oleirer's blog

SOmething I have been tossing about in my head is what makes something natural? THis all came up durning an envronmental studies class in which a classmate was presenting a paper on the effects of beavors on a habitat. You see, a beavor builds a dam changing the structure of the waterflow from a fastmoving stream to a pond, which ios the habititat it needs to live, and while this creats habitat for beavors and some other animals it also destroys the fast moving water nessary for others to survive.  Read More »

Hey white Kids, I'm a white kid too. I like to think of myself as a White Allie, or and AntiRacist White. Since I strive to embody these terms, it would be wrong of me to not write a post such as this one. First of all if you are a biggot, or harbor excessive hatred towards People ofColor, please do not comment on this. I would like this post to spark a discussion of whiteness that is open minded and considerate. If you are not willing to do so save your breath because you will not recrute anyone onto your hateful bandwagon. But if you are a white person who either 1.) does not beleive that racism still exsists, or 2.) beleive that you are not a racist, please do read as my intention is to eduacte you on an issue that is not generally discussed by white people.  Read More »

This "progressive" website is full of such hostility, and hatred for difference of opinion. Why? What is so dangerous about considering someone else's opinion? Is it that someone else could possibly have vaild points? Or is it that we, as youths, are just so developed in our opinions that considering other points of veiw is just pointless. It is a great sign of immaturity to think that we are right all of the time because no one is right all of the time.  Read More »

someone recently wrote a post about their struggle in decided whether or not marjiuna should be legalized. in this post they seemed to imagine that the govenment makes decesions based on our well being rather than political agenda. perhaps they do but it does not seem to be the case to me. i think that every opinion should be considered on both a moral and legal and not consider them to be the same thing. that is my arguement for both abotion and gay rights. if you disagree with these issues morally, that is you opinion, i don't agree with it but, it is you right. But don't confuse morality with legality, just because you consider something to be imoral doesn't mean it should nessisarily be illegal. lots of vegans consider eating animal product to be immoral is that a reason to make it illegal? maybe, but i don't think so. so perhaps it is a bigger issue we should toil over, the idea that their is agenda behind everything, and that needs to be examined before anyone jumps on a bandwagon.

I have been reading lots of antiracist liturature over the past year or so and I have yet to find an answer to my nuber one question, what is postive about being white? While i do beleive that ethnic and cultural pride can in some ways be a positive way to cope with and not be overcome by the emtionally pain of white guilt  therefore allowing the concious white person to act effectively as an mechanism for undoing racism and not indulging in white guilt, yet it seperates the individaul form the white experiance (i.e. I am proud to be polish but not white). does anyone have any ideas of postive things the white race because all i can come up with for white culture is that white people have traded culture in return for privilege.

Dear Boys, I am a heterosexual female who has lost faith in your gender. I am not sure how many of you are familar with the concept of white privilege (if your not google it: try unpacking the invisible knapsack article) but it asks white people to admit the fact that the benfit from a racist system and there for are racist. (please read some articles before commenting on this concept) so what i am asking you boys is to admit that we also live in a sexist system and you as males benifit from privilege.  Read More »

I don't know if you have read 1984 by George Orwell but you should. The parallels between the Bush Administration and the creepy Utopian government in the book is really scary. For one the mantra endless war = endless fear = endless control seems to resemble the idea of the War on Terror. In the book they are always winning wars and starting new ones but it doesn't really effect the daily lives of the citizens.  Read More »

I am sure that most American citizens, like me saw the horrors of the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. But after countless hours of footage of countless disasters on 24hr news networks I was feeling desensitized to the idea of tragedy. It was not until Spring Break '06 when I visited New Orleans with my college while taking part in a service project that I relized the actual horror of the situation. I arrived in New Orleans' Upper Ninth Ward on March 18th, 2006, seven months after the storm, and the city still smelled like a wet sponge. I had no idea how numb I had become to the things I saw on the news. So I am asking all of you that have not been to New Orleans after the storm and those of you who have as well, don't let the fast paced in your face style media let world politics takeover your mind while the aftermath of an AMERICAN tradedy is left by the wayside. It is easy to get caught up in how everything is screwed up. It is easy to be overwhelmed by the state of the world. But there are things that you can do and one of them is to get some friends and go to New Orleans and gut out a house. It takes four days and you can help a family get a huge step closer to rebuilding. And if you haven't been keeping up with the poltics be sure to read up on the elections and the effects of eminent domain. Most New Orleans residents, still dispersed across the country, were unable to vote in their election, while Iraqis all across America were able to vote by satellite. A very powerful speaker, Rev. Raphael g. Warnock, said recently at the Antioch College 2006 Commencement, if a fair vote is so important to an Iraqi democracy "why not try it in America?" The fact that New Orleans issues are making less and less air time is no accident. Don't let the media industry forget about the countless Americans effected by Katrina and Rita and don't let our Government think that we are not holding them accountable. I have attached before and after pictures of the house that Antioch College Students gutted during our trip this Spring Break. Helping to rebuild this Spring Break was the most approiate use of my time and I plan to go back again this summer. Who's coming with me?