Black History Month

Black History Month 2010

From one racist to another, welcome to Black History Month.  Not a racist, you say?  Baloney, I say.  Our first ever black president notwithstanding, we’re all racists, and to deny it would be an insult to the icons of equality, Dr. King, Nelson Mandela, Rosa Parks, Malcolm X, Barbara Jordan, the list goes on and on of people who devoted their lives to, if not ending racism, at least making us aware of its insidious presence in our lives. 
    And the ‘R‘ word infects all of us, make no mistake.  My wife and I lived in Hawaii for a number of years, and as ‘haoles’, we had the privilege to sense and experience racism, albeit a nominal strain hardly worth mentioning.  I say privileged, because the subtle rejections gave us a minor taste of what a lot of ‘different‘ people simply incorporate into their daily lives: We were ignored at lunch counters and retail checkouts; local people often snapped at us over the smallest matter; we were steered in quietly nuanced ways on a choice of where and where not to find housing; and yes, I did once get pulled over by a Hawaiian policeman for no apparent reason.  Quote: “You know what you did was illegal sir.”  It was a statement, not a question.  ‘Driving while haole’, I guess.  The fellow wouldn’t tell me why he’d stopped me, and let me go with a ‘warning’.
    And racism is itself color blind, and pervasive.  The Reverend Jesse Jackson was walking home one night in Chicago, when he heard footsteps fall in behind him.  Alone, several blocks from home, he walked on, his heart racing, beginning to sweat, as the person gained on him.  He finally gathered the courage to turn and face his stalker, and the result was chilling.  Reverend Jackson said later, “Imagine my humiliation when I saw it was a white man, and I was relieved!”  Quite a statement about our culture’s collective assumptions that are hopefully fading away.   
        Here’s a list of questions: Have you ever needed a blood transfusion, or donated blood or plasma for a relative?  Every college student has given plasma for book or beer money, of course, so the answer is yes.  Have you ever stopped at a traffic signal?  Flipped on an incandescent light?  Seen an energetic person traipsing door to door selling beauty products?  Ever crunched into a crispy potato chip?  Opened a refrigerator?  Heard the furnace click on in the dead of a winter night?  Have you ever taken any of those inventions and devices for granted?  We all do, and that’s too bad, because they all have something in common.  All were invented, or perfected by African Americans.  Each in their own way enriched the American experience, while chipping away at the racism that kept them second class citizens for much of their lives. 
    Perhaps what we need, in addition to a black history month, is a ‘different‘ history month.  Our approach to eradicating racism in America hasn’t worked, and that’s because we’re intent on creating the ‘race blind‘ society that we all secretly know will never be.  Perhaps a different history month might help, by forcing us to look at the diversity in front of us, learning to celebrate it, and bringing us the understanding that those differences are what make Americans unique in all of history.
    Black history month is an opportunity to begin celebrating that singularity.  

A whole new world

The Planets

Nothing to report today, or to blog about, just a very cool picture, and the idea of a whole new world when we launch ourselves into the unknown.  We never know just what realms we'll explore when we decide to throw caution to the wind, and step off our cozy little place.  Remember, life begins where you're CZ ends.

Lantern Column 1/25

Marriage Equality Column

Ohio State University Lantern

1-25-10

As this is written, the California Supreme Court is once again hearing both sides of the contentious and controversial issue of so-called same-sex marriage.  Regardless of which way the court rules in California, this issue is not going away, and should not, as marriage equality is the civil rights issue of our time.  Better than most issues, civil marriage equality contains the definitions and determinants of who we are as Americans.
    So who are we?  We Americans are not the hyperbolic Tea-Party set, those foaming at the mouth downshouters screaming about whatever right-wing, anti-government diatribe will fit on a bumper sticker.  Nor are we the radical left, just short of Marxist types, who would prefer a proliferation of communes (with hot tubs), a Prius in every driveway, and a Whole Foods on every block.  We’re by and large a center-right country, a nation of hard-working, law-abiding, tax-paying citizens who, rightly, tend to sniff out obvious unfairnesses, and decide, on our own, that they’re, well, unfair.  Which is why, once the dust settles, civil marriage equality will be a given, a normal, fair, conservative feature of society.
    Why conservative?  It would seem that allowing gays & lesbians to marry each other would be a radical, socially polarizing, ‘Big-L’ Liberal, slippery-slope issue right up there with Medicare, or national hug-a-tree day.  But let’s dissect this carefully.  What do conservatives claim?  Their values rest on personal responsibility, self-sufficiency, social order, stability, the rule of law, fiscal responsibility and an adherence to cherished traditions.  Few would argue that marriage is the most conservative institution ever, a status that enshrines all the above stated values and more.  Marriage demands responsibility, stability, order, and a level of fidelity to another, both sexual and otherwise.  Marriage brands us as adults.  Marriage is indeed the cornerstone of community.
    So here we have a group of people, our LGBT brethren, who are desperate to commit to another, to proclaim their fidelity, to establish a stable, solid, safe environment with them.  They want to create a home together, work, pay taxes, be good consumers, create a safe, nurturing place for their kids, educate them, and teach them to be solid citizens.  They want to help make stronger, more vibrant communities.  They want to do all the things the rest of us take for granted every day.  In short, they want to marry.  Instead of denying them this right, it is in societies interest to encourage them in this endeavor.  Indeed, for those who wish to partake of societies available rights, protections and privileges as a couple, and there are many of them, we ought to insist on marriage as the mechanism.  Should LGBT people, or anyone else, be required to marry to obtain equality?  Of course not.  But equal access to marriage must be an option for those who desire it.
    Viewed objectively, without all the hype and stridency from either right or left, civil marriage equality is a very conservative issue.  It will happen, is happening, wherever reasonable people are able to see the issue for what it is, and to welcome it as a new way to demonstrate the depth and durability of the conservative values we all share as Americans.     

Gramps

Gramps & Henry

Zilker Park Austin--January 21 2010

Okay, maybe this post doesn't seem to fit on the campus blog.  But it is the reason I've not posted in some time.  I've been away, in Texas, making Henry's acquaintance.  That's Henry you see above, my first grandchild, age two days, on his first outing with mom & gramps.  The kid is great, I tell ya'.  I think he likes me already, at least from what I can tell.  For instance, he hasn't bit me yet, or done any of those nasty things kids love to do to old people.  Actually, we have a lot in common: we sleep a lot, we tend to grouse at the slightest provocation, we prefer soft food, rely on other people to check for wardrobe malfunctions and pee about every five minutes.  One big difference, the kid has more hair than me.  The educational part of all this is simple to see.  Henry will teach something to everyone he contacts, and I'm prepared to take a lesson or two from him in whatever topic comes along.  Like I said, the world really is just one big campus; if we view it that way, there's lots to learn, and many graduations to attend.

Fear

Fear 

...is the primary emotion. Without fear, none of us would be here.  We would never have survived the depredations of the wild, hostile world into which we were cast to make our way eons ago.  And this vestigial fear remains to help us navigate the somewhat less hostile environment we find ourselves in today.  But fear also holds us back from becoming what we know we are capable of becoming.  Someone once said that we are not afraid of the dark; we are instead afraid of the light that is within us, the powerful, 'fearful' ability we know we have within ourselves that, once unleashed, will change the world.  This fear is well founded;  those who have changed the world--Ghandi, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, Norman Borlaug, Margaret Sanger, Barbara Jordan, and many others were ordinary, seemingly unexceptional people.  But they realized early on that the light they held within, restrained or damped, would leave their lives bereft of meaning.  Their only fear was in trying to contain their power.  We can all be thankful that they were unable to do so.

Fear is the one thing that unites us as humans; fear is also that which must be overcome if we are to be fully human.   

Opportunities

West Face Thompson Library

Isn't it amazing the opportunities that drift into our paths when we wade into the river and take chances?  As we ford the rushing stream, dodging various drifting artifacts as we cross, the chances for discovery and revelation come at us too thick to avoid.  And none of those chances would have come our way had we stayed on the safe, dry, comfortable bank of the stream. 

Just so, since returning to the campus, I've had numerous opportunities to see my life turn in directions I never imagined.  Lately, I've been offered a chance to write a column for the campus newspaper--The Lantern.  Which means I'll be spending a lot of time in the library doing research, compiling information, educating myself.  And that is the ideal way to obtain an education, after all--acquire it ourselves, by taking advantage of opportunities that fall in our laps.   When people tell me they wish they had better luck, I have to wonder if what they really mean is better vision, or perhaps less fear of the 'luck' in front of them.  It is, as always, a choice: we either stay on the bank and stay dry, or we wade into life, get soaked a time or two--or three--and, in the process, find out what's on the other shore.

60's + 50 + 50

The OSU student newspaper, The Lantern's 2010 $1,000 for 1,000 words essay prize winner has been announced, and the piece was written by yours truly.  Especially if you're of a certain age, this article will please you.  Enjoy.

“Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose”

The 60’s + 50

Ah, the turbulent sixties.  The epigram above says it all, and at the same time says absolutely nothing about one of the most memorable, yet most quickly forgotten decades in U.S. history.  Not a week went by that some segment of society wasn’t rocked to its core by upheaval.  The military; government policy; social groups; arts & entertainment; the university itself.  No segment of society was immune from disruption, dissolution and dissection.  It was the best and most generous of times; it was the worst of navel gazing, introspection, and self-absorption times.  Americans slogged through the mud in the hostile terrain of South Asia; Americans stepped onto the hostile terrain of the moon.  In between, democracy shuddered forward, with voting rights, women’s rights and human rights initiatives, while blacks were still assessed a poll tax, women could still be legally raped by their husbands, and gays and lesbians were still beaten and killed with impunity.  Looking forward, we hoped for a saner society to emerge, with lasting peace following war, government beneficence, social harmony, a renaissance in the arts, and a return to academic excellence as a model for all.  We even had a name for this looming utopian vision: we called it the coming age of Aquarius, the perfection of society.      

    1969: The military--Vietnam and its attendant disruptions on the home front.  Crossing the oval wearing a ROTC uniform was nearly as fraught with danger as slogging through rice paddies south of Saigon.  Our mantra of free expression and open dialogue sounded majestic and heartfelt on our lips, but it did not extend to those who chose a more traditional path.      
    Foreign policy--Rumors of CIA meddling in various foreign governments proved true time and again.  It was a decade of intrigue, offshore threats real and perceived, and an attendant mistrust at the highest levels of our own government.
    Social change--In the sixties, women were in the crosshairs, as they demanded basic rights.  What women wanted even Freud could have known: the simple right to be taken seriously as full human beings, and full citizens.
    Music & the Arts--The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and Bob Dylan were all the proof adults needed that the world they knew was going straight to hell in a shopping cart.  And they were the people who brought us the likes of Elvis Presley, a fellow who was shown on early sixties (Black & White) TV only from the waist up, to limit the immoral impact of his lewd, hip-swinging pelvic thrusting.  Those adults were right; all the upheaval--free love, peace symbols, marijuana, and TV shows such as ‘Laugh-In’ did seem to usher in Vietnam, Watergate, race riots and assassinations.
    The University--students rioted on campus, taking over the admin building, demanding concessions in the way Ohio State interacted with various corporations and the military.  Tendrils of tear gas wafted across the oval, and a police presence there made academic life seem like something out of Kafka, or Kandahar.

2009: Flash forward.  The military.  We’re now engaged in not one but two foreign entanglements, neither of which we perhaps ought to be involved in.  Aquarius gives way to Scorpio, the limitations of individual ego.
    Foreign policy--The CIA still seems to be dropping the ball here and there, otherwise we would not perhaps feel a need to be entangled in Iraq or Afghanistan either one.
    Social change--Now it’s gays in the crosshairs demanding equal rights.  And once again Dr. Freud would have been able to state with clarity what they want: The basic right to be taken seriously as human beings, and full citizens.  Except with LGBT people, there’s a difference.  They’re demanding the right to marry the person they love.  Outrageous!     
    Music and the Arts--Okay, no one could have predicted Britney Spears, still...  In the intervening years we’ve seen a healthy trend to decentralize once monolithic arts industries such as music, where so-called ‘house concerts’ are emerging as viable alternatives to large venue presentations.  YouTube streams seven billion (yes, billion) videos per month, so now, regardless of quality considerations, we’re our own producers.  Thanks to FaceBook, MySpace and Twitter, if a friend is about to eat a tuna sandwich with tomatoes in Tulsa, we know in a timely fashion.  What a relief, I know!
       The University--Going to semester hours after all the years of quaint, homely adherence to ten-week terms.  The upheaval may or may not affect you--stay tuned.  The good news?  No riots; no tear gas; no threatening fellow students for wearing ROTC uniforms, so call this progress.  Unless the war(s) drone on and on, then who knows?  Tough economic times always present us an opportunity to make a choice, either come together, or divide along certain social and/or other lines.  We’re all in this leaky little boat together, unless some group stirs our fears, and punches our uncertainty buttons for personal advantage and profit, then we can capsize readily.  Sarah Palin, are you listening?

2060: Flash way forward.  Afghanistan is finally subdued--by China.  In an economic move, the CIA is now The Google Inc. Search Corporation, which makes perfect sense, and saves the Guv’mint a bundle.  LGBT people are celebrating wedding anniversaries, some as many 50 years, just like everyone else.  Jumping into Mirror Lake in November is yet more treacherous, because of the histoplasmosis.  At the Al Gore Memorial Golf Tournament, in balmy Minot North Dakota on February 14th, Tiger Woods III prevails.   Mr. Gore’s old bumper sticker, ‘There is no Planet ‘B’, finally starts to make sense.

Plus ca’ change...  We have learned this: We’re not as fragile as we once believed.  If,100 years ago, we weathered Vietnam, The Beatles, Women’s Rights, Racial upheaval, Britney Spears, 9/11, Sarah Palin, the ’06 financial meltdown, and George W. Bush, we can handle anything.  Even the 60’s plus 50 + 50 more.   

   

 

Happy New Year

January 2010.  A new school year, new start, and  another chance to make whatever dream you have come true, even if, like mine, your dream happens to be as simple as high grades.  Here's what I'd love to see happen in twenty-ten:  

                    Not only health care insurance coverage for all, but a new understanding of what leads to good health, so we don't need the coverage so much.

                    A world that values peace over confrontation.  A long shot?  I said I'm a dreamer, remember.  Unless we dream it, it won't happen.

                    A new commitment to addressing climate change, so our great grandkids don't need to sacrifice their own dreams because we failed to act.

                    Human rights for all, including those who wish to marry the person they love, regardless of gender.     

    

By the way, here's what I mean when I say I'm a dreamer.  Looking at 2010 yesterday, it ocurred to me that those aren't just numbers.  20-10 also represents the mark of better than average vision.  If you have twenty-ten vision, you see at 20 feet what a normal person sees at 10 feet!  So, let's make this a year to look beyond the normal, and envision wonderful, exciting, or at least better than average dreams and desires for everyone.  Plus straight 'A's, of course.

One last thing I wish for 2010.  That my brand new grandson is healthy, happy, bubbly, and filled with wonderful promise, as I know he will be.  Welcome, little one.  May all your dreams come true as well!