NFL Playoffs: Conference Championships

Soooo excited for tomorrow’s football action. I’m a life long Packers fan and to see them back in the NFC championship game is amazing. Here are my picks:

Patriots 38 def. Chargers 24
Packers 31 def. Giants 20

No surprises here – really hoping for a Patriot-Packers Super Bowl!!

-K

Obama ’08

A few months ago, I wrote an entry about a large chunk of my political views and if you read that post, you might deduce that I’m either a Republican or Libertarian. For the upcoming election in November, however, I stand by the fact that I am a Democrat. On some of the most important issues to me, I definitely support the Democratic candidates. I want universal (or nearly universal) health care for all Americans, I want a drawback of troops from Iraq when the situation deems it a possibility, and I just want change from the current Republican stronghold on the Oval Office.

This post is brief – there will be more commentary on the Obama-Clinton primary race I’m sure – but I would like to formally support Barack Obama in his bid for the presidency. When someone asks me the question “Why Obama and not Hilary?”, I think my most basic response is that I think Obama has the ability to actually invoke change domestically and internationally. Domestically, I believe that Obama and Hillary are very similar on many of the major issues I care about. What I do think is that Obama is the Democratic candidate that will actually attempt to be bi-partisan when possible and work with the other side to get his agenda passed. Internationally, and I think this is what separates him most from Clinton, Obama will be able to rebuild the bridges and ties that George W. Bush has broken during his eight years in the White House. If you have ever seen Obama speak at a debate or rally, it’s just an incredible feeling that comes over you. He might be the greatest speaker that this nation has seen since JFK. I really think his charisma would go a long way when dealing with other foreign leaders. Also, let’s be serious about this whole experience thing. A 46 year-old dubbed with having little experience running for President – sound familiar Bill Clinton??

I will say this much – I really don’t mind Clinton as a candidate or a person. I think she’d do a fine job of leading this country over the next four (or eight) years, and if anything, much better than the current administration. What Barack Obama’s bid for the presidency has done, however, is to reinvigorate and reignite my generation into politics. You look across college campuses and so many people want to be involved in the political process this year, it’s really quite amazing. Win or lose, Obama has done something great for America already.

-K

State of American Society

The past month has been pretty crazy – but in a good way. I was able to get out of the country to warm weather right before Christmas with a week long family cruise to the Eastern Caribbean. After a few days back home for the holidays, I went off to Europe for a lovely 9 day Eurotrip with Michelle and Fawn. We covered five cities in total – Venice, Warsaw, Prague, Berlin, and Amsterdam (though they covered more – that was only the part I was in on). I don’t like to write much about my personal life in this blog, so to put it succinctly, the trip was amazing and so much fun.

Anyways, to the topic of this post. Last month after having a birthday lunch with my parents and aunt, we did what all Asians do – go to Sam’s Club and shop in bulk! After a glorious shopping spree, it was time to check out and leave the building. I decided to not wait in line with my parents and wait for them at the exit. If you’ve never been to a Sam’s Club, Costco, or BJ’s before, they usually have someone monitoring the exits and checking receipts to make sure you haven’t jacked a 50″ plasma TV or something else of great value. Unless you do have a really expensive item in your cart, however, its usually just a glimpse of the receipt to make sure you have roughly the same # of items in your cart as it says on your receipt, maybe a check of one or two specific items, and then you’re on your way.

There was an elderly woman checking receipts on that day, and while waiting in the lobby, I noticed something extremely disturbing (my Dad, who is usually pretty oblivious to most things, also saw it… which means it was most likely quite blatant). A Hispanic woman and her son were going through this receipt check and the elderly woman stopped them to look at their receipt. She then proceeded to go down the receipt item by item and asked them to confirm that each was in the shopping cart. It took a few minutes, but finally the woman was satisfied and let them go. The next few customers were then brisked through with very little security and then my Mom passed by and we left the store. The more and more I thought about it, the angrier I got. If I was as angry at the time when this act of racism occurred as when I was when I got home, I would have brought it up with management and filed a complaint with the employee.

It’s so sad to see this type of indirect racism continue in America. I grew up in suburban America as a first generation Asian-American. The community I live in is definitely one consisting of primarily middle-upper class families and I went to public school up until 8th grade in this environment. I then attended a Northeast boarding school consisting primarily of privileged students – I recently did some work for the Alumni Office and something like 17/240 were black and probably something around another 20/240 were non-White. In any case, I have never experienced direct racism in my life, but there have been many instances where I’ve felt my being Asian has prevented me from “fitting in” completely. I can’t exactly describe it, though I’m sure there are other minorities out there who can relate to what I am saying. In any case, I hope that as my generation and future generations go through society, this indirect racism will slowly begin to fade away.

-K