2014 has been, to say the least, an interesting year. And if this past election is any indicator, 2015 promises to be equally interesting. With that in mind, here is my annual list of resolutions that we should take to heart for the coming year. Please feel free to break them all at any time.
1. Let's endeavor to wean ourselves off of cable news. I know I made this resolution last year specifically regarding MSNBC, but let's expand that to include ALL cable news, period. It really doesn't do us any good to cocoon ourselves in a partisan news bubble. Just look at the FOX News nut-jobs.
2. Related to above, PLEASE stop watching Morning Joe. Seriously, folks. From 7am to around 10am every morning my Twitter timeline is filled with folks bitching and complaining about something Joe Scarborough said. If the guy drives you crazy like that, why do you keep watching? Either stop watching, or STFU about it when he pisses you off.
3. Elizabeth Warren is not running in 2016!
Elizabeth Warren is not running in 2016!
Elizabeth Warren is not running in 2016!
Elizabeth Warren is not running in 2016!
Elizabeth Warren is not running in 2016!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(Is that enough exclamation points for you?)
4. Drafting a reluctant candidate to run for office NEVER WORKS! See resolution no. 3.
5. Hillary Clinton will be the Democratic nominee for 2016. DEAL WITH IT! See resolution nos. 4 and 3.
6. While fighting against voter ID laws with moderate success, let's all make sure we have IDs anyway. The reason the GOP want these laws in place is because they know that certain groups of people will be discouraged from getting them (or can't). It's time to prove them wrong. If you don't have an ID, get one. If you know someone who doesn't have an ID, help them get one even if it you have to drive them to the DMV and pay for it yourself. The best way to defeat the GOP ID push is to simply push it out of the way.
7. VOTE...in 2015. I know it's an off-year where the most significant office up for election is for town wino. But imagine the shit-your-pants fear we could put in the hearts of Republicans if a whole bunch of Democrats come out to vote just for the hell of it.
8. To all you DEMS who ran away from Obama in 2014, how'd that work out for you? This is why Republicans win more elections than Democrats. Say whatever else you want about them, but Republicans stand by their president even when they hate his guts. Meanwhile, Obama and most of the Democrats who ran ON his accomplishments instead of AGAINST them will still have jobs come January 20th, while those who ran away from him WON'T
9. Spending money to see a movie just because a foreign dictator told you NOT to doesn't make you a patriot. It makes you a SUCKER. Look, I get it. I don't want some crackpot leader of some ass-backwards country telling me what movies I can and can't see anymore than I would the Christian Right or the Catholic Church doing likewise. And I'm glad that SONY decided to grow a pair and release "The Interview" in a limited number of theaters and on-line (like they weren't going to do that anyway). But is going out of your way to see a crappy assed frat-boy comedy just to spite some dictator any different than not seeing a good move out of fear of said dictator? If any of the self-proclaimed "freedom fighters" who flocked to see "The Interview" had bothered, instead, to go see the movie "Selma" (which was out the same day), they would have learned that true freedom fighters are those who throughout history were willing to sacrifice their own freedom, not to mention their own lives, for the cause of freedom and justice in America. The only thing the nut-bags who went to see "The Interview" sacrificed was the price of a movie ticket (or download), not to mention popcorn and soda. (And how will these folks feel if it turns out the whole thing was a publicity hoax by SONY?)
10. To my fellow "gladiators", SCANDAL is not REAL. Now I love SCANDAL, and between this show and "How To Get Away With Murder", I'm willing to lobby congress to make Shonda Rhimes birthday a Federal holiday. But some of us really need to recognize that this is fantasy.
- No Black man would ever be able to give his White boss a Shakespearian level monologue that begins with the sentence, "I am above your pay grade."
- As far as we know, the last White president to fool around with a Black woman was Thomas Jefferson (and he was a Democrat).
- A Republican president who cheats on his wife with a Black woman, is pro-gun control, pro-equal pay, anti-war, and has an openly Gay Chief of Staff? Yeah, right.
- No matter how fine they look, the side-chicks never, ever, EVER GET THE MAN! (And don't tell me about Calista Gingrich, as I'm not totally convinced that she's even human. I mean...look at her.)
11. Don't whine about how you'll never watch another Bill Cosby show again, when your MP3 play list is chock full of R. Kelly. When R&B singer R. Kelly was facing charges of having sex with an underage teen, Black folks flocked to his defense. Likewise when Ray Rice was seen slapping his then fiancée around in an elevator. I'm not saying that Cosby is innocent (odds are he's guilty as sin). I'm just saying let's apply a little consistency here in our condemnations.
12. Finally, this is for my White liberal friends. When discussing race with Black people (or any non-White person), please do so with the understanding that you will NEVER really understand race from the Black point of view. As you might expect, over the past several weeks I've had the opportunity to discuss race and racial issues at length with some of my White co-workers. Often times during these discussions I've had to roll my eyes back in amazement at the ignorance displayed by even some of my more liberal White colleagues. Now I'll grant that most of the folks where I work are over the age of 50, and many of them probably don't have much interaction with Black people socially. But even among younger Whites I've observed a degree of naiveté when discussing race. I'm not saying that you're bad people, or racist. It's just that being White, it's understandably difficult for you to understand true racism in America having never really encountered it (and getting a side-eye from a Black person while walking through a Black neighborhood doesn't count). And when you try and express some imagined commonality with folks who have actually encountered racism (I mean the kind where you're stopped by cops for standing at the wrong corner in the wrong neighborhood), what you really end up doing is not only insulting, but belittling the problem as something that's "only in your mind". This is not to say you shouldn't discuss the topic with Blacks (in fact, I encourage you to do so at ever opportunity), just do so with he knowledge that the Black experience is simply not your experience. (And to my African-American brothers and sisters, I ask that you do so with the same understanding.)
With all that, I wish you peace, happiness, and blessings for 2015!
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