This started life as a comment, about ten minutes ago. But I thought it better here.
Smiling Happy People
DTF. So good to see your words here. Lovely thought provoking words.
I’m reminded of so much.
I’m reminded that as a young compassionate soldier when I went to serve the far-flung borders of the empire in 1986 in S. Korea. I was introduced to a young man. He was my KATUSA. A Korean Augment TO the United States Army. KATUSAs were the creme de la creme of South Korean society, we were assured. The smartest young men of their generation. Fluent in English. Scholars. Leaders. For the days to come. There to serve at our beck and call. To guide us through the periphery of our empire. As it grew in its capitalist aspirations — to be a better part of our world. My KATUSA, Kim Chan-Heung, was an exceptional young man. Brillian economist. Serving as my clerk. Kind man. Friend. Over our year together we were friends. Beyond our countries complicated arrangement. We traveled the Korean country side. Distributing parts for the toys of our war machine. Me learning of the land and the people. He took me to counter-culture rallies at Seoul University or the University of Seoul (I forget how to say it). Where committed Koreans sought to overthrow the empire. Beaten and tear-gassed by the pro-empire elite. And here is the point. One point. Kim was my friend. And we sat burning Army manuals in a barrel to keep warm one day, camped in the field, training for war, and he continued to explain the subtle hatred of common South Koreans for our occupying force. Some thirty years after the war. And I, fully of the exceptional mold at that time — though even then there were seeds — perhaps seeds planted by Kim himself — said to him this, in all sincerity, and to the best of my recollection. “I don’t know why we are here, man. None of us want to be here. We all want to go home. And if the North is such a threat, then you all could just come and live with us. We’ve got so much room in the United States. We could take you all. Give you Wyoming. That’s at least as big as this place. And fuck the war. Come and live with us. Why don’t we just do that?” Kim laughed. Gently explained that Koreans were Koreans. That they loved their home as much as I loved Michigan. He was wiser than I, then. And I doubt I’ve caught him, even now, though we grown apart. America the Hubris.
Reminded of marching through the villages as a conqueror of sorts. And the look of a child (someone else just reminded me of this). How can anyone love a man with an M-16? The look of the child was fear, I think. I don’t know. But something. Odd. He looked at me like a foreigner. I’ve never felt so foreign.
Reminded of an old woman. Ancient. Who walked up and kissed me, as Kim and I hiked on a mountain. She talked. Kim translated. I looked just like a soldier she had known in the war. She loved us. We had done some good. In her mind.
Reminded of a photo I saw yesterday. Of a child’s shattered head. In a Haditha home. Fucking completely shattered like a ceramic doll’s head, only there were brains left inside. Just a few. Innocent. But deformed. Fucking shattered. I can’t bring myself to send the photo to anyone else. I would post it. But I don’t have the technical ability. I have the technical ability. But not without great effort. And the balance of expending the effort versus the need not to share the horror. That equation leads me to just describe it in words. That don’t do it justice. But I hope they act like a warning. Like a bird calling danger to his fellows in the wood. A beaver thumping his tale. A buck pounding on the dirt at the site of a hunter. The picture is soul-shattering. I weep as I sit and type. Or I do what I can do, as a man in the mighty America. I tear up. My eyes moisten. They feel heavy. But through some act of manly, patriotic will, I do not let tears flow down my cheeks. I don’t even know the muscles that I use to keep the tears in my eyes. They work subconsciously. But I can hold them back. And see the screen. Just a bit bleary. But the photo. I don’t even need to see it again. It is floating right here before my eyes. How many years to get the image to go somewhere? More than it takes to forget the frightened look of a Korean boy. I know that. But I don’t want this to be the image I see when I draw my last breath. I want our country to become human. The first powerful, human place. Skulls must crack like that poor baby’s skull did, in natural ways. A great fall. A vicious beast in the wild. But we should not do this to one another. Human beings. They should not do this to one another. No matter the mass delusion of being an exception. It is that clear. A simple rule that lives behind the unknown muscles of your eyes.
I’m reminded of something Ralph Nader told me. That people in other countries cannot even fathom that we have a word in our culture for something that is “un-American.” That such a concept. To label those that have escaped the dominant cultural paradigm are reserved for understanding only by those who live in the most stable forms of fascism.
This is now a diary, I guess. And I’ll put it there. If you cry. It has to be a diary. It is a man rule. If some screw hadn’t come loose in my head. On a Korean mountain top. Or sitting here viewing photos on my computer. It would be a secret diary. Or something locked away from any voice, in my heart. But I’m kind of drifting out there in the whole world at this point. In this life.
Thank you DTF. For sharing your thoughts. I wish they were not true. I wish that our humanity outweighed whatever in our culture allows this unleashing of most vile death upon the world. Some spark of humanity keeps nagging at me. I don’t even know where it is. I can’t identify its home in me. My brain. My heart. My eyes. Somewhere a part of me wants you to be wrong. Wants to believe that we — all of us — we are more human. More humane. We are the exception. We are incapable of unleashing death on the world. That we are not a biblical plague. But I just don’t know.
The death of innocents is always a tragedy, always horrific, never justifiable. There is tragedy every single day, all over the world, in all nations, by all people, doing despicable almost indescribably cruel and inhuman things to other human beings. We are no exception. How do we, as a world, as a people, stop it?
I am surely not the answer man. Wish I knew. I feel like I’ve learned a lot in the past year. Kind of living that idea that you need to become the change you seek in the world. Never made sense before. Sounded kind of pie in the sky silly. I think I’m starting to glimpse an understanding of it. So I guess, if forced to answer, I’d say we must begin with ourselves. Become peaceful. Do not support destruction. And work outward. Try to raise and shepherd a peaceful family. A peaceful neighborhood. City. County. State. Region. Nation. World. Certainly, sitting back and allowing our government to spend 10 Billion a month on, amoung other things, destroying precious children. I’m not down with that. I think I need to say it. I think we all need to say it. With our mouths. Our money. Our votes. Our lives. That shit is evil. Mordor kind of evil. And it was done on my dime.
Isn’t that what we’re trying to say – all of us here who sit and read, who write to our elected officials, who write LTEs, who go downtown to protest, who light a candle and wish for peace, who teach our children to lead peaceful, productive lives and to leave as small a footprint as possible on this fragile world?
I do all of those things…and it is not enough. But I resent like hell being told that I am killing children, and that I prefer little girls to have their clitorises cut off with a rusty knife because I want them to suffer more. I resent the hell out of it. And you know I’m not talking about you.
I meant no slight to you. I thought you were asking me what you thought we should be doing? A very tough question. For which I don’t have a good answer. I just took my best stab.
Sorry to offend. Words are imprecise things. When I’m at my best, I try to see the best possible intent behind others words. Usually, it leaves some way to interpret others words in a non-hostile way. Even if you are wrong being so generous in evaluating their words. But I’m not perfect. I often fail to observe this rule myself. And take offense when none might even be intended.
I can assure you I meant none here to you. Always think highly of your contributions.
On responsibility for war. I take a lot of it on myself. And I’d like Americans to take a lot of it on themselves. Not to try to lame blame on you as individual. Just think it is a way of viewing the war that makes it more likely we will act collectively to stop it. And it is pretty hard to think about. That we paid for those damn bullets, huh?
Best,
Nah, I wasn’t offended by you. But it’s tough to answer a drive-by that’s designed to sow seeds of hatred. Again, not you.
Stay away from the drive-by, second nature. That’s what I do…keeps my blood-pressure in check.
You’re way smarter than I am. 🙂
I only learned this from bitter experience, believe me!
I’m not fully aware of ripples. Read some. Missed some. Felt pond rocking. But, I’d kind of like to see it pass, personally.
You probably know my focus. This place is a wonderful place, for bringing together people, to fight for what we mostly share as common ideas.
It is the most respectful place I’ve found.
With the most intelligent people I know.
I’m saying let us just let some slide. Let us rise above. And stay together. So we don’t lose our strength. You’ve got good thoughts to share. DTF certainly does. I think I do to. And almost all of us here. I’d sure like things to smooth over. Hope that it will, eventually.
Boston, speaking only for myself, I’m always happy to engage. And I’m more than willing to let go of things. But if I’m willing to acknowledge the hurt I might have caused others, I expect others to do the same. When that acknowledgment isn’t forthcoming, I start to have serious doubts about motivations, and also, where I want to spend my time and energy.
In any case, I’m not a big-time poster here, so it’s just a small ripple.
I have to disagree with you. Hate to do it. But have to.
You are a big time poster here, if we’re talking about quality, not quanity.
You know, I don’t know enough specifics to even have a fully formed opinion. It is weird following a long familial fued on a web site. Because you only see some things. Especially when you go away and come home again. But, generally, I’ve just got this sense that we should let it die. Whatever it is. Like some strange dysfunctional family, that suppresses its secrets (my home-life as a youngster was pretty dystopic, so maybe that’s why I love the pond so much — who knows).
Different ways to cope, from dystopia. One man’s experience:
Laugh. Like hell. Even if you don’t know why. Because it beats crying.
Let water run off your back until your soaking wet. Then shake like a dog and let more water run off your back. Get to like the feeling of water. Didn’t kill the witch. Won’t kill you.
If they really piss you off, poke a finger in their eye. Be prepared to run away from them if they are big and you can’t convince them that poking a finger in their eye was an honest mistake. (I think this is the beginning of being very passive-aggressive).
That’s all I’ve learned. At least that I can put into words on short notice.
Peace.
Joe, I appreciate the compliment. And I haven’t done a “GBCW” or anything like that. But every time I get into a pissing match with somebody on a blog, I ask myself, why am I doing this? What am I helping? What cause am I advancing? Why aren’t I working on my novel, dammit??!!
That’s the main thing. We all get so much energy to spend, and I have to think about how I’m spending mine.
And when I get to a point with someone, where I think I’m being Swift-boated and that nothing I say is going to make a difference – because the argument/discussion isn’t being conducted in good faith, it’s coming out of irrational emotion, or the whole point is to push my buttons and invalidate my opinion, or it’s some kind of manipulation that I can’t quite suss out…well, then it’s time to move on and spend my energy doing something else.
Yeah. I can see your point. I know my second novel sure is taking a long time to complete since finding this place (just in editing phases now — but I’ve written a couple of novels worth on issues meaning nothing).
Well. Hang in there.
I believe it’s called “procrastination.” At least in my case!
Good luck on the edit. Keep me posted! I really like talking/hearing about writing. Which isn’t procrastination, right? It’s, um, it’s…educational! Yeah…that’s right…
Well, why aren’t you writing a novel ? Given the quality of your work here, I may be doing a public service by adopting ludicrously oppositional positions just to piss you off.
…sure would miss you, though.
I am, actually. In the home stretch. Supposed to submit as soon as I finish a draft. I don’t have tremendous optimism about that particular possibility but it’s nice to have a goal, right?
Thanks for asking!
My wife is from South Korea and so I get a flavor of the conflicted feelings most S. Koreans have over the American occupation of their country, which is now what…going on 55 years? Sure, they would all be under the yolk of an idiot madman (their description) had we not helped them fight off the Chinese hordes, but they remember bitterly every slight and abuse resulting from our occupation. Can’t blame them, but their memories are longer than the abuses for sure.
The USA is exceptional. That is reality. At least for time being. What is most exceptional is that when we have a rogue president who misuses his power our system limits his ability to make the same mistake twice. As long as our system prevents long term abuse of the world by one man or one political party, the world should count its blessings that we arent exceptional in the sense of Nazi Germany or Hirohito’s Japan….because we are at the height of world supremacy unseen since Rome ruled the “World”.
Moreso because we could choose to end the world with the flick of a switch.
It seems that our current leadership has the intent of putting us on track toward that result.
How so?
I dont agree.
I more agree than not. I think that was perhaps part of DTF’s point. That Americans generally are unable to even conceive that their actions are as evil as any unleashed on the world. We cannot conceive that we are in the ballpark of Nazism. And to have a mind that won’t let one see the parallels is to be, at least to my thinking, partially blind.
One can see parallels, but its a very weak comparison, like comparing the number 1 with the number 1,000,000. Sure they are both numbers but one is so much bigger than the other the comparison is meaningless.
Comparing the actions of the US Govt now (or ever)with the actions of the Nazis is far worse than closeminded, its a false portrayal. Falsity always comes back to haunt us. Always. Look at Bush’s lying as it comes home to roost…lets dont ruin our chances of bringing down the evildoers with our own flights of falsity, which will serve more to keep us down than to push them out.
In my opinion over amped and over heated rhetoric ( a blogoshphere staple)is the biggest problem with the political debate in this country.
Its bullshit against bullshit on both sides. Not a good for our future.
An example of what I mean. I won’t dig out the book to quote exactly. But Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird. In the book she has a poor southern white boy who reads his report in school on current events. He explains the horrors of Nazism. Can’t understand how any society/anyone like Hitler could be such a racist for hating Jews/wanting to kill all the Jews. At same time in story, Lee is pointing out that the Jim Crow south was indeed hating blacks. It wasn’t as well organized as “the Final solution.” But there was a systematic effort within the law, and without, to kill and subjugate an whole group of people based on identity politics. And Americans — most — were completely unable to even see the parallel.
Another example. Why on earth is it understandable to most in the U.S., that when they drop a bomb or a missile on a house and kill an innocent family in Pakistan, Afghanista, Iraq or Palestine, that it is somehow justifiable collateral to the war on terror? When at the same time, if an American civilian is ever killed or captured in these foreign misadventures, it is earthbreaking news about how the other side just does not value human life in the same way that we do? What can possibly explain this double-standard? I submit to you that it is indefensible, but almost universal.
Yes. I agree with those examples and that they are real. Or were real in the sixties and earlier in the south.
You are correct we have an evil federal governemnt which utilizes some of the tools of fascist Germany, mainly lying and fear mongering.
The left blogosphere, alas, uses the same tools for different effects, which will end just as badly.
And there is no systematic government effort to exterminate black people in the south today. Hurricane Katrina? Govt bungling to be sure. The Nazi govt was much more highly efficient. They would have solved the “black question” long before any hurricane came along. I, for one, am glad our govt bungles.
Had we exterminated virtually ALL minorities then I would say a comparison with Nazi Germany would be apt.Clearly, irrefutably, nothing close to that horror has ever happened in this country
However, nothing that has ever happened in the US, then or now, is more than 1/1,000,000 as evil as the WWII promulgated by Nazi Germany in 1939-1945.
Well. I don’t want to really take up a debating position that the U.S. = Nazi Germany. But I similarly think that we should not be fooled, to think that we are not capable of such things. I’m a big fan of the work of Stanley Milgram. Who tried to answer this question for himself. Were the Germans inherently evil, or could human nature lead to such a result. Using confederate shock experiments. He found most were morally capable of following orders to torture fellow classmates — even to the point of believed death — in order to simply obey symbols of authority.
I’d say it can happen here. That it hasn’t yet, is no proof that it cannot. And the belief that it can’t is something that would provide camoflauge when the ideas begin to be floated.
Imagine what the atmosphere in this country might be if a nuclear device were exploded in one of our cities. I can completely see internment/concentration camps. Mass purges. Sanctioned violence. And a whole series of nukings of Muslim civilians in the world at large. And the basis of that won’t be that the individuals on who we take retribution are the guilty parties. Because we will have lost the idea of individualized guilt for individual crimes. I think we’ve already lost that, to some extent, after 9/11.
I think we both know what we both mean and both points have validity although they are not exactly the same one.
Arguing nazis versus US is not really my point, its more the use of amped or hyped rhetoric which you have to stretch some pretty significant hypotheticals in order to make a comparison.
Terrorists dropping a nuke on NY or somewhere cant even really be considered in any comparison with Nazi Germany. No one attacked Nazi Germany prior to start of WWII.
Nazi aggression was unprovoked. Trumped up charges against the attacked nations were used to justify the attacks.
That is a valid comparison between Hitler and Bush in Iraq perhaps, but even that comparison when taken to its full conclusion is preposterous. Bush is extremely, historically all time incompetent and yes he is the most blatantly fascist minded president in our history (altho by no means the only one). But compared to Hitler? Come on now. Tin foil and all that.
The argument about whether the people of the US versus Germany, that is a slightly different debate. I would say that people of all countries, ethnicities religions and political beliefs are prone to commit any number of unspeakable monstrosities given the right circumstances.
Still, I have a hard time picturing the people of this nation or congress surrendering to the president control of all branches of govt and suspending the constitution just because someone nuked the Capitol (or burned down the Reichstag as was the case in 1933 when Hitler acquired all political and military power in Germany). Especially now. Bush isnt even in charge of his own party in Congress at the moment. He is kowtowing like crazy.
meant to edit out the last paragraph of above comment. 1/1,000,000 may be a bit much. 1/100,000?
.
Interesting to hear your definition of U.S. supremacy. George as Our Supreme Commander of the U.S. forces of occupation in the Middle East?
Sorry, I don’t believe in Supreme Beings on this planet …
The Nazis thrived on the concept of a superior Arian race. Perhaps we’re on the route map towards … oblivion. Just a few mini nukes on the people of Iran as a warning.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY
I somehow think the world would not tolerate such an atrocity lying down. And that makes me hopeful that we will not go there. I hope.
Military and economic/political/cultural US world supremacy is de facto. Its as real as the air we breathe (and just as polluted no doubt)
Supreme beings can live only on a different planet.
You misunderstood my comment and yours is illogical.
the nazis thrived on many things, one of the most important being their ability to play off a sense of a proud peoples (false) nostalgia for a better time before the modern world of the 20th century came along and “ruined” the German tribal world.
Now there is a comparison with the Nazis with which I can agree. The subtle psychological foundations of playing against peoples fear of the future.
Surely, when the nukes fall on Iran or Iraq (I have not heard much about that possibility except from you)my perception will change.
Blogospheric paranoia will not change my perception and my overall point is blogospheric paranoia will lead to more…..lost elections in the heartland.
If you think there is some qualitative difference between the German people and Americans, I’d suggest looking at the work of Stanley Milgram (posted about it above). I’m fairly certain he would have told you that to think the U.S. is not capable of the same evil is not a good assumption.
more auspicious circumstances, but one is always gratefully honored to receive odes, even sad ones.
What worries me, what frankly frightens me, is that not enough people in the world are aware of the existence of reform-minded Americans, who DO want advancement, who ARE in favor of modernization, and would like to see the US move toward legitimate statehood, and maybe one day, democracy!
That is a message that HAS to get out to the rest of the world, and it is just not happening. Obviously, US media is not going to do it, and because the numbers of the reform movement are so small, the world’s media does not really pay attention to it.
Because in my opinion, it may be a small number, but it is a small number of very intelligent and capable people, people whose moral fiber and character have been strong enough to “prevail” over the various American doctrines and whose “resolve” has been sorely tested every day of their adult lives, people who are brave enough, and who love what they want to think of their country enough, to risk everything from social opprobium to rendition to a “facility” to a tragic accident.
And for me, there is, I admit, a personal element, as I have been privileged to come to know so many of these courageous people, and I would like to see them get a chance to put their reforms into action, to form a real government, with real political parties, and get their constitution, which is a very good and sound document, out of that West Wing bathroom and make it not only a document, but something that actually has a bearing on what is done and not done with the taxes that people pay.
This comment also crossposted elsewhere, in the interest of digital energy conservation.
Well. Whatever the situation on the planet. I’m still glad to see you. Read your thoughts. Just keep breathing. And keep talking. Things will happen.
It was not yet time for the White Trash TV programs Madame and I like to watch to keep ourselves current with the costumery and courtship behavior favored this week by Paris Hilton, but being already in that mood, I was watching that bastion of the American infotainment zeitgeist, the video edition of the Weekly World News, known as Fox.
They were enthusiastically reporting on what the descendants of some illegal aliens are doing to persuade the politicians to increase the deaths of indigenous people whose ancestors had not all been exterminated by their own – they are sending bricks to the politicians’ offices with messages like “build that wall now” and interestingly “stop the invasion.”
I, of course, couldn’t help hoping that the latter might be mistakenly sorted by a sleepy staff member into the “pro-reform mail” pile, thinking that it was a message opposing Operation Divine Strike for Iranian Liberation, but realizing that those chances were small, I thought about you, and your campaign to have people send flowers, or representations of flowers, to the office of your own politician, and again I hoped that other people would take this up, not just to your politician, but to theirs as well.
I know it is unlikely, due to that crispiness factor, and sad lack thereof, but I could not help but hope that at least one politician, or even a staffer, would look at the pile of bricks, sent by people who wish others to die, and the pile of flowers, sent by people who wish others to live, and especially if it happened to be a staffer charged with the removal of both, if maybe, just maybe, in a Magical Realism Moment, a thought balloon might appear, complete with glowing light bulb, over just one carefully coiffed head…
What I miss most about reading your thoughts routinely (and I know, this is out of my own sloth — that I could find your thoughts in the world with so little effort — but being a true American I want them brought to me here) is just your strange vantage point. Who else could look at these two protests and want them viewed through Magical Realism, complete with thought bubbles? That such wickedly funny perspectives are generated in the world makes me smile. Thanks.
And it fills me with delight, and even, uncharacteristically, hope, that one man, in one city in an occupied territory ruled by warlords, famous for its ketchup and its fearsome and feared and fierce warriors and grim gunmen, yet there stands one man, encouraging his brothers to lay down their ideological pincers and hot tongs, and instead to send to the local spokesman for the merchants of war, a flower, a symbol of peace.
How courageous is that, in a land where peace is the new terror, by virtue of being, of course, the opposite of money?
What would happen if there were just one BostonJoe in every city, standing there in the street in front of the doctrinal tank, a flower in his hand, a kind word in his mouth?
Is it possible that such courage, such a buoy of nobility bobbing in a sea of degradation could become communicable, and awaken in other hearts the reminder that we are all human beings?
You yourself are a flower, (In the most manly way, of course.) 😉 A sturdy and rugged flower, with the strength and stubborness to bloom in the most unlikely of soils and climates, boldly daring others to unfurl their petals and claim the humanity, and the humane-ness, that is their birthright.
Oh Man, I wished I could reach through this screen and hug you! I just commented over on Tracy’s diary some thing in my heart and on my mind about such things. It is seriously good to have you with us here to help lead us to the job that we must do. Thanks…for all that you do. I have not told you, but I do respect that which you do and for who you are. Anyhow, just hugs…I think, with our eyes, maybe, just maybe, we might teach others of said sadness and the lessons learned. Someday, I do want to shake your hand. I am humbled….
Well. It is always nice to hear things like that. For me, it makes the difference between me viewing my own thoughts as either realistic and normative, versus viewing my own thoughts as in someway outside of what others could possibly think. And there is a lot of value in knowing that we who think these things are not isolated voices.
Reminds me of Arlo Guthrie (Arlo?). About people going to their shrinks and saying things about hating war, etc. And if one does it, he/she might be crazy. And two, a little touched. But if three say the same thing, people will think it is some kind of movement or something.
my family had been killed in an accident I became a foreigner…leastwise in America I had, baseball and apple pie that your mother cooked but my mother was dead. It wasn’t their fault, but other children were frightened a bit by me because the one thing little children fear the most had happened to me. Nobody loves you like your mother if she is able. It only got worse as I got older…..I had no mother to teach me all the many intricate varied ways that American women hold themselves back and fall in line and even if my mother had lived she would have been a really sorry ass teacher of that stuff anyhow. Because I had her for the first seven years she had already instilled me an inner knowing that a lot of that stuff is bullshit so I was just damned broken now running around free swinging that unbridled knowledge around! What in the world could anybody find so freaky about building a wall shelf and afterwards polishing your nails? What the hell’s wrong with people who couldn’t understand that! I have only longed to understand others. The summer I spent in Korea the people there loved my children…….in the middle of an art festival this woman came and grabbed my son out of his stroller and rushed him into a building to go meet everybody. It happened so fast, and my husband was standing right next to me but all he could do was ask me why I didn’t do something when this women just came and stole our child? All I could do was smile at him……control freak! We went inside the building and there was my son surrounded by people and spoiled to death. In Korea people with disabilities are not viewed the same way that we view them in America….as long as they can tote a bale however they may tote a bale they are valued for what they can give to society and there is no shame in using your resources however you may use them. Whenever my kids were down on the street buying a fruit water or those marvelous chocolate covered cookies they sell, a million eyes were on them and I was given full reports of everything they did. I went into Pyongtech and witnessed how other Koreans not close to an American base had little use for me…….but I am only me, I am not my country and I am not its crazy politicians or its crazy policies. I am just this one person. I did get my feelings a bit hurt one day in the market when three college students approached me and asked if they could ask me a few questions. I am very fair skinned and I think “tanning” is the dumbest thing in the world. They thought that I was Russian. They were very kind to me until they discovered that I was an American and then their distaste was extremely obvious. When I was in South Korea though Joe, North Korea was starving to death. We visited Seoul and it haunted me that thousands and thousands so close to me were starving to death and in downtown Seoul the air smelled of every sort of tantalizing foody smell and people spoke and argued in languages from all over the globe. Seoul is so damned cosmopolitan in many ways it could almost easily be mistaken for New York. If they want us to leave I’m fine with that, but will we have to go back if Kim Jong invades them. They have everything and he is a dictator! I have a hard time buying that “evil me” is what is keeping the joyful union of the Koreas from happening. I saw in the Korean War Memorial what was left of South Korea when North Korea was done with it and I met so many people who are now very old but lived through that war and view Americans as heros. I’m just a girl in the world Joe…….and I know that not all American girls are like me but all girls of all nations are not all like each other either. I have never desired to be exceptional……I have only desired to belong! As Mary Julia over at Kos does….I am refusing this hair shirt.
Thanks for being willing to rip open your soul and share so much of yourself. I know I’m not alone in saying that people love you for it. Because it makes them feel less alone.
Joe – I think you remember how to say it: “University of Soul.”
Other Lisa’s comment about big-time posters made me think we Americans are mostly still in high school mode.
It’s just so damn hard to grow up isn’t it? That’s the choice – we really don’t have to, we can stay with our homies over at dKos and perform in the us vs them show.
If this is high school, I’m a lot smarter and a lot fatter. This sucks.
Thanks for comment.
Personally, I’m glad when DTF posts here. Even though I don’t always agree with him. But that’s becoming more and more a rarity. I often recommend diaries that piss me off if only for the reason that I think certain issues need to be discussed, and hashed out.
In his latest diary he makes it pretty clear several times that he feels there are a few small exceptions (meaning us) to the majority of Americans who do nothing to change America’s rape of the world’s resources and it’s peoples. He used to piss me off a lot. Still does sometimes. But now it’s because he touches a leftover nerve from my indoctrination, and my natural reaction is to feel anger…still. Either way, whether I agree with him or not, he elevates the conversation. Just my opinion.
Thanks for comment super. We should form a brotherhood of Fatwa. Super hyper critical thinkers.
Been sitting here searching for words to describe how your diary affected me. It stunned me. The honest, bare naked, no holds barred sharing of a heart. The depts of compassion: the willingness of a man to see and measure his own soul. Thank you, Boston Joe.
We need more of you. And more Ductapes, and more of all of us who come here and risk speaking of things that have far too long been “unspeakable” in most so called “polite” company”. Like so many here, I also am in process of examining my own responsibility for what America has become, and striving to know how what I can contribute to her rebalancing.
But I need the perspective of others; I need to know how she appears to those outside of our American bubble. And I need to know how it may be different elsewhere, in other cultures too. I need to know that what I see and think about my country, isn’t coming from the insidious programming of a lifetime lived only within these borders.
There are times when what DTW writes stings me, too. It also nmkes me think, and learn even more about what I really believe and value. I know I am not much of a part of mainstream American ..never was, never will be, but I AM an citizen of this country, and as such, I am not immune from the simply fact that silence IS complicity, and I was silent way, way too long.
So I for one, am grateful we are ALL still here, still writing, whatever our perspectives may be, no matter how painful and chaotic it becomes at times. I see no way this can be done without ripples and waves being generated as we go, and anyway, where is it written that smooth waters are the only good waters?
New skills are developed by weathering storms together. People learn more about themselves and about each other during tough times, and all are richer for it in the end. I apaud the courage and the hearts of all who enter this kind of shared conversation.
Thanks for kind words.
I think it is the rare person who can actually listen and learn. I don’t know that I possess that characteristic. Getting older. Find myself railing more. Listening less.
But I think you have hit on the soul of wisdom — a willingness to hear other perspectives and try to integrate them. No matter the age.
Ductape reminds me of Howard Zinn. I’m always more aware after reading him.
Very much. And Noam, too.
A friend of mine asked me last week if reading the blogs didn’t make me more cynical.
Nothing has ever been farther from the truth. Sure there are times the political madness in which we live today has gotten me sad and enraged.
But its the time spent reading here that has helped me cope. Knowing I’m not alone, hearing inspiring stories like BostonJoe’s and the Petals for Peace, and of course, the writiers like DTF and others who have pushed me and helped me expand my horizons. These are all priceless to me, and what helps me avoid the helplessness that leads to cynicism.
Although, I do have to throw in the hilarious line from “Search for the Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe”:
Sometimes I worry that no matter how cynical I become, its never enough to keep up.