Idol, and cats, and Thurgood Marshall

It's the 50th anniversary of Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, KS. It is impossible for me to overstate how much that decision meant for my life and the lives of so many others. I was talking to someone last Friday about politics and race and they said something about the laws that get passed to guarantee rights and I just looked at him and said, "If it weren't for them, I never would have been able to go to Harvard." Simple as that.

It's very hot and muggy here in da NYC, and I really don't feel like turning on the air quite yet, though it's been 80º during the day and huge thunderstorms every afternoon. Hence, my window next to my bed is open with the box fan blowing away.

Tuesday night I'm sleeping and I feel my cat Veda sitting on top of my hip, when suddenly I can here this loud ashhhhh. I wake up and look out the window and can barely make out a black or dark grey cat sitting on the fire escape outside my window hissing like crazy, and Veda, of course, is hissing right back because she's a little punk cat at heart. Visions of the two of them tearning apart the screen go through my head, then I grab the water bottle on my bedstand and squirt the cat until it goes away. Scared me half to death, though.

Annoyingly, the cat came back about a half hour later and I had to do it again and then shut the window for a bit, and it's really too hot for that. Luckily it didn't come back last night. I think Veda and I made our point.

( Idol Results. Hmph. )

A quick thing about the political process

ALL POLITICS IS LOCAL

If you want to support Kerry, or Bush, or your state's Senator or your Congressman, why not be an adult and get out your checkbook? Do you only donate to public radio to get the umbrella or the tote bag? Do you only donate to the Red Cross to get the address labels? Full disclosure: I have donated $50 to Dean, and will likely do some local donations and possibly some cross-state donations where I think my money could make some difference.

If you don't have a lot of money, perhaps you should take your eyes away from the big national contest (true, more important for the whole war thing) and look to your representative to the state legislature. A small amount of money given to them really makes a difference, and you'll be making a big difference for things like gay marriage and other rights issues which tend to be decided on a state-by-state basis. Having Kerry as president isn't going to change the bills going through the Virginia state house, you know.

Also, if you aren't a US citizen, and you don't want to worry about the byzantine campaign finance laws, then maybe you should work out the difference between what my government is up to and what your government is up to and affect that. If you're against our policies, then vote for a government that won't just bend over to us. They exist; look at Spain and France and Germany.