New postings available at www.therubycanary.wordpress.com

Simon Shuma with Bill Moyers on the Future of America

Above is a link to a great video on Bill Moyers journal. Shama is a British writer who toured America making observations on how the cultural landscape is changing, including the rise in the fear of "the other."

Simon Schama's The American Future: A History


The US has harbored this myth of inclusion and moral superiority for decades. The myth of this being a welcoming land of immigrants is one created out of the convenience of the American people's horribly short memory. The advantage of not having strong history classes in the public schools, is that what we don't remember can't affect us. How soon we forget that Andrew Jackson was the first master of ethnic cleansing long before WWII. The class and culture wars in the neighborhoods of Boston and New York, where each new wave of immigrants caused cries of the end of the country. First the Germans were going to destroy everything, then the Irish, now, as the woman in the video proclaims, "The Mexicans come with their diseases."

Geography alone is an interesting factor in this perspective. Huge and isolated, we are both removed, and in a large way, protected from any country that might have a real problem with us. Our skewed and lacking view of the world comes in large part that the majority of Americans can't afford to travel even if they want to. (I know that may be hard for some to believe, but remember that 90% of the wealth in America is owned by 1% of the people.) Now, this is a slippery subject, and I am not comparing poverty in America to poverty in a lot of other countries, because they are very different things, but 58% of all Americans will live below the US poverty line at some point in their adult lives.

And what does lack of exposure, combined with the memory of a time when you couldn't afford groceries, combined with the fear of being in that place again - well, desperation, blame, and discrimination. In some people it inspires compassion and community, but I'm not getting the sense that we are leaning that way as a whole.

I read a lot of books about recent political violence, and I can't help but get the sense that as an American, growing up in these protected lands, that, with the exception of journalist and soldiers, we really don't have a clue. No one wants bombs dropped in their own backyard, but being privileged in this way has ruined our empathy, and our understanding. Put aside the moral highground, and notice that there is a lot more happening in the world then a bunch of people losing their houses to bad loans, at least if you live in a camper in Tennessee, as I do now, it's not going to be blown-up while I'm in it. What I'm getting it, is that I have a real problem with a country that has never experienced war in it's own neighborhoods, but has such huge opinions about it elsewhere.

I don't think people really talk about war here. Sure there are political arguments about what Bush did, there are news reports on Gaza, but no one on the streets is talking about it. Life is the same here, shopping, work, dinner. Brush teeth, start again.


[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVbG2DsItoc&hl=en&fs=1]



"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both." Benjamin Franklin

I thought since all it takes is a copy and paste, that at least for the time being, I could double post the blog that I have moved to www.therubycanary.wordpress.com.

I'm still baffled by the fact that myspace does not have a "book" category in their subjects for blogs. There is music, there are movies, there is writing and poetry, but no books. Suspicious.
I believe my bookie friends will agree, that almost as much time is spent on book websites as it is actually reading. As if it isn't enough that I update what books I'm reading on facebook, on goodreads, and on Bookcrossing, but I also play games on Bookobsessed, and trade on Paperbackswap.

Then I saw a new way to post cover pics on the blog, and I can't resist. I want to make a visual list of all the books I read this month. I want to see it, in full color, and not only that but I feel the need to make you look at it too. It's like that contest in Elementary school where you bet yourself how many books you could read in one month, and if you met your goal, you got a coupon for a free pizza. Except with this I'm just trying to bully my friends into reading good books. :)

Books I read in January, all of them worthy of recommendation to you.

The Post-American World

Snow

The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan: A Novel

The Buddha at War: Peaceful Heart, Courageous Action in Troubled Times

The Namesake: A Novel

Pity the Nation: The Abduction of Lebanon (Nation Books)

Embers

The Life of a Geisha

God's Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It

The Best American Short Stories 2000 (The Best American Series)

I've decided to move my blog.  I'm not using myspace at all except for blogging, and I feel the need to put it in a more public place.

It's moving to www.therubycanary.wordpress.com.  A sleek, nice blogging website. 

I'll post updates here when I add to that blog, and will post this last one for your viewing pleasure.



There is a statue in Nashville, inside the life-size replica of the Parthenon built for a fair in 1897, that stands almost 42 feet tall. The statue is inspiring and quite impressive, the Goddess of heroic endeavors, also considered the Goddess of the "disciplined side of war." Whatever that is supposed to mean. Her shield is called the "aegis". Like the Aegis destroyers, military gun ships, built in my home state of Maine at Bath Iron Works. Aegis means something under protection of a powerful, knowledgeable, or benevolent source; mighty presumptuous don't you think?



On the way home from visiting this museum and taking pictures of the giant woman presiding over war and heroics, I listened to a story regarding the recent move toward using robotics in war. The NPR story on P.W. Singer's new book Wired For War described a terrible future (and present) of warfar by remote control. Has no one read Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card, The Machine Stops by E.M. Forester, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Heinlein? Anyone, anyone at all?



The ramifications of using robots to do jobs that humans used to do raises insane ethical questions. Sure it's great to use robots to unarm landminds, saving life and limb of soldier, not to mention the local children, but what about killing by video game controls? The army is actual setting up tactical video games in malls using the games to lure young men into joining the service. It's easy to dissassociate killers from the killed in a video game. No remorse, no guilt, and no immediate retailiation. One of the issues talked about in the radio interview is how when you are two thousand miles away controlling a robot, you can create your own reality. Singer describes a situtation where they were controlling a gunman robot from afar, believing they were targeting the so-called Chemcial Ali. When they blew the guy up, watching him bounce several times as he hit the ground, they cheered and congratulated themselves on killing a person the US government considered a huge threat and major terrorist. They found out several days later that the man was a civilian, with no connections to any terrorist groups.

What if we tried this the old fashioned way. Send people out with shields, spears, and a funny looking headdress. Make them look each other in the eye, and see how many teenage boys want to sign up then.

I've worked in all the southern states except for Florida and South Carolina, and been around most of the mid-midwest.  All this traveling, especially in this part of the country has brought me to the conclusion that the American landscape is disappearing.  Replaced by big box stores, strip malls, and the eternal hell called suburbia. 

My problem with this is that it is destroying the original appeal of the country.  What used to be an endless amount of variety, of changing landscapes and personalities, has been exchanged for a homogeny of consumer culture.  We've exchanged a variety of place on the outside, to an endless variety inside the walls of chain stores.  The same chain stores seen at every exit off the highway of any decent sized town.  Instead of being greeted by signs for the nearest unique stop, we are greeted by the same Bix Box store, same set of restaurants, and same set of hotels.  So that we may all have the same choice of cheap consumer goods, we have lost the downtown culture that made each town unique.

In every town I've gone to I try to hunt down the scraps of culture still remaining, among the boarded up windows and vacant downtown shops.  I hope you enjoy the pictures I'm collecting out of my own interest, and desire to capture what makes each town it's own; a gorgeous old building, a statue, something odd.  I usually feel fully taking pictures when there are lots of people around, but lately that hasn't been a problem.  No matter what time of day I go expoloring, historic downtowns are all but empty, whereas when I go hunting for the grocery store, the strip malls and parking lots of shopping centers on the outskirts of town are packed.  People giving their money away at the beck and call of a commercial and a well placed sign. 

So here I am in Maysville, KY, a case in point.  Maysville resides on the Ohio River, and was slated to be a huge city, but for whatever forces of local politics got bypassed and development landed in Louisville, a little further down the river.



I waited a little too long to drag myself away from our BookObsessed swap, so the pictures are a little dark.




I caught myself in my own trap, with all this disparaging of chain restaurants.  We went to a little mom and pop diner next to the mom and pop hotel we are staying at.  It's classic, old sign, cute older ladies behind the counter, and extremely inexpensive.  I could figure out how to order though.  There were no menus.  Just an old fashioned sign with a list of things available; no prices, no descriptions, just cryptic phrases like "pizza steak" and "spicy chicken."  Spicy chicken what?  A sandwich, and what the hell is pizza steak?  I needed pictures, prices, descriptions!  How can I make a decision without a fast food style billboard with an order by number system?  But we made it through, and it was good, complete with antique Pepsi signs and a few locals eyeballing us with that "you're not from around here" look.



Another thing that Maysville has been able to keep alive is their theater. Most of these downtown theaters around the country have been shut down due to structural problems, or just the expense of heating them and keeping them open. The steam is from my forgetting not to exhale while I'm taking pictures.

I spent this Christmas in Arkansas at my dad's house.  Arkansas is a place of contradictions from not sounding like it's spelled from being horribly ugly in places to gorgeous in others.  One of the pretty places is Petit Jean mountain, a place my brother, sister and I have been going for years.





Petit Jean (pronounced Petty Jean around here), was a girl who dressed up as a boy to follow her love across the ocean as he worked on a ship finding places to colonize in America.  She was discovered only after getting sick in an Indian village where she asked to be buried at the top of the mountain instead of being taken home.  Supposidly this is the grave, but really there is no proof of that.  The logic being that there was a small mound here that was perfect size, so it must be her! 

(all pics taken by Grams)



Cedar Falls

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I love this site.  You donate money to a person to start a business in an underdeveloped country, they give the money back in time, you either take the money back, or re-loan it to someone else.  I've contributed to loans in Cambodia, Peru, and Nigeria.

Interesting stuff.

www.kiva.org

Amy Goodman, primary journalist for Democracynow.org, along with her two producers Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar, were arrested at the Republican National Convention. They weren't engaging in any sort of protest, just doing what journalist everywhere should be allowed to do - filming and documenting events outside the RNC headquarters.

Whether this was a blatant attempt to quiet journalists who don't hold the same opinions, or just a couple of handcuff happy police officers is unclear. Can you imagine a major news network journalist being arrested in the same manner?





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From the Democranow.org website:

The Ramsey County Attorney's office is in the process of deciding whether or not to press felony P.C. (probable cause) riot charges against Democracy Now! Producers Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar. Please contact Ramsey County Attorney Susan Gaertner by all means possible to demand that her office not press charges against Kouddous and Salazar.

Ramsey County Attorney Susan Gaertner
RCA at co.ramsey.mn.us (cc: dropthecharges at democracynow.org)
651-266-3222

Susan Gaertner for Governor
info at susangaertner.com (cc: dropthecharges at democracynow.org)
(612) 978-8625
(612)804-6156

The St. Paul police have already issued a citation to Amy Goodman charging her with misdemeanor obstruction of a legal process and interference with a peace officer. Contact St. Paul City Attorney John Choi by all means possible to demand that the citation be dismissed immediately.

St. Paul City Attorney John Choi
john.choi at ci.stpaul.mn.us (cc: dropthecharges at democracynow.org) (651) 266-8710

During the demonstration in which the Democracy Now! team was arrested, law enforcement officers used pepper spray, rubber bullets, concussion grenades and excessive force against protesters and journalists. Several dozen demonstrators were also arrested during this action, as was a photographer for the Associated Press.

Please CC any e-mails to dropthecharges@democracynow.org so they can keep a record of anything sent to the Attorney's office.

Back to the grind after too much time off fixing the car and going to Maine. Western Illinois is an interesting combination of hundreds of miles of cornfields separating little meccas of culture and business. We're in one of the expanses of cornfield, so a jaunt to a coffee shop to use the internet involves a forty minute drive and a day off work. They aren't letting me start until Thurs, so here I am, trying to entertain the masses. I went east yesterday to Springfield, and not only landed myself a gig, but also scheduled an interview with the local paper about my music and travels.

Today I ventured West to Quincy, I don't think it will be quite as fruitful, but the barista is loading me up with free coffee drinks while he perfects some recipes he's making up.


The bridge in Quincy over the Mississippi river. It's a cute town, but this is really the one outstanding feature.

On a totally different note, here are some pics from last week in Maine.