Amish, snipers, interracial dating, "Oh my"

Well I lost my original post so starting over again. As many of you know there was a shooting 2 days ago in my home town. My grandmother was attending Temple on Monday when she saw the helicopter land on the emergency pad on top of the nearby Hospital with one of the victims from the Amish School Shooting. 5 girls died, 5 more are in critical condition due to being shot in the heads :( Today's paper in Lancaster, according to Baba, has the information for the funeral services for the 5 Amish girls killed. Plus there is a fund being established for the others in the hospital to help cover the hospital bills. Of course Baba being the humanitarian that she is, wrote a check to donate and her Temple is meeting soon to discuss what they can do to help.

I don't know why its become popular with disgruntled people going into schools and opening fire. Its even harder to deter because how can we punish them? Most of them commit suicide. Whats the answer? I don't know other than to ban firearms among civilians. But of course the NRA (National Rifle Association) would have a fit to be tied. They are one of the biggest lobbyist when it comes to political campaign contributions and backing their puppet-like politicians. This has been hard on my family back home, having something like this happen nearby. I went thru a similar experience when the DC sniper hit the area a few years ago. It was soooo scary, you couldn't even go to the gas station without worrying. The word was when walking outside, was not to walk in a straight line but in a zig zag like fashion so that you as a "target" could not be as easily spotted or lined up with a gun.

Anyhoo on a different note, I realized last night while having insomnia that ironically the Tin Man is not the first person "of color" that I've dated but the 1st one that I've dated seriously. So in my boredom I googled "interracial couples" and a few interesting things came up.

Excerpt from the Washington Post, Dec 1998 Interracial Marriages Eroding Barriers
In much of Latin America, for example, marrying a person of lighter skin color is considered a move up the social ladder. Some Latinos invoke the phrase, mejorando la raza, improving the race, to signal their approval.

"There is a bit of colorism in the [Latino] community," says Greta Gilbertson, a Fordham University professor. "It is often times perceived as prestigious to marry outside of the group. And if that person happens to be white, so much the better."

another excerpt from the same article;

When it comes to housing, blacks are the most segregated of the nation's racial minorities, "by orders of magnitude," says Rebecca M. Blank, a member of the President's Council of Economic Advisers, which recently compiled a report documenting the nation's racial dynamics. On average, blacks live in neighborhoods that are 60 percent black, while Hispanics and Asian Americans tend to live in far more diverse neighborhoods.

"When you are talking about Asian or Hispanic middle classes moving into neighborhoods, you don't see the same tripping mechanism causing whites to move out that you see with blacks," Harrison said. "These things suggest that the black-white color line is still with us and that the integration of blacks is going to be a different story than the assimilation of Asians and Hispanics."

An excerpt from Usa Today, Dec. 2005 Love is no longer color-coded on TV

Racism is often reflected on television through hate crimes and other violent stories, Nagra says. "We know racism exists. Let's show people getting on. Let's be positive about it."

Mixed-race romances on television have never been plentiful, as the mass medium has been fearful of alienating viewers and advertisers.

In 1957, on Alan Freed's weekly rock 'n' roll show, black singer Frankie Lymon was seen dancing with a white woman. ABC promptly canceled the show.

On Star Trek, when Lt. Uhura and Capt. Kirk kissed (against their will) in 1968, it was heralded as the first interracial smooch on television.

And when Norman Lear featured a black woman and a white man as married neighbors to 1975's The Jeffersons, it was considered groundbreaking.

In real life, the gap slowly is narrowing. According to the most recent Census, interracial marriages grew from less than 1% in 1970 to nearly 6% in 2000. And as more of the world becomes a melting pot, interracial relationships have popped up more frequently on TV as well, though often tangentially. Some examples:

• Debra Messing's Grace dated guest star Gregory Hines on Will & Grace in 2000.

• David Schwimmer's Ross character fell for Aisha Tyler's Charlie on Friends in 2003.

• Gary Dourdan's Warrick has a history with Marg Helgenberger's Catherine on CSI.

So as the TV landscape has evolved, the issue now is less of whether mixed couples are featured on top shows, but when, how and if the writers will make their race part of the story line.

Hmm gives me food for thoughts. So far I have experienced mostly dirty looks, especially on the Upper West Side where the facial expressions range from disgust to "how could you?!" looks. As well as one time at Ikea, there was a Black woman working as a customer service rep and she was all smiles for the Tin Man but wouldn't even look at me and when she did, her face dropped into a look of disgust. I guess the thought running through her mind was "oh another White girl, butting in on my dating pool."

Work is going well, my schedule is now full all week and I am very happy. I am also glad to report that after sitting down with paper and pen and calculating roughly how much I would earn from all of my jobs, net not gross with taxs taken out, I will actually earn enough to live and pay my bills *whew!* I wont be raking in the dough but I won't go hungry either.

Been working on my lesson plans for tonights class. And tutoring plans for my tutor students in math and reading/writing. And since we're on the topic of tutors, my FCP tutor, Dj Tikki Marlsa came by and we got a lot covered last night. On my next day off, I plan to edit till the cows come home!

Tonight I will visit my friend Eddie who is still at home due to complications with his knee surgery. He's been majorly depressed and I don't blame me. How many days can a person stay inside and deal with the boredom? He's spent most of 2006 at home! Hopefully time will pass quickly enough for him.

Gonna see my Sweetie tonight at Eddies, looking forward to giving him a big old hug and kisses!