Alaskan Rally to Restore Sanity

Well, today bore witness to a rather short but sweet ceremony.  It was an Alaskan event, our own version of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert’s Rally to Restore Sanity.  It was quite the ceremony, despite the cold weather and the shortness of it all.

It began with the speaker, Heather Aronno, head of the UAA Democrats, bringing the people together and talking about who would be speaking and why we were all there.  It was a rather pleasant speech.  Aronno speaks with passion for one of such small stature.  She stood there without dread of the extremely cold weather.  She joked about it a little, but the truth was that it was actually biting cold out at the Cuddy Quad where the event was held, on the grounds of the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA).  Getting such an event together required a lot of work.  As Aronno described, there was a great deal of red tape that people had to go through to set up an event like this one.

After Aronno was done speaking, she handed the mike to a student leader named Alex Maslow.  He first gave quotes and talked about the ideals of the various Tea Party candidates, showing how these peoples’ ideals were not only dangerous, they were simply indecent by societal standards.  He talked about the fact that our modern political arena has become a world of deception and petty arguing.  The partisanship, or rather, the lack of working together, is draggin this country into the abyss.  He spoke about how there needs to be a change.  The new revolution of Tea Party candidates, who are panderers of bigotry and prejudism, do not want a world of equality for all people.  Rather, they would like to go back to the days of Jim Crowe, when  it was white Christian men who lived the good lives, and the others had to suffer through endless series of problems that were not justified.

Aronno then introduce the second speaker, another young man named Ceezar Martinson.  He expanded on the previous speaker’s point.  He legitimately feared ath the country that the Tea Party candidates would build would not be a country that people would want to live in.  Here in Alaska, we have a special connection to this.  We have the second-largest economy of any state in this country.  We stand to lose so much by electing psychotic people like Joe Miller, who pander ideals of a Christian nation.  Martinson was holding a black cat in his arms.  It seemed appropriate, given the spirit of Halloween which also holds over today.

The third speaker was a community activist named Kokayi Nosakhere.  He was an impassioned speaker who used mostly pathos-based speech.  He was right when he said that more people need to get out and vote this fall.  He was right when he got out and said that there is too much belief in this country that only the insane can have passion and the insane can have a voice.  He rallied everyone to action, to get as many people as is humanly possible out to vote next week.  It was good to hear somebody who was so full of vigor.

The final speaker was a national figure, and the person who got Rachel Maddow to come to Alaska, Shannyn Moore.  Moore was pleased with the turnout at the Rally.  To her, it was a sign that things were looking up for the people of Alaska.  She was sick and tired about hearing about the antics of Sarah Palin, whom she has been personally attacked by.  She is tired of seeing the insanity of people like Joe Miller go unanswered, but she said that there was hope.  The people who attended the rally were hope that things might not be so bad, that Alaska me not fall into the death-grip of people like Miller, and the Tea Party posse that are trying to turn this country back into the world of the 50′s again.

The rally ended, and people dispersed.  It was a great experience.  Afterward, we ran into Desa Jaccobson, a local and outspoken native activist.  She is also a community leader.  She had organized the anti-Beck/Palin rally on 9/11. 

“It all starts with one person,” she said, talking about how it took getting everyboyd involved to make a difference.  And there was a difference that was made. 

All in all, it was a great day, and it was a sign that Alaska is not a red-state.  At least, not all of it.

Until next time, a quote,

“Now it is time for all of us to get out there and to make a difference!  To show that Alaska is not just filled with crazy people.  That this is a rally to sanity, and we will make our voices heard!”  -Alex Maslow

Peace out,

Maverick

The Valentine Effect

There are an exceptional few amount of people who can be called “good people.”  Seriously, the very connotation that a person is good is a blind that is thrown about when people want to believe that a person is a good person.  Here’s a simple truth: 90% of people are complete assholes who simply try and be decent.  They act like they are good because they don’t want everybody to hate them.  The reason for that is because it is a natural human reaction to want people to like them.  It is natural for people to want to have the love and respect of others.  However, the natural tendency of a person is to be an abject asshole.  I don’t mean that as a put-down.  I truly don’t blame people for that.  I truly do believe that a person is just who they are and that it cannot be helped. 

So, why bring this up?  Well, I have met a person.  I have met a person who has completely redefined my understanding of the human race.  You see, I regard most people as “plastic.”  Should I ever call somebody plastic, there is no greater insult that I can call them.  Plastic means that they are fake.  They are not a real person.  They walk and talk and act like a real person, but they are not a real person.  They become whoever they are when they are around somebody.  What I mean is that the company of people they are around directly affects who they are.  They have no personality of their own, they are merely a mimic who mimics what they think the person they are with wants to hear.  Plastic means that a person is not a person, they are an empty shell that is filled by whatever they think the other person or other people want to hear.

I have met somebody, however, who I do not believe could be plastic.  I have met somebody who I believe is a perfectly complete person.  So, why am I telling the world about this?  What does the world care about this concept?  In all honesty, I am talking about a greater concept that I believe needs to be addressed.  I am talking about a person not being afraid to be who they are.

This girl that I am referencing to.  She is a completely good person.  She has no ulterior motive, no dark designs on anybody.  She may sometimes be a bit of a pushover, but her heart truly is in the right place.  She holds no grudges and never seems to get mad all that much.  She takes so much more on her plate than she can possible handle, and handles it with ease.  She cares so much about the people she cares about, regardless of the effect they have on her.  She loves unconditionally those who she lets herself get close to.  She is a little careful about who she gets close to, but that’s okay.  She is still a good person.  A genuinely good person. 

So, when I talk about plastic, I am also talking about the fact that she is not plastic.  She does not have it in herself to be plastic.  Years of letting herself get walked over taught her well.  Now she stands tall and proud, and I am proud of her. 

Here’s the greater issue that I bring up by telling you all this- people are afraid to be who they are.  They are afraid to do what they believe in, because they believe that it is not what they are supposed to do.  They believe that there is a force in the universe that is commanding them to simply bite their tongue and to do whatever the general belief in the world tells them to do.  This is a faulty belief that has been reinforced by a harsh and ruthless world that tells everybody that going with the flow is good, but taking a stand for what you believe in is bad.  I will never understand why people are so ready to believe this.

I have been doing a paper recently on a modern medicine and the cost that it has on the people who use it.  My results have been…interesting.  I have had a remarkable experience coming to understand that one of the biggest problems is that people are afraid of their own medical opinion.  They don’t have faith in what they are doing and so they allow themselves to make bad decisions because they are afraid of their own medical decision-making shadows, as it were.  That is a fascinating problem.  Another problem is human arrogance.  People now have a multitude of tools at their disposal to get a multitude of medical opinions.  The orgy of websites that have medical information packed into them so that any idiot with a computer or an Iphone can simply input their symptoms into them and get into a world of arguments with their doctors.  I find it fascinating that every parent now, when their spawn gets an illness, thinks that they have bacterial meningitis.  Moronic parents, and dangerous too because they don’t have any experience.  My own mother remarked on this.  She called it her “Mommy’s Medical Degree (MMD).”  A bullshit concept that is as dangerous as it is rediculous.

Here’s my problem with it all.  The concept of a person not being able to be who they are is bad.  It makes you into a slave to whatever master you believe will give you want you want.  Here’s my question, when that master fails, when you are forced to stand on your own and to make your own judgments, what then?!  What happens when you have the world on your shoulders, and there is nobody there to help you?!  It is a legitimate concept, and nobody believes me.  They just say that I don’t look deep enough into people, that I judge them too quickly.  No, that is not that case.  If a person has to personality of their own, judgment is irrelevant.  It all comes down to this: either you are a person or plastic, a man or a slave. 

I call the ability to be yourself and to not give a damn of people accept you or not “The Valentine Effect,” after the girl who I observed with it, and my best friend.  A girl who I don’t know what I would do without.  She’s really something, and I am glad to know her.

Until next time, a quote,

“Because I hate fake people and I always think I’m never fake.”  -Victoria Jackson

Peace out,

Maverick