Sunday, June 29, 2008

Goliath, Through The Looking Glass

Over a span of two days - thanks to various baby interruptions and futbol matches- Rich and I watched a film called In the Valley of Elah, starring Texas native and true cowboy, Tommy Lee Jones. If you haven't seen the movie and want to, this may be a spoiler and you should stop reading. Otherwise, read on and feel free to offer any insight.

In In the Valley of Elah, Tommy Lee Jones plays a strong, silent US veteran named Hank who still creases his sheets and shines his shoes, army style. Hank's youngest son (the eldest having died in combat), Mike, who has just completed a tour in Iraq and is back in the US, goes AWOL and later is found grotesquely murdered. Hank makes it his mission to discover who and why anyone would want to kill the boy that he "raised right," with all of the good-ole-boy - open the door for a lady - type manners.

Without going into a whole lot of plot detail, I can say that in the end Hank realizes that the country for which he fought and for which both of his sons died, is in serious trouble. He no longer recognizes any of the old school, "yes mam" American moral values in the person he thought was his son or in the current military - a code that Hank, a generation removed, still unwaveringly lives by. In fact he mostly finds selfish corruption, hatred, debauchery, thievery, and self-devouring cruelty in varying forms - Gitmo type behaviors that allow for members of his son's squadron - his "brothers" - to repeatedly stab Mike, cut his body into pieces, burn them, and leave them to be scattered by the animals. The only "good" member of Mike's squadron, the only one disgusted by the actions of his squad, is a drug dealer.

Afterwards, the murderers chillingly use military lingo, including the word "sir" to apologize, showing that the military still gives the illusion that they are the upstanding organization that they were 20 years ago - the wolf in sheep's clothing.

In the end Hank raises the American Flag, only instead of flying Old Glory in pristine condition as is shown in the beginning of the film, he takes a tattered flag that Mike sends to him from Iraq and hangs it upside-down, remarking to the El Salvadorian man who is usually in charge of posting the colors and who speaks English with a heavy accent (nothing masked there) that an upside-down flag is a symbol of a nation in dire distress. The actual line is, "It means we're in a whole lot of trouble, so come save our ass because we don't have a prayer in hell of saving ourselves."

The jury is still out on whether or not blame for what is perceived as our country's distress lies in some sort of disconnect within our day to day American values or whether it is the stress of war that causes the synapses in "our boys" to misfire. Are we talking about PTSD or a collapse in civilization?

I couldn't tell if the statement being made was that as a nation we need to return to our conservative roots as a remedy, or if those roots are what directly lead to rebellion. Why do we need to be heroes? Do we create conflict in order to make ourselves worthwhile?

And I understand that the whole of the armed forces is not as corrupt as the movie would have us believe; I know lots of really good people, with good intentions (my students included) who feel led by God to join-up to protect their loved ones from those who would do harm. They live their lives in a way that they feel is virtuous, with integrity.

And I do know that there is a need for a military - one that is wholly led by a universal code of righteousness (which doesn't really exist in a fallible world, but then our humanness is what warrants the existence of a military in the first place - oooh vitreous circle!).

Woven throughout the movie is also the story/theme of David and Goliath* who fought in the actual Israeli Valley of Elah - hence the name of the film. But the modern roles remain unclear. Who is the new David? Who is the Goliath?

And ultimately, if David fought the giant armed only with simple courage and a rock, then what are we doing with armor and bombs? Wouldn't that make us the Goliath? And that would make David..

All of this is rattling around in my noggin, and I am not certain how to feel or what to say about any of it, being the person I am - excellent at noting the conflict, but unwilling to engage in it - like the Israelites who wouldn't face the giant. I will say that our flags should be flown upside-down. Currently we are the Goliath. We are the bully, the bad guy. We are losing the integrity that perhaps we once held in high esteem, though I hate to equate this with secularization. However, religion does provide some sort of moral guideline. Also, we've lost community and are struggling with hand-to-mouth charity. We are good at writing checks, though, as long as we don't have to touch, smell, or see the people we're "helping".

Any thoughts?

Those who believe in the God of Abraham have probably heard the story of David and Goliath: Goliath, a Philistine (and giant bad guy), challenges any Israelite to a one on one combat twice a day for 40 days straight while each army is standing firm on either side of the Valley of Elah. Saul and his men cower in fear at each of Goliath's challenges; none would accept - until young David, who was there passing out food to his big brothers, decided he would heed the call. And of course, as the story goes, David fought Goliath using only a sling shot and a rock - no armor - and felled the giant in one shot. The moral being that all one needs is courage to persevere against 'evil.' David then goes on to be king of Israel.

Friday, June 27, 2008

A Good Idea from England

And we can participate by having our own picnics here in the US on the 4th. Let's talk to each other about the meaning of freedom and our share thoughts on independence.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. (American Declaration of Independence, 4 July 1776)

“Man is born free, but everywhere he is in chains”. (J.-J. Rousseau, The Social Contract, 1762)


4 July 2008 and Beyond For the Free People of the World

Ladies and Gentlemen, We invite you to join us on 4 July 2008, in solidarity with Binyam Mohamed, a victim of CIA abduction, torture and illegal detention, and now the last Londoner still detained in Guantánamo Bay. Binyam currently faces the prospect of the death penalty in a kangaroo court. His rights and freedoms have been trampled on by the US state, and we demand his freedom and that of other victims of US neo-imperialist policies.

We invite you to share food and your thoughts on freedom with us. Much cherished but much undermined in our times, isn't it time we declared independence from the undemocratic and oppressive structures of rule in the US, UK and EU, and the aggressive large corporations whose sole interests they promote? We think so, and through this simple act of sharing food in public, we hereby call upon the good, free people of the world to show a better way, a new way forward for us all and all our freedoms.

Please join us for our picnic with the London Guantánamo Campaign (regularly demonstrating outside the US Embassy on Friday evenings) and others, in Grosvenor Square, WC1 (nearest tube: Bond Street), from 6-8pm on Friday 4 July, or why not hold your own?

Your freedom or theirs?Project 2012 is a grassroots coalition aiming for human rights compliancy and a democratic EU by 2012.

Declare your independence and reclaim your freedom!

Best wishesProject 2012 and the London Guantánamo Campaign

Please call Mark for more details 07854 390 408 or email london.gtmo@googlemail.com

Like OMG, No Way!

So it turns out that, much to my dismay, I still speak 80's Teenage Girl.

And though my job requires that I be a little bit conversational in modern teen speak (which differs from my personal teenage dialect in that it requires more knowledge of legalese in areas such as MIPs and DUIs than I ever had to know), I can usually communicate effectively in the 'correct' vernacular. Uh, except for the occasional "Dude!" that slips out when I'm caught off guard.

Anyways, so like the other day I was at Best Buy 'cause they like totally gave me free stuff, even though, like, I spent like a lot of money to get that free stuff, so it's like a total joke.. But anyways, so like I was there buying the new Death Cab CD, which you should totally buy 'cause it's SO super rad, and I went to check out and this girl was like, "Hey, like, your baby is so cute" and I was all like, "I. KNOW!" and she was all, "What's his name?" and I go, "His name is Jack," and she goes, "No Way! That so rocks!! I have a friend who named her baby Jack too, and it's like so weird, naming kids and all. My name is Destiny, but my mom nearly named me Harley, and like, who would I be if my name was Harley? Like that would be so weird and stuff" and I was all, "Yeah. That IS so weird," even though it, like, totally wasn't.

Dude.

I haven't been a pegger since the early 90's and for some reason I had some sort of teen angst relapse. When I got home I had to look in the mirror to make sure my bangs weren't feathered and that I didn't have braces - the ones with the neon rubber bands..

Yeah.

I was some kind of cool.

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

and we were never being boring..

I am so bored with myself. Unfortunately this is not a great time for self-reinvention, seeing as my attentions are elsewhere - serenely staring at my newborn's sleeping face for example, OR serenely staring at my newborn's screaming face. All I can do is stare...serenely.

I think I've been boring for the last 10-12 months, actually. It must be something hormonal having to do with maternity and the fact that a pregnant woman's whole being is completely wrapped up in making a baby. That includes all of the (mis)firing synapses in her brain which also stare serenely at each other, waiting patiently for the time when the Hugo Chavez article in the recent The New Yorker magazine is both informational and entertaining, the topic potentially being conversation worthy at the next coffee house standard. I mean who doesn't want to know about Hugo Chavez? Seriously, is he a heroic, eccentric revolutionary or is he one vote away from being a power wielding psycho? Plus 'Venezuela' is such a fun word to say!

But nope. Hugo is a no go. And all of the vaguely interesting repartee that might normally reside on the tip of my tongue is listlessly lying on the couch in front of the Game Show Network, staring serenely at a newborn.


(sigh.)

Friday, June 20, 2008

De-Composition

What exactly is the purpose of censorship, other than to piss me off? I think some may argue that it is an attempt to protect people from the offensive, the morbid, the disturbing. And even though I think censorship adds to ignorance, I am completely guilty of participating in it.

For example, my blog, Viaggio, began as a cool way to keep in touch with folks. It evolved into my thoughts and opinions, a place to practice writing, and then became a place for my readers. I started blogging with the idea that they - my family, my students, my friends - were hanging out on the virtual couch on my shoulder, overlooking every key stroke. I started to censor my ideas and opinions which either showed a tremendous respect for my readers, if you believe in that definition of the word, OR it exposed a character flaw in me - the fact that I can't be completely honest with my loved ones. Either way, I'm sunk. I need to be able to rationalize, lament and scream without concerning myself with the shoulder couch potatoes. I suppose the easiest way to do this is to begin afresh. Hence we have De-Composition:

De (Chinese), concept of "integrity" in Daoism and "virtue" in Confucianism

Composition (logical fallacy), a fallacy of ambiguation in which one assumes that a whole has a property solely because its various parts have that property
Composition (visual arts), the plan, placement or arrangement of the elements of art in a work
Composition (language), in literature, oratory, and rhetoric, producing a work of spoken tradition or written literature

Decomposition (or spoilage) refers to the reduction of the body of a formerly living organism into simpler forms of matter.

Sunday, June 29, 2008

Goliath, Through The Looking Glass

Over a span of two days - thanks to various baby interruptions and futbol matches- Rich and I watched a film called In the Valley of Elah, starring Texas native and true cowboy, Tommy Lee Jones. If you haven't seen the movie and want to, this may be a spoiler and you should stop reading. Otherwise, read on and feel free to offer any insight.

In In the Valley of Elah, Tommy Lee Jones plays a strong, silent US veteran named Hank who still creases his sheets and shines his shoes, army style. Hank's youngest son (the eldest having died in combat), Mike, who has just completed a tour in Iraq and is back in the US, goes AWOL and later is found grotesquely murdered. Hank makes it his mission to discover who and why anyone would want to kill the boy that he "raised right," with all of the good-ole-boy - open the door for a lady - type manners.

Without going into a whole lot of plot detail, I can say that in the end Hank realizes that the country for which he fought and for which both of his sons died, is in serious trouble. He no longer recognizes any of the old school, "yes mam" American moral values in the person he thought was his son or in the current military - a code that Hank, a generation removed, still unwaveringly lives by. In fact he mostly finds selfish corruption, hatred, debauchery, thievery, and self-devouring cruelty in varying forms - Gitmo type behaviors that allow for members of his son's squadron - his "brothers" - to repeatedly stab Mike, cut his body into pieces, burn them, and leave them to be scattered by the animals. The only "good" member of Mike's squadron, the only one disgusted by the actions of his squad, is a drug dealer.

Afterwards, the murderers chillingly use military lingo, including the word "sir" to apologize, showing that the military still gives the illusion that they are the upstanding organization that they were 20 years ago - the wolf in sheep's clothing.

In the end Hank raises the American Flag, only instead of flying Old Glory in pristine condition as is shown in the beginning of the film, he takes a tattered flag that Mike sends to him from Iraq and hangs it upside-down, remarking to the El Salvadorian man who is usually in charge of posting the colors and who speaks English with a heavy accent (nothing masked there) that an upside-down flag is a symbol of a nation in dire distress. The actual line is, "It means we're in a whole lot of trouble, so come save our ass because we don't have a prayer in hell of saving ourselves."

The jury is still out on whether or not blame for what is perceived as our country's distress lies in some sort of disconnect within our day to day American values or whether it is the stress of war that causes the synapses in "our boys" to misfire. Are we talking about PTSD or a collapse in civilization?

I couldn't tell if the statement being made was that as a nation we need to return to our conservative roots as a remedy, or if those roots are what directly lead to rebellion. Why do we need to be heroes? Do we create conflict in order to make ourselves worthwhile?

And I understand that the whole of the armed forces is not as corrupt as the movie would have us believe; I know lots of really good people, with good intentions (my students included) who feel led by God to join-up to protect their loved ones from those who would do harm. They live their lives in a way that they feel is virtuous, with integrity.

And I do know that there is a need for a military - one that is wholly led by a universal code of righteousness (which doesn't really exist in a fallible world, but then our humanness is what warrants the existence of a military in the first place - oooh vitreous circle!).

Woven throughout the movie is also the story/theme of David and Goliath* who fought in the actual Israeli Valley of Elah - hence the name of the film. But the modern roles remain unclear. Who is the new David? Who is the Goliath?

And ultimately, if David fought the giant armed only with simple courage and a rock, then what are we doing with armor and bombs? Wouldn't that make us the Goliath? And that would make David..

All of this is rattling around in my noggin, and I am not certain how to feel or what to say about any of it, being the person I am - excellent at noting the conflict, but unwilling to engage in it - like the Israelites who wouldn't face the giant. I will say that our flags should be flown upside-down. Currently we are the Goliath. We are the bully, the bad guy. We are losing the integrity that perhaps we once held in high esteem, though I hate to equate this with secularization. However, religion does provide some sort of moral guideline. Also, we've lost community and are struggling with hand-to-mouth charity. We are good at writing checks, though, as long as we don't have to touch, smell, or see the people we're "helping".

Any thoughts?

Those who believe in the God of Abraham have probably heard the story of David and Goliath: Goliath, a Philistine (and giant bad guy), challenges any Israelite to a one on one combat twice a day for 40 days straight while each army is standing firm on either side of the Valley of Elah. Saul and his men cower in fear at each of Goliath's challenges; none would accept - until young David, who was there passing out food to his big brothers, decided he would heed the call. And of course, as the story goes, David fought Goliath using only a sling shot and a rock - no armor - and felled the giant in one shot. The moral being that all one needs is courage to persevere against 'evil.' David then goes on to be king of Israel.

Friday, June 27, 2008

A Good Idea from England

And we can participate by having our own picnics here in the US on the 4th. Let's talk to each other about the meaning of freedom and our share thoughts on independence.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. (American Declaration of Independence, 4 July 1776)

“Man is born free, but everywhere he is in chains”. (J.-J. Rousseau, The Social Contract, 1762)


4 July 2008 and Beyond For the Free People of the World

Ladies and Gentlemen, We invite you to join us on 4 July 2008, in solidarity with Binyam Mohamed, a victim of CIA abduction, torture and illegal detention, and now the last Londoner still detained in Guantánamo Bay. Binyam currently faces the prospect of the death penalty in a kangaroo court. His rights and freedoms have been trampled on by the US state, and we demand his freedom and that of other victims of US neo-imperialist policies.

We invite you to share food and your thoughts on freedom with us. Much cherished but much undermined in our times, isn't it time we declared independence from the undemocratic and oppressive structures of rule in the US, UK and EU, and the aggressive large corporations whose sole interests they promote? We think so, and through this simple act of sharing food in public, we hereby call upon the good, free people of the world to show a better way, a new way forward for us all and all our freedoms.

Please join us for our picnic with the London Guantánamo Campaign (regularly demonstrating outside the US Embassy on Friday evenings) and others, in Grosvenor Square, WC1 (nearest tube: Bond Street), from 6-8pm on Friday 4 July, or why not hold your own?

Your freedom or theirs?Project 2012 is a grassroots coalition aiming for human rights compliancy and a democratic EU by 2012.

Declare your independence and reclaim your freedom!

Best wishesProject 2012 and the London Guantánamo Campaign

Please call Mark for more details 07854 390 408 or email london.gtmo@googlemail.com

Like OMG, No Way!

So it turns out that, much to my dismay, I still speak 80's Teenage Girl.

And though my job requires that I be a little bit conversational in modern teen speak (which differs from my personal teenage dialect in that it requires more knowledge of legalese in areas such as MIPs and DUIs than I ever had to know), I can usually communicate effectively in the 'correct' vernacular. Uh, except for the occasional "Dude!" that slips out when I'm caught off guard.

Anyways, so like the other day I was at Best Buy 'cause they like totally gave me free stuff, even though, like, I spent like a lot of money to get that free stuff, so it's like a total joke.. But anyways, so like I was there buying the new Death Cab CD, which you should totally buy 'cause it's SO super rad, and I went to check out and this girl was like, "Hey, like, your baby is so cute" and I was all like, "I. KNOW!" and she was all, "What's his name?" and I go, "His name is Jack," and she goes, "No Way! That so rocks!! I have a friend who named her baby Jack too, and it's like so weird, naming kids and all. My name is Destiny, but my mom nearly named me Harley, and like, who would I be if my name was Harley? Like that would be so weird and stuff" and I was all, "Yeah. That IS so weird," even though it, like, totally wasn't.

Dude.

I haven't been a pegger since the early 90's and for some reason I had some sort of teen angst relapse. When I got home I had to look in the mirror to make sure my bangs weren't feathered and that I didn't have braces - the ones with the neon rubber bands..

Yeah.

I was some kind of cool.

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

and we were never being boring..

I am so bored with myself. Unfortunately this is not a great time for self-reinvention, seeing as my attentions are elsewhere - serenely staring at my newborn's sleeping face for example, OR serenely staring at my newborn's screaming face. All I can do is stare...serenely.

I think I've been boring for the last 10-12 months, actually. It must be something hormonal having to do with maternity and the fact that a pregnant woman's whole being is completely wrapped up in making a baby. That includes all of the (mis)firing synapses in her brain which also stare serenely at each other, waiting patiently for the time when the Hugo Chavez article in the recent The New Yorker magazine is both informational and entertaining, the topic potentially being conversation worthy at the next coffee house standard. I mean who doesn't want to know about Hugo Chavez? Seriously, is he a heroic, eccentric revolutionary or is he one vote away from being a power wielding psycho? Plus 'Venezuela' is such a fun word to say!

But nope. Hugo is a no go. And all of the vaguely interesting repartee that might normally reside on the tip of my tongue is listlessly lying on the couch in front of the Game Show Network, staring serenely at a newborn.


(sigh.)

Friday, June 20, 2008

De-Composition

What exactly is the purpose of censorship, other than to piss me off? I think some may argue that it is an attempt to protect people from the offensive, the morbid, the disturbing. And even though I think censorship adds to ignorance, I am completely guilty of participating in it.

For example, my blog, Viaggio, began as a cool way to keep in touch with folks. It evolved into my thoughts and opinions, a place to practice writing, and then became a place for my readers. I started blogging with the idea that they - my family, my students, my friends - were hanging out on the virtual couch on my shoulder, overlooking every key stroke. I started to censor my ideas and opinions which either showed a tremendous respect for my readers, if you believe in that definition of the word, OR it exposed a character flaw in me - the fact that I can't be completely honest with my loved ones. Either way, I'm sunk. I need to be able to rationalize, lament and scream without concerning myself with the shoulder couch potatoes. I suppose the easiest way to do this is to begin afresh. Hence we have De-Composition:

De (Chinese), concept of "integrity" in Daoism and "virtue" in Confucianism

Composition (logical fallacy), a fallacy of ambiguation in which one assumes that a whole has a property solely because its various parts have that property
Composition (visual arts), the plan, placement or arrangement of the elements of art in a work
Composition (language), in literature, oratory, and rhetoric, producing a work of spoken tradition or written literature

Decomposition (or spoilage) refers to the reduction of the body of a formerly living organism into simpler forms of matter.