22 August 2010

45-51 Park Pl

I wasn't going to write this post, and then I wasn't going to post it, but the last few days have seen such a surge of negativity that I simply can no longer remain silent.

1. They have no right!

Actually, they do. Whether it is a mosque or an Islamic Center makes absolutely no difference. They have every right to erect their building, having gone through the appropriate (city) channels and obtaining the requisite permits.

Read the actual wording of the First Amendment:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Forcing them to relocate, whether by injunction or through persecution, is in direct violation of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. You can't simply throw it out just because it happens to be inconvenient with regard to your own personal opinion. I suppose you could spend the rest of your life picketing in front of the building once they build it - after all, that is your right - but I do hope you'd find something a bit more productive to do with the rest of your life.


2. But Ground Zero is Hollowed Ground/The remains of my loved ones are still there!

How far is far enough? The location is already several blocks from Ground Zero. I was living on Union Square when 9/11 happened - about two miles away. I breathed in all the smoke when the winds shifted the plume northward. I remember the smoke was so thick that I couldn't see my hand if I held it out in front of me. Are my lungs also hallowed ground, too, because some partials of human flesh might have rested there?


3. Islam/Muslims are evil!

It is not the fault of Islam that 9/11 happened, and blaming all Muslims for the actions of a few psychotic extremists is not only unfair, but it also solves nothing. I almost lost my father that day. I watched, helplessly, as people jumped to their deaths. I am sorry it happened, and I grieve for those that lost loved ones that day, but I urge you to not let your personal grief infringe upon the rights of others.


The right path is not always the easy one. In fact, it rarely is. Our Constitution makes us great. Don't throw it away.

13 August 2010

Kitty Updates

My Four Fur Daughters


I realize that I've been a bit remiss with giving my four fur daughters their due exposure on this blog, so that's going to change today. The cats have all been doing well, despite all the changes in the last 2 years.

Athena
Athena is a total sweetheart of a cat, even moreso now than she was as a kitten. She cuddles in bed with us every night (sometimes under the covers), and follows us around the house all day long. She's always the first to come running whenever Aidan is crying, but she's also not nearly as patient with him when he tries to play with her. I think she's beginning to realize that Aidan is growing up, and is therefore expecting him to treat her more gently. Athena is very in tune with my moods and has done wonders to cheer me up these last few months. She gazes straight into your eyes so lovingly, that I just feel like she knows. This cat is my soulmate and I wish she could live forever!

Gaia
Gaia still helps me with the washing every evening, and is also very sweet. As soon as Aidan goes to bed she's in our face demanding attention and love, and will meow loudly if we ignore her. Gaia is also continuing to perfect her food-stealing skills. Most recently, she pulled out rabbit scraps from the garbage (cooked, fortunately). Gaia still rides on my shoulder and runs from Aidan; however, since I've been having Aidan feed her she's warming a bit. She still doesn't trust his sudden movements, and honestly I don't blame her. Gaia loves going outside in the pen.

Aurora
Aurora is still Mama's girl, and is probably still hoping to wake up one morning to find Aidan has mysteriously disappeared. The only time she ever lets Aidan near her is when he's holding her food dish at mealtime. Still, she's yet to scratch or bite him and does come around more often. Aurora was very happy when the cat door broke, allowing her easier access to outside. She still cuddles in bed every night and wakes us up (early) ever morning by pawing at the door.

Jazzy
Jazzy is still fat, and still thinks she's starving. I wish I could get her weight under control so I didn't have to constantly chase her away from everyone else's food bowl; she's becoming increasingly skittish as a result, and it makes me sad. Jazzy is such a sweet, loving kitty, and I just want her to be healthy! Jazzy helps Aurora get us up early every morning, and still brings me toys throughout the day for fetch. She's less nervous around Aidan these days, and I've sometimes found her napping in the rocking chair next to Aidan's bed. I really hope, as Aidan matures and learns to be more gentle, that they develop a bond.

10 August 2010

The Green Elephant

This morning Aidan wanted to read every book in our library that features an elephant.

"Mama, I want elephant, please?"

"Aidan, would you like me to make you an elephant today?"

"Make me elephant? Please!"

And so I did.
And when Aidan arrived home from Grandma's house, he was exceptionally pleased to have an elephant!

So happy, in fact, that he took Elephant to bed with him, preferring him over his usual bedtime companions: "Daddy's Tools" (aka, two nut drivers). The 4.5hrs I spent sewing this toy was SO worth it when I saw how happy it made him.

04 August 2010

Proposition 8 Overturned: Gay Marriage Ban Ruled Unconstitutional

This definitely warranted a second posting today! Sure did take them long enough.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/04/proposition-8-overturned_n_670739.html


AND there was much rejoicing!

Here I Stand

July 27, 2010

Valedictorian Speaks Out Against Schooling in Graduation Speech

Last month, Erica Goldson graduated as valedictorian of Coxsackie-Athens High School. Instead of using her graduation speech to celebrate the triumph of her victory, the school, and the teachers that made it happen, she channeled her inner Ivan Illich and de-constructed the logic of a valedictorian and the whole educational system.

Erica originally posted her full speech on Sign of the Times, and without need for editing or cutting, here's the speech in its entirety:

Here I stand

There is a story of a young, but earnest Zen student who approached his teacher, and asked the Master, "If I work very hard and diligently, how long will it take for me to find Zen? The Master thought about this, then replied, "Ten years . ." The student then said, "But what if I work very, very hard and really apply myself to learn fast -- How long then?" Replied the Master, "Well, twenty years." "But, if I really, really work at it, how long then?" asked the student. "Thirty years," replied the Master. "But, I do not understand," said the disappointed student. "At each time that I say I will work harder, you say it will take me longer. Why do you say that?" Replied the Master, "When you have one eye on the goal, you only have one eye on the path."

This is the dilemma I've faced within the American education system. We are so focused on a goal, whether it be passing a test, or graduating as first in the class. However, in this way, we do not really learn. We do whatever it takes to achieve our original objective.

Some of you may be thinking, "Well, if you pass a test, or become valedictorian, didn't you learn something? Well, yes, you learned something, but not all that you could have. Perhaps, you only learned how to memorize names, places, and dates to later on forget in order to clear your mind for the next test. School is not all that it can be. Right now, it is a place for most people to determine that their goal is to get out as soon as possible.

I am now accomplishing that goal. I am graduating. I should look at this as a positive experience, especially being at the top of my class. However, in retrospect, I cannot say that I am any more intelligent than my peers. I can attest that I am only the best at doing what I am told and working the system. Yet, here I stand, and I am supposed to be proud that I have completed this period of indoctrination. I will leave in the fall to go on to the next phase expected of me, in order to receive a paper document that certifies that I am capable of work. But I contest that I am a human being, a thinker, an adventurer - not a worker. A worker is someone who is trapped within repetition - a slave of the system set up before him. But now, I have successfully shown that I was the best slave. I did what I was told to the extreme. While others sat in class and doodled to later become great artists, I sat in class to take notes and become a great test-taker. While others would come to class without their homework done because they were reading about an interest of theirs, I never missed an assignment. While others were creating music and writing lyrics, I decided to do extra credit, even though I never needed it. So, I wonder, why did I even want this position? Sure, I earned it, but what will come of it? When I leave educational institutionalism, will I be successful or forever lost? I have no clue about what I want to do with my life; I have no interests because I saw every subject of study as work, and I excelled at every subject just for the purpose of excelling, not learning. And quite frankly, now I'm scared.

John Taylor Gatto, a retired school teacher and activist critical of compulsory schooling, asserts, "We could encourage the best qualities of youthfulness - curiosity, adventure, resilience, the capacity for surprising insight simply by being more flexible about time, texts, and tests, by introducing kids into truly competent adults, and by giving each student what autonomy he or she needs in order to take a risk every now and then. But we don't do that." Between these cinderblock walls, we are all expected to be the same. We are trained to ace every standardized test, and those who deviate and see light through a different lens are worthless to the scheme of public education, and therefore viewed with contempt.

H. L. Mencken wrote in The American Mercury for April 1924 that the aim of public education is not "to fill the young of the species with knowledge and awaken their intelligence. ... Nothing could be further from the truth. The aim ... is simply to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same safe level, to breed and train a standardized citizenry, to put down dissent and originality. That is its aim in the United States."

To illustrate this idea, doesn't it perturb you to learn about the idea of "critical thinking." Is there really such a thing as "uncritically thinking?" To think is to process information in order to form an opinion. But if we are not critical when processing this information, are we really thinking? Or are we mindlessly accepting other opinions as truth?

This was happening to me, and if it wasn't for the rare occurrence of an avant-garde tenth grade English teacher, Donna Bryan, who allowed me to open my mind and ask questions before accepting textbook doctrine, I would have been doomed. I am now enlightened, but my mind still feels disabled. I must retrain myself and constantly remember how insane this ostensibly sane place really is.

And now here I am in a world guided by fear, a world suppressing the uniqueness that lies inside each of us, a world where we can either acquiesce to the inhuman nonsense of corporatism and materialism or insist on change. We are not enlivened by an educational system that clandestinely sets us up for jobs that could be automated, for work that need not be done, for enslavement without fervency for meaningful achievement. We have no choices in life when money is our motivational force. Our motivational force ought to be passion, but this is lost from the moment we step into a system that trains us, rather than inspires us.

We are more than robotic bookshelves, conditioned to blurt out facts we were taught in school. We are all very special, every human on this planet is so special, so aren't we all deserving of something better, of using our minds for innovation, rather than memorization, for creativity, rather than futile activity, for rumination rather than stagnation? We are not here to get a degree, to then get a job, so we can consume industry-approved placation after placation. There is more, and more still.

The saddest part is that the majority of students don't have the opportunity to reflect as I did. The majority of students are put through the same brainwashing techniques in order to create a complacent labor force working in the interests of large corporations and secretive government, and worst of all, they are completely unaware of it. I will never be able to turn back these 18 years. I can't run away to another country with an education system meant to enlighten rather than condition. This part of my life is over, and I want to make sure that no other child will have his or her potential suppressed by powers meant to exploit and control. We are human beings. We are thinkers, dreamers, explorers, artists, writers, engineers. We are anything we want to be - but only if we have an educational system that supports us rather than holds us down. A tree can grow, but only if its roots are given a healthy foundation.

For those of you out there that must continue to sit in desks and yield to the authoritarian ideologies of instructors, do not be disheartened. You still have the opportunity to stand up, ask questions, be critical, and create your own perspective. Demand a setting that will provide you with intellectual capabilities that allow you to expand your mind instead of directing it. Demand that you be interested in class. Demand that the excuse, "You have to learn this for the test" is not good enough for you. Education is an excellent tool, if used properly, but focus more on learning rather than getting good grades.

For those of you that work within the system that I am condemning, I do not mean to insult; I intend to motivate. You have the power to change the incompetencies of this system. I know that you did not become a teacher or administrator to see your students bored. You cannot accept the authority of the governing bodies that tell you what to teach, how to teach it, and that you will be punished if you do not comply. Our potential is at stake.

For those of you that are now leaving this establishment, I say, do not forget what went on in these classrooms. Do not abandon those that come after you. We are the new future and we are not going to let tradition stand. We will break down the walls of corruption to let a garden of knowledge grow throughout America. Once educated properly, we will have the power to do anything, and best of all, we will only use that power for good, for we will be cultivated and wise. We will not accept anything at face value. We will ask questions, and we will demand truth.

So, here I stand. I am not standing here as valedictorian by myself. I was molded by my environment, by all of my peers who are sitting here watching me. I couldn't have accomplished this without all of you. It was all of you who truly made me the person I am today. It was all of you who were my competition, yet my backbone. In that way, we are all valedictorians.

I am now supposed to say farewell to this institution, those who maintain it, and those who stand with me and behind me, but I hope this farewell is more of a "see you later" when we are all working together to rear a pedagogic movement. But first, let's go get those pieces of paper that tell us that we're smart enough to do so!

Taken from http://blog.swiftkickonline.com/2010/07/valedictorian-speaks-out-against-schooling-in-graduation-speech.html

01 August 2010

Reflections

We are coping with our decision, but it hasn't been particularly easy. Chad's family seems to be pretending nothing happened, and most of my family is still ignoring me completely. I'm sure Chad's family just has no idea what to say, but I wish they'd say something to acknowledge our loss. I did, finally, have a short chat with my MIL, but I feel it was not long enough and not enough was said. As for my family, well, they've always been an odd sort. My sweet cousins in Brasil have said far more to comfort me than anyone else. My dad is just happy I'm not putting my life in danger anymore. He and my stepmother were the only two people who never questioned my judgment, and for that I am thankful. It's difficult enough to make such a decision (at least it was for us) without having to defend it to others, especially those who really have no idea what it's like to make such a decision. The one person who I hoped would understand the most has been completely absent, and that really hurts. My grandparents haven't said anything, but honestly I don't think they know, so it's not their fault.

We didn't really have any good choices in this situation, but I still maintain we made the right choice.