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And do not judge me --

It looks like the President will be the only black person in this auditorium tonight.

It says something very sad to me about this very "idyllic" town. It cause me to look up the demographics of the city. Definitely not a town that I would want to live in.

I'm sad about the deaths and have had an emotional time feeling for all connected. Now I have even more sadness.

The President will be out on the stage in a few moments now.

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The Jewish prayer and the Muslim prayer were powerful. Only in America is it possible for so many religious backgrounds to be represented and recognized without reprisal. Our similarities are far, far more than our differences.

Conn. in general has more white people living there than black people. Still President Obama the audience still respects his views and they know where he is coming from.

I didn't see it last night, but just watched Obama's speech online. Clearly, not just the President, but the Dad in Chief was at the podium. His emotion was raw, and not only did I tear up at some points, but I admit that I broke down as he read the names of the victims near the end of his speech.

And Kate, let me just say that you can't blame a town just because one group or another happens to be the majority or because another is not. Some towns and cities are diverse, some are not, and the factors that drive that circumstance are many and varied. Sometimes they're deliberate — which would validate your sadness — but more often not.

I hear what you're saying, especially having lived in NYC where diversity is on steroids and now living in a midwestern suburb where the cultural sensitivity is not up to the ethnic and racial diversity present. Simply put, tolerance and understanding doesn't have to be reserved only for your next door neighbors. It's global

On Saturday the AA football championship for PA was played between the Pittsburgh area Alequipa High School Fightin' Quips--an all-black, clearly 99 percenter kinda place--and our very own Wyomissing High School Spartans, definitely a 1 percenter suburb of my home town, with one black kid on the roster. The Spartans won.

Don't know why I posted this, but thought it might be relevant.

You know, I do kinda* live in a lopsided racial mix town. I knew that, but I thought it must have really changed for the better since I first came here. I looked up McMinnvile's demographics.

White alone - 23,693 (73.6%)
Hispanic - 6,630 (20.6%)
Two or more races - 737 (2.3%)
Asian alone - 481 (1.5%)
American Indian alone - 347 (1.1%)
Black alone - 186 (0.6%)
Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone - 59 (0.2%)
Other race alone - 54 (0.2%)

I have mentioned it before but when we lived in Hawaii, my ex and I were the minority in our apartment house. White alone.

*That's putting it mildly

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When we moved here in 1984, it was a pretty much white, redneck community. Over the years, it has become more and more ethnically diverse. I like it a lot better now.

I saw parts of his speech... excluding the TP, he made lots of points among Americans. The parts I saw were spot on and emotion a 10+.... gawd how can you not feel his pain and dillema. I think they get all parties to the table. If some leave (aka NRA), it's their call and choice, but start with a FULL slate We need to eliminate semi and fully automatic weapons as well as limit clip size. Under the Brady Bill, clip size was limited to 10... I like 6 !!. It'll take 20-25 years to clense this country, but it'll be worth it.

How about starting with a $25,000 fine for EACH infraction? Sure the crazies won't care, however no law will touch them any way, BUT "law biding" folks could give them up... even give them a bounty for turning them over. Over time they'll be scarce as hen's teeth and crazies will have a tough time getting them. ANYONE selling them gets a 5 yr mandatory sentence. Let's see how many are willing to risk it.
Again the point is to take them out of cirtculation, so 10-20 years from now, they'll be as hard to get as a nuke !! BTW - does the NRA support people having nukes ?

This country is getting more multicultural everywhere you turn to today. This is good not like before where there were especially in NYC certain sections were Jews, Irish, and Italians and there was bias there a lot especially when i was growing up.

(Fightin') Quips vs Spartans (Ancient Greece's most famous warriors) doesn't seem like a fair fight even before entering the field, or looking at socioeconomic extraction of the two teams.

I would think the name Fightin' Quips is sort of weak and self defeating in itself. It points, in my view, at an unequal access to quality education.

Once on this roll i may now go on and consider that/if the above mentioned weaknesses may be attributed here —as well as in other more-or-less similar cases— to a "defeatist" teacher's/administrator's educational "psychology/philosophy" which would be a consequence of the very real and frustrating limitations of the educational system in succeeding at integrating their graduates to stable dignified places in society (jobs), suitable for "the pursuit of happiness" and "freedom".

Instead, those dignified jobs are being eliminated in an increasingly industrialized globe in favor of cheap, mindless robotic labor. Those type of jobs have been and are being exported to other countries (like China, by companies we love so much like Apple) and, recently, these jobs are being assigned for the exploitation of extremely-cheap private prison convict labor. The youth opening out into the broader society find themselves in a conflict facing their aspirations, desires, consumer status, etc., find themselves in opposition to, confronted with, frustrated by: the lack of real, stable, productive, benign, dignified social means of survival (jobs).…

… That is: DOA


Just commenting.