Creole Wisdom

Turning Away From Hate

Last night, on campus, Hillel (the Jewish student organization) put on a lecture featuring TJ Leyden, an ex-neo nazi.  The first time I saw the poster on campus I knew I had to go, and it was an amazing experience.  Going into the lecture I knew that I would hear things that would disturb, even scare me. 

After this slide came up the room grew quiet.  TJ Introduced himself and began explaining his life in the movement:

TJ grew up in a middle class Irish-Catholic family and got into the movement as a teenager.  He was a leader in it, recruited other kids, and promoted racism and violence-

TJ is an amazing public speaker.  I thought I knew quite a bit about race history in this country and the rising white-nationalist movement.  He taught me things I had never even heard of, things that literally blew my mind. 

For instance.  TJ exposed the fact that seperatists of all races, i.e. Neo-Nazis and the Nation of Islam have been meeting together for years...

A seperatist is just a p.c. word for racist, and a seperatist is a seperatist no matter what color they are.  Here is a plan that the sepeartists hatched for America:

The catalyst for TJ's change of heart came from his two young sons.  He and his wife and children have since been out of the white power movement for years.  Because of who he is TJ is constantly at risk from attack from Neo-Nazis.  His best friend in the movement wrote a hateful song about him, he has been shot at more times than he can count...

After the presentation I felt compelled to meet this man who I think firmly embodies the word "courage."  He was talking to a woman who asked him, "how have you survived, how are you still alive?"  He replied, "I am a religious person and I firmly believe God has a plan for me, to go around and speak about this issue..."  A girl behind me asked him if he was Jewish.  He said, "I'm actually LDS."  That is when I perked up, and said "me too" and thanked him for coming to the University. 

It was an amazing experience, I continue to marvel at hatred and am humbled by those who say "no more."

life is beautiful. live.

One of my pet peeves at work is when I go to change a baby and there's gunk in their belly button.  Not like the umbilical cord residue that comes out on its own, but other stuff. Like, really? It would take .2 seconds to wipe that out.  Gross.  But, after pondering about belly buttons and umbilical cord residue I realized that it had been a long time since I'd seen that whole Miracle of Life movie.  You know, the movie they show you in health class senior year in which you cannot see a thing because *ahem* the mother does not groom.  Yes.  I just wrote that on my blog, but it's true.

So I went onto youtube, which is where I go when I want to watch anything.  I typed in "live birth."  And had to verify my birthday, should that of been a sign?

This one was not scary.  I saw that and said, "okay I think I could do that, it doesn't look too bad."  but holy #@*! this one was.  Wiping the blood out of the infant's eyes... ahh!

The verdict is I still love my job and I still want to have 5 kids.  Cuts or not (shudder).

I'd like to bear my testimony.

It is not often that I pick up Vogue anymore. You see, it used to be a huge part of my life.

I would stand in the line at Zupans in high school, fingering the glossed pages for some semblance of glamor that I could soak up.  This was during my I want to live in New York and be really fashiony go to Sarah Lawrence phase. Vogue, W, and WWD (Women's Wear Daily) provided me with a sense of what I wanted to become, and what I thought was my goal.  As I have developed into adulthood my future vision for myself has changed, again.

I never thought I would open up the pages of my old friend, Vogue, and find a story so close to something that I feel I know, struggle, and am blessed with.  Balancing this life, carefully.  Being LDS is not like being Catholic, I know, because I used to be Catholic.  When I was Catholic I went to mass on Sundays, but forgo-ed any of the "rules/standards" the church had.  When you're LDS you adopt not only a faith, but also a culture.  It is hard to balance and find middle ground between both "worlds."  I am a sorority girl, and I am temple worthy.  This means that I am a word of wisdom following Latter-day Saint and a non-drinking Greek. 

Like Kristina, I have had to learned to, as she puts it, "[dip] a toe in both ponds- a nice alternative in an era when many women still grow up believing they need to choose one pond and either sink or swim" (p. 424).

Granted there were things about the article I did not like.  But I am not going to lie, any great PR out there on the Church is wonderful.  I want to see more positive images of LDS people in the public eye, and as we all gear up (and hold our breaths) for what will result of Mitt Romney it is nice to see that the world has caught on.  Mormons are really cool, savvy, intellectual.  I mean, we are some of the best looking people out there (there is not denying it), not to mention smart, devout, wealthy, and a whole long list of positive attributes! HAHA

I really urge you all to go out and pick up a copy. I've searched high and low and cannot find an online link to the article in whole, otherwise I would of pasted it on here.  I have no idea if they will talk about this on Segullah, but we shall see.

Kind of reminded me of CJane's post on Sunstone (which I just discovered about a month ago).

mysterious {womanly}

I've been thinking a lot lately about the feminine mystique, what constitutes as "true womanhood," and what it means to be female in today's society.  I am troubled by the fact that I see women around me denying (yes denying) their true nature.  Why is this?  Perhaps we are being undervalued in our society.  I am saddened to think that now days a woman is valued only on her appearance and her paycheck.  It seems you are only "okay" if you manage to fit into a size two and pull in a six figure salary with a home on the golf course.

Women are incredibly smart.  I hate to even go and say this, but we are pretty good at making it work, and we can get what we want out of men, too.  And since we're on the subject of men I am interested in their reaction to women as well.  Sometimes I honestly wonder, why are they so funny with us?  A friend of mine (unnamed) was telling me, "I just wish the girl would say, 'snuggle with me,' and then I'd go for it."  There are two problems with this a) It puts us out of our comfort zone to make the first move b) don't be so lazy. 

I see my value as a woman in the way I choose to act in public, the friends I care for, my service to others, being an example of making mistakes (we always make them) and then dusting myself off and getting up again for round 1,008.  Like you, I am trying my very best and am okay with failure at times.  Perfection is boring.

I am thankful that I am a member of a very different generation.  The women of my era are very unique, and seem to be quite forthright about embracing their womanhood. 

Dress from Shabby Apple, purchased at 9:40pm.  Thank you credit card.

words

I'm not quite sure what to say.

I turned on the news this evening and after scanning a certain scrapbooking message board I knew there was some information I needed to read up on.

I'm only twenty, and there are few things that I know well.  One of them is certainly my freedom of speech.  Now, there are certain times when certain words are appropriate.  I know from my studies in Journalism that in front of an audience is not exactly the correct place.  Never the less I'm not sure firing was the correct choice. 

On another note I have some issues with rap.  I feel unsure of how to phrase this but, some of it is funny, lighthearted and some of it is disgusting, repulsive.  There have been several times in my life when I have felt personally objectified as a result of rap.  I do not enjoyed being told (while shopping at a mall) to "shake my money maker."  A friend of mine, a black woman, was sitting in LaGuardia airport.  Two English boys started talking to her, and when she told them she was from Atlanta they asked her to, "drop it like it's hot."  Now we all got a good laugh about that one, but on one hand actually quite depressing.

I'm not a feminist by any stretch of the imagination, but I worry about the objectification of women.  For me, rap and Imus' words are much of the same- just another example of how our culture has watered down the seriousness of degrading women.

Perhaps it is my "gospel perspective," but when I think of the being a woman and what exactly that means I am full of emotion.  We women are of infinite worth and have such a priceless purpose here on earth.  I cannot imagine what my life would be like without the influence of wonderful, strong women.  I feel lucky to have many girlfriends I consider sisters. 

In the end the words do not matter much, but they lead to so many other things: attitudes, ideas, and even what is considered appropriate. 

hate not here

The amount of hate I see in the world today utterly disgusts me.  I guess I never truly realized and was in fact very naive to the mentalities and rationality behind it all.  The black history class I took at Sarah Lawrence taught me so much, but what it truly did not prepare me for were the realities of covert discrimination alive and well in America...

I started early on a project for one of my classes (speech), and when I get into things I dive head first and won't stop to come up for air unless I really need it.  I've started to investigate and what I've found out there is sickening.  I know, you're going to say- why read material that you know is wrong and harmful/hurtful towards you?  I don't know the answer.  I was intruiged, I guess.

There are lots of websites, message boards, blogs, and online alliances formed on the sole basis of hate towards another group of people.  I ventured into this territory armed not with my heart on my sleeve (as that is what can get me into trouble), but a dang near thick skin.  I saw something funny, a college student, like myself, who linked her profile to myspace.  Of course that led me to look her up on facebook, and I could view her friends.  Her posts on the site I looked at were incredibly offensive, xenophobic, and racist.  Shocking I guess to find that several of her friends on facebook were not of the background which she deemed acceptable.  Clearly someone is living a double life.  Now here is where the "crazy" comes out in me.  I e-mailed 1 of her "friends."  I linked her profile, posts, and hateful messages and let him know what type of person he calls a "friend."  I know it was a controversial and maybe not the correct thing of me to do.  However, I would hope someone would do the same for me, if there shoe were on the other foot. 

Which leads me to my next point; I always find it funny when people least expect you to belong/find agreement with a group of people they do not associate you with to begin.  For instance the stuff I hear about the LDS faith truly disturbs me.  How many times have I put my foot down and had to correct them?  Or politics.  So many people go off on how "republicans are _______ " and once again... there I am! 

I guess I'll be the first to make a wrong a right. 

a few hours to spare...

So I miscalculated the time of my final this morning.  Don't worry, I miscalculated in a good way, I thought it was at 8:00, but instead it's at 1:30.

Since I was already showered, dressed, and makeuped I decided to call the ONLY person who is awake before 8am on a Saturday... yes, my mother.

She has decided to once again open her kitchen as the Christmas baking headquarters, so I'm going over to help...

Usually I'm never up this early, especially on a weekend...  So I turned on the tv and to my great luck (lol) the Bratz doll show was on.  Did you see my added quote to the left?  If not...

"That's, like, totally unfair!"

I just have to ask, how do you mothers of girls keep a straight face?  I was busting up over this, I think the context was the mom asked the daughter to do something/a chore.

Last weekend I was introduced to the real Bratz thing for the first time.  I say the "real" thing because the ladies on NSBR at 2peas are always debating about these poor misspelled play things.  My mom's nurse's daughter is 4 and was dying for a Bratz pillow and doll... Checking out the girls aisle at Target, the aisle that used to be filled with Barbies and Polly Pockets (what happened) had now been higjacked by these, these... dolls?  Yes, because they look like a cross between an adult animation toy and Barbie on crack.  We picked out a yellow pillow with a HUGE Bratz face on it and a "baby bratz" doll to go with.  Have you ever seen a real baby with enough weave to rivals Rupunzels?  She had a cut off top and shorts on with "real" jewelery and some really hot hair.

Now I do want to give them mad props for diversity.  That is great, and I'd like to see other toys follow suit.  The sad part of this is, if I was a five year old girl, I am positive I'd have Bratz all over my Christmas list.  I would of been fascinated!  (Who isn't though?)

That being said, I don't think I'll ever be the same again.  What will the future Anthropologists and Historians say about us?

get out the vote!

Well it's official, I voted for the very first time.  It was pretty exciting to say the least.  Since I was registered under my parent's address mom picked me up and took me over to the polls (set up at the local Presbyterian church).  I actually recognized one of the check in ladies, turns out she used to be a librarian and remembered me coming in!  So after a little ballot etiquette 101 I was handed my very own blank scan tron and assigned a little booth.  The entire thing honestly reminds me of school, expect you fill in with pens, not pencils. 

As many of you know I love politics.  Seriously, a fun interest of mine, and it feels so good to finally have a voice!  Actually, I've sort of had the chance to be active in Politics.  The summer between my Junior and Senior year in high school I interned for Nick Fish who ran for Portland City Council.  In another stroke of luck my family hosted a neighborhood forum for Tom Potter (when he ran in Fall 2004) and I actually created an album for this, and laugh now at the outdated supplies:

Perhaps someday I will be active again.  I would never consider running myself, but wouldn't mind settling for campaign manager, haha!  Well all in all I saved my "I voted" sticker for my scrapbook, and even got a little ballot instruction hand out to add to my page.  Sadly, I didn't get a photo.  Guess it's time to gear up for the Presidential Election, and clearly I need to get on it for my RNC dress!