history: December 2007 Archives

The preceding verse was read by Jon Krakauer as he introduced the man featured in the book, Three Cups of Tea, about the establishment of schools, primarily for girls, in northeastern Pakistan. I was moved, reading about the realization of such a monumental project, on the flight to Israel and during a rainy afternoon in the Old City, Jerusalem.

I am reminded, on the day after Benazir Bhutto's assassination, of the people who strive for good lives, who wish to co-exist without hostility.

"David M. Walker, the Comptroller General of the United States and head of GAO...was not satisfied. In a speech today [December 17, 2007] at the National Press Club, he said, "If the federal government was a private corporation and the same report came out this morning, our stock would be dropping and there would be talk about whether the company's management and directors needed a major shake-up." Walker urged greater transparency and accountability over the federal government's operations, financial condition, and fiscal outlook." Some Progress on U.S. Government's Financial Statements But Significant Problems Remain from YubaNet.

The GAO's view: Major Management Challenges at the Department of the Treasury

An ambivalent anthem and a quasi-clone?

Zizek's critique of 'Ode to Joy' as the European Union's choice of anthem is on the mark.

The exchange in the comments between dmclaney and elver about the signing of the Lisbon Treaty, United States of Europe finally created, are a mirror (with a different cultural text) to some of the media critiques produced by students this month. In particular, Evan Grabelsky's "The News Media: The War on Journalism" and "com375"'s "The Non-Reality of Reality TV." Most of the news coverage I encountered involved Gordon Brown's avoidance of the ceremony to sign incognito. (Reminds me of Governor Howard Dean signing Vermont's Civil Union Bill in a private, closed door ceremony.)

The question (as always) is what to do about our recognition of the problem? Bela presents an example of organized activism that is making a difference: "If the technology and the heart come together...." ElR6 follows the theme of cyberoptimism with " Communication and Global Consciousness."

Probably there are ways to counteract the shallow coverage of mainstream media, but we can't isolate only the media as the enemy. The cumulative effects of consumerist socialization are dulled awareness and self-absorbed insensitivity. Not to mention the desperate weaknesses of institutionalized education. A radical notion proposed by a friend the other night included not teaching history until the eighth grade. Why? "It's in third grade you learn that blacks used to be slaves. What are you supposed to do with that information?"

This is the central question. What are we 'supposed to do' with all the information we have?

Recently (December 12), I received a joke over email:

A driver is stuck in a traffic jam on the Tehran-Ghom Motorway.

Nothing is moving.

Suddenly a man knocks on the window. The driver rolls down his window

and asks, "What's going on?"

"Terrorists down the road have kidnapped Ahmadi Nejad. They're asking
for 100 million tomman ransom.

Otherwise they're going to douse him with gasoline and set him on fire.

We're going from car to car, taking up a collection."

The driver asks, "How much is everyone giving, on average?"

"Most people are giving about a liter."

I googled the unfamiliar name and came up with Iranian President Ahmadinejad! A few images came up as well, including an obviously irreverent one from May 3rd, 2007. The text accompanying the doctored image is challenging, too. People are paying a price for practicing freedom of expression: twenty students were arrested on December 7th.

My buddy Steve has sent two announcements the last few days concerning U.S. Representative Julia Carson (1938-2007).

Confronted with barely-veiled racial prejudice in the halls of Congress by a peer who did not recognize her, Carson queried, "What's your point?" Thus sums up the Indianapolis Star, in a special report called "A warrior for the city."

I paid no attention to state politics the years I lived in Indianapolis, being invested in the cultural and linguistic politics of the Deaf Community (which was a pioneer in the revolutionary bilingual-bicultural movement in Deaf Education), and working on issues of access and ableism in the lesbian community. Hence, I learn of "Julia" in retrospect, and am particularly drawn to the news story because of its invocation of "war" by labeling her a warrior.

"Her weapons of choice are blunt talk and a dollop of charm," the Congressional Quarterly's Politics in America once said of her.

Weapons. Words as weapons counterposed with "charm." I am not disputing these characterizations nor their utility as skills, what I am puzzling over is if/when we can learn (or teach ourselves) to speak of such determination and ferocity in a way that honors the power of negotiation, period. (Tary and I started a conversation about "centering" a few weeks ago.)

"A lot of people get elected to positions and forget that they serve all the people," said John M. Thomas, former president of Community Action of Greater Indianapolis. "She never forgot that."

Steadfast memory. Conviction. Blunt talk. These are the tools and skills of those who seek foundational peace, of those who intend with each word and every action to change the most basic operations of our institutions from subtle mechanisms of privilege/discrimination to equitable and just treatment of and for everyone.

I do wish I had known her. :-)

"...who demonstrates patriotism today—the critics who stand fast by our foundational values? Or those who would ignore our traditions by reaching quickly for the base and the brutal? No real patriot today, no citizen who is concerned about the fate of our fellow citizens in uniform, can be silent on this issue."