Soapbox, Please!

I just wanna say something really quick here, I don't want to piss anyone off or bore anyone or beat a dead horse. But I just need to say it and get it off my mind so I can go on with life. I mean, it's one of those things that my saying something about isn't going to make any difference anyway, so you can read or not, and don't tell me which you chose.

I found myself a few days ago on a Friday night with pajamas, coffee, and, lo and behold, no movie to watch. This is a fairly rare occurrence here in Betland, and I was at odds just a bit. So I puttered around the kitchen, trying to come up with a dinner plan, and decided to turn on the TV.

There on NBC was the hour-long non-extravaganza (and that's OK, it was quickly put together) to raise money for hurricane victims. Harry Connick, Jr was there, and the big country people, and Aaron Neville, who has a cross tattooed on his face, and if that's not dedication to The Lord I don't know what is, and I don't care if he does have the voice of an angel, that voice kind of creeps me out.

Then in between acts celebrities would read from cue cards and ask for money. And yes, I know that you know exactly where I'm going here, so I'll just cut to the chase.

One of those celebrity pairings was Mike Myers and Kanye West. And Mike stood there earnestly, reading his bit, asking for money. And then it was Kanye's turn to speak.

Now, I'll be right up front about it all and say this: Kanye West. Feh. I couldn't give a shit about him, he's a rapper with a massive chip on his shoulder. He whines and pouts when he doesn't win awards, and I couldn't tell you whether or not he actually deserves those awards, because to me one rapper is no different than the 17,000 others out there.

And so Kanye began to speak. His eyes popped out and cheeks puffed up and he stammered and restarted, and for a mere second I thought to myself, "Holy shit. Kanye can't read." And then I listened a little more and realized that Kanye wasn't reading. Kanye was giving a speech.

It was one of those moments that I actually long for on the old teevee. Uptight, nervous, unplanned moments. Mike Myers stood there beside Kanye, looking concerned, rubbing his chin and half-nodding, as if to say, "Yes, yes. I'm as embarrassed as hell, but - yes, yes. Yes. Please get me out of here." When Kanye finally ran out of stuff to say for a moment, Mike piped back in with more cue cards. He might have been reading Kanye's part, or his own, but it didn't really matter.

Then it was Kanye's turn to speak again, and he said, "George Bush doesn't care about black people." And then the camera did a *whoosh!* turn off of him so quick it made my head spin, and we ended up on Chris Tucker, who was seriously not prepared to speak. And I figured this out because he said something along the lines of, "We need your help, whatever you can give, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please give. Please." I doubt that was written.

So here's the thing. I seriously doubt the time to make this speech was when one was asking for money for victims. And yet, I know it has to be tempting, having something of importance to say, or that you think is of importance to say, and having this perfect national live-TV opportunity to say it. So, I was almost with him on it. I was almost right there with him.

But he did it the wrong way. He made it black and white.

And I just wanted to grab hold of him and say, "Oh, Kanye. Right church, wrong pew."

Because as we know, or at least a good portion of us know, George Bush doesn't necessarily hate black people. George Bush hates poor people. If you're black and you've got the goods, George is right there with you.

But as we know, it's the poor people who suffered in all this mess. Black, white, mixed race, immigrants, the biggest common bond they all seemed to have was a lack of funds. Certainly seems to be, anyway. I mean, I personally didn't see anyone slogging their way out of the sewage-infested waters carrying their golf clubs and diamonds. As one seldom does in these cases.

And I don't even know that the victims were poor had anything to do with the lack of relief. I personally think it was a years-long lack of management skills and attention to details that should have had attention, under the second term of a president who doesn't know his ass from his elbow, and oddly enough, doesn't even care that he doesn't know.

But I do think that Bush's lack of visitation with the victims in the city has everything to do with this absolute dismissal of anyone who's not on his financial level. Let's face it. The man's never had to struggle for anything in his life. He's certainly never had to wonder where his next meal was coming from, or his next house payment, or how he was going to get an education or a way to feed his family. It's totally alien to him, and he's remained happily oblivious to it his whole life. And of all the things that amaze me about George, probably the biggest of all is that a good deal of the people who voted him into office were the very people he refuses to believe exist.

And so while Bush made his grand entrance into New Orleans (after not setting foot on ground the first time), he went to the airport and looked at a levee. Meanwhile, you know who went into New Orleans, who walked the streets, went to the Convention Center, talked to people, prayed over the dead, and hugged and listened to the living? Harry Connick, Jr.

I don't know about you, but I'm backing Connick in '08.

Betland's Olympic Update:
* Acrowinners! We finally got entries for acro! So, what about those moms?
- Honorable Mention goes to Jellybean, with "Tippling in living room nook." (I love that.)
- Runner-Up goes to LilyG, with "There is Louise, ranting, naturally." (Lily did something wrong!)
- And this week's winner goes to Flipsy, with "They intrude, learn, reassure, nag." (That they do. Well, I guess they learn.)
Thanks to all who played! You all rocked, and Flipsy, expect a call from my mother soon.