The sting of discrimination

This article is from a couple months ago. Truthfully, I couldn't help but find some irony in this bit from the Oregon Department of Transportation. From the article:

A $30 million project to add a lane to Highway 217 in Washington County is the first to include requirements for hiring African-American and Asian-American contractors. In years past, ODOT did not specify which minority groups needed to receive state contracts.

“If you’re a minority, you’re a minority. There’s no classifications,” said Gene Nelson, owner of Forest Grove-based Sundown Electric Co., a Native American-owned electrical contractor specializing in highway construction projects. “We are now a minority that is being discriminated against.”

For me, the big irony here is the loud protests of minority preferential treatment from someone who has probably been receiving government contact work over others based solely on his minority status. Perhaps Gene Nelson now understands a bit about how many non-minority owned/run businesses feel when they are passed over for jobs based not on the merits of their work or the bid price that they submitted, but on the color of their skin.

The majority of blacks feel that with the election of President Obama, Martin Luther King's dream has been fulfilled. I'm not sure that what the Oregon DOT is doing right now is quite in line with his dream that his "children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."

I'm of the opinion that Dr. King's dreams will more fully be realized when our government hires contractors based on who can do the job quickest, cheapest, and best, not based on the color of their skin. His dream won't be reality until Gene Nelson's comment of "there's no classifications" applies to all US citizens and not just minorities.

True Service

Today was Martin Luther King day and there was a big push to go out and provide service (http://mlkday.gov). Sure, lots of people can go out and do some token service on a federal holiday like our President and Vice-President Elect, but where are the real stories of real service and sacrifice that truly make a difference?

Take a few minutes and read this article about Susan Porcello, an NYPD officer, and Gaspar Musso, a WWII Marine. Porcello responded to a 911 call by Musso back in July when he accidentally overdosed on prescription medicationss. She noticed he served in the Marines and in the course of conversation found out he had no family and no friends and very meager resources. She accompanied him to the hospital but decided that someone who served his country deserved better than to be so alone so late in life. More than that, she did something herself about it from that day on.

Anything I write isn’t going to convey what Porcello did for this man, so go read the article. Acts of service like this are what deserve to be reported by the mainstream media, not a couple hours of photo-op service some politician had an intern schedule for him or her.

Officer Porcello has upped the ante. She is setting the example for the kind of service that American citizens need to be offering not just on Martin Luther King Day, but everyday.

Where did your tuition money come from?

Well here I am taking out student loans like a sucker while Natalie Dylan is going to pay for her Marriage and Family Therapy Masters program in one night: she is auctioning off her virginity to the highest bidder. It is apparently a new twist on an old idea as she indicates that “she was persuaded to offer herself to the highest bidder after her sister Avia, 23, paid for her own degree after working as a prostitute for three weeks.”

This 22 year old from San Diego, California claims to have already gotten more than 10,000 bidders with the high bid to date being $3.7 million.

Miss Dylan “who has a degree in Women's Studies insisted she was not demeaning herself. ”

I guess that is all a matter of perspective. You can’t demean yourself by doing something that you see as acceptable and not lacking in dignity. To be demeaned requires a loss of respect and in her view, this isn’t something disrespectful.

But then, I am left wondering why she remained a virgin so long if losing her virginity is not demeaning. So that she could share it with someone special? That’s certainly not what she is doing now. Especially since she is insisting that this is a one night stand: "I get some men who are obviously looking for a girlfriend but I try and make it clear that this is a one-night-only offer. “

The article concludes with her being quoted as saying, "It's shocking that men will pay so much for someone's virginity, which isn't even prized so highly anymore."

I’m going to have to disagree. Apparently virginity is highly prized. Just not by her.

What are your thoughts? Why is the bidding getting so high if virginity has little value in today’s society?