Independence Day. A where we celebrate our love for our country, where we celebrate the signing of the Declaration of Independence. It is a day that is marked by time-honored celebration, where we indulge our love for the things that are so incredibly American. Such as:
Recreational explosives.
Meat.
Apple pie.
Baseball.
And Twilight Zone Marathons.
Since I was a kid, I had a fascination for reruns of The Twilight Zone. Summer nights routinely had me staying up late to watch the episodes at 2 and 3 in the morning on WPIX. That was back before the CW ran it, back before the WB ran it. I could watch that show anytime, anywhere. To date there isn't an episode of the original 1956 series that I haven't seen at least once.
Imagine my glee when, at 10 years old, WPIX announced the first 12-hour Twilight Zone marathon. It's rare on a summer day when a kid wants to stay inside, especially in a New York City summer with no air conditioning. But on that first 4th of July marathon, I wasn't going anywhere. Up at 7 to watch "Time Enough at Last," done at 7 with "Monsters Are Due On Maple Street." I became familiar with old actors unburdened from classic roles, like Burgess Meredith not playing Mick from Rocky, or William Shatner as someone other than James T. Kirk. Jack Klugman was not Oscar Madison (The Odd Couple), and he was alongside Jonathan Winters.
Mostly though, the draw for me was the storytelling. A lot of my early writing hinged heavily on slightly supernatural plots, science fiction and twist endings, and that is all stuff I attribute to watching this genius show. It's creator, Rod Serling, was one of the master storytellers of his day. His writing credit appears on such classic episodes as "I Shot An Arrow Into The Air," and his iconic deadpan delivery of the shows monologues are hallmarks of that show. A lot of that found its way into my writing as a teenager and some still filters through today.
As a matter of fact, the title of this post, if you are uninitiated, is one of the series most quoted lines, from the episode "To Serve Man."
So, I leave you today, to visit a dimension not of sight or sound, but of mind. A dimension where the only limits we know are the limits of imagination. A dimension called...
Okay, so a day after the US was eliminated from the World Cup, it's time to take a quick look back at what it did.
Despite what Ann Coulter said, it kind of reinforced the commonality of all Americans. No matter our walk of life, political alignment, ethnic background, or religious slant, we all supported our team. We all chanted. We all watched.
We all gave props to Tim Howard for his gutsy performance against Belgium.
The beauty of it all was that we did so without hesitation, without consideration of whether the person chanting next to us was pro-choice or not, without worrying about the confrontation between creationism and evolution. We did so without the worry about whether or not climate change was real.
For the first time in a long time, it wasn't the 1% versus the 99%. It was the USA against the World.
Maybe it was because we were such huge underdogs, and everyone loves underdogs. Maybe it's because secretly, some part of our evolving national identity loves soccer as much as NFL or baseball. But for some reason, we were all believers. And it's even lasted after we've lost.
We need to hold on to this feeling of unity. Moments like this, where even an embattled President and his supporters and rivals are all on the same page in support of our country, are too precious to allow to pass. And they should happen much more often than every four years.
The political grandstanding between the Tea Party and the Sane People have come to the point where, due to the fact that they couldn't agree on a budget, on tax cuts, on anything, taxes have been arbitrarily increased and spending has been arbitrarily slashed. Some of the more egregious cuts?
Education: Goodbye Head Start and other programs that were federally funded. Hope you parents can find a way to deal with your kids after school.
Healthcare: In my home town, 3 major hospitals are closing in high need areas: SUNY Downstate, Brooklyn Hospital, LICH.
Immigration: several thousand illegal immigrants that were being detained in advance of obtaining paperwork have been released. Take that Arizona!
Defense: The military took huge and deep cuts, slashing it's size by at least 10%
Unemployment and Social Security: Both saw cuts of 6%, meaning the amount and duration of these benefits have been cut.
Oh, yeah, something like a million jobs have been lost in the process.
Now, the same people who were clamoring for smaller government are hamstrung and are wondering where the government support is. And the legislators who let this happen seem convinced that government is supposed to be run like a business, and turn a profit. They're wrong. Whenever government has extra money, it's not called profit, it's called surplus. There's a reason for that.
Well, now that TP has gotten what they want, I wonder if they'll be happy now?
A good friend asked for my thoughts about the new policy in The US Armed Forces that now allows women to serve on the front line in battle. I must apologize to her for being so late, but I had to form an opinion first.
Here it is: I feel this policy would be significant if it weren't just a formality. The military is allowing female soldiers the privilege of doing something that, in practical terms, they've been doing for years. This seems kind of redundant. For me, the bigger issue is the fact that, in this day and age, it's an issue. The fact that there needed to be an official decree to the fact is a little troubling.
In the Israeli military, everyone -- no exceptions -- is expected to serve two years in the military after age 17. It's a condition of citizenship. It's mandatory. And in times of war, all soldiers fight. Also mandatory. I'm not exactly the most gung-ho military guy, but for us to think we're somehow a more progressive nation because we've finally allowed women to officially choose to die alongside the "band of brothers..." well, it's a little late. The upside is that more female officers will emerge through battle. Currently there are 57 top-level female officers in the Armed Forces -- generals, admirals, etc -- and now these military minds may finally be put to the test in the theater of war. And who knows, this announcement may lead to a Chairwoman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the future.
However, the notion of women on the front lines is far from revolutionary. Whatever meager arguments against putting a woman in the heat of battle -- physically weaker, no killer instinct or whatever -- are as antiquated as the idea of announcing something like this formally.
This past Friday, a terrible thing happened, and 20 little lights were extinguished, along with 6 who would guide them. A school got shot up. As I write those words, those words that I've been avoiding writing for several days, I still get a little choked up. I struggle with the notion that it happened, and I can't help but think of how this horror could have been prevented. I still am rather disgusted. I still am angry. This should not have happened. And yet...
This event, this horrible happenstance, opens the door for certain conversations that we have long avoided about the realities of our own culture. The absence of those 20 little lights shine a beacon on what's tragically wrong with us in oh so many ways. If there's any good at all to be taken from this, it's that certain accepted paradigms about us as a people are going to be taken to task, for better or for worse. Our gun culture, unique in the world for it's stubborn persistence and its effectiveness in killing innocent people, will be looked at. Our media ideals, where we have more and more eschewed news for entertainment, will be looked at. Our views on mental illness will be looked at.
The debate going on immediately, and rightfully so, is about gun control. The 2nd Amendment guarantees the right to bear arms for all US citizens. As an interesting sidebar, the 3rd Amendment gives us the right to not have soldiers quartered in our homes. That part is important because at the time it was written, British troops had the unfortunate tendency to camp out in the homes of random citizens under orders from the crown, with the citizens of the country unable to do anything about it. In order to prevent that from happening again, the founding fathers put into legislation this right for all Americans to be able to refuse quartering by force if necessary, and of course, allowing for armed revolt if necessary. No invading soldiers in the home. This little bit of history is constantly glossed over in gun control conversations that involve the 2nd Amendment because times have changed. For starters, the US military is the elite of the world, largest in numbers and most effective in killing power, a development the founding fathers surely could not have envisioned. We're not shooting soldiers, not without swift, immediate, and likely final reprisal. Secondly, the founding fathers could never dream of the destructive killing power of the guns we have today. Single shot smoothbore weapons were the order of the day, musket balls and the like. Chambered weapons were still a good eighty years away, as were guns that you could wield with one hand. I believe that if those great minds who wrote the Constitution were alive today, they would make a case to clarify and adjust the amendment for today's time. After all, who really needs a scoped, automatic, military-grade rifle to hunt?
The bespectacled gentleman to the left is Joe Scarborough, MSNBC host and former four term Republican Senator. He was an ardent defender of the right to bear arms. After last Friday's massacre, he changed his mind. (Watch the video. the speech is actually quite moving.) Our culture regarding guns employs the fantasy of one man, alone, defending his land and his family. Our firearm based entertainment employs this belief. What they fail to realize is the reality: that putting a gun in the hand of an average, untrained, and scared civilian is going to get him/her and others killed. Movies purport the notion that all shots fired find their target, and when they do, death (and usually justice) is quick, clean and swift. Reality check: it doesn't work that way. Famously in the early 2000's, 6 trained NYPD officers fired 41 shots at a suspect and only managed to hit him 8 times. Untrained, frightened people with guns would muster a far inferior hit rate. The other part of our gun culture that needs to be addressed is ease of access. In many states, firearms are easier to obtain than a Driver's License. For Driver's License, you have to demonstrate physical ability and proficiency in operating a vehicle, and in some cases you can only attempt to show that proficiency after logging extensive hours from approved trainers. You also have to show proficiency in each vehicle you intend to drive-- separate licenses for trucks, boats, motorcycles, and cars. To obtain a gun in most states, all you need is a Driver's License and no criminal record. In some states, the criminal record thing is negotiable. Like with cars, just being here shouldn't automatically allow you access to a projectile weapon.
There is a thought process of late that says that teachers, principals and school personnel should be armed. Really? Is that the kind of world you want to raise your kids in, that the teacher is strapped in a school?
Shortly after the shooting, a response attributed to Morgan Freeman was circulated via social media:
You want to know why. This may sound cynical, but here's why.
It's because of the way the media reports it. Flip on the news and watch how we treat the Batman theater shooter and the Oregon mall shooter like celebrities. Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris are household names, but do you know the name of a single *victim* of Columbine? Disturbed people who would otherwise just off themselves in their basements see the news and want to top it by doing something worse, and going out in a memorable way. Why a grade school? Why children? Because he'll be remembered as a horrible monster, instead of a sad nobody.
CNN's article says that if the body count "holds up", this will rank as the second deadliest shooting behind Virginia Tech, as if statistics somehow make one shooting worse than another. Then they post a video interview of third-graders for all the details of what they saw and heard while the shootings were happening. Fox News has plastered the killer's face on all their reports for hours. Any articles or news stories yet that focus on the victims and ignore the killer's identity? None that I've seen yet. Because they don't sell. So congratulations, sensationalist media, you've just lit the fire for someone to top this and knock off a day care center or a maternity ward next.
You can help by forgetting you ever read this man's name, and remembering the name of at least one victim. You can help by donating to mental health research instead of pointing to gun control as the problem. You can help by turning off the news.
It, of course, came out after the fact that he didn't say it, but whoever did has a point. We glorify the shooters, the Dylan Klebolds and Jared Loughners, the Adam Lanzas and the Trench Coat Mafias. We may not glorify their actions, but we make celebrities of them, independent of the victims. Their suicides are massively played up, and if they're brought to justice, their trials are far from subdued. In the effort to make their deeds infamous, we make these people-- ultimately, these criminals -- famous. So why wouldn't a troubled person-- whose personal troubles make right and wrong muddy in favor of being noticed-- shoot up a school? Or a movie theatre? Or a hospital? Or a Congresswoman's campaign stop? The media coverage will get them noticed. Over the last 30 years, news has gone from informative to sensationalist. We went from informing on the events of the day, to an invasively voyeuristic entertainment system that focuses on the trivialities of life for famous people. This is the news. It's not supposed to be entertaining, it's not supposed to be sold. Its purpose is to inform the public conversation. No bias, no context, just information.
Much is being made of Adam Lanza's mental problems as the story develops, specifically his Asperger's syndrome. And once that tidbit of information came out, there was almost a public sigh of relief, like "Oh, whew, okay. He's crazy, he had Asperger's, so that's why it happened." What this shows is a tragic ignorance about mental illness, and that ignorance comes from avoiding what it means to be mentally ill. Asperger's does not necessarily make people prone to violence. It's a social disorder, meaning the way one interacts with other people is somewhat skewed by normal standards. Conversely, people with Asperger's tend to show extreme interest and proficiency in specific tasks and subjects. We usually observe high levels of intelligence in people with these types of social disorder.
So what now? Obviously there was something wrong with the kid. The answer to that is that we may never know what exactly was going through his head in the days leading up to last Friday. Maybe that's the point. Working in healthcare, I've noticed that mental illness is used as a catch-all for a lot of things that aren't so bad. I'm not saying that Clinical Depression or Bi-Polar Disorder don't exist. I'm saying that the large majority of people who claim it don't have it. Mental illnesses have been for a very long time over-diagnosed, over-medicated, and under-treated. The response to depression is to give brain altering chemicals. Bi-Polar disorder treatment involves mood-stabilizing medication. ADHD sufferers get Speed. But how many of these people actually have these disorders? There's nothing you can see in a CAT scan that shows depression, or bi-polar, or whatever. Again, this is not to discount the people who suffer from these illnesses. I've seen the people who do, and these meds are life-saving.
Tell me if this sounds familiar: You're watching TV when a pharmaceutical ad comes on. "Do you feel down? Less energetic? Like you don't want to get out of bed?"
You think, "yeah, sometimes."
"Then ask your doctor about Pill X!"
For most of us it ends there, but then there are the people who do have a talk with their doctor and do get a sample of Pill X, which after using they feel amazing, creating a false set of symptoms they must continually treat. Think about that for a moment.
These are a sample of the conversations that we will be having as a people over the next few weeks and months as we figure out what happened and and how it could have been averted. Not all of it is useful, or pointed in the right direction, but all of them are conversations we need to discuss.
This has been a weird month. I'm personally struggling with a way to put it all into perspective. The thing that keeps popping back into my head is as much as I love my hometown -- and I LOVE my hometown -- for the very first time in my life, I was glad that I didn't live there.
Hurricane Sandy gut-punched New York and New Jersey something terrible. We've all seen the news. 20 foot storm surges, insane winds, fire. End of the world type stuff. From the hundreds of friends I still have back east I've heard all kinds of things, from the best case (everyone's fine, no damage) to the worst (lost everything including someone I care about). Staten Island and Breezy Point are nearly unrecognizable in pictures, looking very much like a very cold, war-torn, Third World country. I had initially wanted to recount all the stories I had heard regarding the hurricane, but the fact is that they were numerous, and since the majority of my friends still live there, there's no sense in writing about it from the outside. It seems disrespectful. The resiliency of my hometown was never in question. We're tough, and strong, quick to our feet and ready to charge again.
In this weird month, we've also seen the first ethnic minority leader of a major world power become the first ethnic minority re-elected leader of a major world power. The people who disagree with many of the things this man believes in terms of how a government should be run have had their heads explode over this fact. We've heard all manner of reasons why it happened, from the offer of "free stuff" to voter fraud, to a miscount in the tally. We've heard all manner of numerical commentary, from the 1%, to the 99%, to the 47%. The last 18 days could be the subject of their own rant, actually. The very peaceful and diplomatic point is that, no matter your politics, for the next four years this man represents you. Revel in his successes. Take him to task for his failures. Or move to friggin' Mexico for all I care. Respect the office.
This has been a very strange month, indeed, on very many levels. And the crazy thing is really that it still isn't quite over. So as we roll into the Thanksgiving holiday, I implore everyone, while they enjoy the turkey and football, appreciate what you have. Appreciate who you have. Enjoy the rest of the strangest month of many of our lives. Be safe.
**I do apologize for the randomness of this post. But this has been a weird November.
Yet another day of remembering where we were and what we were doing at a watershed event for this generation. I don't know that I have the energy for it this year; after all, one can only stare at the pre-9/11 skyline of New York City for so long before you realize that you will never forget, no matter what you do to try. How long can I do that before I stop being the wistful transplant, feeling sorrow and horror and sadness? When do I become the doddering old man who is solemnly depressed because his childhood home was torn down?
I'm not saying it's time to move on. Time has a way of doing that whether or not we're on board for it. I am saying mourner beware. We should never forget, we should have a place in our hearts for the buildings and the tragedy of loss of life, and the irreparable harm done to my city and my country alike. I am saying that living in the past is a sure way to miss the future. Time waits for no one. A new tower rises from the ashes and steel of the old one. Entire middle schools are now populated with kids who never saw the buildings up close, who have only known this to be reality.
So while we wrap ourselves with a blanket of sadness, my friends, it is time we begin to look to the future. Rather than focus on what this has done to us eleven years on, it's time to shift that to who we've become in the aftermath. That is a far more interesting conversation.
So I'm taking a break from the ranting and raving about politics or sports or whatever to update you all on what's happening writing-wise...
Punch-Drunk Bastards is still in its last copy edits. The copy editor I've hired is doing a wonderful job. I've heard some positive feedback from some of my Facebook Test Readers, still waiting to hear back from others. After Labor Day, I'm going to be going full steam to getting this in print. Best case scenario is I sell this to a publisher, but if not I have no problem self-publishing again. The stuff I learned from The Fab 5 has been instrumental in driving this project. A more professional approach has been taken here, and the end of a seven year-long journey will arrive this year.
Open is last year's unfinished NaNoWriMo project that I've been tweaking here and there. I completed 1/4 of the contest length of it during WriMo, and that's the most work I've ever generated in such a short period of time. It felt good. I had earlier stated that I would release bits of that story episodically on this blog, and I still plan on doing that once the first draft is completed. Hopefully, publicly posting it would invite critique that I could use to improve the novel as a whole. Look for the first draft sometime in December.
The Enclave is a vampire story I'm developing for this year's WriMo. It has its roots in a series of short stories I wrote when I was younger, and had a little bit of notoriety among my close friends. I won't say much about it now, but to be blunt... it ain't Twilight. There's blood and gore and bullets and neuroses. It's very much a guy's vampire story... ha ha ha.
Killer's Royale is an independent comic book project that I've been tapped to write. Details are scarce, but I'm excited about it. Scripting a comic has been a dream of mine for a very long time and I'm very excited that I'm even being considered to lend a voice to the project.
There are other projects in the hole that I haven't even gotten my head around as yet, but these are the four that should occupy the remainder of 2012, and most of 2013 if the Mayans are wrong. One should always have a contingency plan, I guess...
So I'd like to take this time to give all my friends and family very loud and vocal thanks for the support shown over the years, it's been greatly appreciated and I look forward to making you all proud. One day I'll add the word "fans" to the list of thanks, but I won't get too far ahead of myself.
Great drama was sparse. Intelligent television got canceled after barely a chance, and somewhere along the line, entertainment veered toward sensationalism with a particular focus on the drunken misadventures of Italian-American twentysomethings who referred to themselves in the derogatory. Thank goodness for Aaron Sorkin, producer of The West Wing, because within the first nine minutes of HBO's The Newsroom, I was sold. This is DVR-worthy.
Jeff Daniels does a remarkable job as beleaguered anchorman Will McAvoy, who while on an interview panel at Northwestern University, gets pressured into answering a question that went against his journalistic integrity. What follows is a five minute pipe-bomb of a rant as to why America is NOT the greatest country on the planet. (The answer will be the subject of my next blog entry.) He returns from a three-week exile to find his entire staff turned over and faces the realization that he's not the man he used to be in many of the most important ways. McAvoy's boss, played by Law & Order's Sam Waterston, hires his ex-girlfriend as his new executive producer, and she tries to get him back to being a newsman.
I never watched a Sorkin series. Didn't catch a single episode of The West Wing. I came away thinking maybe I should have. I can't think of too much TV that left me with goosebumps.
The rest of the supporting cast was incredible as well, but this was Jeff Daniels' star vehicle. His initial breakdown that set events in motion is something I wish I would see in news today. Again, that's the subject of another blog.
Intelligent TV is back again, people. We should watch it while we got it.
Today, the state of North Carolina will pass a constitutional amendment strictly defining marriage as between a man and a woman, thereby banning gay marriage, and becoming the 30th state to do so. I'm not gay, and I can still see how this affects me directly.
We are regressing as a nation, folks. We have gotten to the point where we are selectively disallowing certain American citizens certain rights. We've been down this road before, in the Jim Crow-era South, and it didn't work out so well. The law banning the practice of Islam, as short-sighted and asinine as it would be, is just around the corner should this come to pass. After all, one of the reasons this is even a conversation is that "we're a Christian nation."
The collective xenophobia (fear of the unknown) of the powers-that-be are going to descend this nation into a very dark time. The turbulent 60's, the movements of Dr. King and Malcolm X may have been in the short term about black Americans, but the bigger picture of what they fought for is that legislated injustice should not be allowed to stand. The differences between us should not empower one individual over another, should not entitle one to basic human rights over another.
So I posit this thought; is the Civil Rights Movement over? I mean, we got what we wanted out of it, and we even have a President in office to show for it. Is this as far as it goes?
Warning: The following post is of a political nature, exemplifying my pinko leftist commie beliefs and railing against wealthy right-wingers. It also contains sexual wordplay involving politicians and their wives. Reader discretion is advised.
The most demeaning thing that's ever happened to me happened when I was about 19 years old, living in New York, and making just a hair above minimum wage at a thankless job I worked after school. It was at a home heating fuel company, and the grandson of the owner was brought in to meet the staff. He was about 12 or 13 at the time. My older brother and I were the only people of color who worked in the office as opposed to out on the trucks, and he paid particular attention to us. He came to me (and my brother, I later found out) and asked what it was like to work and go to school. After I told him the answer (it sucked and I was always broke), he said to me "Keep at it. That sort of thing builds character."
I'm sure he thought he was being inspirational.
I bring this up because of a conversation I had with a co-worker. I've been largely ignorant of the political scene this election cycle because as we get closer to a one-on-one battle, the rhetoric gets ramped up to unpleasantly ugly attacks and I want no part of it. I know who I'm voting for already, and have no time or patience for what amounts to a high stakes playground game of "the dozens." That said, it was brought to my attention that a woman publicly criticized Ann Romney, the wife of probably Republican candidate Mitt Romney, as being unfit to comment on the state of women in the workplace considering that as a stay-at-home mom and wife of a gajillionaire, she's never worked a day in her life. Her response: "I was a stay at home mom raising five boys. Believe me, that IS hard work."
Huh.
There is so much here to dissect. Let's start with the fact that the woman, Hilary Rosen, an LGBT activist, was forced to apologize. For exercising her First Amendment rights. Simply because this rich chick got offended. Is that where we are now? It's okay to call Trayvon Martin a thug, or say on radio that women who require contraceptives should be made to videotape their sex lives, but offend a rich chick who had the good fortune to blow the stock broker who became Governor, and all hell breaks loose? Certain factions of the populations make derogatory racial remarks about our PRESIDENT, but offend a rich white lady and you have to apologize. I call bullshit. The people who are so fervent about protecting certain rights seem to be very pissed off when these rights extend past them to the rest of us.
Secondly, Ms. Rosen was right. Ann Romney hasn't had to work hard a day in her life, and between Mormon missionary work and the "job" that got her married, she hasn't ever had to punch a clock. She's never had to make ends meet. And let's be real, I find it hard to believe this rich missionary lady ever really had to do very much of the actual raising of her five boys. It's easy to be a stay at home mom when you never have to even worry about paying the bills. My mother never had that luxury. She worked, put herself through school and fed seven hungry mouths. Now believe me, THAT is hard work.
I have a huge problem with this "let them eat cake" attitude with which the wealthy 1% regards the rest of us. This culture of entitlement they seem to have engendered has only gotten more brazen in the wake of the Bush years, that they are supposed to walk over us, and we are supposed to genuflect before them and that is just supposed to be the status quo. No. Hell no. That's not the country the Founding Fathers signed on for.
As the child of immigrants in to nation of immigrants, I find a particular point of contention in today's political landscape to be puzzling at best.
In the southern border states, there is talk of building an electrified fence. There is talk of mass deportations. of shuttering our borders so illegals can't get through, stemming the tide of the huddled masses as they get to our golden arches of opportunity. It makes me wonder, when it was exactly we got so xenophobic.
My parents arrived here from Jamaica in the 70's. I wasn't born until quite some time later, so the details are sketchy to me, but to my knowledge they weren't under the constant threat of deportation for the simple reason of being here. They were able to hold down jobs, earn a living, build a family all while taking the slow, necessary steps toward citizenship.
That was about 40 years ago though and in this day and age, there seems to be a concerted effort to stamp out that opportunity. This country used to advertise itself the world over as the land of opportunity, where all you needed to succeed was the ability to get here, a strong work ethic, and the strength of character to see your dreams through. The poem, "The New Colossus," on a bronze plaque at the Statue of Liberty welcomed other people's downtrodden and cast-offs. The famed excerpt of the poem proudly proclaims "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore..." and it is an ideal that we are failing, and miserably.
This nation has done plenty, especially in the last decade or so, to demonize the people who would come here to make a better life for themselves, to make it harder for them to gain legal status, to get a quality education, to achieve. It is shameful what we have become.
