... so hot!

Yup, that's what I was all day long, cruising around on a Honda Nighthawk.

Unfortunately, I don't mean like "every stares at me and wants to be or do me" hot. No, I mean "wearing a full face helmet and Carhartt and jeans and boots in 96 degree weather with major humidity" hot.

I'm fine, just beat. It didn't help that they let us out almost two hours late (and I dropped my bike on myself in protest - thank goodness for all that damn gear - just a skinned elbow and strange marks on my shoulder) and then my truck wouldn't start.

It is a very good thing I'm taking the course - they make us start slow and do basic things step by step. Which is way better than jumping on and just going - which is what I've always done in the past, and why I've not enjoyed it. Today was enjoyable, and I toy with the idea of a real motorcycle - it's not much more expensive than a Vespa. But, really - there's no freakin way I'd take it on the interstate, so I just need something hot (and this time I mean the first one) to get me around to school/work.

OK, and now my rant: I'm freakin SICK AND TIRED of the media getting all hyped up in a frenzy about white people only. Oh, poor white people. WHATEVER. The newspaper has done it TWICE recently - the first, when I was gone. An 18-year-old carjacked with a baby in the back and wouldn't stop driving away, so the cop whose car it was shot him dead. The newspaper writes about the poor 18-year-old who got caught up in crack, and he made a mistake and didn't deserve to die.

WHAT THE FUCK? Yes, I'm a pacifist and always believe nonviolent means are better. BUT, if a crackhead just stole my truck with a baby in the back, I'm shooting.

And NOW, some guy tried to carjack a car in the Arby's drive-through lane and when he grabbed the mother's hair and tried to throw her out of the car, the 15-year-old son fought him for the gun and then shot the carjacker. The carjacker had earlier killed somebody. So we read in the paper a big article about his family "Oh, he made bad choices, but he was a good man, and he didn't deserve these horrible fatal injuries," blah blah blah. He KILLED somebody and threatened another family with death.

Again, it's all a tragedy but let's PUT THIS IS PERSPECTIVE. We can't even get any information about the VICTIMS of crimes here if they're not white. If they're white, we know all their details - victim OR perpetrator. THIS IS SO MESSED UP.

And this whole Jessie Davis thing? I only know about it because it showed up on my yahoo news (BTW: new email address - if you don't already know, I'll send it to you soon). (Unless you're a blog stalker, and then you don't really need my address anyway - but post a comment already!)

It is sad and tragic that she died, but I couldn't figure out why there was such a media frenzy about it. Oh, because she was a white woman - that started to make sense. OH, and the man charged with killing her? Black. Now it all makes sense to me. Black man killing white woman - that's big news and he'll fry. If that were a black woman, you would never hear her name.

AND I'M FUCKING PISSED OFF ABOUT IT. I am *NOT* more valuable in this world because of the color of my skin! I was born privileged because of it, and I have a responsibility because of it - but if anything ever happens to me in NOLA, then I want all my friends to make a HUGE media stink about why is there so much coverage of the white woman? Use it to galvanize attention to the horrible unfairness in our world.

And it pisses me off, because I am sad about Natalee Holloway - whatever happened to her. But now I'm just annoyed with her. I shouldn't be annoyed with crime victims! She may have just been drunk/stoned and drowned walking alone on the beach and her body was washed away - but that's still sad.

But no more sad than all the other women who go missing - who don't happen to be blond and overprivileged. I'm totally sick of this.