Proud To Be A Blogger!

FD's Flickr Toy: Badge Maker

There are days when I am glad that I'm not a politician. I don't have to mince my words. I don't have to worry that something I say will offend someone and cost me my job. I also don't have to worry or care about being misunderstood, misquoted, or having whatever I said taken out of context. I can speak my mind. I can say the things that maybe some politicians are actually thinking but, won't say. I am an "arrogant windbag known as a blogger", as one talking head who I will not give the dignity of naming here on my blog said of bloggers. The funny thing about it is, the man who said this has a blog of his own and something I don't have... a television show, and he is viewed by many as an arrogant windbag himself.

I don't mind being called arrogant... I've been called worse. I was in the U.S. Military for twenty-some years and I was a sergeant so, go figure. I've been called "opinionated". I was on the debate team when I was in college and was known for using, let's say, "creative" tactics to bolster my point of view. One time I actually won a debate over an opponent who I agreed with in principle. I'm happy that I can use this blog to expose nonsense when I see and read it.

This "Obama is an elitist" crap is the latest. I know that I discussed this on two posts yesterday but, I basically was reporting it and not pontificating on it the way I should have. I wasn't going to write about it today but, I read somebody else's blog... somebody who is insulted by Obama's comments and I decided to speak on this again. Hillary Clinton and John McCain have seized on this "issue" and probably will seize on everything he says from now until election day. This is politics... this is the nature of the game. They want to win... he wants to win. If there is no issue, they will create one...That's the game but, lets be fair.

I'm from the big city... Philadelphia, PA. The joke about Pennsylvania is that, "in between Philly and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania might as well be Mississippi." Do you know who said that? Not Barack Obama but rather, my grandfather, Prince Albert Martin (1890-1972). He always said that and it wasn't until I was about 18 years old that I knew what he meant.

I was riding the bus from Philly to the college I attended in Shippensburg, which is about 30 miles outside of the state capital. For the first time in my life, I saw the beautiful farmland, trees, and quaint small town life that resembled nothing I was used to in the inner city streets of Philadelphia. For the first time, I met white people who had never seen a black person, except on television. (I kid you not). In these towns, there were more churches than anything else. In these towns, everybody had a gun or rifle because the men and boys did a lot of hunting and fishing. Also, in some of these places, a lot of racism and isolationism ferments because racists like the KKK and The Aryan Nations play on people's economic fears by telling them that the "Jews and the Niggers in Philly, Harrisburg, and Pittsburgh are taking all of the good jobs from us." Now, I know that to be true.

In Obama's "bitter" speech, he wasn't looking down on anybody... he was stating a fact and trying to explain why it is so. Hillary Clinton and John McCain KNOW this but, it's a nice stick to crack him across the head with and in the era of the sound bite, it's very easy to use it to your advantage. This is what I should've said yesterday.

Now, with that said, I'm proud to be a blogger. Anybody offended? Anybody didn't understand what I said? I'll quote Clark Gable here..."Frankly Scarlett, I don't give a damn!"