Metacentricities

In a month or so (August 31st to be exact) I have to be out of our house, because we found a renter for September 1 (actually, one of my present housemates is going to take over, and get more housemates - and he already found a bunch.) I’m quite thankful for that, because the housing market is so bad, that for the two months our house was on the market, no one even came to look at it.  Yes, Virginia, the housing market around here is that bad. Our realtor said that basically nothing listed for more than $200K was selling. Sigh.

So … I’ll be hitting the highway again, this time back to California, a little earlier than I expected.  I’m excited to be moving back to the Bay Area - interested in finding out more about all of the varied things I might get connected to, or involved with.

And there is also sadness - I’m leaving (again) a group of great friends that I’ll miss getting to see often. I’m sad to be leaving New England, the part of the country that seems to me to be as much like home as any I’ve so far found.

So I’ll be packing, having last lunches and coffees and teas with people for a while, downloading audio books, making playlists, arranging moving logistics, scanning SF Bay Area Craigslist for places to possibly look at when I arrive, and hopefully still manage to work, write and stay sane. Wish me luck.

It’s an interesting, liminal time.

Ruth and I are in Cleveland, OH - taking a break from her two-week long residency teaching poetry at Ashland University’s MFA writing program. I joined her for the week, and have been doing a bit of work, and a good bit of writing.

I’m sitting at a cafe, namely Arabica’s cafe, in University Circle. This Arabic was not here when I lived here 20 years ago. There was a single Arabica that had just opened up in Coventry - a fun place to hang out, with people playing chess and go in the back. I was there for countless afternoons and evenings reading and writing, as I was finishing my dissertation.

It’s fun to be in Cleveland, and interesting. I am remembering all of the things I liked about it when I lived here.

Next, back home, time to start thinking about packing, moving, and all of the next steps.

The brou-ha-ha around Jesse Jackson’s comments about Obama, and how he would like to excise a part of Obama’s anatomy has been, for me, a very interesting study in the politics race. (When you watch the video, have a look at Jesse Jackson’s right hand, and his face, as he makes his comments.)

Of course, there is no substantive coverage of what the issues exactly are that Jesse Jackson has with Obama’s ideas about reforming Bush’s faith-based initiatives. The most substantial coverage is about the drama, the apologies, the repudiation …

Jim Wallis has a view of the new ideas:

Obama affirmed the idea of a faith-based initiative on the solid foundations of both real partnership and the necessary commitment of government to sound public policy to reduce poverty. Prior to today, the danger was that Democrats might revert to old secular biases and end the faith-based program altogether, preferring only public sector approaches as the remedy to poverty instead of also forging vital partnerships with civil society that include the faith community. It was good to see that the failures of the Bush faith-based initiative have not deterred Obama from proposing a robust vision of his own.

From my perspective, I don’t know that I would necessarily say that it would have been a bad thing to end the faith-based program altogether - I don’t know that it would be from secular bias, but more likely from a healthy appreciation of the separation of church and state, and how difficult it is to have a governmental faith-based initiative, and not run afoul of that in one way or another. On the other hand, it might well be interesting to see what Obama does with this, and whether it really has the kinds of effects he hopes it will.

In terms of the politics of race - Jackson says of Obama “he’s talking down to Black people on this faith based …” What did he mean by that? Obviously, I don’t know, although I could guess. Others have guessed, too. Here’s a comment from Sylvester Brown:

When there are discussions about crime, drug abuse, teen-age sex, divorce or violence, they are presented as “societal problems” in the white community, even though such things permeate all parts of society. Whereas in the black community, these issues are discussed as “black problems.”

We know that Obama isn’t talking down to us. He’s talking around us.

He’s trying to woo white voters who want a president with the juice to tell blacks to clean up their own club.

And there was this comment from David Knowles:

Like Bill Cosby, Obama insists that not all of black America’s modern-day problems can be blamed on the legacy of slavery. The “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” approach is not oblivious to historical factors, but it seeks to shift the emphasis for solving problems away from government and toward the individual and the community itself. And now, thanks to Jackson, Obama gets to highlight this message to white America all the more.

Just as significant, in case there was still any doubt about it, is the re-confirmation that Jesse Jackson is no longer the de facto figure-head of black America. Neither is Al Sharpton. In fact, Obama’s rise may signal an end to the cult-of-personality, hierarchical pecking-order within the African American community that began (quite understandably) with Martin Luther King, Jr.

Both are really interesting, and, I think, pretty right on. Jesse Jackson (and others) have lived their lives, and built their careers around a very specific kind of construction of race - one that is very much, and literally, black and white (and, to some extent, descendants of slaves and descendants of slave-owners), with few shades of grey. Obama lives in the shades of grey. And because of the changes in demographics, economics and culture of the last 30 years, that’s really where we all live, too.

In any event, unlike the Reverend Wright brou-ha-ha, this one can only help Obama.

This is the Wordle this blog made:

It’s kinda cool. Check out the tool.