Prometheus 6

It's 3 am as I write this...it will be somewhere around 8 am, soonest, when you read it.

This train travel thing is interesting. You can get your tickets whenever you want but you take the chance of them selling out. You can buy them in advance but you have to be sure when you're going to leave and this time I wasn't.

Was actually tempted to stay longer. It was a pleasant rip, actually. I wound up talking to one of the security guards for a while during a cigarette break. There was this excellent ledge they throw a tent over for eating/partying purposes that overlooks a lake. I thought I wasn't one to rant about a scenic view anymore but this one brought out the ol' landscape photographer in me. Mentioned what great pictures it would make and found the guard also had a silk-screening business. FINALLY met Professor Kim, FINALLY met Pam, FINALLY met Terrance. And I wound up being one of the last out of the joint, which was also good. Brother running the shuttle to the Metro spotted me in the middle of the block looking all media-like, took me to Union Station (well deserved tip which cost me half as much as a cab would have). He just had to go back to Howard for his final run. So I'm sitting in the seat right across from the entrance watch ten or so really fine sisters walk up the stairs and smile at me. Shuttle bus had two little video screens playing a tape of Earth, Wind and Fire playing at some edition of the Montrose Jazz Festival. We wuz sangin' on the bus, yo. I could have been convinced to stay.

Maybe I should have...I got to Union Station at 1 am...and as I said, 3 am I'm on the train typing, digesting the stuff said at the forum. I got issues, though.

(By the way, there are two basically kinds of non-profit organizations: the ones to which your donations are tax deductible and the ones which aren't. The advantage of the second sort is you don't have to report who your donors are...which is the type most Conservative think tanks organize themselves as. Remember that if someone claims corporations donate more to progressive organizations than conservative ones. I know this is a non-sequitur.)

My issues is, how do I give a shit when the Supreme Corporate just instituted the legal basis for restoring the “separate but equal” thing? Which bothers me because we know America doesn't believe in treating Black folks equally.

Oh? You want support for that statement?

Okay. When President Johnson issued the order to take affirmative action to include Black folks, who was the subject of that order?

White folks. They were supposed to learn how to hire fairly. They failed...instead they learned new ways of manipulation they found they could use on anyone what want market rates for their labor (shall I link the video on how not to hire an American again?).

Who took the order to act affirmatively and took every industry's efforts of whatever nature and called them all “Affirmative Action”?

White folks.

Who designed the “Affirmative Action” plans?

White folks.

Who says “Affirmative Action” makes white folks doubt Black people's worth?

White folks.

Who set the highest legal barrier possible to race discrimination cases, saying intent must be proven while arguing that intent can't be proven when they oppose hate crime legislation?

White folks.

More...when told they have to hire Black folks too, they said, “Sure, if we can find a qualified one.”

When all the underemployed Black college graduates showed up,they said, “Oh, he's qualified, but not as qualified as X, who went to this university.”

And then, “Oh, we can't afford to have a Black person fail in such a visible position.”

And then is was, “Oh, you don't have the soft skills.” And “The clients aren't comfortable...”

And you know there's problems and every ass sitting in a Solid South Congressional seat fights every effort to give up some justice. And every other ass sitting in a Congressional seat says, “Okay, we'll compromise”...on MY rights. When there's negotiation to be done, Black folks' issues are the first thrown onto the pyre.

And I'd like to say it's all Alito and Roberts and Scalia and Thomas, but Kennedy just turned up the booty too. Not to mention that this Supreme Corporate got placed due to massive dicklessness on the part of the Democratic Party. And the Democrats were on the other side of each and every compromise of Black folks' rights and issues.

And I know you want to say, “Not all white people!” And I know you want me to say, “Not all white people!” And I'll say it.

Not all white people.

Just the ones you put in charge. JUST THE ONES WHOSE LAWS YOU OBEY.

I'm just not feeling the love.

So forgive me if I'm having difficulty grasping which Democratic candidate was wisest last evening. Because I am pissed. And I'm calculating the impact of this decision on me and mine. It strikes me as being much deeper than the impact of the difference between any two of the Democratic candidates. Even if you compare Edwards to Gravel, or Kucinich to Obama.