Black Girl in Maine

Musings of a black woman living in the nation's whitest state

Black Girl in Maine - Musings of a black woman living in the nation's whitest state

Tag Archives: 2012 presidential election

Nope, we ain’t riding in the way back machine…

It is over, so very over and in the end America must accept that she is not the nation she once was, times have changed. Obama will have another four years in office and while many people including yours truly are feeling pretty good about that; for many millions of Americans this morning they are shaking their heads in dismay.

In the end I am not convinced that Obama won again because he was awesome but more because the alternative was stuck in a time warp and many of us simply had no desire to get back in the way-way machine.

When your only strategy is to stir up ugliness, it will eventually backfire on you. In the end the GOP has shown itself to be increasingly disconnected from America in 2012. America is more than Christian heterosexual white men (and women), America is a diverse salad bowl filled with people of all stripes and colors. Oddly enough all these diverse people do not think the same no matter what the GOP would like to think, believe it or not, Black people can be some of the most socially conservative folks around (Black preachers and gay marriage anyone?). Yet even with all that diversity most of us are not interested in having leaders who openly disregard us. We aren’t self-deporting, shutting our own uterus’s down or any of that nonsense.

America is at a crossroads, it happens to all of us, when we reach that point where we need to decide to make changes. Despite Obama’s win, one look at the electoral map shows that there are large chunks of America where being a Black person this morning might not be too good while people process this lost.

Yet in order to have true growth, we need to have a willingness to get raggedy and name our demons so that we can truly move on. In the end I am not sure how realistic that is, but a changing demographic in America means that the old ways of being don’t work anymore.

So while there are many winners this morning and I congratulate them, I can’t help but feeling we still lost and that until the majority of Americans truly accept that the face of America is a gorgeous tapestry, this ride will be rocky.

 

Race to the cell, the only thing America excels at in 2012

I really did not want anything to do with the final presidential debate; frankly these debates are starting to make me rage. Of course circumstances put me in a situation where I ended up listening to parts of the last debate and catching the running commentary on twitter.

The debates are simply good theater, the candidates are putting on a show for us and since most Americans are too busy to actually read/research the candidates we look to the debates to tell us all we need to know about the candidates. The funny thing, is that the debates and the entire election season with the campaigning and the billions of dollars being spent to one up the competition, shows us just how not exceptional we are as a nation despite this belief we hold that we are an exceptional nation.

I will take Obama any day over Romney, but that doesn’t mean I am jumping with joy because the truth is presidents for all the power they hold are essentially Cheerleaders in Chief. As this recent piece in the New York Times covers, no one who wants to truly make deep, systemic changes in this country is going to be elected and if they do, they will learn real soon, that we as a nation only like surface change. To create change is to acknowledge publicly that we have problems and when you think America is the “hope of the world” it can be hard to admit that the only thing we are excelling at these days locking up our citizens. Yep, America is the winner in the “Race to the Cell”.

For those of us who work with the most vulnerable among us, there is a growing sense of frustration as we see that poverty in this nation has changed. The face of poverty has changed and it looks more and more like us. Our smartphones and cars may hide those facts and the stiff upper lipped American way of keeping our financial lives private, hides a great deal. Ask any social service provider what they are seeing and they will tell you, that today’s client in need is just as likely to be a college educated person with no easily solvable problems and a solid work history as the stereotypical single mother with no education. It’s just easier to have the appearance of still being financially stable when we who are experiencing the economic downturn personally, still have the accoutrements and trappings from our formerly middle class lives. It also doesn’t hurt that many of us and I include myself since in recent years I have struggled financially are reluctant to share our business and talk about how bad things have gotten for us.

To some degree we have no one to blame but ourselves when we see politicians not discussing the issues that affect the millions who struggle daily to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table. After all why would politicians want to discuss those issues when we ourselves can barely admit to family and friends that we have hit hard times? Yet in a nation that is sinking, we need to talk, and talk often on these issues.

Child poverty is a very real issue in this country; I see it every day at my job. Child poverty is the only reason I have a job at the moment. Out of the 35 most economically advantaged nations, America and her exceptional self, ranks number 34 in child poverty. That means you see child poverty too but don’t notice it because we expect child poverty to be a black, brown or tan face in a third world country. However ask any school teacher in America and they will tell you what child poverty looks like because they see it in the classroom. It’s Suzie who comes to school and has a bellyache every morning, because she is not getting enough to eat and her parents are too pride filled with American exceptional-ism to fill out the paperwork that would officially label them needy so that Suzie can actually have a full belly and focus at school. Instead we say Suzie has attention deficit issues, which is easier to acknowledge than the fact that Suzie is going hungry in a nation of plenty.  Ask Suzie how exceptional America is when at a tender young age she knows food is not a given. I see American exceptional-ism every day at my center when the same group of kids is more eager to eat the snack then to play in a fun activity after school. Not too damn exceptional if you ask me.

Our infant mortality rates are horrid for such an exceptional nation and social mobility here is a myth compared to most of Europe, Canada and Australia. Yet half of America is looking at Mitt Romney and his “success” and despite the fact that Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan have no fucks to give for the little guy, they will vote for these guys because the Horatio Alger myth is deeply ingrained in our psyche. This belief that hard work will turn us into millionaires is the lie we tell ourselves because we can’t handle the truth.

The problem with avoiding the real discussion on how unexceptional America and what our real issues are is that we keep putting a patch on the roof when really what is needed is a new roof. Eventually the patch job will fail and when it does, it is taking the whole damn house with it.

 

 

Buying the vote or at least the machines, the Romney plan

This week in my professional life, I learned that even for a small non-profit in the relatively sparsely populated state of Maine that the government cares about things like conflict of interest among the board of directors. See, my board chair got married a few months ago to a fellow board member, the same board member who owns a company that provides cleaning services to our small relatively unknown agency.  What this meant for yours truly is that reams and reams of paper were created this week by declaring that interest of conflict and making sure we were  transparent as hell since we are a publicly funded agency. Who would have thought?

That said, when you are running for president of these fractured states apparently you can have a “straight line financial interest in the voting machines that could decide this fall’s election. These machines cannot be monitored by the public. But they will help us decide who “owns” The White House” and no one seems to care, at least not the mainstream media.  Yesterday I came across this story, mentioning that the Romney family basically owns voting machines, no they didn’t exactly go out and buy up a slew of voting machines but thanks to their connection with Bain Capital which Papa Romney founded they have a connection.

Initially I thought this was a conspiracy type of story, but after some poking around, it seems this story is legitimate, or has enough legitimacy that frankly we should all be concerned, or scared.  In this fast paced world, our collective memories seem to be so short that it’s as if we have forgotten the hanging chads of 2000. Hell, just look at the recent attempts at voter suppression and the hullabaloo over identification.

I don’t know, but if my Pops were running for President, maybe I would rethink my decision to have anything to do with voting machines directly or indirectly. I would be scared of even having an appearance of there being a conflict of interest and sure as hell wouldn’t want anyone questioning the legitimacy of the results if my Dad actually won.

Then again, I am not Tagg Romney since the idea of uttering out loud that I want to punch out the sitting president wouldn’t be an action that I would choose. I am hardly one to jump on the conspiracy wagon but at this stage in the process, we should all be concerned about the integrity of the voting process in this country. We are moving closer and closer to being a world governed by the wealthy who in the end make decisions that affect the lives of the not so wealthy and really that is a scary thought. This election season both the Democratic and Republican candidates are approaching almost a billion dollars spent each trying to get a job that pays only $400,000 a year. Imagine what that damn near 2 billion dollars could do, if we didn’t have a process now guided by wealth and privilege.

 

 

Obama, Mitt and how we can create real change…reflections on the debate

The last thing I should be doing today is writing a blog post since I have oodles of work for the day job and I am trying to wrap up a submission for paying work and these days I need all the paying work I can get. But after watching last night’s debate between President Obama and Mitt Romney, I just had to blog. Shit, Mitty is the gift that keeps on giving a like a case of untreated clap.

For starters can I just say that at the end of the day, I feel like almost all politicians are disconnected from the realities of modern life in America. Instead we are being sold this dream that one day good jobs and prosperity will be ours again and frankly, I think that shit is gone with the wind. We are all Scarlett O’Hara looking for tomorrow and well, we will just be waiting. Modern technology and advancement has made many jobs obsolete, it’s really not that hard of a concept to grasp. Most of the growth industries are low paying service jobs that are actually very much needed, someone needs to wipe our asses in the nursing home and it’s the type of gig that can’t be outsourced. Yet we will dance around the fact that these types of jobs need higher wages.

Politicians love to speak to the middle class and I am sure at one point in time that was a great strategy, the problem is the true middle class is almost dead. Most of us have slid down into the working class but in a nation that only likes upward mobility, none of us are addressing the elephant in the room. So, we allow our politicians to talk of this middle class and we still believe the dream that we ourselves are middle class. Funny thing is today’s middle class looks a lot like the working class of decades past. For most of us in the so-called middle class, if we lost our jobs and didn’t replace them right away, within a year or two if we were lucky, we would be taking up resident in the local homeless shelter or living in a cardboard box. Today’s middle class has little in the way of real assets with our homes that are often worth a lot less than they used to be, serving as our only real asset.  Wages are stagnant and the cost of everything is up, most of us play the bill shuffle game which is better than our friends in the real poor class who can’t even play that game; but let’s stop being delusional, we aren’t middle class. In 2012 in America, there are the rich and then there are the rest of us with a few levels of the rest of us. However as long as we can buy that $4.59 pumpkin latte occasionally, still use our credit cards and present as middle class, that’s our story and we are sticking to it.

So it’s no surprise that politicians play along with us since we ourselves aren’t comfortable with truth then again Americans in general don’t like the truth. We like myths and fairy tales, they make us feel better. It’s why being a wedding planner is a great business and from my view damn near recession proof; we will go into debt to have one perfect day because we somehow believe that one perfect day will make for a great life.

On that note, politicians are funny and Mitt Romney is even funnier. I think it’s clear that he and running mate Paul “pump me up” Ryan think that women need to know their place (get yo ass home by 5pm to cook dinner now, ya here) after all Mitt cares about you broads. Mitt cares so much so that when he was governor of Massachusetts he had a binder full of women to find good ones to work in his administration.

I learned last night that if we want to decrease violence in our society that we need more two parent households, again 2 parents in a shared space is magical, bad shit never ever happens when you have two parents in a home. Never mind that half the guys in recent decades, who have snapped and committed mass murder, generally came from 2 parent households. Perhaps there is violence because we are a violent nation, we care less about the least among us instead paying lip service to the least among us but stripping away every useful service that people need to not be violent. Treatment for mental health, real services to lift the poor up, again, all shit that is gone with the wind and while I am talking about Mitt Romney, our friends in blue the Democrats don’t do much for the truly poor either.

Maybe I am growing old and losing my own shit, but I am starting to think that to create real and humane change that creates an environment where we all can thrive is for us, that’s you and me to be an active part of the community. It means more than watching a debate and voting, it’s about being present in our communities, knowing our neighbors, doing business with our neighbors and with millions of people creating change at a micro level maybe just maybe we will see some change at the macro level. Yet to take even that step means we need to put away the fairy tales and stop waiting for others to save us.

Mitty, you have a connection problem

Dear Mitty, (May I call you that?)

Whatever would we do without you? Seriously! Already this week alone you have shown us how things might look under a Romney regime (oops, presidency). I mean you wasted no time showing us how you would deal with enemies of America, facts and tact be damned, just start running your mouth…good going! I imagine you learned that approach in all your years of running Bain Capital and hey you were good at that, really good. Shit, everyone knows the same skills that one uses to make bushels of money are probably what one needs to run a country, after all country, company, they are all the same.

Just today, you were very gracious and answered a question I had been wondering about, here on my little slice of the digital world. I wanted to know what exactly is middle class in 2012 and it seems today, you told the whole world that in Romney land, the middle income folks are those having an income between between $200, 000-$250,000 a year or less. Thanks Mitty, I always had a funny feeling I really wasn’t middle class and you definitely confirmed that for me and millions of others. In fact you were asked if $100,000 was middle income and you very clearly told George Stepanopoulos that $100,000 is not middle income.

Now Mitty, you are a rich and powerful guy and you are entitled to live by your own rules, but maybe someone who works for you should pull your coattails and inform you that the median income in the USA, that place where you want to run things is a meager hair over $50,000…a year!  It seems your plan if elected is to reduce taxes for middle income Americans. One small problem is that by your standards there aren’t going to be many folks taking advantage of that benefit since most working stiffs make far less than $200,000.

I understand that in Romney land, $200,000 is probably chump change but just to give you some perspective, remember that time when you made that $10,000 bet? Well there are plenty of people living on like $10,000 a year. No, I am serious. I actually see these people every day in my work, see I provide social services to people in need and in Maine (that state next door to New Hampshire, where you go to relax) has a lot of poor people. For real! You should stop by some day and I would love to show you what I see.

Look, Mitty, all jokes aside you have a connection problem. Most people in America like to think they are middle class and you basically just told em they are poor. Remember, when you said, “you aren’t very concerned about the poor because they have an ample safety net.” Well Mitty, I am here to tell you they don’t…in fact in America we have plenty of people with no net.  By the same token there are a lot of people who don’t care for President Obama, who would be happy to vote for you, but the more you talk, the less likely some of those folks may be to vote for you. After all, you can’t go around popping people’s bubbles and telling them they are poor and therefore you aren’t concerned about them.

Anyway, I have taken up enough of your time, best of luck to you.

Signed,

Black Girl in Maine

PS: Seriously, you should come and visit me, just so you can see up close what life is like for the poor people and no, 211 can’t help them.

Visit the way way back machine, maybe Joe is right!

Vice president Joe Biden is that uncle that stays saying dumb shit, but while it may come out all wrong, the truth is crazy Uncle Joe might be telling some truth. Joe Biden’s latest gaffe involved telling  a group that included a fair number of African American’s that Romney’s banking policies would “put y’all back in chains”. Well a Romney-Ryan world wouldn’t be too good for most of us working stiff’s and one could argue that financial insecurity is a form of bondage. Anyway Uncle Joe, you know if you go around saying shit like that folks will get mad, so don’t do that.

I leave with you a clip today from one of my favorite films, Spike Lee’s Bamboozled. Food for thought.

The two RR’s and a trip in the way way machine sans shoes

It’s that time…time to talk politics. I don’t get into politics too much in this space but with this being an election season and seeing what I am seeing this year in my work, I am very interested in the outcome of this year’s elections. Truth is I like Obama, even though he really isn’t from Chicago (hey, I am like Mainers, dude you gotta be born there to claim that status) and while he hasn’t done all that I had hoped he would, he is better than the alternative. Speaking of the alternative, ole Mittens announced his running mate, a nice looking wholesome all American cat straight from the heartland…Paul Ryan. Those two together look like something straight out of Central Casting, “Send me two all American white guys with good hair and strong faces.” Sadly the prospect of these two cats in charge of this nation, makes me want to pack my bags and move real fast!

On a side note, Paul Ryan is like 3 years older than me! When the hell did guys running for president or even vice president become only 3 years older than me? Ack!

Anyway Paul came out the gate today with a speech designed to rile folks up, the folks that are concerned about the direction this nation is going, folks who want to “take back their country”. Look, can I tell you something? When I hear language like “take back my country” I start to break out in a cold sweat, as a Black woman, going back in the way-way machine is not my idea of a good time.  Shit, the way-way machine of days long past is not a beautiful place for most of us, frankly the quality of life was questionable for anyone other than heterosexual white men.

Yet some of us look back nostalgically on the old days, and want to go back, never mind you won’t ever go back. See, the good jobs you used to have, don’t exist anymore, some guy in the third world does the job you used to do or else some machine does it and the robber barons have no intention of sharing any of their wealth with you, but they want you thinking that they will.

Anyway, Paul gave us a glimpse of what he thinks in his speech today:

“Janna and I tell Liza, Charlie and Sam that America is a place where, if you work hard and play by the rules, you can get ahead.

We Americans look at one another’s success with pride, not resentment, because we know, as more Americans work hard, take risks, and succeed, more people will prosper, our communities will benefit, and individual lives will be improved and uplifted.

But America is more than just a place…it’s an idea.  It’s the only country founded on an idea.  Our rights come from nature and God, not government.  We promise equal opportunity, not equal outcomes.

This idea is founded on the principles of liberty, freedom, free enterprise, self-determination and government by consent of the governed.”

Romney and Ryan say they are part of America’s Comeback Team and it seems the Comeback Team believes that hard work and playing by the rules is all you need to succeed….excuse me while I go roll around on the floor. Dude, I know plenty of people who worked hard and played by the rules and all they have to show for it, is shit and an early death if they are lucky. If you guys get elected, I am sure it will be even easier to die early.

Look, the truth is success in this country is about more than hard work, determination and playing by the rules. In most cases who you know is far more valuable than any of your hard work, hello! George W Bush anyone? It’s about connections more and more. Look at the student loan fiasco, while the focus has been on the millennials and their struggles, there is plenty of Gen X’ers who went to college, worked hard and while I am thankful for what I have, hell I will probably die owing that Sallie Mae bitch.

So who knows where this thing is gonna go, but if you think the stories I share about my work and shoeless kids is heartbreaking, I have no doubt in my mind that we all will be seeing shoeless kids if America’s Comeback Team starts running the show, might even be our kids without shoes.

PS: I need my rights to come from the government.