hello,

sometimes you have to make up an excuse to have a party. Why not an art opening?

Ranting...

I was baffled as I sat and watched the political pundits last night. I was bewildered by the arguments they were making for the reason Senator Clinton was doing so much better in West Virginia than Senator Obama. Some said it was because they saw him as being “out of touch”…OK. Others said it was because she always does well with older white voters because they identify with her… Then some seemed to suggest that he was not reaching Hard-working Americans, white Americans. That somehow, something is wrong with his message. Then I started seeing and reading some of the things, these hardworking Americans had been doing and saying. Now I have to question is there something wrong with his message or is there still something wrong with this country. I am not so naïve as to think that because so many people in this country of all races decided to support Obama, that all our past racial problems will be healed by this coming November. That is silly. I watched as Obama was told he was a Muslim and un-American by an older man in Indiana. I watched last night as a young man in West Virginia refused to shake his hand. That reminded me of the time I was a groomsman in one of my best friend’s wedding in Bible belt, South Carolina. In Southern tradition, the groomsmen are to escort all the women guests to their seats. Yeah, it was a first for me. Being that I was the shortest of the groomsmen, I was to escort the first guest to her seat. It just so happened to be an elderly woman, as I approached her to take her arm, she proclaimed that she did not want me as an escort. She would rather have the young man behind me. Being one of two black people in the building, I felt so isolated. It is not a foreign feeling to many people I suspect. Like Obama, in that instance, all I could do was smile. I could not let this overshadow my friends wedding.

Now, they ask why Obama cannot connect with the voters in West Virginia. C’mon!!! Are you kidding me?! We all know why! No other presidential candidate in history has had to endure as many racially charged death and bomb threats, vandalized campaign offices and the harassment of its campaign workers. However, I am hopeful because thirty years ago, a non-white male achieving what Obama has so far was unthinkable. Yeah, that’s cool but we cannot grow content and just act like since the problem only exists in small pockets, we can overlook it. Or even worse, as the media is doing… overlook it for profit. I understand that it is bad for ratings. People hate to hear that they are somehow flawed. They would rather hear that those “other people” are the problem. (Fox News still devotes much of their programming to the Rev. Wright comments. Watch today, I bet you fifty you see a clip). But the racial hatred that Obama has been subject to has gone widely unpublicized until today http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24588813/ ! What am I saying?? I don’t know. I just want the hypocrisy to end, in the media and with us…America.

Ok. cool. I just wanted to get that off my chest.