LIVity

I am outraged. I just read an article in The Washington Post's Express about the planned baseball stadium in Southeast, D.C. Out of the 23 families that were asked to move, 16 stood their ground and refused to leave their homes. Now D.C.'s government filed court papers to seize the property from these 16 families. The other seven agreed to leave their homes and are now splitting an alleged $13 million. What's that, a little over $1.5 million per household. How many times will the average person receive an offer like that during a lifetime?? The sad part is, $13 million is peanuts compared to what this deal is worth. I commend those 16 families for standing their ground. This would never happen in an affluent area like, let's use Montgomery County for example. There is so much land up there (I gurantee 23 families wouldn't be displaced; maybe 5 at most) but all the huge sporting events *hintNascarhint* and stadiums are brought to poorer neighborhoods. And people keep saying if you stand up for your rights, things like this won't happen. You see what happened with these 16 families?? They're being forced out of their homes. The only thing that can save them is if a judge declares that the seizure is unconstitutional. How many people believe that will happen?? I guess that leaves me wondering what these families will receive as compensation. Maybe baseball tickets. How many families from Southeast do you think watch baseball?? Which brings me to another point. Why not put the stadium in the neighborhoods of the people who enjoy it?? But then again, I guess it makes more sense to transport baseball fans all the way across the city and congest four-car trains that are already crowded with residents from "the wrong side of town" who I suppose don't speak up and demand longer trains, more often and especially during times when non-residents are infiltrating their neighborhoods to watch a game they have no interest in. I can understand urban redevelopment but there's got to be a better way.

Today I bought breakfast in the congressional office buildings' cafeteria. I paid $2 and some change for a bagel, cream cheese, and medium coffee. Anywhere else in downtown D.C., I would have paid about $5 for the same meal. Does this seems backwards to anybody but me?? It is not okay for working class people to pay more than twice as much for a product while the people who can afford inflation are not being affected. These people aren't living in reality. They sit up on Capitol Hill and spew propoganda to make it look like they're working for the average person-who they can't even relate to. You have to have money to even get into positions of power. How is this representative of the average American?? But I guess it's okay because they voted to forgo their annual salary increase. They want the money to go to the victims of Katrina (who they kicked out of shelters and placed in hotels that cost anywhere from $11 million to $22 million/day, depending on who you ask) who need assistance until being placed in new homes in a couple of months. I don't know about you, but if me and everybody I know sacrificied our yearly raise, we wouldn't be able to rent hotels for the evacuees for one day. Is this fair representation??

When given information, people will only address what they want to address. I was having a conversation about race with my mother this weekend. We were talking about how members of our family have such mixed racial features that just about every group of people with any hint of color in their skin has tried to claim us (from Middle Eastern to Puerto Rican) Members from any given race will find one of our features that resembles themselves and attempt to align us with them. They're only seeing what they want to see. This argument can be linked to religion as well. I've heard people say that people of African descent are the chosen people. As nice as that sounds (because so much of the world's population fits into this category) I seriously doubt the validity of that statement. How can people be condemned just because they were born without a trace of African blood?? That would mean that people of African descent can live however they please and still be blessed. This goes against the very basis of religion. Of course, Christianity originated with those of African descent but it was meant to be spread. Still, I can't help but wonder if the African gene is dominant (you can't mix these genes with genes from another race and come out with anything but a person with at least one African feature) for the purpose of giving the gift of being chosen to as many people as possible. What I do know is that if the world continues, everybody will someday look just like me.

I am getting a little worried. As an aspiring writer, I feel like the audience I intend to write for won't be reading my work. Let me back up a little. In undergrad, I majored in African-American Studies with a focus on literature. Currently I am in grad school studying print journalism. I want to effectively collect and share stories from my community. The problem: for the most part, African-Americans are only interested in books written for the sole purpose of entertaining the reader. Books that would be the equivalent of rap;I'm interested in writing hip-hop. The stories I plan to share probably won't be about some high roller's girl and the drama she encounters on the way to buy the latest Gucci purse. My stories will be real life situations. I know so many people with interesting stories they want to share out of a desire to help others. It hurts me to my heart that these stories won't be heard because people would rather indulge in propaganda. I've always held a philosophy of not entertaining anything or anyone who won't benefit me in some form. It seems selfish but if you think about it, it prevents wasted time. I'm not saying that everyone should adopt my philosophy, I'm just saying it's something to think about.