I apologize for my long absence from the blogging world. Apparently, as powerful creators, we must be careful what we wish for, because it often shows up in our reality. I love teaching college and I was disappointed with the three-course maximum that an adjunct instructor is permitted at any single institution. After a few weeks of distributing my standard employment package to various schools in the area, I ended up teaching six college classes (4 different subjects) at three different schools in two New England states. This was a serious logistical/time-management challenge, particularly since each school runs on a unique academic calendar. Of course, I have also been busy with the task of hiring a property attorney to address the three lawsuits surrounding my family’s two-lot subdivision and tending to the details that accompany such experiences.
Fortunately, my original three-course load has ended, and I am in the middle of a two-week break where I only teach my new three courses. But starting on April 7, I’ll add two new courses to redeem my insane schedule. The subjects I presently teach have morphed to include sociology, social anthropolgy, political science and psychology. How am I qualified to teach such a variety of material? This remains unlcear to me, but I love a challenge.
What has prompted me to return to the virtual page (aside from a friendly nudge from TwoBlueDay) is another forwarded email I received from right-wing think-tanks. I won’t include the contents here (http://thevoice.name/?p=4426), but they essentially contained a scathing denouncement of our US senators who voted against an official national language bill in 2006. Basically, it encourages the citizens to impeach these senators as traitors for failing to uphold the Pledge of Allegiance.
My reaction to this message encompasses a broad response to the general culture of fear in this country that distracts citizens from critical issues surrounding this administration and the welfare of our nation. While illegal immigration and national security are certainly legitimate concerns for all Americans, there is a fundamentalist faction within our borders that would like to highlight issues that divide us and distract us from what is truly important.
Beyond the political ball and cup game, I am most disturbed by the recent trend to label dissenters, protesters or nonconformists as “traitors” or “enemies of the state.” If conservative pundits have their way, anyone who disagrees with the present adminstration or, more accurately, conservative politics must be deemed unpatriotic and a threat to America.
The extreme version of this movement toward polarized nationalism is evidenced by the direction of anti-Arab and anti-illegal alien sentiment toward senators who refused to legislate English as the official language for the United States. Fear and hatred unite to demonize the unknown or the unexpected as a traitorous action.
The entire issue is ridiculous. We’ve managed to survive for over 200 years since we ratified our Constitution WITHOUT an official language as per capita immigration has actually decreased. Why are we (the strongest military powerhouse on the planet) so threatened by those who speak other languages on our soil when the vast majority of countries in the world have NO official language and commonly speak multiple languages within their borders? I smell neo-fascism.
People really should find more important issues to whine about that legitimately pose a threat to civil liberties in this country… like warrantless searches, government surveillance of civilians, labeling dissenters as “enemies of the state”, government sanctioned torture in military prisons, privatized military units like Blackwater operating nationally and internationally without accountability to the American people, the growing movement toward a Christian theocracy, serious proposals to amend the Constitution to deny gay marriage, and a news media that panders to profit and the politics of corporate elite.
Americans wouldn’t be so bent out of shape about an official language if they weren’t too lazy or stupid to become bilingual. We have the largest population of monolingual people on the planet. Globalization is here, folks, and we’re so distracted with scratching our asses, watching our reality television, and buying shit we don’t need on credit to notice that we’re behind the curve. Hell, India just became the largest English-speaking country in the world. If we weren’t so damn ethnocentric and self-righteous we might actually take a minute to LEARN something about the world instead of forwarding propaganda from right-wing think tanks to make us feel better about our simple-minded, self-centered existence.
Really… traitorous? Pathetic.
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March 31, 2008 at 1:03 pm
twoblueday
Our “leaders” including Congress and state-level pols, have a fine history of missing the point. That’s why, in my book, issues like language, flag-burning, baseballers’ drug ingestion, etc., etc., get so much play. Elected officials love not to have to address really meaningful issues, they are moral cowards, and thus avoid as much as possible getting caught having a position on anything important.
As for the “Pledge of Allegiance,” I never understood it. How do you have allegiance to a flag? Shouldn’t it say to the “nation?” Another meaningless fillip in the life of the country.
Language. I think of language as another item in the “marketplace of ideas.” If it becomes important to someone, or desirable, to speak another language they’ll make the effort to learn it. If not, not. Now, I admit to a certain uncertainty about citizenship. Should an applicant for citizenship be required to demonstrate the ability to read and write the de facto national language? I’m open to persuasion either way on this.
I know, stating an open-minded position is not the Way Of The Web. I’m supposed to write only in a This Is The Way It Is sort of fashion. I guess I’m a flop. An unprincipled boob.
April 4, 2008 at 12:14 pm
Daz Cox
I believe that most of the ‘news’ is designed to enrage and then depress people.
keep people anxious and in fear and you sell more things to them to cheer them up artificially.
I think local news showing local things that you can actually have some effect on is far more important than worrying about senators. You have no say in what they do, absolutely none so why get upset at what they do?
April 6, 2008 at 3:16 pm
Dad
People tend to believe what they have to believe when they have to believe it. This applies to religion, politics, global warming, global peak oil production, evolution, economy in recession, etc. This is a little different than saying people believe what they want to believe. When belonging is contingent upon a belief system, the need to belong overcomes rational thought or critical thinking.
For example, the message in “The Secret” will not resonate with someone in acquisition mode until they have evolved into giving mode. This is also recognized as the shift from the Have-Do-Be paradigm to Be-Do-Have.
I think you will enjoy the movie “The Moses Code”. The name of God, “I am that I am”, might have contained a deliberate punctuation omission in the Bible. The addition of a single comma “I am that, I am”, that being everything and everyone you observe with your senses, may be what God is all about. The idea that God could be in everything and everyone is contrary to the power objective of organized religion because that belief would not permit war, poverty, class structure, pollution, etc. from ever existing.
Love, Dad