In Chinese philosophy, the concept of yin and yang is used to describe how apparently opposing forces are bound together, intertwined, and interdependent in the natural world, giving rise to each other in turn. This past election both moved us forwards towards acceptance, and sent us falling back into a time of prejudice, intolerance, and self righteous bigotry. Barack Obama was elected the 44th President of the United States, or was he? Proposition 8 passed, or did it? Elections in general aren't over until it’s really, finally, absolutely over.
Even though most Americans love peace and prosperity, hate taxes and care about the environment, when it comes to how we express those values, we drive each other crazy. To conservatives, liberals are tree-hugging, peacenik, tax-and-spend elitists. To liberals, conservatives are anti-environment, war-mongering, deficit-spending imperialists. Neither depiction is precisely true but somehow most of us hold those opinions.
A few thousand civil rights activist expressed anger, dissatisfaction, and disappointment as they marched across California last week in a peaceful protests against California's passage of a hateful initiative designed to bane marriage between loving couples that happen to be of the same sex. Some of them were met with violence from those that disagree.
All of the different Constitutions in this country, both federal and those of each state, are meant to protect the minority from the majority. Sometimes it takes time, money, protests, and I hate to say this, but lawyers to make things right.
Now that the voting is over what do we do? What should we expect? How can we help? First we must make sure the process happens the way that it is suppose to happen. We should follow the news, blogs, and talk radio shows. We should speak up when we see an injustice, a mis-step by an elected official, or a bad process.
Before December 15th the states must certify their election results. When each state declares its final results its governor must sign and send it to the National Archives listing the names of its electors and the number of votes cast for Senator Barack Obama and for Senator John McCain.
On December 15th the Electoral College meets. The results are then sent to the vice president in his role as president of the Senate, to each state’s secretary of state and to the judge of the district in which the electors meet as well as some others The problem is that Electors are technically free to vote for anyone eligible to be President, they don't have to vote for Barack. They can ignore the will of the people. To bad we can't ignore Proposition 8.
The 2008 election was the first time in U.S. history that an African American was elected President by the people. This seems to be a sign that we are moving forwards in our racist beliefs. Since the opposing party's nominee for vice-president was a woman, Governor Sarah Palin, the eventual winning ticket was bound to be historic. This is another sign that we are heading in the right direction. That is if the vote holds up. Why can't we have a perfect system? Simple, we are human, and we sometimes forget that we are not the only humans on earth, and our beliefs are not the only ideas out there.
Yin and Yang are technically equal in every way, humans tend to favor one side over the other. Examples would be the active, masculine yang principle over the passive, feminine yin principle. The dark opposing the light, the voters relationship to the candidate. This is especially true in modern society.
How can we be so open about equality on one hand, and on the other hand still pass an illegal proposition, yes illegal. In California a two-thirds majority is needed to pass a proposed constitutional amendment. That did not happen. Let's hope that the Presidential Election holds up, and the stripping away of human rights gets over turned.
When it comes to politics I'm all mixed up, and I believe that they're a lot of others like me. I can’t be a member of any political party. When it comes to money, and our taxes I’m definitely conservative. I favor efficiency. I also believe in charity, but it has to be the choice of the giver to give. I prefer small government, and I hate government interfering in my life. I think people should be free to be who they are as long as they don’t harm others. Governments job is to care for those that can't care for themselves, not take care of people that don't want to care for themselves. Government should provide a police department, a fire department, roads, infrastructure, and health care. I believe that people should help each other, but that help can not be forced. When I think of politics, and my belief in balance (Yin and Yang) I can see why our current system seems so messed up. So, what now?!?
Remember my blog page has a new address: www.AricIsomsBlog.com (Aric Isom's Blog). As always let's make this a two way conversation. As always please post your comments and opinions in the comment section at the bottom of the article on the blog page (http://www.AricIsomsBlog.com/). You can also post to past articles in there proper location at the bottom of each. I look forwards to your feedback. Please take note of the added features, such as the daily news feed, video clips, visitor polls, outside links, and Java games.
Now What?!?
Does it Matter Who is President
On National Public Radio's December 18, 2006 airing of All Things Considered it was stated that while a majority of U.S. voters say they would vote for a black presidential candidate, many people say the United States is still not likely to put an African-American in the Oval Office quite yet. This made me wonder if it matters who is in the White House at this time.
About 95 years ago Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt went to lunch with Henry Adams, a famous historian and intellectual. The setting was Adams' home right across the park from the White House. Adam's blurted out one of the biggest falsities in history, "Young man, I have lived in this house many years and seen the occupants of that White House come and go, and nothing that you minor officials or the occupant of that house can do will affect the history of the world for long!"
It is easy to prove Adams wrong. Bob Woodward and others have shown that it was President Bush's single minded take on Iraq that prompted the United States to push the war on terrorism across Iraq's borders. It was President. Bush's belief's about the role of taxes in the economy that fueled the tax cuts to big business that have become an issue in the current presidential elections.
How about Bill Clinton's Welfare Reform. Clinton also signed the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, which required large employers to allow employees to take unpaid leave for pregnancy or a serious medical condition. All of this still in effect today.
How about the way Ronald Reagan bent Washington to his will, or the way an actor altered the assumptions of Washington. I don't see how you can argue that nothing that the occupant of the White House does can affect the history of the world for long. We live with Reagan's ideas of government still. “Reaganomics” and the “Trickle Down Theory” are still a big influence in America today.
Someone asked me, “Why do we have such a racially divided nation?" I believe that we're such a racially divided nation because of our recent history of government sanctioned racism. Something that the person siting in the oval office can change. But that person must be willing to do so.
The thirteenth amendment abolishing slavery didn't end racism. The fourteenth amendment established citizenship for blacks, yet we were still denied the right to vote. The fifteenth amendment prohibited discrimination on the basis of race, or previous status as a slave, but even that didn't work. Southern states just rewrote their state constitutions to make sure blacks weren't allowed to vote. Sound familiar? Do we currently have people trying to rewrite California's Constitution in order to deny rights to others?
It's hard for some people to admit, but the United States has a long record of institutionalized racism. Until the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, blacks were routinely discriminated against and denied the right to register and vote. Even after passage of the Voting Rights Act, black citizens in many areas were subject to bullying and in many cases prevented from voting until the federal government stepped in. We needed someone in the White House to enforce the laws, and once they started enforcing these laws they couldn't easily turn back, even if they wanted.
Starting with the Civil War and well past 1960's many parts of the country were thoroughly divided and blacks were treated as second class citizens. The battle to end Jim Crow laws and segregation was long and bloody. Today some feel that we are still treated that way or not taken as serious as we deserve. If we had a Black President change would have been much faster. I am glad that we had the presidents that we had during those times.
Throughout the 1960s, the FBI illegally wiretapped, infiltrated and sabotaged the leadership of the civil rights movement, including Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The COINTELPRO program was used to suppress the black power movement. Many people believe the killing of Chicago Black Panther Fred Hampton was a government assassination. Imagine how bad it would have been if the Kennedy brothers were not around.
Yesterday I heard on the news about an assassination plot to kill Obama and 87 others. If we are a racially divided country, it isn't because someone merely points out these things, it's because they actually happened.
Many people disregard all the above as just history. Their deep and abiding love for our great country blinds them to aspects of our history that make them uneasy. Some people think it is more horrible for someone to bring these things up than for the things to have happened in the first place. They equate any admission of past evils as an indictment of modern-day society. 
It will matter, too, whether Barack Obama or John McCain is president, despite their common chants of reform, despite their shared sense of impatience with politics as usual. The irony is that in this Age of Cynicism, no one is arguing, as Henry Adam stated 95 year ago, that nothing the occupant of that house can do will affect the history of the world for long.
Remember my blog page has a new address: www.AricIsomsBlog.com (Aric Isom's Blog). As always let's make this a two way conversation. As always please post your comments and opinions in the comment section at the bottom of the article on the blog page (http://www.AricIsomsBlog.com/). You can also post to past articles in there proper location at the bottom of each. I look forwards to your feedback. Please take note of the added features, such as the daily news feed, video clips, visitor polls, outside links, and Java games.
