Historical Moments

I would like to mention two amazing things that have happened recently. They really shouldn't be all that amazing, considering America is supposed to be a "melting pot," but in reality these were unprecedented moments that made me sniffle a little.

• Congrats to Nancy Pelosi as the first woman Speaker of the House.
• Congrats to Representative Charles B. Rangel as the first African-American chair of the Ways and Means Committee.

Don't screw this up, people. I want more moments of watching the television and weeping unabashedly at the minute progress our country has made. So please, while you're in office, please do the following:

• Pretend to like your family and refrain from inappropriate behavior/affairs. (e.g. Propositioning young pages or sleeping with interns)
  
• Don't take any bribes. (e.g. No-bid contracts to your own company)
  
• Get us out of this friggin mess. (The examples are too numerous. Just prevent the middle class from disappearing, make higher education affordable instead of a far-flung dream and prevent us from being nuked by very pissed-off allies and foes.)
  

I'm tired of scandals and I'm tired of being cynical about the political machine. I know you're all just human and prone to making mistakes, but let's see some honesty and effort, please!

In Memoriam

I avoided television all weekend because it has been oversaturated with images of the World Trade Center. I was not interested in watching the multitude of programs that tried to tug at my emotional heartstrings on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. But today I mourn.

On September 11, 2001, I was asleep at home in the midst of my own personal hell. Although the events of that day blot out most of my personal problems, I remember that I was going through a tough time in my life. I had withdrawn from college and was back at home living with my parents, adrift and unsure of what to do. Mired in depression, I would get up late every day and trudge to a local college to take classes in hopes of one day graduating.

That fateful morning I was dragged out of sleep by the sound of my cell phone ringing. It was one of my closest friends from college, demanding that I turn on the television. He said that the World Trade Center had been bombed. I am extremely sluggish in the morning and figured that a bomb was New York's problem, not mine. I probably would have rolled over and gone back to sleep if he wasn't so insistent. So I reached for my remote and turned on the television. There was the North Tower, smoking.

I stared, trying to comprehend. The newscasters didn't know anything beyond the obvious: that there had been an explosion. As my friend and I tried to speculate, a plane drove into the South Tower. I was speechless with terror, realizing suddenly that America was under attack. The newscasters shouted in alarm, as terrified as the general public. I watched for the next couple of hours as they tried to stay one step ahead of the viewers, even though it was obvious they were just as in the dark as we were.

I watched people fling themselves from top floors to evade the scorching fires. I watched the towers crumble into oblivion. I watched the dazed, dusty victims walk with slack faces towards the bridges to their boroughs. I watched the Pentagon smoke, unchecked. I watched the remnants of Flight 93 scorching a field in Pennsylvania. The world was unhinged.

As I watched all of this, I wondered: Where was our government? With all the employees working for the FBI, the CIA, the NSA and the police force, no one had known about this plot ahead of time? That was inconceivable to me. For the first time in my young, privileged life, I began to pick up the newspaper and read. I discovered that the world is full of intrigue and every event is a tool to get across some political agenda. I realized how naive I was to think that this act was out of the blue. It wasn't. It was well-planned and methodical. It was a response (albeit misguided and cruel) to our foreign policy.

But the media never took it as a lesson. Instead they broke everyone's heart by replaying the scenes of the towers falling over and over. People rushed to prove how American they were and became distrustful of their neighbors. Diversity and freedom of speech, important tenets of American life, receded into the background under the roaring patriotism. Everyone was grasping at straws, fearful of what the morrow would bring.

I understand the fear and I understand the patriotism. The world is a scary place, now more than ever. It is now five years later and it seems our enemies have increased tenfold. Even our allies are wary of our power and the way it is being utilized to bully and suppress. I worry just as much as the next person about our future as a country. And I love America. But neither fear nor love can be blind. Otherwise it is useless. We must love this country with our eyes open. We must find out who truly failed on September 11th. Those people are not only overseas, but also sitting in very cushy chairs here in America. Scapegoating is unacceptable. To honor the memory of those who have fallen, we cannot be herded towards blaming Iraq and other nebulous "enemies" for the failings of others. We must be vigilant. We must be honorable. We must be true.

Please love America with your eyes open.

In memoriam.

Two Troops Missing

An Al Queda group is claiming that they have kidnapped two American soldiers. After the attack on Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, I expected something like this. But I pray for our troops safe return anyway. And I also pray that our military behaves appropriately and does not take this out on innocent Iraqi civilians.

National Private Radio

We've all been anticipating it. The smell of it has been in the air for quite some time.

For those of you that enjoy your daily dose of NPR and PBS, be prepared. Big brother has its eye on all you quacky liberals that enjoy television without advertisments (gasp!) and radio without an agenda (horror of horrors!)

I'm making light of the situation, but I am really sad about it. The Bush administration is pushing for large-scale funding cuts for all public programming. I am talking about innocuous little shows like Sesame Street. Who did Snuffalupagus ever harm? What will I do without Globetrekker? For poor people like me, this is my only way to get out of the country.

Here in Chicago our public radio is already changing. The general manager, Torey Malatia, has cut all music programming, including some wonderful syndicated shows like Afropop Worldwide, which gives me access to fun music across the diaspora. And great local programs like Jazz with Dick Buckley. Dick Buckley is just about the coolest guy on the radio. This guy is in his eighties, but still gets up and goes to work every Sunday to regale us with tales from when jazz was in its heyday. His taste is impeccable and his soothing voice makes you want to listen to him all day. I consider him the grandfather I never had. And he's getting fired because Torey Malatia, after the most aggressive membership drive ever, decides that he's cutting all music programming. Originally he told us (loyal listeners--referred to heretofore as LL) that we would get a second station that would be all music. So all the LL hackles went down and we looked forward to switching the dials between the news station and the music station. Then comes the sudden announcement that there will be no music station after all. Sorry, LL, no music for you! LL goes into an uproar and we all send emails, leave lengthy notes on the NPR forum, etcetera. However, Torey is unfazed. Apparently the fact that this station is funded by members means nothing to him. Information about the new station seeps out and the word is that it will be another news-related station, but it will be more accessible to non-NPR listeners:

Segments will be “mixed up” so you get a sense “in a short period of time of a whole bunch of things happening.” He (Torey Malatia) says that’s the kind of pacing and variety nontraditional public radio listeners are used to, “what they hear when they go to [commercial] stations or to television or the Internet—one Web site after another, rapid movement.”

If the plan is successful, he says, 89.5 will be so distinctive from 91.5 that “people will stumble upon it and wonder what this is and who’s behind it. I don’t think they’ll have a clue that it’s a Chicago Public Radio product.”

Chicago Reader, April 14, 2006.

How nice to know that public radio is being dumbed down. If I wanted to listen to something choppy and meaningless, I'd turn on another station! At any rate, don't let this happen to your public programming. Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper! Write a letter to your congressmen and senators! And if you think I don't practice what I preach:

Today's email to the Chicago Tribune:

I am disheartened to hear of the possible funding cuts to NPR and PBS. During such contentious times, when the country is so harshly split down bipartisan lines we need public radio and television the most. Many Americans are suspicious of the coverage of mainstream media. Mainstream media utilizes corporate sponsors and big business advertisment as a means for livelihood, which makes them complicit in the political agenda. We need more outlets that we can trust, and I urge everyone to protest the budget cuts to public programming.

Voila. Let's fight this together. I need my Oscar the Grouch.

Hicks and City-slickers

I'm often interested in the difference in mentality between people that are raised in the country versus the city. I grew up in both a small town and a big city, so I got the best of both worlds. As a result, I can see where all the goofy stereotypes come from. When you're in a rural area, especially a farm, you can generally tell a "city-slicker" by the way they pick their way nervously through the dirt and grass, fearful that at any second a wild animal or some brazen insect will attack them and ruin their inappropriately stylish clothes. It's laughable. You wish they would relax and enjoy the beauty and the silence. But on the other hand, when you're in a city you can generally tell someone that is "countrified" based off the slightly outdated clothing, the unusually friendly manner and their terror of unprovoked crime. Also laughable. But such is life. We're all products of our environments and our fears and prejudices are generally a result of our upbringing.

These types of things have been on my mind as I (with my strange duality) and my city-slicker boyfriend head off to Montana for a good old-fashioned country wedding. He is not as enthralled as I am by the prospect of being in what he terms "the wilderness." Despite his lack of enthusiasm, I think we're going to have a delightful time. But it interests me that people from the city think that the country is the "middle of nowhere." Um...there are plenty of people living in rural areas and they are smart and interesting and have been just as disillusioned by life as us city folk. Therefore, their opinions are just as valid as ours.

For instance, when we think about the current predicament our fair land is in under the Bush administration, I know a lot of urban people that turn a jaundiced eye on the "red states" or any place that doesn't have 1 million+ population. But we are all in this country together. We can't assume that people that live in smaller towns or live below the Mason-Dixon line are just being duped. They must have some valid concerns that we need to understand. Perhaps we don't have the same exact values, but it is up to us to communicate with each other and to find a middle ground. I, for one, am tired of having such a polarized country. None of us are accomplishing anything because everyone is just getting into a rut of arguing.

And the dynamics are constantly changing. For everyone who is afraid of change, strap on your seat belt. Take a look at this nifty little interactive toy on the BBC that shows the shifting urban/rural population. It's just going to get more interesting, people.

Beginnings

Greetings, disaffected citizens of planet Earth!

I am one of you. The purpose of this blog is to sound off about injustice around the world while bringing a positive message. Sometimes I feel so overwhelmed by the constant input I'm receiving (television, newspapers, magazines, blogs, etc.) that I begin to feel hopeless and downtrodden. But perhaps that is how we are supposed to feel. If we are hopeless, we become apathetic. If we become apathetic, we become stagnant. And if we become stagnant, the BS marches on unimpeded. So here I am, one voice, hoping to galvanize the troops. Even if I do nothing more than inform a few, that will be something. Or perhaps everyone that reads this is already well-informed and it will start a dialogue. If nothing else it will make you think and realize that there are other people out there like you that care about the fate of this world.