Obama Was In Town And I Missed It

How could I forgive myself?

I opened up the DFNYC mail on time. But the format was unusual. I just skimmed through it a second time a little while ago, and there was Obama with Ferrer. All the work that I have put into the Ferrer campaign would have been worth it just to be able to spend a little time with Obama. I am sure he got mobbed. And I might only have been able to steal a glance. But, uh. I feel so stupid.

This is not fair. Somebody do something about it.

If I had met Obama today, I only needed to meet Hillary and Amitabh Bachchan, and I would have been content.

What just happened? I am dumbfounded.

It is going to be a long time before an opportunity like this one surfaces again.

Ugh!

This is not good. How could I have? This was the one time when I did not skim through all the topics of the newsletter. The DFNYC newsletter, you are not supposed to read everything. The topics are listed at the top. You skim though the topics, and you click on those of interest.

Ugh. This did not just happen.

Opportunity knocked. And I did not listen.

This was the sweetest thing to have come my way through the DFNYC newsletter and I missed it. I can't freaking believe it.

I own the guy's autobiography.

Obama symbolizes hope itself.

Suddenly everything I did today feels like was a total waste of time. Or rather yesterday. This is past midnight.

Looks like both Amitabh Bachchan and Barack Obama are going to be tough nuts to crack.

What do you say during moments like this? Do you call yourself names? I am at a loss of words.

This is not good. Whatever happened to my email reading skills?

(I hear Bono's voice in the background. Usually that is a consolation, but this is not one of those times.)

*(3) Campaign for Freddy with Sen. Barack Obama, this afternoon at 8th Ave & 19th St*

Join U.S. Senator Barack Obama, Democratic Mayoral Candidate Fernando
Ferrer and supporters today in Chelsea

When: Today (Monday, November 7th) 2:15-3:15pm

Where:  S.E. corner of 8th Ave. and 19th Street in Manhattan

The group will be walking up 8th Ave to 23rd Street.

Contact: Dorcas Castro (646) 839-4947

Dean-Hillary-Obama Ticket
DFNYC Research And Advocacy Group

French Society: No Easy Solutions

Sick Sarkozy
Riots In France

Opinion: Europe's Lost Future Deutsche Welle, Germany ..... The previous socialist cabinet set up neighborhood police departments focused on dialogue, but was unable to take back lawless enclaves. ........ Current Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy tried the law-and-order approach, but after 11 nights of police crackdown more and more cars are burning in more and more regions of the republic. ........ Sarkozy said these things even though he has realized that "liberty, equality, fraternity" has lost its luster. He's been fighting for affirmative action against the president's resistance. He wants to give Muslim immigrants preferential treatment in the hiring process for the civil service and do away with the principle of equality.

Dialogue alone will not do. A single-minded emphasis on law enforcement alone will not do. A few social and economic programs thrown like bird feed alone will not do.

These young people are destroying the very infrastructure that is their limited ladder to upward mobility. Most of the cars they are burning are cars of their neighbors. Muslim clerics are not in any position to mediate. Muslim groups with reputations of being extremist are actually busy calming things down, with little success. There is no Al Qaeda grand design. This is alienation, disaffection, poverty, racism saying enough is enough.

Citizenship papers alone don't solve problems. Ultimately it is about societal attitudes. The socio-psychological reality itself has to change and become more accepting of people of "other" backgrounds. The social space has to expand or there is implosion.

Ultimately it is an issue of addressing multiculturalism. Institutional racism can feel like a glasshouse of mirrors.

"We are not looking for minorities. We are looking for the best officers."

Does that explain why the French police are not ethnically diverse?

That reflects a society in denial. That is a police department that is ethnocentric in its basic orientation, and that can not continue on.

France as a society has failed these young people. France has to reimagine itself as a society and a country.