For the CA folks...

Vote early! Vote of...er...vote once, as that will be all you have time for. Today at the Alameda County Courthouse it took me 45 minutes to vote due to the long line. And the line was even longer when I left. Tomorrow is expected to be worse.

Please, please, please, go vote.

There are so many really important things on this ballot... ever vote matters.

For the CA folks...

Vote early! Vote of...er...vote once, as that will be all you have time for. Today at the Alameda County Courthouse it took me 45 minutes to vote due to the long line. And the line was even longer when I left. Tomorrow is expected to be worse.

Please, please, please, go vote.

There are so many really important things on this ballot... ever vote matters.

Why I drank the Kool-aide [Word count: 502]

Though cities like DC, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and my beloved Oakland have notable reputations for them, every major city has blighted neighborhoods. These brutally poor neighborhoods are usually populated predominantly by people of color and are notable in the number of boarded over windows and barred entryways. Drugs, violence, and theft? Rampant. Fried fast food is everywhere and almost every corner market sells liquor, yet, as there is a lack of large grocery stores, healthy dietary staples are expensive.

Liberal politicians constantly point to these neighborhoods as something to be fixed while conservative politicians want them uprooted and removed. Some of these neighborhoods do disappear, and some of them do improve, but there are always some that seem to only grow and shrink over time.

International Boulevard, which runs the length of East Oakland from Lake Merritt to San Leandro, passes through many of these neighborhoods. In the 80's and early nineties "East 14th Street" was synonymous with crime, violence, and gang warfare. The 1996 renaming to "International Boulevard" was meant to herald a new era of intercultural community, neighborhood improvements, and prosperity for the street's cornerstone businesses. This mostly failed.

International Boulevard still passes through one impoverished neighborhood after another. Attempts to throw money at it by and large haven't been enough and the conservative 'solution' of forcing the residents out for the sake of better consuming clientele is abhorrent. This matters little as I am not sure that only investing money ever could work, for these neighborhoods are depressed. Money merely temporarily bandages the deep wounds of the loss of industry in the 50's and the daily realities of a system stacked against people of color.

Passing through these neighborhoods I can't imagine that a McCain presidency could make them much worse; there isn't much he could take away. On the other hand, I believe that just the fact of having a non-white president would do wonders by providing some proof that better things are possible. And not just during his term, from now on telling the kids from these neighborhoods that they can be anything they want, even president, would finally read as more than an a well meant but empty promise.

This is the main reason that I voted for Obama. The enormous voter turn out already shows how much he means to people in Oakland, nothing else he is likely to accomplish as president will have as much direct affect on my home town as just his existantance. The shiny things he says about what he will do for health care are nice, but political promises count for little. The economy is screwed beyond simple fixing. Iraq? Another mess that will be haunting us for decades, no matter who is in charge. But damn, he got a statistically apathetic demographic motivated enough to spend hours of their day waiting in line to vote.

Why I drank the Kool-aide [Word count: 502]

Though cities like DC, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and my beloved Oakland have notable reputations for them, every major city has blighted neighborhoods. These brutally poor neighborhoods are usually populated predominantly by people of color and are notable in the number of boarded over windows and barred entryways. Drugs, violence, and theft? Rampant. Fried fast food is everywhere and almost every corner market sells liquor, yet, as there is a lack of large grocery stores, healthy dietary staples are expensive.

Liberal politicians constantly point to these neighborhoods as something to be fixed while conservative politicians want them uprooted and removed. Some of these neighborhoods do disappear, and some of them do improve, but there are always some that seem to only grow and shrink over time.

International Boulevard, which runs the length of East Oakland from Lake Merritt to San Leandro, passes through many of these neighborhoods. In the 80's and early nineties "East 14th Street" was synonymous with crime, violence, and gang warfare. The 1996 renaming to "International Boulevard" was meant to herald a new era of intercultural community, neighborhood improvements, and prosperity for the street's cornerstone businesses. This mostly failed.

International Boulevard still passes through one impoverished neighborhood after another. Attempts to throw money at it by and large haven't been enough and the conservative 'solution' of forcing the residents out for the sake of better consuming clientele is abhorrent. This matters little as I am not sure that only investing money ever could work, for these neighborhoods are depressed. Money merely temporarily bandages the deep wounds of the loss of industry in the 50's and the daily realities of a system stacked against people of color.

Passing through these neighborhoods I can't imagine that a McCain presidency could make them much worse; there isn't much he could take away. On the other hand, I believe that just the fact of having a non-white president would do wonders by providing some proof that better things are possible. And not just during his term, from now on telling the kids from these neighborhoods that they can be anything they want, even president, would finally read as more than an a well meant but empty promise.

This is the main reason that I voted for Obama. The enormous voter turn out already shows how much he means to people in Oakland, nothing else he is likely to accomplish as president will have as much direct affect on my home town as just his existantance. The shiny things he says about what he will do for health care are nice, but political promises count for little. The economy is screwed beyond simple fixing. Iraq? Another mess that will be haunting us for decades, no matter who is in charge. But damn, he got a statistically apathetic demographic motivated enough to spend hours of their day waiting in line to vote.

Worst case scenarios... [Word count = 377]

As an exercise, imagine for a moment that not only does McCain win tomorrow's election, but dies of an unexpected heart failure two days into his presidency.

Oh, sorry, perhaps I should have suggested sitting down for this.

In this scenario we have a new commander in chief who makes George W. look like a moderate Christian. Bush's reforms that removed funding from any health organization that suggested abortion as option are comparatively liberal to what we can expect president Palin to enact. Likewise we can expect the next Katrina type urban-disaster to be met with the same racist federal unresponsiveness. All in all, from an abstract national perspective it is a very bleak picture.

Yet there is the question of how would a President Palin actually affect us on a more regional level?

I find am finding this difficult to answer because my own optimism clouds my ability to assess the subtle changes her policies would cause. I want to believe that the values we have here are unassailable and will be lived by even if federal policy doesn't support them. The regional majority that believes that women should have the right to choose, that funding for environmentally beneficial endeavors is important, that it is okay to love fellow humans no matter their gender. I don't think these are values that can be put back in the box, and that federal policies, if not outright ignored, will be skirted around as a matter of integrity.

Despite having just written a post about unsolvable urban poverty and blight, I want to believe that those communities and the region at large, will dig in and do something when things start getting dire. I see the framework for that now; there are community gems in the form of churches, youth programs, and adult outreach. There are lots of little activist organizations that will be flocked to with sufficient provocation.

And I think that, after the hope of a black president, Sarah Palin would be more than sufficient provocation.

I really don't want another four years of conservative national leadership, but I trust my friends, family, neighbors, and community at large to stand up in the face of abusive federal mandates should push come to shove.

Worst case scenarios... [Word count = 377]

As an exercise, imagine for a moment that not only does McCain win tomorrow's election, but dies of an unexpected heart failure two days into his presidency.

Oh, sorry, perhaps I should have suggested sitting down for this.

In this scenario we have a new commander in chief who makes George W. look like a moderate Christian. Bush's reforms that removed funding from any health organization that suggested abortion as option are comparatively liberal to what we can expect president Palin to enact. Likewise we can expect the next Katrina type urban-disaster to be met with the same racist federal unresponsiveness. All in all, from an abstract national perspective it is a very bleak picture.

Yet there is the question of how would a President Palin actually affect us on a more regional level?

I find am finding this difficult to answer because my own optimism clouds my ability to assess the subtle changes her policies would cause. I want to believe that the values we have here are unassailable and will be lived by even if federal policy doesn't support them. The regional majority that believes that women should have the right to choose, that funding for environmentally beneficial endeavors is important, that it is okay to love fellow humans no matter their gender. I don't think these are values that can be put back in the box, and that federal policies, if not outright ignored, will be skirted around as a matter of integrity.

Despite having just written a post about unsolvable urban poverty and blight, I want to believe that those communities and the region at large, will dig in and do something when things start getting dire. I see the framework for that now; there are community gems in the form of churches, youth programs, and adult outreach. There are lots of little activist organizations that will be flocked to with sufficient provocation.

And I think that, after the hope of a black president, Sarah Palin would be more than sufficient provocation.

I really don't want another four years of conservative national leadership, but I trust my friends, family, neighbors, and community at large to stand up in the face of abusive federal mandates should push come to shove.