Dear Humans…

My current cat, best friend, and perhaps even owner goes by the name “Belle”. I would say she answers to that name except she doesn’t really answer to anything or anyone. She is a tortoise-shell cat and her personality is even more colorful than her coat. She is the epitome of the saying that cats are some of the most independent creatures. Our paths crossed a little over three years ago soon after my parents and I moved in to our new home. My friend at that time was well known for fostering stray cats until a home could be found. While I was at his house one day in August, he happened to be taking care of a tiny kitten who followed us everywhere. After a few games of ball throwing and feather dangling, the cat and I were already best buds. After a few phone calls and a few more puppy-eyed pleas, Belle found her way in to our new home. However, we soon discovered that she acted fiercely bipolar. While she is probably not burdened with the mental affliction, she is still not afraid to cuddle up with me for the night and then greet me in the morning with a sharp pair of fangs.

Apart from her occasional rampages, Belle is a very docile cat. But when she adopted us, she maintained her distance for over a year. She refused to assume her role as “lap cat” but found herself content to keep an eye on us from a couch across the house or from the fireplace. I suppose her relatively uneventful early life is the main reason why my most memorable moment with her, in retrospect, was not phenomenally huge.

After over a year of a standoffish relationship with her, we experienced a harsh winter and, even though all the thermostats told us the house was perfectly warm, there was no mistaking a piercing chill throughout the the place. After going to bed and just before I dozed off, I felt a startling *kathump* at the foot of my bed followed by a gingerly approaching mass. It took me several seconds to realize that my room was not haunted but in fact Belle had finally warmed up to us…or she was just too desperate to be warm that she no longer cared. Either war, she slowly made her way towards the head of my bed where she sniffed and inspected the place before squeezing under the comforter and settling down next to my arm. Despite her detached and occasional aggressive behavior, we are still best friends and I am so happy to be her human.

“I would eat them if I was bigger”

-Cat Thoughts

Greek Racism

Is it enough to say that we have made significant progress with civil rights since the 1960’s? While it is a widely accepted argument that we have made some improvements, it’s also clear that we as a society have not done nearly enough to lessen the social stigma of belonging to a minority group. However, if we as a united people are to end racism today, perhaps it’s best to shift our attention to its source or moreover to how it spreads. As many Americans who lived in the mid twentieth century might admit, when one grows up surrounded by blatant racism, it’s hard if not impossible to to view it as it truly is- a cancer to society. But the situation has not changed much. As seen in the heating tensions on the campus of the University of Oklahoma, we are still breeding racism in to our young. But this leaves us with our original dilemma; how do we respond?

The University of Oklahoma’s president, David Boren responded appropriately in expelling at least two students and publicly condemning the recent racist chants of members of the SAE fraternity earlier this week. If racism is to end, it must be met with swift and relentless action. But as some students described, SAE’s rampage of ignorance was not unique. Indeed, the difference between the recent happenings in Oklahoma and the climate in many cities and states nationwide was that one was caught on film. What most struck me was that the lack openness and affirmation on the part of the recently expelled students and what on earth could have led them to believe that what they did was acceptable. But what caught me even more by surprise was how many African Americans did not seem surprised at what was happening. In fact, some described the fraternity members’ attitudes and statements as fairly typical. I was then left to ponder what we as a society could do to end such open hatred and I kept thinking of president Boren’s response: students who do not reflect the sensitivity and decency of intelligent human beings as in the case of OU’s chapter of SAE should be punished to reflect how we as a country and indeed we as a people have moved on.

Ramble

As I sat, admiring her almost oblivious thoughtfulness, I was slowly exiled from the world of sensibility; I wasn’t admiring her but it was the air around her that captivated me until I noticed a water bottle moving slowly and rhythmically across the desk from some mysterious external force-her shoes tapping in time against the desk shook it enough to move the half full water bottle close to the edge until it stopped for its momentum would carry it no farther; I realized I had become so enthralled in the bottle’s trek across the desk that knew I could not bear to see it end so anticlimactically, for the whole journey lacked closure- fall off, spill, or be noticed by the blind girl, I did’t care as long as I  didn’t have to abandon my pursuit of the bottle and rejoin the realm of the conscious.

(146 words)