imanant :: look at me go.

Friday, July 30, 2004
The kids are alright

Generally, I will prescribe no more than potential to the youth of america given the asinine pop culture they help to fund and thereby proliferate. Of course, I have a closet full of flannel and ripped jeans, every nirvana and pearl jam album, and two Mighty Ducks movies on VHS, so who am I to talk. Recently though, I am discovering that this lowly opinion stems from being so removed from 'the kids'. I've spent the last four years dealing mainly with white middle to upper class academics. We're, like, a pretty homogenous group, dude. Know what I mean, man? Variation exists, yes, but on a much smaller scale. I lived in a more diverse community during high school, others hadn't seen a person of color till they were seven (this fact still disturbs me. It seem the melting pot boiled over leaving only foam in some parts of the country). This homogeneity has skewed my opinion of the youth of America. Quite thankfully, I've been working with some kids that have helped to raise my opinion, albeit only slightly, but enough to take notice (here in academia, incremental change seems to be the norm, if not the limit. Seeing the train barreling towards them, liberal arts institutions continue to crawl towards de facto segregation. But really, I'm not bitter).

....

It is now 2:08 am. I am done with duty for the night and am ready to go to sleep. John Kerry's is now the official Democratic candidate for President of the United States. If you'd like to read his speech, here is a link:

John Kerry's acceptance speech

I'd suggest skipping to the middle. Nothing much interesting going on at the beginning. To be honest, nothing much interesting going on at the end, but at least that is where he starts throwing some fire at Bush.

In other news:

This is from the Nader-Dean debate (it's a fun one, check it out here: NPR Nader/Dean debate)
"Republicans are human beings too."-Nader
"Right-wingers may not be."-Dean

"You were the insurgent, but now you are the detergent, cleaning up the Democrat's dirty laundry." - Ralph to Dean (this is not an exact quote)

"John Kerry will not challenge the bloated military budget." - Ralph, July 9th

"We will add 40,000 active duty troops – not in Iraq, but to strengthen American forces that are now overstretched, overextended, and under pressure. We will double our special forces to conduct anti-terrorist operations. We will provide our troops with the newest weapons and technology to save their lives – and win the battle. And we will end the backdoor draft of National Guard and reservists." - Senator Kerry from his acceptance speech, July 29th

This is why I like Ralph and Dean. I wish our politicians would speak with this kind of earnesty and energy.

It is now 3:48 am.

posted by ezruh sellof at 3:48 AM 0 comments

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