We spent this past weekend at Lisa's parents in Troy, celebrating Easter and some birthdays.  We celebrated Elliot's and Lisa's birthdays on Friday.  Unfortunately, Elliot was in the middle of a 24-hour flu (or something) and didn't get to enjoy the cake and ice cream.  On Sunday the Cliffords (and friends) and the Bridges came over for an Easter meal.  Most of the snow that fell on Friday had melted, so the boys hunted Easter eggs outside.  Here are a few photos.  There are more on Picasa Web Albums (high resolution; ask me to send you a link) and in Facebook, especially some cute ones of Coleman Bridges.

If you haven't already, read the text of today's "race speech" from Obama (link).  No matter your political persuasion, you'll find much there that you agree with.

This speech is the essence of what is so attractive about his message.  Unity not division. Hope not fear. And not or. Americans not Republicans or Democrats. This I can support wholeheartedly.

The other thing that has struck me in recent days is how prevalent the impression is that our racial issues are so far behind us that they are irrelevant to today's reality.  And that Tiger Woods, Condi Rice, Colin Powell, a governor or two, are evidence that all is hunky dory.  Come on.  There is no disputing the fact that, relative to their percentage of the population, blacks are underrepresented in positions of power (government, Fortune 500 CEOs, etc.), behind in economic advancement, behind in academic achievement, but drastically over-represented in prison.

As I figure it, faced with that evidence as well as even a superficial knowledge of our racial history (slavery, lynching, sundown towns, segregation, discrimination, bigotry, etc.), what explanations do we have other than 1) the blatantly racist view that blacks are naturally inferior in terms of morality, intellect, etc. or 2) the conclusion that the effects of our tragic racial history are still felt today?  This is no excuse for any individual to shirk responsibility for his own actions, but it does help us understand why some people might still feel angry and that there is still work to be done.

Saturday night we watched Babel (2006,R) (ScreenIt! Review).  From ScreenIt!:

Various strangers' lives are affected and become intertwined by an act of violence.

I usually dig films like this, but this one not so much.  I give it 3 out of 5.

Friday night Elliot had a few friends from school over to celebrate his 7th birthday.  The main events were folding and flying some high-performance paper airplanes and "Webkinz football" which quickly devolved into 7-year-olds running wildly around the basement while throwing Webkinz at each other.

Here are some photos (more on Facebook and Picasa):

Tonight we finished watching World Trade Center (2006,PG-13) (ScreenIt! Review).  From ScreenIt!:

Family members worry about and rescuers try to find victims buried in the rubble following the attacks of 9/11 and subsequent collapse of the World Trade Center towers.

The depiction of the anguish of the families of the missing first responders was remarkable and  brought Lisa to tears.  Somehow I didn't care for Nicholas Cage's performance.  I give it 3 out of 5.