Who could have imagined that in the United States, with its independent judiciary, thousands of men could be rounded up in the night -- many only because of their Muslim religion or foreign nationality -- without recourse to a trial, without even an acknowledgment that they had been arrested? Who could have dared to suggest that there would ever be "desaparecidos" in America? And there it was as well, torture being discussed as a legitimate option to protect a community in peril, and then being used in Guantanamo and Afghanistan, and even obscenely photographed in Iraq -- yes, there they were again, the depressing echoes of my Chile.
But worse perhaps than all of this was the erosion of the moral compass of America, the seeming indifference of the seeming majority to the suffering of others, the casual acceptance of "collateral damage" as an unquestioned consequence of the war on "terrorism," the demonization of an ubiquitous foe who had to be destroyed without second thoughts -- and often without first ones as well; without, in fact, any thoughtfulness at all. That was far more terrifying than the criminal attacks on New York and Washington: To realize that the Chile of strongman Augusto Pinochet was not that far away, not that difficult to imitate, that it was already hovering in the future and ready to materialize if we were not vigilant.
About being different:
About being different:
What about being married to, and living as an equal partner with, the father of your children? These days that makes you and me (and Liza, for example) quite a minority, and then we're a mere sliver of that group because within that relationship we are strong and independent individuals, not "helpmeets" on home assignment from heaven to serve patriarchs and raise an ideological army.
About why school teaches the wrong lessons:
It's not the curriculum, evolution versus whatever, or how many years of PE to require. It's the Socialization, doesn't everyone across the political spectrum agree? It's the attitudes, beliefs and default behaviors that hierarchical, standardized school "teaches" our impressionable young kids -- unquestioning submission to ritual,authority and the clock; form over function, FTE over family, NCLB over community; individuals young and old are (interchangeable) numbers who serve the institution rather than the other way around, etc.
Such lessons fit so seamlessly with socialized, organized religion that I marvel daily at how people who see the potential dangers in one, can't see it in the other. Why aren't we alarmed to action by the way fundamentalists naturally take to all that school structure and control and the clock, and rote and ritual, authority and punishment. Public or not, they LOVE schooling and rules for every situation, at least those I know, because it's comfortable, it's what they have been taught about right and wrong (don't think or argue, just follow the laws set down for you!) and such schoolish lessons are the very things that I worry give them the ultimate advantage in the struggle to govern us all . . .