Finally, I just wanted to say that it was really a pleasure having lunch with you last week. And also, as someone who hasn't seen you that much since college, I can honestly say that since that time, you've changed and changed for the better. You know exactly what you want now and I can tell how happy you are that you are pursuing those things that you want to pursue most. I know you don't need me to tell you, but it's probably nice to hear anyway: I'm glad you're not a civil engineer. With all of that being said, I have all the confidence in the world that everything will work out for you in your professional career and personal life– just don't run through all of the Vietnamese girls before I get my chance.
Jan 18 - Feb 13: Maybe 1 day off and I've counted Inauguration as work.
the number of days I've worked in a row which include weekends.
I have decided to go to NYC instead of spending time with a possible interest in DC. I feel like playing with my cousin on Wii is a more constructive and fulfilling time.
As I assess my life at this point, I have found out until about two years ago, I was an avid runner. I didn't run a marathon, races, to the grocery store and back, or even run to eat (that's a lie, I did it today).
I run away from people.
Every time there's a situation where I'm forced to make a decision, I run away from it. It happens in friendships, relationships, work assignments, etc. I never own up to these situations, but I take the easier more cowardly way of doing things by running away. If I have a crush, I run away to place in my heart where I don't need to act on feelings. If I get into a fight with my friends, I run away by doing nothing and swallowing my pride.
Imagine that Friends series that doesn't have Rachel realize and act on her feelings for Ross (or vice versa). Imagine the episode of Greys where Meredith doesn't call out her friends for not acting like a friend.
It definitely doesn't sound the same and clearly not the same results.
It's the reason why I don't talk to any of my ex's and or keep in contact with friends when I lose contact.
So, no I don't have a medal for the marathon or even a gold star next to my name like elementary school. I have nothing externally to show for this but the bags underneath my eyes from not sleeping and the extremely large gut from not doing anything.
At least that's one thing I have in common from those that don't run.
OCA
STAFFER AND YOUNG PERSON DOUGLAS LEE TURNS 25,
CAN NOW DATE
“I just hope I don’t end up like
Hope’s parents,” says young person Doug Lee.
WASHINGTON, DC
— OCA, a national organization with over 80 chapters
and college affiliates across the country dedicated to the advancement of the
social, political, economic, and romantic well-being of Asian Pacific
Americans, is pleased to announce that staff member and Young
Person Douglas Lee is 25 and now
able to date.
“More and more young people in the APA community are turning
to dating to find their potential mates, as opposed to the older generation,
which relied on arranged marriages, and we all know how successful those are,”
said Ginny
Gong, OCA National
President, “Koreans are widely acknowledged to be the matchmakers of our
community, and OCA will do everything possible to help Douglas, as a Young
Person, find a leading educator in the Korean community to assist him.”
“Young Person Douglas Lee
can be arrogant, but I have faith that he can take the lead and make it happen,”
said Michael Lin, OCA Executive Director,
“Through our flagship Internship program, OCA has helped hundreds of Young
Persons date, and we strive to continue to build leadership and dating skills
in the young leaders of tomorrow.”
“God, I just hope Doug doesn’t end up like my parents,” said
Hope Chu, OCA Senior Communications
Manager, “They too abstained from serious romantic entanglements until
their late 20s and look at them. Just don’t give her coupons until after you’re
married, I guess. Good luck!”
“I’m not sure these girls know what they’re getting into,”
said Pei-Un
Yee, OCA Program
Manager, “I mean, I sit across from Doug every day. I hope they like Baja
Fresh.”
“I know a very nice girl for Douglas to date,” said Kelly Xu, OCA Accountant, “She moved to the US
from China to attend graduate school and she’s now working in Montgomery
County. I’ll send her Doug’s picture and resume.”
“I can’t find a girl for Douglas
because I don’t have the data from before 2006,” said Mingchee Wen, OCA Program Assistant.
“Asian girls, even South Asians, black girls, middle eastern
girls are all fine,” said Young Person Douglas Lee, OCA Senior Program Manager, “Just
no white chicks, Latinas, or butter faces. Or butter bodies. Or non-US
Citizens.”
Founded in 1973 as the Organization of Chinese Americans, OCA is a
national organization dedicated to the social, political, and economic
well-being of Asian Pacific Americans in the United States.
For those who still can't grasp
the concept of white privilege, or who are constantly looking for some
easy-to-understand examples of it, perhaps this list will help.
White privilege is when you can get
pregnant at seventeen like Bristol Palin and everyone is quick to
insist that your life and that of your family is a personal matter, and
that no one has a right to judge you or your parents, because "every
family has challenges," even as black and Latino families with similar
"challenges" are regularly typified as irresponsible, pathological and
arbiters of social decay.
White privilege is when you can
call yourself a "fuckin' redneck," like Bristol Palin's boyfriend does,
and talk about how if anyone messes with you, you'll "kick their
fuckin' ass," and talk about how you like to "shoot shit" for fun, and
still be viewed as a responsible, all-American boy (and a great
son-in-law to be) rather than a thug.
White privilege is when you can
attend four different colleges in six years like Sarah Palin did (one
of which you basically failed out of, then returned to after making up
some coursework at a community college), and no one questions your
intelligence or commitment to achievement, whereas a person of color
who did this would be viewed as unfit for college, and probably someone
who only got in in the first place because of affirmative action.
White privilege is when you can
claim that being mayor of a town smaller than most medium-sized
colleges, and then Governor of a state with about the same number of
people as the lower fifth of the island of Manhattan, makes you ready
to potentially be president, and people don't all piss on themselves
with laughter, while being a black U.S. Senator, two-term state
Senator, and constitutional law scholar, means you're "untested."
White privilege is being able to
say that you support the words "under God" in the pledge of allegiance
because "if it was good enough for the founding fathers, it's good
enough for me," and not be immediately disqualified from holding
office--since, after all, the pledge was written in the late 1800s and
the "under God" part wasn't added until the 1950s--while believing that
reading accused criminals and terrorists their rights (because, ya
know, the Constitution, which you used to teach at a prestigious law
school requires it), is a dangerous and silly idea only supported by
mushy liberals.
White privilege is being able to
be a gun enthusiast and not make people immediately scared of you.
White privilege is being able to have a husband who was a member of an
extremist political party that wants your state to secede from the
Union, and whose motto was "Alaska first," and no one questions your
patriotism or that of your family, while if you're black and your
spouse merely fails to come to a 9/11 memorial so she can be home with
her kids on the first day of school, people immediately think she's
being disrespectful.
White privilege is being able to
make fun of community organizers and the work they do--like, among
other things, fight for the right of women to vote, or for civil
rights, or the 8-hour workday, or an end to child labor--and people
think you're being pithy and tough, but if you merely question the
experience of a small town mayor and 18-month governor with no foreign
policy expertise beyond a class she took in college--you're somehow
being mean, or even sexist.
White privilege is being able to
convince white women who don't even agree with you on any substantive
issue to vote for you and your running mate anyway, because all of a
sudden your presence on the ticket has inspired confidence in these
same white women, and made them give your party a "second look."
White privilege is being able to
fire people who didn't support your political campaigns and not be
accused of abusing your power or being a typical politician who engages
in favoritism, while being black and merely knowing some folks from the
old-line political machines in Chicago means you must be corrupt.
White privilege is being able to
attend churches over the years whose pastors say that people who voted
for John Kerry or merely criticize George W. Bush are going to hell,
and that the U.S. is an explicitly Christian nation and the job of
Christians is to bring Christian theological principles into
government, and who bring in speakers who say the conflict in the
Middle East is God's punishment on Jews for rejecting Jesus, and
everyone can still think you're just a good church-going Christian, but
if you're black and friends with a black pastor who has noted (as have
Colin Powell and the U.S. Department of Defense) that terrorist attacks
are often the result of U.S. foreign policy and who talks about the
history of racism and its effect on black people, you're an extremist
who probably hates America.
White privilege is not knowing
what the Bush Doctrine is when asked by a reporter, and then people get
angry at the reporter for asking you such a "trick question," while
being black and merely refusing to give one-word answers to the queries
of Bill O'Reilly means you're dodging the question, or trying to seem
overly intellectual and nuanced.
White privilege is being able to
claim your experience as a POW has anything at all to do with your
fitness for president, while being black and experiencing racism is, as
Sarah Palin has referred to it a "light" burden.
And finally, white privilege is
the only thing that could possibly allow someone to become president
when he has voted with George W. Bush 90 percent of the time, even as
unemployment is skyrocketing, people are losing their homes, inflation
is rising, and the U.S. is increasingly isolated from world opinion,
just because white voters aren't sure about that whole "change" thing.
Ya know, it's just too vague and ill-defined, unlike, say, four more
years of the same, which is very concrete and certain.
White privilege is, in short, the problem.
Tim Wise is the author of White Like
Me (Soft Skull, 2005, revised 2008), and of Speaking Treason Fluently,
publishing this month, also by Soft Skull. For review copies or
interview requests, please reply to publicity@softskull.com
