The X Fact(her): A Dollar, no make that An Amero and a Dream

Last week Prez Obama stood before a packed audience and essentially preached to the choir. He spoke about the great accomplishments of the NAACP and how the organization ironically celebrated its 100^th anniversary the same year he became the country’s first (official) African American president.

Then he did something that was quite surprising. He addressed Black America, by name:

“We have to say to our children, ‘Yes, if you’re African-American, the odds of growing up amid crime and gangs are higher’…’Yes, if you live in a poor neighborhood, you will face challenges that someone in a wealthy suburb does not.’ But that’s not a reason to get bad grades, that’s not a reason to cut class, that’s not a reason to give up on your education and drop out of school. No one has written your destiny for you. Your destiny is in your hands and don’t you forget that.”

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Chloe

The X Fact(her): It’s a C-O-N-spiracy

Perhaps I’m not surfing the dark corners of the Internet closely enough but I haven’t come across any amazing conspiracy theories in a while. I’m sure paranoid people are still out there telling anyone who will listen that Prez Obama is the Anti-Christ (why the first black President has to the be the devil, I don’t know), the government flushed drugs into the hood (are they still doing it? If so why wouldn’t they make weed legal so that they can make more money off of it?) and America, Mexico, and Canada are looking to become a unified state (with all the drug wars going on in Mexico. . . I’ll pass).

I’m sure there are more than enough conspiracies out there regarding our government to scare the crap out of even the biggest critics. Thanks to Youtube.com I did some research and was able to find some for your viewing pleasure. For the record, I’m not stating that these are real or truth (nor is 99problems.org!) but they do make you think and can be amusing. Here are some of the best ones I’ve found:

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Chloe

The X Fact(her): What Are You Willing to Die For?

Iranian protester Neda Agha-Soltan's assassination caught on tape

I’m Ready to Die, Tell God I Said Hi – Notorious B.I.G.

America is known for many things but breeding martyrs isn’t one of them.

Sure, we have innocent people lose their lives everyday. Good people, be they parents, honor students, teachers. Thing is, they lose their lives by a stray bullet, jealous exes, hit and runs, swine flu. When they die we say, “What a shame” and keep it moving. But how would we respond if those deaths were because they stood up to a gang, drug dealers or dirty politicians?

Would we march the streets with a poster of their face and bury them as heroes? Would we celebrate their lives and the sacrifice they made?

Have you noticed that Americans don’t throw around the word martyr nearly as much as they should? Not everyone’s life should be in vain. I guess we are just too damn hard to impress. I do recall folks trying to call Tupac and Biggie martyrs. I wouldn’t go that far.

We’ve become accustomed to death, but senseless deaths. What about taking a bullet or blowing yourself up for something you believed in? Why aren’t more of us heroes in death?

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Chloe

The Revolution Will Not be Televised, It’ll Be Twittered

Forget CNN, Fox News or even BBC. People are turning to Twitter to find out what is going on in Iran. Since the June 12th presidential elections resulted in what many fear to be the rigged re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, citizens of Iran have taken to the streets and most importantly the internet to seek justice.

The use of social media has had such an impact that Youtube and Twitter are taking great steps to assure that folks reporting from Iran are spotlighted. Twitter pushed back a scheduled maintenance update that would have shut the site down for one hour until the wee ours of Iran’s Wednesday morning (2pm Pacific time here).

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Chloe

The X Fact(her): The Hardest Job in the World

Everyone wants to be a journalist but very few know what the real job of a journalist is. It’s not about two hour lunches, corner offices or red carpet events. Calling yourself a journalist isn’t all about entertainment journalism or blogging about your favorite rapper.

Journalism is a thankless job. You will not make millions, no one really knows your name nor will they value your work.

Everyday around the globe a journalist is killed, kidnapped, tortured or exiled for doing their job. Right now, two American journalists are sitting in a North Korean prison, sentenced to 12 years of hard labor for – of all things – crossing into the country’s border with an assignment.

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Chloe