Good evening world. It is a mild Monday afternoon in Joliet, one of the many suburbs on the south south side of Chicago. As I sit here in this library, going over the various affects of my scattered life, it occurs to me that I have no idea how in the world I mean to start off this whole blogging enterprise.
There is so much to talk about these days.
Unless you've been living under a rock, you're already quite familiar and have probably formulated some opinion already on the Occupy protests that have swept the world over these past few weeks. Here in Chicago, #OccupyChi is in full effect. It looks like this: (Mostly) young folks camped outside of the Bank of America on Lasalle and Jackson, holding signs, playing drums, and being photographed. The few times I've gone and tried to show support, I left feeling that something very important was still waiting to happen.
(Despite what that characteristically sarcastic last sentence might lead you to believe, I am actually in support of what I've been led to believe the Occupy protests represent, namely: financial elites being held responsible for the disasters they wreak in the world, and the bringing to light of the heinous wealth gap in America--a gap which threatens to send even more people to the streets, since, you know, they'd have no jobs anymore.)
That said, my jury's still out on #OccupyChi. I believe in the end, but I am uncertain about the means. More on this in the future, perhaps.
The purpose of this post was not to go on a rant about Occupy. That digression's whole point was to reinforce my point that there's a ton of things to blog about. Since, as a young black educator and performer I find myself being asked to offer my opinion all the time on things I don't care about--while at the same time rarely am I asked to speak on things that actually matter to me--I thought it prudent that I might start to spew some of what I've got in this head of mine.
I do not know what to expect from this little enterprise. But I hope it brings me some clarity. I've got a lot rumbling around up there, and it may help to get some of it organized, and to get some intelligent opinions on the direction things are going. Notice I italicized "intelligent opinions." That means that I reserve the right to delete any foolishness from the comments section of this page. Call me a censor all you want.
If you can't formulate an intelligible idea, I will delete your comment.
One bad apple spoils the whole bunch, and all that jazz.
Now that that's out of the way, how about I say hello? Hello again. Nice to meet you. I'm looking forward to being heard.
-X