Band Camp 2006

My youngest son Derek and I left our house just a couple minutes past noon on Sunday, July 23, already a wee bit late for the scheduled reporting time. It was a frantic morning. The date marked my daughter Alyssa's 21st birthday and it made me sad that I was not really able to celebrate that significant day with her the way I would have wished to, but she was very understanding of the situation. We had a very hasty ice cream 'n cake party for her after everyone got home from church, and I was literally gulping down the ice cream since I was also busy tossing our luggage into my trunk and tying up loose ends on the computer by scheduling a couple of bill payments and trying in vain to fix some Windows XP issues that have been plaguing my system for the past couple of months.

It turns out that all our rushing around to get to school as close to noon as possible wasn't exactly necessary, since we stood around for awhile before the loading up of our trailer and buses commenced. But it was a useful period of time to make the adjustment to being part of a large group once again. I did my share of the lug work needed to get our show on the road, and enjoyed the luxury of driving my own car down to Berrien Springs in air-conditioned comfort, with the thundering techno-beats of the Chemical Brothers as my soundtrack (Disc 2 of their "Singles 93-03" compilation, if you are interested in the specifics.)

I was happy to be getting out of my routine for a week, even though I knew that it wasn't exactly what one would consider a "vacation" either. I was one of two adult male chaperones (we also had four "band moms" along for the trip) who would be responsible for doing most of the physical labor (hauling instruments, making minor repairs, keeping the ice and water coolers full, etc.) and keeping an eye on 38 boys holed up in dorm rooms when they weren't out on the field or in the rehearsal rooms. Our days would be long, up at 6:00 a.m. every day, lights out at 11:00 p.m. (but awake for at least the next hour just to make sure that everyone was settled and where they're supposed to be) with a regimented schedule throughout each day. Greg (the other band dad) and I weren't the only adult guys, since there were instructional staff also along for the camp, but they stayed on a separate floor and did their best to limit their duties to musical tasks, leaving the crowd management and brute labors to Greg and I. Peggy, Marilyn, Char and Sherrie had more girls to watch over, and as it turned out, the girls produced a lot more drama and difficulty than the boys did, so the moms got their work in, no doubt. But I figured that Greg and I would be kept pretty busy and we were.

If I had any apprehensions about the week ahead of me then, it was that I might not be afforded many opportunities for privacy or time to myself, which I tend to enjoy as my personality has taken a somewhat introverted turn over the past year or so. Probably because a lot of my time at work involves me functioning very publicly, I like to have some stretch of time where I'm left alone to "do my thing," which mainly consists of reading, doing stuff on the computer or listening to music. But basically, I like not having to operate on someone else's time table for awhile each day. The idea of a week away from work sounded good, but not one spent running around at the beck and call of a rigidly demanding schedule.

Still, I recognized that the band really needed me since the other guys who are involved with supporting the band could not join us, except for a couple who came down for the initial set-up and, later, for the tear-down on Thursday afternoon. I had a good time with the group last year for a few days when I joined them for the tail end of their camp. And I totally enjoyed the time I spent with the band in New York City in the spring of 2005, so I was confident that the benefits would significantly outweigh the potential loss of autonomy.

My experience with the Wyoming Park High School Marching Band this year was wonderfully rewarding and fulfilling!

A big part of it was the pride I felt in how well Derek did. He is a quiet kid, more introverted than me even when I'm at the farthest "I" point in the MBTI range (I generally fluctuate just to either side of the E and I divide in the tests I've taken over the years.) He's not one to draw attention to himself even though he is an exceptional student and a very good musician and marcher. While some of the kids have made it known in various ways that they would strongly prefer not to have one of their parents accompany them to band camp (and I can understand why they would think that way), Derek never had any objections and I think we did a good job balancing communication with "space" so that neither of us felt cramped or pushed away - rather, we just appreciated each other's presence and effort.

But beyond my own admiration of my son's work, I just love being with these young people and watching what they all put into the job of creating a new version of the band each year. As it turned out, between all the tasks and chores that were assigned to me, I had long stretches of time where I could just sit and watch and listen (and even get enough reading in to finish a John Updike novel that I will blog about later.) In those minutes and hours, I absorbed a lot of impressions that neither words nor pictures will be able to adequately capture or convey. I saw different kids push through fatigue, frustration and anxiety so that they could hold their place in the formations and put on a competent performance. I recognized various forms of encouragement, confrontation and challenge that the young musicians employed to get the best out of their peers that they could, even though they didn't always receive the kind of response that they desired or expected. We also had numerous opportunities for fun and camaraderie, an essential lubricant to keep things moving smoothly when the inevitable frictions developed.

The specifics of our itinerary throughout the week would probably be of limited interest to most readers of this blog, so I won't go through a day-by-day recap. But a few highlights bear mentioning:

1) The vegetarian fare that we ate at the Andrews University cafeteria was really good, even their meat substitutes (though I do admit that I passed on some of the items like "soy-sage," ersatz sausage links.) The food was so tasty and plentiful that instead of losing weight, I actually gained a few pounds - easy to do when someone else is picking up the tab at an a la carte buffet three times a day! I also noted some weird aberrations in the Adventist dietary taboos. Even though they don't sell caffeinated beverages, they did have Sobe energy drinks with guarana, which is pretty much the same thing as caffeine. They also don't serve ground black pepper, which I don't really understand at all - presumably it's too stimulating or something? But they do serve various types of hot sauce and garden peppers that are way beyond what you'll find in the typical table-top pepper mill. I figure that pepper must be some kind of old taboo from back in the day that no one has felt the need to challenge, though they don't seem to be inclined to prohibit newer dietary trends.

2) I enjoyed the chance to interact with the boys in our dorms during the afternoon and evening free-time sessions each day. We had some fun times with impromptu wrestling matches and some pranking on Thursday before we broke camp the next morning. I gave the guys plenty of breathing room to loosen up and get a little crazy while not pushing things to the point where it got personal, rude or destructive. A lot of good laughs and positive energy came out of these moments and I think they are just about as important to the health and solidarity of the band as the more intensive musical work sessions. The whole week was, in my view, a therapeutic and educational experience for us all.

3) Along those same lines, I had a chance to get into some more significant conversations with a few of the young people who for various reasons found me to be an adult they felt comfortable opening up to in different ways. Some of the conversations were with students that I first got to know in New York, who are now entering their senior years. Others were younger kids who were struggling with conflicts between themselves and their peers or the adult staff. My Wedgwood training and skill set came into play on several occasions, the most remarkable of which occurred on Thursday night, just after all of the drills and hardest work had been completed. A girl with whom I'd had several interactions with throughout the week had an emotional meltdown, to put it bluntly. I'll stay vague on the details here but basically what happened was not all that different in its root causes than the kind of behavioral crises that I deal with routinely at work. She wasn't quite as intense in her physical manifestations as I've seen but she clearly crossed lines that were fairly unprecedented in the experience of the band director, to the point where my assistance was urgently requested and I came in with my verbal de-escalation tools, which I'm happy to say worked remarkably well! She and I established a positive rapport and even though she created some problems for herself and others, I came to appreciate her personality and empathized quite a bit with some of the personal things she's going through that provided context to her difficulties. We had to call the girl's mother and have her taken home that same night, but given where things were at and the awkwardness of the circumstances when she "went off," I think the situation was handled and resolved quite well. I was glad to be able to offer my expertise in a situation that I think would have been hard to handle using the methods normally applied to keep typical band members in line.

4) I had the opportunity to meet a young Japanese student who was staying at Andrews for the week who expressed a lot of interest in our band and sat through three long practice sessions on three different days just to see how the kids practiced and learned their drills. She even brought her own trumpet one evening (she had been in a Japanese marching band two years earlier before leaving her home to study in Taiwan) but was unable to join us since the band had to practice their marching. I got her email address and I'll look for a way for her to communicate with the band if her interest remains as high as it was during the week.

5) I also enjoyed the relatively simple responsibilities of just keeping water coolers full, loading and unloading the instrument trailers, getting the kids to bed at night, setting up equipment in various places, and so on. Kind of a musical/educational variant on "chop wood, carry water." It was nice not having to tend to more complex or abstract projects along the lines of what I normally do at my job. I'd get bored if I had too much of that simplicity, I think, but it felt good to be productive without having to think all that hard about things. I was accorded a lot of respect and appreciation from many different people as well - what's not to like about that? My last physical task along those lines presented its own challenge, as it fell upon me to load all of the kids' luggage onto a school bus without putting anything in the aisle or above the top of the seats. The bus was a raging sweatbox on Friday morning - I had to change my shirt three times before lunch, I got so damp! - and every time I thought I'd gotten the big stuff tucked in according to regulations, along would come another wave of students with their mammoth traveling bags, and I had to do a lot of rearranging to make it all fit. I seriously wondered how they had managed to get all that stuff onto one bus, and figured I might have to take some of the baggage into my car. But I actually packed it all in there, and when the driver showed up, she complimented me on how well I had done, "better than how it was when we came down here." Another pleasant little ego stroke that made my week a nice one.

Finally (yeah, I know this is really long...) the time came for us to roll out our caravan for the trip north to Wyoming, MI. The camp wasn't really finished until sometime around 6 p.m. on Friday - the band still had an afternoon of rehearsal, uniform fittings, portrait taking and their premier public performance to go through, but my drive back was another positive experience as I listened to the contemplative electronic compositions of Orbital's "In Sides." It was the perfect music to allow me to gather my thoughts and let the collective weight of those past six days settle into my consciousness. What had I gained from the week away? I would saw a renewed sense of gratitude and appreciation for the people around me - all the work and toil and application of skills that goes into so many seemingly simple and ordinary things that happen all around us. I relished the chance to just sit and watch and listen and contribute in various small ways to something as temporary and ephemeral as a high school marching band show, realizing that for as common as they are in schools just like Wyoming Park all across our country, they are nevertheless remarkable achievements that require dedication and commitment of a lot of different people. I felt a great sense of love and fulfillment strong enough to mingle a few tears along with the sweat dripping down my forehead, almost like I was watching a graduation ceremony, on Friday afternoon, as the band played its music for an audience of family and friends who had come out to welcome their kids back home. I was just glad to be alive, experiencing that moment, inspired to get the most out of as many future moments as my all-too-distractable mind is able to allow.

Media Blackout

This blog is going to go silent until Saturday, July 29. I'm spending the week at Andrews University, assisting with the practice camp of the Wyoming Park High School Marching Band. It's going to be unusual for me to not have any internet access for the week, and probably not much time for watching TV of any sort, actually. I'm not even sure about newspapers while I'm down there. I will be bringing some books and music along, so it's not like I'll be lacking for mental stimulation in my downtime. But it's probably a good thing for me to step away from the routine for a short while and give my computer a vacation of its own. I'll most likely have plenty to say when I return, but until then... find some other site to visit, or better yet, read through my archives. There's plenty to satisfy your curiousity about me, I'm sure!

Incarnation Bits 16: Josephine Humphreys on Titus

What is the Letter to Titus really about? I ask this question whenever I read a book or story: what was on this writer's mind? Paul was writing about behavior, but he was thinking about truth and lies, and how to hold on to the one under attack from the other. Right away, he says his purpose is to further the "knowledge of the truth which accords with godliness" (1:1). Knowledge of the truth is possible, because a message has come from "God, who never lies" (1:2).

That phrase is overpowering, convincing, mysterious. God, who never lies, has told his truth to man. What better beginning could be possible? But that truth is endangerd. The writer is scared of the human mind, of language itself, for the damage it can do to God's truth. God's message must be passed on by men, in words, first by the apostle, "through the preaching with which I have been entrusted by command of God our savior" (1:3), and thence through bishops like Titus and his appointees in the outlying churches. Titus is Paul's "true child" in the church (1:4), but he has to name other minsters of the truth, each of whom "must hold firm to the sure word as taught, so that he might be able to give instructions in sound doctrine and also to confute those who contradict it" (1:9). The minsters must be careful to "avoid stupid controversies, genealogies, dissensions and quarrels over the law" (3:9).

If, as seems probable, the letter writer was not actually Paul himself but a later follower writing on his own or expanding a fragment of one of the apostle's letters, it makes sense that he should fear losing the truth. He sees years passing. The Kingdom that was imminent may be a longer time coming than anyone expected. Mystery is hard to hold on to, and hard to pass down to future generations, becoming more and more dependent on human words. The original mystery was somehow beyond language, did not need it, had a force that was evident without explanation; it could be told indirectly, in parables. But now truth is no longer manifest and omnipotent, the word of an always honest God. It must be transmitted by men. It can be corrupted.

The End of Suburbia

I dropped in on an event I mentioned here a couple of days ago, "Michigan's Energy Future" which you can read about (if you don't wait too long) by visiting the Wealthy Theater website, where the forum was hosted. The gathering was fairly small, unfortunately but understandably, given that there are so many other things to do on a beautiful Saturday in July. What I saw while there was a documentary, "The End of Suburbia," which I would say was even more disturbing than "An Inconvenient Truth," though perhaps not destined to be quite as effective at reaching a mass audience and changing our way of thinking.

The film focused a lot on the Peak Oil concept which presents a disturbing scenario for the future of energy consumption on our planet, assuming that current habits continue without much serious effort to alleviate our dependence on oil and natural gas. Aiming squarely at the American audience, the biggest wallop that the movie packs is its claim that our society has been badly served by the subsidization of housing developments and freeway systems that gave us the impression that it was economically and environmentally feasible for millions of citizens to make 50-100 mile daily commutes back and forth to work. Putting it briefly and bluntly, suburban life as we've known and come to expect it for the past six or seven decades is an unsustainable proposition and the loss of this version of the "American Dream" will create many critical problems for millions of people who've had it good for a long time, at the level of how we eat, stay warm or cool, earn our livelihoods and obtain our stuff.

There is a strong message of doom that becomes a bit oppressive after awhile, but the filmmakers' purpose was to shock the audience and wake us out of what one commentator calls the "collective trance that everything is OK, and everything will be OK." Some people may get defensive at what they perceive as an attack on America's leaders or their policies, but I think the message needs to be more broadly disseminated and considered, given the poor track record of the current administration when it comes to honesty in communication and efficiency of implementation. There is a deeply entrenched short-sightedness when it comes to the public side of our political debates and legislative process - I have some working assumptions about more secretive long-term agendas that don't get discussed candidly by politicians. My hope is that this kind of information will continue to nudge itself into the consciousness of my fellow citizens so that our future is taken more seriously when we get around to electing candidates and supporting large-scale efforts at managing our resources.

More bloggers get more personal

This article describes me: More bloggers get more personal

Here's what's up...

I had intended to do more writing today than will turn out to be the case. I spent a longer time than anticipated running some fixes that my friends Nicolas Tian and Tony Ma sent me last night. Nicolas and Tony are a couple of support specialists employed by Microsoft, responding to my complaints that for some reason, my Windows XP OS is considered "not genuine" by the software that they installed back in May to catch people who are running bootleg versions of Windows. My system is and always has been legit - I paid the $100 for my Windows XP Upgrade disc, I have the packaging materials and ID numbers to prove it, but that didn't matter to the program that was doing the snooping. So I've been fiddling and fussing with numerous tweaks over the past several weeks trying to get things back to how they are supposed to be. Nicolas and Tony work over in China or somewhere else in Asia, so it seems to me. There's a lag in response time between our emails that indicates a radical time-zone shift stands between me and them. I have refrained from blogging about this situation until now and I don't think I'll have anything more to say about it until the blessed day arrives when the problem is actually solved. I think it's boring reading about other people's tech problems so I apologize for even going on this long about it...

That bit into my time. What I am looking ahead to in my own life is going to my son's high school band camp on Sunday afternoon and staying there all the way until Friday when we all return triumphantly with a new show to present to the world (especially those who come to Wyoming Park football games and actually watch the field during half-time.) I did a few days at camp last year, but this time I'm making the full plunge, helping out where I'm apparently quite needed, and looking forward to doing something kind of different and fun. There will be hard work involved, and lots of sitting out in the sun, sweating it out as the kids go through their drills for many hours each day, followed by pseudo-parenting dozens of high-schoolers in the dorms at night. So in some ways it may not be all that different from what I have been doing at work for so many years...!

But it's outside of the routine, that much is certain. We'll be staying at Andrews University, a school run by the Seventh Day Adventists, so I will be recording my impressions of the campus and its culture while I'm there. But this blog will be silent during that time. I won't be near a computer until I get home, unless something unexpected happens. That may not be such a bad thing for me - I enjoy having access to all that the internet provides, but a one-week time-out from my usual habits should have a refreshing effect. I will take some books along to read, along with some music. This won't be a media-free retreat by any means, but you won't be hearing from me here.

I also anticipate losing some weight, since Andrews is a vegetarian campus (part of the SDA faith practice.) I could stand a little of that too.

Tonight I'm working at the Van Andel Arena again, reporting to the concession stands that are now under new management. The event is a WNBA game featuring the Detroit Shock. I stopped by the arena last night to get trained on the new cash registers (the big change is that we now accept credit cards) but the session was already done. I will just learn as I go tonight. I don't expect any difficulties. But I'm glad to know that we will still get the opportunity to work events there, though I wonder how strict the new managers are going to be. Will we still get free food and beverages? Will we be able to take a peek or two at the main event or will we get in trouble for that? Will I get to work the Eric Clapton and Red Hot Chili Peppers gigs coming up later this year?

I'll be sure to let you know.

Incarnation Bits 15: Guy Davenport on 2 Timothy

The great Pauline note is struck in his sports image about having run a good race, the whole course (is he thinking of the marathon?), and expects the Olympic crown of wild olive. Timothy's father was a Greek, his mosther and grandmother Jews converted to Christianity. Timothy could not be very old. Images of wrestling, running, fighting in armor come so readily to Paul's stylus that we suspect he comes from a culture in which Jewish, Roman and Greek elements harmonized. His name Saul is from the Old Testament; Paulus is a Roman name, and he would probably have had a Gaius or Julius added on, to go with his being a Roman citizen.

Timotheus is "his son." He, like Titus and others, is to carry on Paul's teaching. So the letter is a short treatise on being a teacher, with much good advice.

It is also wonderfully prophetic. Paul sees things getting worse before they can get better: "Men will come to love nothing but money and self. They will be arrogant, boastful and abusive; with no respect for parents, no gratitude, no piety, no natural affection; they will be implacable in their hatreds, scandal-mongers, intemperate and fierce, strangers to all goodness, traitors, adventurers, swollen with self importance."

And, he continues to Timothy, there will be "men who preserve the outward form of religion, but are a standing denial of its reality." This was a theme of Jesus'. In his First Letter to Timothy, Paul had described ideal bishops, elders and deacons. We who live in an age of popes bent under the weight of diamonds and wrought gold, of evangelists as wealthy as gangsters, and of Christians far richer than Nero at his greediest, can legitimately ask if Christianity exists in any form even resembling that of Paul, much less that of Jesus.

If my writing, involved as it is with allegiances and sensualities, with its animosity toward meanness and smallness, has any redeeming value, it will be in its small vision that Christianity is still a force of great strength, imagination and moral beauty if you can find it for the churches and dogma.

Of Suicide Prevention, Behavioral Therapy & a Corpse Bride

Hey it's late and I only have a few minutes to make a new entry before the day runs out so here's a link to something that relates to how I spent my day today. I heard a speaker named Barb Blue, she's a psychiatric nurse at the University of Michigan Depression Center. She came to work today speaking about assessing and reducing the risk of adolescent suicide. She based some of her talk on the writings of Dr. Chris Shea, so if you are interested in his theories, you can follow the link and read about his approach. She also offered nice tidbits on Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT.)

I also got my Recipient Rights training recertified for the next three years, and our family watched "Corpse Bride" on DVD (which I swear is not any connected in any way with the first item I mentioned in this post.)

More... lots more!... tomorrow...

Global Warming

This morning, before I go to work, I'm going to go see An Inconvenient Truth, which is of course the "Al Gore movie," a documentary on the risks to our planet and life as we know it due to climate change, the emission of CO2 gasses, deforestation and other problems that we humans have to address, and SOON. Yesterday, I watched a DVD called The Great Warming, on pretty much the same topic. My purpose here is not to review these films but rather to just reflect on how pervasive and "era-defining" this global warming crisis is becoming. I kind of see a rivalry between "the war on terror" and "slowing or reversing global warming" as the two primary cultural priorities of our times. Which one will get top billing and be taken more seriously? Can we address both problems simultaneously? What kind of leadership do we look for to make significant progress?

Before I get sidetracked on that thought, let me stay with the global warming idea. Even though there are still some scoffers out there (always, it seems, with ties to the oil and gas industry, or die-hard conservative apologists who want to make this an ideological battle) my impression is that "global warming" has pretty well settled into the popular imagination as something that is Really Happening and Needs To Be Taken Seriously. Problem is, nobody really knows just what they can or should do and so there is still a lot of ignoring, shuffling of feet, helpless shrugging and assuming that Someone will come up with Something that will stop the crisis before it gets completely out of control. That Someone might be God who will "end the world" in accordance with His plan, or that Something might be new Scientific Technological Breakthroughs that will provide us abundant supplies of clean efficient energy so we can keep driving all over when ever and where ever we feel like it, and not just us, but also the growing middle-classes of countries like China, India and other societies who Want What We Got.

I hear radio deejays and TV news anchors dropping casual, ironically humorous references to global warming as we get through another season of wildfires in California, hot weather all over the country (and in England, talk of their "hottest day ever") and as we await the unfolding of the next cycle of hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico. I think of how this concept might be impacting young children whose minds try to comprehend just what is going on and how the melting of the ice caps and resulting floods in coastal areas and other "natural consequences" will impact their lives in the years ahead. This is probably their version of what I had to grapply with as a child growing up in the Cold War, hearing about the evil Communists who might one day attack us with H-Bombs. Though in some ways, I think today's kids have something even scarier to contemplate - a planet eroding and nature's raw, blind fury punishing them for the sins and negligence of their ancestors.

So as I sit in my air-conditioned house sucking up electricity on the three computers all running and being used by different members of my family this morning, I am giving some serious thought as to what I can possibly do to get more serious about the GWP (Global Warming Problem - perhaps it will become GWC, Global Warming Crisis, in the not too distant future?) I recently had my A/C system serviced and was told that I might want to consider getting a new heating and cooling system because of the age and inefficiency of the equipment in my basement. That requires a fair chunk of change, of course, around $2000 or so I figure. But I actually like the idea of putting serious effort into getting energy efficient and over the course of the next year or two or more seeing what I can do to get wise in this part of my household management.

And check this out... this email dropped in on me as I was just typing that last sentence:

Hello Friend! I just wanted to send you a quick email to remind you about the Community Forum at the Wealthy Theater on Saturday (July 22). The topic is energy and Michigan. Right now, Michigan is in a horrible energy crunch. Gasoline prices are skyrocketing, inflation is heating up, the housing market is softening: what can we do to help Michigan pull itself up by the bootstraps?

The Forum starts with rolls/coffee at 8:30 a.m. At 9, Mayor Hartwell will speak, followed by myself, and then David Gard from the Michigan Energy office. After lunch, we'll have two brand new documentary films to bring everything into sharp focus: "The End of Suburbia" and "The Power of Community", each followed by discussion.

Amazing! Somebody is trying to tell me something! I think it's time to get wise!

Incarnation Bits 14 - Marina Warner on I Timothy

My school copy of the New Testament shows many places scored in the margins of the First Epistle to Timothy, for it is a letter in which Paul has a great deal to say about both women's behavior and the correct Christian treatment of certain categories of women. It is in the First Epistle of Timothy that this verse appears: "Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection." (2:11)

The seduction of women's talk reflected the seduction of their bodies; it was considered just as dangerous to Christian men, and condemned as improper. Paul, in the First Epistle to Timothy alone, proscribes at least five different kinds of speech which he attributes to women: the wives of deacons must not be "slanderers" (3:11); Timothy must not listen to "profane and old wives' fables" (4:7); younger widows are "not only idle, but tattlers also and busybodies, speaking things which they ought not" (5:13); he also fears gossip, and warns that young widows' behavior will give rise to talk unless they remarry. By contrast, he exhorts his disciple to be "an example of the believers, in word, in conversation" (4:12) and, at the end, to avoid "profane and vain babblings" (6:20). The translators of the King James Version had no difficulty finding English words for these different types of condemned speech. In this matter, Catholics and Protestants were in agreement: garrulousness was a woman's vice, and silence - which was not even considered an appropriate virtue in the male - one of the chief ornaments a good woman should cultivate.

The First Epistle to Timothy tries to soften the blow against women by promising: "Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing" (2:15)... Biblical scholars now argue that the mitigation of the apostle's usual stringent asceticism in the First and Second Epistles to Timothy and the Epistle to Titus points to a follower and imitator of Saint Paul who sought to "domesticate" Pauline doctrine and adapt it to a traditional Jewish idea of the worth of marriage, the importance of hierarchy within the family, and tribal obligations of widows. This explains, very satisfyingly, the contradiction on which we were impaled at school between a heroic, otherworldly vocation on the one hand and the silent mission of motherhood and wifely obedience on the other.

I was not schooled to silence; but I learned that a woman's silence is especially golden. Reading Saint Paul confirmed those longings I already felt to be other than what I was: I became a house divided against itself.

But I hope that the wind that blows in the cracks has a speaking voice.

Superman Returns

On Saturday, we went to see Superman Returns, the latest Hollywood rendition of this quintessentially American cultural icon. I have not been all that caught up in the hype of what the movie was "supposedly" about, nor was I hot with anticipation to see this new epic, but when some free time popped up on Saturday to go catch a flick, Superman was my choice, not Pirates of the Caribbean or An Inconvenient Truth. So maybe that says something about me. I will see those other two eventually, presumably, but the Man of Steel got the first dance with me (I don't recall that nickname being used in this film though... hmmm....)

Anyway, I won't attempt a full review here but rather just toss off a few quick observations. First, I didn't realize (prior to entering the theater) that the movie assumed continuity with the Christopher Reeve series of Superman movies from the early 80's, though I found out later it's only taking the first two of those films "seriously," ignoring the last two which delved into camp (I remember the picture of Reeve carry Richard Pryor for one of them, and the other having something to do with nuclear disarmament, a message that sadly seems quaint and unfashionable in this "war on terror" era.) I found this premise of building on the earlier movies (which I haven't seen since their original theatrical runs) kind of distracting for awhile and honestly I would have preferred just a whole new fresh take on the Superman myth, but I guess the Reeve films still warrant enough respect to constitute part of the canon. But having an entirely new cast of actors playing the characters from the earlier films created some mental obstacles for me that interrupted my ability to get fully into the premise of the story. But eventually I did and it was fine. I am curious to watch Superman I and II at some point to better understand the big picture here.

But my other main comment is that Superman Returns is the Jesus-movie of 2006. We had Passion of the Christ in 2004, Chronicles of Narnia in 2005 and now this one. By the end of the movie, Julie and I were jokingly citing Scripture references to each other that we thought were most appropriate to the scene, such as when Lois asked Superman if he would be back, and I injected "Lo I am with you to the end of the age" (in a polite whisper) just before he said "I'm always around" or something to that effect.

The visual iconography was also very messianic - lots of omnipotent "eye in the sky" shots along with Crucifixion and Pieta poses. The main poster for the movie gives a hint of this, but I couldn't find any images on the web of the more blatant postures. I found it rather amusing, and sure enough, a quick Google search of "Superman Returns Jesus movie" turns up some predictably earnest essays of the film from a Christian perspective elaborating on the "similarities and differences" between this production and the genuine gospel. I won't belabor that point, though I'm open to discussing it if anyone wants to engage with me on the topic.

My interpretation of these Messianic parallels is a touch on the cynical side - I think that the director, Bryan Singer, infused the plot and visuals with these allusions in order to both appeal to the audience that helped make "The Passion" and "Narnia" such big hits and also perhaps to subtly tweak them as well. I don't think he shares the unadorned faith that a lot of believers manifest in this country but understands their appetite for entertainment that in some way affirms their devotion. But he also knows that Superman is a "comic book movie," though in its defense, featuring the most venerable of all such heroes. So I saw in his choices a kind of hidden commentary, perhaps suggesting the idea that our own beliefs and understandings of "how God operates" has been subject to varying levels of mythologization. That may be a provocative thought to some but that's the impression I got from this movie.

Beyond that, some of the plot points seemed strange and a bit strained and the resolution of the crisis seemed incredibly convenient given its scope. I'll give the numerous unexplained violations of any number of laws of physics a free pass because that's been Superman's stock in trade for decades now and enhances his god-like status among the numerous men-in-tights imitators who simply can't match Superman in approaching omnipotence. I also found the whole "baby daddy drama" an amusing but also slightly shocking (because of its implications) way of bringing the Superman saga squarely into our current cultural era.
Summary: I'll go see the sequel and consider it a worthy recommendation. Good, not great, but significant.

Common Good Strategies

This past Friday, I enjoyed the chance to get reacquainted with a former co-worker that I used to supervise at Wedgwood. Her name is Kate, and now she is a graduate student intern doing work with Common Good Strategies, a "political strategy firm dedicated to helping Democrats reclaim the debate on faith and values" (as described on their website.) I'm interested in getting to know more about this effort and others like it - I'm glad to see someone other than Republicans taking an active interest in addressing political matters from a "faith-informed" perspective. She found out that I'm involved with groups like IGE and WMJPC and was excited to see someone like me working for an organization like Wedgwood, more known for its cultural conservatism than for being a haven for progressive activist types.

The net result of our meeting was that she loaned me a DVD called "The Great Warming" (a global warming documentary that doesn't star Al Gore, which may make it more viewable for those who have an aversion to the former vice-president's image or reputation.) CGS has been showing it at house parties recently and she wants me to check it out. She and I will also be exchanging articles, names, event times, etc. as we get to know more about what each other has been up to on the political/social action front. Even though this part of Michigan leans strongly to the right, both theologically and politically, I think there are a lot of people who would like a faith-friendly alternative, and there is a growing awareness among many that other issues besides abortion merit strong consideration when we cast our votes. Though the focus for now is what happens this coming November, the perspective needs to be more long-term. The collusion between the Religious Right and the Republican Party has poisoned the atmosphere for a lot of people, to the extent that many are, or could soon become, hostile to the idea of any connection between organized religion, faith-motivated voters and the workings of government. It would be a big mistake to make such a stark division that effectively concedes the "Christian vote" to the Republican Party. I imagine that I'll have more to say here about this subject in the months ahead.

Incarnation Bits 13 - Amy Clampitt on Thessalonians

To the evangelical denominations, what mattered above all, and to the practical exclusion of very much else, was of course the Second Coming. Not that any such expression is to be found in the Epistles of Saint Paul. The one he did use, the one from which so enormous a freight of doctrine now depends, is the Greek word parousia. Deriving from the verb pareinai, "to be present," it has the pristine meaning of a presence, a being-there, and buy extension came to denote an arrival, a visit, an appearance - or, as the King James Bible has it, a Coming. Unmodified, it is a word the apostle used over and over. "For what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming?" he wrote to the Thessalonians. And again, "that he may establish your hearts unblameable in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" - and yet again, "we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord..."

By the time of the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians, there had begun to be confusion and uncertainty, such as have not been abated from that day to this: "Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our assembling to meet him, we beg you, brethren, not to be quickly shaken in mind or excited, either by spirit or by word, or by letter purporting to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come."

If the Thessalonians, those exemplary converts from paganism, could so easily be deluded into supposing that the advent of the Chosen One had, in some invisible and secret fashion, already occurred, what hope is there for any of the rest of us? Given their confusion, the casuistries, the contortions, the outright monstrosities that have been brought forth in the name and under the rubric of eschatology - the study of last things - are hardly a cause for wonder. For those who withstood the temptation to think, as the Gnostics were condemned for doing, in wholly incorporeal terms, there was nothing left to do but wait.

Rebel Rebel, Your Face Caused a Mess

A controversy has erupted at a nearby high school, actually the district in which our family lived in from 1988 until 1996. It seems that the Godfrey-Lee school board commissioned a 21-year old art student who graduated from Lee High School several years ago to paint a mural in the school gym. His proposal sketch, located on the left of this page, is pretty similar to the finished painting (right), with a few small exceptions made for the sake of artistic effect, and a significant change that has stirred up some debate on the board as to whether the artist deserves the second installment of his fee. It seems that they don't like the fact that the "Rebel" mascot has brown skin!

Several board members have claimed that artist Arturo Araujo didn't fulfill his contract. One board member is quoted as comparing the situation to "asking a contractor to paint your bathroom and the contractor says he'll paint it yellow, you say 'OK,' and when you get done, it is green."

This is hardly about the "atmospherics" of what color we want to paint the walls! The fact is, the board members who objected are white, while the student body is increasingly black and brown. It's hard to get away from perceiving a race-based discomfort with a school symbol that not only has dark skin, but also a powerful, assertive presence in a district where white students have already fallen out of the majority status that they once took for granted.

A hearing was held last night to get public input on the subject and decide what to do about the payment. The board agreed to cut the check that they agreed on, but haven't yet made a decision on what they will do about the painting. I haven't seen it in person myself, but it looks like a pretty impressive piece of work that has already been enthusiastically embraced by the student body (helped, no doubt, by the lunk-headed mishandling of the situation by the board, who should have just accepted it "as is" rather than rile up the kind of fuss that has rebounded pretty hard against them.) The only suggestion I'd make is that they drop the whole
"Lee Rebels" mascot idea. The school claims that it's not about Robert E. Lee or the Confederacy or any of that (though history seems to undercut their denials), but why not make the move to distance themselves from a racist insurgency that once threatened to divide our country? In any case, the figure depicted busting through the wall is dressed in a Union Blue-style uniform anyway, so I suppose the whole visual symbolism of the thing has gone topsy-turvy after all.

Well, that's what's happening in local school board politics around here!

Pearl Jam: Not your average hedonistic rock band.

Pearl Jam Offsets Climate Footprint of 2006 World Tour

Some cynics might think this publicity is a bit self-serving, but I think it's pretty cool that they would even think to do this. It makes me consider looking into my own CO2 contributions so that I can calculate how much I should be giving to environmental causes.

Conservatives: "Followers" by nature?

I just found this video clip and transcript on Rawstory.com, a fine alt-news website that I check from time to time. It features an exchange between Keith Olbermann and John Dean as Dean is pitching his new book, Conservatives Without Conscience. He cites a study that's been gathering data for 50 years or so that points to a conclusion that people who identify as "conservative" are generally more prone to fit somewhere within an authoritarian relationship structure, either as leader or follower. Obviously, there always have to be more followers than leaders. But this excessive reliance on a "chain of command" that derives its authority from inculcating fear of villains, enemies and assorted "bad guys" is, as Dean puts it, an "overwhelmingly conservative orientation."

I haven't seen the book yet, but the interview with Dean gets me curious to know more about this study he refers to. He claims that the population of the USA has about 23% "pure right-wing authoritarian followers" who will, if compelled, "march right over the cliff." I can believe that.

Shrooms are Popping Up All Over

Well this is interesting...

Go Ask Alice: Mushroom Drug Is Studied Anew

... but is it really news?

I suppose this report on a rigorous scientific study of the spiritual benefits of psilocybin is indeed newsworthy, but its conclusions aren't all that surprising to me. Perhaps its due to my having read similar material way back in the 70's and early 80's, when as a teenage tripper I did my own independent research (illicit, due to the lack of government funding available at the time) into pharmacology and the relevant "scientific" literature on the subject (Leary, Huxley, Lilly, Wilson, Ram Dass, et al.)

It amuses me to read the string of articles that came out yesterday and today on the publishing of this paper. I am pleased to know that not only is there some continuing research happening in this field, but that it's getting positively received by the mainstream media, like for instance the Wall Street Journal! Still, I can't help but wonder "what took them so long?" and "why is this not already common knowledge?" The abundance of positive reports from people in all kinds of different cultural settings who can attest to what we could call the "therapeutic benefits" of psilocybin and similar psychotropic agents apparently doesn't count as much as one paper bearing the credentials of the Johns Hopkins Medical Institute. I guess it really is all about who you know. But what a refreshingly sane approach to the potential wise and constructive application of a substance which could seriously help a lot of people out in therapy and other efforts at life change. Perhaps it just took our society a few decades to let the mania of the 60's and 70's settle down a bit before we could move ahead on a promising line of research...

Caveat: lest you get the impression that I'm advocating unregulated use of mushrooms or other psychedelics, let me assure you that my personal experience with these substances is in the distant past and serves more as a cautionary tale than it does an affirming testimony. I won't go into detail here, but by no means am I oblivious to the risks and downsides to casual indulgence with psychedelics. Still, I would say that I count myself as a person who has found lasting benefit from the experiences I had under the influence. I only wish I could have avoided some of the turbulence that happened on the trip. Structured settings created by skilled, licensed practicioners could conceivably maximize the opportunity for enhanced insight, personal growth and spiritual fulfillment. That's what turns me on about this research!

(Good grief, as I'm ready to post this, Ina-Gadda-Da-Vida by Iron Butterfly pops up and is playing now on my iTunes! Far out, man!)

Strife Among the Peaceniks

This article by Scott Ritter (former U.N. weapons inspector in Iraq) has stirred up some controversy in my local peace'n'justice community after it was posted on an email list that I moderate for the West Michigan Justice and Peace Coalition. On one side we have those who , like Ritter, oppose the war but agree with his assessment that the anti-war movement is badly failing in its efforts to 1) end the occupation of Iraq and 2) steer popular public opinion to a more consistently anti-war stance (considering much of the opposition to the current war as based on the fact that the US doesn't appear to be "winning.") This perspective says "where are the results? what is the point of opposing war on principle if it doesn't result in practical political power or even influence?" The primary voice of this perspective on our list has occasionally injected a mocking or sarcastic tone, perhaps trying to rile up some of our subscribers in a manner that almost taunts them for the low percentage of the general public that positively identifies with their "idealistic" or "purist" non-violent position. His push is to get behind the candidates who have a realistic chance of winning elections this fall (namely, Democrats.) His comments even go so far as to make it seem like the peace movement will be "responsible" if Republicans continue to hold their majority control in Congress next year.

On the other side are people who are not as preoccupied with "results" as they are in upholding the truth of a consistently non-violent position. They resist compromising their efforts (and their votes) to join with political forces who are primarily intent on defeating the Republicans (and by extension, President Bush) in the elections this coming November. One spokesman whose article was posted as a response to the Ritter link is Max Obuszewski, who says "Scott Ritter needs non-violence training!" Max is more of your traditional-style peace activist who promotes and practices non-violent resistance, including vigiling and occasional civil disobedience in the style of Gandhi and King. Most of the subscribers to the list and people I know would align themselves with this perspective, though I know of some members of local progressive groups who have gotten impatient with the slow progress and frequent ignoring of our perspective in local, state and national politics and advocate a more direct, confrontational approach that also eschews alignment with the Democratic Party and "mainstream political, gradual change from within" approaches.

My position on all this has up to now remained a bit ambivalent. I like the idea of getting behind candidates who have a chance to actually win a popular vote, but I haven't heard of any in my area that really stir up my enthusiasm. I live in a heavily Republican part of the state, so strong Democratic candidates are rare and underfunded in any case. I will vote for Jennifer Granholm for Governor, most likely, but that's a no-brainer. Vern Ehlers seems like a shoo-in for another term in Congress based on what I have (not) heard from any prospective Democrat opponents. I basically think it's going to be up to people in other parts of the country to do what they can to win close races for any candidates who voice a willingness to stop and reverse the Bush agenda. I will have to be convinced that my input can make a positive difference in other districts. Until then, I will just keep putting ideas out there, writing and talking to people when I get the opportunity to get into political and cultural discussions. But I'm not going to get rude or insulting toward those I disagree with since I really don't think that approach does anything more than reinforce old negative stereotypes on all sides of the divide. I certainly know how hardcore conservative ideology affects me and I'd be stupid to assume that people are open to changing their minds as a result of rhetorical blasts from loud-mouthed cocksure opinion-spewers. That technique works good to keep people "under control" but I'd rather appeal to conscience and a higher sense of morality and respect in those whom I'm trying to persuade.

Soccer Shocker (or, the Butt-head Head-butt)

In my comments on the World Cup soccer game yesterday, I failed to mention what is apparently the BIG STORY of the game, namely the expulsion of French superstar Zidane, who got the red card for head-butting one of his Italian opponents. The truth is, I didn't see the incident myself, since I was at work. I had just turned on the TV and saw a replay of the display of the red card, then Zidane walking forlornly off the field and into the tunnel - his final exit as a professional footballer. I figured at that point that France's fate was sealed, that they would almost certainly lose to Italy. I know they would have benefitted from having him around for the decisive penalty kick phase. But since I'm not nearly as steeped in the legends and lore of the World Cup and its star players, the incident didn't register as much of a shock to me as it apparently did to most informed observers. I suppose that it brings a lot more tarnish to the tournament, the competition and the reputation of international soccer than its advocates would ever want, but as scandalous as it may be that an elite level player gets kicked out of the championship match for a flagrant foul in such tense and dramatic circumstances, I personally am still more bothered by the fact that it got settled on penalty kicks. However, I've already aired that opinion.

R.I.P. Syd Barrett

I just found out that Syd Barrett died recently, according to a representative of Pink Floyd. That explains why The Piper at the Gates of Dawn is playing on my computer at the moment.

Back to work.

In case you didn't notice, I was on vacation from work last week. That partly explains why I had so much time to post multiple daily updates to this blog. But now that I'm back to work, I don't intend to slow my pace as much as it was before I got into this daily posting groove. However, my time to ponder just what I'm going to write about will be more limited.

Yesterday I didn't add anything to this page. It was just such a lazy summer afternoon around here. Everyone who was home except me napped for at least two hours in the middle of the day. The slumbery atmosphere around my house just sapped whatever kind of creative effort I tried to muster up to write and post something here. So I just gave up and went out to spread fertilizer on my lawn.

I also stayed awake to watch the World Cup championship game. I leaned a little bit toward favoring France to win, but mainly I wanted to see someone win the contest outright on the field of open competition. I don't like the idea of such a significant trophy being awarded on the basis of what is basically a "skills competition." I can put up with penalty kicks eliminating teams in the bracket competition, but when it comes down to the grand finale, I'd rather just see teams play until some crucial blunder is made due to fatigue, if that's what it comes down to. The way this title was settled was basically the failure of one French striker to get the ball into the net and the failure of the French goalkeeper to block a single shot. But the Italian goal keeper didn't do any better - he never got a hand on any of the kicks either. Despite all that, I won't slag the World Cup. I enjoyed the emotional intensity of the fans and the knowledge that this event was commanding the attention of a billion human beings or so. The sheer size of the spectacle and the simplicity of the game itself drew me in and I don't regret getting into it these past few weeks. I just would have liked to have seen the thing settled in a more spontaneous fashion. This kind of outcome doesn't really convince me that the "better team" won. The Azzuri were just the last ones standing according to the rules of the game.

I actually worked in one of the homes at Wedgwood last night - that's where I was when I saw the winning goal scored and the jubilant Italians run onto the field. I turned the game off shortly after that since I was the only person at work who really knew or cared about what was going on over in Berlin. Working a shift with the kids helped me get back into a professional mode since I was pretty successful at ignoring that part of my life over the past week. But I have a lot of training to do this week, starting early tomorrow morning when I do my first class using the new AHA CPR curriculum. (It's mostly DVD-oriented, where I'm just pushing the buttons, allowing the video to do most of the talking, and a partner and I visually observe the participants practicing their breaths and compressions over the course of two hours.) So it boosts my confidence to come back, work with a few staff and a bunch of teenagers and remember what it was that qualified me to do the things that earned me the vacation time that allowed me to leave the office but still get paid...

Rob Bell in the N.Y. Times

Rob Bell, pastor of the Mars Hill megachurch just a few miles west of where I live, was featured in this morning's New York Times. He's on a speaking tour that is attempting to reach an audience in a new way and his approach may be worth kicking around here. What do others think of it? Is this a trendy P.R. stunt concocted by a celebrity preacher? An intriguing experiment in preaching and teaching in an alternative context? A lame "wannabe rockstar" move? Or just Rob Bell doing what feels right/following the Spirit/doing what Jesus or Paul would do in today's setting?

Personally, I get a kick out of the idea though I'm not sure I'd pay $10 to go hear him. I actually had the chance to do so here in G.R. as he did a couple of warm-up gigs prior to hitting the road. And of course I could go listen to him any Sunday of the week when he's in town but so far I haven't made it to one of his services (though I did go see Don Miller - for free - when he came by a couple of months ago.) Perhaps familiarity breeds contempt, as the saying goes. I like Rob Bell, but since I've heard him speak where I work and have what I think is a good bead on his message, attending one of these "performances" wouldn't be so high on my list.

But I do figure that it will be worth my time one of these mornings to head on over to Mars Hill after he returns from his tour and take in the whole experience...

Incarnation Bits 12 - Gjertrud Schnackenberg on Colossians

In the Colossian interpretation of baptism, the Christian initiate undergoes the death and resurrection of Jesus, immersed (buried) and retrieved (resurrected), as the old and broken image of Adam is restored in the healed and purified image of Christ. The initiate is raised from this death "through faith in the working of God" (2:12) and, thus kept in the mystery of the Christ, is "transferred... to the kingdom of his beloved Son." (1:13), is "qualified" (1:12) and "reconciled" (1:21). This spiritual identification between the initiate and the risen Christ gives rise in Colossians to hortatory ethical passages (particularly the sermon of 3:5-17), although it isn't clear, exactly, how the ethical system that is being advocated is established within this Christ-initiate identification. (If one's resurrection already is accomplished, why does one require an ethical exhortation? If one is transferred to the Kingdom through faith, then why must one "put to death therefore what is earthly in you..."? Is the initiate to be saved more than once? Through ethical good works as well as through faith? Through both together?) Whatever we make of this problem in Pauline Christianity, still the most beautiful and exalted element of the baptismal formula is sounded in Colossians (as it is sounded in Galatians and in I Corinthians): the announcement of the non-preferential, limitless love God feels for His creatures:

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free; there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:28)

For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body - Jews or Greeks, slaves or free - and all were made to drink of one Spirit (I Corinthians 11:13)

Here there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free man, but Christ is all, and in all. (Colossians 3:11)

Here in this overcoming of distinctions, reaching back through the disguises of race, gender, class, and nation to the reality of the created soul, in this vindication of the preciousness of the spirit over against the multiple, conflicting claims of "identity," we indeed encounter the seeds of universalism shining in Jesus' life and teachings.

Sir No Sir!

Last night I went to see a documentary titled "Sir No Sir!" It's a new film that's making the rounds in art houses and alternative cinemas across the country, telling the story of how resistance from active-duty soldiers in the Vietnam War had a profound impact on changing US policy and eventually bringing the conflict to an end. It's a pretty amazing collection of footage, featuring both original sources from the 60's and 70's along with interviews from more recent years of some of those same men and women who we see protesting and sometimes going to the brig for their active resistance to their superior officers.

Some interesting points that stick with me that I hadn't really grasped until watching the film: Just how wide-spread insubordination apparently became in the peak years of the Vietnam War, when hundreds or thousands of soldiers lost confidence in their leaders and seriously questioned the morality and effectiveness of what they were being ordered to do. In the Cambodia invasions that Nixon ordered, there were entire units of soldiers who basically refused to follow orders, flat out. There were some major uprisings of imprisoned troops, over half a million cases of "desertion" reported by the Armed Forces throughout the war and a widespread "underground newspaper" phenomenon where soldiers developed their own alternative press to get their insights and experiences to people both inside and outside of the military. The lobby of the theater had a fascinating display of photo-copies of some of the front pages of these short-lived, highly subversive and hard-hitting periodicals (some of which got their writers shipped to the front lines or in other kinds of trouble.)

The film also had a little sidebar on the "urban legend" (my word, not theirs) of Vietnam soldiers getting spit on and called "baby killers" when they returned to the States. A researcher looked into how this story apparently planted itself in the popular consciousness years after the war had ended, reinforced by movies like "Rambo" and "Hamburger Hill" who had an agenda of "re-legitimizing" US policy in Vietnam during the 80's and in subsequent years. No reports from the times when soldiers were coming back from their tours of duty could be found to verify the archetypal story of a girl wearing love beads spitting on a vet as he walked across the tarmac at the San Francisco airport. The larger point behind all this is that some serious historic revisionism has been employed by the "hawks" to undo the damage that they felt was done to their ability to convince the American public that war is a necessary and preferable option when they want to employ that tool to advance their policy objectives. It's clear to me that these efforts have overall been successful in that they were able to persuade most of the American public to support the invasion of Iraq when the time came.

Speaking of Iraq, after the showing, we got to listen to a Q & A session featuring a Vietnam vet (Marines) who edited one of those underground papers and an Iraq vet (National Guard) who served a year as a driver between Baghdad and Falluja. It was fascinating to hear their reports, clarifying the similarities and differences between the two wars. The main development that seems to have taken place in how war is managed these days is that soldiers in Iraq are kept much more separated from the civilian population, so they don't get the same full picture of the effects of the occupation that Vietnam era soldiers saw. There's also a more effective control of the media and the range of tolerable dissent is much narrower than it was in Vietnam. I certainly can see the problems of widespread insurrection among the troops - the film talked about "fragging," the practice of subordinate soldiers intentionally killing or wounding their commanders. That's not a good thing under any circumstances! But one has to wonder what would push troops to commit such acts.

Even with clear improvements by the military command structure in managing the potential negative effects of unfiltered information, the Iraq vet reported that there is a wide range of thoughts and opinions among those serving in Iraq, which mainly cuts along generational lines. Older personnel tend to be more earnest in their support for Bush's policies, while younger troops tend to feel exploited and cynical, wanting to just complete their duties, get home safely and get on with their lives. He described himself as coming from a very patriotic family, about as conservative a Republican guy as you could ever expect to meet in this area (and that's very conservative folks!) who voted for Bush in 2000, but whose opinions on American foreign policy and the legitimacy of our involvement in Iraq changed drastically once he got over there and saw what was happening. I respected his presentation quite a bit - he was low-key and completely resisted any opportunities to descend into mockery, ranting or other low-blows directed against the people responsible for getting our nation into the invasion of Iraq. He was very unaffected in his delivery, just a guy speaking his conscience who was fairly "pestered" into speaking last night by one of his friends who helped to organize the showing of this film. Overall, I found the comments of the two vets quite inspiring - it helps to reinvigorate my own thinking about what I can do to end the war and hopefully prevent us from getting into similar or worse fiascoes in the future.

I'm not sure when or if the movie will get broad distribution. It's only showing in limited viewings as you can see on the website. Maybe the DVD will be released soon? But the website does a good job of telling some of the story as well. I encourage you to spend a bit of time there if what I've said here captures your attention.

Fourth of July Parade

Once again our family went to the Grandville MI Independence Day parade. It is the closest one to our home but to be honest, I'm fairly bored with it. Grandville is a nice little community full of decent folks, middle-class people of Dutch ancestry, pretty much play-by-the-rules types who don't like to make too many waves or draw undue attention to themselves. It's one of those communities where one gets ahead by being the most regular of regular guys. And it's as white as Wonder Bread, vanilla ice cream, picket fences and the driven snow that covers our landscape for portions of six months of every year.

My main motivation for going there was to see if I could deliver a message to our congressional representative, Vern Ehlers, who's been the subject of previous blog entries here. I'd been contacted by Moveon.org, who wanted to impress upon me the crucial role (as Chairman of the Committee on House Administration) that Rep. Ehlers has in getting Congress to mandate "paper trail" requirements when and where electronic voting machines are used. The idea being that otherwise, these computerized units can be easily manipulated or mistakenly programmed in ways that lead to inaccurate tabulations of votes. The political slant on this issue is that one leading manufacturer of the machines, Diebold, has strong ties to the Republican Party and there are numerous concerns that vote fraud has already taken place, especially in the disputed 2004 presidential elections in Ohio.

I never replied to Moveon's email asking for my pledge to carry signs or otherwise demonstrate. I know the Grandville parade protocols well enough to know that it wouldn't go over well. Call me a coward if you want, but I just wasn't willing to make a spectacle of myself in that setting - political activist rhetoric doesn't go with the "family picnic" atmosphere that characterizes the parade environment that's been established there for so long. And the overwhelming Republicanness of that crowd honestly leads me to believe that resistance in the form of holding up a protest sign would have been futile. I did wear my WMJPC shirt, and Brandon wore his Communist Party shirt which was political enough on our part, IMO. No one heckled us and we didn't feel goofy, which we would have if we'd been the only people on the mile long stretch holding up a protest sign.

But I did manage to get a message through to the Big Guy, or at least, one of his workers, if she keeps her word. A woman came through prior to Ehler's march down Wilson Avenue, passing out stickers with his name on them. I asked her if she worked for the Congressman and she told me that she sure did, so I asked her to mention to Vern that I want him to support the inclusion of paper trail requirements for electronic voting machines since I want our nation to have increased confidence that our elections are fair, accurate and honest. Upon hearing this, she gave me direct eye contact, seemingly scrutinizing just who it was who voiced such a clear opinion on the matter, and replied, "yes, we want that too!" Then she left to distribute more stickers to the crowd.

Ehlers eventually did come walking by but he refrained from doing any handshaking. I had hoped to get a picture of him and I in the same frame but Julie couldn't get it due to a delay of some sort in the shutter. I don't know what that was about, but all she could get was the back of his head, so here it is.
The rest of the parade was fairly undistinguished - since this is an election year, a fair number of local Republicans running for local and state offices were either present or had surrogates handing out their literature. No Democrats bother visiting the Grandville parade. Other than that, it was the usual collection of fire trucks, local businesses, marching bands, gymnastic groups and churches in the area promoting their talents, goods and/or services and tossing out generous handfuls of candy that caused kids to scramble and adults to non-chalantly snatch the pieces that fell at our feet before some greedy insatiable little youngster pounced on it.
I'm not sure that much of anything all that significant was accomplished through the ritual. No one's vote is likely to change based on what they saw or heard. We all got a bit of sun, except for those who deliberately sat in the shade, and re-enacted a great American tradition. I guess that counts for something. People marching or driving in the parade had an experience. The rest of us mostly just stood there and quickly cleared out when the last fire truck rolled by. Statements of various sorts were made. Nothing to complain about, really, but next year I intend to visit a parade with more diversity than what Grandville has to offer.

I Ain't Gonna Make It With Anyone Anyhow

As my son Derek was driving his brother Curt and his parents to the Detroit Metro Airport the other day, I took advantage of this unusual opportunity to read a book while letting someone else drive on a long family road trip. The volume I chose was a short biography of Mao Zedong from the Penguin Lives series. (Penguin is the publisher - I don't subscribe to the belief that Chairman Mao was, in actuality, a penguin.) I've become a lot more curious about Chinese history lately now that I've gotten a good long look at a bunch of pictures my son took over in that faraway land. Since this slim summary of Mao's life has been sitting on my shelf for over a year now, I figured this would be a good entry into what I expect will be a fuller survey of just what in the heck has been going on over in China for the past few thousand years or so.

My reading so far has gotten me to the point of Mao's first genuine triumph as he vaulted to prominence as a political leader in the early years of the Chinese Communist movement. His respected work as an organizer, writer and articulator of revolutionary ideas put him in position to become Commander-in-Chief of what's now known as the Autumn Harvest Uprising, a rebellion of peasants that briefly overthrew the landowners and warlords of the Hunan province in south-central China. Mao's forces are about to be turned back in the next chapter, but for now, he's left his common, ordinary and fairly obscure roots behind and is now irrevocably on the path to becoming a historical figure of the highest order.

Because this biography is intentionally brief, it doesn't offer deep detail of the evolution of Mao's thinking or lengthy quotes from his writings. But I do find the book satisfying for what I'm looking for, which is simply a basic review of the major developments in his career. I have yet to discover just how and when he got that cool little mole right under his chin.

Now just because I acknowledge that my political views veer to the left doesn't mean that I consider myself an admirer or apologist for Mao Zedong. In fact, that is not the case at all. While I find myself granting substantial respect for his accomplishments and his singular sense of purpose, he and I are not ideological buddies at all. I discovered this while doing a little net surfing the other day, seeking for some additional background in the form of Mao's writings. The marxists.org website has an excellent collection of his works. One titled Combat Liberalism caught my attention so I read it over. My immediate response upon finishing it was "Chairman Mao can kiss my ass!" I know that's kind of vulgar, but I'm just being honest. While his critique of the flaws of liberalism offers some incisive and accurate observations, I oppose his dogmatic assertions that ideological struggle offers the superior alternative. At some point I may try my hand at refuting the Grand Old Propagandist himself with my own article titled "Combat Ideology." But I'll save that for another time.

Book Bargains

I gave myself a day off of blogging yesterday after a fairly long run of daily updates. Actually, I still have an unfinished draft from yesterday that I'll polish up and publish later - it's a more ambitious piece that requires further thought and development. But I did other things yesterday. So here's a flurry of shorter posts on different topics, starting with a recap of how I spent the morning of Independence Day.

The first thing I did after my "getting ready" routine was to drop off my daughter at work, then I headed down to the Bargain Bookstore. As has been their habit on some of the recent non-sacred federal holidays (e.g. New Years Day and Independence Day) , they had a half-off sale on their whole inventory of remainder books that they already sell for half price or less of the normal retail rate. So I got a couple of treasures that I'd spied over the past few weeks. One was the Complete Cartoons of the New Yorker, an amazing collection of single panel cartoons spanning the years 1925 through 2004. (Most of the cartoons come on two CD-ROMs packaged with the book.) It's a formidable volume, larger than can be comfortably held on the lap for too long. It lists for $60, I got it for $9.50. The other gems I got (besides a few gifts that I won't mention here because I don't want to spoil the surprise, should their recipients happen to read this) were a hardcover edition of Don DeLillo's Underworld and Greatest Works of Art of Western Civilization, as chosen by Thomas Hoving, former curator of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, both of which I got for ridiculously cheap price. I especially like how the two big picture books look on our new IKEA coffee table.

Though I am not going to make a vow similar to the one I did during the time of Lent this past spring, I intend to take a break from further book shopping for awhile. I still have a big backlog of stuff I've bought over the past couple of years that I ought to work through, one volume of which I'll mention in my next post.

Happy Birthday, U.S.A.

In honor of the Independence Day holiday, I'm going to offer this prolonged quote from my favorite volume of early American history, American Aurora. Read it through and consider if there are any parallels between what happened back in 1798 and what we see in the headlines today...

On the last and very icy Tuesday of January, several members of congress were warming themselves by the great stoves which heat the House chamber when, in idle conversation, a Republican congressman from Vermont (an Irish newspaper publisher) posed the possibility of starting an opposition party in Federalist Connecticut. (President John Adams' Federalist Party controls each of the New England states and holds a commanding majority in both the House of Representatives and the Senate.) The Report of the House Committee on Privileges reads as follows:

Mr. Lyon (Vermont Republican) was holding a conversation with the Speaker (Mr. Dayton) loud enough to be heard. On Mr. Lyon's observing that, if he should go into Connecticut and manage a press there six months, he could effect a revolution and turn out the present Federalist representatives - Mr. Griswold, a Federalist from Connecticut, replied "you had better wear your wooden sword" or words to that effect, alluding to Mr. Lyon's having been cashiered in the army. Mr. Lyon spat in his face.

Personal insults! Spitting! At a time when political ettiquette and the hardship of overland travel force politicians to wait at home for the call to office rather than travel some campaign trail in pursuit of it, the newspaper is a mighty force in the political life of America. As this bizarre event suggests, even the threat of an "opposition press" can lead to violence.

During the next three weeks, Congress held hearings on the spitting incident, and the Federalist Speaker of the House, Jonathan Dayton of New Jersey, tried to impose restrictions on newspaper coverage of embarrassing testimony. The Annals of Congress report:

The Speaker said he thought it improper that persons attending in the House to take notes should publish the testimony of members before the members had the opportunity of correcting it. The Speaker said, until the House should make an order, he did himself prohibit the publication of evidence in the future until it should be corrected by the members themselves.

A gag rule! This was the federal government's first attempt to restrict press freedom since the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution was ratified in December of 1791. Benjamin Bache (publisher of the Philadelphia Aurora) refused to comply, even after Thursday morning, February 15th, when Lyon and Griswold fell upon each other with stick and tong. The Annals of Congress report:

FRACAS IN THE HOUSE

About a quarter past eleven o'clock, after prayers, whilst the Speaker was in his chair, Mr. Griswold [Federalist, Connecticut] entered the House and observing Mr. Lyon [Republican, Vermont] in his place, he went up to him with a pretty strong walking stick in his hand with which he immediately began to beat him with great violence. At length, getting behind the Speaker's chair, Mr. Lyon snatched up the tongs from the fire; the combatants then closed and came down together upon the floor, Mr. Griswold being uppermost. The members of the House got round the parties and separated them but not before Mr. Lyon had aimed a blow at Mr. Griswold's head with the tongs but which he parried off.

From the initial encounter to the latest fracas, Benjamin Bache reported details and testimony of congressional misbehavior without prior clearance by Speaker Dayton. For this disregard, Speaker Dayton barred Benjamin Bache from reporting on the House floor. Instead, the Aurora's representative would take notes from the spectator's gallery, where debate is less audible, less visible (Quaker spectators don't remove their hats!) and thus more difficult to discern.

Two days after his banishment, Bache reported in the Aurora, as follows:

The right of the people of the United States to listen to the sentiments of their representatives was acknowledged by the first agents whom they appointed to express their voice in that assembly. It was never attempted to restrain reporters from publishing the proceedings of Congress until last week when the Speaker declared that if reporters continued to report the oral testimony, he would send them into the crowded gallery. The threat was executed against one (The Editor of the Aurora) who was desired by the Speaker to leave.

One last item... A newsworthy event occurs this Friday evening, March 2nd, though too late for inclusion in tomorrow's Aurora. Some angry citizen or citizens hurl large rocks at the windows of the Aurora's office at 112 High Street, shattering a number of panes. This has happened several times before.