Why I'm Looking Forward To The Year 2012, Part II

This isn't my fifth blog post or anything. I just thought it was funny and it just happened to be completely relevant to my previous post. It's from the Non-Sequitor comic strip.

http://www.gocomics.com/nonsequitur/2008/11/16/?campid=0&ssns=9&#

A New Direction (Please!)

With the outcome of the election behind us, many people are now analyzing the effects of Obama's election as president-elect. Most people have touched on the issue of "change" in seemingly superficial ways. Yes, Obama is fresh, young, and almost the complete antithesis of the current Bush administration. However, he is also the first Black president of this country. Going into his campaign, I think he must have known the type of reactions there would be if he won. For the most part, alot of the country did not see the issue of race as anything detrimental or overly important. In fact, he received a greater percentage of the White vote than Kerry did in 2004. With that being said, alot of people are announcing that racism is dead in America. Considering the reactions to Obama's victory, I cannot agree with that. Facebook was filled with the obvious formation of groups like, "I'm Moving to Canada..." I could understand that. But comments like, "Call the Coastguard, 2 million pounds of KFC and watermelon should be immediately sent to the White House..." or now the White House will be painted or black, or now some type of white slavery will be instituted were not only ridiculous but sad. For people to cling so closely to carefully formulated stereotypes for such a long period of time is mildly depressing. It didn't take me more than 5 seconds on Youtube to find a whole host of racist campaigns against him. Old and young biggots rant on how he is nothing but a "House Nigger," and how the end of America is near because he was elected. I pray this is only a minute part of our country. I pray that this is not something that will perpetually rear its ugly head in the next four years. The sad truth is, I know that it will. Until people of all colors are willing to openly re-evaluate our violent racial past, accept it for what it is, and take conscience actions not to repeat it, then race will always remain important. People often try their best to suppress any talk of race in its raw form. This however, is a luxury that can longer be afforded. People will have to stop being complacent and avoiding the white elephant in the room. People will have to talk about our history and not the neat and clean version served to us in elementary history books but a history that doesn't justify racially motivated crimes from anyone of any color. If America truly wants change WE as a nation must stop trying to suppress our demons and face them. We can no longer afford to avoid them as they have only led to more problems. We are not a perfect country, but our desire for perfection lies in our power to constructively criticize our mistakes and fix them. Instead of throwing a band-aid on a deep wound we need to evaluate the injury, stop the bleeding and heal. It is only then that we can say change has truly come to America.

Negative Urban Planning

An example of negative urban planning happened here in Leander, Texas about 3 years ago. One city council member from Leander and one from a city council member in Cedar park, Texas had an idea. Their idea was to combine the two separate cities into one and re-name the new city:Leander Park. When word of this got out it immediately had people from both cities upset and angry.
The only good thing that was offered about this idea was the school district. Leander and Cedar Park share the same school district: Leander ISD. The council members said that their new plan would help reduce school taxes if passed.
Many people rejected the idea because they felt like it was taking away their sense of home and tradition. Even if on the outside the only change would be the name. Citizens of both cities felt that their home would be taken away.
Thankfully this idea was rejected very quickly by many people and it never left the drawing board.

"A Whisper of AIDS"

For paper number two I chose Mary Fisher's speech on AIDS at the 1992 republican National Convention. This speech is known as one of the top speeches of all times. After watching it I can say that this is for good reason. Fisher's speech was a call to unawareness directed towards the American people. Fisher did a great job of appealing to the listeners sense of compassion when she told her heartfelt stories of how she has struggled with AIDS.
Fisher also makes appeals to logos by giving facts regarding the death toll due to AIDS. AIDS, she states is the third leading killer among young adult Americans and this will only get worse due to the fact that AIDS is spreadable.
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/maryfisher1992rnc.html

Obama/Kennedy

For paper 2 I chose Kennedy's "Strategy of Peace" speech given at American University in 1963. In this speech JFK used several types of arguments to present his case to a young audience but relied mostly on arguments of the heart and of the character to persuade them of his claim. I think Kennedy's use of these arguments for peace in the world could be compared to arguments used by Barack Obama in his campaigning for the presidency.
The results of the election from last Tuesday did not surprise me at all. Though I felt overall Obama had a stronger following than McCain the last several months of campaigning played a crucial role in the election's outcome. McCain's arguments made against Barack Obama, whether through radio broadcasts or T.V. commercials, seemed to be of "facts and reason." Some of those "facts" were of Obama's relationships with Bill Ayers and Reverend Jeremiah Wright. The controversy that the McCain camp tried to stir up over these past connections only led to crowds at McCain rallies shouting hateful, racist slurs about Obama. McCain's failure to silence them hurt the view of his character with the public. McCain's personal and often exaggerated attacks on Obama discredited him with the public I believe because Obama never returned the favor. Even if false ads ran about McCain's policies the magnitude with which the McCain camp ran ads against Obama's character was never matched. Instead Obama used the speeches at his rallies to persuade the audience to his side with visions of change for America. He was successful with the audience being a country coming off of 8 years with the Bush administration's "Strategy of War" and the other candidate allowing shouts of hate and ignorance at his rallies.