(photo courtesy of flickr user northofsweden)
We find ourselves binded by unbounded grief
reaching, searching around
in the darkness when a beautiful light
is extinguished.
A solemn commitment to his memory:
in love,
in honor,
and in remembrance.
I regularly post to a board called Poetry Circle in order to get some constructive criticism on my poetry. I am intrigued because the poem which has garnered the most attention there is one which I wrote more than ten years ago. It’s called Butterscotch:
Teacher, what color is I?
he asked at the runtly age of 6
You are black son, you’re black
That day he looked in the mirror
the dark brown complexion
somewhat different from his Mama.
Mama, is I diff’rent?
Yes baby, why you ask such a question?
You are diff’rent in the good ways,
the good ways, baby
They both stared into the mirror
Mama?
What color is I?
Oh baby! You are chocolate!
Mama?
What color is you?
Uhm…uhm…
Baby, I…I…am
butterscotch!
I can’t understand a word of the Breton language but this is nonetheless spine-tingling music.
Oh that rooster. This clip from Family Guy makes me laugh every single time I watch it.
Good night, everybody.
For my burgeoning Buddhist faith this quote was comforting.
In reading through Andrew Sullivan’s blog Daily Dish (which is a daily practice) I found an interesting take on the consequences of power which I will be using for a discussion post in my current course, America and the World, where we are discussing the use of power politics and morality with respect to American foreign policy. The take being that ignorance is a luxury of power. The extent to which Americans are able to be so uneducated about international affairs and the events that occur outside our borders is a function of the projection of American power itself. Hmmm, hadn’t thought of that.
As my friends know well, as far as I am concerned Election Day is a holiday! I typically take Election Day off work for the following countries (the US-of course, the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand-besides the US, parliamentary democracies within the Anglosphere). Unfortunately, the constraints of time and money do not allow me to take off work but it will come as no surprise that I am gobbling up every little scintilla of news. It is a short and fast-paced election that is currently underway in the UK and set to culminate, in the next few hours, with one of the most unpredictable and exciting results in a generation.
Honestly, I am rooting for a coalition between Labour and the Liberal Democrats or a Lab-Lib coalition as it has been called colloquially across the pond…even though one of the conditions from the Liberals might be the retirement of Gordon Brown as PM. I am sure that the Conservative Party in the UK is far more moderate creature than the Republicans here in the US but it is Nick Clegg’s performance in the debates and his party’s optimistic stance towards European integration and electoral reform that are extremely attractive. And ever since Mr. Brown’s proposal for an International Financing Facility to help fight global poverty generally and meet the Millennium Development Goals specifically I’ve counted myself as a fan because he seems to grasp well the fact that the requirements of the post-Cold War era demand of leaders a willingness to think anew about problem-solving for a truly global age.
It would be a safe bet that tomorrow you could find me at my computer with the BBC streaming live results. From what I have heard the “speech of the election” was offered up by the PM himself at a Citizens UK event on 3 May. I am waiting to watch this speech until after the results are known as to decide whether this was Brown’s swan-song or a testimony to why Brown and Labour endured and survived this trying time.
You and Nukes
I was running through some beautiful information graphics over at the site informationisbeautiful and found one concerning national nuclear arsenals and the potential threat that they pose to human civilization.
It seemed appropriate to highlight that threat in light of the current UN Conference to Review the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) where the media have focused on the “words” being had between Iran and the US. But there are nine nations currently recognized to be members of the ‘nuclear club’
It seems that as much attention should be given to the post-Soviet nations of the Commonwealth of Independent States as much as it is given to Iran. The danger of unsecured nuclear materials seems as much of a threat as a potentially belligerent, nuclear-armed nation (read Pakistan and India re: Kashmir in 2004).
And I have one problem with this information graphic. Apparently it only considers the vague term ‘complete devastation’ regarding the nukes. But what about secondary effects like fallout which would render large swathes of targeted areas uninhabitable for significant time periods due to irradiation? Would this not pose just as important an impact on human civilization as the initial blast radius?
Yeah, yeah, I know this once and for all singles me out for the sci-fi and (soundtrack music) nerd I am…but I’ve listened to this video on YouTube and it makes me wish that Battlestar Galactica was still on TV. Man, I miss that show!
And she too was moved...
Marina Abramovic’s performance/still art is quite a moving lesson in being aware of an important paradox in the continual unfurling of the human condition: our ever deepening sense of interconnectivity and interdependence and of realizing that even as our connections deepen and our celebration of our common destiny heightens…we are still encased in an ultimately impenetrable personal experience, existentially.
And while I had the privilege to be moved to tears in private (in front of my computer screen) those that have sat across from her as a part of the exhibit at the MOMA are a remarkable testimony to the power of “The Artist is Present”.
Note: At the end of my most recent MA class in Economic Analysis we were asked to consider what we believed is the most important issue facing the nation from a public policy perspective. I chose education and used personal experience to illustrate my reasons for this choice.
It is commonly said that how we treat our children indicates the future of our society and if this is true we are failing the next generations with our current education priorities. We are failing not only to prepare the next generation to be competitive in a global market where the number of college graduates in a number of important academic fields, particularly mathematics and science, outpaces American graduates but we are also not educating our children by good policymaking now on issues such as healthcare, the environment and the use of soft power as opposed to hard power in international relations which involve not only the American community but, in most occasions, the entire global commons. In short, our education system is based on an agrarian model that is long gone preparing our students for conditions that have vanished long ago.
And the issue of education does not simply apply to our children. There are millions of adults who used to have secure employment in what was once a major job sector of the American economy: manufacturing. My parents were two of those people. They made high wages for a hard day’s work in a plastic’s factory and a printer cartridge factory respectively for a combined total of 70 years. And on these wages they gave me and my siblings an early life for which we are thankful for to this day. But in the mid-90′s, my mother was laid-off and the factory moved first to Tennessee and then to Mexico. At her next job her wages were cut in half. And soon my father was offered early retirement as his company changed hands and was bought out by a Japanese conglomerate. They faced the difficult task of retraining after three decades in one job sector for new jobs that didn’t even exist when they started their manufacturing careers. My mother, in particular, became one of millions of people that directly experienced the disruptive wave of economic change that globalization wreaked…for while it was creating new industries it was also decimating others.
Our nation faces the dual challenges of educating its children to thrive in a far larger and more complex pool of competitors while also re-training the “unemployed refugees” of industries that are gone and are unlikely to return. While we are talking about “no child left behind”…China, India, Brazil and other rising middle power nations are “leaving this entire nation behind”. The solution is the revitalization of math and science programs in our public schools in addition to the continuing attraction of world-class academic innovators to our universities in order to train the next generation of paradigm-shifters. We need to imbue in our young less idolizing of singers, basketball players and other entertainers and more celebration of those that pursue the wonders of knowledge such as scientists, philosophers and theoreticians. And we need to remind the leaders in the grassroots of our communities (i.e. parents and mentors) that the dinner table and living room are the first classrooms in our nation where such admiration and respect for knowledge is instilled by the people that most young trust the most thereby making the process of learning a parallel journey. It is not enough to just increase education budgets at the Department of Education and among the states…which may not be possible in the wake of our national financial difficulties…but we must also foster a culture of learning from the time that our minds start to form so that half the work of educating us all is already done.
Without an educated populace, how do we have a citizenry that elects enlightened and educated representatives? Without enlightened representatives, how do we get the good policymaking that will address the issues of inadequate healthcare, national security threats, the maintenance of our environmental commonwealth and the establishment of a financial system that ensures that our prosperity endures? And without adequately addressing all of these issues, how do we have a nation that endures in some of the most complex and uncertain times that our species has ever faced?
Only 15 months and I am back. Over the course of the year off…I have finished working at Working America, returned to Graduate School (this time in Public Policy) at New England College, gained hundreds of off-line and um…facebook friends, protested Neo-Nazi’s in New Philly, traveled to North Dakota and back, NYC and back, Chicago and back, North Carolina and back…much travelling…found love with my special partner, James and now am about to continue work in the union movement at the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) in Boston.
Of course, I am skipping the thousand tiny discoveries and follies that make up our lives on a minute level. Hope you will stick around for the next round.
This is the first blog post I have seen on the coolness of the Obama campaign’s design portfolio. The stylized ‘O’, etc. all have successfully created a holistic ambience of the campaign’s message. It is an important observation of something that some people may consider superficial.
Via Daily Dish, an interesting story on the issue of race and the Kentucky primary results. As a native Kentuckian I found it very fascinating and wonder why American news outlets are not covering it as in-depth.
The decision of the California Supreme Court today overturning the state’s ban on gay marriage. California is now one of the few states in the union in which my relationship may be legally recognized. I almost cried while reading it.
In the present case, it is readily apparent that extending the designation of marriage to same-sex couples clearly is more consistent with the probable legislative intent than withholding that designation from both opposite-sex couples and same-sex couples in favor of some other, uniform designation. In view of the lengthy history of the use of the term “marriage” to describe the family relationship here at issue, and the importance that both the supporters of the 1977 amendment to the marriage statutes and the electors who voted in favor of Proposition 22 unquestionably attached to the designation of marriage, there can be no doubt that extending the designation of marriage to same-sex couples, rather than denying it to all couples, is the equal protection remedy that is most consistent with our state’s general legislative policy and preference.
Accordingly, in light of the conclusions we reach concerning the constitutional questions brought to us for resolution, we determine that the language of section 300 limiting the designation of marriage to a union “between a man and a woman” is unconstitutional and must be stricken from the statute, and that the remaining statutory language must be understood as making the designation of marriage available both to opposite-sex and same-sex couples. In addition, because the limitation of marriage to opposite-sex couples imposed by section 308.5 can have no constitutionally permissible effect in light of the constitutional conclusions set forth in this opinion, that provision cannot stand.
Plaintiffs are entitled to the issuance of a writ of mandate directing the appropriate state officials to take all actions necessary to effectuate our ruling in this case so as to ensure that county clerks and other local officials throughout the state, in performing their duty to enforce the marriage statutes in their jurisdictions, apply those provisions in a manner consistent with the decision of this court. Further, as the prevailing parties, plaintiffs are entitled to their costs.
The judgment of the Court of Appeal is reversed, and the matter is remanded to that court for further action consistent with this opinion.
GEORGE, C. J.
WE CONCUR:
KENNARD, J.
WERDEGAR, J.
MORENO, J.
I am now in Canton for the next few months. It has been a quick and disorienting move. Northeastern Ohio is a place with distinct characteristics. Also, saw a great documentary on climate change called “The 11th Hour” and it is better than “An Inconvenient Truth”.
I was watching “Meet Joe Black” and right at the beginning there is an interesting quote from one of the main characters, Bill Parrish (Andrew Hopkins) as he is speaking to his daughter concerning her most recent partner that has become stuck in my mind.
“I want you to get swept away…I want you to levitate, sing with laughter and dance like a dervish. Be deliriously happy…I know it is a cornball thing but love is passion…obsession…something you can’t live without. I say fall head over heels and find someone you can love like crazy and that will love you the same way back.”
Hmmm. What he describes is something I think many dream of and few achieve but none can live without.
For some time I have believed that the next space race will not be between an old superpower (America) and a young superpower (China) but between two young superpowers (India and China). It has been developing for some time now. Within the past year China became only the third country in history to launch people into space and India just became the first nation to launch ’10 satellites in one go’ and currently has one of the most sophisticated satellite systems in the world. As America ponders the role of manned expeditions and robotics in their program and whether to adequately fund NASA both India and China now have their eyes set on the Moon and seem to have no dearth of imagination and ingenuity to push their burgeoning national strength into programs that feed into a sense of national pride.
