Politics

Black In America

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / Leave a comment

What it means to be Black in America has changed with the election of Barack Obama as 44th president of the United States.  What it means to be Black in America has also reluctantly remained the same since Barack Obama was elected 44th president of the United States. 

The fact that we have elected an African-American as president speaks to how the landscape of America’s ideals have changed.  But we must look at the flip side of this.  Millions of people came out and cast votes against a black man.  I know this because I live in a state where sadly he has already be referred to as the N word.  Racism is our country is not over and we cannot look at this election as a signally of the end of the systematic racism that run through our country.  We still have few blacks in the senate or congress.  Having a black man in the white house does not and cannot erase the blatant absence of them in other sectors of our society. 

I am proud that the day has come and I think of my students past who never thought this day would com in their lifetime.  I think of them and wish they would have believed.  It would have given them hope that their voice matters and that they could/would be heard.  I am happy that we have elected a president that will give hope to many who believed their voice was ignored.  That there plight did not matter.  Obama will serve as inspiration for generations of minorities to come and for that I am thankful.

This summer, CNN ran a special called Black in America.  It was a startling look at the realities of what it means to be black in America.  These are things that the election of Obama cannot erase and does not change. 

  • AIDS leading cause of death for black women ages 25-34.
  • 2/3 of all new HIV cases are black women.
  • There are 1million more working black women than men
  • 1 in 3 black kids live in poverty
  • 1 in 10 white kids live in poverty
  • 60% of black kids live in a single parent home
  • 38% of white kids live in a single parent home
  • 50% of blacks don’t graduate high school vs. 30% national average of non-graduates
  • 49% of murder victims/violent crime victims are black men–only 13% of population is black males

There were many more startling stats present over the three episodes in this special.  These are issues that have not changed.  These are issues that still undermine the potential success of many African Americans. These are the issues that concern me as a white parent of brown skinned children.  Children who will not only get to celebrate the election of a black president but who have to make sense of the hate and marginalization of people who have the same color skin. 

I caution making too much of Obama’s election and infer that it means racism is coming to an end.  On March 20, 1981 Michael Donald, a black man, was walking home in Alabama when he was grabbed, beaten and lynched.  Yes, you read that right lynched.  Only 27 years ago.  I was 10.  That isn’t that long ago.  We cannot ignore the old sentiments that coarse through the veins of our past deep in the southern dirt. 

The work is not done.  With the election of Barack Obama, the work is only now beginning.

Yes, We Can!

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / 4 Comments

This victory alone is not the change we seek.  It is only the chance for us to make that change and that cannot happen if we go back to the way things were.  It can’t happen without you; without a new spirit of service; a new spirit of sacrifice….to look after each other.–President Elect Barack Obama, November 4, 2008.

I was and continue to be moved by our President Elect and his message of change.  I was listening to some talk radio pundits who are already attacking his message of change by implying that Obama feels that there was something bad about our country before.  Obama is not saying that we were a bad country.  He is not saying that everything about our country was wrong or bad.  But things have changed with this election.  We saw the biggest voter turnout since 1908–over 64%.  There is change needed.  And that change is the participation in our democracy of those who have felt and have been marginalized by those who have held power for so long. 

Obama has already brought about change.  He electrified a generation and minorities who have felt under served and ignored.  He represents all of us in his ideas and ideology.  I am excited to hear the rhetoric of unity and the idea that we are all responsible for the direction of our country.  For too long those who have felt under served and under represented now recognize their voice and their power.  Once again, we have a nation that is for the people and by the people.  All people. 

It is beautiful, inspiring and moving.  I am proud again to be an American.  I am proud to have voted for Obama.  It’s time to become the United States again.  I’m ready.  We are ready.  YES.WE.CAN.

Let The Gays Have Their Forever Happiness Too

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / 7 Comments

I live in a state that has already banned gay marriage and it make me sick that we have become about taking away freedoms.  There has been a lot of talk and discussion in this political climate about California’s Prop 8–an admendment to ban gay marriage. 

I just don’t understand this need by the conservative religious base in this country to demean the gays.  My brother is gay and he and his partner of 10 years haven’t really thought about marriage–at this point they feel as though they are married and at some point it’s just a piece of paper that our society gives us that allows us legal protection under the law. 

I think marriage is great, but I also think that this idea that marriage is some sort of sacred act that is a union between a couple and God is a little dramatic. If you are a religious person reading this–let’s just agree to disagree.  I am not religious by any means and I don’t think that marriage is necessarily a religious instititution.  It is a social institution that allows us to lay claim to another individual and to make them part of us on paper.  I think we all know that marriage in this country has long stopped being a religious institution–when the divorce rate is 50% at best and there are people who are married multiple times and for sometimes less time than it takes to drive cross country says that marriage doesn’t mean what it use to mean. 

I think a big part of the problem is that the religious conservative base is scared that if the gays start getting married in droves, than they are no longer superior and they must recognize that we are all equal under the law of the land and that God truly does love everyone regardless of whom you choose to marry. 

We must all admit–whether we are religious or not–that there is something so special about declaring your love for the man/woman you want to commit to spending the rest of your life with.  I don’t feel as though my marriage to my husband is any less of a marriage because we had a civil ceremony as opposed to a church wedding.  I love my husband and couldn’t be any more committed to him if we had been married by a steward of God.  I also don’t feel as though my marriage means less as more and more people get divorced and its sanctity is certainly not dimished because a women marry women and men marry men. 

So, if you live in California or one of the few other states that have measures on the ballot that will amend your state consitutition to deny the right of marriage to gays please consider voting against it.  Really, who does it hurt?

Let The Games Begin

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / 7 Comments

I am sure many of you are aware that McCain has chosen his running mate.  How many are surprised it’s a woman with virtually no political experience-aself-declared “hockey mom”.  I am not surprised that the GOP thinks it can win Hillary supporters by selecting a woman.  I don’t know much about Mrs. Palin from Alaska, but I do think that McCain believes this will woo all of those Hillary supporters who are upset that she didn’t win the nomination. 

I have to think that those great women and men who supported Hillary did so because of her politics and not her mere possession of two X chromosomes.  I am not naive, I know that there are certainly folks out there who stood by and voted for Hillary because she was a woman, just like there are folks who will vote for McCain because he’s old.  But I have faith that vision will win out and that Obama’s message will spread across our country as quickly as it has around the world.  It is a time for change.  A time for real change. 

There are many of us dem’s out there who worry about McCain winning the election and how it is a done deal.  Really?  The election isn’t until November and if Obama speak and presents himself like he did yesterday–how can we not elect this man to lead our country in this new world.  Because it is a new world.  It is time for a new mindset to govern our country and lead us on. 

I am ready.  Are you?

Because I Need To Write About Something Other Than My Children

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / 2 Comments

I love learning new things and try very hard to not just buy the line that the media and political machine try to feed me. Sometimes, I just don’t have the knowledge to reject the propaganda and therefore, I tend to ignore it as I am pretty confident they aren’t telling me the whole truth or even a part of it sometimes. 

This post is about oil.  Not the kind you cook with, although that might be an interesting topic.  I have always been anti-more drilling especially up in Alaska where the land is untouched and should stay that way.  I also wish we would take the money that it costs to drill a well (50-100 million bucks each) and invest in alternative energy sources and technology.  But we are a country controlled by money and by big oil so we continue to plug along “in love” with big oil. 

I have never understood the whole “lets gets more oil here in the U.S. and not have to be dependent on foreign oil.”  I knew this was not how it worked, but I never really understood the complexities of the industry and this global economy.  Well, I am now enlightened.  Not completely enlightened, but more so than I was before.  I was listening to talk radio the other day and they were talking about the oil industry and how it really works.  I was fascinated as I had no real idea about it at all. 

Drilling for more oil in the U.S. will in no way lessen our dependence on foreign oil.  Why not you ask?  Good question.  Oil is sold on a global market which means that oil pumped from the U.S. doesn’t ensure sale to the U.S.  Because oil isn’t a government operation here in the U.S. like in other countries (Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, Iraq) we don’t keep it for ourselves it goes onto the global market and then the U.S. buys oils from this market at a price decided on by the traders who determine the price.  I think that this is so interesting and really cements for me the amount of propaganda the comes out of the GOP.  More oil in America does not mean more oil for America.  This reinforces my disgust for big oil and my desire to own one of Honda’s new hydrogen cars.  If only I still lived in California. 

We need to educate ourselves as consumers and make sure we understand the economy and how it works the best we can so that we can make informed decisions about whom and what we support.