Mississippi burning......

NOTE: I have purposely avoided citing references in this article since I do not want to link to the Klan's website and increase their page rank any further. Please Google "Mississippi White Knights of the Klu Klux Klan" to verify information.

This post is the result of a piece of news I came across yesterday about the Mississippi White Knights of the Klu Klux Klan rallying before an Ole Miss game.I know you hear all the time that the Klan is irrelevant today and has lost its power and influence, but it hasn't completely died yet.

In the 60s, this very same cell of the Klan was responsible for the deaths of the three well known civil rights workers Andrew Goodman, James Chaney, and Michael Schwerner. James Chaney was black but Schwerner known as the "Goatee" among the Klan members, was the most hated. He was a Jew who rallied for the cause of African Americans and was promoting registration to vote among Mississippi African Americans. He was hunted down and shot at close range. He was a very brave man. The Klan tried to murder him a number of times before he was finally shot down in Neshoba county, Mississippi. They were expecting him at the Mount Zion church in Longdale earlier and when he did not show up, killed all the black men and women they could lay hands on and burnt the church. On hearing this, Schwerner headed to Missisipi to investigate the incident and fell victim to the members of the Klan.

Today, the mastermind behind these cold-blooded murders, Edgar Ray Killen is 80 yrs old, has dodged prison a number of times and is receiving donations -donations for man slaughter, from the Mississippi White Knights of the Klu Klux Klan. Protected by the first amendment, The Klan openly runs a website, uses the term "negroes" and has the audacity to claim that the whites have a higher IQ than the blacks. There are other equally ridiculous and baseless claims the website makes but I am not going to waste my time and energy talking about them. I don't think they deserve any attention or importance. I also found proof on their website to establish that republicans are indeed stupid blood sucking racist leeches. These are the images the Klan proudly displays on its website.



Even today I see some incidents that remind me of this sad past. The black Harvard professor being arrested by a cop for entering his own house , the loud, angry racist statements at the Palin rallies and so on. And though the Klan was outnumbered by the protesters in Mississippi , I have to ask where the rest of the student body was. 250 from a university with 17,000 people? They were perhaps watching Ole Miss take it out on LSU in a game dominated by blacks. Isn't it ironic? While the aforementioned events bog me down, the comments the HuffPo article received from its numerous readers cheered me up and the faces of my friends that I see everyday at work gives me hope.

As I sit here sipping a warm cup of tea, curled on my couch writing this article, I am aware that my freedom is a result of the sacrifices made by those brave souls who lay down their lives so people like me can have a decent one. I salute you and pray you give us strength if we are ever called.

OK.. sorry.

My previous post was vitriolic. I am sorry if I hurt anyone's feelings. Especially sorry to this friend who is dear to me. At work, she is the one who listens to all my ramblings and here I am dissing her beliefs. I know she does not read this blog or even know of its existence. Yet, I am sorry if you ever read this. I respect this friend of mine because her beliefs are polar opposite to mine and yet she never imposes her ideas on me. She has strong convictions but will never try to convince me that mine are faulty. She is the only person with whom I can talk for hours together and still not get into an argument with. Thank you for putting up with me and my caustic statements. :)) Peace.

Am I an atheist?

It depends. I know for sure that I am not very comfortable being called an atheist.
a·the·ist Pronunciation Key - [ey-thee-ist]
–noun a person who denies or disbelieves the existence of a supreme being or beings.
You are an atheist if you believe that God does not exist. My stand is similar to Bill Maher's. I just don't know and it is impossible to know. I guess by definition that makes me an agnostic. Being atheist is being sure of God's non-existence and that is not being humble or in fact scientific in some sense. In science I don't think you throw anything away unless you prove it wrong. I cannot throw any idea away unless I know for sure that it is faulty. How can anyone be sure?

I am a believer. How can I be one when I am an agnostic? Because, I believe that God is not a separate entity but that he/she resides in each one of us. To respect each other and have compassion for one another is to respect God. I don't think I believe that there is this supreme being that created all of us and continues to do so. But I do believe that there is something. I am not sure what it is. But I believe there is a thread that connects all of us that can be tapped. A thread of energy? Maybe, I don't know. Like I said, I am not sure. But I certainly detest following any sacred book in the name of God or religion. I believe in using my brain. I cannot live by something I do not comprehend. None of these books ever have any convincing answers anyway. Take The Bhagavat Gita for example. No matter how many times I read it, I still cannot convince myself that Arjuna did the right thing by killing his relatives.

I am also a non-believer. When I see innocent people being killed everyday, I question the existence of an almighty. Why is there so much suffering if there is an omnipotent being? Please don't give me this crap about karma and previous birth. Isn't God supposed to forgive? Isn't he supposed to love everyone, the evil-doers and the good alike? Why create miscreants and then punish them? Catastrophes make me believe that everything happens at random, there is no order. There is no karma, there is no afterlife and there is no selection process (here, I am NOT referring to Darwin's theory, I am referring to selection based on karma) that determines who dies and who lives. And if you still believe in this supreme being, I must say that he is rather cruel.

There is a fundamental difference between the fundamentalists and non-believers. Fundamentalists think that we should not use our brain. Why? Because according to their logic, we are imperfect beings created by a perfect almighty. So our thought process is imperfect, which leads to imperfect reasoning. So we should blindly follow what He has prescribed. I must say, I NEVER would have come up with this reasoning if not for my friend who enlightened me on why religious conservatives do not use their brains. To me this convoluted logic is absolutely ridiculous. I am not willing to live a life worrying about afterlife. I let my brain and sometimes my heart decide what is right or wrong.

Am I an atheist? You tell me. The following quotes sum up my belief.

We must question the story logic of having an all-knowing all-powerful God,
who creates faulty Humans, and then blames them for his own mistakes. - Gene Roddenberry

I still say a church steeple with a lightning rod on top shows a lack of confidence. - Doug McLeod

It ain’t the parts of the Bible that I can’t understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand. - Mark Twain

I refuse to believe in a god who is the primary cause of conflict in the world, preaches racism, sexism, homophobia, and ignorance, and then sends me to hell if I’m ‘bad’. - Mike Fuhrman

If God created the world, then who created god? and who created whoever created god? So somewhere along the line something had to just be there. So why can’t we just skip the idea of god and go straight to earth? - Ryan Hanson

I do not consider it an insult, but rather a compliment to be called an agnostic. I do not pretend to know where many ignorant men are sure -- that is all that agnosticism means. - Clarence Darrow

I have known many good people who did not believe in God. But I have never known a human being who was good who did not believe in people. [language slightly modified] -John Lovejoy Elliott

The Grand Old Party

Last week, after I got back home tired and exhausted, I decided to watch MSNBC. I must confess, MSNBC tends to suffer from a strong liberal bias at times and I would rather listen to news that is bipartisan. But considering that my only other options are CNN and FOX, I think I'd rather stick to MSNBC. Anyway, I was home watching the Democratic National Convention when I heard a knock on my door. I opened to find my rather nice but extremely conservative landlord standing there. As soon as he saw what I was watching, he commented "Oh did you know that Obama said he would take away the 'nukelar' weapons from countries like India and China if he became President". I had never heard of such a statement, and I watch a lot of TV. I retorted, "What? Do you actually believe he could do that? India did not even sign the NPT, and you think Obama can take away their weapons. Maybe you do not know about India's history, they rarely succumb to USA's threats." Then he said, "I actually have video footage in which Obama declares he is going to shut down weapons research in the US." I merely laughed. "I am a pacifist who believes in Gandhi. That being said, no President of the US will ever have the courage to do something that risky". Now he had to attack Obama's health care plan. "With Obama's plan, we have to pay 500$ more a month on health care and we already have trouble making ends meet. But McCain's plan will help us save money. He will give the people a tax break". Having just returned from Europe, I was telling him about the effective and functional health care people in Germany have and all he had to say was "But that's because America is paying for their defense. They can afford to pay for health care". But who the **** asked America to still pay for Germany's defense? Aren't they a developed country now? Doesn't America have ulterior motives in doing this? It is high time they get out and pay for their citizens. This was the last straw really. These people do not realize what they are talking about. If he thinks he is having trouble making ends meet, what about all those people who live in trailers and cannot afford health care? What about my friend who just returned from Iraq, traumatized and has virtually lost precious years of his life and is learning high-school math at the age of 30? My landlord truly symbolises the John McBush voters who think people who make less than 5 million dollars a year are middle class [sic]. And now McCain has chosen Palin as his VP candidate. You must be kidding me! This is an insult to Hillary voters and all women in general. Does he think women are so stupid not to see the ploy? These two women are diametrically opposite. While Palin is a beauty contest winner, Hillary actually strived to get bills passed and worked for women, not against them. While I respect Palin for choosing to keep her last baby even though she knew he would suffer from Down syndrome, I do not respect her views to force others to do the same. Her choice is hers, but she has no business telling others what they should or should not do with their bodies. What was McBush thinking? If something happened to him during his term, considering the fact that he is old, is this the kind of woman who will take over the most powerful country in the world? Give me a break. She doesn't even believe global warming is because of mankind [sic]. What does she think? That a bunch of beavers chewed acres of forests down? And McCain lost my respect when he said this about Hillary, Bill and Chelsea Clinton. And this is a party of 'FAMILY VALUES'. I am getting more and more nervous as each day passes by.

Obama or Clinton?

This question seems obsolete now since Obama did win the primaries. But are they really that different? I am not so sure. The only real difference I see between them is that Obama voted against the Iraq war. Now, this also seems to be a point of contention as Bill Clinton said "You said in 2004 there was no difference between you and George Bush on the war, and you took that speech you're now running on off your Web site in 2004. There's no difference in your voting record and Hillary's ever since. Give me a break. This whole thing is the biggest fairy tale I've ever seen,". Obama is slowly losing my admiration as he turns into the person he once criticized. I admired him for bringing in most of his campaign money from small donors and not from Washington lobbyists or hedge funds. But now, apparently Clinton is "introducing" him to her top donors. He fell a notch right there. Being African American, I though he would be able to bring people of different races together. But after reading this NY Times article, I not only feel angry but sad. Sad for those muslims who had reached out to him and seen hope, only to be rebuffed. Some people say they like him because he is different from Clinton on issues that matter most. What issues? If it is war mongering, then sorry to say, I am not so sure Obama will not take us to war again. He did say that he would leave all options on the table when it comes to Iran. Finally, his speech at AIPAC drove me mad. I understand that he needs Jewish votes, but this strong partisan support for Israel made my blood boil. Any time I see a government offering unstinted support to a country, something is awfully wrong. Support should be offered based on the issue at hand, not because you have been allies forever or because you will lose some religious votes. The last thing America needs is to go to war with a country like Palestine in order to support Israel. Are we really going to see change? The democrats control the congress, if indeed they were interested in changing something, it should have happened a year ago. But has anything changed since they took over congress last year? No. Is anything going to change if they win the election this year? Maybe, maybe not. But one thing is for sure, my hope is dwindling and dwindling fast. I miss Kucinich.

India's national language

Being an Indian residing in a foreign country, I am sick and tired of being asked why I don't speak Hindi. I am not really annoyed with non-Indians asking me this question, but mostly with 'North Indians' who go on and on about why everyone in India needs to learn Hindi. And their ill-informed reason that Hindi is our national language drives me crazy. Now, lets set the record straight once and for all. Hindi is NOT our national language and if that is your argument then tell me, should we all be learning all the 22 or so official languages? Utter bull crap. Oh, and "life will be a lot easier if you learn Hindi, you can communicate with people from other states." Oh really? Why don't you travel to the south for a change and try to converse in Hindi, lets see how far that takes you. If these people are half as patriotic as they claim, they should all learn one South Indian language (like someone suggested). Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu are also part of India, just in case you didn't know. Those of you who still are in this dream world where everything Indian is Bollywood, please read this .

An obsession

OK, I vow not to bore some of my friends with my political beliefs. I was totally unaware of how much politics I have been discussing off-late until yesterday when one of my very good friends walked into my office to take a break from work. She walked in all enthusiastic to talk to me and there I had to go again about my favorite candidates. Within 5 minutes she said, "OK, I better get back to work". I had certainly bored her with my monologue. Before leaving she said, "But you don't even VOTE!!" I replied, "Yeah, sure can't for now but I at least have the power to influence people!!" I must say, my addiction to politics happens right before election time and some of my friends think I get too emotionally attached to the democratic party. For example, after the last elections, I was crying bitterly much to the astonishment of my roommates. OK, there goes my vow again, Les, Ray and everyone else, I'm sorry!!!

Code monkeys!!!!!

Been crazy busy the last few weeks. Pouring over thousands of lines of Perl code. Man, it sucks to debug amateur programmer's silly experiments. Some people write line after line without a single comment. They do things in the most obscure way and have no concern for those who have the unpleasant task of modifying the crap. Their code does not deserve any server space and they should be banned from writing anything whatsoever. I so wish people would stop hiring monkeys to write programs, code monkeys!!!!!

Bad hair day?

Man.. yesterday was one of those dreaded bad hair days. Went to get a hair cut, was wondering why this woman was praising my hair all along, "oh you've got such lovely thick hair, so long.. do you get headaches often?" I was thinking to myself "What on earth is this woman up to?" and alas I realized that she cut close to 8 inches of my hair!! My husband's hair is probably just an inch shorter than mine! But this woman kept rambling on "Oh.. that is such a cute style on you, if I had cut 1 inch more, I could have donated your hair to the local Cancer institute" Yeah right, had that happened, I would have needed hair donation myself. I look like a totally different person now, amazing how much a hair cut can change your persona! I guess all forthcoming days this month are going to be bad hair days!!!

College sports, boon or bane?

It's amazing how sports can influence your mood and behavior. Take me for example, I was never a big sports buff nor did I ever care for it, but ever since I started following football and more recently college basketball, I seem to have developed a dual personality. People who observe me watching these sports, swear that I am a totally different person. I scream obscenities, get angry and am a nervous wreck to a point where I have to start worrying about the fitness of my heart after the game is over. Is this all worth it? Maybe not, but the adrenaline rush that comes with such involvement is probably why people throng to games and sports bars. But by watching such college sports, people like me contribute to another unfortunate mentality that sports is more important than education. Think of it this way, when the US economy is affected by war and other natural calamities, how does the government try to recuperate from the loss? By cutting down research money. NSF is the first to suffer a loss followed by NIH. This obviously affects universities that solely depend on such sources for money. But then the sports departments, that are housed in universities continue spending millions of dollars on coaches and stadiums. The highest paid people in a university are the coaches, while a humanities professor probably makes 40-50,000$ a year (lower than the average US income, I am told), doesn't this seem unfair? I think that all sports departments should be forced to contribute a significant amount of money to the university (not just a meager 1 million a year to the local library). If not why are they part of universities, doesn't the reputation of the universities help them in any way? They should just go ahead and have clubs and leagues instead of living in the universitys shadow . Think about it!

A new beginning...

After a lot of "I am not the kind who writes blogs" and "I don't have the patience" statements, here I am, writing my first blog entry. I also happen to be on vacation so that definitely contributed to this decision. I have been so out of touch with my near and dear friends that I thought this would be an awesome way to catch up with some of them and a fun way to vent my anger and share my happiness (I know you are thinking by now.. "tell us something new, this is why everyone writes blogs!!!")