change

this is gonna be word vomit.

i'm sure there are a number of things to be happy about in the current political climate but i'm having a lot of trouble seeing through what i can only describe as bullshit, right now.

i just read a couple of articles, (Health-Care Reform, 2015, Why We Must Judge) one summarizing the future battles we have to overcome in order to see that health care reform becomes something we're proud of. the other develops an argument for judgement, and argues that today, our thirst for accountability and blame are nearly nonexistent.

BUT these articles did not just clarify health care reform and our current culture of judgement for me, they helped to solidify my (and certainly, kate's) opinion that this country and to be sure, this world, has a need for change.

a sweeping generalization for sure. thing is though, for us to keep living the way we are in a world where the interests of a special few get more attention than do those of the masses of a typically 'middle class' (definitely the case in the u.s.), is unacceptable to me. and it should be unacceptable to most of us.

but, it seems that a participation in elections is the biggest effort we're willing to make. even that however, is a far cry from the contribution we as members of our communities, states, and countries need to be making in order to actually affect 'change.' for the u.s., electing Obama was a step in the right direction, but it was just barely that. to be clear, it was not a step in the right direction because he has a liberal agenda, or because he is a member of the democratic party, but because he and his administration realized something that the majority of america yearned for. we wanted and definitely still want for something different.

for a lot of us, that difference comes down to mere change of parties. i would guess that this is most of us. the problem though, is systemic. it's not just one party, or one person even. though we can lay a lot of the blame for our current situation on the policies of Bush or Obama, this does not solve the issue at heart. (not that we actually do anything with this blame. no prisoners are taken, or punishments made. we only replace those we don't approve of. where's the justice in that?)

the problem, as i see it, is a gross disrespect for each other and ignorance of implications. our system is what it is, and that will not change in the near future. in the u.s. we will continue to elect people who we must trust to act in our best interest.

BUT, there is a beauty in how our country was set up. we, as individuals are not weak and defenseless in the eyes of the law. we are given the freedoms through our constitution for a very specific reason, that reason being that if we as individuals are dissatisfied with the current system, we can stand up freely and voice our opposition. does that happen? of course it does, and in scales of all size too. from small groups in even smaller protests to overarching unions who wield substantial power to combat injustices. but largely, as a population exceeding 300 million, we americans, remain silent.

my plea is that we must engage ourselves more. we can only try our best, but we must ask that of ourselves and others around us. we must try our best to learn who actually controls whether we have tax cuts or whether we get medical care for all. to learn just how the decision was made to ship a number of our jobs overseas, or why our school systems continue to perform poorly, especially in light of the results that other countries education systems can celebrate. furthermore, we must ask of our selves, our friends and family to act when unsatisfied. we must act to change the current injustices. clearly, we cannot rely solely on the efforts of one politician, or one administration, or even a single elected governmental whole.

because, and you can be assured of this, there are people in power, not through our election, but our spending, that spit in the face of our free market and take advantage of our collective buying power to deny the interests of those (us) who have given them this power, and look out almost exclusively for themselves. it doesn't follow logically that we would continue to spend our money with companies who don't look out for their customers, be we do. it enrages me that this isn't completely our fault, but because transparency among companies is a game and a joke.

my word is definitely not law. it's but one citizen's dissatisfaction and cry for actual change. but if you feel at all similar to the way i do, you'll try. you'll try to learn, act, and change what you personally find is wrong about our country. and if you don't? i hope you don't complain. words will get us nowhere. action is what is required of this country, and certainly this world.

Possibly Human Nature: a metaphor

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/14/realestate/14cov.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&hp

Upon reading Constance Rosenblum's The Price 20-Somethings Pay to Live in the City, in the New York Times today, it opened up reflection of my own life in a big city. Here I am, lying in my own bed, raised above the dusty hardwood inhibited with tumbleweeds of hair and miscellaneous insects (despite my efforts to Swiffer). Out my window, the reflection of the buildings clustered together seems to dance in the night sky, glittering off in the distance. This sequence is almost too showy, much like an untouchable display at a high-end department store. Yet somehow the cards played the hand of a teenage dream.

"I am the lady strutting streets with shopping bags hooked to my forearm, swaying in sync to the clank of my heels as I trace the concrete, lining the road of tourists."

Minivans and SUVs filled with Cheerios and coffee cups, sing-a-long songs and fast food, nameless families from that small, Mid-Western suburb. I'm a big city girl now.

Wrong. Cars transport me too. and you. and that man over there.

No one is above nor below another, but to the left or right. Separated by the ego, super-ego, and the id, we are all the same under the setting sun. We deceivingly imagined it any other way. One difference being that some people choose to wear glitter.

With these thoughts understanding equality, I will fall asleep smiling at the city; my teenage dream.

we need to start.

kate and i have been going back and forth, back & forth on how to start moving on our goals. do we do business cards? do we network? do we take pictures of random people on the street whose style we like? or review a great concert we just saw?

so i'm just gonna pull the trigger, and write a post.

we're just a couple of college students living in chicago who have big dreams, big goals, and even bigger ideas of what should be and totally isn't. and then there are the things we like, enjoy, and even love about the world. for us, those mostly fall into categories of music, fashion, food, movies, art, and other cultural phenomena. that's what we really want this blog to be: a collection of all of the things we fancy, and a selection of the things we don't. more importantly though, we're going to let you know why we like, or don't like something. that's because knowing why has somehow become overrated and unnecessary. and in at least some small way, we want to change that.

this will become more than what we originally limit it to, and that's probably because as a pair, we're interested in a lot of different shit stuff. and vice-versa. you'll find us talking a lot about the things i mentioned above, but we know there's way more to life and we'll talk all about the stuff we find worth mentioning, so don't be surprised if we go on tangents. (it may or may not be what we do best.)

this blog is going to grow as we realize what we want it to become, which means it will probably never finish changing. because as a rule, kate and i are NEVER satisfied, and we're just fine with that. 

so even if you only read a quarter of what i just wrote, i hope that you come back, and watch to see how things evolve from this, our very FIRST post.