What I Am is What I Am
Quoting Edie Brickell? What's going on with me?
Anyhoo, the Virginia Tech shooting was horrible. I'm not looking forward to the next week of blame and the whys and hows, and the response from the police, etc., etc. It's extremely tragic, and instead of press conferences where TPTB try to answer questions that have no answers, I wish they would just look at ways to improve student's safety.
But the thing is, these events aren't very predictable. Sure, there are warning signs, but they're usually seen as hindsight. I don't go to work profiling my coworkers to figure out which one might bring in a gun. I've been severely depressed for what seems like the majority of my life, and it has never even entered my head that I would want to hurt someone else to ease my pain. I don't know what the solution is. And I don't know if anyone else does either.
~*~
On another note, I forgot to post this info on its appropriate date. On April 10, it was the 40th anniversary of the court case Loving vs. Virginia, which argued that interracial dating should not be illegal. The favorable ruling in June led to other states striking down their racist marriage laws. (On a sad note, the last state, Alabama, only overturned their laws in 2000. Seriously.)
This new lack of law paved the way for my parents getting hitched and then creating me. I don't identify with one race over the other. It's such a non-issue for me. And yet, I still have people questioning "what" I am. I'm a girl. I have white-girl hair. I have thick lips. I've got a perpetual light tan. And just because I'm biracial doesn't mean that saying words or jokes won't offend me. It also doesn't mean they will offend me.
I'm very much a believer in debate and discussion. You can have opinions and theories and beliefs. Just back them up. You can be a racist. It's not against the law. And I have the right to disagree with you. As long as we don't harm one another in any way - physical, financially, etc. - game on.
I've read some rumblings that Loving vs. Virginia is being used by homosexuals in their attempt to get gay marriage legalized. Go for it. And while the following statement can be picked apart for saying "man" and "woman", I think the sentiment, while maybe not intended, speaks for itself.
From the ruling:
Marriage is one of the "basic civil rights of man," fundamental to our very existence and survival.... To deny this fundamental freedom on so unsupportable a basis as the racial classifications embodied in these statutes, classifications so directly subversive of the principle of equality at the heart of the Fourteenth Amendment, is surely to deprive all the State's citizens of liberty without due process of law. The Fourteenth Amendment requires that the freedom of choice to marry not be restricted by invidious racial discriminations. Under our Constitution, the freedom to marry, or not marry, a person of another race resides with the individual and cannot be infringed by the State.
Anyhoo, the Virginia Tech shooting was horrible. I'm not looking forward to the next week of blame and the whys and hows, and the response from the police, etc., etc. It's extremely tragic, and instead of press conferences where TPTB try to answer questions that have no answers, I wish they would just look at ways to improve student's safety.
But the thing is, these events aren't very predictable. Sure, there are warning signs, but they're usually seen as hindsight. I don't go to work profiling my coworkers to figure out which one might bring in a gun. I've been severely depressed for what seems like the majority of my life, and it has never even entered my head that I would want to hurt someone else to ease my pain. I don't know what the solution is. And I don't know if anyone else does either.
~*~
On another note, I forgot to post this info on its appropriate date. On April 10, it was the 40th anniversary of the court case Loving vs. Virginia, which argued that interracial dating should not be illegal. The favorable ruling in June led to other states striking down their racist marriage laws. (On a sad note, the last state, Alabama, only overturned their laws in 2000. Seriously.)
This new lack of law paved the way for my parents getting hitched and then creating me. I don't identify with one race over the other. It's such a non-issue for me. And yet, I still have people questioning "what" I am. I'm a girl. I have white-girl hair. I have thick lips. I've got a perpetual light tan. And just because I'm biracial doesn't mean that saying words or jokes won't offend me. It also doesn't mean they will offend me.
I'm very much a believer in debate and discussion. You can have opinions and theories and beliefs. Just back them up. You can be a racist. It's not against the law. And I have the right to disagree with you. As long as we don't harm one another in any way - physical, financially, etc. - game on.
I've read some rumblings that Loving vs. Virginia is being used by homosexuals in their attempt to get gay marriage legalized. Go for it. And while the following statement can be picked apart for saying "man" and "woman", I think the sentiment, while maybe not intended, speaks for itself.
From the ruling:
Marriage is one of the "basic civil rights of man," fundamental to our very existence and survival.... To deny this fundamental freedom on so unsupportable a basis as the racial classifications embodied in these statutes, classifications so directly subversive of the principle of equality at the heart of the Fourteenth Amendment, is surely to deprive all the State's citizens of liberty without due process of law. The Fourteenth Amendment requires that the freedom of choice to marry not be restricted by invidious racial discriminations. Under our Constitution, the freedom to marry, or not marry, a person of another race resides with the individual and cannot be infringed by the State.