Here’s how out of touch I am… I just caught the news about the Obama speech on the Daily Show. I’ve been nerding it up screwing around in C++ for an RIT class since I got home from work - and having all kinds of computer issues with the school’s network and whatever.
Anyway, I catch small parts of clips from his Reverend preaching and small clips from Obama’s speech today. I’d also like to throw out that I agree with parts of the “God Damn America speech by the Rev.”
I have to throw it out there again that I think Obama is a great guy. He’s full of hope, optimism, sunshine, feel goods - he’s everything that’s been lacking in this country lately. However, I gotta say I’m still not convinced he’s got a lot of really solid ideas… I think he appeals to the part of us that thinks how we wish things could be. The part of me that has grown up a bit - beyond my years you may say - is saying that it’s just not how the world is.
Although I realize my ideals - my bleeding heart liberalness for example are likely out of step with reality and possible solutions, I still have them.
My kid was watching the new Justice League cartoon movie the other night (it could just as easily be for adults, you know… references to McCarthy and the red scare… politics, US history…) and Superman started giving this speech about America. The true values of America and what we’re supposed to stand for. Later they cut to a speech by John F. Kennedy - the go to the moon speech I think - and damn if I wasn’t crying a little.
I love this country… I love the ideals and the possibilities… I love the promise of how things should be here, and I hate with every inch of my being the people who fuck that up for the rest of us daily - and that is a huge list man. I hate the rape of innocence that happens in our society.
The real America… the one that cares about people and believes in honor and truth… the America that probably never existed in the first place - but none the less, the America they taught me about as a kid… the one I believed in when I formed by beliefs in this world… That’s the America I want to live in. That’s what I want my son to have someday.
Obama appeals to that thing in me. When I heard him talking about race issues with honesty and integrity - like I said I’m floored. This speech deserves much better commentary than I or the news media can give it right now. I’m left with many thoughts, a bit of guilt, and maybe even a sliver of hope - something I’ve only felt twice in the past 6 years. Once when I was on a bus to Washington D.C. to protest the War, and once when the results for the 2004 election weren’t in yet and we thought common sense would kick out Bush.
Jon Stuart summed the whole issue up best though - and I’ll attempt to paraphrase:
“So there you have it folks. At 11am today, March 18th, 2008, a promising political figure in the United States talked to the American people about race… like they were adults.”
The best part of this speech is the fact that it hit on so many topics that commenters don’t really know where to begin discussing it. Those on the right will try to pick it apart and everything they want to say about it will have been covered in that speech. It basically nullifies most of the race baiting for all but the most racist of individuals and does so in a way that appeals to our better nature. Fucking amazing.
But whatever. What’s this about C++?
Yeah, C++….
I’m taking a class this quarter called “Technical Programming 1.” It’s pretty much a class in C++ and so far we’ve done the “Hello World” thing and a few pretty basic things like taking a user input and running it through an equation. Just started going over booleans and If / else statements.
I never used C++, but I sort of messed with VB here and there at work.
I program in an application language - if that’s what you’d call it - called PC-Dmis just about everyday, and that looks to be based in VB as well at it’s core. I just don’t have a need to get that far into it.
Anyway, the class is not that hard but getting Visual Studio to not crash or to get RIT’s VPN to work on my laptop is the latest pain in the butt.
I’ve probably spent 2 or 3 hours doing work and about 23 hours downloading this and that and trying to be able to just do the work and hand it in.
Tom, when did I morph into this tec-geek computer guy? I just typed all this stuff about computer programming - I thought my image was supposed to be “working class folk guy.”
I feel weird now. Like I need a week of beer drinking and grunt work to sort of level things out a bit…
Ha!
Don’t think that just because you become a PC guy, you’re going to not be “working class.” Just wait till you have a job in IT and the next round of layoffs happen, it will be crystal clear. In fact, the SEIU lives and dies by IT jobs and there is also a Contractors Union in its infancy, so not only can you be a Working Class Hero, you can be a pseudo-Wobbly on top of it!