Archives for the month of: November, 2008

I know this is totally presumptuous and kind of manipulative even to write, but I wonder how God must feel when He watches the post-election reactions of many people who claim allegiance to Him.  My guess: not so great.

Whatever your political persuasion, I hope we can all agree that the historic election of Senator Barack Obama as the next President of the United States is worthy of recognition, even celebration.  While his election does not mean that racism in America has been “solved” it does reflect the significant progress we’ve made over the last hundred, fifty, and even ten years.  As a person of color, I resonate with many reflections I’ve heard recently about how now we can honestly tell our children that they can be anything they want, even President of the United States.

However, the conversation among many Christians has been anything but celebratory.

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I’m always having driveway moments with This American Life, even when I’m not in the car. This American Life always manages to weave together the most engaging narratives, in turn humorous and heartbreaking. A recent episode, Mistakes Were Made, discusses the non-apology.

Act Two of this episode reflects on a famous poem written by William Carlos Williams, This Is Just To Say:

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold

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DJ Chuang posted today about who mainstream media outlets could contact to be a voice for the Asian American community.

I am glad to hear that our voices might be included in mainstream media discussions, rather than being an afterthought, especially with all of the negative portrayals of Asian Americans in the media these days (as wimpy nerds, well-intentioned but hapless, or just basically non-existent).

However, given the incredible diversity of Asian American communities it would be hard to imagine someone who could speak for all of us.  Hopefully, as spokespeople for Asian Americans begin to be raised up, we can address some of these issues.

Actually, I think DJ would be a great candidate himself!

Oh yeah, something about plagues and general badness

Occasionally at church we get these crazed fundamentalist pamplets, flyers and even handwritten notes proclaiming certain doom because of our denomination and/or the current state of America and/or San Diego and/or just because someone’s feeling a little apocalyptic today.  Ask Bruce Reyes-Chow — the crazies will conjure up any reason to launch their attacks.

Call it paranoia, but whenever we get these things I always feel like they’re going to be laced in anthrax (no, not them (and, seriously, Scott Ian: stop the Stryper-bashing!)).

Anyhoo… last week we received a particularly panicky looking pamphlet from some group, and on the back, in huge repentance-worthy blocky font is this message:

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So, a couple of years ago, I carved a couple of different pumpkins for our daughter, including her beloved Hello Kitty.  These were my first attempts at moving beyond the standard toothy jack o’ lantern face (apologies for the blurriness):

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