On being a cynic...

"BEING CYNICAL IS TOO HARSH ON THE HEART!! It makes life unbearable and robs you of hope and joy. So expect and hope for the best. What do you have to loose by doing so?" - Attorneymom

Those are the words of Attorney Mom on her blog Character Corner. Those words have been with me all afternoon.

And her words are with me as I think about the race for the Presidency tonight.

I am a cynical person. And I have been viewing the candidates through my cynical eyes as they make their way through the Primary season.

I have let my cynicism about America make me believe that a Black man cannot win the most Powerful office on the planet.

My cynicism leads me to think that America is far too racist to consider the content of Barack Obama's character rather than his skin color.

I have as I'm sure you have, if you are a person of color, experienced racism throughout my life. There have been no huge incidents but what I term micro-racism. Those are small incidents that we confront as we go through our daily lives. I am aware that more heinous examples of racism occur all the time.

I have to ask myself though; have I let the media in all of it's exploitative glory color my vision of America? Have I miss judged the American people?

I'm not quite ready to answer either of those questions in the affirmative. But I do think that America might be further along than I thought.

I'm not sure that Barack Obama can win the Presidency. Partly because I'm not sure if his message will resonate with the majority of Americans. But I wonder that about all of the candidates.

What I don't wonder about the rest of the candidates is can they overcome their race. I still wonder that about Mr Obama.

It's a long road to the Democratic Nomination, an even longer road to the White House and that road, I suspect,will be longer for Barack Obama than for any of the other candidates.

But Attorney Mom has convinced me, with her words, to put my cynicism aside. I will make an effort not to judge America through cynical eyes. I will assume that those who vote for Senator Obama are voting for him because they believe he has the best vision for America.

I will also assume that those who choose not to vote for the Senator choose not to because they feel he is not the most qualified for the job.

And I will try to not assume that all of the candidates are a bunch of crazy megalomaniacs. (That's going to be a hard one)

Super Tuesday is next week and that will be a great opportunity for me to put my new attitude in to practice.

What is the opposite of cynicism; would it be Naïveté? I'm not sure but I will watch and participate in the political process with an open mind.

I may relapse, but I'm going to try!

(Now if only Bill Clinton will just keep his mouth shut.)

Are you a cynic too?

Read Attorney Mom's entire post here: Expect The Best

On the Jena6...

I commute by bus everyday. The first rule of riding the bus is making sure that when a bus pulls up you check to see if it's the right bus. If you don't, and you take the wrong bus, who knows where you will end up.

Such appears to be the case of those who supported the so-called Jena6. Those are the group of teen African American boys in Jena Louisiana that became the focus of many Black bloggers and then the likes of Rev. Al Sharpton.

The Jena6 for those who don't know were arrested for beating up a White youth. The beating incident may have been sparked by a White student putting a noose on a tree at the local high school. The noose was apparently some sort of message to Black students who had inquired about sitting under a tree that amazingly had been designated as a Whites only tree.

Anyway, I haven't written about the Jena6, because as I said I try to always get on the right bus. From what I have been reading about the Jena6 over the last several weeks, they are defiantly the wrong bus.

First they appeared at a Viacom/ BET event walking the red carpet and throwing up Jena6 (gang?) signs. Now it appears as if the parents of some or all of the boys are in the midst of a money grab with the help of some supposedly well known radio host called Michael Baisden. Whom I have only just recently heard of. I guess I'm out of the brand new celeb loop.

So it looks like many African Americans are now having to just shake their heads at the Jena6 and their families. Their behavior has been anything but what one would consider grateful.

I hope in the future all those well meaning African Americans who are willing to protest decide to better vet those they are protesting for.

This reminds me on some levels of those who protested to save the life of convicted murderer Stanley "Tookie" Williams. A man who is credited with, among other heinous things, founding one of the two most brutal gangs in America. Yet Jessie Jackson and others decided to protest for his life. My question, did Jessie protest for all the little kids who have been caught in the crossfire of the gang Williams founded?

Just because someone is Black does not mean they are worthy of support from the Black community. Some people end up in the trouble they get in because they deserve it.

Read more about the Jena6 from What About our Daughters and Character Corner.