Poison Gas in Syria

Still contemplating the situation in Syria relating to the use of poison gas.  And what do I know about it?  I read reports—are the reports accurate?
 

I know poison gas is a nasty thing.  I know world organizations have outlawed poison gas as a weapon.  But they’ve outlawed a lot of things. How can this ban be enforced?  Maybe it can’t be enforced.

I have written my congress people, opposing direct U.S. military action in Syria “at this time.”  I suppose I should have called....(or should I??).  “Direct.”  “At this time.”  But maybe later (or sooner?), with the proper wisdom.

It's curious. When the U.S. invaded Iraq, I felt like I was one of the few people in the country who was neutral. But I couldn't commit either way. Instead I was, perhaps, simply numb -- stunned?

As a long-time member of Amnesty International, I knew what a heartless dictator Saddam Hussein was. But I also was pretty sure that George "W." was acting from extremely questionable motives.

So I stood and watched as American tanks moved into Iraq, then I sent a card to the Muslim Students Association on my campus.  They in turn invited me to their meetings.  I attended a few and met a few of their members.

Now, years later, I’m left with much to ponder.  Assad is pretty heartless…

It’s easy to condemn and punish someone when you’re enemies anyway.  

And speaking of Syria, poison gas, and the world in general...

I’ve been watching videos of one of the great tangos of all time -- "Cambalache" ("The Junk Shop")—its theme is the insanity of the 20th Century (and it was written in 1934, before the depth of the insanity and inhumanity had even become apparent.  Several videos are compilations of photos chronicling the best and worst (mostly the worst) people and events of the last hundred or so years.  There are different videos, with different compilations.  What would you chose?  We see pictures of starving children and parents, the World Trade Center towers bursting into flame.   Pictures of Hitler and Bin Laden.  George W. Bush.  Albert Einstein, Mother Teresa.  A few pictures from the Vietnam War.

The concept of “The Junk Shop” is that everything is tossed in together, and priced the same:  the “ass” and the “great professor”—they’re all treated as of equal value.

I don’t recall any photographs relating to the Cambodian genocide, the “Dirty War” in Argentina, the Japanese (or Indonesian) tsunamis, the Bhopal disaster, Chernobyl…  I suppose the choices would be personal.  There were photographs or paintings of various leaders (I think one sequence was supposed to show a series of Latin American leaders—with particular “remarks” about Pinochet.  No pictures of Franco, though).

Curiously, the more I read about foreign governments, the more I appreciate the United States form of government.  Nevertheless, I grow more aware of its flaws.  Nothing is perfect.

So the world must say something about Syria.  But what to say?  What can we agree on?  That poison gas is nasty and has been outlawed and shouldn’t be used.  But can we stop it?

U. S. Labor Day

I’ve been a member of a union for the past twelve years, and I like it.  Why?  Because I feel I have some support in counterbalance to the influence my workplace has over my life.

 

Up until 2001, I had never belonged to a union.  My uncle, the mine-worker, had.  And I remember hearing my relatives complain that the union was “always going out on strike.”  Maybe they had reason to.  My uncle worked in a very dangerous profession and he and his colleagues deserved respect and the safest possible working conditions.  There are many dangers in coal mining:  Black lung, mine collapse, etc.

I lead a slacker’s life in comparison.  I work in I.T.—“Information Technology”—in an office, sitting around roughly eight hours a day on a standard daytime shift.  What can I complain about?

Still, anyone who can be “hired and fired” can be treated like dirt.  I remember my earlier job at a large semiconductor company in Silicon Valley.  The company asked for volunteers to get together and discuss ways to improve worker morale.  I made a few suggestions and mentioned the possibility of the group serving as workers’ “advocates.”  I was told that this sounded a little too much like a union.  I’d grown up with a positive opinion of unions, so I asked “what was wrong with that?”  I didn’t get an answer, just polite (or maybe uncomfortable?) smiles.

I don’t remember much happening with our suggestions.  Of course, I had also thrown in a few remarks about how maybe managers shouldn’t behave in quite such a “macho” fashion in their Monday morning discussions of the weekend football games—since some people weren’t interested in football or in encouraging “macho” behavior.  More polite smiles.

Previously, at a large telecommunications company, I had sometimes worked sixty-hour weeks—but gotten paid double-time for it.  But I never got asked my opinion about it.

Now—in the union—we can make our opinions known.  We work according to a contract that has been negotiated and agreed to by both the union and by the administration.  If the administration doesn’t live up to the agreement, we can take it to the Public Employment Relations Board.  Workers are not at the complete mercy of the administration.

And I like that.

Happy Labor Day!

Latin America, the United States—and Syria

For various reasons, I have become interested in Latin American history.

First, I’m interested in history generally.  In college, in addition to standard history requirements, I also studied German and Russian history, and the history of the modern Middle East.

Second, I have a few Facebook friends from Latin America.

Third, the United States seems to have a unique relationship with Latin America.

Fourth, and connected with the third:  I became aware, a decade or more back, that in the United States people are generally not taught about Latin America.

Anyway, I have been poring over histories of Latin America, Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina—and I’m still quite confused, although Mexican history is beginning to jell; meaning that I now have a general sense or outline in my head of how Mexico has developed.  In the case of Brazil and Argentina, there are still large gaps in my understanding.

I feel that perhaps I’ve been wrong to neglect the period of colonial Spanish and Portuguese rule; perhaps the key to understanding everything that has happened since lies there, in the earlier history?

On the whole, at the moment, I feel a bit depressed.  Thinking of Latin American history, I’m aware of great social inequalities, imperfect democracy, and a long-term disregard for human rights.  Thinking of Latin-U.S. relations, I’m much clearer now on why Latin America feels antagonism towards the United States.

Meanwhile, in the wider world, I wonder what is about to happen in Syria.  It starts to occur to me that certain aspects of the Arab World may bear comparison to Latin America—including how the United States relates to both regions.

Much more to study, and learn, and think about!

“Easy Virtue” (2008)

When I first watched “Easy Virtue,” I felt something was slightly “off.”  Since then I’ve watched the film four or five more times, and now I love it.  Someone online offered the opinion that every viewing reveals new layers, and I agree.  This film, based on the Noel Coward play, is a genuine pleasure.  The screenplay is excellent, the social commentary on the mark, and the characters give us people to care about and think about afterwards.  And the cast:  Jessica Biel, Ben Barnes, Kristin Scott Thomas, and Colin Firth—brilliant all around.

I still sense that something is “off”—and I suspect that it involves the adaptation.  Coward’s play was first adapted for the screen by Alfred Hitchcock in 1928, when films were still “silent.”  I’ve read that the 2008 film is “closer to the original.”  I haven’t read the play, but the 2008 version seems to have made some significant changes; and I think that may be what makes it seem a little “off.”

Without spoiling too much (because I recommend you see this film!), I just want to say something about the “tango” scene.

In the course of the film (set around 1929), John has brought an American bride, Larita, home to his British upper class (?) family (unknown to him, the family has slowly been going bankrupt).  “Mom” considers the woman a gold-digger.  The visit becomes a series of social disasters.  John is drifting back to an old flame.  Meanwhile, Larita has discovered a kindred spirit in John’s father.

At a large social dance Larita, thoroughly disgraced, asks John to dance with her.  He refuses.  A friend who has a crush on Larita offers to dance with her; she appreciates the gesture but declines.  Then John’s father offers to dance.

Now imagine this long dance sequence.  In the background we see all the characters:  John, his mother, his sisters, the old flame, the guy with the crush—and the man that “Mom” hopes will save the estate.  Not only is the dance—a tango—terrifically sensual; the reactions of the characters in the background lend additional depth to the scene.

A truly enjoyable film experience—one I sincerely recommend.

                         

Polys: What We Are and Aren’t (or at least how I am)

I wrote the following for this month's South Bay Poly newsletter.

The draft was longer, but I trimmed it down—probably too much.

I feel I keep talking around something as I try to put my finger on exactly what I mean.

I think what I'm trying to say is that, for me, sexuality is about connecting to someone as a person.  For me, being sexual with someone is about wanting to know them better.  Generally that involves wanting to see them again and probably becoming friends with them long-term.  It's not just about having sex—even if the sex is "open and honest."

Here's what I actually wrote.

# # #

What do we mean when we say we’re different from cheaters?  Is that even the right question?

We polys say we’re different from cheaters because we’re open and honest about what we’re doing.  We place great value on this “open and honest” business.  We don’t believe in sneaking around behind people’s backs.  We don’t think it’s “fair.”  This shows we value relationships, value other people.

But for me “open and honest” isn’t enough.  I value sexuality that isn’t “cheap.”  I need to respect myself and my own relationship to sexuality.  I think of sex as something positive, not negative.  But even though sex can be enjoyable in itself, I prefer something more. I prefer something more than just a distraction or fling.  I prefer sex to have some larger value.

If I woke up with a total stranger in my bed, I think I’d feel disappointed that our intimate encounter had turned out to be so meaningless.  For me, polyamory is about more than being open and honest.  It’s about nurturing meaning and value.

Conflictions: Feelings About Manning, Snowden...Ellsberg…Myself

I find myself sad over Edward Snowden getting (temporary) asylum in Russia.  A large part of me wanted him extradited to the U.S. for trial.  It seems ironic he should be living now in Russia—a Russia which has turned increasingly authoritarian and non-democratic under Vladimir Putin; who has sent a member of the band Pussy Riot to prison, along with a leading opposition figure; and is now planning to enforce strict anti-gay legislation; not to mention Russian human rights abuse in Chechnya (I’ll deal with U.S. issues by and by).

Yet many people are happy that Russia has taken Snowden in (for now).  I ask myself where my own feelings come from.  I’ve always been a fairly “liberal” kind of guy, right?  I’m old enough to remember the Pentagon Papers case—the papers leaked by Daniel Ellsberg, published by the New York Times and later by Beacon Press (part of the Unitarian Universalist Association to which I now belong).  I was pleased when The Papers were published…wasn’t I?  In college I attended at least one anti-Vietnam War demonstration and worked on behalf of the election of George McGovern and the impeachment of Richard Nixon.

Perhaps, having since then been involved in running organizations, I understand how messy things get when people don’t “follow the rules”—and so I’ve perhaps become more understanding of organizations—governments included; more understanding than I used to be.  Or maybe I’ve simply become my father!

Yes and no.  I’m certainly not my father, although I do appreciate the resemblances more and more as time goes on; but I have a better relationship with my wife than my father had with my mother.  I do not feel the blind rage that my father felt:  Against Communists, against blacks—and perhaps against my mother.

Still, I grew up in a conflicted, contradictory environment:  During the sixteen years from the age of six to the age of twenty-two, I spent ten years living on U.S. military bases; another two living just outside of one, and another two spending my weekends and summers with my parents on one.  I spent five years living overseas.  Yet we were not a military family; my father merely worked for the American Red Cross in support of the military.

My mother was Lutheran; we attended a generic Protestant church service at military chapels.  These services were designed to exclude anything that might offend any specific Protestant denomination.

My father didn’t discuss religion.  I suspect he was either a Buddhist (perhaps becoming one while in Japan) or a Transcendentalist-sort of Pantheist—not the best means to reconcile him to my mother.

I grew up during the great Civil Rights Era of the late 1950s-early 1960s.  That’s probably how I became a liberal.  I eventually became an agnostic, yet I long held to my Protestant Christian base—and to the idea that America had saved the world in World War II and had been defending and promoting Freedom ever since.

So I’m conflicted about Manning (is it true that he may be transgender?) and Snowden.  But—don’t I care if the U. S. government committed war crimes in Afghanistan and Iraq?  Don’t I care if the NSA has grossly violated the rights of U. S. Citizens?  Don’t I care if the United States has let down its own citizens and much of the world?

Yes.  I do.  But Manning’s and Snowden’s actions still bother me.  And maybe that’s right:  The government actions should bother me; but the actions of Manning and Snowden should too.