+YES+
+The closing of Guantanamo Bay by President Barack Obama. You can't lead the free world by undercutting the very laws, philosophies, treaties and ideals which make you free.
+Dick Cheney showing up in a Spy vs. Spy hat and in a wheelchair for the inauguration. Where was Peter Sellers when we needed him?!?!? "Dr. Strangelove, or: "How I learned to stop worrying and love torture"
+I spent Wednesday helping friends at Wednesday Wines get a group up on Facebook. Very cool way to spend part of an afternoon.
-NO-
-Rush Limbaugh, "I hope Obama fails. Somebody's gotta say it." No. You don't. Amazing that anything but unquestioning support for conservatives is unpatriotic, but somehow this is not. I remember being told by Eliot Abrams in the Reagan administration that we were not patriotic for the failure to support arms to the Contras. True patriotism is fighting for a better country, and clearly Limbaugh would hate to see that.
-Again, the economy may not support environmental policy change because they are "expensive." In the same week that they suggest trees in the Northwest are dying at twice their usual rate; at what point is it just too expensive not to make changes? Is this still really about economics?
-Bush suggesting that while we might not agree with the decisions he made, we would at least agree that he made the tough decisions. I also agree that gravity exists, and seem to have had about the same amount of input on that.
?What?
?Collagen in my Black Forest Ham. My ham says "wrapped in edible black collagen." the mind reels--where does black collagen come from, and are there other colors? Why does it have collagen and yet the outside of it is still wrinkled? If we are 25% collagen, and it is our connective tissue, will I take longer to decompose? Who thought of wrapping my ham in edible black collagen in the first place? Not happy about my edible black collagen...
?The complete frustration in watching Portland Mayor Sam Adams spiral into oblivion with the intern scandal. It is frustrating to watch the bedroom politics, but equally frustrating to know that his own staff was trying to warn him about the appearance of what he was doing. How does such an astute politician get into this mess?
?Sarah Palin sparring with the press for going after her kids, and then for Couric and Tina Fey "exploiting" her. If I care less, would you please go away.
?Palin redux...A book deal? Well, that's just great...
22 January 2009
15 January 2009
America's Sense of Self
While many would like to attribute Bush's perspective on being right on all things to him only, this tendency is one that we should examine in America in general. As we end the Bush administration and enter in to the Obama administration, it is interesting to listen to the way in which the outgoing president portrays his decisions. Hearing Bush deny that the U.S. has an image problem or is seen in negative ways, that he has worked with strong allies beside the U.S., and that we have helped lead the world as a beacon of liberty, is truly an amazing thing. What is interesting to me about it, however, is how much of a sense of self we have as a nation, and how hard it seems to view things from the point of view of the other.
There are several reasons, I believe, for this orientation. Among them is the idea of rugged individualism that seems to have caught on as a founding principle of our nation. While this may be true, when one reads documents by those founding members of our country, they are also living, wrestling with, and most importantly, dedicated to the notion of what we do for one another. The idea of service and duty are laid out frequently as part and parcel of citizenship, whereas it is now the case (as the Bush administration once suggested) that we best demonstrate our citizenship by buying and consuming goods to fight terrorism. Perversely, we consciously are encouraged to work and spend as individuals, while the notion of community has taken a holiday.
When I travel abroad, I see another aspect of how we see ourselves as central to the world, through the media. It is fascinating to my students to travel in Latin America, for example, and notice that the news is not Gringo-centric, i.e. stories that involve two actors may actually be written which do not include the U.S.A. as one of them. It is natural for citizens in most societies to have an element of ethnocentrism, it is why virtually all cultures have a creation stories of which they are the focus. However, I would argue that with few possible exceptions, no country has become so practiced at its self importance as we have. This is exemplified in our outgoing president, who literally cannot conceive of the idea of acting in concert with others, at least not in the sense of actually taking their views into active consideration.
As I listen to Bush defend his eight years in office, I must admit that while I am angry about the loss of life (which he still believes was justified in our ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan) I am also deeply saddened. It is tragic to me that we had a president who consciously or unconsciously, believed that being a leader was merely "making tough decisions." Even as he justifies policies, decisions, and entire wars, the framework is one which centers around himself, his life, his views, and his personal narrative. He is literally incapable of even understanding that there ARE alternative narratives, much less that he could be wrong.
And so we need to accept to, that he is not so different from many of us in this country. We are a people who need to get out more, listen more, acknowledge other viewpoints as legitimate far more often, and accept that others can come up with good ideas that don't have to be ours, necessarily. We have become a divided nation, not necessarily through arrogance, but certainly through a lack of practice at being humble.
There are several reasons, I believe, for this orientation. Among them is the idea of rugged individualism that seems to have caught on as a founding principle of our nation. While this may be true, when one reads documents by those founding members of our country, they are also living, wrestling with, and most importantly, dedicated to the notion of what we do for one another. The idea of service and duty are laid out frequently as part and parcel of citizenship, whereas it is now the case (as the Bush administration once suggested) that we best demonstrate our citizenship by buying and consuming goods to fight terrorism. Perversely, we consciously are encouraged to work and spend as individuals, while the notion of community has taken a holiday.
When I travel abroad, I see another aspect of how we see ourselves as central to the world, through the media. It is fascinating to my students to travel in Latin America, for example, and notice that the news is not Gringo-centric, i.e. stories that involve two actors may actually be written which do not include the U.S.A. as one of them. It is natural for citizens in most societies to have an element of ethnocentrism, it is why virtually all cultures have a creation stories of which they are the focus. However, I would argue that with few possible exceptions, no country has become so practiced at its self importance as we have. This is exemplified in our outgoing president, who literally cannot conceive of the idea of acting in concert with others, at least not in the sense of actually taking their views into active consideration.
As I listen to Bush defend his eight years in office, I must admit that while I am angry about the loss of life (which he still believes was justified in our ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan) I am also deeply saddened. It is tragic to me that we had a president who consciously or unconsciously, believed that being a leader was merely "making tough decisions." Even as he justifies policies, decisions, and entire wars, the framework is one which centers around himself, his life, his views, and his personal narrative. He is literally incapable of even understanding that there ARE alternative narratives, much less that he could be wrong.
And so we need to accept to, that he is not so different from many of us in this country. We are a people who need to get out more, listen more, acknowledge other viewpoints as legitimate far more often, and accept that others can come up with good ideas that don't have to be ours, necessarily. We have become a divided nation, not necessarily through arrogance, but certainly through a lack of practice at being humble.
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