Everyone I talked to today seemed to be in a fine mood about Obama winning and such, but everyone I interacted with today seem kind of sleep-deprived.
While Obama was running, it was for the most part not really about race. And yet, the “big media” story today seems to be about race– that is, everyone is really excited that Obama won because he is an African-American/person of color. I’m happy about that of course, but I am mostly happy about Obama winning because he is so smart, he’s got fantastic ideas, he sees and understands complexity, he wants to talk to other people around the world, he didn’t have a freakin’ mental collapse when the shit hit the fan about the markets (ala McCain), he’s actually in the prime of his life and not near the end of it (ala McCain), and he was so pain-stakingly the obvious best choice that I was worried that Americans were going to do the stupid thing again.
I would say more about how it’s probably a little too early to say “all is well with race issues now in America since Obama won,” but Deb Hawhee said it better and first, so there you have it.
Hate radio is going to have a field-day over the next few years, and I’m worried about what will happen (or not) to the Daily Show.
Finally, there’s a little bit of “strike back” against the lies of the John McCain campaign and the utter confusion and flip-flops of the candidate himself. Take a look at this new ad from Obama:
I’d like to see something even a more aggressive, personally. I think it would be completely fair game for Obama to go on, look straight into the camera, and say something like “John McCain and his campaign are flat-out lying and they owe me and the American people an apology for sinking to these low and desperate tactics.” Or something like that.
And something needs to be made of this too: there was a story on NPR this morning with the misleading headline, “McCain: ‘I Know Americans Are Hurting Now.” Be sure to take a listen. The stock market dropped 500 points yesterday and a slew of economists and experts have been parading through radio and TV shows saying that this is the worst financial crisis since the great depression. And yet, as this story clearly reports, McCain was muddled at best. At the same time they were running an ad about the failed economy, McCain was at a rally in Florida where he said (more or less) “I still think the U.S. economy fundamentals remain strong.” An hour or so later, he gave a different speech at a different rally where McCain repeats the phrase “our economy is at risk” over and over. Un-freakin-believable.
Yesterday, I heard a pretty interesting story on the public radio show “This American Life.” The overall theme of the show was called “Human Resources,” and it will be available at this link (I think?) starting on Monday. The lead story was “The Rubber Room.”
The rubber room is essentially a holding facility for teachers in the New York City school system who have been suspended for something and are awaiting some kind of hearing and/or reassignment. Basically, these people have to show up to this place and do nothing (well, they can play cards, sleep, chat, etc.) for seven hours a day and get paid for it. On face-value, this might seem like some kind of scam. But as the story suggests, it is far from a happy-go-lucky kind of arrangement. Interesting stuff.
They are trying to make a documentary movie about this, and there’s a web site called RubberRoomMovie.com where you can view a trailer, learn more about the whole set-up, etc.
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