Untitled.

I spent the day flying to a neighboring state for an interview. The interesting thing about this was that it took me less time to fly there than it does to take the bus to work. That makes me sad, and angry as well. If the people who determine the routes would get their head out of their asses and actually ride some of the routes they plan out, they would see that much of the pain and heartache that is this city's public transportation system could be easily alleviated with some well-placed express routes. For example, there are malls in every major corner of the county. Currently the "express" routes go between those malls, but they take surface streets. The routes end up takin an hour to an hour and a half. If they had true express routes that went directly between malls, taking the freeways and having zero stops in between, they could focus the other routes on local fanning routes and cut all travel down by up to an hour. It's that simple! Grr.

After a stressful but, hopefully, successful day in this neighboring state, I came back in the afternoon and prepared for a long bus ride home. Actually, it was nice that it was long because it allowed me to sit back and ruminate over everything and begin preparing for a possible second interview. While I was riding, I began to notice two young men sitting near me having a loud and intense conversation. They were young black men, and they were discussing black politics and the evil of the whites. They talked about everything from how Krishna was actually a black man to how AIDS was a disease created by white men and injected into black men. They talked about how whites aren't even aware of their inherent evil, and that one day the end of times will come and there will be a huge massacre of the evil whites. I've never actually heard anything like this except in movies. I'm not even sure what to think about it. I have a friend who is black, and I find myself wondering if it would even be appropriate to bring it up to her to see what she thinks about it. All my life I've been taught about racism and how it is a crime perpetrated by white people against other racial groups, and that race isn't even a real biological concept, but something some man made up once. I wonder what Oprah would think about this? I watched her special not too long ago to honor Sidney Poitier, and the amazing discussions that went on about his life and his experiences growing up black, and how he was able to move beyond opression to become what he is today. I also recall reading The Pursuit of Hapyness, and how Chris Gardner also overcame a difficult racial situation at a brokerage firm to become the mogul he is today. What would these amazing men think about the conversation I overheard? It also reminds me of the fight I witnessed in front of the Chee Chee bar, and another I witnessed later (but haven't blogged about yet) between several young black men, and it makes me think that these young men are holding each other back, that they should have more respect for themselves and their fellow black men than to be beating each other up. Anyway, it was a pretty intense conversation and experience for me to have overheard it. I even feel weird blogging about this, despite the fact that it's anonymous. I have had coworkers, friends, and school mates who were black and for whom I have a great deal of respect. It troubles me that we still can not get past the issue of race to where we can deal with each other as people and nothing more or less.