Best of Times, Worst of Times

I'm going to try to turn a pet peeve into beauty; let me know how well I do.

I get very annoyed whenever I hear (or read) about the "unprecedented" violence, unrest and precariousness we face "in the world today."

There is nothing "unprecedented" about it. Instead, there is a constant voice, in each age that cries out that we are on the brink of total disaster. (At least since people began writing down their ideas, about five thousand years ago. Maybe writing is the trouble...)

I do not deny that we face serious problems and danger, and that these take new forms than they did before. But, we survived the Ice Age, the Dark Ages, and at least the beginning of the Atomic Age. The unthinkable happened – events no one had thought to worry about – and here we are.

More than this, for the first time in recorded history, we have structures such as child labor laws, and domestic violence laws, and the UN – that often fail, yes, but that exist to protect the vulnerable, that we now take for granted, and that never existed before on such a scale.

Maybe there is a function in human perception that causes some to insist that we are on the brink of total unprecedented disaster.

Where are the voices that celebrate how we are evolving ever-more into peace-, justice- and kindness-loving creatures?

Here’s mine: we are so screwed up, we fail, and yet we keep creating beauty.

How’d I do?

This Moment

Like many of you, I’m thrilled and anxious when considering the outcome of tomorrow’s election.


By some grace, though, a joyous, steadying thought keeps coming back: we made it this far. Through the campaign, through the last fifty years, last four hundred years.

The past two elections disappointed me deeply, not only for the resulting administration, but also for the alienation I then felt from the rest of the country.

Now I’m looking around, and I like what I see. While nothing is certain, one thing is clear: an African-American man has a very clear shot at becoming our 44th president, less than fifty years after young men and women of his skin shade had to protest for the right to vote (not to forget the open savage violence when they attempted to register).

Has this been pointed out enough? Can it be?

1963

2008

I like the new signs better, don’t you?

I’m not saying racism is over in this country. I just want to say I’m proud of us. I look across the ocean to France: the Algerian Revolution ended in 1962, and Arabs in France have made few real gains in status. Not to oversimplify, as that is a multi-dimensionally different situation, but look at us.

Just look at us.

I don’t know how I’ll feel on Wednesday; emotions are riding high. But right now, for the first time in a long time, I am proud to be American – not just a New Yorker!

p.s. it’s the economy stupid

To clarify, the previous entry was in no way an attempt to prove that Obama is the better candidate. I know that economic policy choices will make an enormous difference in how the next administration affects our country. I also know that I don’t sufficiently understand our economy, or what it needs, to make a good determination along those lines. I am voting based on what I do know and understand.

That’s the idea: everyone is voting that way.

That’s my common ground with people whose politics appall me. Holding to that perspective keeps me from being so angry or anxious.

That’s what beauty does for me, and that’s what I’m doing here, trying to find the beauty.

Comments welcome, as always.

Love thy Republican as thy Self

I’m dreading voting day. Or rather, the day after. Will there be that cataclysmic disappointment, that same wondering who-the-hell-are-my-fellow-Americans as there was back in ’04?

In anticipation, I’ve done some soul-searching.

In my life today, there are some very wonderful people who I know are going to vote republican. This does not change my affection for them. I’m disturbed by the faceless masses, the ones ‘out there,’ the alleged 36 or 48 or 52 percent of Americans who think McCain/Palin is the way to go.

Just as I may be disturbing them.

I’m voting for Obama because of his interest in civil rights, that is, for example, early childhood education, legal abortion, legislation for gays. I think the world is a better place when women can trust they are covered for the 1% their birth control fails, where children can read and count and where people are encouraged to love.

This may be as crazy as voting for someone because of gun control, or the life of an embryo, or fear of terrorism.

I’m voting for the leader who makes me feel more safe and more free than the other.
Isn’t that what we are all doing?

If I can keep that in heart and mind, maybe this time I will stay whole when we learn which way the country is divided. Neither too glum, nor too gleeful, as the case may be. Rather, ready to build bridges. To somewhere. (wink)

Yesterday's Post, last month's news

I don't often read the newspaper, so I found out from some friends on Monday that the Bodies Exhibit has been forced by the NY Attorney General to post the following disclaimer at its NYC exhibit entrance and website:

Disclaimer: This exhibit displays human remains of Chinese citizens or residents which were originally received by the Chinese Bureau of Police. The Chinese Bureau of Police may receive bodies from Chinese prisons. Premier cannot independently verify that the human remains you are viewing are not those of persons who were incarcerated in Chinese prisons.

This exhibit displays full body cadavers as well as human body parts, organs, fetuses and embryos that come from cadavers of Chinese citizens or residents. With respect to the human parts, organs, fetuses and embryos you are viewing, Premier relies solely on the representations of its Chinese partners and cannot independently verify that they do not belong to persons executed while incarcerated in Chinese prisons.

Worse, yes it gets worse: in China, the families of executed prisoners, when they are even notified of the death at all, have a choice: pay for the room and board of the prisoner’s incarceration, including the bullet used for execution, or receive a large sum of money for the body parts.

I am horrified that people can know this and still pay almost $30 to see the exhibit. I am horrified that the exhibitors know this and still collect the money instead of immediately closing the shows, which are all over the world.

That is what yesterday's post is about. Like I said it is not pretty, but perhaps sometimes outrage can be a form a beauty? What do you think?

This one will not be pretty

Six cents for the bullet to the back of the head

Of your man

Whom you have not seen in months

Who was taken from your bed in the middle of the night

For a crime that he may or may not have committed,

A crime that may or may not be a crime.



Six cents on top of the room and board

For which you will have to pay

The room being his tiny prison cell

The food being maggotty rice

A bill for things you never wanted.

A bill that is more than you can afford,

and already the children's bellies growl.



Ah! but they offer you a way out: let us sell his body for parts

Sell his body, he's dead now, what difference does it make.

Better yet, we'll pay for everything, we'll even give you money

Lots of money

and we won't even charge you the six cents.



This could be a great honor! He may go from

being a bad criminal to saving lives!

A kidney for a poor young mother whose children need her.



Who knows, he could become famous, yes famous in America!

Altantic City, Las Vegas, New York City.

World famous: Budapest, Madrid, Vienna

Smart people will move his body into a shape -- so clever!

Looks like he's playing soccer! Patty cakes!

Dancing a happy dance!

Good for science. Good for education.

Many people will pay big money to see him! More than you make in a week!

Many fancy people will line up to see him, without his skin, looking like he's playing soccer.


So clever.


So much better than you paying six cents for the bullet we put in his head.

Don't worry over him so much. Did you really like him so much?

How can you like an enemy of the state? What are your political affiliations?

Where were you last week at 9 p.m.?

The Eyes of Chamber Street

Last week I used the Chambers Street/World Trade Center subway station for the first time since it was closed after the Twin Towers were destroyed.

I was struck by the mosaic eyes like the one above that are spaced out singly among the regular white subway tiles throughout the station.

Here's where my mind went:
Being underground, I felt as if these were the eyes of the dead of 9/11. Then I thought of the people who jumped out of the burning building, especially those who held hands.

I imagined the moment I cannot imagine. The people holding hands might not ever have even spoken before. It could have been the CEO and the office supply manager, or the woman who got the promotion and the man who was passed over, or the vocally pro-choice democrat and the quiet pro-life republican.

But with death behind and death in front, all that mattered was connection, shared humanity, shared frailty which combined to create a moment of strength and innocence that touched the world.

Then I thought, we are all on that ledge, with death behind and death in front. We pretend we are not, we pretend there is time for petty rivalry, indifference, even disdain. But being alive we are each of us standing on that burning ledge, a place that can only be cooled by the welcome of another's hand.

What are we waiting for to open ours?

Walt's World

It’s my first time in the land of Disney. Paul has a techie convention here, and I came for the ride. It’s warm and friendly. Also very difficult to leave without a car which is exorbitant to rent. It reminds me a bit of the movie The Truman Show.

The resorts and 'kingdoms' are islands of construction in an ocean of swamp and impenetrable tropical forest, home to wild storks, egrets and the like, even an alligator (!) who patrols a liminal drainage ditch, I mean pond.

Inside, welcome to stone bridges made of painted concrete blocks and housekeeping staff in alleged Mexican aprons (this resort’s theme is the Southwest) made of embroidered Mickey Mouse logos.

It’s lovely here, yet I feel stifled. Why? This is Walt’s creation: a land where his imagination became three-dimensional.

Aren’t we each of us ever living in the world built by our own imaginations?

I want to make mine truly my own, with all the mistakes and pitfalls that entails. Someone else’s idea of safe haven may charm me for a while, but after a while I feel that charm presents a greater danger than any I could face on my own.

In its utter safety, I can take no meaningful risks, without which there is no fear, but also no possibility of brilliance and beauty.

And that possibility is what feeds me. Walt rolled his dice, and he both won and lost, if you know his story. I want to roll mine too.

Big Deal

Call me Pollyanna, naive, square even, if you must.

Though I still haven't decided who will get my vote in the primaries, I am thrilled that a woman and an African-American man are running for President.

Last year I worked with a group of gifted fifth-graders, all American, all of Chinese descent. They were quite certain that none of them could run for public office when they grew up. Why not? 'You have to be a special kind of person,' one girl told me. When I prodded some, it turned out 'special' meant 'a rich man who went to an expensive school.' I told them that while it really helped to have a lot of money and connections, the fact remained that according to the law, you only need to be born here to run for president. I think they believed me, though they gave each other curious looks.

Whoever wins this year, I like the idea that children in school are getting to see an election that includes more than white men. Has this been said enough? I haven't heard it enough. Most children, even many teenagers, will not pay attention to policy issues and campaign politics, but they will see the faces on the news and in newspapers. Some school teachers will even talk about the election -- imagine that. Obama's and Clinton's presidential candidacy will be a given to these children -- perfectly normal, rather boring even.

Big deal. So what. Anyone can run for president.