Things I've Learned About Life And Race As An American (Before the NAACP - Tea Party dust-up)

~ None of us had a vote in choosing the parents that conceived us or the families that we were born into.

~ None of us arrived with knowledge and experience, but had to acquire them from everyday life.

~ Studying your own history, culture and heritage is not selfish.     

~ Positively supporting your own culture or heritage is not unpatriotic or treacherous or treasonous.

~ Studying other histories, cultures and heritage is not a burden; you may not become an expert but you won't remain clueless, either.

~ Education is a precious privilege that in America is granted from birth, and public school or private, I have an opportunity that does not exist everywhere in the world.

~ Life events can bring great trials and heartache at the hands of others, but also great comfort and support at the hands of others.

~ Ignoring a wrong to someone that doesn't look like me doesn't prevent that wrong or another wrong from happening to me; would I want to be ignored?

~ It is more effective to have a conversation about problems and wrongs than a deafening screaming match.

~ If I choose to isolate myself from other people of other cultures and heritages, I have chosen to build my own tower of ignorance.    

~ None of our skin colors rub off, taint the chairs or poison the swimming pools.

~ It's okay to ask questions about another race or ethnicity - how else will you learn the answer?                

                                              

~ Each of us has made mistakes along the road of life. Learning from those mistakes should be celebrated and not held against us.  

                                                                                                                      

                                                                                                                                               

~ My cheese can get moved:                                                                                                  whether career, home, economics or politics - and yours can,too.    

~ I would rather learn to live in an era of change than to die in an era of stagnation and hatred.

                                                                                   

~ I don't choose my friends because of skin color, eye color, hair texture or ethnicity. I chose you because you have ideas, ideals and values that I have grown to respect, and because you bring something unique to the journey called life.
                                                                                                                                    

~ Sometimes the fifteen minutes of fame, the microphone and the television camera are focused on the wrong people. That does not diminish the rest of us. 

~ Every morning in kindergarten we recited The Golden Rule: 'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.'    

~ 'Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent.'                          -- Eleanor Roosevelt

~ "The measure of a man is what he does with power."
--Pittacus, one of the Seven Sages of Greece

~ Character is who you are and what you do when you think no one is watching or will ever find out.  It is who you are "in the dark". It is not who others think you are, but who you know you really are.
--David West, Inside Out Leadership Development, LLC

The Window Seat by Karen Caffee is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at www.karencaffee.com.

From Decision To Action

Dateline: Los Angeles – July 8, 2010 

It’s been quite a day.  News of Russian spies being convicted and deported as part of a swap.  News that a mother in Iran will not be stoned to death (nothing about her life being spared, just that she won’t be stoned).  News that a police officer was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter, after ‘accidentally’ drawing his revolver instead of his taser gun and shooting a downed and restrained man.  News that an accused serial killer will be arraigned next month.  Oil is still leaking in the Gulf of Mexico. Our troops are still in Iraq and Afghanistan. Two million people are still without unemployment benefits. Cities and states are still fiscally fragile.  Comprehensive immigration legislation and enforcement is still a hot topic.  

And then we have ‘The Decision’.  It is true that some good did come from the much-hyped announcement: five hundred thousand dollars in addition to untold advertising dollars going to the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, along with five college scholarships for deserving students.  So after a week of suspense, following months of rampant speculation and guessing (and my guess was in the hunt but ultimately wrong), tonight we know that royal hoop hype is moving into South Beach.  No disrespect to the players and teams involved, but that speaks to the attention paid to this one announcement.  

The communications universe was ablaze today, as it has been all week, in anticipation of the announcement.  Local television and radio, network television and radio, cable television, satellite television and radio, social media sites, websites, newspapers and magazines were all prophesying and punditizing.  Who had the real inside scoop? What’s next? What does it all mean???  

Checking in *ahem* occasionally with my social media friends, it brought to mind last year’s running commentary during a high-gloss memorial service for another King.  There were posts and tweets and texts and messages about everything from the old-school memories to the hats and accessories, and all in between.  When it was over, there were some friendships begun that have been strengthened since then with many a deep and meaningful discussion about the world we live in, and have since grown to include even more friends.  Today one of those friends posted a thought about the collective number of social media citizens in comparison to the UN, and that gave rise to this not original thought: how do we utilize the minds and talents of the social media universe from our respective patches of earth to be the change that we want to see? 

We can’t all go to Washington or to city hall or to the state house, but we can take a crack at doing what our representatives (whom we elect to work for us) are charged to do: make recommendations and decisions after research and study, based on the needs and to benefit the collective good of the people (not the select few).  We have enough tools to cyber-meet and talk  and craft policies and documents that we can submit to our representatives.  We can set our calendars, conference calls and meetings from the comfort of wherever we want to meet (Sweet Tea or iced coffee in hand). We can strategize and then publicize our goals and positions instantly, and be available to promote those ideas around the clock and around the globe.  WE can be the change that we want to see.  Is anyone ready to ride? 

And on a more serious note, may cooler heads and hearts prevail tonight and tomorrow(s) in Iran, Oakland, CA and Cleveland, OH.










                                                                                                                                                                          
The Window Seat by Karen Caffee is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at www.karencaffee.com.