Politics...

I have made it no secret that I am a fan of Barak Obama. I am not too political, yet this year I have really studied and read about Obama, Clinton, and McCain. I have recently picked up Obama's book-the Audacity of Hope. This book is a political one, less about his childhood life (like his first book-Dreams of my Father).

The content of his chapters range from values and politics to faith and race. Here is an excerpt of his chapter, Race, in which really struck a cord with me:

A man talking to Obama says this about the westside of Chicago (where I live):
"See these kids out here, they just don't care. Police don't scare 'em , jail doesn't scare 'em-more than half f the young guys out here already got a record. If the police pick up ten guys standing on the corner, another ten'll take their place in an hour. That's the thing that's changed...the attitude of these kids. You can't blame them, really, because most of them have nothing at home. Their mothers can't tell them nothing-a lot of these women are still children themselves. Father's in jail. Nobody around to guide the kids, keep them in school, teach them respect. So these boys just raise themselves, basically on the streets. That's all they know. The gang, that's their family. They don't see any jobs out here except the drug trade. Don't get me wrong, we've still got a lot of good families around here...not a lot of money necessarily, but doing their best to keep their kids out of trouble. But they're just too outnumbered. The longer they stay, the more they feel their kids are at risk. So the minute they get a chance, they move out. And that just leaves things worse. "

Obama goes on to talk about stories (teenage rap sheets, teachers dealing with students threats and obscenities, etc.) and then he says this...:

"There was a time, of course, when such deep intergenerational poverty could still shock a nation...Not anymore. Today the images of the so called underclass are ubiquitous, a permanent fixture in American popular culture-in film and TV, where they're the foil of choice for the forces of law and order; in rap music and videos, where the gansta life is glorified and mimicked by white and black teenagers alike; and on the nightly news, where the depredation to be found in the inner city always makes for good copy. Rather than evoke our sympathy, our familiarity with the lives of the black poor has bred spasm of fear and outright contempt. But mostly it's bred indifference. Black men filling our prisions, black children unable to read or caught in gangland shooting, the black homeless sleeping on grates and in the parks of our nation's capital-we take these things for granted, as part of the natural order, a tragic situation, or perhaps, but not one for which we are culpable, and certainly not something subject to change..."


I could write on and on about what he said in response to this...and maybe I will in latter posts. He has some great ideas on how to bring folks out of poverty. But as I read this book, I sit and realize what Mr. Obama is really about. He is about change...he is about hope. I pray that if he becomes our next president, he does change our country...for the good. I know he is very liberal in a lot of his beliefs...yet I also know that Obama desires a lot of changes that America is in dire need of.

I hope that I haven't offended any hard core conservatives that are Obama haters. If you have an opinion or question...send it my way, I'd love to hear why you are or aren't supporting him.


God bless you all!

(BTW, my feelings or political choices do not in any way represent the feelings/political choice of my employer...lol)

lots of different things...all in one post! :)

i have all these things circulating in my mind and i want to put them down on paper, but alas they probably won't come out as eloquently or flowing as i would hope for. i[m not even sure what i want this post to be about, i just knew i wanted to write.

i think mainly i want to write about life. my life in particular. see, its changed so much since i moved to chicago. i'm not sure anyone would notice, so maybe i'm not as changed as i think. i don't know though because i feel it. i feel so strongly about things i never thought twice about before. i feel so passionately about things that were only a fleeting thought in the past. i hurt by some words and actions that i used to would have said/done myself.

anyways. enough about that. i think i'd rather turn to sports...always a safe topic for me!

today i was approached by a co-worker about a position that is open at my work. i haven't applied but he is encouraging me (for the 3rd time in the past month!) that i would be a perfect canidate for the position. the position is community fitness and health coordinator. basically what the person would do is coordinate all the sports leagues and health stuff at our work. considering my bachelor's is in kinesiology, i have previously worked as athletic director with urban youth, a performance trainer with athletes, and interned as a trainer, fitness lab assistant, and fitness class instructor...i have a lot of experience in this area. i also have relationships with our students and am very familiar already with our sports leagues. so, yeah. i guess on paper i am a perfect canidate. anyways, all that to say...i still haven't officially applied. there are a couple of reasons why i haven't yet, which will not be discussed in this post. :)

2-4th grade basketball has officially ended. yesterday was our last and worst game of the season. it was pretty embarrassing for me and for the kids. we lost by over 30 points. they just were tired, scared, and nervous...and they plyaed like it. so we and the other breakthrough team had a pizza party today. me and the coach of the other team went around and talked about each player individually. i had something to say about all of my kids. for example tyree who was our "team captain" and i put alot of weight on his shoulders but he was up to the task every game. or devin, who was probably our worst player in the beginning but by the end of our season became the most improved and i could say...he's a basketball player now. or yakira, whom i enjoyed watching her turn into a scaredy cat into someone who wanted the ball everytime the court...who was more dedicated to the game than anyone else on our team. i realized that the ones i was most proud of on my team today was not the athletes. it wasn't the stars of our team...it was the ones that came to every practice...who tried so hard to learn and to get better...who always came out with a smile on their faces and never complained. i would take a whole team of devins (even though we'd lose everygame...oh wait we did!) over a team of stars because the devins are the ones that play with heart...the devins are the ones that i love to coach.

i went to our team selection for 7th-8th grade today. our team should be pretty strong. we have kyree, who is top 3 in the league and then shamesha...who may be a girl, but can play better than most of the boys out there. i'm excited to see how it turns out. we have our first game this saturday...oh and soccer starts next weekend too, so i'm gonna be pretty busy the rest of the school year!!!!

finally, in other kind of related, not so related news...NCAA Tourney has started! I made a million different brackets but the two i'm focused on are my one with my family and then my one with breakthrough. YES, I am first in our breakthrough pool. Of 25 people...i am first as of right now. i did have one of my final four teams knocked out though. I picked Drake of all teams to go to the final four...not sure what i was thinking! but, yeah...they are gone already. oh and of course, in my family bracket i have marquette in the final four. they also got knocked out. i'm not too worried about that one though cuz my dad had duke *YUCK* in the finals and they got knocked out as well :) yay!

so, i hope to come out the victor in both brackets...i'll prolly be last in all of them when it's all said and done...but secretly i love it when a female comes out winning against a bunch of males cuz they all think girls don't know how to pick! :)

god bless you all!

oh and i know most of you reading this are probably not a fan of obama, but i am. i listened to his speech in response to his former pastor's comments on race and i was blown away. living here, in this community...his words just really struck a cord with me. i encourage you...friend or foe of obama to listen to his speech. you may be surprised at what he has to say!

again...god bless you all!