Politics and people.

Lately I've come to acknowledge something I've known for a long time. Something that most everyone knows, but very few seem willing to acknowledge themselves. 


What is this little bit of knowledge? If you mess up, if you're wrong or if you're just not right, if you go too far or not far enough, if something bad happens and it's your fault, things will get a lot better and work out much quicker if you are a good enough person to stand up in front of your peers and say "Hey, I was part of the problem, I messed up and I'm sorry for that. I hope you can forgive me and work towards helping me rectify the situation so as not to prolong the negative impact of my actions."


Bam. 


Someone could forget to look behind them while backing out of a driveway and subsequently crush my leg under their tire, but I'd be a lot more willing to forgive them, and a lot less likely to sue them for their first born if they were to say this rather than making excuses like "Uhh, my stupid mirror wasn't adjusted properly, it's your fault for walking into my blind spot, I'm driving a Toyota, the breaks must be faulty!"


Now the reason I decided to post about this isn't because I'm about to enter some injury lawsuit, but rather because I am becoming increasingly disgusted by politics and media throughout the world. Now before I get a bunch of angry "Don't discuss politics in public!" emails, let me just say, I don't care who you vote for, if you believe in democracy or monarchy or anarchy, I don't care, that's your prerogative and that is not what this is about, this is about what I view as an unprecedented unwillingness of politicians, media, and people in general to accept that they could possibly be part of the problem.


I have paid a great deal of attention to presidential elections since I was like 12, and as a voting member of society I cast my vote for issues that are important to me, but I do NOT vote on matters which I find myself unable to pick an obvious "Good Side" or that I am just unable to understand. This means that I am not actually all that politically active because like most Americans I generally accept the steryotype that Politicians are not usually upstanding and good people. I only say this to give the reader a grain of salt, I am no wonderfully politically active person, and I am often so upset with all the bickering on news stations that I change the channel. This being said I will try not to talk too much about things I know nothing about.


What I do know, however, is that there has been a whole lot of he said she said drama going on around the world. Everyone is blaming everyone else, and when that doesn't work they blame Obama. The problem with this is that politics are starting to look a hell of a lot like a kindergarden playground brawl. 


Shame is a huge motivator for people, it's a strong emotion and it is understandable that in times of pressure accepting the shame that comes with admitting you are wrong can be overwhelming thus causing you to point the finger at little Johnny because he "double dog dared you!" Wait what? you're not five? You've been instilled with a general set of morals, right and wrong, and the concept of being a bigger man? Well why didn't you say so?!


The world economy is tanking, and you are bat shit crazy if you think Obama, or Congress, or dictators, or famine in Africa, or the media, or banks, or whatever are solely responsible for what is happening.  That's like saying George Washington was solely responsible for America winning its independence, which he wasn't. Washington was the face of the country at the time, and a big part of the brains yes, but it takes a village to raise a child, fight a war, or destroy an economy. Washington had numerous soldiers, he had women at home making bullets from candlesticks and darning socks. He had nurses figuring out how to remove shrapnel with always killing the patient, he had horses that carried riders ridiculous distances to give warning of impeding invasions. Essentially he had a lot of help. Same goes for the world as a whole now, no one person or group is brining us down.


Truth of the matter is that essentially every person alive has probably contributed to the down fall of the economy in some miniscule way, shape, or form, so technically we are all to blame. But that's not the big point. The point is that the people in charge act like it's their right to be in charge, not their privilege. They no longer care about being the bigger person and accepting blame or even finding a real solution because no one is holding them accountable. 


Back to the playground scenario, the teacher isn't paying attention so while Johnny and the other kids know they could get in trouble, but haven't yet, so they are spending their time trying to peg the offense on someone else in hopes that when teacher comes to they won't be the one in time out. This results in back and forths, finger pointing, and lots of fear mongering "If you don't agree with me that Susie was the one who's at fault then you must be at fault too!" it's like Animal Farm, but with grown people who are too stubborn to admit that they could have been wrong.


News Flash: no person will EVER be 100% right 100% of the time, so why is it so unbelievably hard to admit that you are just human and made a mistake?


Once you stop acting like a five year old, take responsibility, and begin looking for a legitimate solution guess what? Things start to change! You might mess up again, you might make a mistake and it's very likely that you will have to apologize once more for messing up, but it will be worth it when you finally get it right. 


Someone, most likely my dad, once told me this cheesy quote that's been used so much that I can't find who supposedly said it first. I use this quote almost every day, and recently I've begun following it's advice and things are going great, the quote is "Don't just talk about it, be about." Don't just talk about whose to blame, be about accepting your share of the blame. Don't just talk about how to find a solution, be about implementing a possible solution. Be about using educated decisions to make change instead of just talking about how much you want to change.


What do you think? Please feel free to leave comments below. 


Thanks for reading,
Birdy (-:

They Say This is Where It All Ends.

Oh. My. Goodness.




Childhood defined.




Childhood ended?

A Poem a Day Keeps the Blues Away

I tell myself to write one poem a day,

But today I do not feel like writing poems.

Water and Sand

One mans trash is another mans treasure, but is it the same with creativity or am I just adding more sand to the desert?

I try but it seems like words are just never enough, like their meanings are trapped or just don’t come across, and it’s hard when sometimes I see a person and say, “That person seems so intriguing, bet we’d be friends if words didn’t get in the way.”

So instead I tend to sit in silence, I stare unsure of what to say next, so I say nothing. But the words build up like flood waters behind a damn, and eventually it all breaks and water is let lose on the land, and you find that in smaller quantities it’s manageable and good, but all at once it’s never understood, and so most people leave, to weary to rebuild and you're left with the few souls who refuse to just up and go, the few souls who say “no we can handle it better next time.” But all you see is history repeating itself, you know they should leave but can’t bare the loneliness if they do, still, why, why do they stay, when everyone knows that the only thing you’re good at is letting the words get in the way?

At the airport

By what was mainly my fault, I missed my flight last night. I do place a bit of blame of the 5 Jetblue employees (+1 Kiosk) who tossed me between their stations with all the slow moving displeasure of, well, something that moves slowly towards things that want nothing to do with it.


That being said, props to my dad for not disowning me then and there for all of the trouble I caused.


Instead he helped me find another flight to get on and told me to learn how to "get angry" more effectively. . . sorry.


It has now been right around 12 hours since I arrived at JFK airport, and I feel a bit like the guy Tom Hanks played in that one movie, although I am very aware of how good my life is.


My country isn't in rebellion causing me to be stuck between two lands, and there's no asshole making my life hell and following me around the airport in hopes that he'll get to arrest me (well, that I know of).


Events like this just remind me, if the worst things I've had to deal with this semester is spending the night in Terminal 4, well then my life must be pretty good. While I still have another 15 or so hours before I'm home, which makes me think I could have taken the Oregon trail and gotten there faster, it has thus far been a worthwhile experience.


Plus hey, I have been obsessed with Georgia lately, a little stop there may be fun.


You learn a lot from living in an airport, even if it's just for a while, plus if I had left last night I would haven't seen this crazy "end of the world" fog that has been engulfing the JFK premise since about 2 am.


It's thick, so much so that I could see it last night. More than that though it distorts the image of everything, making it look almost as if there was a blizzard going on. The weirdest part though, is that you can taste it. Not just feel the moisture, but you can taste the fog, and when you exhale you see your breath adding to it despite the fact that it isn't all that cold. Things to think about I suppose.


Birdy

History In The Making.

The atmosphere down here is so thick you can cut it with a knife, and serve it by the slice. From where it started, so it seems it will all end, and all because of just one more man dead. I can hear the cheers through my walls 15 flights up, shouts of USA and the chorus of "God Bless America." The streets are flooded by lights, and people, and the smell of freedom and honor. It's history in the making, it should be with all the time it's been taking, for a rallying point of all those lives lost, it's sad it ends in more death, but I guess that's the cost. The people are crowding just a few blocks away, the World Trade once filled with death is reborn as they celebrate... but remember, We Will Never Forget, we made that promise, and so far it's been kept. So here's to speeches that change a nation in one feel swoop, to communities that prove they will always pull through, to never letting that freedom flame die, because in the darkest of nights you can find your way if just one star's in the sky.




After President Obama's Speech On May 1st 2011, my friends and neighbors poured from our dorms and walked the few blocks over to the World Trade Center, where we were joined by people from all over New York, the USA and the World. This is what I felt upon my return a few hours later.

Chopin

I haven't posted anything lately, but I have been busy writing all sorts of things, so here is a poem update!

Maybe I’ll be George,

And You’ll be Chopin.

Like them, for a few years

Let us have our fun.

But you’ll be less sickly,

And I’ll be less of a man.

Yes, I’ll be George,

And You’ll be Chopin.

Thanks for reading!

Birdy (-: