SimplyMaggies

I have never thought of myself as racist (heck, I married an African-American!). Quite the contrary, actually, I’ve always kind of thought of myself as tolerant and open-minded. And when I went to the US (have I mentioned I was a European?), to my surprise, I discovered that this country is brimming with all kinds of prejudices, racism still being one of the main ones. Absurdly, I find that African-Americans are quite the racists themselves… When most people around the world think of racism, they usually think of it as originating from whites and being directed towards blacks, but I (as a white person) find that quite often the blacks are as racist.

And then there is this whole thing of African-Americans getting away with murder (figuratively speaking, of course) because everyone is so afraid to say anything negative about them in public. What’s up with that?! Aren’t we all supposed to be equal? If one is going to tongue-lash a White, Hispanic or Asian, why not an African-American? Hmm… Also, how come are they allowed to name their media, churches, schools etc “Black whatever…”, e.g. “Black Entertainment Television”, purposefully limiting it to this one race? I am all for freedom of speech or any other freedom for that matter, but I do have a problem with allowing certain groups of people some privileges while somewhat limiting these to others. It simply does not agree with my sense of equality… Imagine if a white community decided to name their TV channel “White Entertainment Television”? They would have been crucified in an instant!

So I ask: Why is it possible for African-Americans to get away with all kinds of transgressions? Is it some kind of compensation for all the terrible crimes committed against them in the past? If so, how come the focus only falls on one part of this whole segregation business? Recently, I’ve found out that during that era there were signs such as “no Mexicans and dogs allowed” posted right along the ones forbidding blacks from entering. How many average Joes know that little fact from the American history?

And take the presidential election, for example. In my opinion it is absolutely fantastic that there is a woman and an African-American as candidates. It’s quite exciting for so many reasons and I would like to believe that Americans are ready for a different kind of a leader. However, there is one disturbing occurrence about his whole business. Have you noticed that both Senator Clinton and Senator McCain are pretty much fair game as far as jokes or any information media can dig up from their past or present, except for Senator Obama. Somehow the only way he’s attacked is through other people around him, e.g. Rev, Wright. Now, he cannot be that pristine! Nobody is. So why hasn’t anyone got enough guts to tell a joke or say something negative about a black public figure? Because they will be instantly accused of racism, and nobody really wants that to happen to them, do they? And there is something profoundly wrong with that picture. We’re all equal, no matter what the color of our skin and we should be treated equally, without exceptions!

I am sorry to say this but racism runs deep in the American society, no matter how much it is swept under the rug… It probably runs deep in the other parts of the world but at least nobody there pretends they have dealt with it and got rid of it…As far as the US is concerned, the ugly face of racism has not disappeared. It has only changed its looks…

I’ve recently got a chance to watch two episodes of the four-part mini series “Nova: Origins” and I must admit it left me wanting more. And, obviously, I cannot wait to see the other two… The series is simply amazing, and while I am not a science person (or at least I’ve never thought of myself that way), I was absolutely engrossed in it and didn’t want to miss a single word uttered.

The series deals with the origins of life in the universe. The first episode explained the Big Bang theory and how it was proven. It also revealed that everywhere in the universe, there are chemical elements present which are the “givers” of life, such as carbon. These elements are created inside the stars and released when a star explodes. A process that is caused by producing too much iron inside the star itself, which cannot sustain that much iron, leading to a supernova explosion and releasing all these organic elements into the universe. And it begs a question: Is there life outside of Earth in the universe? That would be a logical conclusion, considering the fact that all these chemical elements necessary for any life to begin are present in all galaxies. Scientist even discovered that some galaxies were already created while our sun was just being formed…

So is there alien life in the universe? That is the topic of the second episode, which is trying to prove that life is not only plausible but likely somewhere else in the universe. Intelligent life is another matter. For intelligent life requires certain conditions to take place for it to establish itself, for instance humans evolved because an asteroid fell into the Earth some billions of years ago. This resulted in the extinction of dinosaurs that ruled the Earth before. Small mammals survived and thrived and through years of evolution humans came about (in a very short and simplified version). Another important thing that allows life on Earth is a fact that there is another planet in our solar system, namely Jupiter that sort of shields the Earth from all the debris flying around in the universe. Its gravity attracts such debris, e.g. asteroids and therefore prevents them from hitting our planet. So the scientists are currently trying to find other planets similar to earth as far as size, density and its own Jupiter. There are other solar systems with its planets already discovered but not one like ours. Yet…

So I am waiting impatiently for the next two episodes wondering what else is there that we (the average people) don’t quite know. And for someone that has never been interested in science, I find myself totally taken with it.

The Earth Day is behind us and unfortunately, many people will most likely fall back into their old habits… In order to celebrate the big day, many cities around the world, for instance Chicago, New York, Rome, Paris, Tokyo etc. turned off the lights for one hour on March 31. In Chicago alone (according to Oprah) the energy saved during that hour equals to one million cars taken off the road for an hour. Imagine the impact and the amount of energy saved taking into consideration all the big cities.

So why can’t we do it more often?—I ask… It isn’t that imaginable to live without all these neon signs and the forever-on lights for just one hour every so often, is it? Or am I imagining things? Shouldn’t we look at the big picture instead of our own comfort for just a fraction of time? I think we have come to take things for granted and don’t quite stop to think what impact it would have if we simply gave up a small thing, one bad habit or a bit of our daily comfort…

I am not proposing all the town and cities around the world would turn the lights off for an hour every week (although it would be something, wouldn’t it?) but perhaps once a month or a quarter? I don’t think it is such an outlandish idea, is it?