Wow, this week has been hectic. I wanted to write something earlier, but I couldn’t seem to find a moment when I wasn’t horribly distracted by countless other things. Much of that has passed, though, and I find myself with a welcome moment of respite.
My work load for the past semester was pretty light, as I tended to work almost exclusively with one grade’s classes per week. This felt like far too little at first, but my supervisor assured me it was normal, and I eventually got used to it. With the occasional elementary school visits sprinkled in here and there, it didn’t take long for me to find ways to fill previously dead time with something resembling productivity.
This week is a shortened four day week, on account of Monday having been Coming of Age day. In Japan, this is the public holiday when young people celebrate turning twenty, the age at which one can legally drink/smoke/vote/die for the emperor. Actually, you can join the army at 18 and the emperor is purely a figurehead now (think British royalty, if only Queen
Anyway, I also had two grades worth of classes this week as opposed to one. So it amounted to double the previous workload and one less day to spread classes out. Honestly, this feels much more like what I was first expecting, though I haven’t done as well as I would have liked. That being said, I do hope it’s a sign of things to come, because I much prefer feeling just a little too busy than just a little too aimless.
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I found this article a month late, but it’s still highly relevant and worthy of reading. It’s long, though, so I’ll reference the three points I find most important.
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The Vietnam War is the defining political conflict of the Baby Boomer generation, is a conflict which still taints modern politics, and is arguably at the root of the current conservative/liberal divide. I’m honestly surprised I hadn’t read this anywhere else beforehand. It’s an extremely compelling framework for looking at the past twenty years of presidential politics, and how the
- Obama’s intellectual approach to his faith allows him to connect to some devout Christians without alienating increasing numbers of secular voters. Some may disagree on this point, and even I’m a bit shaky on it. No politician can become president in this climate without being Christian and, to the average voter with cursory knowledge, Obama’s Christianity is no different than any other democratic candidate. But the excerpt from the speech on the fourth page of Sullivan’s article does indeed utilize the tone of Evangelicalism, while tempering it with skepticism. As someone who has never embraced or rejected the church, this moderation greatly appeals to me.
- Obama’s notably nonracial upbringing gives him a unique insider/outsider perspective, one which allows him to recognize racial issues yet not be beholden to them. He toes a fine line, neither decrying each and every injustice nor ignoring their existence entirely. Once again, on a personal level, this resonates with me. At times I am quite unsure of how to view my mixed racial identity, or to even acknowledge it at all. Modern racism is far less damaging, yet it still exists in a much more subtle and seemingly innocuous form. I’m not going to ever really berate my old college friends for making Asian penis jokes, because they’re assholes and I love them for that, but it never truly slides off my back.
So, in a nutshell: If you think it’s time to move on from entrenched boomer conflicts, if you aren’t a raging atheist or evangelical, if you feel a little awkward when someone makes an arguably racist comment but don’t quite feel like raking them over the coals, then maybe Obama is right for you.
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