Nine Eleven

"Is there so much love in the world that we can afford to discriminate against any kind of love?" Father Mychal Judge, FDNY, "Victim number 0001" September 11, 2001

Let’s face it. For 97-98% of us, we’ve done nothing to deserve the sacrifice of those who charged into the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Those heroes (whose brethren in the language of today are probably referred to as union thugs) as well as the victims of 9/11 have been given nothing by most of the people of the United States.

Sure, we’ll remember tomorrow, post some random patriotic Facebook status, watch some well made programming with bad music selections, make some random comments to others about how much the world has changed, etc. But mostly, we’ll just go on, like every other day since September, 2001. And I’m just saying if there was a President of the Haven’t Done Much to Help Out Since 9/11 to Change the Discourse and Path of America, I’d likely be a strong candidate.

We all have our 9/11 story, I was driving to Needham to attend a Superintendents' meeting, heard on sports radio that it appeared that a small plane had hit one of the Towers, it was very confusing of course. And shortly after beepers (yes, beepers) and cell phones started blowing up, the meeting quickly split up, the drive home very stressful and my now wife for some reason was kept at work as everyone else headed home to figure out what the hell was going on. Rumors were everywhere, and we went to dinner where everyone was attached to CNN and then to church to reflect on the day's events. Strangely, we were drawn to the Catholic church in Malden, which just seemed a natural place to turn to. My mother was in Lower Manhattan, and the cell traffic was crazy there, and it took several hours to realize that yes, she was not selling umbrellas in the financial district and was at the Javits Center instead. Of course, she said she was worried about us, as if I had made a quick trip to Logan to fly out to California, but such is a mother's way. But for most, we were observers in a crazy affair. Meaning a history changing crazy affair.

Certainly there are the under 1% of the population who have served overseas, and their families who have sacrificed. Certainly those who were widowed/orphaned that day have sacrificed, but for most of us, it’s a time for us to celebrate the concept of American exceptionalism. This exceptionalism is mostly undeserved, but seen as some kind of birthright regardless of any particular effort to make this country a better place. We are the beneficiaries of our own zip codes.I’ve written about his before, http://theangrymiddle.blogspot.com/2007/09/beautiful-day.html,

I generally abhor the idea of patriotism. Not that I don’t love this country, it’s the best political organization ever, and in no country ever would someone like me ever have the opportunity that I do and have taken advantage of. Nor do I not appreciate those that have sacrificed so much, so that I could sit on my fat ass on Sundays and watch football, go to the polls a couple times a year to decide on my leaders, and have all the very real blessings of liberty.

However this bumper sticker patriotism cheapens the sacrifice of what all have done over the years.Instead of building on and appreciating the sacrifice of those on September 11th, we have instead become a bizarre collection of folks. We have grown-up’s who believe in crazy, conspiracy theories. I do understand that there is real evil in the world, and certainly people like Osama Bin Laden and Mohammed Atta were true purveyors of that evil. However, no where in Al-Qaeda’s wildest dreams was there an idea that there would be Sharia Law in the United States or that Massachusetts would become part of some North American caliphate. While I’m certain that may have been used in the recruitment of some Saudi teenager, in the same way you would recruit an 80’s American teenager with visions of Heather Locklear, it was certainly not part of the goals and objectives in the cave in Kandahar.

What was? The idea that America would become confused, coming out of a bar swinging at the first target that it saw, like a drunk with it’s nose bloodied. The initial targets were obvious and righteous, to root out terrorism where it was and where it was supported. Everything after that became blurry, and as much as I hate to say it, at this point, maybe the terrorists have won. We have become a security state, with limitations of civil liberties, we have become more intolerant of difference; one might say that this is the product of war, but we may be in a war that may not have a foreseeable end. In WWII we did incarcerate Japanese citizens and other parts that are in retrospect of course, disagreeable, however of course, this war came to an end, and it was not a permanent state of affairs. Our country has become divided, a place where thinking that not so many years ago would be extremist has become the mainstream of one of the parties, and to ignore it on the other side, a candidate would do at extreme peril.

So on this day, we will reflect, some will pray, and my hope is that all of us will think about what this day did to us, and ironically how it divided us. Those who went up the stairs in the towers, didn’t care what race you were, what class you were, whether you were a citizen, a visitor or an “illegal immigrant” hired to clean the 99th floor. They were there to serve and protect. It saddens me today that we have cheapened that legacy of service.

Tomorrow, I’ll put out my flag, hoping that this day, perhaps in the same way that one bargains with the unknown in a state of illness or dying, that we as a nation will create a new discourse. A discourse that understands that a victory cannot be won solely by counterinsurgency tactics, a security state or in the most primitive words “nuking them”, it is instead a grand strategy of regaining the idea of that “City on a Hill” not because of our amazing military power or the power of our economy but instead on being the country where one is free and as that a beacon to the world and with a people able to create and achieve the level of accomplishment based on effort and ability. That is where the American dream appears to have been abandoned; we have become a nation of “nattering nabobs of negativity”. One hopes that as usual as a people we will rise above, or else the terrorists have won.

Education Month

To all kids, adult students and teachers and other educators returning to school, my wishes for a great school year. America's greatest investment in its future is in public education. A much maligned system but the system that has made America great through access to a pathway to the American dream. It is your bridge to being a life long learner and the most valuable of intergenerational gifts. If there is a teacher that lit this fire, try to figure out how to pay homage to their legacy.

So it's just easier to multitask and start with my Facebook post but being that it's September and the beginning of school, I just wanted to reflect on education for a couple of minutes. Now, as I said I work in education so I usually steer away from it so this is more of a tribute to school.

I'm a man of many words who is enchanted by the sound of his own voice. I'm intellectually arrogant and very thankful for those who have brought me down this path, because, my friends once you get into middle age, there is nothing more annoying than a dumb@ss, ignorant, f#ck. I'd rather have someone says something crazy that they made up instead of just parroting something idiotic that they heard somewhere else.

So just a couple teachers to think of. Not necessarily the best but memorable nonetheless. There was a series of teachers in junior high and high school who seemed more concerned with some weird code of discipline than if any learning was taking place, organizing kids, sorting them out, sometimes by academic achievement, sometimes by sports talents or who their parents were. Wanting you to memorize prepositions or some other nonsense instead of spending time on learning and critically thinking. But good or bad, these are experiences that build us and if you can reflect critically and clearly can help you to figure alot out, the greatest gift of age is reflection.

First from Maury Elementary School in Alexandria, Virginia, Mrs. Smith, I can barely remember her but I remember being pulled out of Elementary school classes for something called CLC. So instead of Mrs. Gill making you hold a trashcan over your head in punishment (because I guess that's what they do in Korea) we interviewed people, got to make announcements for Black History month over the loudspeaker (where I learned about Harriet Tubman)and put together a newspaper. And read whole books, not just little kid crap.

Next I can think of Mrs. Francis, famous in Harwich Public Schools as the meanest teacher ever. Fireball Francis scared the hell outta kids, she would throw the classes papers onto the ground if they were unalphabetized, and generally just make kids lives hell. However once when I asked her why some Indian slums had television attennas, she said to me "well Nyal, some people would rather have a hot dog on a silver platter than a piece of roast beef on a chipped plate". Stuff like that just sticks with you.

High school is a mess. For us boys, we seemed more concerned with throwing stuff at each other and general horseplay and mischief than anything else. We went through 4 9th grade earth science teachers including a green beret reservist before they find someone who could actually make it, and that was a 22 year old female UMass grad. I admired the former Ms. Farrell who left being a nun to teach English to us, Mr. Lynch who handed me one of my favorite books Man's Search for Meaning as a 13 year old 9th grader (which is difficult to reconcile with the same kids who were tossing wax peeled off from lab tables at each other)but ultimately it was Mr. Larson, a 12th grade government teacher who inspired all. I'm not sure how he ended up there at Harwich HS. Hippie, Deadhead graduate of Berkley who just blew everyone's mind by making you think and learn. Read 1984 and discuss current world politics, there are few kids you'll meet who weren't completely blown away by this man, no matter where you were in this highly tracked system, his NEED TO KNOW tests were stoppages in time, where every senior would actually study, this in a high school where few needed to bring home books, and homework was usually done on the bus, during study hall or wherever you could crib and cram quickly.

There's people I have to thank on the College level, Sally Polito at CCCC who told me I didn't really know how to write and then remarkably, taught me how to do it. Roberta Roberts at Framingham who taught me how to research, Catherine Walsh at UMassBoston who taught me about teaching and ultimately Sonia Nieto at UMass Amherst who exemplified what it was to be a Latino educator.

It's difficult to illustrate what a great educator is, our educational experiences are the sum of these educators, the books and other media we consume, the students we study with and those self-guided explorations of life and education outside the schoolhouse. Much of what I think we learn is in the context of those life experiences, work, love, friendships, travails, etc. But in the exploration of our common experiences, particularly those of us in public education we must appreciate the gift that we were given. It is the best investment we will ever make as a society.

Generations of Americans have come here searching for this opportunity. In fact, in the greatest of repressions against African Americans, during and after slavery, education, even the most functional literacy education was denied to African Americans. It is so shameful to see those that today will push those opportunities away after so many have suffered and struggled.

So, in my few last attempts to be serious before I start haranguing on the Republican clown car. Thanks, teachers. Thanks for everything.

Return of the Angry Middle

Wow, it's been a while, been doing genealogical research, combing through primary sources on line, etc. Having kids, growing tomatoes, working etc. Going to give it another try, to discipline myself to write a little again.

I've been thinking about it for a while, as I watch this political mess. Any dream that I would be anywhere in the middle, a moderate is odd. The right just keeps moving further to the right, so much that what were once plain vanilla liberals are labeled as "socialists", ideas that the Republicans had 20 years ago are now labeled leftist. All but two of the major candidates at this point for the Republican nomination would have been laughed out of any big money GOP events even 10 years ago for their extreme views.

But ultimately the person who got me to sign back in was Matt Noyes. Yup, the NECN weatherman. Recently during Tropical Storm/Hurricane Irene, Matt continued to give the most measured forecasts, using this crazy thing called science. For many in New England, outside of Vermont which suffered greatly and week long power outages in other places, the storm led to mostly inconvenience and the usual grumbling about it being malpredicted and hyped. Matt Noyes on the Braude show commented on the Narccisistic nature of Americans, if it didn't affect them than what was the big deal, he attacked his own profession for engaging in the same Narcissitic behavior when they overhyped aspects of the storm and fear mongered. But what was most impressive about Mr. Noyes is how he illustrated the science of meteorology, the progress in the prediction of weather, yet how much still needs to be learned.

So what impressed, me and affected me the most is that people have become hyper selfish, arrogant and meanspirited, particularly with the anonymity and ubiquity of the Internet. Read the comments on any news article on the Internet, listen to political talk radio and there is a diatribe of hate everywhere. Thinly veiled racism, homophobia, sexism, and just general meanspiritedness fill the electronic packets and airwaves.

That being said, it's in my nature to make fun of people and things. I don't want to come of as a hypocrite, but occasionally I'm going to poke fun at someone's lack of intelligence, funny shirt or comment, etc. So bear with me, I'm going to give this another shot.