YES, WE CAN!!!

Can We Get On Your Nerves… Yes, We Can!!!

Being the jerk that I am, I’ve taken to subtly annoying those around me that did not join the Obama movement; Those that thought “No we can’t”. Yeah, you guys were wrong. For the first time in 8 years, its my turn to gloat. Certainly, we can’t be so jerky as to rub the victory in the non believer’s faces.. Wait… YES, WE CAN!!! It’s fun and the best part about it is that, I just work it into regular conversation so they know I’m being sarcastic, but they can’t prove it. Here’s some examples:

Someone at works asks me about a company policy. She say we cant do such and such… YES, WE CAN!!!

Talking to a client manager who asks me if I can do such and such… YES, WE CAN!!! (okay, I don’t know if he was on the team or not, but he was a Red Stater – LOL)

The unit manager that asks "Can we all commit to coming to work on time?" YES, WE CAN!!!! (except for today, I needed a haircut. LOL)

See, it’s fun. You all should try it out when you get a chance. The looks on their faces or the pauses in their voices are priceless. You wont have long to gloat, might as well get it out before the Inauguration!!! Let me know how that works out for you.

Letter To My Children

11/05/08

My Dear Beautiful Children,

I'm writing this letter on November 5th, 2008, years before God blessed me with your birth. Last night, history was made when America elected it's first African-American president. Hopefully by the time you are old enough to read this and fully grasp the monumental importance of this day, you'll think that your old man is overstating and exaggerating. My dream for my children is a world in which distinctions of race are no longer common place in politics and employment. I pray the phrase "the first black" will not be necessary words in your lexicon. Maybe in your lifetime, African Americans will be considered just plain American, like other ethnic groups. I long for the day these barriers are no longer applicable.

I don't know if that day will come, but I have to tell you..America took a major step last night. We elected Barack Obama as our 44th president. An African-American with a funny name like your Daddy, was elevated to the highest office in the land. I never thought that I would see this in my lifetime. It wasn't too long ago that race was a prohibitive factor in our lives. The Civil Rights Movement was just a few years before I was born. I want go into too much detail, because I know your mother and I have instilled these roots deeply in you. Suffice it to say, the pride that I feel today is a direct result of the struggles our people have endured. But the thing that's so beautiful about this election is that it was not and could not have been done without other races. White people, Latinos and other races came together to support this candidate. History will tell you the facts, but what it can't tell you is how it feels. It's difficult to express the emotions that I feel today. Believe me, I tried in vain for hours to find the right words. I can only hope that the raw emotion I feel reverberates in this letter.

As proud as I am of Obama, don't mistake that for naivete. I'm fully aware that racism is alive and well. I know that a significant portion of this country would rather see him dead than as their president. I don't yet know if his administration will be a success. In spite of this, what the Obama victory represents for me and countless others is hope. Hope that people will look at my child and see a person, not solely a black person. Hope that in our country, a little black child can dream big and achieve even bigger. Hope that you will believe me when I tell you that you can do whatever you set your mind to, including become president. And hope that you never let your hope die. If Barack could do it, so can you! I'll see you in a few years.

Love Always,

Rashan Jamal - oops, I mean Daddy.

My Left Thumb

...voted for Obama/Biden!!!

Thanks to all the early voting, the line was relatively short. I got there at 9 on the dot. Cast my ballot at 9:49, got some breakfast and now I'm done!!! I still have about an hour before I have to leave for work! Best believe I'm rocking my "I'm A Georgia Voter" sticker.

Random Observations:

I live in a culturally diverse area of DeKalb County. There are black areas, white areas, mixed areas and countless immigrant areas. When I voted in the primary, there were all different races represented. Today, however, it was pretty much 90% black voters at the polls. I counted 7 white people and 4 of them came in together.

I voted in an elementary school. Kids are so cute with their "Just Say No To Drugs" propaganda. There were all kinds of anti drug pictures on the doors of the classrooms. Poor, naive souls. LOL

Saw a sign on the walls that alarmed me. The theme of the month for the school was "Be A Citizen." One of the questions was "How many strips are on the flag?" Do you mean stripes? Also, it said "How many stars are their on the flag?" Do you mean there? It woulda been one thing if this was a student thing, but it was actually typed and printed. What's going on with the schools?

Somebody behind me smelled like an entire ounce of weed. I'm just saying, take a bath before you come to the polls and stand in line with hundreds of other people please.

Is there an unwritten rule that in order to be a poll worker, you have to wear a bad wig? Maybe just in my precinct.

On one of the classrooms, they had a poll of who the students would vote for. Obama 17, McCain - 0.

I got a parking space right in the front of the school. I started to park around the corner like everybody else, but something told me to take a chance. I was rewarded.

Had my camera but couldn't use it. Wish I coulda documented this experience.

The touch screen voting is really easy. I would recommend that all states use this.

It sure felt good seeing all these black people voting. I have the urge to call my grandma and have her tell me about the old days.

I don't do the smiling thing... but I had an involuntary smile come on my face as entered the voting booth. I know I musta looked-ed silly, but I didn't care. I BARACKED THE VOTE!!!!

Time: 11/02/08 8:00 PM.
Place: The Swamp Restaurant - Gainesville, Florida...

I had just polished off my Hawaiian Burger... The majority of Jameil's Hickory Burger was in a take out box. Also, the waitress just brought the key lime pie that we ordered to go. I'm watching the Simpsons on mute, while waiting for the server to bring the check. Jameil opens the box and tastes the pie. Then she gives me a little piece. We are sitting inside, directly next to the door that leads to the outdoor dining area. An older (60's???) white woman comes inside...

"What were you just feeding him?"

Jam and I look around for a minute to make sure she was talking to us...She was...

"Key Lime Pie"

The woman stands there with her mouth wide open. I didn't get it at first. Okay, now I get it. She's pretending like she wants to taste some of our pie. We laugh and she starts to walk off. Then she comes back...

"Have you guys voted yet?"

We tell her that we are going to vote on Tuesday. I start to mention something about my experiences trying to early vote, but then realize that would prolong the conversation so I hold my tongue. The woman starts telling us about the importance of voting and how people have to vote...unless they are McCain supporters. They can stay home or vote on Thursday
We laugh some more, but through the jocularity, it hits me... as it hits me every time something like this happens... WE MIGHT HAVE A BLACK PRESIDENT!!!

I'm not one for inspiration or motivation, but even cynical old me can't help but feel inspired that in a nation that once considered us 3/5ths of a person, and didn't allow us to vote or even use the same water fountains, a person of African descent is being strongly considered to hold the highest office in the land. And he got there by appealing to all races in this melting pot. If that ain't the American Dream, I don't know what is... I don't know, I guess I'll get back to my regularly scheduled cynicism later, but conversations like this make me feel good about this country. Honestly, I didn't think it was possible. I've never been happier to have been wrong about something in my life. One more day!!!

I'm Barack Obama

and I approve this blog post!

Let me start from the beginning. Last week, I was serving as a mentor for some new hires. They call it On The Job training coach. The way that works is this: There is one coach responsible for every 2 new hires. Our job is to get them acclimated to our computer systems, our clients, basically get them ready to be successful in their new job. There are 3 weeks of OJT. Each week, the number of coaches is reduced. The 2nd week the ratio is 3 to 1, the last week its 5 to 1. The way that we determine which coaches will return each week is kind of like "Survivor." The new hires do a survey evaluating their coach and the ones with the highest scores stay "on the island." This training class, the OJT manager decided to add an additional wrinkle to the voting process. This time, not only do the new hires evaluate you, the fellow coaches also do a survey.

This brings us to Friday. The work week officially ended at 7 PM. The only thing left to do was to find out which coaches would be returning the following week. The OJT manager decided to not only tell us who was returning, but to also give us feedback as to why or why not. She did it in alphabetical order, and with my last name starting with W, I was the last of the 8 coaches to find out. I sat there for 55 minutes just waiting. I wasn't anxious, because I knew it was a popularity contest that I had no control over. If I came back, fine, if not, that was okay too. At least I had one week of doing no work. When she finally called me, I was ready for either eventuality.

She started going over my scores. My mentees graded me perfect 10s, the highest possible score. They had some nice things to say about me. I already knew this because even though they weren't supposed to discuss their responses with me, they did. Then came the peer reviews. Mostly 9s and 10s from the first few with some good feedback. I was feeling pretty good about my chances for return. Then the manager reads the last one...

"Rashan can be kind of arrogant. He thinks he knows everything and often will disagree with other coaches in front of new hires."

What!?!? That was a bit of a shock. This is not the first time I've been called arrogant, but not in the training class. I had no idea where this was coming from. I had no run ins with anyone, or no occasions where I corrected any of my fellow coaches. I didn't understand this one. The manager continued.

"Rashan can be elitist. He doesn't participate with the rest of the coaches"

Word?!? I talk to everyone. I remembered specific examples when I not only shared my ideas, but asked for input from my peers. I'm an elitist in real life, but I'm not that way at work. This was a collaborative effort and I made a concious effort to contribute to the team environment.

"Rashan does not always communicate well with his fellow coaches. He does what he wants to do regardless of if the rest of us are doing it."

Ummm... yeah, I'm a need an example of that. It's a pretty structured environment. We are all doing the same things at the same time. This sounds like a hater is in the building. This person rated me 6 and 7. The OJT manager was taken aback too. She said that she didn't see any of these characteristics from me and was not sure where it was coming from. She considered it flawed feedback, and would try to get some clarification from the person that provided it. The only thing is, the surveys are anonymous, so she didn't know who it was.

The thing about it is, I do know who gave it. Not exactly, but I can narrow it down to 2 suspects. I hate to say it, but it had to be one of the two white men that were in the group. The others in the group, I could identify by the words they used. Like the black woman who spells "implement" incorrectly all the time and did in the survey. Or the Hispanic guy that always says "elaborate" and did in his survey. Someone calling me "arrogant" and "elitist" was just too reminiscent of what they were saying about Barack. I guess they wanted me to stay in my place and stop being so uppity. My face was hot as I heard this feedback, but I took it like a man, a professional man and kept it moving. With this hater's rating, I was .002 percentage points from being able to return to coaching next week. That didn't bother me too much. If I just didn't get chosen because I wasn't good enough, or if I did something wrong that would be no biggie. But for someone to straight up lie to keep me out of the training class bothered me.

I'm Barack Obama and I'm arrogant and elitist. But also like Barack, I didn't lose control and show them that it bothered me. Sure, inwardly, I was heated by this, but outwardly I kept my cool. Never let them see you sweat.