I had some thoughts today about an organization called Cookie Cart. I also had to log out of Facebook for a while due to the sheer awfulness of this election. I wrote some thoughts in an email to some friends.
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I went to a happy hour/networking event for Cookie Cart, and I had some thoughts about it that I wanted to share with you both.
- First, it seems like a really good organization. It's well-run, it teaches marketable skills, and it's growing. There were maybe about 20 kids there tonight and about 100-125 adults who paid to be there. One thing I noticed was that there were maybe three black people who were guests. Is that a bad thing? I know this is a completely subjective and other events/programs that the organization runs might be different, but I thought it was an interesting observation.
- Second, I spoke with a few people who were involved with either volunteering or were on the board. They were generous with their time and money and obviously have affected lives in a good way. However, a topic that came up in both conversations revolved around how they or someone they knew taught the kids about the importance of dressing professionally. (i.e. telling them to "pull up their pants.") I know that dressing professionally is important, but it was weird how people talked about it like it was such a big thing that they did not know about.
- Joey and I talked about this on Sunday, and it passed through my mind again. While one of the board members was giving a pitch to donate more money, she kept mentioning about "the problems in North Minneapolis." While this program does a lot of kids, how much is it changing the perception of "North Minneapolis"? Maybe I'm being cynical, but the city isn't going to change just from cookies.
- There was one really cute girl who was wearing a hijab who introduced herself right out of the blue. (Matt Lindstrom would have been proud.) I asked her what she wanted to do and she said she wanted to be an engineer. I was so happy she said that.
Changing gears here, another set of thoughts went through my brain today. A former co-worker of mine posted an article about the latest Trump polls and wrote a long rant about how we live in a dumb country full of dumb people who are dumb for voting for Trump. My first thought was, "Is this helping anything?"
Yeah, I think a vote for Trump is dangerous. (I thought similar things about Romney and McCain, but looking back on it, I don't think it was this level.)
BUT, I can't think of a single instance of people coming over to join a party after they were called dumb. I'm not afraid to admit this, but my party is full of snobby elitists who will accept anyone as long as you agree with everything they say and do. What the hell kind of big tent is that?
I get that a certain percentage of people are voting for Trump due to his personality, others are just party loyalists, but others are choosing to vote for him. They've done their research and think that he is the best choice. I don't think it does well for Democrats just to insult these people. Have we ever tried just asking people why they are voting for him? (Outside of a poll.)
As a liberal Catholic, I've felt this especially. Outside of my CSB/SJU friends, it's a weird dance to talk about how you're a progressive and a Catholic. (That's why I like Tim Kaine so much. He's a Catholic I can relate to.)
Yeah, Republicans haven't been the friendliest to gay people or people of color, but I don't think that necessarily makes Democrats any better. We were the ones who put the Japanese in internment camps.
Ok, this is a lot. Just needed to get it all off my chest.
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