I promise to spend more time blogging than taking quizzes, but this one was just too difficult to let pass. Thanks to Dave for the link on his blog - idotking.blogspot.com.


How Republican Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

I've gotten like five different answers to this test, but this one comes up the most. And it's the same answers every time...hmmm...





i'm lovable and love people easily. i like making others
feel at ease, and people just can't help but have a good time when they're
around me. get some vicks and let the good times roll.

find out what kind of drug you are @
tara's website.

Okay. Someone please help me explain this.

So last night was the big Coro fundraiser - fabulous turnout, fabulous panelists, fabulous drinks - fabulous everything.

But there was something that sort of set me off last evening and it's not the first time that it's happened.

See, one of our journal assignments in Coro was to describe a time that we once felt discriminated against. This was somewhat difficult because no one has ever said outright - "I don't like you because you're brown." So I had to do some real thinking about a time that I might have felt discriminated against. And I realized something that happens to me sometimes.

Picture it: WalMart, Duane Reade, Hallmark store. Any given time in my life. I'm strolling through the aisles, looking for that perfect birthday card. I'm wearing a heavy winter jacket and scarf, browsing through the cards, laughing sometimes, just perusing. Like you do.

And I'll continue that way, up and down the aisles, looking at their wares, trying to choose the perfect gift - when suddenly some older white person stops to ask if I work there. Okay, I don't mean to sound like it's always older white people...oh wait. Yes I do. 'Cause that's the only way this scenario works. Let me paint the scene for you:

Setting: a drug store. Me? I'm just walking around. Wander, wander, wander. Browse, browse, browse. Minding my own business when a white person - or WP saunters up with a panic-stricken-urgent look on their face and clears their throat.

WP: Excuse me?

(browse, browse, browse. I don't notice. Until they grab my shoulder)

ME: (turn around, blank look on face) Yeah?

WP: Do you work here?

Me: Um, nope.

WP: Oh. You don't work here?

Me (inside voice): Did I stutter? What did I just tell you? (Outside voice) No.

WP: (hands go immediately to sides as if gravity suddenly strikes) Well, damn. (arms suddenly go back up) What am I going to do? Have you seen anyone that works here?
Me: (inside voice) Please go away and leave me the hell alone. It would be better if you didn't waste my time while you're having a panic attack. (outside voice) Sorry.

Let's examine this exchange. Why in the world would someone think that I work there? Hmmm. I described what I was wearing. Why on earth would someone working there wear a winter coat and scarf? Maybe they were cold you say? Okay. That I'll buy. But now hang on a second. In Hallmark, I wasn't wearing one of those blue smocks. At WalMart, I didn't have on one of those blue polos that clearly read "Walmart", nor was I wearing one of those obnoxious blue smocks. Duane Reade is the same way. Nope, I was just a customer coming in to shop during winter.

So why would someone, let's presumably make them educated, since they seemed nice and smelled nice (yes, this is important criteria), assume that I worked there? What other evidence is there? Hmmm.

Ah, could it be because I am brown?

Now don't get me wrong. I don't presume to say that these people are racist, discriminatory - but given the evidence, why else would anyone assume that I worked there?

Okay. Haven't convinced you? Let me relay a story to you from last night.

I'm in the bathroom of Eugene's. For those of you who have never been there - it's a great club on West 24th Street. Now this is a nice lounge. And if you're from NYC, you know what I'm talking about. Big comfy couches, VIP room, long bar, trendy furniture - and a bathroom attendant in a cool looking bathroom. If you've never experienced the bathroom attendant, come to NYC and I'll show you what I mean. Shee-shee-pee-pee-doo-doo places have them. It's a sure-fire sign that you're in a nice place.

So I'm in the bathroom, minding my own business, chatting amicably with some of the girls in the bathroom whom I happened to know. There were about six of us in the bathroom at the time and because of that, the bathroom attendant was sort of busy and I managed to get to a sink and get my own soap without assistance. While the bathroom attendants are nice people and I always tip them, I didn't have my wallet on me, so I was somewhat happy to go unnoticed at another sink. I did, however, say thank you to the nice bathroom attendant as I was walking past her to the door. (And this doesn't make a difference now, but yes, she happened to be a woman of color) Somehow, as I was walking, I missed the trash can to throw my paper towel away. So I sort of stopped and leaned back to find it and as I righted myself, an older white woman with a fur coat on (if you're from NYC, you know the type), hands me a dollar and says "Thank you very much."

Okay. I'm a bit thrown off. Yes, I have on a black suit and the bathroom attendant is wearing a tuxedo-looking thing (black vest, white shirt, black bow tie). I wasn't the only one in the room wearing a black suit (it's NYC for chrissakes). So I sort of stop dead in my tracks, and look at my hand, which she had slipped the dollar into. I think i said, "Oh."

At which point I promptly punched her in the neck.

Kidding. Don't I wish. I can already see it. WHAM! "Oops! I must have mistaken you for Hitler...bitch."

No, instead, I took the money from her and walked over to the bathroom attendant and put the money in the basket on the sink. I smiled and said, "Here you go." The attendant smiled at me and said, "Thanks." I said, "Have a great night." To which, the furry old white woman went up to the bathroom attendant and said, "Thank you very much." I was trying to get past the two of them and had made it to the door only to realize that the white woman was already at the door holding it open. The fur monster put her hand on my shoulder and had an apologetic look on her face and said, "Thank you very much." She then proceeded to walk out of the door in front of me and sort of held the door open.

And I'm thinking, "Buhscuse me? Oh no you didn't."

That's it. No, "I'm sorry, I didn't realize." Not even an "oops." The point is, no "I'm sorry for confusing the two people of color in the bathroom."

WHAT IN THE SAMHELL IS THAT??!!!

Can you understand my angst? I mean, are you kidding me? If you did that accidentally to someone (and any of you reading, I seriously hope you wouldn't make that mistake) wouldn't you say that you were sorry? Here's a hint: not all people of color work for the establishment you happen to be in. In fact, I think that anyone should be just as offended as I am about this sort of thing. Who the hell do you think you are? Pay some goddammned attention! Did you miss the Civil Rights Movement or were you too busy trying to understand what exactly the Emancipation Proclamation was saying? And for crying out loud, you live in NEW YORK CITY, easily one of the most international cities in the world. Already I have problems trying to explain to people that I'm Filipino and hell if they know where the Philippines is. I usually get people asking if I'm Samoan, Hawaiian, Spanish, and Carribean. Let me remind all of the readers that Filipinos are the second largest group of Asian Americans in the USA. And no matter where I am - be it in NYC, Chestertown, MD, or Syracuse, NY, I get white people asking me all the time what aisle something is in.

Someone please tell me if I'm delusional. But I want you to think about it first. People wonder why I sing that Garret Morris SNL song at times...and if you don't know the song, hellfire on you. Or just email me, I'll be happy to relay the song. Or call me, I'll sing it for you. It's just classic.

Lord knows I was singing it last night when I left the bathroom.

I've come to realize that when I post something that irks me, the problem usually goes away. Case in point: Possible MTA Strike. The day after posting it, they averted one. Another example? Trent Lott. He's no longer Speaker. So I've come to think that maybe, just maybe if I post, things might be better.

P.S. I realize I'm delusional in thinking this. But what the hell, right?

So let's talk war.

That's right. War. Did anyone catch George W. Bush's State of the Union? I couldn't watch for more than five minutes, but I think one of my friends put it best: "Who would have believed that we were actually WINNING the WAR?"

That's 'cause we're not. We haven't finished what happened in Afghanistan, why the hell would we want to go to war someplace else? I just want to thank god for Colin Powell prevailing over W in terms of the UN. This brings me to something that I argued in high school when I went to DC in '96 to see the second Clinton Inauguration. Me and three friends from high school did this program where we not only went to the Inauguration but also spent a week in DC, etc. Basically, we had to also pretend to be in Congress and debate a point.

Our debate of choice? Whether or not the US should withdraw from the UN. Okay, we were Model U.N. geeks. But I still think it's valid, don't you?

Maybe you don't see the connection, that's okay. But what we feared then might be realized now. If George Bush continues on this rampage - this "we'll go to war whether you're with us or against us" then we're in some serious shit. But let me tell you why:

1. Going into an unsanctioned UN war against Iraq is a violation of the UN Charter. You can see the obvious problems here. Let me remind you that if we go to war without proper UN guidance and sanctions then we will be doing the same thing to Iraq that Iraq did to Kuwait back in 1992. At least in 1992, George the first could use that as proper reason for UN support, though we also went for oil. It's bad enough that under Jesse Helms, we allowed our UN dues to skyrocket to the tune of $3 million - which Clinton actively lobbied Congress to pay. The problem is that by doing that, we already had the world thinking we were assholes. Guess what? They think it again.

2. While the proof is pretty heavy, it pales in comparison to the evidence against Russia during the Cuban Missle Crisis. We have strong suspicion that they have nuclear capablity and that they are breaking arms sanctions, but no real proof beyond someone's word against Saddam's. If we have learned anything from Saddam in the past, he's a smart cookie. Yes, the threat is real, but it is also imagined unless we can come up with at least one picture of one missle aimed at the US - AND THE POSSIBILITY OF IT HITTING THE US. The pictures of Cuba in 1962 are undeniable evidence. The pictures of 2003 aren't. We have a lot of circumstancial evidence that points to POTENTIAL threat. I realize that we are in a precarious state right now as a country, but putting us at war in Iraq will endager us even more.

3. Going to war with Iraq without the proper support will further harm our standing in the Middle East. We have connections to Al Queda in Iraq, but even that is shaky ground. As far as I know, there are plenty of people in the world with Al Queda connections - and don't think for a minute that I'm being flippant about this. Remember where I was on September 11th? That's right. What I am saying now is that Al Queda is our opponent and we shouldn't lose sight of that. I'm not sure that going to war against Saddam is a way to quelch that threat. In fact, it seems like it's something we added on at the end. "We want to rid the world of terrorists and evil-doers. So we will find the people who knocked down our buildings and make them pay. Oh, and while we're at it, we'll also finish the job we've been meaning to in Iraq." Connecting the dots later does not make for diplomacy. We go to war in Afghanistan, we go to war in Iraq - and what do you think the Arab world will think of us? They already hate us. What makes us think that by getting rid of Saddam we get rid of the hate - that we end the cycle? No, we promote the cycle of hate and war and death by going to war. I'm already upset that we went to war in the first place, now it seems to me that we are inadvertantly starting a holy war that I'm not sure we'll ever erase.

4. If we move without UN support, we will further diminish our standing in the world and regain the standing of us as bullies. Are you willing to let the President of this country invade a nation to protect our way of life? Would you wage war as a means to and end? I'm realize that I'm not aware of what he knows - all the super intellegence that has been gathered that is at the White House. But you know what? I'm not convinced that this is the means to an end. I know that Saddam Hussein is a delusional and evil dictator. But I need to be convinced that the threat is REAL, not IMAGINED. I need to be sure that when we move, we move with the world behind us, a unilateral effort to rid the world of Saddam. Globalization doesn't only occur on the economic level, it can happen on the political one, too. It helped calm my fears about going to war in Afghanistan, it would sure help now. There's something that one of my professors in college said - and he was only at the school for a year - and many people did not like him, but I found his words to be intriguing: "The United States and Western world are constantly worried about nations developing the nuclear bomb. It makes sense to fear something you know that is so terrible. But the thing is just this: why fear other countries developing them? We should all be more afraid of the country that actually has used them."

5. Going to war does not erase what is happening at home. Unemployment is rising. Homelessness is rising. The economy is awful. Drug use is at an all time high. George, there are things at home that you should be concerned about...or maybe that's why we're going to war...

This is what I feel. Maybe it's illogical, maybe contradictory, but you know what? I'm not entirely against this war - AS LONG AS IT'S FOR THE RIGHT REASONS AND WITH THE RIGHT SUPPORT. I admit again that I am not aware of all the intellegence on this issue. There's probably a whole hell of a lot more that we don't know. But I'd rather be a dove than a hawk and I'd rather us try to settle our issues in the proper manner than invade a nation that we think poses a possible threat. I'd rather see our country working towards peace than war and stop scaring us into believing that this war is necessary. If I had five seconds alone with George W. Bush, I'd have this to say to him:

"It's okay George. Daddy will still love you."