“Halt! Identify yourselves, in the name of the Empire!”
The Dark Side of the Force is a pathway to many abilities, some considered to be unnatural…
I am currently teaching a unit on imperialism in World History. We are working through the causes and effects of imperialism and the different strategies of empire building in order to ultimately determine if we think that the United States is/is not/was/was never an empire. We examined the Ancient Maya, China in the age of Dynasties, the Spanish, the British, and compared and contrasted their strategies, goals & ambitions, purposes, and results. Then we determined that, like all good social scientists, we needed a model in order to effectively assess all of these empires. Our archetype of empire is the Galactic Empire. To this end the students came up with a list of characteristics that they believed must exist to merit the label: Empire. The list looked something like this:
- Territory
- Army/military strength
- Influence
- Power
- Money
- Respected by others
- Allies
- Renown
- Strong leader, perhaps an autocrat, definitely with cult of personality
- The five elements of “civilization”, which include skilled workers, advanced cities, complex institutions, advanced technology, and record keeping
- Ambition
- Hierarchy
- Unique cultural traditions
- Independence
It is a rare and joyous moment when something like Star Wars is validated as meaningful academia. The idea that Star Wars could actually be a legit focus in the study of World History has been one of these moments. Of course, I now must tread lightly so as not to ruin something cool by ‘schooling’ it, but that is a chance I am willing to take.
As these students began to put together composites of the characteristics of the various empires we looked at – focusing specifically on their aims, ambitions, and methods as time (and let’s face it, attention) is always limited in high school you’ve gotta be selective, so we are – certain trends become clear. Trends not only in the characters of the empires and their imperial designs, but trends in the scholarship. This is fun when the students start to notice these things and ask questions….
Why did everyone think the Maya were all peaceful?
Why don’t we learn how they partied?
If the Maya calendar is so accurate, why don’t we use it? [Chased by the inevitable follow-up, 'cause then we're all gonna die in December!]
The second of our empires who aimed for a sort of self-sufficiency the Western World has never seemed to understand was Ancient China. My students seem to instinctively understand the Chinese response to Britain, “We don’t need you. We are awesome.” [On a personal note, I find it fascinating how this attitude has persevered throughout all of China's history and is alive and well today. Not that I disagree, but it is an interesting cultural legacy.] And the students totally understand China’s attitude because, well, because of their size, really. When we write on the board that the land area of China is 9,569,901 km sq (which I have to convert into square miles, thank you very much England… 3,694,959) and then I write down the land area of Britain, 241,930 km sq (and this is generous as it include the entire UK… 93,409) the kids laugh.
What? The Maya had more territory!
That is so small? Is it bigger now? [No...]
Hold on, why did they call it *Great* Britain?
Still, the students also seem to totally understand the shift in power once drugs are introduced, and the opium wars are one of the most logical lessons we’ve covered in History so far this year. But they are perplexed by the Treaty of Nanking and further confused by the Open Door Policy.
Um, I think I am reading this wrong because it seems like the Chinese got totally screwed in this Treaty. Who would sign this?
Wait, no one agreed to John Hay’s plan, but he said people did… and that worked? That’s like a Jedi mind trick! [smiles]
Uh, when did the United States even get involved?
Maybe everyone was smoking opium or something… [Ah, would that it were so simple...]
In general Britain confounds them. They fully understand the need for Britain to spread out and take over the world, but they don’t understand how they were able to do it. We talk about gunboat diplomacy and dollar diplomacy. We talk about short-term and long-term considerations (and miscalculations). They keep asking why Britain called itself great. We talk about how the sun never set on the British Empire. They mention that the Spanish had already used that saying a century or so earlier… and we consider the effectiveness of British imperialism as a commercial ambition and a matter of national pride. They seem to understand this. In contrast considering Spain’s hyper-religious focus, they seem to think the Brits had a better strategy by not alienating every non-Catholic on the planet. What was that going to do for them anyhow? they ask. I refer them to Mel Brooks in agreement.
All the while, pretty much every third question is, “When are we going to watch Star Wars???” [The other primary questions having to do with why Britain is *Great* Britain (insert all size matters jokes here, and trust I have been hearing them, these are sophomores, after all), and if we are going to watch all six Star Wars films. (I did mention they are sophomores, right? Disregard the idea that there are no silly questions...)]
And so tomorrow, it begins, in a galaxy not so far away, armed with all sorts of comparative data, and a timeline of the Galactic Empire from the year 19 B.B.Y. (the year the Empire was established) to the year 137 A.B.Y. (the year in which the Remnant of the Galactic Empire joins the Galactic Alliance, while all the displaced Siths are simultaneously infiltrating the emerging conjoined governments…) they will get a chance to examine the Galactic Empire, its aims, ambitions, strategies, the cyclical nature of imperial strength, and the ever-present Force to put the finally piece in place for their model of empire and identify the similarities they may see between the Galactic Empire and…
- The Empire of the Maya: ”Listen, I can’t get involved. I’ve got work to do. It’s not that I like the Empire; I hate it! But there’s nothing I can do about it right now. It’s such a long way from here.” – Luke Skywalker
- The Empires of Ancient China: “The Empire reaches far and wide, and is made up of countless individuals who all strive for the same overall goal: stability.” - Imperial Advisor Ars Dangor
- The Spanish Empire: “I have brought peace, freedom, justice, and security to my new Empire!“- Darth Vader
- The British Empire: ”We must move quickly. The Jedi are relentless. If they are not all destroyed, it will be civil war without end.” – Palpatine
Then it falls to them to determine the state and/or existence of the American Empire…
“We are an Empire ruled by the majority! An Empire ruled by a new Constitution! An Empire of laws, not of politicians! An Empire devoted to the preservation of a just society. Of a safe and secure society! We are an Empire that will stand for ten thousand years!“―Palpatine
*all quotations from taken from Wookieepedia.
Seriously, Federal Reserve? Please, grow a pair. Bill Murray would.
I have just scheduled a field trip to the Fed in San Francisco for my 60 seniors as part of their economics curriculum. This is a pretty cool trip, and I anticipated it to be especially interesting in these current socio-economic circumstances.
As I was on the phone with the Fed yesterday I had several of the students who would be a part of the trip in my classroom. They were certainly curious about the trip and are generally enthusiastic about field trips, as you might imagine.
“And, um, just so you are aware, the vault is currently closed to tours as a result of all the protests.”
“Excuse me?”
“Yes, because of the Occupy groups or whoever, the vault is not open for tours.”
“We cannot tour the vault?”
“That is correct.”
["What the fuck? We can't get in the vault?!?! That is so lame!!"]
“Excuse me for a minute. — gentlemen, do you think that you could control at least your language while I am on the phone? — Okay, so if we cannot tour the vault, then what will we see on this tour?”
“Well, the rest of the tour still happens.”
“Yes, but the vault is what the kids want to see.”
“Well, I am sorry, we are simply not doing that right now because of all those protestors.”
Huh.
All those protestors.
I took this news mostly in stride, thankful really for a minute to have been able to find a day that we could actually go, what with all the schedule constraints that come with seniors in May. Then I went home and told the Cowboy the story.
“What? Are you kidding me? That is so unacceptable! That is a federal building, people have the right to be there!”
“I know, I guess they are worried…”
“About what? Unruly students? Are you kidding me??”
Huh.
Later we went for a walk downtown and conveniently passed by the Fed at 105 Market Street, still currently all cordoned off from… from the unruly public, I guess? There were three Occupy activists nearby standing politely at a makeshift table disseminating literature and flyers to anyone who stopped to ask them for it. They were quiet and unobtrusive. As we looked into the lobby of the Fed the security was as subtle as an unmarked police car on Oakland’s International Avenue. It seemed incongruous juxtaposed against “all those protestors”.
Huh.
When I came to school this morning and told my partner about the field trip and the issue with the vault he became animated with amused, but righteous, indignation.
“Are you kidding me?” I sensed a trend.
“Well, they said maybe by May it would be open again…”
“Um, May Day? Do you have any idea how many Occupy events are probably planned for that day?”
“Oh. Yeah. You are probably right.” I considered. But he was back to the vault…
“That is ridiculous! They have a such gall to say that the vault is closed! That is the whole point of the trip….”
And he trailed off about the inconsistency of banks still gouging him with unavoidable fees while he was not even allowed to visit them.
Huh.
I felt remiss in my original lack of righteous indignation. But when I need to, I can definitely cultivate a nice rage. And the more I thought about the Fed’s decision to close the vault the more ridiculous it became. And also the less original. How banal to take it out on the least criminal element in society as a defensive response to being called on the carpet for your own bad behavior: “See what you terrible protestors are doing? You are ruining it for the kids!”
Um… no, actually, don’t YOU see big Federal Reserve Bank? YOU are ruining it. For everyone. You could have taken action a million different ways, and the petty action you choose to take is to shut down access to your institution to students of economics?
Brother, please. I don’t want your coins…
Somedays synchronicity takes over and makes my job a whole lot easier…
Monday was one of those days.
A connecting principle
Linked to the invisible
Almost imperceptible
Something inexpressible
Science insusceptible
Logic so inflexible
Causally connectible
Yet nothing is invincible
Currently, I am teaming with my English teaching colleague on an interdisciplinary project for my seniors throughout which they are working to identify the sociopolitical narratives that surround us and then deconstructing them to see, well, what lies beneath, I suppose. Before the semester ends they will be producing a journal of self-produced investigative reports examining the power of the dollar in politics focusing on topics ranging from factory farming to fracking to the SEC (non)regulation to SOPA to NAFTA to… well, you get the idea.
The project is pretty ambitious to lay on a group of 60 seniors who at this point in their academic careers really just want to get the flock out of high school. And it is also something I am not sure I would have had the inclination or ability to grock at that age. But no matter, we forged on, hoping that we could hook them with a series of WTF moments as they questioned how our government, ostensibly of, by and for the people was working for them – or was it… working against them? [maniacal laugh...]
In the midst of the abrupt return to school (that only comes after a really rewarding vacation), I took a little step up to Shattuck to get a mid-morning Americano. As I was walking back in my own little reverie (that only comes after getting a delicious coffee and the knowledge that your prep is only half way over), I glanced over at a shop window that I had never noticed before, as I never really walk on this side of the street.
There staring out of the window at my wondering eyes was this:
And this…
Wait. What?
Okay, so yeah, I know I work in Berkeley and as such we might not be such an accurate reflection of the rest of the country, but still. There I was face to window glass with the exact premise, neé purpose of the project I had been envisioning.
I quickly shot photos of each of the other twelve panels which chronologically outlined the key turning points in the transition from a government of, by and for the people to a government of, by and for the $$$$$. And then I ran back to tell my colleague. And… being that it is Berkeley, we decided to take a little field trip the next day. We would have them look at the images and try to work out what the purpose of the store front was, the agenda, who might be behind it…
When we got there we talked about it a little bit and I challenged some of the kids to see if they could find out who was the occupant of the building. Boy, do seniors love this kind of challenge. Before I knew it they were on it and had gotten the attention of someone in the building. Suddenly our field trip was a seminar in a local progressive think-tank called Maplight.org. They took us up and showed us what they do and offered any sort of assist that our students might need. Just because they can. “It is what they do,” they said.
Talk about amazing. And whether or not this would only happen in Berkeley, I cannot really say, but I am certainly glad it happened on that day.
If you act, as you think
The missing link
SynchronicityWe know you, they know me
Extrasensory
SynchronicityA star fall, a phone call
It joins all
SynchronicityIt’s so deep, it’s so wide
Your inside
Synchronicity
words. no words. words…
What says the law? You will not kill.
How does it say it? By killing!
~ Victor Hugo
I wanted to write about my birthday tonight. About the beauty of fall and the wonder of balance in the equinox and the joy of having friends in all the hemispheres wishing me well as my day reaches them, well ahead of me.
But, now, I am simply overwhelmed with a dark, despairing sadness, and to speak of birthdays and lovely light, or new years and hope, all seems not only trivial but inappropriate – off color. Disconnected. Shallow.
All just a lot of semi-fancy ways to say sad.
Troy Davis was two years older than me. He had a birthday coming up too – on October 9th he would have been 43. A black man born and raised in South, I can’t say he and I had much more in common. Still, tonight, I am Troy Davis.
In August of 1989 while I was behaving rather badly and not taking care of business getting ready to head back to college for a truly unspectacular sophomore year and looking ahead to my nineteenth birthday, 20-year-old Troy Davis was arrested and charged with killing a police officer in a Burger King parking lot in Savannah, Georgia. He was sentenced to die.
Over the course of his two-decade stay on death row Troy Davis’ case offered up repeated and consistent doubts. No weapon was ever found. Another man, initially a witness for the prosecution, is reported to have admitted to the crime. Since the 1991 conviction, seven out of nine jurors have recanted their sworn statements, saying they were pressured by police officers into giving Davis a guilty verdict. Death penalty supporters have even come out to say, as the Twitter hashtag indicated, there was #toomuchdoubt. Specifically, former Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson, who served under President George W. Bush, urged the pardons board to grant Davis clemency because “it is clear now that the doubts plaguing his case can never be adequately addressed.” And former U.S. Rep. Bob Barr said in a letter that “even for death penalty supporters such as myself, the level of doubt inherent in this case is troubling.”
I have yet to see a death case among the dozen coming to the Supreme Court on eve-of-execution stay applications in which the defendant was well represented at trial… People who are well represented at trial do not get the death penalty.
~ Ruth Bader Ginsburg, U.S. Supreme Court Justice
The United States has set itself among distinguished company in the retention of the death penalty. Around the world there are only 58 countries still sentencing people to die. Among these are countries that we share so much with. Like, Afghanistan, Pakistan Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Syria, North Korea, Yemen, the Sudan, China.
In 2010 the top five executioners (in order) were China, Iran, North Korea, Yemen and the US. In the world. Only four other countries executed more people than the United States of America, the beacon of democracy, freedom and justice.
As long as we maintain the death penalty in this country, we are all Troy Davis.
That Mark MacPhail lost his life in line of duty is most certainly tragic. That is undisputable. The facts surrounding this case were disputable, however. And in Troy Davis’ death, the tragedy of Officer MacPhail’s death is not remedied, diminished or even avenged. All we have done is add to the tragedy.
The death penalty categorically and statistically does not deter violent crime. The death penalty is more costly than any other form of punishment in the nation. The implementation of the death penalty only lowers us to the place we reserve for the most barbaric, the most uncivilized, the most reprehensible places on earth. Yet we carry on.
Consider if it is the job of a society to collectively kill in response to the actions of an individual. Perhaps it is time to ask “What would [your own personal] Jesus Do?”
Tonight I go to bed sad. Sad for two men who were victims of violent crime. Sad for a nation that cheers this kind of justice. Sad for a family who in seeking “closure” will find their dreams more like those of Lady MacBeth in the end.
Tomorrow I wake up and listen to my students discuss Hammurabi’s code of law.
- Damn, he killed everybody for everything!
- It this the eye-for-an-eye guy?
- How come his empire didn’t last so long?
That… is a very good question my young friend.
With honor, gratitude and hope: 9/11 ten years on.
Are we gonna learn about 9/11?
Yeah, we gon’ talk about that like everybody is right now?
In the first week of school my students were answering the question I had put forth to them: What do you need to know to develop a historical context. At first they were unsure what the question even meant. I explained that remembering names and dates, while tremendously helpful in pub quizzes, would probably not serve them in the same way understanding the cause and effect elements of history might. I said, “You have to make meaning out of the things you learn in History, so what do you need to know to do that?”
The answers started to come. Where stuff is, like maps and stuff. Check. Who has all the money and how come. Check. Why people in one part of the world hate the people in the other parts so much. Check. Where did religion come from anyhow because it seems like it is messing everything up. Ch- uhhh… wait, did I just hear that correctly? And you are how old?
And then one of the girls asked if we would be learning about 9/11. The group had mixed responses from “Oh man, not again…” to “Yeah, are we going to learn about that?” And I looked at these kids – sophomores who were in their first week of kindergarten on September 11, 2001 – and considered it.
So would we be learning about 9/11? The question brings up a lot of stuff for me. I remember the day, the images, Dan Rather, my high school seniors suddenly feeling vulnerable in a way that teenagers never should, #4′s dad screaming about blasting – blasting who? – back to the stone age, how everyone almost seemed to want a direct connection to the tragedy as if that was a requirement for the emotional responses they were having.
It is okay to be sad for humanity, I wanted to say. It doesn’t have to be your friend, relative, colleague, for you to feel broken inside, I wanted to tell them.
I did not say that because I was in Nevada. And in Nevada the belief that holding libertarian ideals makes you nearly existential in your relationship to the world is very popular.
But the kids let their emotions show.
Thank goodness.
When these Berekely sophomores, born in 1996, asked me if we would be learning about this event, an event they clearly have learned the when and where details of, I asked them what they meant. Some of them had logistical questions, how can something like that happen? Some had more hypothetical questions, did I think something like that would happen again? Where? When? They seemed to avoid the questions of why: Why did this happen?
I asked them to raise their hands if they thought the attacks on that day had been completely random, like just some renegade people who were really angry and had had enough. No hands went up. Okay then, so why? Why did something like this happen?
Money!
Oil!
George Bush!
Religion!
Payback!
There are moments in teaching when there are no wrong answers. I would have to say, this was one of them. I said that this was why it is imperative that we understand the context that surrounds the events we study in history. (What does imperative mean, they asked. Very important, I said. Oh, yeah, right, they nodded.)
So, if this was not random and it clearly took years of training and planning to carry out, to really understand something like 9/11 we need to know: Who? What? Why? People do not do this sort of thing just because they wake up pissed off one day. There are deep, deep seeded reasons that underlie the sentiments that can lead to this kind of catastrophe. What kinds of emotions might these be, I asked.
Jealousy.
Anger.
Frustration.
Misunderstanding.
Hunger.
Fear.
I looked across this motley crew of 14 and 15 year olds. It seems to me they have a pretty solid understanding of what might be behind the actions, even if they don’t fully understand how one goes from understandable rage to incomprehensible actions. It made me feel better in the face of a national politic that has consistently and aggressively forced an agenda of fear and division upon its people. Maybe we can be better than our government policies suggest.
The fear mongering has not made us safer. It has not helped heal wounds, which existed long before that day in 2001 and will exist until we truly work to understand and address the issues that underlie the story, the history. Neil Howe, who with William Strauss wrote Millennials Rising: The Next Great Generation, said of these kids that they fear “strange people with motives we don’t understand could be lurking among us.” I sure as shit hope I am misunderstanding his context (I have not read the book) because the perpetuation that it is “strange people” who we do not understand threatening us seems to be precisely the problem.
On January 6, 1941 Franklin Delano Roosevelt delivered his annual State of the Union address. Amidst a world at war, while America had remained opportunistically isolated, FDR addressed what he called the “immature” and “untrue” belief that this kind of intentional separation was acceptable in any way. In so doing he outlined the responsibilities of our government:
The basic things expected by our people of their political and economic systems are simple. They are:
Equality of opportunity for youth and for others.
Jobs for those who can work.
Security for those who need it.
The ending of special privilege for the few.
The preservation of civil liberties for all.
The enjoyment — The enjoyment of the fruits of scientific progress in a wider and constantly rising standard of living.These are the simple, the basic things that must never be lost sight of in the turmoil and unbelievable complexity of our modern world. The inner and abiding strength of our economic and political systems is dependent upon the degree to which they fulfill these expectations.
It seems noteworthy to consider that we are still struggling to achieve these ends – but that the reactions to their enumeration have inspired such different responses: where FDR was lauded, Obama has been crucified. Still more importantly than an executive comparison, I would encourage people to consider the significance in the remaining need to achieve these aims.
FDR went on to articulate what he described as four essential human freedoms. And as he described these freedoms, which are indeed essential, he emphasized that he spoke not only for America and Americans, insisting with rhetorical repetition that these freedoms were due ALL people, EVERYWHERE in the world.
In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms.
The first is freedom of speech and expression – everywhere in the world.
The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way — everywhere in the world.
The third is freedom from want, which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants — everywhere in the world.
The fourth is freedom from fear, which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor – anywhere in the world.
Thinking about my students and imagining what it must be like to be growing up in this time, I can see no better way to honor those who we have lost, not only in New York on that sunny September day, but everywhere around the world on so many days, than to encourage our nation to take the lead in achieving the goals FDR spoke of 70 years ago.
Remember.
Understand.
Act with compassion.
Be better than you think you can be.
Top image: shot by me, fall 1978.
Bottom image: From Urban Peek.
I thought of Bukowski again today.
We are
Born like this
Into this
Into these carefully mad wars
Into the sight of broken factory windows of emptiness
Into bars where people no longer speak to each other
Into fist fights that end as shootings and knifings
Born into this
Into hospitals which are so expensive that it’s cheaper to die
Into lawyers who charge so much it’s cheaper to plead guilty
Into a country where the jails are full and the madhouses closed
Into a place where the masses elevate fools into rich heroes.
~ Bukowski, ‘Dinosauria, We’
I thought of Bukowski again today.
I am very disappointed about the forced resignation of Representative Anthony Weiner, (D-NY). In a world with far more significant problems than Weiner’s sexting habits and history, America chose to focus wholy on one man’s odd choice to send someone a picture of himself in his underpants. The key issue was the user error which caused the photo to post rather than be sent as a private message between consenting adults, though mental midgets like Andrew Breitbart, Reince Preibus insist that the issue was the photo itself.
If a majority of his constituents were okay with it, why do members of the opposite party care so much? If they really think Weiner’s behavior is so categorically reprehensible and the cause of untold moral outrage in our country, they should have put their thinking caps on and let him stick around so he could have been the Democratic Party’s Palin. I mean, damn, that woman is a godsend to every opposition party.
Of course, that they did not clearly underscores that they know it is not that big of a deal and so they had to make it a big one while they could.
Total focus on one man’s penis. That Weiner’s own party freaked is an eve bigger mysterty. Maybe they thought they were missing out on some quality collective outrage, or something. We apparently have the collective intellect of a 15-year-old boy. In a world rife with war, degenerating domestic industry, social isolation and sadness, violence, an absence of health care, regular miscarriages of justice, government sanctioned fraud in big business, and rampant political corruption of all sorts of real consequence…
We are
Born into this
Walking and living through this
Dying because of this
Muted because of this
Castrated
Debauched
Disinherited
Because of this
Fooled by this
Used by this
Pissed on by this
Made crazy and sick by this
Bukowski knew. We know. We can do something about it.
Will we?
“All we have known…”
It is so easy to get caught up in the minutia. In the seemingly infinite world of Me. Or for you, of You. I work in high schools, the breeding ground of Me. I do not discount the importance of this stage in human development – it is crucial to discovering who we might be, You and Me. I love watching the students I work with cultivate and develop and mutate and invent and destroy and enhance and dilute and clarify and identify this sense of themselves. And if they can see that everyone else is really just trying to do the same thing in the end, somehow, as a race, I believe we have been successful. The balance of understanding and gaining perspective without turning to futility may be the true right of passage.
Launched on September 5, 1977, when I had just started the second grade, Voyager 1 is now somewhere called the Heliosheath, at the end of the Heliosphere, at this second about 17,434,002,760 km from Earth. In 1990, when it was a mere 6.4 billion kilometers away, Carl Sagan suggested that NASA turn the spacecraft’s camera back to show the Earth’s “true circumstance and condition.” On Valentine’s Day of that year, Voyager 1 captured the now famous image of our planet, the Pale Blue Dot. In the image, the planet fills 0.12 pixel.
Mr. Sagan understood perspective. All the highs and lows, all we have known – everything… finding a place on that single Pale Blue Dot.
From this distant vantage point, the Earth might not seem of any particular interest. But for us, it’s different. Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every ‘superstar,’ every ‘supreme leader,’ every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there — on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.
Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.
The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.
It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.
~ Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space (1994)
State of Emergency: Have you heard it all before?
This week was the “week of action” organized by the California Teachers’ Association, which included a series of demonstrations, protests and rallies. While in some ways I find this kind of grass-roots action inspiring and invigorating, I found myself feeling frustrated as a San Francisco resident who teaches in an East Bay community that is basically a satellite of the Cal community. It was the definitive “preaching to the choir” conundrum. The people who are willing to hear about the current crisis in education already support education in every way that they can. It is very frustrating.
The situation is pretty simple. As a nation, we have a compulsory education requirement, and as such, we promise to provide a free public education to our people (I am not using the term ‘citizen’ here intentionally, though the D.R.E.A.M. Act is a topic for another discussion altogether.) The idea of public education goes way back. Way, way, WAY back. Thomas Jefferson was the first leader to propose a universal public education system in the late 18th Century. In spite of the fact that the state of Texas has voted to remove Jefferson from their curriculum (would that I had not already expounded so prolifically on irony!) most of America seems to think Ole T.J. is worth considering at least to some degree. If you, like Texas, have found him to be a little too “Out there” for your more modern sensibilities, do consider that a few others who vouched for public education around the same time were Benjamin Rush, Noah Webster, Robert Coram and George Washington. They can’t all suck.
Once the United States began trying to stand tall on its own feet, it seems that education did become somewhat of a priority and the elitist approach of the traditional European approach was counter to the whole “Democracy” gig they were trying to pull off out here.
And then, we were off and running.
“You forgot ugly, lazy and disrespectful.” Or, the teacher crisis in America.
This post would have been more relevant three or four days ago. But you know what? In between lesson planning, grading papers, teaching 110 high school freshman the finer points of public debate, completing five different forms for IEPs and AD/HD diagnoses, explaining the difference between lyric and pastoral poetry, writing individual narrative evaluations for 28 AP Literature oral presentations, answering no fewer than 30 parent emails and three times that from my students, attending a faculty meeting, two special education meetings, a departmental planning meeting, having a school emergency code red lock down for more than two hours, and showing up ready to go at 7:40 a.m. everyday to deal with teenagers that the majority of America has no apparent interest in… I could not find the time to blog.
How bizarre.
For the past few weeks I have been doing my best to ignore the Governor of the soon-to-be-much-more-mediocre state of Wisconsin. The guy was just pissing me off (he also looks like a total douche and I would be willing to bet he sports Tommy Bahama and loafers with no socks while he is vacationing on his taxpayer financed salary). And frankly, the whole “teachers are overpaid, lazy, stupid, malingering, greedy malcontents with the summer off” story is really cliché. Really, can’t these people come up with anything better? I think it was particularly grating at this point in time because I have been dealing with the reality that I am going to be losing a significant portion of my benefits (which I will not be afford to pay for on my current salary) as well as the fact that all California teachers on one-year or temporary contracts are getting “pink slipped” this month. (My letter was actually printed on a lovely, buff, high-grade paper and said that the school board had voted to terminate my contract at the end of the current school year. My principal said not to take it personally, it was standard, but that language was pretty personal.)
But at a certain point, ignoring this kind of rhetoric becomes dangerous. Dangerous because people who don’t know what they are talking about are the ones making the accusations and they are all making six figures leading to false causation [while they occasionally quote a statistic I can verify, they generally lie by omission. I would love for any of these Fox News Biddies to spend one day doing my job. And I work in a (very academically oriented) suburb. I'd give them four hours before they fell to pieces.] And they are creating a social attitude towards education that is going to take us right back to the Middle Ages.
Whenever I tell people that they will be sorry when there are no more people willing to teach they tell me it doesn’t matter because teachers suck so hard these days. There argument is that it doesn’t matter if schools shut down because they are a waste of time.
WTF?
And what do you suppose all those kids will be doing when there is no school? Contributing to the GNP or drawing from it? I am not suggesting that you must have a traditional education to be successful, but I am suggesting that without other advantages (yeah, yeah, I read Outliers and I know the Bill Gates anecdote) there seems to be some advantage to be gained by educating people.
What I said about a regression to the Dark Ages is a much simpler causal relationship. Pretty soon we will only educate the rich. Then it will be only the very socially and politically elite rich. Then it will be only a certain part of that infinitesimally small number (I will not go so far to say only the boys in this dark age, the way it is going it would be a lot more likely to be only the girls.) And then that tiny oligarchy of educated elites will have the power to manipulate anything they want; politics, rights and liberties, even language – making it accessible only to those in the elite circle on the basis that they are the only ones with the knowledge or expertise about what to do with that sort of information.
And then what? I have no idea.
But I do know this: when education was a privilege and not a right, people wanted it. Once it became available to everyone, in fact promised to everyone as a basic human right, it lost its panache. Those who had always had the privilege (the rich) started to disparage it – loudly. The biggest complaints about education are coming from the wealthy, who ironically, are not suffering the pains of the demise of the American education system because they are insulated from it in their privately funded schools. Privately funded schools where they still have art and music and sports and books and supplies and functional facilities. How fascinating that the schools that generate success have these things.
When people say that there is no connection between poverty and education they demonstrate that they are too unfamiliar with either one to have an opinion on the matter.
So, my Dark Ages analogy? Yeah, education tanks until society gets to the point where they realize that “Hey, maybe it did make a difference!” and we start all over again. That should only take about 500 years.
And the criticism of teachers? Yeah, I am sure there are some shitty ones. I know some of them. But you know what? Find a profession where there is not dead weight. The Fox News contention that teachers have an easy job because: ”It’s a part-time job; they are done at 2:30,” seemed to overlook the planning, grading, professional development and required continuing education teachers do, to say nothing of the amount of time teachers spend with *your* kids- listening, supporting, helping, encouraging. Another Fox Newsian said teachers are lazy because, ”Teachers know the kids are going to be in the seats and the taxpayers are just going to be sending in the money no matter how poorly they do. They have no incentive to do a great job.” Because, yes, getting kids in their seats is the primary function of my job. Are you fucking nuts? (Oh, yes, you are on Fox News, nevermind.)
And then there is the money issue. Teachers are overpaid because they only work nine months [I am looking forward to the first full summer off I have had since college this summer. And that is because I am in posession of that pretty little buff (pink) slip.] This is the average teacher salary. I realize it does not include benefits, which for teacher were historically really good, though I would bet that they pale in comparison to the bonuses meted out in the private/financial sector – where benefits are also part of the salary packages, by the way. And we are losing these benefits. So, for all the Fox Newsians who say that adequate pay is required to get quality people in any industry, it seems you actually don’t *want* good teachers. [I can tell you several stories of people I knew who had to revert to waiting tables in San Francisco because they could not afford to keep on teaching, or about the time I went to a job fair to try to recruit minority teachers in California and I was told by parents that they did not want their college students to be teachers because they worked too hard to put them through college for them not to make a decent living.]
I love my job. And I went into the profession because I love it. It is the only reason I can continue to do it because it is simply too hard to do if you do not love it. You cannot hide in a cubicle. You cannot just not show up and fuck around on Twitter and Facebook all day long. And you do have a responsibility to do a good job, because somewhere around 120 kids a year are counting on me to do just that.
So, for all those anti-teacher ranters out there, I would just ask you to consider positing some other solution. A more cost-effective one, if that is what will make you happy. But remember, as the saying goes, if you can read this… THANK A TEACHER.
Oh, and yeah, Jon Stewart said this all already more articulately and with more style. If you did not watch it, you should.
Arizona, you are so embarassing. Seriously. WTF.
Long long ago, in a galaxy apparently not so far away, my mom arrived at UCSF in the early morning of September 22 to give birth to the eight and a half pounds that would grow up to be me. [Thank you for that, by the way mom.] My mom has told me lots of stories about when I was born, prompted often by my early childhood demands of proof that I was not adopted and other such nonsense. One of the stories that I have never gotten over was when she told me that as the hospital staff was taking down her information for the birth certificate and asked her for her race they balked when she said Caucasian. Like, they thought she was trying to pull a fast one on them and gain entry to some super-duper special white person’s club.
Interestingly, my mom, who is half Lebanese, is by all scientific definitions, Caucasian. That is the racial classification for Arabs. Even Wiki agrees with this KNOWN FACT: Caucasian race or Caucasoid people, which includes people with ancestry from the Caucasus, Middle East, North Africa, South Asia, and parts of Central Asia, who share certain physiological characteristics and genetics with Europeans beyond skin colour. Now, I will grant you, as the photo above [mom, me, great-grandma who immigrated from Beirut in the early part of the 20th Century and (my most totally kick-ass) grandma] indicates… there is a wide variety of colors, shapes and sizes in such a broad definition. Just the other day I was reading one of my favorite blogs in which a discussion of cosmetic racial profiling foreshadows what will inevitably prevail in Arizona following the passage of one of the most embarrassing post-Jim Crow (more aptly, Neo-Jim Crow) laws. (Oh yeah, in purely scientific terms, Latinos are often Caucasian too.)
Here are some of the high points (and by ‘high’ I do mean WTF are you smoking down there?) of the bill:
- Requires the person’s immigration status to be verified…
- Allows a law enforcement officer, without a warrant, to arrest a person if the officer has probable cause to believe that the person has committed any public offense that makes the person removable from the U.S.
- Allows a law enforcement officer, without a warrant, to arrest a person if the officer has probable cause to believe that the person has committed any public offense that makes the person removable from the U.S.
- Prohibits officials or agencies of the state and political subdivisions from being prevented or restricted from sending, receiving or maintaining an individual’s immigration status information or exchanging that information with any other governmental entity…
I cannot decide if it is Orwellian, fascist, sofa king we todd did, or a healthy combination therein. Adding to the crazy ignorance, the Governor of the state, which only allowed MLKjr day to be a holiday in order to be able to host the Superbowl, said this: “I just signed SB1070. I will not tolerate racial discrimination or profiling. We must enforce the law.” WTF? I know I keep saying that, but W.T.F.???? I am fairly certain what I just copied and pasted DIRECTLY from the text of the bill is pretty much… “racial profiling.”
I know history is falling out of favor these days, but if we could, just for a moment, review:
1. “White” folks arrived on the continent to invade kill plunder stay in 1607. No offense to Erickson’s or Raleigh’s efforts but those were fails. Funny enough, there were a whole bunch of people already here. (Psssst: I think they may have been brownish in color, but don’t tell anyone, it is a TeaBagger state secret.)
2. At one point we accepted a gift from the French that says:
Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!
I know poetry is also not really all that cool anymore either, especially sonnets, and the French have been irking you all since they said going into Iraq was a bad idea, (Hey, wait a minute…) but unless you are a member of one of the Native American nations, you, my friend, ARE AN IMMIGRANT. America is a nation of immigrants.
3. The first really annoying obvious proponents of this kind of nonsense were called the Know Nothings. When asked about their organization and beliefs they were supposed to say “I know nothing.” And they did not see the irony. The fact that this party then became the American Party is even more telling. Idiocracy, anyone? These guys hated Catholics, the Irish, Native Americans (damn that verbal irony again!) and pretty much anyone who did not have a name as cool as Millard.
4. We have passed a whole bunch of legislation that pretty much makes it clear that you cannot discriminate, ie: suspect someone of something, based solely on their race. This is especially important in a country where the appearance of race is totally nebulous. To combat this sort of racial disambiguity in the past people have done things like, require certain individuals to wear yellow stars on their clothing or hold special identification at all times. <– That link has some pretty frighteningly familiar shit in it. (Hello TeaBagger Nation.) The idea that you could require someone to demonstrate their legal right to be anywhere on the basis of… um… APPEARANCE violates the US Constitution more than George W. Bush did. And if it is not going to be based on looks, then what, assumig no probable cause is required. Some people have said, “It’s not like they’re talking about demanding birth certificates as verification for your average adult which would certainly be awkward to carry around. Just a driver’s license is all you need to prove citizenship,” but the thing is, I do not hail from, nor want to live in a police state that requires this sort of baloney. How I look should never be grounds for how someone treats me. Now, my actions, I take full responsibility for (mostly.)
All of which conveniently enough, brings me back to my original anecdote. My mom is brown. But she is American. My grandma too. Me? Well, I apparently got a little bit more of the Scandinavian genes, but I certainly endeavor to be brown at every opportunity (by the way, I wonder if all the Arizona tanning salons are going to be protesting this stupid bill?) The growing fear and residual hate that it spawns in America is really scary. But it is only scary to people who think and have the ability to see the parallels between what is happening in our fair (haha) country and what has happened before, not only in America, but in the Balkans, Cambodia, Germany, Stalinist Russia, Northern Iraq, just to name a few.The people that support this sort of thing don’t think about those sorts of things, they use this kind of logic: 70% of state voters supported the measure — even though 53% said it could lead to civil rights violations. Say it with me, “W.T.F.???”
The US Constitution stipulates, in Article Six, that no law shall supersede the Constitution. Then there are these pesky amendments we call the Bill of Rights, (which were added to the Constitution by those who feared an all-powerful federal state.) Within the first ten amendments we see that people have the right due process of the law (#5) and are protected from unwarranted searches (and seizure it goes without saying, or actually it no longer does, but it should) #4. Getting a little further on down the road, is the 14th Amendment (a real bear) that requires that all rights and privileges in the Constitution be respected for all citizens. And further that “citizens” includes anyone born in the US or of US citizens or naturalized. Just think of the visual diversity there. Then you get to the heart of the Amendment:
No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
You, Arizona, are a total embarrassment to all the things that are still trying to make America cool. If you understand history, which I know is asking a lot, it is clear that being anti-immigrant is EXACTLY the same as being anti-American. FACT. So, don’t give me this, “If you have nothing to hide you should not care about proving your right to share our space,” crap.
If I do not want to show you my identification I should not have to unless I have done something clearly in violation of the law. Being brown is NOT in violation of the law. (New Arizona state flag from here.)
If I wanted to have to produce identification on demand, I would move somewhere like China… oh, wait…
Bob Herbert gets it. I wish the GOP did.
Today one of my students was telling me that he got stumped by one of his university interview questions over the weekend. Considering the student as well as the outcome, I am going to have to say “stumped” is a wee bit of an overstatement, but none the less, the question was interesting. As a future lawyer, he has applied for a Law and Politics program. On seeing that the interviewer said, “I see that you have aptly demonstrated your interest in law, but what about politics? What interests you about politics?”
“Uhhh….” He began. “Politics is interesting because it is the element of the system that works on enforcing law… like, they work together to effect change…”
Okay, so not bad. Always good to fall back on interdependence and relationships.
He asked me, what I would have said. What a perfect day to ask me such a question. I told him I was not sure I could answer the question in light of the current political sh*tstorm underway in the States. He persisted. I gave in with little more encouragement: “I think that politics is fascinating because it is like the crystallization of all the best and worst extremes of the human condition. It is the fun house mirror of our society.”
He laughed and then looked at the clock. Maybe I should have re-thought my answer.
In the wake of the passage of the Health Care Reform Bill the nature of the extreme right in our country has been disclosed to such a degree that even the “mostly extreme” right sees the red flags. Like I said yesterday: It is embarrassing. I am frightened to see the potential for hate that this has brought out in the people who we have chosen to represent us. Jesus – if this is who we have become we really are a Generation of Swine.
Bob Herbert’s op-ed piece in the New York Times pretty much summed up what I was trying to say yesterday (that is why he earns the big bucks, yo.) and I know lots of people are going to say that he is some liberal-leftist-socialist-racist-tyrant. So before you go there, consider what David Frum had to say about what the GOP has earned themselves as a result of the past few weeks years:
We followed the most radical voices in the party and the movement, and they led us to abject and irreversible defeat… by mobilizing [the Republicans] with hysterical accusations and pseudo-information, overheated talk has made it impossible for representatives to represent and elected leaders to lead. He went on in another piece to say that “Conservatives have whipped themselves into spasms of outrage and despair that block all strategic thinking.”
The behavior that Herbert describes in his piece defies any sort of rational explanation – oh, yeah BECAUSE IT IS IRRATIONAL. Beyond that it is inexcusable, but it was at the hands of a bunch of Teabagger Morons. So what then of yelling “Baby Killer” at Bart Stupak, (who frankly does not speak for my uterus in any way) on the floor of the United States House of Representatives? Randy Neugebauer [from Texas - HOW SURPRISING] came forward to admit it was him (though made up quite a justification for it) a day late. In the military don’t they have punishments for “conduct unbecoming”? Why do we have to put up with this kind of bullshit in the hallowed halls of “the greatest Democracy on the planet? [Be sure to read the comments following the Neugebauer article if you check the link.]
Yeah, the greatest “democracy” on earth. Maybe, as the Aussies point out, that is not necessarily the best thing.
“In a nation ruled by swine, all pigs are upwardly mobile—and the rest of us are fucked until we can put our acts together: not necessarily to win, but mainly to keep from losing completely. We owe that to ourselves and our crippled self-image as something better than a nation of panicked sheep.” ~ Hunter S. Thompson, 1979
**Thank you to Twitter friends: seanbedlam, shockozulu aka John Cusack, lizzwinstead, pourmecoffee, deringolade and cody_k for all the links and great posts over the past few days.**
How embarrassing.
For eight long years people in Washington had to mostly bite their tongues when it came to the vitriol that Bush and Cheney were spewing in and around the capitol world. You know, like when Bush was telling us that if we did not support legislation like the “Patriot” Act we were UN-American and Cheney was telling US Senators to “go fuck themselves.”
Today, after an arduous and ultimately not entirely satisfying run, the Health Care Reform Bill passed in the US House of Representatives. 216 votes were needed and they got 219. Certainly not a landslide, but hey. When Representative Stupak reversed and voted for the bill, a Republican Congressperson yelled “Baby killer!” Making it even more hideous, the Representatives know who it is and won’t say. Way to go Texas whoever you are. What is this Parliament for God’s sake? Who knew there was a three drink minimum for a House vote? [Maybe this is to demonstrate how health care reform won't help belligerent drunks idiots?]
How completely embarrassing.
Add that to the fact that Congresspeople ‘booed’ the President of the United States of America IN THE CHAMBER.
If there is more embarrassing than completely embarrassing, this is it.
The Twitterverse was alive and well with all the latest on the situation from start to finish. Here are some of the choice bits:
The federal government forced me to buy two wars in the last 10 years.
Going (senti)Mental?
I have heard it said that certain people “become sentimental,” and it is rare that this suggests something positive. Rather it seems to assume a lack of ability to somehow perceive things realistically or with any degree of sophistication. Not too long ago in a discussion of movies contending for Academy Awards, I do recall saying of my mom that perhaps she was “becoming sentimental,” in response to her positive reviews of Mayor Clint’s latest film, Invictus, and the consensus that it might be too saccharine for the Academy.
Becoming sentimental.
The word comes from the Latin, sentire, meaning “to feel.” Seems okay. Of course, for those of you who might enjoy word roots in the same way I do you probably already know that “sentient” shares the same root. While sentimentality, which means expressive of or appealing to sentiment, especially the tender emotions and feelings, as love, pity, or nostalgia (or worse, mawkishly susceptible or tender - mawkish? slightly overstated, no?); sentient means characterized by sensation and consciousness. I dare say we would not be waxing complimentary in disregarding another person’s sentient qualities (though rest assured I have, and would kindly request proof indicating otherwise for a few choice individuals…) So, why the bad rap for being sentimental?
In consideration of this subject, the abundance of spiritual teachings throughout history that encourage the awareness of, and kindness to, all sentient creatures strikes me as particularly relevant. It is the sentient nature of a creature that we tend to honor – yet we grossly overlook this sentience when it suits us. My step-dad, in his efforts to rescue all threatened things great and small, has been known to gently call the most hideous of insects, “Poor little guys…” And rescue them he often does. I recall my mom asking me, on seeing me rashly take down a trail of ants in my bathroom, if I would do the same to a litter of kittens. I hardly thought it a fair question. But, maybe… On reading Robert Frost’s A Considerable Speck, I have to wonder if in fact they were all onto something a bit more sophisticated than I had been willing to admit. A certain delicacy in dealing with the world around us.
Could we be confusing delicacy with mawkish sentimentality?
I am reading a book right now that I am thoroughly enjoying, so much so that I am reading it for the second time in as many days. Selected reviews of this book accuse it of being overly sentimental though I respectfully disagree (further thoughts to that end later) – but perhaps, I too, am “becoming sentimental”? Then tonight, I watched the aforementioned Mayor’s movie, Invictus. It had all the trappings of the typical triumph-of-the-spirit-sports-can-heal-the-world story: beating the odds, great anthems, the perfect ‘bad guy’ (I still, and will always, love the All-Blacks…) and the becoming-buddies-in-spite-of-ourselves element.
And I thought it was great.
An Oscar winner? Unlikely. A solution to the problems that plague a nation as diverse and historically troubled as the Republic of South Africa? Uh, no. A gross oversimplification of the racial strife that has permanently associated itself with places like Pretoria, Jo’burg, Durban and Capetown? Possibly. But so what? I have long subscribed to the (likely over-simplified) attitude that sports CAN mend fences of a far more serious nature. And I do not think that I will ever outgrow that tendency. [There are several examples mentioned here including the 1995 Rugby World Cup.] Eastwood did a nice job with this movie, avoiding mawkishness, and including some very delicate moments. Yeah, I just said a movie that takes place in South Africa in the mid-nineties, about rugby, by Clint Dirty Harry Eastwood, was delicate. Certainly not the whole thing, mind you, but there were graceful, even nuanced, elements that added a lot to the story: the little boy listening to the match outside the stadium with the police, the fourth ticket for the championship being given to Eunice, the Bokkes holding rugby clinics in a township. All with definite McDisney potential, but coming off as lovely understated sentiments. Yup, that’s right, sentiments.
How deeply personal are our sentiments, our sense of right and wrong? They are so intrinsically essential to our beings they defy, time and again, the possibility of articulation. Hence, arguments, fights, wars. Far from expecting they all be understood, a better idea may be aiming for acceptance. Only a few months prior to Mandela’s historic 1994 election, I was traveling around Europe with a boy named Stephen who came from Durban. Stephen and I had the kind of relationship that one has when one is 23 and traveling around the Mediterranean until one can no longer continue traveling around the Mediterranean. He was lovely and polite (he certainly charmed my mom way before I remember anyone calling her sentimental) and he was an Afrikaner to the core. Having just graduated from Thurgood Marshall College at UCSD, I asked Stephen all sorts of questions about South Africa that in hindsight only showed my cultural arrogance. He was mostly very patient. One day he tersely responded to one question too many by saying, “Our blacks are not the same as your blacks. You will never understand.” I remember that we spent some time apart after that and I still take issue with the statement, but in fairness, I have no idea of the situation of which he spoke beyond the level that appears on to celluloid. [Okay, I have more than that, but when I think about what it was like traveling with Stephen - how everywhere we went he was stopped at the border, held back, searched, questioned, I pause. He was 23. He was a lot like me. But his country had a much more visible strike against it. (Even in 1993 I had been told to affix a Canadian flag to my backpack. No I did not.)] Did the 1995 victory in the world cup make a difference for Stephen and make him embrace the multi-lingual anthem (the only anthem in the world to incorporate five languages) and hug his black neighbor who is not like my black neighbor? I have no idea. But I would bet, that for one day, he let a lot of stuff go.
Does that make me sentimental?
The thrill of victory that comes from sport has yet to be matched for me. I cry watching the Olympics for goodness sake, even when the other guys win, and in life, maudlin I am not. The Bokkes beat the All-Blacks in 1995 and they never should have. That was an All-Black team of legend. On the same token, Mandela beat Robben Island for nearly three decades, and one wonders what the odds were on that.
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.~ Invictus, by William Ernest Henley
Who’s sentimental now?
Politics are so jive. That’s the way, uh-huh uh-huh we like it, uh-huh uh-huh.
Last night at dinner I was reminded of the most recent controversy swirling around the Obama White House… You know, how Rahm Emanuel has a foul mouth. Oh wow. How amazing. This old news is in the news because Sarah Palin is all offended… so much so that she took it to her Facebook page. Gasp. You Go Girl. So here is the deal. SPalin is totally offended that Rahm Emanuel referred to liberal politicians who were not supporting the Obama health care plan as “Fucking retarded.”
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
So Spalin, the woman who called her own Down’s Syndrome child, the one she is now defending – along with those pesky liberal Dems she normally hates so much – yes, you guessed right: RETARDED.
Personally, I think that Sarah Palin is really dangerous – she has what has often been referred to as “retard strength” in terms of her public sway. I am not sure if it is to do with her innate abilities in this area, or if it is more of a statement towards the collective brain power of her constituents. Either way, they are sofa king re todd did. And today she is in the great state of Tennessee, telling the Tea Baggers that “America is ready for another Revolution.” Yes, this from the lady who keeps going on about being so sick of “talk talk talk” that she quit governing, wrote a book, went on TV, and gives speeches.
SCARY.
Emanuel is sort of known for his use of colorful language. And you know how I feel about the use of the “F-Word.” I think it is fan-fucking-tastic. But Lil’ ol’ Sarah, she sure is hurtin’ for certain. Funny, she didn’t seem so offended when Dick Cheney told Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont to “go fuck himself.” Anyhow, of course Emanuel apologized, because this is the sort of shit we need to be worried about:
Today Emanuel apologized for using the phrase. “The White House remains committed to addressing the concerns and needs of Americans living with disabilities,” says a White House aide, “and recognizes that derogatory remarks demean us all.”
It is assumed Emanuel stands by his use of the word “fucking.”
I thought the following comment with regard to the whole thing was pretty funny:
Does anyone understand that the words ‘profanity’ and ‘obscenity’ do not mean the same thing? It is another of the many shames of the current occupant of the White House that he can joke about teaching profanity to children. Profanity is not a joking matter.
Naturally ‘obscenity’ is great fun… and very suitable for children.
This post is relatively redundant in the vein of Sarah-Palin-Needs-to-GFH. But I feel better now. And here is a little Holy Fuck interlude to brighten your day.
“It hurts when I go like this…”
Here is a good rule for life:
If something offends you and your sensibilities – don’t do it/be around it/seek it out/obsess on it/focus on it/concern yourself with others who are doing it.
You will be happier for it, I guarantee.
It is the ultimate irony [or stupidity - you choose] that people who are the most outraged by certain things dedicate the most substantial amount of time to said things. Consider Tipper Gore and song lyrics; Jerry Falwell and pornography; Anti-Choicers and abortion; Martini drinkers and potheads. It is like the old joke about the guy who goes to the doctor and says, “Hey, Doc, my arm hurts when I go like this.”
Say it with me: “Well, don’t go like that.”
I got to thinking about this recently because I received a photo via email from friend credited to a website called Art or Porn – You decide. By the way, if you have a problem with things that could certainly be considered pornographic… DO NOT go to the site. And of course that made me think of the Honorable Justice Potter Stewart who so eloquently said of porn (as I have undoubtedly mentioned before): “…Hard-core pornography. I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description; and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it…” I love the quote for the ruling to which it was applied, and also for the implicit indication that the Justices view porn.The movie in question in the case was a French film (of course…) called The Lovers. This film has nothing on the Campari advertisements that made up the basis of the Hustler Magazine (Larry Flynt) v. Falwell case that I find one of the most interesting First Amendment issues. the thing is Larry Flynt is a total pig. His magazine? In my opinion it does not qualify as art. [Unlike the Robert Mapplethorpe exhibit that did not happen at the Corcoran in D.C. costing them a serious endowment... (oops) and over which everyone got their granny panties in a twist back in the late 80s.] So, you know what? I do not read it. And then there was old Reverend Falwell. Yeah, Rev, what were you doing pouring over Hustler anyhow? And how did you miss the lesson on satire in your high school English class? Come on now, didn’t you read A Modest Proposal? Or was that on your banned books list…? [You know, they ended up being buddies anyhow, so let that be a lesson to you stone-throwing-glass-house-dwellers (they did seem to be of the same ilk...)]
I suppose the problem with obscenity/pornography is that it is totally subjective as the Art or Porn site suggests. And so how do you legislate subjectivity. Well, according to the USSC in the test for obscenity is “whether to the average person, applying contemporary community standards, the dominant theme of the material taken as a whole appeals to prurient interest.” (Roth v. United States, 354 U.S. 476 . Pp. 191-195.)
So, there we go, right back to the lowest common denominator average person. Great. Like I want John Doe/Jerry Falwell/Tipper Gore/Phyllis Schlafly determining what I can appreciate as art (or not.)
Jeannie: In a nutshell, I hate my brother, how’s that?
Boy in police station: That’s cool. Didja blown him away or something?
Jeannie: No, not yet. See, I went home to confirm that the shithead was ditching school and when I was there a guy broke into the house, I called the cops and they picked me up for making a phony phone call.
Boy in police station: What do you care if your brother ditches school?
Jeannie: Why should he get to ditch when everybody else has to go?
Boy in police station: You could ditch.
Jeannie: Yeah. I’d get caught.
Boy in police station: So, you’re pissed off because he ditches and doesn’t get caught, is tht it?
Jeannie: Basically.
Boy in police station: Basically… Then your problem is you.
Jeannie: Excuse me?
Boy in police station: Excuse you. You oughta spend a little more time dealing with yourself, a little less time worrying about what your brother does. That’s just an opinion.
Anyhow. Art or porn? (Another fun site full of this same conunudrum here.) You make the call. But if it hurts when you go like that…..
{this post has been brought to you on the piggy back of this one and as a predecessor to the one where I write a scathing personal rant assessment of the literati in my book group.}
Mao Tse Tung said: “Drought? Whatevs. Make Rain. Oops. Snow.”
On October 1, 2009 there was a big old party in Hong Kong to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China. Hong Kong big-ups their Chinese-y-ness for stuff like this. [The same happened during the Olympics when Hong Kongers forgot about their rampant disregard for, disparagement of, and disgust with "Mainlanders" and everyone was "Chinese" for two weeks.] Still, National Day was particularly ironic in my mind. The bastion of Beyond-Free Enterprise that is the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region celebrating 60 years of Communism? What? I suppose it was as good a reason as any for a kick ass fireworks display, but the reality of paying homage to Mao’s October 1, 1949 declaration of the People’s Republic seemed totally transparent. [Like the finest silk, some may say.]
As a result of all the pomp and circumstance I found myself thinking a lot about the PRC and how they view the world. I considered their efficiency and secrecy and thought, “Hey, maybe they are onto something.” I contemplated the “One Country – Two Systems” explanation for the HK-PRC connection, the way that China can make Hong Kong a part of the PRC without “fixing what is not broken.” [It is a tenuous explanation - at best. But one thing I have noticed since I have been in East Asia is that tenuous is good enough for Beijing. Consider the Taiwan issue, or Tibet, if you are not afraid of complete censure. Frankly, based on the arguments China uses for both of those regions, they should also incorporate Mongolia and Vietnam... The thing is China, like most modern governments it seems, firmly believes in and employs the practice that if you say something often enough it will become true. The difference between China and a lot of other places is that they are less concerned with it actually becoming true; saying it is enough. And in that way they seem to have a special kind of integrity.] I thought about how Beijing believes that if they block the internet it is not there. How if they say there is no financial crisis, there is no financial crisis.
And in the whole build up to the 60th Anniversary and in the weeks after, I just kept singing this song:
Mao Tse Tung said change must come
Change must come thru the barrel of a gun
Not thru talkin’ and not through waitin’
And sittin’ around just contemplatin’ the facts
‘Cos we know what they are…
And one thing you have to give Beijing credit for, they are not into sitting around and waiting. They get shit done. In fact they let nothing stand in the way. Not even the weather. Fast forward one month. It is no secret that China has been suffering a drought, (or maybe it is since it could be interpreted as some sort of failure on behalf of China – [mind that Mandate of Heaven, yo... even Mao didn't dis' the Emperors - only the Capitalist Pigs.] Anyhow, drought. It has been pretty bad, and so (though it is probably somehow Mongolia’s fault,) China decided to take action and on or around the 1st of November they seeded the clouds above Beijing. China v. The Weather, Round One. China got the victory.
Then the weather changed.
Doh!
Global Climate Change FTW. And so it seems, even Beijing knows when to acknowledge that the weather may be in China, but like Hong Kong, it is gonna do its own thing.
The actual point here, is that Hong Kong /= China. I have said it before, and I will say it again: HONG KONG and CHINA no son iguales. And so what made me finally sit and write this one more month later? I read a blog by someone I used to know ranting about his current situation. Granted his situation does suck, but when I hear stuff like this:
I feel compelled to answer: If you “live” in Hong Kong, you do NOT live in China. And though it is a complete pain in the ass for Chinese nationals to secure entry to the US, this is completely and totally NOT the case for Hong Kongers – they are from that other system, remember? And I have been away from home longer than this guy and I have never been asked if I am a “terrorist” – I am not even sure how that works, or if that was just hyperbolic for effect.
Mao Tse Tung said a lot of stuff… but in the end, even he had to admit some of it was maybe not the best way forward and so, while lip service would continue to be paid, he did encourage people to please do what was necessary to actually get paid… Not thru talkin’ and not through waitin’, And sittin’ around just contemplatin’ the facts, ‘Cos we know what they are, So let Mao Tse Tung be your guidin’ star… Do what you need to do but please, just do not make a scene.
And life gives you drought, make some rain, er, snow, er… wait, never mind. Blame Mongolia and shop in Hong Kong, it will all work out in the end.
<<DISCLAIMER: This post was just a collection of random thoughts that seemed to somehow go together at 5 a.m. this morning. I am not actually vested in a particularly consistent position regarding Tibet, Taiwan, Mongolia, Communism – “or any -ism for that matter. -Ism’s in my opinion are not good. A person should not believe in an -ism, he should believe in himself” – nor am I particularly vexed by anyone’s personal need to rant vent on their blog. I just want to reiterate: HONG KONG IS NOT CHINA. That is all.>>
My President FTW!
President Obama has been awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize, and you know what? That is completely kick ass and TOTALLY deserved. I love how instantly all these people are like, “What did he do to deserve that?”
Really? That is the best you’ve got? Hmmm… Okay, remember this, Reg?
Oh, and by the way, if you are actually curious about the decision to award Barack Obama the Nobel Peace Prize (rather than just bitching for the sake of bitching), here is what the organization had to say about it:
In a press release, the Norwegian Nobel Committee stated that he was selected “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.” In addition, his selection also has to do with his goals of nuclear non-proliferation and global nuclear disarmament.
It certainly underscores what I saw during the election, and following the Obama win throughout the international community; people see this as the first step in righting America’s image in the eyes of the world. Still, I long for the day when people begin to resist cynicism. Until then:
“We choose to go to the moon…”
Today is the day – the 40 year anniversary of that small step for Neil Armstrong… But was it a giant step for mankind? I often wonder what it would have been like to be seeing that Apollo mission live – (and to that end, this website is awesome recreating the Apollo 11 mission in real-time: http://www.wechoosethemoon.org/ – the photos, videos and audio are completely cool) – would I have been as impressed? More impressed? With which element of the experience? Or would I have been like John Updike’s Rabbit, “I don’t know, I know it’s happened, but I don’t feel anything yet.”
The anniversary of the moon landing has been a marketing boon in a waning economy and this is not too surprising considering the fact that, as A.O. Scott says in his brilliant piece in the New York Times, “it was at once a science project and a media spectacle.” And this tenuous connection between science and popular culture continues to fascinate me. My interest in science has always been a curious relationship. I find certain elements of it amazing and others tedious. I love experimentation and hypotheses and discoveries… I loathe manipulation and metonymy: “The Science” indicates this, “The Science” says that. Ever since Professor Randlett pointed out that habit of hiding behind “The Science” in the early stages of my graduate studies I have always smirked a bit to hear someone say, with self-satisfied authority, “Well, The Science has shown…”
A survey carried out by the Pew Research Center shows that there seems to be a growing disconnect between the public and science. This is hardly surprising, but the bizarre thing is that people still think scientists are super important, like respectable, but they don’t believe anything that the scientists are saying (although they seem to believe things that “The Science” tells them.) I imagine that would be super irritating as a scientist. I mean, to be rated as the third highest group (behind the military and teachers) as far as contributing to society, but then have significant scientific theories disregarded, like evolution and global warming seems like a frustrating intersection to be gridlocked in.
It likely comes down to the fact I keep running up against, which is that people believe what they want to believe. I actually know people who believe – for real – that the moon landing never took place. This is harder for me to swallow than the reality that people don’t believe in evolution or global warming… but not a whole lot. [Even Lloyd Christmas worked it out eventually...]
Perceptions of what is important in science are also changing. “As an example, ten years ago, 18% cited space exploration and the moon landing as the country’s top achievement of the 20th century. Today 12% see it as the greatest achievement of the past 50 years.” But looking at what “The Public” (there is that troublesome metonymy again) says about important contributions in the last fifty years and you will see the answer with the highest number of responses is “Nothing/I don’t know.” [I don't know? Are you fucking kidding? I admit, that I am still amazed is puzzling.]
So, on this day, amidst moon madness, recalling the last 40 years since that Apollo landing, I wonder about the hype. There is talk of returning to the moon by the year 2020. Good Ole #2, Buzz Aldrin said of walking on the moon, “I would never stoop to call kicking up dust on the moon a stunt, but it certainly wasn’t a pioneering effort that led to sustainment.” It seems like this could be money better spent, though I would love to have a go at a lunar escapade, so I understand the guys that want to have at it. And as we all know it all comes down to funding, so this will likely end up a partisan pissing contest in Washington. How Obama handles it will be interesting. Kennedy sure wowed ‘em back in 1961 speaking at Rice University.
There is something kind of awe-inspiring to think about the pace of progress which JFK reiterates in his speech, and to think that we are choosing to stymie that kind of scientific progress at the expense of religious zealotry or partisan politics is pretty lame. For what it is worth, we did it, and I think it is something to be celebrated. But the more pressing reality is that we need to celebrate and reward the pursuit of knowledge on a more regular basis… the normal everyday stuff that might just save our asses eventually – unless the Jetsons really do end up being our neighbors.
For now, looking towards Wednesday’s new moon in Hong Kong… I feel more akin to Jerry than NASA…
Standing on the moon
Where talk is cheap and vision true
Standing on the moon
But I would rather be with you
Somewhere in San Francisco
On a back porch in July
Just looking up to heaven
At this crescent in the sky
Area 51: STFU, I know more about it than you.
The Latin translates to "Tastes Like Chicken"
Counter cultural bullshit and occult-ish hoo-ah interest me as much as they do the next person. Yeah, I am being precise, seriously about that much. So, of course my interest fluctuates with my company, but if you are going to talk about this kind of stuff, it would be so helpful if you had a clue. Really, even just a small one. I would suggest to you that the most serious government conspiracies are the ones taking place right in front of your face everyday… they taste like chicken, yo.
I became interested in Area 51 after spending a year or so studying atomic history, specific to the western US (if you are interested, this is an awesome introductory site.) My area of study at that time was the Nevada Test Site, a specifically designated area within the extensive Nellis AFB, which lies outside of Las Vegas, Nevada. As I learned more and more about the Manhattan Project and the ramifications of Teller‘s dreams of glory I became more and more fascinated by the power of rhetoric and cartography in the geopolitical context.
There is something wonderful about maps – I am not sure what it is, but I have always had a deep appreciation for them. I suppose initially it had to do with how powerful they are as an informative tool. You know, like the secret treasure map concept. The there is the aesthetic value of cool maps. But in more pragmatic terms, I am amazed at the power of maps to lend legitimacy, nee existence, to places and spaces. The idea that by taking something off a map you actually somehow make it “go away” is radical and crazy and, apparently, real.
The desert regions of the American West were always the first selected for the most secret (and egregious as I have mentioned before) military and scientific activities in the history of the US. It is my belief, along with people like Bernard DeVoto, Carole Gallagher, Valerie Kuletz, Rebecca Solnit, Dina Titus, Don Worster, and maybe most personally significantly to me, one of my advisors, the amazing Peter Goin, that the geography of this area and the potential for manipulative cartography made it the dream destination for Dreamland (see really recent 0.5 meter resolution sat image here) and dropping bombs. My eventual thesis project was called The Importance of (In)Visibility and the specific subject area was Area 51. I spent a year doing research and fieldwork in some of the most bizarre places in Nevada – and as Nevada is already totally bizarre, just imagine.
~Happy 4th of July~
I woke up this morning under grey Hong Kong skies knowing that I was going to be working and that most people I knew could give a crap that it is the 4th of July. Frankly, most people I know anywhere seem to take the holiday in stride; it’s like a good barbecue situation under sunny skies and such, mostly a day off. I can get with that. Especially since I am at work. But this has been a very “independency” week over here. Canada Day and Establishment Day both going down on the 1st of July and now us bloody Americans ringing in another big night at the local bars, for sure.
Canada Day actually makes me laugh a little bit, and not just because it is Canadian… but because it celebrates the British North America Act of 1867, which is sort of an independence ruse. It gave Canada permission to be “federally united into One Dominion under the Crown of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland” by the Queen’s Most Excellent Majesty. So, that’s cute. But they did tear it up over here on Wednesday because as luck would have it the date coincides with Establishment Day in the Kong, so for Canadians, it is like a real holiday. In a somewhat related way Establishment Day celebrates the transfer of sovereignty of Hong Kong from the United Kingdom to the PRC. The difference being, China doesn’t play and they effectively ended British political participation. This is not to say it ended the British influence, but no one is talking about her Most Excellent Majesty. In fact, they are mostly protesting for universal suffrage, which has yet to be extended to the people of Hong Kong. This also gives me a bit of a chuckle, because voting in Hong Kong is a funny concept. As a Special Administrative Region of the PRC – it honestly doesn’t mean shit. And I do not mean that in the whole, whiny, “My vote doesn’t matter” kind of way… I mean it actually would be meaningless. HKSAR operates under Beijing Rules. But it was a cool march through the city. I missed the fireworks.
On this July 4th though, I sort of feel like Bill Pullman in Independence Day, when he declares: “Today we celebrate our independence!” This is clearly overstating the reality of the news, but I am going to revel in it anyhow because as I stretched out and took my first sips of wonderfully hot and strong coffee I was inundated with the news of Sarah ‘GFY’ Palin’s resignation. Priceless. Of course, I am sure that this is somehow related to her belief that she has a legitimate shot at the White House in 2012, which if true would be a sure sign of the coming of the Mayan prophecy – the end of the world as we know it. [Actually, I am well aware that this is not what the Maya indicated with their prophecy, but if Spalin makes it to the White House, I might hope it to be the case.]
Sarah Palin is such a mockery of everything good about politics in America. And sadly, that could actually get her elected (maybe I will march to rescind universal suffrage in the US next July 4th… I kid, I kid… kind of.)
Now it has started to rain in the SAR and so sitting in the office is less annoying. To all of you guys at home, have a great holiday weekend.. I would SO love to be in Bolinas with the Benders or Encinitas with the McColls or Vegas with the girls… but for now, I am just going to go and wish all the British people I know a “Happy Fourth!” in my most annoying sing-songy voice, ’cause that is how I get fireworks over here in the SAR on the Fourth of July.
Bolinas, 2007
Edumacation: not a simple liberal ideal
“If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and will never be.”
~ Thomas Jefferson
There is much debate about the state of education these days, ironically more and more as the funds seem to dwindle, it would appear. I think my educational philosophy has been pretty consistent over the years, and while I am not advocating for stasis, I do think it is good to have a foundation from which you pontificate. I believe some people refer to this foundation as a “soapbox.” Allow me to climb on mine for a moment.
Education is important. [And, for the record, one does not become a qualified educator through the process of giving birth - though many people who have given birth seem to believe that they are at that point educators.] Education is not only attained or gleaned in a classroom setting, but if you are in a classroom you should be getting something. Education is not about opening up a cranial cavity and inserting facts. Learning one thing does not make a person educated. Learning one thing makes a person trained in a single skill. Education and training are fundamentally different. I am not suggesting that one is actually better than the other (even though I obviously feel that one is better) but to call training education is an arrant misnomer.
Amanda
