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February, 2007

  1. Prediction

    February 25, 2007 by elenamary

    I was crushing on Barack Obama long before his speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. I wrote a paper in the late nineties declaring that Bill Richardson would be the first Mexican-American to run for POTUS. In the early-to-mid nineties I as a VERY young girl fell in love with Hillary Clinton. Truth is I am neither excited by Senator Clinton nor Governor Richardson. However, here is my prediction: Hilliary will make some moves where she will win the primary but will say things about Barack making it impossible for her to ask him to be her running-mate. Instead Hilliary will ask Bill, an ethnic man, and third in the primary, to be her running-mate. I will reluctantly work on their campaign. Together Clinton & Richardson will lose to Mitt Romney. Republicans will be almost as sad as t.he Democrats. The Republicans will long for John McCain and Democrats will long for Barack Obama, neither will be satisfied, with Mitt Romney. USians have been content with mediocrity before and will continue to be.

    Anyone else have any predictions?

    Category Politics | Tags: | No Comments

  2. Are You Legal?

    February 18, 2007 by elenamary

    I just went to the Jacksonpike Prison.  My friend is there (don’t worry it is a misdemenor however it was her second offence so she got 30 days!)

    I recently lost my wallet and as such don’t have my drivers license or even my student ID, so I had to use my passport at the prison.  My roommate also lost her drivers license and used her student ID.
    When we presented my passport and my student ID, the sheriff(?) told me that my ID wasn’t acceptable she then
    asked her co-worker if it would be alright to accept my passport has ID.  When she was informed that it was okay
    she told me she was going to need my social security number and something with my address on it (she never asked my roommate for either).  I handed her my book of checks with my address on it and asked if it was necessary to give my social security number.  She responded that yes it was, and I inquired what if I didn’t have one?  She responded that everyone has a social security number.  I explained to her very politely and with lots of respect that international students didn’t have SSNs.  She then asked me “Are you legal?” mind you she had my US passport in hand.  And lord of all people, to ask me if I am “legal”, I am NOT the one  you want to ask.

    I told her yes that I was.  I asked her if I could write my SSN down rather than say it aloud.
    She got lots of attitude and said that she didn’t see why I couldn’t just say it out loud.  I explained it made
    me uncomfortable and that I would be more than happy to write it down and that I appreciated her understanding.
    I was damn respectful, I would’ve made my nuns proud.

    Plus I really wanted to see my friend.

    The story gets much better.  After seeing my friend I went back and asked the woman
    for her name and identifying number.  She refused to give it to me and told me she didn’t have to because it was
    “personal”.  I explained that as a civil servant in a civil setting it was not, and that her identifying number
    was given by the government.  She said again “I don’t have to give it you.  It is my name it is personal.  And you
    won’t tell me what it is for.”  I asked if I could speak to her supervisor.  She called him and he refused to speak to me.
    I asked her if I could have his name and identifying number.  She refused again. I asked her are you refusing to
    give me your name or an identifiying number and your supervisors name and identifying number”  she responded yes and
    told me that i needed to get out of her window.  I explained to her again that as a civil servant this was a
    very acceptable request.  She walked away and took someone else at a different window.

    Anyway I am pissed.

    I’ll be filing a formal complaint tomorrow.

    Category Ohio, personal, Politics | Tags: | 4 Comments

  3. I’ve got another blog

    February 17, 2007 by elenamary

    People are really into blogs. Everyone deserves the right to express themselves but we don’t need to create a blog for everything. That said if you sign up for an account at BarackObama.com you also get a blog page with an easy URL of http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/blog/elenamary . Very easy huh? I guess Barack will be coming to Cleveland, Ohio on February 26th and I’ll be forced to make a 2.5 hour road trip. I’ll let you all know how it goes and I promises some photos too.

    Oh and I started a Latinas for Barack Obama…. go join it at BarackObama.com

    Category personal, Politics | Tags: | No Comments

  4. It felt like a Sunday

    February 11, 2007 by elenamary

    Sunday mornings should start earlier, at 8am. They should start with Sunday morning news programs with a bunch of white men debating over who is doing a worse job, white man number one or white man number two. Which should be watched with a warm cup of cofee in hand, Sunday New York Times strewn across my lap, and me snuggled under blankets with a hot intelligent man next to me.  Yesterday was MUCH better than a Sunday. Yesterday, I woke up and at 8am started cubing potatoes, I cubed 10lbs of potatoes for homefries. I turned on CSPAN and watched The State of the Black Union while chopping my potatoes which was only interrupted for Barack Obama‘s announcement. I was making 10lbs of homefries because I had invited over my friends to watch Obama‘s formal announcement on his candidacy for President. We had a wonderful breakfast of eggs, bruschetta, homefries, muffins, biscuits, bacon, veggie meat, coffee, milk, and mimosas. We snuggled under blankets, watched CSPAN discussed politics, took naps interrupted by mugs of warm coffee. It was a fabulous day of CSPAN, good food and great friends. My friends are so great that they not only helped me cook, they helped me clean too!

    Let’s get to the Politics! The State of the Black Nation was by far better than Barack Obama’s speech. I was kind of disappointed with his speech…all though I am still excited about his candidacy. My wonderful friend Kae who took charge of the eggs yesterday morning, described his speech as a good first date. I like you, you seem great, I want to kiss you, but I am not sure where this relationship could go or if we will love each other…

    As for The State of the Black Nation, at 8 am when the first panel started, while I was chopping potatoes alone in my living room, I ended up yelling at the TV and the panel. They were asked the question that was something like “We all have heard about how Hispanics are now the largest minority. What do you think about this new diaspora?” I am going to ignore (for the most part) the use of the term Hispanic and move on to the word diaspora. Not one of the panelists questioned the use of the word diaspora and those who did respond used it. It is NOT just a DIASPORA! It was terrible hearing educated political, religious, leaders discuss the “new immigrants”. Have they not ever heard the catch phrase: WE DIDN’T CROSS THE BORDER THE BORDER CROSSED US! Who do they think inhabited Texas, New Mexico, California, Colorado, Nevada, Arizona BEFORE slaves were brought, BEFORE the Anglos colonized? Pissed me off. Not all of us are a new minority, not all of us are part of a diaspora.

    On a lovely note, I loved watching and hearing Cornel West speak. He is an amazing orator, I can’t imagine what it would be like to sit in on one of his lectures. He seems like the kind of person that you would sit down to talk to and only 10 hours later realize it was 4 in the morning. He is the kind of man I would want to marry. He did put forth a great question, why did Obama decide to make his announcement during this convention that had been scheduled more than a year in advance? There were judges, governors, congress representatives at this event, why wasn’t Barack there?

    Category personal, Politics | Tags: | 2 Comments

  5. suburbs

    February 8, 2007 by elenamary

    I grew up in a suburb.  A well to do suburb.  I hated it.  I knew I was fortunate but I didn’t understand that I was fortunate.  Not sure I completely do now, but I am starting to understand.  The suburb I grew up in was minutes from The Ohio State University, it was within walking distance.  I grew up near the city, near events, near good hospitals.   Last year when I started dating Charles I finally began to understand that 71 runs North South and 70 runs East West, I rarely had to use the freeway, nothing really other than 315.  I never understood why Charles’ mother moved so far out.  I would joke with him that he didn’t live in a suburb of Columbus but in sub-suburban sprawl.  It would take 30 minutes to get from his house (in Pickerington) to downtown.  Traffic was awful, the schools were okay, what was the point?   Then I started to discuss some of the similar things with my roommate Nicole.   Nicole told me about driving from her suburb, Gahanna, to hang out with kids in Columbus.  I realized I had only ever had two friends who went to Columbus Public Schools, and one of them was Charles who I didn’t become close to until about two years ago.  I was always scared of “those” schools and “those” kids.  I only hung out with kids from Bexely and occasionally Dublin.  Those were acceptable suburbs to associate with.  But we still knew who was “new money” (Dublin) and “old money” (Bexely).  I grew up with an immigrant mother from a poor family, and yet I distinguish old and new money…it is fucked up.

    I realize now, I had in someways a very sheltered life.  I got to travel A LOT. By the time I graduated from high school, I’d been to Europe, Asia, and Latin America, I had studied abroad, I had seen poverty, I had seen wealth, I had moved away from my parents twice (returning home twice).  However, I had not really become friends with urban kids or suburban kids.  I knew rural, but I didn’t know my own surroundings.
    I also didn’t fully understand how privilged I had been.  I began to realize that with Olga.  I was trying to figure out how to get Olga to do summer camp with the  YMCA, and damn was it expensive and then I  looked back  at my own childhood and thought  about all the things my parents had enrolled me in; swim team, swimming lessons, sailing lessons, gymnastics, soccer, and more.

    I guess I am slowly getting it now.  I feel spoiled…I am spoiled.

    PS   I am having brunch Saturday morning to Celebrate and watch Barack Obama’s announcement that he will run for President.  You are all invited!  Call me for directions!

    Category personal, Politics | Tags: | 1 Comment