My Inauguration...

I know it's been a week since the Inauguration of our new president.  I'm so happy that I was fortunate enough to be one of the millions of people that braved the cold and crowds to witness history live.  Here's an account of my experience.

January 20, 2009 - Silver Spring, Maryland

3:00am ~ The alarm is going off on my phone and I'm "unaware" of it doing so until one of my "inaugural roommates" comes over and awakens me...(Thanks again!)

3:50am ~ I'm out the door and headed for the subway station.  They are scheduled to open @ 4 am and it's my intention to get on the 1st train smoking!

3:59am ~ I decided to stop in the 24 hour drug store to get a bottle of water, a box of granola bars and a Washington Post.  Much to my chagrin, the stores computers are down and they don't have much change.  This experience takes much longer than it should have because the cashier had to go to the shelf and check the price of each item I purchased:-(

4:07am ~ I finally make it to the subway station and am on my way!

4:25am ~ The crowds along the stops from Silver Spring are UNBELIEVABLE!!!

4:30am ~ I get to Union Station and find a police officer to help me find the line to stand in to get into the Mall without a ticket.

5:00am ~ After some walking, I'm in line and waiting to go into the Mall...

8:00am ~ ...The police come out and tell us that they need our patience and that they are about to start getting people in through security 50 at a time.

8:07am ~  I start to notice people "weaving" their way back out through the crowds and I'm wondering why.  I ask someone that's leaving and they inform me that the line I've been standing in for more than 3 hours, in the freezing cold, is the WRONG LINE!!!! I've standing in the line for the Parade Route, and not the Inaugural Swearing In Ceremony. :-(

8:08am ~  I start to "weave" my way out of the line and find a police officer to guide me to the entrance to the National Mall.

8:16am ~  I'm told to go down a "tunnel" to get to the Mall, I notice the same phenomenon I noticed in the first line, people leaving.  It turns out that so many people had come to this entrance, they stopped letting people in this entrance if you didn't have a ticket.

8:20am ~  After being told by another police officer and then a volunteer to go down this same tunnel and then being shown a map (up-side-down) of the National Mall and being told that maybe I could walk around to another entrance, I began to contemplate the possibility of NOT witnessing [The Moment].

8:23am ~  A guy comes up to me, taps me on the shoulder and asks me, "why are so many people coming out of the tunnel?"  I told him that if you don't have a ticket, they'll turn you away.  He says to me, "you don't have a ticket?  Well you do now!  You're coming with us!"  It turns out that this guy had an extra ticket because his brother-in-law got sick and couldn't make the trip.  He was looking for a person by themselves to give it to!

8:24am ~ Me and my long lost "cousin from New York, Deven" now make our way to The Capitol Building.  The ticket that he gave me was a "Yellow" ticket.  (Quick tid-bit about the "Yellow" tickets...They're right up front!)

8:55am ~ A guy says "excuse me" and passes through the line we're standing and I say to the others, "hey, that looks like Don King!"  He over hears me and turns after he passes and says, "Only in America Baby!"  It WAS DON KING!!!  I couldn't get my camera out fast enough!

9:24am ~  We go through security like we're at the air port!  I'm getting sniffed by dogs, got my arms in the air, and this guy is squeezing my pockets just to be sure!

9:30am ~ We're in the 1st check point and me and Deven run to the Port-A-Pottys...no line, no waiting in the Yellow Ticket area;-)

9:35am  ~ We get through the last check point and am standing up front, waiting for [The Moment].

At this point, I'm happy that I was able to get in, thrilled that Deven found me and bequeathed his sick brother-in-law's ticket, and completely in awe as to what  I'm about to witness.  You'll even notice in the picture above, I've taken off my gloves.  Somehow, it wasn't as cold as it was "outside" to me...yeah, I know, I'm really still "outside".

For other pictures of my MLK/Inaugural Weekend in DC, check me out on [facebook] or simply click here.

Black is Black?

So, I've heard this topic discussed on the radio, TV and I've even had a few of my friends call me and pose a question about Barack Obama's "black-ness" (if there is such a thing). The reasoning/logic behind this question is as follows:

The Logic: Because Barack Obama is bi-racial & was raised by whites in a less than urban environment & doesn't use many of the colloquialisms traditionally used by African-Americans in the United States & didn't chase the dime or the shine once graduating from Harvard & confused "Weezie" with "Elizabeth" while holding his heart stating, "this is the big one!"...he isn't really black...at least not as black as most other blacks that live in these United States.

Useful Analogy: There once was a man who decided to have a Bengal tiger as a pet. He got it when it was only a few days old and raised it as a house cat. He fed and loved the tiger as much and many other folks in his neighborhood loved their dogs and goldfish. One day, the police came to his door and informed him that it was against a city ordinance to have an exotic pet at his home. The man tried to explain that "Simba" was not an exotic animal because he had raised him in his home for years. He'd never had any trouble with Simba and the neighbor's kids loved to play with the both of them in his back yard. Simba was de-clawed and had lost all his hunting instincts. Even after showing the officer video tapes to back his claims, Simba could no longer stay in the house because he was, in fact, an exotic animal.

Black Defined: Let's first take a look at the term black, and see if we can get a better historical perspective of what it means to be black in America [and I do question if CNN got it right too]. According to Wikipedia:
"In their attempt to impose segregation and restore white supremacy in the late 19th century, some southern states created laws defining a person as black if the person had any known African ancestry. This was a stricter interpretation than what had prevailed earlier. It became known as the one-drop rule, meaning that a single drop of "black blood" makes a person "black". Some courts called it the traceable amount rule, and anthropologists used to call it the hypodescent rule, meaning that racially mixed persons were assigned the status of the subordinate group."

So, according to the oppressor, if you have any black in you, you are black...period. The entire concept of being black was conceived as a tool to better discriminate, segregate and oppress. The truth is, when we think of it's origin, we ought to be as outraged at the term as we are at the infamous "N-Word", but that's another blog all together.
The ill-dichotomy of the questioning of Barack's black-ness is that I've mostly heard this question raised in black circles. The same circles that would want to march and boycott Hollywood and others for only portraying Blacks in a stereotypical light. We get mad when we are only portrayed as thugs, dope dealers, athletes, rappers, pimps, hoes, ignorant, hyper-sexual, greedy, funny, sexist, etc. and yet we dare to question Barack's authenticity because of his lack of stereotypically inspired black characteristics?!?!? A Bengal tiger is a Bengal tiger regardless of how it was raised and Barack Obama is black because of how the oppressor has defined the term.

But let's see how deep the rabbit hole goes.

I think that the posing of this question is only a symptom, and not the problem. Why would we question Barack's authenticity? Why wouldn't we want him to be black like us? I believe that many of us need to feel that there are certain heights we can not achieve because of the pigmentation of our skin or color class we've been assigned. Many of us need to know that even if we work hard, and do our best, we are destined to some level of failure because of America's history. Logically speaking, if a black man can become president in America, then surely I can become a college graduate or a business owner, or a dedicated father...right? If Barack Husein Obama can have an Oval Office, then I can avoid having an eight by twelve cell...can't I? I am in NO WAY suggesting that Barack's election as our president-elect signals the end of racism, prejudice and injustice in the United States. Quite the contrary. The truth is that America is still infested deep in her bowels, with a cancer that won't be cured with any one election. His election does, however, signify that America is going through a type of chemotherapy and is trying to rid herself of the ills of her past and present. It is my hope, that the day of her remission isn't as far off as I once thought.

I'm Thed Weller and I approve this message.

The Auto Bailout...

Ok. Here's the "cut to the chase" part. They shouldn't be bailed out.

However, America is dealing with hundreds of "shouldn'ts" already. This doesn't mean I don't think it would be best if congress bails them out.

The Chase...

If you've been in business for, let's say, a hundred years, you should have your act together well enough to stay in business on your own...period. If not, so be it. It's called "Financial Darwinism". I'll bet you didn't see cave men running around talking about "we need to save the dinosaurs from extinction!" (I know that men and dinosaurs were separated by millions of years according to scientists... just making a point;-). However, what happens to all the people that work at the auto plants? And...what happens to all the industries that only exists because there is an "auto plant" in their town. Mercedes built a factory a few miles down the road from where I live. When I toured the facility, the most amazing part wasn't that they roll a new Mercedes off the line every 18 minutes, 24 hours a day. (Keep in mind I toured the plant a few years back and they've expanded since then so now they can produce more than 80 vehicles per day or at least they have the capacity to... that's more than 1,600 per month even with weekends off!!). It wasn't that they think they can sell every last one of them. The most amazing part to me was that every part the the M-Class (except the motor) is made near the area. The seats, dashboards, tires, windshields, radios, antennas, breaks, etc. If they close the M-Class plant in Alabama, many more jobs would be lost than just the ones at the actual plant. Since this is true here, I'm sure this is "the system" by which the auto industry operates in America. Meaning, if a plant closes there will be a "systemic problem". This is why bailing out the "big 3" seems like a necessary evil. But is it?

What if...

What if congress DOESN'T bail them out? What if they all go the way of the dinosaur? I think it could "not be as bad" as we think it'll be...just different. Which would be more "cost effective"? To support, through unemployment benefits and health benefits the workers that have lost their jobs until the industry can "re-tool" or to keep giving the big 3 money so they can keep pretending they're making money from all the cars they obviously ain't selling? The truth is that the CEO's are gonna be financially ok...they already are. So, as long as the "workers" are "ok" do we really care that there is no GM, Ford & Chrystler? In the past 100 years USA can only produce 3 auto makers? Remember "Ma-Bell"? The one phone company model? Long distance, mobile calling, phone features all started to improve when they broke it up and gave some "fresh blood" a chance to enter the market. I think us, the consumers, are over-all better for it.

Resolution...

So, if we do indeed, bailout the Auto Industry, I think it should be done with major quid-pro-quo! And I hope that our government is willing to give the "googles" of the country a shot at making us some "smart cars" so we will "want" to buy and drive American again and I can stop felling guilty about driving my Honda Fit from Japan!

I'm Thed Weller and I approve this message.

"O" the President...

Okay... let me start by saying...wow!

It's November 6, 2008 A.B.

  It's two days after, and it's only now that I'm writing about what we've all witnessed.  I've not blogged in a while.

October 31, 2008

I awoke on this Halloween morning and before I made it to work, I logged onto CheapTickets.com and purchased a round trip ticket to Washington, DC to witness the inauguration that will be held on January 20th.  Once again at work, I used the internet to "confirm" my voting status.

November 3, 2008

After work, I went to Captain D's, got me and my son a meal, helped him with his homework, got him ready for bead, and had him tucked-in just across town at my mom's house.  I returned home, and went to sleep on a mission.

November 4, 2008

I awoke at 3:00 a.m.  I made a liter of coffee, took my fully charged iPod and a chair to my polling site and was surprised that I wasn't the "first" person in line.  Debra was.  She's an attorney/judge that had pulled up 10 prior to me getting there.  

As each hour passed, I called, text'd, twittered, and facebook'd many that I knew.  I was making sure that everyone I knew was alert and aware.

It's 6:30am now and the line that I'm second in, has grown to over 100 people.  The parking lot at the Hueytown Community Center looks like the championship little league game is about to be played.

My friends from the "DC Area" were in line too and called to confirm that they have already voted.  

I spend the rest of the day reassuring people that "we" all can't be denied this time.  I'm pulling up electoral maps, forwarding internet articles, and have forgotten all about my "Obama/Biden" car magnet that was stolen from a Wal-Mart parking lot just 2 days prior.

After work, I stop by the grocery store, pick up some fresh chicken wings, hot dogs & buns and have a fire going by 6pm.   

It's 9:55 p.m. Central Standard Time now.  I'm finished eating my hot dog and wings, I'm done drinking my Red Stripes and American Ales.  My 9 year old son has eaten and has fallen asleep.  At 10:00 p.m. Central Standard Time, I see and hear Wulf Blitzer make the announcement.  "Barack Obama is now the President Elect of The United States of America."  

10:01 A.B. (After Barack)...

It was like watching my son take his first steps.  When he was born, I never doubted he would walk, but the first day he does, it's special.  I thought all that day that Barack Obama would win, but I had no idea of how it would make me "feel".

I first call my mom...few words are spoken.

I then get a call from my sister...few words are spoken.

I then get a call from Sheila...she's in DC and is out in the streets celebrating!  

I receive many calls, texts, emails, and I am unable to answer any of them.  I, too, am taken by the moment.  I'm sitting on my couch, in the living room...in tears.

I watch McCain speak...It's like I hear him but if feel the "response" from his crowd...I am instantly reminded of what hasn't changed.

10:59 p.m. A.B.

President Elect Barack Obama comes onto the stage...

I listen.  I'm speechless.  I'm an American.

November 5, A.B. 6:15 a.m.

I wake up my son and tell him, "good morning."  You'd have to know my son, he opens his eyes and says to me, "what's so good about it?" in a cartoon-ishly sarcastic way.

I tell him that, "Barack Obama is the President! We won, we won!"  He smiles, looks up at me, gets out of his bed and asks, "Pick me up."  He just wanted to be held and picked up by me.  I am once again moved to tears as we embrace.  I make breakfast, pack a lunch and then it's off to the school.

I get to my school, walk into my class and all of my students are sitting quiet with the lights off.  When I walk and turn on the lights, they burst into celebration!  It was a good day.  Once I calmed them down, I start to go around the room and ask them, "what does this mean to them?"  I could only take listen to the 3rd response where Jalaysia says, "this means that I can be what ever I want to be."  I'm moved because, I could have told her this a million times, and now no one has to tell her, and she believes it.

I've been a school teacher for 13 years.  Every morning, we have our morning announcements and then the students say the pledge of allegiance.  This was the 1st time I "wanted" to say it too.