Once upon a hoopty...

Ladies and Gentlemen. I know I haven't blogged in a while, so I probably don't have many readers left anyway, however...

I will no longer be blogging at this site because it has seemed most economic and logical for my wife and I to pour our blogging desires into one location. She just read my first post there and said that she can see how things are going to be: I'm going to write intellectually and she's going to write circumstantially. Thus we are. And it seems that anyone who would read either of our blogs would appreciate getting both sides of the love coin that we are.

I don't know why I'm still putting words into a post that was just meant to redirect you, but it seems I still am.

As a reward for those of you who stayed until the bitter, bitter end, please enjoy the following link and may all your days be filled with joy and somesuch.

http://www.with2ts.com/

So... the snow/ice storm that has come through Kentucky has given me a little bit of free time to finally get back to the blog and maybe write something a little happier and controversy free.

Happy New Year, Everyone!
2008 in review:
I spent the entire year, for the first time, a married man and as a home-owner.
Lost was shortened by the writer's strike, but still managed to pull off an amazingly written season.
I started substitute teaching and taking classes at U of L to pursue a Master of Arts in Teaching Spanish. That seems to be working out.
A community group from our church started meeting in our home as of August. That has been good. It has been really good to share life together.
2008 was the year I began to imbibe and found that I quite enjoy Killian's Irish Red and some good bourbon.
A HURRICANE hit LOUISVILLE! I move to mid-America and figure I'm safe from hurricanes. Sure, maybe the occasional tornado, but, seriously?
An American President was elected that has given me hope for the first time since I've given any consideration to whether or not a president gives me hope. (although, to be fair, I was hopeful about McCain, too -- either candidate would've been better than any option we've had since...)
I paid off my truck!
We visited Charleston, SC for our first anniversary (and to see my good friend Candi get married).
It was a very busy year. My decision to drop out of seminary led to putting myself in a position to work as much as I could while I was trying to figure out what to do with my life and even making the decision has led to a lot of work and very little free time. That's just what I have to do right now, and I'm okay with that. Substituting can be draining, but it can also be really rewarding. And I had to learn this year that at starbucks, all I'm doing is making coffee, so there's no reason to get stressed out about it.
2008 was a good year. Many good things happened, but right now I just feel like it is characterized mostly by business.
More later.

To the victor always goes the spoils and this includes the right to write history the way that puts the winner, or at least the survivor, in the best light. I have often felt frustrated by attempts in many locations in the South to do away with any celebration of the Antebellum Era, in which the South flourished and most of the nation's millionaires lived in Mississippi. I do understand that anytime one people prosper it is going to be at the expense of another people, and the story of the civil rights movement, the story of a group of people captured, taken on ships to faraway lands, sold into slavery and then separated from family and loved ones at owners' whims, beaten and mistreated, eventually freed from slavery, but still not respected, considered less human than others, then eventually given fair and equal, and no longer separate, treatment, allowed to prosper and as of January 20, finding themselves with a representative of their people being sworn in as political leader of their country -- this story is beautiful and good and should be told. However, as it is told, it usually takes the same path that victors and survivors have always taken and it is rewriting history. Any celebration of Antebellum South is considered to be racist, because calling it such is the most subversive way to have it silenced. Any who would celebrate Antebellum South are called ignorant, because disregarding these sentiments as unintelligent will keep them from being respected as legitimate.

All that to say, I am proud of U of L for the way they are handling the problem of having a Confederate War Memorial right next to their campus (see link in title). Instead of creating an outcry and demanding that such a memorial be torn down, they are adding to it the celebration of those whose story is not told by that monument but who lived through the hell of the same time period. It is good to find a way to celebrate the fallen dead of a people and also celebrate the freedom and civil rights of another.

Please understand me. I do not think the South will rise again, at least not in any kind of pro-slavery or Antebellum sentiment way. I do see much of the South growing economically, and I hope that it may someday rise again to a place of economic strength. If it does, I also hope that it is not at the expense of any people group. I love the South and I love Mississippi, for all its strengths and faults and I am proud of my ancestors, even if they refused to see that owning people as slaves is just wrong. They had other issues, too, but it is hard for me to judge them from my 21st century point of view, because I don't know what i would've thought in that time. They also had strength that led to me being who and where I am today.

In this post-modern time, I find it difficult to run across popular opinions that the South has ever been "the bad guy." They had different opinions, opinions which led to bullying in the Congress and a decreased representation because they would not adhere to the opinions of others. When they decided they had had enough, they decided to use the Constitutions offer of secession to leave a government they no longer had any say in. This move was fought against and the secessionists lost the war and their entire way of life. The freed slaves were given positions of authority and those formerly in power were refused the right to vote. I am proud of a people who stuck to their guns and fought against injustice, even if they were supporting injustice of another kind. I don't think they were perfect, but they were never the bad guys. They still aren't. We're just a people who are co-citizens with those who generations ago oppressed our ancestors just as our ancestors oppressed the ancestors of other co-citizens. No one is free from blame in all this, but our say is just as significant as the say of anyone else.

Monday night I had nightmares about Obama winning and the worst-case scenarios that radical far-right talking heads predicted and then McCain won and all the worst-case scenarios from the radically left media predictions came true. I woke up easy enough and then I went to work, where I realized we were going to be handing out free coffee all day with no extra employees on the floor to handle the extra customer count. It was harrying for the first few hours, but by the time I took a lunch break and came back, I had a pretty nasty headache and I started feeling weaker and weaker. I voted in the mid-day after I got off work, and had a headache for most of the next two days. Thursday, I went to work and my first class with a headache and then started feeling a little nastier. I stopped by my prof's office to drop off the paper that was due and to apologize for skipping class, and then drove home through rush hour traffic where I fell into a delirium of hot flashes and chills, sore throat and nausea, not to mention the continual headache. After I gagged at the nothing I had put in my stomach since midday on thursday, I started feeling a lot better and had some chicken-noodle soup, some crackers and my baby got me some jello and vitamin C.

In other news, I've heard several people in the liberal media talk about how much we need to come together as a nation and unify and stand behind our president. I find it interesting that they have decided we should all do this when the president they voted for has been elected and were less focused on standing behind the elected president 4 years ago. I've also noticed, in listening to news, that Obama's biggest problems are going to come from his democratic-voting supporters. There is a large pocket of people who tend to vote liberal/democrat because they are optimistic and/or feel that the world would be a better place if only we would elect the RIGHT president (not that there aren't conservative/republican voters who feel the same way, but conservatives tend to not be quite so optimistic). So now, Obama is going to have to live up to the hype that has been built up around this election. People actually believe that he will turn around the economy, provide jobs, lower taxes and end the war, single-handed. I do hope that whatever programs our federal government work out will accomplish these things. Lord knows we need more jobs and some of the basic foundations of our economy need to be reset in order to fix this mess into which the banking and real estate industries have put us. I do agree that we should stand behind our president, whether he is a knuckle-head or is merely from a different idealogical camp, because it isn't about getting my way: it's about all of us working together to do what we think will best help our nation. So, I'll work hard at my job, spend money on the things I can afford, do my part to help my neighbors and my community and pray and hope that our new President will make wise decisions that benefit us all, and President-elect Obama will do his best to fix what's wrong with our country in the way that he thinks will work. In four years, I may decide not to vote for his re-election and if I choose to do so, I will because I think that I'm doing what's best for the country.

I hope his supporters recognize that Obama is not our Savior, and though he may be a good man and a good leader, he is, at the end of the day, just a man. I hope that in two years when not all of his promises have been fulfilled, that his supporters will continue to support him as president, even if they think they might vote differently in the next elections, because turning around the economy and satisfactorily diminishing the troop presence in Iraq is going to take some time. I hope the "us versus them" feeling that's been going around will die down a little bit now that the election is over, because it has literally made me sick. Or maybe that was substituting at middle and high schools 3 days a week...

The reasons that Powell has professed to be in support of Obama and opposed to the Republican party ring true to me. I feel that the Bush administration has tottered very near to power abuse if such an accusation cannot be stated in full assurance. The Republican party has been leaning some odd ways under W's Presidency and away from what I heard someone on the radio today call Republican Values. If small government is no longer a Republican Value, limited government is and Bush has been leaning far toward a totalitarianism. W's view of how a military should be allocated has not been satisfactory. I do think that Republicans can be lovers of liberty, but they have been found way too much in bed with the corporations.

That said, I think, as I've said here before somewhere, that both parties are guilty of pandering the radical extremes of their respective parties. Republicans have leaned far too right and Democrats have leaned far too left. Both parties are also guilty of fascism at this point. If our economy needed a boost from our government (especially in light of what other world governments are doing), then something should've been done, but the government owning major shares in our banks is against everything our constitution stands for... and I don't know how so many leaders in Washington could think that it is a good thing for freedom to be traded in times of trail for security.

I would like to say that I still intend to vote for McCain. I don't like what the Republican Party has been doing lately. The election theory is, at best, behind the times. I think that both McCain and Palin should've been allowed to showcase the parts of their personalities that have made them popular enough to be nominated for president, instead of turning to tactics that are obviously in contrast with the kinds of things that they appeared to stand for before. The hypocrisy of the situation is not lost on voters, and definitely not lost on the media. The same thing happened to Bob Dole (not that he would've necessarily defeated Clinton in 1996). Dole is a funny, charismatic politician, and that's what won him the nomination, but his personality had to be overshadowed during the campaign by attack ads. I don't mean to say that there isn't a place for some kinds of attack, but the Republican Party doesn't seem to understand how to appeal to the undecided voter in their media campaigns, and at the center of that problem is the way they seem to think that these personalities that were charismatic enough to win the nomination, are not strong enough to be showcased for the final showdown. I do have to cede that the Democratic party knows how to run a campaign, but I can't let that alone sway my vote.

At the end of the day, the next president is going to have a big mess to clean up and I'm just not impressed by the way Sen. Obama intends to do that. I think McCain has a level head and that he really is interested in rooting out corruption. I think most Americans would agree that fighting corruption would be the best thing for our country right now and I think that if voters were to stop and think about it, that the majority don't want radical left solutions. Just because the pendulum has swung one way doesn't mean that it should swing as far the other way. Moderation really is the key to this. Also, Obama, as typical Democrat, is also a fan of bigger government, to the point that he feels that the government should take care of health care. I know that capitalism has its drawbacks. No economic system is the perfect system, but we can't take advantage of moments of the weaknesses inherent in the system to change gears and start aiming toward more Totalitarian or Socialist or Fascist tendencies. There are problems in our insurance/health care systems right now, but taking them out of private hands and letting the government have more power over our lives is not what we need.

Now I remember why I was so jaded after the last presidential election. I'm still planning to vote for McCain, but I have lost the stars from my eyes.

We're far too corrupt to ever have a savior on Capital Hill .

Labels: Barack Obama, Colin Powell, George W. Bush, John McCain

The other day, my wife and I noticed that Sarah Palin reminds us of my mother-in-law, who happens to be a big fan of the governor. She doesn't look like Palin, especially, but they have similar personalities and expressions. At first it seemed a little eerie that she would be voting for "herself," but it occurred to me that we all do that, to some extent. On some level, we want the winner of the election to be the one who believes the most like us so that s/he will make the decisions that we would make in his/her position, if we had all the information that s/he would have. And some people will vote for Obama because he is black like they are, and some people will vote against him because he is black and they are not. Polls seem to indicate that the McCain campaign got a real jolt when he announced Palin as his VP, and it seems probably that some people will vote for her because she is a woman (and there are some very conservative people who don't know what to do because they don't want to vote for a woman or Obama). We want to vote for a candidate that remind us of ourselves, especially on our best days. That's why good speakers like JFK are so enrapturing: we want to be like them, that determined and optimistic, even if we are actually cynical. And that's why politics is so personal: we identify with our candidates on some kind of intimate level, and when people dismiss that candidate, it is easy to take it as a personal affront.

I hate how things get every four years at about this time. I have enjoyed listening to NPR with some regularity for the past two years, but right around election time, I just want to punch reporters in the face. I really don't believe in our government. I feel like voting for politicians is just stating who I think will keep screwing up the government less. And definitely, on some level, I'm taking things personally. I have the control not to say anything and to realize that what I'm thinking is untrue, but I find myself joining in the fray of thinking that anyone who doesn't agree with me must be a complete moron instead of a reasonable, thoughtful person who has come to a different conclusion than I have.

Not as any kind of taunt, or because I think the candidate I intend to vote for is so wonderful, but for the sake of our country:

may the best man win.

Labels: JFK, politics, Sarah Palin, vote

I've been reading "A Prayer for Owen Meany" lately. The movie "Simon Burch" was based on the book, but kept out all of the political aspects of the book, which is a major theme. I read the following today and loved it. (I turned all of Owen's soliloquy into straight dialogue.)

"What could Marilyn Monroe's death ever have to do with me?"
"IT HAS TO DO WITH ALL OF US. SHE WAS JUST LIKE OUR WHOLE COUNTRY -- NOT QUITE YOUNG ANYMORE, BUT NOT OLD EITHER; A LITTLE BREATHLESS, VERY BEAUTIFUL, MAYBE A LITTLE STUPID, MAYBE A LOT SMARTER THAN SHE SEEMED. AND SHE WAS LOOKING FOR SOMETHING--I THINK SHE WANTED TO BE GOOD. LOOK AT THE MEN IN HER LIFE--JOE DIMAGGIO, ARTHUR MILLER, MAYBE THE KENNEDYS. LOOK AT HOW GOOD THEY SEEM! LOOK AT HOW DESIRABLE SHE WAS! THAT'S WHAT SHE WAS: SHE WAS DESIRABLE. SHE WAS FUNNY AND SEXY--AND SHE WAS VULNERABLE, TOO. SHE WAS NEVER QUITE HAPPY, SHE WAS ALWAYS JUST A LITTLE OVERWEIGHT. SHE WAS JUST LIKE OUR COUNTRY.
"AND THOSE MEN, THOSE FAMOUS, POWERFUL MEN--DID THEY REALLY LOVE HER? DID THEY TAKE CARE OF HER? IF SHE WAS EVER WITH THE KENNEDYS, THEY COULDN'T HAVE LOVED HER--THEY WERE JUST USING HER, THEY WERE JUST BEING CARELESS AND TREATING THEMSELVES TO A THRILL. THAT'S WHAT POWERFUL MEN DO TO THIS COUNTRY--IT'S A BEAUTIFUL, SEXY, BREATHLESS COUNTRY, AND POWERFUL MEN USE IT TO TREAT THEMSELVES TO A THRILL! THEY SAY THEY LOVE IT BUT THEY DON'T MEAN IT. THEY SAY THINGS TO MAKE THEMSELVES APPEAR GOOD--THEY MAKE THEMSELVES APPEAR MORAL. THAT'S WHAT I THOUGHT KENNEDY WAS: A MORALIST. BUT HE WAS JUST GIVING US A SNOW JOB, HE WAS JUST BEING A GOOD SEDUCER. I THOUGHT HE WAS A SAVIOR. I THOUGHT HE WANTED TO USE HIS POWER TO DO GOOD. BUT PEOPLE SAY AND DO ANYTHING JUST TO GET THE POWER; THEN THEY'LL USE THE PWOER JUST TO GET A THRILL. MARILYN MONROE WAS ALWAYS LOOKING FOR THE BEST MAN--MAYBE SHE WANTED THE MAN WITH THE MOST INTEGRITY, MAYBE SHE WANTED THE AN WITH THE MOST ABILITY TO DO GOOD. AND SHE WAS SEDUCE, OVER AND OVER AGAIN--SHE GOT FOOLED, SHE WAS TRICKED, SHE GOT USED, SHE WAS USED UP. JUST LIKE THE COUNTRY. THE COUNTRY WANTS A SAVIOR. THE COUNTRY IS A SUCKER FOR POWERFUL MEN WHO LOOK GOOD. WE THINK THEY'RE MORALISTS AND THEN THEY JUST USE US. THAT'S WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN TO YOU AND ME," said Owen Meany. "WE'RE GOING TO BE USED."

Keeping all that in mind in terms of the present election, I find it interesting that both candidates are trying to run on a motto of change, when everyone knows that nothing ever changes: it's just men and women claiming that everyone should not ask what the country should do for them but what they can do for their country, when what they really want is a position of power so that they can get the thrills and perks of power at the expense of the people they are elected to lead/serve. People will say anything to get what they want. And it is mostly not going to come down to issues, but instead how people feel about the morals of the candidates: whether they are thought to have the same beliefs as voters, how they conduct their campaign (defending themselves and smear campaigns and whatnot).

I'm typing this out over conversation around me (because our power is STILL out and we have to borrow electricity and internet from friends), so I'm not able to edit myself or think all the way through my thoughts, but please feel free to respond. It might even help me get my thoughts fleshed out.

Labels: John Irving, Kennedy, Marilyn Monroe, Owen Meany, politics