Monday, July 13, 2009
That "Wise Latina" Will Be Confirmed As A Supreme Court Justice!
Yes,Sonia Sotomayor said that she is a "wise latina" & I think that she demonstrated that in her carefully constructed introductory speech at today's Supreme Court confirmation hearing.She clarified for those who didn't know just how she rose from some projects in the Bronx to where she is today.Sonia Sotomayor's life is an inspiration to those who have to work hard to get everything that they have got.
She was not born with a silver spoon in her mouth.This Bronx-bred Puerto-Rican brings street smarts to the table as well as some serious intellectual chops!I believe strongly that is what she meant by referring to herself as a "wise latina".Sonia Sotomayor wanted to make the point that she was just as qualified to judge as a white male is.What she meant was quite clear to me. I didn't interpret her remarks as being racist in anyway.
You see, most minorities feel that they have something to prove to the majority or the ruling class.If everyone was truly treated & regarded as equals in this world,there would be no need to even have phrases like "identity politics".Or "wise latina" for that matter.Words like "class" & "race" would have no meaning in a world that operated the same for every individual.
Here's more on how Judge Sonia Sotomayor became that "wise latina" who will be confirmed from her mentor at Princeton,courtesy of The Washington Post:
"Had I known in the spring of 1973 that this hesitant freshman from the Bronx would be nominated to the Supreme Court 36 years later, I would have taken detailed notes on our conversations and filed them away in anticipation. Unfortunately, all I have are my memories. But Sonia made a strong impression. She was not the best student I taught in my seven years at Princeton -- though she certainly was high on the list -- but she was the one who took greatest advantage of the opportunities there and emerged most transformed by her experience.
Sonia became a frequent visitor to my office, our conversations ranging from the finer points of grammar to the lack of Latino studies at Princeton and the status of Puerto Rico. She ended up taking five courses with me, including her senior thesis. I became her mentor, and I watched her grow into what one might well call a "wise Latina woman." At Princeton, a tentative teenager -- so intimidated that she never spoke in class during her first semester -- became a poised young woman who negotiated successfully with top university administrators on contentious issues such as minority hiring practices. It was also there that Sonia Sotomayor more fully explored her ethnic identity.
After conquering Princeton, she is unlikely to be fazed by another institution legendary for its white alpha males -- the Supreme Court.
My first impressions of Sonia were mixed. She did not radiate charm or magnetism, nor was she polished or cool. But she had an appealing sincerity and directness, and there was something centered about her that was unusual among first-year minority students at Princeton. There were few Hispanic women on campus in 1973 -- the school had begun admitting women only a few years earlier, and Latinos of any gender were rare -- so she was doubly an outsider.
Sonia's intellect had allowed her to excel at the Bronx's Cardinal Spellman High School and gain admission to Princeton, but there was a big gap between her skills -- particularly in writing -- and those of the best students at the university, who had attended elite high schools. She was determined to close the gap. That became our project.
With most students, the time I spent marking up papers was largely wasted. But Sonia took the comments seriously. She sought me out to go over her essays. In each paper, I would focus on a different shortcoming: Spanglish, tenses, passive voice. Taking such constant criticism could not have been easy, but Sonia kept coming back. She even read grammar books during her summer breaks.
Gradually, her essays improved, and by the time she wrote her senior thesis, Sonia had no need to apologize for her writing. Years later, she told me that she was particularly proud of how the second reader of her thesis -- a professor who had not worked closely with her -- had told her it was the best-written senior thesis he had read.
Hispanic students at Princeton in the 1970s had it even harder than black students. The university was confronting its troubled history with African Americans but had no real Latino history. And the town of Princeton had long had an African American community but no Latino community.
Individual Latino students had attended the university before 1972, but Sonia's incoming class contained the first self-consciously Latino cohort at Princeton. They were few in number, young and homesick, without the sounds or tastes of home. All students complain about cafeteria food, but the Latino students' complaints were about identity, not quality -- about how alien Princeton felt to them. Sonia told me she had never been so aware of being different.
In the spring of 1974, she and other students asked me to help create a seminar on the history and politics of Puerto Rico and mainland Puerto Ricans. I was not the ideal person to teach it: I was neither Puerto Rican, nor Latino, nor an expert on Puerto Rico. But Sonia knew I believed that college students should have a role in shaping their education, and I was moved by her blend of reason and emotion."(END OF EXCERPT)Read the rest of this insightful article on Sonia Sotomayor here.
A Poem On The Frequency Of My Blog Posts!
It's been hard for me to update my posts
When being an unpaid blogger is one of my boasts
My readership has hardly grown
Who my readers are is unknown
Being that I have no job as of late
Creating a blog seemed to be an escape
From the mundane tasks of my life
For this unpaid blogger,I struggle to write
Freely and for free,this blog does not pay
That is why for me,it's hard to do it everyday
Written by Tamu Taylor
Just a quick poem on the frequency of my posts that I thought of!
When being an unpaid blogger is one of my boasts
My readership has hardly grown
Who my readers are is unknown
Being that I have no job as of late
Creating a blog seemed to be an escape
From the mundane tasks of my life
For this unpaid blogger,I struggle to write
Freely and for free,this blog does not pay
That is why for me,it's hard to do it everyday
Written by Tamu Taylor
Just a quick poem on the frequency of my posts that I thought of!
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Steve McNair May Have Been The Victim In A Murder-Suicide!




Sahel Kazemi is the woman that former NFL quarterback,Steve McNair,was apparently having an affair with.The married father of four was found shot to death alongside his mistress.Steve McNair's death has already been classified as a murder.But,the police are still investigating how Ms. Kazemi died before they determine how to classify her death.From the information that has been released so far,this may have been a murder-suicide that resulted from a lover's quarrel.
Man,I feel so sorry for Mechelle McNair (pictured above).Even if she knew that her husband was cheating on her,it sure sucks to have the affair revealed to the world in such a horrific manner.And if she didn't know,her grief must be compounded with anger.What a way to find out about your husband's mistress!
Police have said that Ms. McNair was extremely distraught & she is not a suspect at this time.I don't think that she was involved with her husband's murder.Steve McNair may have been killed by his mistress before she committed suicide.He had been shot multiple times while Ms. Kazemi had only been shot once.
Here's more information from Yahoo! News:
"Friends declined to describe the relationship between McNair and the woman, Sahel Kazemi, who was a waitress at a restaurant quarterback and his family frequented. Police only described her as a "friend."
A man who answered the door at a house in the Jacksonville, Fla., suburb of Orange Park said it was the home of Kazemi's family, but said her relatives did not want to comment.
"We don't have anything to say, please leave us alone," he said.
A Nashville neighbor saw McNair, 36, at Kazemi's Nashville apartment so often — two to three times a week — that he thought McNair had moved in. McNair never tried to hide his presence but kept to himself.
Neighbor Reagan Howard said Kazemi often was dropped off in the early morning hours by a limousine and upgraded recently from her Kia to a Cadillac Escalade.
"It was pretty obvious that she was taken with him," Howard said.
McNair and Kazemi had been together just two days earlier, when she was pulled over driving a 2007 Escalade registered to her and McNair. She was arrested on a DUI charges, and he was allowed to leave in a taxi.
The bodies were discovered by McNair's longtime friend, Wayne Neeley, who rents the condo in the upscale Rutledge Hill neighborhood with McNair.
Neeley then called Robert Gaddy, who had been friends with McNair since they played at Alcorn State. Gaddy alerted authorities.
"People have certain things that they do in life," Gaddy told The Associated Press on Sunday. "We don't need to look on the situation at this time (but) on the fact we just lost a great member of society."
Cook said he was not aware that McNair was seeing Kazemi, a woman whose name the agent learned about through reports of the shooting.
"It doesn't make any sense. I don't know what to say," Cook said.
Police said a witness saw McNair arrive at the condo between 1:30 and 2 a.m. Saturday and that Kazemi's vehicle was already there. The condominium is located within walking distance of an area filled with restaurants and nightspots, a few blocks from the Cumberland River and within view of the Titans' stadium.
Autopsies were conducted Sunday with results expected later in the day.
Fred McNair, Steve McNair's oldest brother, said some family members would likely travel to Nashville on Monday to consult with Mechelle.
"It's still kind of hard to believe," Fred McNair said. "He was the greatest person in the world. He gave back to the community. He loved kids and he wanted to be a role model to kids."
McNair and his wife split their time between Nashville and their farm in Mount Olive, Miss., according to a statement from the Titans."(END OF EXCERPT)Read the article in its entirety here.
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