Why I would make a good politician (and why that scares me).

The other day I made my way to the neighborhood library to check out “The Audacity of Hope” by president elect, then senator Obama. Times are hard for everyone and free is always cheaper than full price, so I had no problems getting this text and returning it to the library. Anyway reading this book just fuels my admiration for this dude, but I don’t need to go and on about how much the bomb he is, you should know by now.

In the beginning of the book he goes over how he started his political career and what the climate was when he first became a senator. The early 2000’s was a crappy time for all of us. Clinton having gone through scandal after scandal having his presidency tarnished and Bush taking over and 911. Bad times, the beginning to this twisted crap we are still dealing with. Obama eloquently outlined what senators do and what the other house members do. I’ve never been a fan of civics and by now politicians make everyone cringe. I mean why would you want to knowingly associate yourself with the devil right? Well Obama opened my eyes to how the government was meant to work, and what the government truly stands for. To take the actions of a few power crazed jackasses and attribute it to hundreds of people, the entire government, just isn’t right. It’s like calling the black youth the “hip hop nation”. Just not fair, nor is it accurate.


On to the point. Why would I make a good politician? Because I have a strong sense of right and wrong or rather just and unjust. And when dealing with politics, passing bills, making amendments yada yada yada there is always grey areas. There is always what ifs and the chance that you may leave a section of people out. It takes someone who is focused, not easily swayed but flexible enough to negotiate to stay on task and do what’s best for the people. I’m also all about what’s best for the people. I believe in equality for all, not just some of them and a few of those, EQUALITY FOR ALL. My ideals about treating people equal does not discriminate. I’m an idealist with a realist's life views. I’ve been on the bottom and still cant see the top. I can empathize with those who really need the help of the government, but at the same time I know that it is not the government’s purpose to be the caretaker. The government is supposed to protect and support the ideals of America: work hard and achieve. It is NOT supposed to hinder that dream, but it is also not supposed to give handouts of the dream as well. It is supposed to insure that no one can take your civil liberties, so that you are free to get your piece of the pie. However, the government isn’t supposed to give out pieces of the pie. I think you catch what I’m getting at. I’ve beat this horse enough.


I’m a leader by nature, and thus far a leader with great reluctance. I can make a decision, most of the time good, on the fly and I have the ability to alter my decisions if the first time around didn’t work. I can read people pretty well and am good at seeing intentions, purposes, and mental abilities. I can spot someone who knows what they are doing over a poser quickly, which means I can appoint (oh wait am I trying to be president?) the right people for the right job (I totally stole that from the mission of my company). I’m not afraid when people get loud and passionate about their beliefs, I get just as loud and passionate. In fact, I have more respect for someone who isn’t afraid to show how much they believe in something so animatedly. I’m a direct talker who gets straight to the point and am good at drawing such points out of those who get long winded (like this posting). And I’m smart!


So yeah I could be a politician, a good one, a sincere one, but I don’t want to be one. This scares me because I hate politics. I have a problem with the government, with the man, with the machine. I have a problem with my own potential to be a great leader. I’m not yet comfortable in that skin. Therefore I can’t be a politician. But it was kinda nice to dream about it for awhile.


Peace out! I am not a crook!

My president elect is a human being…




Since we were waxing political:

Alise: politics at the end of the day is a game and you have to play on some level
Alise: that is the nature of power, not just a US or year 2008 thing
T 2U: very true
T 2U: its what this country was founded on
T 2U: a big dang game
Alise: it is what the world is founded on....
Alise: power is a drug
Alise: and even the noblest of (wo)men will sell their baby's diapers for it.... lol (like a crackhead)
Alise: but some are functioning addicts and can make a difference
T 2U: and all we can do is either play the game or shut the f up
T 2U: and survive
T 2U: or plan a revolution
Alise: word.life.

The Audacity of Pride.....

*A nice friendly debate*

Okay, keep in mind that I'm an artist, so I'm sensitive about my shit.... word to Badu. But anything NOT related to my art/craft/general dopeness I am not very sensitive about. For example, if we are debatumenting (argument that is disguised by the term debate) about something I will get all rowdy with you and argue it to the death, but after the fact I will love you just the same, and we can go grab some coffee*. If my manager criticizes me at work, I grumble for a few, but get over that, correct the problem, and go grab a latte*. I can even back down from the most important argument in the world ... wait for it, wait for it... 2Pac vs. Biggie... you say 2Pac, I crush you in the argument, and then we go grab a Frappuchino*. See how that all works. BUT, let some ninjas talk about politics and all Hades is let loose. No makeups, no coffee, just angst. That is why I generally do not like to talk about politics, for one I don't know a whole heap about it except for the Civics class basics, the basic political/economic current events, and my trusty opinion. Yet,when I was trying to be happy about our fantabulous greatacular non-White president elect (since people want to question his blackness *eye roll*), I got to feeling some kinda way about the reaction of some folks. This was not because he was being criticized, but my whole mood was killed and pride questioned. Couldn't they wait to criticize the man (or my pride) after a full week? At least then we could have debated and then went out for espresso shots afterwards, but instead I have to sit and have you think, "She sure has some audacity to be proud" ... womp.....

* i like coffee

When keeping it philosophical goes wrong....

"Zenemies"

I think being intellectual is great. I think philosophizing about the ways of the world is just as wonderful, we come up with some really great conclusions that way. However, I think that being smart and highly intelligent, like power, comes with great responsibility. If you find yourself to be one of the few intellectuals, a true intellectual, then you already know that you are quite capable of over analyzing everything and sucking the fun out of a Saturday night. Everyone knows how smart you are, you’ve left a trail of dissertation length emails, blogs, and discussion replies to back up your intelligence. And I give kudos to those who can express their thoughts like a Charles Dickens novel. Now I’m going to snatch the kudos away. I have a real problem with the intellectual over analytic types who are real good at pointing out problems and ramifications without offering up solutions. Because lets just keep it real, a 3 year old can point out a problem. That part of philosophy isn’t rocket science, but it takes real intelligence, real analysis to come up with proactive solutions to these problems. This is where intelligence meets cynicism and produces inactive wastes of space. I don’t want to hear about how shitty the world is, in a 3 page discussion or a 20 minute conversation unless you plan on interjecting some solutions somewhere in all that wordy lukewarm air. I can ramble on and on for pages as well, I went to school too, wrote tons of papers and birthed a thesis. I’m real good at stretching out content to take up space. But I also know that the average person’s attention span isn’t long enough to absorb all of my genius at that length. Even this blog is getting a tad bit long. So let me wrap this up.

The definition of philosophy: the critical study of the basic principles and concepts of a particular branch of knowledge, esp. with a view to improving or reconstituting them: the philosophy of science.

I’m going to need you long winded, wordy, negative, cynical, wanting to call yourselves intellects to adhere to what philosophizing really is, or just admit that you are NOT an intellect and sit at the back of the conversation with the rest of the onlookers, because in my revolution, you will not be invited to join. How do you feel about the intellectual posers, what defines a poser to you?

alise pokes her head in at her own risk:

I felt this poem i wrote a while back fit in with the whole general idea of tiha's post, and also i am waxing poetic today....:

If by revolutionary you mean talking in circles
....and circumventing responsibility, then by all means you are the spokesperson......
I ain't buying the fight the power act.....

love, life, and loss.....
that's what causes a creative commotion in my cranium
when pain permeates my person and pummels and pounds my peace
it is the real revolutions, revelations, and resolutions that relieve my worries, weary, and woes
... but hey that's just me

What's up with that?

*What's up with that?*

What’s up with white folks in the rural South?
What’s up with white folks in my office who haven’t uttered 2 words to me today (of all the ones that actually showed up)?
What’s up with white folks who I’ve hardly ever talked to doing the cupid shuffle and giving high fives? (not a bad thing)
What’s up with the fact that I can't stick to the memo “what not to do on Nov 5th”
What’s up with the long ass line at the AJC to get a historical paper because they’ve sold out everywhere else? (scrap booking bout to make a comeback, so is the printed on paper word)
alise pops her head in:
What's up with the Schleprock individual that wouldn't let me just enjoy the victory without filling my head about all the negative crap, can I live???!!!
Mine is the opposite of Tiha's, the white folk here in Cubeville, NC are eerily quiet, it is creeping me out, what up with that?
What's up with some of my most jaded *cough Tiha cough* friends so super "un-jaded" today? (so not mad at that)

In My Lifetime

My voice is still hoarse from screaming at the top of my lungs, overwhelmed by emotion from something I thought that never would be, but always hoped ever could be. I’m still about speechless over what has happened. I never thought I’d see it in my lifetime. So on that note, I’m taking it back with a little something something from my boy Jigga, when he talks about what he’d hoped to accomplish in his lifetime. The time has passed when we looked to the future and count all the things we’d never see. The time is now to think about all the things we will achieve…in my lifetime…

Jay-Z, "In My Lifetime"

Alise here: On the topic of Jigga and my joy, all I gotta say is "Can I Live???!!!!" YES I CAN!!!... that is all.....

nervous.....

....about the outcome of this election, but that's fear creeping back in and we already talked about that yesterday. so, yes we can.

*alise's president*

Poetry Wednesday's: MEH (my response to the debate last night)

*Poetry selection from Tiha*

(Untitled)
Meditating Endlessly about my Horizons
because the view at ground level sucks
I’m too close to the manmade earth
which is made up mainly of mistakes and rocks.
I’ve taken to tugging on my hair
to relieve all this anxiety I have built up inside
in school I believe they said it’s a disorder
anxious obsession that I know is felt countrywide.
I have no sense of control
but what I sense isn’t too good
in fact its keeping me with bald patches on my head
and my eyes rolled up looking like a crackhead in the hood.
If drugs were an option
I’d be smacking my arm right now
but my youth has already taught me
that short term is not an option, not for me anyhow.
So I keep my eyes on the horizon
my mind floating amongst the clouds
keeping my dreams alive and safe
and protecting my goals underground.

*Note from Naturally Alise: Her poem was so hot that I dare not touch it, so below I will post the Cubicle Crusaders favorite poem by Nikki Giovanni, because it captures how we have been feeling as of late and has invigorated our journey!*

revolutionary dreams
i used to dream militant
dreams of taking
over america to show
these white folks how it should be done
i used to dream radical dreams
of blowing everyone away with my perceptive powers
of correct analysis
i even used to think i'd be the one
to stop the riot and negotiate the peace
then i awoke and dug
that if i dreamed natural
dreams of being a natural
woman doing what a woman
does when she's natural
i would have a revolution

-nikki giovanni

Random Thursday: What politics has done to small talk

The other night as I made my way to one of my favorite soul food restaurant for dinner (this sista doesn’t cook), I had the chance to make small talk with another patron as we waited for our to go orders. Let me start off by saying I hate small talk and I hate politics. I’d rather say a few words that mean something than to fill up silence with an onslaught of nonsense, but that’s a blog for another time. As we waited for our food, the television was set to an all news network where they flashed images from the Klan Rally RNC/GOP. This prompted the older man I was sitting near to go into his opinion of everything politics. I noticed immediately that this guy sounded like someone who still lives in a shotgun house on the fringes of massa’s plantation. I had to plug my deep south babel fish translator into my right ear to decipher his strong country accent (ooops my Yankee is showing). Anywho on and on he goes about how silly so and so’s decision was but how glad he was that so and so did that so that his favored candidate would look better. The most prolific thing he said during his butchering of the English language was to “go register to vote, tell everyone to vote!”

At this point, in the year 2008, I’m going to go out on a limb to say the following. We cant save everyone, if your black ass hasn’t gotten your voting ticket by now, and you are able to vote (all felons are excused, we know how sticky the laws are concerning your rights to vote), then you have spoke louder than any of us ever could by saying you wish to remain silent and have your decisions be made for you. And its funny because the most ignant folks, will be the loudest folks in the crowd, but will be the first folks to do absolutely NOTHING when it really counts. But what does this have to do with small talk and politics? Nothing. Let me get back on track.

So this occurrence of small talk about politics happens all the time, and I’m sure it’ll happen more the closer we get to the election, but I don’t have to like it.

PSA from Naturally Alise: Politics in the cube is not hot on the boulevard either. Thanks for your support.

Should crazy people be allowed to vote?

If you have to be deemed competent in order to stand trial, should that same criteria be used to vote? Am I taking this too far? Maybe, but I don’t care.
I will admit that when the democratic nomination race was tight, and it looked like Obama was losing, I was upset, and yes I was bad mouthing Clinton like nobody’s business. However, I did not start out backing Obama, in fact Clinton had my full support for a while, a long while. Then I looked at what everyone had to say, what everyone had to offer, McCain included (I am not with any political party, in fact I HATE politics and a little piece of me is dying as I type this political commentary), and I made my educated decision. So when it looked like Clinton was going to take the nomination I was disappointed. I contemplated not voting, and then I got over it. I made up my mind that no matter who got the nomination, I was going to vote for the person I felt would do the best job. Pride swallowed and everything. That is a glimpse into a rational (most of the time) mind.

But at what point is someone being irrational? What is the first red flag, the first indication? Does it go something like this:




Now this is just a mildly irrational reaction. We all know there are more people with way more irrational thoughts. So should these people, who have taken the presidential race sooo personal that they would regress and throw a tantrum to beat all tantrums and act out of spite, just to get their point across, should these unbalanced voters keep their right to vote? Are they competent enough to vote? Can they make the voting ballot in the shape of a paddle and reality check everyone as they step into the polls? Can we double tax everyone who can vote when they DON’T vote?