Tag: hope | A Banana Peeled

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Excited for the first time in 12 years, part two

Posted on August 8, 2024 by Minna Hong • 0 Comments

One of my biggest complaints about Democrats is that they won’t take a stand for what they believe in. The party, I mean. They water it down or equivocate or try to make it as palatable as possible. They try to appeal to everyone, and it doesn’t appeal to anyone. I have never felt wanted as a Democrat. I felt taken for granted beacuse, well, I was NOT going to vote for a Republican. I was resentful of that. I only felt good voting for Barack Obama, and less so the second time than the first. Not beacuse he did anything wrong, but just because it’s impossible to sustain that kind of high.

Every election before that and since, I have dutifully done my duty. I have voted in every election I could, but I have not had any joy in doing so. The only time I ever felt seen was when Barack Obama ran as a candidate the first time because he mentioned Asian people and nonreligious people. Once he was elected, he actually said ‘bisexual’. Out loud! It may seem trivial, but it’s such a big thing when your entire identity is ignored in every other aspect of politics/media.

I have felt taken for granted for most of my life (politically) because I don’t really have a choice. It’s Democrats or nothing, but it’s always feels like the lesser of two evils. In 2008, I went into the primaries equally open to Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. I was excited to have a female candidate and a black candidate, both of whom were more than qualified to be president.

Over the next month, I listened to and read everything each had to say. Obama won me over; it’s as simple as that. In part, it’s because he’s such a fantastic speaker, but it’s also because his policies were more aligned with my own. Clinton, for better and for worse, was a dyed-in-the-wool Democrat. She embodied the Democartic Party whereas Obama was the fresh-faced kid who exuded hope and new ideas.

By the way, he’s a moderate. I mean, he’s progressive in ideas, but a moderate in practice because he’s pragmatic (and a black man in the United States). But he spoke with such passion and constantly appealed to people’s better nature. He believed in the best of us (or at least convincingly conveyed that he did), and it was infectious.

Let it snow, let it snow, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD LET IT SNOW

Posted on January 28, 2019 by Minna Hong • 0 Comments

WHERE IS MY SNOW?!? — The majesty of freshly-fallen snow.

I’ve been like a kid in the candy store with no money for the past few weeks, watching everywhere in the US* get snow. Places that shouldn’t get snow have gotten hit, and places that are supposed to get snow have been hammered. I was driving a few weeks ago, and I heard on MPR that cities in northern Minnesota were getting up to a foot of snow. I nearly cried in frustration because in the Twin Cities, we’ve had one measurable snowfall, and that seems like ages ago.

Fast-forward to yesterday. It was lightly snowing as I went to taiji, and people were mostly fine. Cautious and slow, which is exactly right as it’s snowing. It’s also bitterly cold. Right now it “feels like” -8, and it’s supposed to get down to a windchill of -55. I mean, I’m a cold person, but that’s too cold even for me. I’ve found that the older I get, the less I’m able to handle extreme cold. I have a little test every winter to see how long it takes me to roll up the car windows in the winter. In the past, I had them down, even when it was well below zero. Now, I’m finding that I have to put gloves on around ‘feels like’ -5, and I’ll probably roll them up if I go anywhere in the next few days. -30 was beyond me even during the old days, though, especially with a windchill of -55.

Back to driving to taiji. There was a sudden slowdown, and because I was well behind the car in front of me, I was able to slow my car down with no problem (in the right lane). However, an SUV in the left lane (two lanes over) was apparently texting or talking on their phone whilst driving because the SUV suddenly spun out and started careening wildly all over its lane before spinning into the lane next to it. It dinged another SUV/van-like vehicle as the driver struggled for control. The spinning SUV pulled over to the left shoulder while the dinged vehicle pulled over to the right shoulder. I felt really bad for the second driver because through no fault of their own, they had to deal with the fallout of being hit for an hour or so in the bitter cold.

Side rant: This is purely anecdotal, but it seems like the bigger/fancier the car, the more reckless the driver. What I mean is that whenever I come across cars that are spun-out or in a ditch, they tend to be SUVs and such. My theory is that they think they’re invincible given all the bells and whistles they have. It gives them an over-inflated sense of invulnerability and a skewed sense of safety. In addition, everyone is so distracted when they drive these days. It’s a recipe for disaster.