Monday.

"If current trends continue, the population of the United States will rise to 438 million in 2050, from 296 million in 2005," an increase of nearly 50 percent, the study by the Washington-based think-tank said.

More than 80 percent of the increase will be due to immigrants arriving in the country and their US-born children, who will make up nearly one in five Americans by 2050 compared with one in eight in 2005, it said.

Whites, who currently make up around two-thirds of the US population, will become a minority (47 percent) by 2050, the report said.

The Hispanic population, currently the largest minority group, will triple in size and double in percentage terms from 14 percent in 2005 to 29 percent in 2050, the report said.

The Asian population will roughly double in percentage terms, from five percent to nine percent, while the black population will remain static at around 13 percent.

The projections are based on trends over the past 50 years, during which legal and illegal immigration have played an increasing role in US population growth, the report said.

From 1960 to 2005, new immigrants and their US-born descendants accounted for 51 percent of population increase, and for 58 percent from 1980 to 2005, the report said.

But, the report warned, "possible future changes in immigration policy" could impact the projections.

Illegal immigration has become a top issue in the race for the US presidency, especially among Republican candidates, most of whom favor of a crackdown.

Now that your heart rates are sufficiently escalated, please ask yourself "Why does this matter?"

Now back to your regularly scheduled bloglines ...

Answers I Need...

Did this guy actually hit the ground? To fall 47 stories and survive?!? His brother died instantly. Just contemplating such a thing makes white noise go off in my brain.

Secondly, does Iowa mean that Hilary is no longer running for the White House? Just what the hell is a "caucus" anyway. I couldn't even keep focus enough to click on the explanatory link. It all seems like such a hullabaloo shell game. Just people in Iowa get to determine who runs for president? It can't be that unfair, can it? Or is it some kind of exploratory poll that signifies nothing but Iowan opinion? And if it's just opinion, then Hilary is still running, right? Or what?

What I wanted to see is Hilary and Barack being contenders. I dreaded the bloodbath to ensue as Democrats chose between a black man and a white woman, but I wanted the country to have evolved that far enough along where the choice would need to be made.

And of course I want Barack because I want black kids and white kids to grow up with a black leader. I want black representation to be in every walk of life, including the most powerful one in the country, and not just relegated to entertainment. The days of the minstrel show have long passed. I want black faces to have gravity in this country. I don't want us to be dismissed as a joke-teller or a ball-dribbler, or as 70% of prison population--whatever cozy, safe little nook we occupy in the minds of the "majority". I want black people to matter in the realms that are important to the majority. Finance. Politics. I don't think we'll truly be seen as equal until we truly are.

Edit: Okay, so Iowa is just opinion. Thanks, media industry, for once again distorting the facts and incorrectly influencing people (or at least dumb ol' me).

Reconnection. Almost.

I jumped on the A train yesterday after being hit with a brilliant idea. I was going to South Street Seaport. I'd heard there was some nightlife going on down there and I wanted to see it. The sun was low enough to provide shade in the streets, so the heat was no longer an issue.

So I'm riding and people-watching, as I usually do. Standing out noticably to me was a man and his wife. She was pregnant. They were speaking in Spanish. And they seemed like the mainstream twentysomethings of North Manhattan. I couldn't understand anything about their conversation except the body language. The man had long wet hair and clean feet (yes, sandals. I've gone on enough about these peoples' feet). He wore a loose crepe shirt and cargo shorts. She wore a sunny, sleeveless dress the color of a peeled orange. She hung on his every word. She looked in love. Not slavishly devoted or co-dependent, but just admirably in love with the man. The man who had given her the baby she was carrying. The man was animated and spellbinding. Whatever story he was telling made her gasp with surprise. It seemed to have something to do with dancing or performing. I wouldn't call the man attractive, physically, but he was charismatic.

Then the train pulled into 145th and was being held at the station. The 145th stop is where I used to live. And during the 30 seconds of wait, I suddenly bounced out of my seat and dashed out of the subway car.

I wanted to see the "old" neighborhood.

When we last left our hero there, two luxury condo buildings were going up and I had been desirous of maybe getting an apartment there one day. Well, now they are up. They look very nice. One is across the street from the Hamilton. I believe it's called The Ellington, (edit correction: it isn't the Ellington. Or if it is, it doesn't have a website yet) and it borders Jackie Robinson Park. So does the other one, and it's on 147th and Bradhurst. And teeming around the both of them are the innercity culture who are not going anywhere. They will not be priced out and they won't roll over.

My people, my people. Gritty. Urban. Loud. I at once admire them and am a little repulsed by them. But mostly, I feel defensive of them. I love the new buildings. But having been divorced from the area now for two years, I think I'm seeing the place with an outsider's eye. (After all, I only lived there for 1.5 years.)

Those buildings just seem so wrong there. It's an obvious, glaring clash of culture. Am I saying my people don't deserve the finer things? Am I saying they aren't worthy?

No, but I am saying that they aren't rich.

(Edit: I've discovered the buildings at 147th and Bradhurst Ave. are called The Sutton, and they are made for low-income families! Now THAT'S good news. Somebody's got a conscience in housing and development.)

But my curiosity about the neighborhood was really secondary. Primarily, I wanted to see my cousin. She is the mentally ill daughter of the nurturing aunt who died during the last year that I lived there. I had sorely neglected visiting them when my aunt was alive, and then when she died, I stopped altogether. This mentally ill cousin has a daughter who I really was bonding with, (and had even lived up in North Manhattan at one time) but I lost touch with her too. I've lost touch with all of them. and when I say 'lost touch' I mean too phobic to call and visit.

So last night I thought I'd do it. Get it out of the way. After my exploration of the new new, I when to my cousin's apartment foyer and dialed her code so she could buzz me into the building. She answered. I told her who I was and she said "Who?!" just like my mother used to say it.

Then she buzzed me in, and I realized I didn't remember what floor her apartment was on. I re-buzzed her to ask where her apartment was. (The code to dial her does not reveal the floor or apartment address.) She answered again, then buzzed the door again, longer this time, but didn't speak. After all, maybe I wasn't who I said I was.

I called her daughter, (whose number I still have in my phone) only to find it disconnected. I considered calling another cousin (whose number I also have in my phone) but then I realized. I didn't want to do this. I haven't wanted to for the past four years.

I don't know why. It seems my family is the last hurdle to leap before I can consider myself "social" again.

So I left my old stomping grounds, bought some Jamaican food (ox tails--YUM), and headed back north.

I might try again sometime.

I might not.

I Shouldn't Be Writing

(Originally 12/25/06, Christmas Day)

Merry Christmass All! The title is a nod to Mur Lafferty, a friend of Evo's who stopped by a few days ago, and a friend of alex's too (they were NaNoWriMo buddies).

I say I shouldn't be writing because it's Christmas and I'm in the city and I should be out enjoying the town.

Well, I have, and I may do so again, but I have nothing specific to do out there. The view from the room is exceptional this time, I must say. I'm on the 37th floor, overlooking the Ziegfeld Theater. Check the link, note the address. I'm in the Hilton on the block south of the theater. In-Room Dining menu tells me that I can get a Turkey Club sandwich for 21.95--I kid you not. I'll pass. I'm not in the mood to fund Paris' new sex tape. Not to mention what kind of tip I would supposed to leave? That would have to be some serious post-coital bliss to prevent me from going downstairs and getting the same sandwich to-go for 8 bucks.

My Blind Hero sent me an e-mail Christmas card but he hasn't called me to hook up with him. I guess he changed his mind, or found another offer. I don't feel particularly saddened by that. I'm happy that I said yes and was open to him coming. That, for me, is progress.

So, yeah, I'm a little lonely, but not overmuch. My Friend The Doctor called earlier when I was downtown eating Coldstone Ice Cream in the Village. He forgot to call me earlier in the week to check up on me, but that was okay too. I owe him a lot already and he's always there when I need him, so he needn't feel bad. If I hadn't any plans, he'd have been sped-dialed.

So, a few blocks north of here is an apartment building and I can see them in their homes. At most I can see about five families at any given time. i swear I wish i had a set of binoculars so I could see details. But more than that, I wish I knew who they were and how they're living in that building. This is between 6th & 7th avenues, 55th st, I estimate. and since I'm on the 37th floor, they have to be living between 35-45th floors of that deluxe highrise. From my time as a real estate agent (its crazy to type that, but I still hold a NY license for real estate. Go figure) I would expect these people to be paying anywhere between $3500-$5000/month rent. And if they own, the units would have gone for millions, easy. And then the monthly "maintenance" would still be a few thou per month.

But may I tell you, my window is crowded with buildings as tall if not taller, than us. And while this Hilton is a narrow little slip of a structure (wasted space really), these residentials are packed out in every nook and cranny with living space. (The more people Mr. Developer can cram into his building, the more money he gets.) So not for the first time I have to ask;

WHO ARE ALL THESE RICH PEOPLE?!!?

I feel like I can never hope to make that kind of money without becoming an actor, singer, or career bestseller author. There aren't that many of them, and if there were, they don't all live here!

So what is going on?

You know that Saturday Night Live skit about what white people do when no one else is around? I swear it must be true. In the banks, when no blacks or Latinos are around. they just be givin' each other money. Don't deny it, white people! You know it's true! On a more serious note, if not less consequential, I saw a commercial on this Hilton Hotel Satellite TV system (flatscreen TVs give off a lot of heat from their screens, BTW!) they keep showing financial planner commercials and all sorts of high-financed based advertizing. They must think every guest is interested in making and keeping a lot of money. And one of these commericals had a bunch of people in different vignettes. One of them was this middle-aged white guy in a suit with a big voice putting his arm around the neck of a younger white man and saying "I want to leave my business to my son!" and I was like "Ah, HAAA!!!! THAT'S how you guys have been doing it for centuries!! Hoard that wealth!!" How many of the Hilton neighbors (Paris being a prime example) are just beneficiaries of their parents and great-grandparents' wealth? Living off trust funds and the bank account interest that pays their monthly housing expenses?

Well, I currently am doing the exact same thing. I'm reaping the benefit of a two-night stay in a posh midtown hotel, overlooking Manhattan, a sliver of the Hudson River to my left and a sliver of a de-leafed Central Park straight ahead, because of My Benefactor's parent's wealth. We none of us deserve it, but I hope the neighbors are at least as half as grateful right now as I am. This is a really nice opportunity and I'm not going to let jealousy and spite take it away from me.

Happy Holidays to the rich people as well as the poor! "God bless us all, every one!"

Discovery

(Originally Dec 4 2005)

This following song;

It´s not your situation
I just need contemplation
Over you
I´m not so systematic
It´s just that I´m an addict
For your love

I´m not the only one that holds you
I never ever should have told you
You´re my only girl
I´m not the only one that holds you
I never ever should have told you
You´re my only world

Just think how long I´ve known ya
It´s wrong for me to own ya
Lock and key
It´s really not confusin´
I´m just the young illusion
Can´t you see

I´m not the only one that holds you
I never ever should have told you
You´re my only girl
I´m not the only one that holds you
I never ever should have told you
You´re my only world

Georgy Porgy puddin´ pie
Kissed the girls and made them cry
Georgy Porgy puddin´ pie
Kissed the girls and made them cry
Georgy Porgy puddin´ pie
Kissed the girls and made them cry
Kissed the girls and made them cry
Kissed the girls and made them cry

INSTRUMENTAL

It´s not your situation
I just need contemplation
Over you
I´m not so systematic
It´s just that I´m an addict
For your love

I´m not the only one that holds you
I never ever should have told you
You´re my only girl
I´m not the only one that holds you
I never ever should have told you
You´re my only world

Georgy Porgy puddin´ pie
Kissed the girls and made them cry
Georgy Porgy puddin´ pie
Kissed the girls and made them cry

Georgy Porgy puddin´ pie
Kissed the girls and made them cry
Georgy Porgy puddin´ pie
Kissed the girls and made them cry

Georgy Porgy puddin´ pie
Kissed the girls and made them cry
Kissed the girls and made them cry
Kissed the girls and made them cry

Georgy Porgy puddin´ pie
Kissed the girls and made them cry
Kissed the girls and made them cry
Kissed the girls and made them high

Georgy Porgy
Kissed the girls and made them cry
Kissed the girls and made them cry
Georgy Porgy
Kissed the girls and made them cry
Kissed the girls and made them cry

was done by TOTO!!!!!!!
WHAT???!!!!

The thousands of times I heard and jammed to that thing, and it was by the "Rosanna", Africa", I'll Be Over You" guys?!?!?!?

All i could say was YOU GO, WHITE BOY!!!!

Oh, that song KICKS IT!!

Let Me Get On The Bandwagon

(Originally Sept 4 2005)



I got an e-mail from a co-worker who used the title, "People still manage to show hate in the face of tragedy." My co-worker is an extremeist and I tend to ignore her e-mails because I find she gloms onto any and every little hiccup in racial relations in the country. So when she sent the links to the original pictures, I only saw each image and didn't bother to read any of the captions.

Now, not too many minutes ago I heard a report on WNYC-FM about the two pictures and the different language used. The two pics were taken by different photogs, and the copy by two different writers.

By doing the subsequent research, I learned APF requested their photo (of the white people) be pulled from the Yahoo News site to prevent further controversy. I also learned that bloggers around the world have already reacted mightily to the controversy, and I'm late to get on this train.

But I'm getting on now.

Okay. So listen up. I suggest the writer who put the caption under the white people and the person who put the caption under the black guy are affected by the racism that this country is infected with, and are utterly cluesless about it. It took an unintentional but glaring example like this to illustrate it. This is what happened;

Writer #1 saw the white people and instantly identified with those people. The writer put themselves in their places and then wrote copy to reflect what they would have done in the situation. And of course, the writer would not have seen themselves as a "looter", but as survivors of a tragedy.

Writer #2 saw the black guy as an outsider. Outsiders are prone to suspicious behavior because one ever knows what is on the mind of an outsider. "Outsider" = "Not Like Us, Does Not Think Like Us" So Writer #2 identified with the store owner instead of the victim, and wrote what they perceived the black guy was doing.

And the thing of it is, Writers #1 & #2 could either be a White or Black individual themselves, and this STILL could have happened. Why? BECAUSE WE ALL HAVE BOUGHT INTO THE RACISM OF THIS COUNTRY.

The media tells us White is;
1) The Majority
2) Normal
3) The Most Beautiful
4) The Most Powerful
5) The President/Best Actor/Best Actress/Richest In The World

And if you think I'm being reactionist or extreme, just try to replace the any of the above categories with a person of ANY other "race" and see if the notion doesn't become an Exception or a piece of fiction for the masses to consume, rather than a legitimate alternative to the status quo.

Stuff like this makes me wanna HOLLER. Get in a rocket ship and just let y'all blow yourselves up.

Inclusion vs. Exclusion

(Originally August 6, 2005)

This I dictated while waiting across from Washington Square Park in the half hour before my shift at Starbucks. In a nutshell, it's about my re-realization that I like white people and desire their company in my present neighborhood of Harlem, and at the exact same time, I resent their presence in Harlem.

Why?

Because I believe they are moving into the new buildings where the income is, of necessity, greater and they are taking advantage of the housing market in our neighborhood. The fact that I cannot do the same, thanks to my crushing poverty, makes me feel excluded from the good fortune of the white people.

Their conversations as I imagine them;
White Guy (clad in backwards baseball cap, loose fitting plaid shirt rolled up at the elbows, knahki shorts, sporting hairy legs, flip-flops, and a five o'clock shadow): "Look hon! We get to be white, have society love us, have role models of success and wealth in every media outlet to feed and support our ambitions--PLUS we get to live cheaply in Harlem because no one else is taking advantage of these swell housing prices!"

White Chick (wrapped in a trendy pashmina, Mary Janes hiphuggers, toenails painted glittery blue, cellphone in one hand and double grande soy Chai latte in the other): "I wonder why no one is taking advantage of these prices?"

White Guy: "Dunno! Isn't life great? What a great time to be alive!"

Yes, and thus, I am jealous--whether this is happening or not. Now, eventually WHEN I get my license and NYC career (and I rightly imagine that this time next year, these days of poverty will be a REALLY bad memory), that I will be joinng these white people in their blissful states.

Will I take away anything from this experience? Oooooooooh, you betcha. I will know for sure how my black (actually, my poor neighbors. They aren't all black) neighbors feel. Those on welfare. Those with addictions. Those teenaged mothers with very little hope of advancing their lives. They will feel, possibly for the rest of their lives, how I feel right no. Resentful against those who have, believing that they will never realize those same dreams. Before, they didn't have to worry about comparing their lives to the young and successful downtowners. Now, they have to stand in the same line in the PathMarks.

Another Cindy Morgan song;

Let It Be Love

I danced with another
But the melody faded...

And I took it for granted
But I can't take it no more

Guess nobody's perfect

We're always last to admit that we should
blame ourselves

So

Love is lost.

Don't we know our hearts anymore?

Now tell me
If this life's a game of giving and take
Why are we taking so much
We've been taking so much
We got to learn how to give
It's time to let it begin

(Chorus)
Let it be love
Let it be truth
Cause love will be all that we remember
Open up
Our arms to each other
Oh let it be love
Don't you know the heart and soul 'r all that matters?
Let it love
Cause love will be all that lasts forever
Open up our hearts to each other
And let it be love

I stand with a stranger
Wondering what I'm afraid of?

And I feel like a prisoner
Holding the key to my door

Why run from each other?

We've led ourselves to believe that no one
really cares...

So...

On we go...

Wonder what (?) we are.

Now tell me
What's a broken world supposed to do?
We've been hurting so much
We've been hurt so much
We've got to find love in Him...
So won't you let it begin?

(Chorus, slightly altered)
Let it be love
Let it be true
Cause love will be all that we remember
Open up
Our arms to each other
And let it be love
(o let it be love)
Don't you know the heart and soul 'r all that matters?
So let it love
Cause love will be all that lasts forever
Open up our hearts to each other
And let it be love

Believe in love again....

(Chorus-spiralling with echoes and a male background singer repeating,
"Hold it today,
Believe today,
sweet love today--

Be led today,
be led today,
sweet love today"

in syncopation to the beat)

--at least, that's what it feels like to me.
Wow, this song could revolutionize the world.

The whole wide world.

Or at least my own personal little world.

Amazing.