don't worry! i didn't forget!



it's just been a busy day is all.

just about two and a half days to go until the thick of election day and things are heating up, that's for sure. yesterday afternoon i was out doing a visibility a couple towns away from mine. for those of you not really in the political "know", a visibility is one of those things where you see a bunch of people standing outside with signs waving around for their political candidate. the group of democrats i'm with decided to get together and do one during commute time, as it would be the best time for maximum exposure (although that's still not much, considering this is north-central new hampshire).

the fact that someone drove by us screaming "white power!" more than once was very, very disconcerting. i can understand thumbs down, and i can understand the disapproving nods. i can understand the "obama sucks!!!" and i can even understand the "f*ck you!' and accompanying middle finger from the time to time. but i can't believe that people in this area would actually think that way and go out of their way to vocalize it.

or can i?

new hampshire is a state not exactly known for its thriving population of minorities. in fact, according to the census, the makeup of new hampshire doesn't ... really include many minorities at all. even in my relatively liberal town (a minority in itself in new hampshire, it seems), i've heard people call african americans the "n" word. a lot of it was just kids, i figured, but then i saw the same with adults. but they have their right to express themselves as they like, so i don't say anything.

seriously, i figured at this point, no matter how one feels on the issue, they'd at least have the decency to keep it in. but no, apparently i'm wrong. and i mean, it's not just this one instance that i'm reacting to. between the skinhead plot to assassinate him, and people that i know and care about throwing racial epithets around about obama, it's getting ridiculous. now family members of mine are going online to try and discount obama's citizenship and telling me how he's "slick" and how he's not deserving of the presidency because we can't trust him ...

get over it. so what if he's not white? so what if he has an islamic-based middle name? so what if his mom was white and his father was black? so what if he's half kenyan? so what?! i think colin powell had it right...

I’m also troubled by, not what Senator McCain says, but what members of the party say. And it is permitted to be said such things as, “Well, you know that Mr. Obama is a Muslim.” Well, the correct answer is, he is not a Muslim, he’s a Christian. He’s always been a Christian. But the really right answer is, what if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer’s no, that’s not America. Is there something wrong with some seven-year-old Muslim-American kid believing that he or she could be president? Yet I have heard senior members of my own party drop the suggestion, “He’s a Muslim and he might be associated terrorists.” This is not the way we should be doing it in America.