thoughts

a lot has been said about how obama nominated a latina woman for supreme court justice. ok, but what kind of judge is she? i'm all for latinos, but what about the individual? castro and batista, allende and pinochet, romero and the salvadoran generals, evo morales and the founders of telemundo, are all latino, but quite different. are you class conscious, anti-racist, and an egalitarian? an accident of birth tells us little. of course, the halls of power should be open to all, but what good is it if one puerto rican sneaks into power, as the masses of puerto ricans live in poverty? have the slums of philly and chicago integrated since obama took office? if the institutions remain unchanged, who operates within them is secondary.

as always, they bust your chops for the decent things you do. in regards to sotomayor, right wingers are dogging her for a remark she made years ago, in which she said that a latino woman, with her unique experiences, might make a better judge than a white male jurist. this is supposedly proof of her flaming hatred of all things caucasian. in fact, the statement may well be true, though i wouldn't want rich, female haters of hugo or fidel presiding over a trial of mine. just how well have white men judged the crimes of their pale skinned peers? how many lynchers were ever tried for murder? how many corporate crooks have ever spent a day in prison? yes, the white man has not made a great jurist, though debs or abbie likely would have been good. the point is, the white men who make it into the halls of power, (and their non-white peers, for that matter) tend to be conservative, and tend to believe in the fundamental goodness of the society they serve. therefore, either unknowingly or actively, their actions support the continuance of white supremacist and militarist government.

more recently, sotomayor has been dogged for having once been a member of la raza, a latino rights organization. one senator compared it to being in the kkk. funny, but i don't recall la raza murdering and brutalizing people, but that may well be due to my not following the news. man, there is no end to the bitching of well off white men. and there is a reason for this. america has been quite good to them, and they don't want to give up an inch of it. the more sophisticated among the power elite accept the surface diversity of our modern age, but the more vulgar among them resist this diversity with a passion. in any case, stop and think of a mentality that could compare la raza to the kkk. that's an american mentality to be sure.

they killed another abortion doctor. as carlin said "these people aren't pro-life, they're killing doctors!" what a shame. hey, if these guys believe in the sanctity of life so much, why don't they start camping out at army induction centers? speaking of which, someone did fire at a couple of guys outside of an army induction center. i have few details, but one thing i can say is that i had nothing to do with it. when i was young, i was torn on the abortion issue, until i realized that the pro-life crowd supports every war, supports the death penalty, and is an all white collection of narrow minded, bigoted, religious nuts. other than that, i think they're an amazing collection of individuals. furthermore, it hit me that i would never know what it would mean to be a poor mother, or to be raped, or to give birth to a child in a world that all too often devours its young in an orgy of violence and stupidity. hey, we learn a few things along the way. if only what we learn wasn't so depressing.

what a country, a country that bombs for peace, where straights determine whether gays can marry, where pro-lifers murder, and where culture has become a vulgar term.

1984 was 25 years ago, but it feels like tomorrow.