Happy Independence Day, and Everything Stays the Same!

Happy Independence Day. I haven't quite worked out what this day means to me personally, other than being an American Citizen as opposed to some other citizen.

Here in Denver, we have a virtual gumbo of nationalities; not all of them feel the same way about American independence as those of us who have grown up with it. I was reminded of that today when my husband and I went out for dim sum after church this morning. Although there were many non-Chinese people in the crowded restaurant, we were the only African Americans. "Happy 45th of July," server after server pushing steaming carts told us, none of them really able to master English, and me being the only one who really understood what they were saying, because I've gone to the same restaurant for the past 10 years and my husband only goes when I get a severe hankering and drag him along with me.

After dim sum, as is my tradition, I love to go over to the Vietnamese bakery for dessert, which I can never eat just then (after having stuffed myself with dim sum) but is always good in the middle of the night. I love the sweet yellow-bean dessert with the sweet coconut cream topping. And, once again, I was reminded of the social hierarchy of this race-based society of ours, even in such a diverse community as "Vietnam Town" in West Denver. Standing at the counter with my desserts and something else that I picked up (I had no idea what it was - looked like sweetened dried apricots, and I'm an adventurous eater), I stood there for a good 4-5 minutes while the lady behind the counter counted money and spoke rapidly in Vietnamese to the man behind the counter with her. Meanwhile, a white man was in line behind me, looking at the freshly baked bread. Finally, the woman took my money, added up my purchases wrong a couple of times, then getting it right took my $7.50. Thank you!

As I'm heading out the door, I was mildly surprised to hear her come out of her coma and, in her best, high pitched, highly accented voice chirp: "Hello Sir! How may I help you?!?!?"

Okay, so maybe I wasn't surprised at all. After all, even new immigrants know how our social hierarchy works - white men first, black women fall somewhere towards the bottom, who knows, maybe even lower than her newly immigrant self in her eyes. Wow. Well, it won't keep me from patronizing the Vietnamese bakery, but it is a little sad to see other, more recent immigrants bowing, scraping, and generally acting like buffoons, not realizing that it's not going to get them anywhere.

They'll see.

Tea Party Crazies Keep Losing Credibility – Keep up the Good Work!

Yesterday’s appearance of Meghan McCain on the View gave me the tiniest glimmer of hope for our country when she condemned the so-called “Tea Party” agenda. To quote:

"And I think it's why young people are turned off by this movement." And I'm sorry [but] revolutions start with young people. Not with 65-year-old people talking about literacy tests and people who can't say the word 'vote' in English. It's ridiculous."

The fact that the so-called "Tea Party" would invite Sarah Palin to be the keynote speaker and pay her $100K is one clue to the ridiculousness of their agenda, but the $349 entry fee for the convention only puts it out of reach of the average Joe that they claim to represent. If you were fortunate enough (as if!) to attend the banquet and hear Palin, you would have paid $549. $100K for a speaker who never makes a point and reads notes out of her hand like an adolescent! I have another bone to pick with Palin. Rahm Emmanuel should never have used the phrase “f*ckin’ retard” in public, in my humble opinion, but it was in a private setting, and when the drug-addled Rush (perfect name for a blowbag) Limbaugh says it on the airwaves in front of millions, she makes excuses for him, saying he is "using satire." Her hypocrisy is stunning. I do hope she runs for president in 2012 and makes it easy for our candidates.

Finally, the straw that broke the camel’s back for the so-called "Tea Baggers" is their incredibly stupid decision to have Tom Tancredo as opening speaker at their convention. I can’t even speak ill of him any more, because he is so pathetic. The more his handlers allow him out in public to spout hatred, it seems the easier it gets for him and he gets even crazier. I’m embarrassed that he’s from my state. He started out expressing his racism subtlety, but gets worse every time he opens his mouth, to the point where he actually had the audacity to say:

"we do not have a civics literacy test before people can vote... People who could not even spell the word 'vote' or say it in English put a committed socialist ideologue in the White House."

Is Tancredo really that ignorant that he doesn’t know the history of so-called literacy tests and how they were used to prevent African Americans from voting? And as a man of Italian descent, is he so clueless as to not know how his own people were discriminated against when they first arrived in this country? Yet two generations or so down the road he thinks it's okay for him to do the same to other immigrants?

Let’s just hope that Meghan McCain and others like her represent the future of the Republican Party, and not the rich codgers who call themselves the “Tea Party.” Perhaps the young people will make a difference in the future of this country.