Category: Political

Categories
Diversity Political

Color-blind

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

I have been enjoying the take down of Trent Lott this week. In particular, the Washington Post and a weblogger, Eschaton have done an excellent job of roasting this man’s chestnuts over an open fire.

What really caught my focus about this whole thing was Trent Lott’s statement, and his talk about a color-blind society. We want a color-blind society that every American has an opportunity to succeed… he says, and to a point, I agree with him. But I also disagree with him.

You see, I want a color-blind society, but I don’t want it now. Now I want people to look for color, to see color. I want them to look at those in power and see, really, see, face after pure white face. And I want them to look at photos from conferences and businesses and within state and federal leadership and I want the lack of diversity to sound a jarring note. And I want us to be uncomfortable, and to squirm in our chairs because we know that for all our finger pointing at Trent Lott, all that white isn’t the result of one man’s action, or inaction.

Personally, I think we’ve been color-blind too long.

Categories
Political

We didn’t start the fire

I don’t normally link to these types of things, but I thought this Flash animation of We Didn’t Start the Fire was extremely well done.

I like Billy Joel, and have always liked this song. Hearing it now, though, I find myself nostalgic for the days when all we were worried about was the Soviet Union. Whatever happened to our world, between the joy we felt when the Berlin Wall came down and now?

Categories
Environment Political

Clean sweep cleans forests

The first environmental impact from November’s Clean Sweep is the Bush Administration’s proposal to:

… give managers of the nation’s 155 national forests greater leeway to approve logging and commercial activities with less examination of potential environmental damages.

Regional managers are easily influenced by timber interests, who tend to have as much interest in the good of the environment as the, um, oil people do. In addition, this new proposal removes many of the required environmental impact checks, and decreases visibility of the decisions being made about the public’s forests.

Have you hugged a tree today? Better do it quick, because that thing is toothpicks on the hoof.