I went back to Ithaca and re-thought my decision, adn started ordering the books from Barnes and Noble.  I had read a little bit on the internet.  The series was written by a Japanese national who clearly has an awareness of the American political proces and, well, the politics of American culture.

I got my books in no particular order…kinda whatever order they could be located in.  I read them really quickly…I hate to read books, and while I realize that these are “picture books”, I was impressed that I could finish them in a few nights.  I also kinda wanted to stay up to read.  There was no “good” place to stop because I wanted to know what happened next. 

Like I said, I read these a few years ago.  At the time, I was encouraging friends to read them and borrow the series.  A few people took me up on the offer, and I was able to get them all back to make the trip back to San Diego with me. 

With the upcoming election and historic candidacy of Barack Obama, I was reminded of the series.  I’m not sure, but I had kinda thought that the author of Eagle was supposing that an Asian American would be the first American president of color.  His president, Kenneth Yamaoka, was an American former soldier who during his experience in war became determined to become president.  And it all becomes convoluted from there.  He marries a white woman from a wealthy and powerful family…and it seems strange that as the story unfolds that every life-decision he makes is towards this goal.

I doubt Barack Obama’s path was quite so intentional.  But perhaps that’s better.  It’s not that Kenneth Yamaoka didn’t come across as sincere, but it seems to me that perhaps Obama’s candidacy is more sincere and noble.  Life decisions were made regarding his heart and perhaps independently from his career decisions. 

But it makes me wonder, from time to time, what all is going on behind the scenes.  The kind of strength of character that a person has to have to stay true to themselves but gain favor of those with different levels of power who have their own interests in mind while being strategic is beyond my comprehension.  And perhaps that’s what I found so amazing about Kenneth Yamaoka.  In the world of fiction that the book was written, his desire to stick to his goals and noble ideas and make decisions strategically were fascinating.

Anyhow…in the spirit of patriotism, I think people should read the series.  If you’re in the San Diego area, you can borrow my copy.  And if you aren’t registered (and you’re eligible) you should register to vote in the area you’re living in.  Forget absentee ballots.  Then remember to vote.

Every one counts.

I think people know my difficulty with Tim Wise. I am glad that he engages in what he does and what he does and I know that it is helpful, but I think he is undereducated about Asian American issues and I don’t know that he believes this to be an area to explore. And I think that people need to be helping everyone, or at least be aware and not speak in ways that seems to put some groups of color on the other side of a line than others.

But, as I said, I am glad that he engages in what he does. I received this in an email today, and I thought I would share it here. It’s up to you to think of the information and use it in the way you best see fit.

****************************************

This is Your Nation on White Privilege

Sep 13, 2008

By Tim Wise

Tim Wise’s ZSpace Page / ZSpace
http://www.timwise. org/

For those who still can’t grasp the concept of white privilege, or who are
constantly looking for some easy-to-understand examples of it, perhaps this
list will help.

White privilege is when you can get pregnant at seventeen like Bristol Palin
and everyone is quick to insist that your life and that of your family is a
personal matter, and that no one has a right to judge you or your parents,
because “every family has challenges,” even as black and Latino families
with similar “challenges” are regularly typified as irresponsible,
pathological and arbiters of social decay.

White privilege is when you can call yourself a “fuckin’ redneck,” like
Bristol Palin’s boyfriend does, and talk about how if anyone messes with
you, you’ll “kick their fuckin’ ass,” and talk about how you like to “shoot
shit” for fun, and still be viewed as a responsible, all-American boy (and a
great son-in-law to be) rather than a thug.

White privilege is when you can attend four different colleges in six years
like Sarah Palin did (one of which you basically failed out of, then
returned to after making up some coursework at a community college), and no
one questions your intelligence or commitment to achievement, whereas a
person of color who did this would be viewed as unfit for college, and
probably someone who only got in in the first place because of affirmative
action.

White privilege is when you can claim that being mayor of a town smaller
than most medium-sized colleges, and then Governor of a state with about the
same number of people as the lower fifth of the island of Manhattan, makes
you ready to potentially be president, and people don’t all piss on
themselves with laughter, while being a black U.S. Senator, two-term state
Senator, and constitutional law scholar, means you’re “untested.”

White privilege is being able to say that you support the words “under God”
in the pledge of allegiance because “if it was good enough for the founding
fathers, it’s good enough for me,” and not be immediately disqualified from
holding office–since, after all, the pledge was written in the late 1800s
and the “under God” part wasn’t added until the 1950s–while believing that
reading accused criminals and terrorists their rights (because, ya know, the
Constitution, which you used to teach at a prestigious law school requires
it), is a dangerous and silly idea only supported by mushy liberals.

White privilege is being able to be a gun enthusiast and not make people
immediately scared of you. White privilege is being able to have a husband
who was a member of an extremist political party that wants your state to
secede from the Union, and whose motto was “Alaska first,” and no one
questions your patriotism or that of your family, while if you’re black and
your spouse merely fails to come to a 9/11 memorial so she can be home with
her kids on the first day of school, people immediately think she’s being
disrespectful.

White privilege is being able to make fun of community organizers and the
work they do–like, among other things, fight for the right of women to
vote, or for civil rights, or the 8-hour workday, or an end to child
labor–and people think you’re being pithy and tough, but if you merely
question the experience of a small town mayor and 18-month governor with no
foreign policy expertise beyond a class she took in college–you’ re somehow
being mean, or even sexist.

White privilege is being able to convince white women who don’t even agree
with you on any substantive issue to vote for you and your running mate
anyway, because all of a sudden your presence on the ticket has inspired
confidence in these same white women, and made them give your party a
“second look.”

White privilege is being able to fire people who didn’t support your
political campaigns and not be accused of abusing your power or being a
typical politician who engages in favoritism, while being black and merely
knowing some folks from the old-line political machines in Chicago means you
must be corrupt.

White privilege is being able to attend churches over the years whose
pastors say that people who voted for John Kerry or merely criticize George
W. Bush are going to hell, and that the U.S. is an explicitly Christian
nation and the job of Christians is to bring Christian theological
principles into government, and who bring in speakers who say the conflict
in the Middle East is God’s punishment on Jews for rejecting Jesus, and
everyone can still think you’re just a good church-going Christian, but if
you’re black and friends with a black pastor who has noted (as have Colin
Powell and the U.S. Department of Defense) that terrorist attacks are often
the result of U.S. foreign policy and who talks about the history of racism
and its effect on black people, you’re an extremist who probably hates
America.

White privilege is not knowing what the Bush Doctrine is when asked by a
reporter, and then people get angry at the reporter for asking you such a
“trick question,” while being black and merely refusing to give one-word
answers to the queries of Bill O’Reilly means you’re dodging the question,
or trying to seem overly intellectual and nuanced.

White privilege is being able to claim your experience as a POW has anything
at all to do with your fitness for president, while being black and
experiencing racism is, as Sarah Palin has referred to it a “light” burden.

And finally, white privilege is the only thing that could possibly allow
someone to become president when he has voted with George W. Bush 90 percent
of the time, even as unemployment is skyrocketing, people are losing their
homes, inflation is rising, and the U.S. is increasingly isolated from world
opinion, just because white voters aren’t sure about that whole “change”
thing. Ya know, it’s just too vague and ill-defined, unlike, say, four more
years of the same, which is very concrete and certain.

White privilege is, in short, the problem.

Tim Wise is the author of White Like Me (Soft Skull, 2005, revised 2008),
and of Speaking Treason Fluently, publishing this month, also by Soft Skull.

<!– –>

*sigh*

Well, if nothing else, I’ll share the good news that my favorite Bachelor on the last season of The Bachelorette, Jason, will be the next Bachelor.  He seemed like such a sweet guy!  Single ladies should chek it out and see if you think he’s your type.  And if he is, you should go on the show.  Luckily, I’ve already found my Bachelor. 

Still finding places for all of my stuff around here.  But you can sit on all of the sitable furniture.  And it seems odd to me that students are moving in to Cornell tomorrow…and it’s about three weeks before students move back to UCSD.  I think maybe a week before they move in to the building I live in.  I don’t know how else to describe it other than odd.

If I remember what I was going to write about, I’ll come back and do it.  Or I will if anyone reads this thing any more.  Does anyone?

I got a job at UC San Diego (GO TRITONS!).  It’s nice to be back, and working with some of the same people I worked with before.  They seem excited to see me back here.  I’m excited to see them again as well. 

I got to move in to the new place on Monday night.  Once Conor can send out our items and they arrive, we’ll get to unpack and try to settle in.  We looked at some things at Ikea to supplement furniture (mostly for closet space - we both have a lot of clothes, especially me) and have started to try to figure out what will work out best to fit our two apartments worth of stuff into this place.  I have a lot of stuff.  And that’s an understatement.  I’ll see if there is more I can purge that I hadn’t already when I unpack it.  I did a lot of recycling when I packed…

To take a step towards normalcy, we bought a new car last night.  Yay new car!  We were able to find a Honda Civic Hybrid unreserved and available.  It was really by luck.  I had looked up area Honda dealerships and Conor was calling to see if anyone had availability and what the wait list looks like, since most Honda and Toyota dealers will tell you that you have to be on a wait list to get any Hybrid vehicle.  But…they had one that just came off of the truck that wasn’t spoken for already.  So we test drove it…with all of the plastic all over the inside and outside of the car.  We bought it with nine miles on the odometer.  It’s pretty darn awesome.  There is a neat thing on the car that tells you the mpg for the trip you are taking.  We reset it when we bought the car to see how it was doing, and had to drive downtown and back for something.  When I drove in to work this morning, it said that we were getting 41 mpg.  And the car is pretty.

I guess that’s about all around here for now.  We’ll be driving up to LA for Trixie’s wedding, and then Conor will be flying back to Ithaca for a short week.  And I’ll be in Miami for the CMA meeting.  Busy times.  But, say hi.  :)  We’re excited about all fo the changes around here, but settling in.  Let us know if you’re going to be in the area, or if you are here and want to hang out.

I had a lot of errands to run on Saturday after taking Conor to the airport to go home for his parent’s 30th wedding anniversary celebration.  But…they didn’t take as long as I was expecting, so drove out to Syracuse to look at dresses adn whatever.  I ended up being able to find everything but that.  Not that I didn’t try anything on, but not a lot that I liked that fit (since they have to do both).

So, anyway, I was walking through the mall and there was a sign outside of a comic and game store that said "Free Comic Book Day!  Get your free comic book inside."  So, I decided, why not?  Besides, they had neat board games just inside.  So I looked at all the toys and such inside and picked up some free comics.  :)  There’s a Superman, a Simpson’s (Bongo), X-Men, Daredevil, and several others.  I haven’t read any yet, but it was cool.  I’m guessing it’s a national thing, since the distributors all printed "Free Comic Book Day" on the covers.

But I did all sorts of other shopping…and mostly for other people.  I have a bunch of gifts covered for people, and have a better idea of what I want for a dress.  I found two that fit about perfectly and both are the styles that I think I like.  The colors just weren’t quite what I was looking for.  Oh well.  I have time.

I’ll try to write more frequently.  There’s been a lot of ideas, but time has just been short…

My [refurbished] iPod was being dramatic and pretended to break…about one month after warranty was done.  So I debated about getting a new one (since the repair price for an iPod not under warranty is about the same as purchasing a new one with more memory), and had for a while decided that I would wait.  But, with a plane ride to Tampa coming up, I was convinced to buy another.  So…I have a silver (because they don’t come in white any more) 80gb iPod.  There are two things cool about it.  First, it fits in a coin purse my sister brought back from Amsterdam for me…and I wasn’t sure what I was gonna do with the coin purse…and the iPod is too thin to fit in the old case.  The second is the Cover Flow function…like looking through a jukebox at all of the cover art that is available.  Now, some of the cover art in the iPod looks different than what I actually have as cover art…and things like Jay’s album covers aren’t in my iPod…but it’s still cool.

There’s also some iPod recycling program…so when I went to Syracuse about a week and a half ago, I brought the old 20gb iPod with me to see if I got some sort of coupon or something for it.  Turns out you get a discount on a new iPod…which I already have.  So…I brought it back home.  And when I got home, my iPod turned on…like as if to work normally.  Weird.  So…I have two now, and I don’t know what to do with them.  Fun though, right?

OK…off to eat lunch.  Take care!

1. "Memory Man" by Aqualung
2. "Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace" by The Foo Fighters
3. "Armchair Apocrypha" by Andrew Bird
4. "Minutes to Midnight" by Linkin Park
5. "The Mix-Up" by The Beastie Boys
6. "Don’t Mess with the Dragon" by Ozomatli
7."The Shepards Dog" by Iron and Wine
8. "Who We Are" by Lifehouse
9. "The Shade of Poison Trees" by Dashboard Confessional
10. "Little Voice" by Sara Bareilles

And really, I find this list very sad.  I mean musicians like Norah Jones and Joss Stone and KT Tustall and Maroon 5 put out albums that just made me sad.  And I spent most of the year listening to things that I didn’t know came out in 2006 (like Rocco DeLuca and the Burden) or to things I’ve had for a long time (like Diana Krall) or just other stuff (like The Postal Service).  And if you asked me even six months ago if I thought I would say that anything by Dashboard Confessional would make my top 10 list for the year I would tell you that you’re crazy.  But, it was sad.

I can say that 2008 is starting out pretty ok…since i got the Cat Power CD…and Jack Johnson comes out soon, and I’ve not been disappointed by his music…although…perhaps it is too early to say.  *sigh*

Let’s hope better stuff is realeased this year…please!

I love my residents…and being the Queen of Cupcake Day. 

Take that, Arthur. 

I do acknowledge that it has taken me quite a while to fill my iPod, but I think you should also know that I still have things that are not yet on my iTunes or iPod. 

Now the only thing that I have to do is figure out what to take off next.  I think the things I did remove were things that I was willing to part with, at least on my iPod.  They’re still on my computer.