mayor election

[tjohnl]

where do the canidates, and current mayor, stand on the Papandrea e-mail?

[jma]

Great question--but you'll never get an answer!!

[collie]

Well, you could try to ask tonight at the candidate's debate. That would sure wake 'em up.

[eds]

I will say right off the bat that I am a halfbreed. I am Latino and White. My mother's parents came from El Salvador in WWII. Her father fought for this country and became an automatic citizen as did her mother. My father is primarily Dutch and his family has been this country since Dutch traders came to the New World.

It is who I am. I am proud to be both white and Latino. How many other's are like me? So who am I? I am technically 50% white 50% Latino. But I am 100% American born and raised. My grandfather is Jewish and yet I am a believer in Christ's gift. I celebrate Jewish traditions and try to adhere to the Law and Prophets yet believe in Christ because I know I will fall short of that Law. So who am I?

I have the text of that email. I have read it. It does not profess any racism that I can tell. It never says the author hates or promotes the hatred of a particular group. Therefore I don't find it racist. I find it clearly illustrates a dichotomy. According to Wikipedia, a dichotomy is any splitting of a whole into exactly two non-overlapping parts.

That email was trying to express a dichotomy in an albeit, very shortsighted way. There are many dichotomies in society today. Let me explain what this email was trying to say by illustrating other dichotomies.

1. Today, it is an outrage when a 14 year girl is preyed upon by a 35 year old male school teacher. Yet were that to be a 14 year old BOY and the teacher a 32 year old female, we get the opposite opinion. In fact, Jay Leno used in his monologue the statement, something to the effect of, "What 14 year old boy would not want sex with his teacher?" Leno would never have said that were the opposite the case. And yes, everyone laughed in agreement.

2. Women can have girlfriends. Men cannot have boyfriends. They have pals. Two women together sexually is seen as a turn on by many men, yet two men together is seen as outrageous and a threat to us all. Why the dichotomy?

3. Many people love to travel to Mexico and very much enjoy that country. People love Tequilla and Margharitas and the "new" drink Mojitos. They love to travel to Miami and love Cuban food. White people are at the beach trying to get tan. Yet many people despise Mexicans and Latinos. Why the dichotomy?

4. On one hand people love this country and immigrate to this country and then these very same people bash this country. They say its no good. Why the dichotomy?

5. Because I am a halfbreed I am seen by some in the Latino community as not truly Latino. And by some in white community, I too am not seen as a truly white person. Why is that? Why do people treat me like a walking dichotomy?


My point is that the email tries to point out the dichotomy of the races, specifically, how Americans are split into exactly two non-overlapping parts, namely, White and minority. Why is that? Why is one either White or Other? On forms I have to pick a race. Why is that? Why do I have to pick a race if we are all blind to race. If we as a people are blind to race, why do we count race as a qualifier?


The email was focusing on exactly the opposite of what people interpreted it to be. The email is lamenting the fact that we are still focused on catagorizing and grouping people into boxes which for some including myself, do not fit very well. Race itself, as a pure catagorical concept is dead.

The email is a symptom of a larger problem. It is one tree in a forest. The forest view is really why do we still concern ourselves with race instead of focusing on the character of a person. We are all on the way to eventually becoming grey. A homogenous mix of color which eventually cannot be distinguised as seperate from itself. So why do we still try to keep it separate?

[collie]

That email was totally disgusting.