Sunshine, Happiness, and Sleeping With The Enemy

Yeah, so I'm the first to admit that I sometimes get carried away with my love of pop culture... Project Runway, NBA and Detroit Pistons, books, and boys, blah blah blah.

But I'm also socially conscious to a certain extent, and this whole Judge Alito and Supreme Court thing is kinda scary. I mean, they train and prep these folks to look "moderate" and middle of the road, but the fact that this one person could sway the court to the far, extreme, God Squad right is something we should all be concerned with. But then the cynical side of me says... there's nothing that can be done anyway, but talk about it and be concerned.

I mean we're talking privacy, women's right to choose their OWN health options, and issues related to people of color. What's big to me, but is getting blown off, is this whole Concerned Alumni of Princeton thing, where this group of so-called concerned alumns joined together to fight the university's admission of women and people of color. It's surprising that people think that someone's views on institutional diversity say nothing about how they'll make decisions. Everything we think and don't say affect the decisions we make.

I've known folks like this. Went to undergrad with a bunch of them in Missouri, while I was busy trying to be "the safe/nice black guy" on campus, who said they believed in equality and "diversity" just as long as those equal and diverse voices agreed with everything they said and believed. (On another note, I don't know if any of you played "the safe/nice black guy" or "the safe/nice anybody" in undergrad, but thank God I've grown and learned... what's your experience???)

Anyway, I went to this great discussion last night by artists and writers (Jervey Tervalon, Erin Aubry Kaplan, Mark Broyard) whose roots are in the New Orleans diaspora. And while they have mixed feelings about the future of their city, they also believe the tide is turning... and that we will see "nice" government come back, that the so-called "American Dream" is just a fantasy ready to evaporate, and that we'll see people get their heads out of the American Idol/Dance With Stars/Brangelina sand once they realize all the "not nice" things they've missed while in the sunshine and happiness, infotainment fog these past few years.

So not saying that everyone has to be concerned about every single social issue, but concern about some would be nice. I mean, they're ready to turn New Orleans back into party town again (i.e. the President's statements on the visit this week that it's just like the N.O. he used to know and like)... and we just can't forget what the party line is trying to make us forget.

Back to books and boys and pop culture on another day :-)
fs