Thursday, January 11, 2007

I did not watch George Bush's address to the nation last night, and I feel bad about it. As critical as I have been of other people who are seemingly apolitical, how dare I skip one of the more anticipated speeches in recent history. Well I'll tell you why..1)the full transcript of his speech is not only in the newspaper today, but it also all over the next, and I can print it out and read it. 2)I watched the nightly news prior to his speech, and I pretty much knew what Bush was going to say. I'm sorry for the mistakes I've made, i'm sending more troops to end this war, and trust me dammit, I know what I'm doing. I didn't need to watch the address to know that. I still wish more presidential speeches were done in impromptu fashion. I'd DEFINITELY watch then..its no fun watch a President read a speech that some speechwriter carefully crafted for him. That's like tracing over a drawing someone has already sketched. I jokingly told my friend yesterday, that the only reason to watch the speech, would be to play the George Bush drinking game. How does that go? Everytime Bush blinks, someone must take a shot of something. I guarantee all parties would be nice and toasty in even a 20 minute span.

Well its been two days since I've made my decision to get back with my ladyfriend, and I still feel good about it. My friend Nina weighed in on my situation last night, and she told me that what I did to my old friend was pretty shady, but she was definitely happy that I had made the "right" decision. I can't say that the opinions of my friends would cause me to change my mind, but I definitely care and listen to what they have to say. Six months from now, I wonder how I will look at this situation. I'm at peace right now though. But I'm still nervous about this big step.

I definitely need to learn how to speak Spanish and quickly. It is frustrating to be sitting on the train, or in the Subway by my barbershop, and not know and understand what is being said. If it was German or Japanese, I'd be more willing to concede defeat, because one doesn't really hear those languages too often..at least I don't. But I hear someone speaking Spanish each and every day, and all I can do is look at body language and voice inflections to figure out what they might be saying, and its frustrating. For all i know, they could be saying "Die Nigger Die", and all I can do is furrow by brow and smile. I'm buying a dictionary and taking some classes on the side to correct this problem. Plus, when I finally do return to teaching, I could clean up financially by being a bilingual teacher. But that isn't even my motivation, I just want to understand what's being said around me. Plus it always fascinates me during the Olympics, that so many athletes from around the world know English. I mean sure they butcher the language worse than Magic Johnson ever could, but still they make an effort to know the key words in the language. Americans don't quite make that same effort, and I include myself in that group. So I'm bucking the trend.

I think this is the beginning of the end for my main man Barry Bonds. You can't repeatedly deny you ever took steroids, and then come up positive for another drug, it just is not a good look. I usually defend Barry, because I like his defiance, and I think he's talented with or without the steroids, but now its kind of difficult to do. And now when he passes the great Hank Aaron's homerun record no one will care, because everyone assumes(with good reason) that Bonds cheated. It's a sad state of affairs..if this were a sports blog, I'd elaborate, but its not..

Ain't No Sunshine-Jackson 5

9 comments:

Jo said...

I'm definitely more interested in the six months from now than I am in the here and now. And as for the biligual thing . . .for years I have always thought about how I could clean up if I could put bilingual on my resume. You and me must certainly be capitalists. As for Bush . . .talk about apolotical . . .I totally had no idea he was on the tube yesterday. But even had I known, I still wouldn't have watched it. What I watched instead was "The Inconvenient Truth," and man is THAT a movie everyone must see. And although I don't want to sound like a pessimist, after watching that movie, I am very clear that the end is certainly near my friend.

Oh, and one last note . . . there is NEVER a RIGHT decision, there is always only the decision that was right for you. No matter what you had done to days ago, the situation would have been right for you at that time, on that day, and in that moment. Six months from now that decision may or may not look so right to you, but when you made it, it was . . .and that is really all that matters.

Anonymous said...

I also missed his speech and from what I'm hearing, I cant believe people actually support him sending in more troops. Thats crazy!!!!

No need to beat a dead horse, Rashad.

Anonymous said...

No offense but...Jo's "and one last note..." comment makes no sense...What if the decision "that felt right at that moment" caused paralysis, unnecessary destruction (literal or figurative) or something serious of the like that could've been prevented? Would it have still been a "right" decision even at that moment? Nope. That's not wise advice, man...You make decisions based on who they affect and the future/consequenses...Not the "right now." That's what we call impulse...and impulse is, more often than not, the unwise thing to do. This is not said to say that the decision YOU made was right/wrong...Just that Jo was a tad flawed in theory. RIGHT decisions DO exist...and we know this by the comfort/peace (or lack thereof) we feel after we have made them.

PS: A friend of mine had your blog on her favs list because of your music. Your selections aren't bad. I might be back.

Unknown said...

I wanted to watch the speech so that I could play the my version of the drinking game...when he pronounces a word wrong everyone takes a shot. I was too busy to watch it though. Your version sounds like people would drink much more.

Can you turn off the word verification? I get this shit wrong everytime. WVVVWVWV....how am i suppossed to figure shit like that out

Jo said...

I always think it's funny when people start off with the whole, "No offense" thing and then procede into an offense. I always wanna say, then stop right there before you begin to offend.

And what's so funny about it is that "anonymous" actually reitterated what I stated. What was right for Rashad at that moment WAS based on, as you put it "who [his decisions] affect and the future/consequenses." For him, at that time and in that moment what he did was the right thing based on those measurements. (And RM I apologize here, I am speaking for you.) And what that means is that he made the RIGHT decision for him at that time.

What that doesn't mean is that 6 months from now or a year from now he won't wish that he had made different choices. We always look back in life and sometimes we wish that we had done what seemed right at the time (or as you put it what we "know [to be right] by the comfort/peace (or lack thereof) we feel after we have made [the decision]") differently. That doesn't mean that it wasn't the right thing to do at the time, just that we now have more facts by which to measure the extent of our actions.

And I'd like to add that when I talk about right versus wrong here, I am not speaking of pedophiles, rapists, wars, or serial killers. And one might argue that even in some of those cases there might be a right versus a wrong depending on the circumstances. I'm sure Bush could give you an earful. However, I am not in the business of telling people that the decisions they make are WRONG, I believe that every individual has to live with the consequences of their actions, whether I deem the decision to be right or wrong is irrelevant to that person.

Hence my statement that the only decision that is right, is the one that rests with you, the person making the decision.

And anonymous, if you'd like to take this conversation offline, then you will have to enter into the public sector and disclose your identity! LOL!

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Jo said...

I apologize in advance for taking it here.

Now, this is a love letter.

Dear Anonymous,

I am so glad that you make such RIGHT decisions in life. So many of us are unable to do that.

I see that you are very smart about these things. So smart that you haven't realized that this is a public forum and everyone is intended to have their own opinion.

But that's okay, because at the end of the day, it's really only your opinion that matters, right?

Signed,
Someone who won't continue this silly conversation any further.

Anonymous said...

Dearest Blog Administrator,
I assume that the removal of my eloquent rebuttal to Jo means my response caused some controversy. It's ok, I understand that it might cause some intropection...no one wants to be taken out of his/her comfort zone unwillingly. This also proves that I am the winner of this debate. We can let Jo look like she made sense by omission. lol You run your blog like Hitler. Censorship is the great inhibitor of the necessary yet "inconvenient truth."

What intellectual isn't fond of a little challenge?

Miss. Lady said...

I did not watch Bush speak last night. I figured I would have more fun doing something else so I went to sleep.

Rashad like I told you... I am happy for you no matter what choice you make. Good Luck and God's Blessings to the both of you!

Oh and the word verification does suck. :-P