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Archive for November 2012
Question 7 Revealed
Election season has ended and with its conclusion, the
promises that politicians courted voters with have moved into their next stage –
being broken.
I had a bittersweet moment last week when I caught a glimpse
of this The Examiner headline: Maryland Faces Years of Hefty Budget Gaps. This a mere two weeks after Election Day. Fourteen Days after a majority of Maryland
voters approved bringing a casino to the National Harbor. A decision that was supposed to bridge budget
deficits.
My first reaction was to write about how I knew building
another entertainment venue in Prince George’s County would do nothing to
reconcile the difference between ever-increasing tax revenue, supposed
budgetary needs and ever decreasing quality of living in the county. But my next thought was about what’s on the
line; if the county is not making money, it has to enforce cutbacks. These will undoubtedly even further diminish services
for our youth.
In the face of this, I didn’t expect officials to start
preparing to reveal the okie doke they just pulled so soon. Two weeks and Governor O’Malley has gone from
TV ads requesting voters approve Question 7, to the front page of the newspaper
admitting the measure he assured would help our community isn’t enough.
I’m no accountant and I don’t know what happened behind our
local political scenes, but I’m pretty sure it takes longer than two weeks to
balance a multi-year budget. I’m going
to leave it at this, because like I said, I’m dealing in assumptions, but I’m
going to venture to say, officials knew about this continuing deficit while
they were convincing voters to approve Question 7.
Tag :
community
,
free think
,
Permission to Love the Black Woman
I just got home from vacationing in Miami which is always an enjoyable experience, but this trip solidified how unfortunate race relations are in this country.
Because Miami attracts international tourists, it gives me the opportunity to interact with people, men mostly, from various cultures. With the exception of Americans, it seems pretty universal that they are attracted to me or find me interesting without taking ethnicity into account.
On the other hand, every American man that I spoke with asked about my race. This is where things got really sad. When I told them I'm black, I got responses such as, I'm too pretty to be black or pressing me to find out what I could be mixed with because I don't look African. The latter statement was from a conversation between me and a white man. Ironic that information his forefathers worked to erase is the precise information he wants in order to justify his attraction to me.
But the bigger question is, why does a white man's attraction to a black woman need to be justified??
Remember when Beyonce was on the cover of Sports Illustrated in 2007?? She is one of two black women to ever be placed on the cover and it came about during the controversy about whether or not she is Creole. There are still differing opinions about this, but it was just the foothold white men needed to allow themselves to openly admit their attraction to her.
This is more of a rant than anything because the only solution to this problem is for these men's mindset to change. And since I don't have the power to change anyone's mind about anything, all I can do is comment on how sad it is and keep it pushing.
Because Miami attracts international tourists, it gives me the opportunity to interact with people, men mostly, from various cultures. With the exception of Americans, it seems pretty universal that they are attracted to me or find me interesting without taking ethnicity into account.
On the other hand, every American man that I spoke with asked about my race. This is where things got really sad. When I told them I'm black, I got responses such as, I'm too pretty to be black or pressing me to find out what I could be mixed with because I don't look African. The latter statement was from a conversation between me and a white man. Ironic that information his forefathers worked to erase is the precise information he wants in order to justify his attraction to me.
But the bigger question is, why does a white man's attraction to a black woman need to be justified??
This is more of a rant than anything because the only solution to this problem is for these men's mindset to change. And since I don't have the power to change anyone's mind about anything, all I can do is comment on how sad it is and keep it pushing.
Tag :
free think
,
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