10.31.2008

Double, Double...Toil and Trouble




Fire burn and cauldron bubble.

Halloween has come and gone once more, and no lavish costumes cloaked this family.  Cam and I wore recycled costumes of halloweens past.  Sophia looked absolutely adorable in her little China Girl outfit - which was gifted as a pajama this past summer (thanks Aunt Jenn and Uncle Calvin!!)  It came in very handy - she wore it to three different Halloween parties.

Trick-or-treat? Most definitely treat!  Sophia got really good at holding out her bag to receive treats - and lots of them.  She has become an expert at opening up candy wrappers.  She ate at least two lollipops and a handful of skittles tonight.  Her hands were all sticky and her sugary sweet face full of smiles before getting ready for bed.  I hope she dreams of fairy princesses and babies dressed like pumpkins tonight instead of the scary monsters that made her cry.

We only got one trick-or-treater at our house tonight.  ONE!!  How disappointing.  Now who's going to eat the two big bags of leftover candy?  I'm thinking they will last till next halloween - but then again maybe not.  Nothin' like chocolate to warm my soul this winter.

I'm a little sad that Sophia probably won't experience the kind of Halloween I had as a child - at least not in this big city.  As a child, I remember leaving my house with my brother soon after dinner time, clad in crazy home-made costumes and pillow cases in hand, and hitting the streets with our friends.  We went all over, not worried about perverts abducting us or tainted candies poisoning us.  We were free to be kids and allowed to go places that heightened our imaginations, daring each other to knock at houses thought to be haunted, challenging monsters to appear from the dark.  We would circle the huge neighborhood at least three times, taking note of the houses that had extra-special candy.  After we were satisfied, we would all gather at the sidewalk and compare our loots.  Our delighted oohs and aahs would last until our moms' voices in the distance called us to get home and get to bed.  I hope the world that awaits Sophia will have that same carefree magic and safe enchantment that nurtured me as a child.




10.22.2008

Doing the Time Warp


The Discovery Channel, probably the only good reason to have cable – or a television for that matter. This is a channel that you can watch all day and not feel guilty. It’s a venue where you can soak up unending knowledge. It claims to provide you with knowledge of things you didn’t know you wanted to know.

So today, I found a new favorite show – Time Warp. It is a show that uses super-duper high speed digital camera. They film really fast things and they play it back at a really cool 1000 frames a second. At such extreme slow motion – things are amazingly different. A soap bubble bursting beautifully into minute little water sprays, a skipping stone spinning while bouncing off a body of water, fire-breathers spraying fire into the air. It was amazing. Definitely a breath of fresh air from all the newscasters squawking politics.

10.21.2008

ROCK my world



Sophia’s fascination with the world is growing by leaps and bounds. Now that things actually have names she can pronounce and remember, she often stops many times on walks, points at just about everything and says the name over and over. It is so wonderful to experience the world again through her innocent eyes. A flower is a great point of interest, whether it be a pesky weed, stately rose, or everyday daisy. Airplanes are magical, and she’ll stare at the sky, not only after the airplane flies out of sight but until the engine sound fades away. And while she’s looking up, she’ll point at the sky, say “sky!” excitedly. She’ll even say “blue” after you ask her what color it is. Every dog is named "Obi!" and every child is “Baby!!”, no matter if the child is older than her. But what fascinates Sophia the most are rocks….yes, rocks.

We’ll be walking along casually, and if there happens to be a rock on the ground, she’s at it like Obi to a squirrel. “Oooh, rock!!” she’ll squeal, picking it up twirling it round and round in her tiny hands. Sometimes, she’ll give it to me for safekeeping while she looks for more. Now, imagine what would happen if we walked by a field of rocks. Oh yeah, it would be like Christmas everyday. Sophia could probably spend hours sorting rocks if I allowed her. She’ll just sit herself down and play in her rocky world till the cows come home.

10.18.2008

casting my pebble, don't let my ripples throw you

Turn on the news these days, and you’ll most likely get an overdose of the McCain-Obama-Economy trilogy. With only a few days left before the big election, there is no escaping the political storm growing in your television, computer, radio, and most recently, in your house plumbing. There certainly is a lot of information out there, accusations and mud-slinging, by the candidates and by the media-pundits themselves. I try to inform myself, see both sides of the issue, watch the debates with an open mind, and even read all the pros and cons of the candidates. But everyone out there has an opinion – whether it be valid or not. My computer almost crashed while downloading the myriad of websites that are pro/con Obama and pro/con McCain. My brain is washed up after watching hours of news reports on pro-Obama MSNBC and pro-McCain FOX News. There is so much to learn and understand – the trick is to filter out all that information, weed out the myths from the facts. But in the end – what really matters is choosing the candidate who will steer the country in the direction that I am going.

And so… this is why I am voting for Obama:
Sure there are many things he is accused of, such as having radical friends (William Ayers and Jeremiah Wright come to mind), his alleged connection to ACORN (voter registration fraud), his possible Muslim faith (his middle name is Hussein, ergo he’s a terrorist), and his lack of experience (this is possibly my only dire concern). But the PROS are what really counts for me, and here they are:

1. Economic plan – Tax the very rich and help the very poor. I definitely make less than $250,000/year- so, of course this is a good plan for me. But more so, I am so sick and tired of wealthy big oil companies laughing their way to the bank while people like me are working crazy hours to make ends meet (Exxon Mobil’s fourth quarter net income last year was $11.66 billion… the company made $1,300/second in 2007!!!) Barack will tax these big oil company profits to help American families pay for rising bills.

2. The environment – Anyone who wants to protect the environment gets my vote. Obama has a history of introducing legislation and voting for issues that protect the environment. These issues include banning the US export of mercury, strengthening fuel economy standards, increasing the use of clean, renewable energy, creating 5 million green-collar jobs. I trust him to carry these environmentally sound principles to the next level.

3. Service – A lot of my free-time is dedicated to volunteering, and I applaud anyone who believes in Einstein’s quote: a life lived for others is a life worthwhile. Obama’s plans include expansion of the Peace Corps and Americorps, and establishment of programs that will give retired Americans, youths, and college students the opportunity to volunteer.

4. Affordable Healthcare – Anyone and everyone should be insured. Right now, 46 million Americans (including 9 million children) have no health insurance. As a result, many kids and adults don’t get the health care they need. While each candidate’s healthcare plans seem all talk and no substance, I like Obama’s plan better. His plan ensures insurance affordability via a mix of private and government plans. Employers are to either insure employees or pay a tax toward a national health plan. And how would this plan be funded? Big oil taxes of course.

5. Education – As Aristotle said, education is the best provision for old age. Americans really must do more to ensure no child is left behind. Obama’s plan is very ambitious, starting at the very earliest: 0 – 5 year-olds, creating grants that will promote readiness for kindergarten. He plans to address the drop-out crisis, expand afterschool opportunities, and create the American opportunity tax credit among other things.

This is by no means a complete list. I like Obama for the things he stands for and for the things he does not. I believe that both McCain and Obama only want to serve the country to the best of their abilities. However, Obama is advocating for issues that matter to me.

10.13.2008

Christopher Columbus: hero or genocidal maniac??


Each year, on the second Monday of October, Americans celebrate Columbus Day. It was declared an annual day of celebration in 1934 and is usually observed by parades, department store sales, and a day-off for government employees. In Elementary schools, children cut slivers of black and brown construction paper to fashion their own replicas of the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria. Then they repeat that cute rhyme learned by all second-graders: "In fourteen-hundred and ninety-two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue."

From their history books, elementary and high school students learn that Christopher Columbus discovered America. They are given visions of a brave and valiant hero who challenged the unknown sea. Nowhere in their history books or their curriculum are they taught the real truths: that he did not discover America but the Caribbean, that he spoiled a peaceful land, that he murdered natives in the name of God, and that he tortured, enslaved, and authorized the complete annihilation of the Arawak Indians.

Traditional lessons of Columbus do not include the history of the natives and the land he conquered. Numerous details are removed to give a sanitized version of Columbus as an explorer, navigator, and discoverer. However, there are historical documents, including Columbus' own diary, that reveal a very different person. From his numerous letters and reports, we learn that what Columbus wanted most was gold and he was willing to do anything to seize wealth that belonged to others.

Another historical document that tells a different history is the journal of Bartolome de las Casas, a Spanish missionary who participated in the conquest. His journal entries give numerous eyewitness accounts of how Columbus and his men treated the natives with repeated mass murder and torture. Las Casas tells how the Spaniards "grew more conceited every day" and how they refused to walk any distance, preferring to "ride the backs of Indians" or be carried in hammocks by Indians. "In this case they also had Indians carry large leaves to shade them...and fan them with goose wings." Their sense of power over the natives led to absolute cruelty. They "thought nothing of knifing Indians by tens and twenties and of cutting slices off them to test the sharpness of their blades."

The discovery of the New World was not for human progress as students are led to believe. For Columbus, it represented life without limits and unbridled freedom. He lauded himself as the admiral of the ocean sea and unleashed a reign of terror upon the inhabitants of the island that is now Haiti. One day, in front of Las Casas, Columbus and his men dismembered, beheaded, or raped 3,000 people. "Such inhumanities and barbarisms were committed in my sight," he says, "as no age can parallel..."

Under Columbus's governorship, 50,000 native people died within a matter of months. By 1508, over three million people had perished from Columbus's campaign of brutality and sadism. Some historians, who have an ideological duty to tell the whole truth, see the destruction of the natives as the most massive act of genocide in the history of the world. Samuel Eliot Morison, a Harvard historian and the most distinguished writer on Columbus, tells about the enslavement and the killing: "The cruel policy initiated by Columbus and pursued by his successors resulted in complete genocide."

These facts are omitted in the telling of the story of Christopher Columbus. History books given to students in the United States relate the heroic adventure without the massive bloodshed. They celebrate Columbus Day without knowing the path of destruction he led. In Denver, the American Indian Movement of Colorado has been protesting the Columbus day Parade. Its members have gathered support from policy makers to change the curriculum from a sanitized hero-worship version to a more inclusive lesson grounded in research and historical documents. As a result, some Denver public schools are updating its history curriculum to encourage discussion of the competing sides of Columbus's story. In following this example, the nation's largest teachers union, the National Education Association, have also organized protests to make changes in their history curriculum to include the history of the natives.

It is a wonder that in the land of America, where slavery is denounced, human rights are exulted, and equality is in constant check, a slave-trader and genocidal maniac is exulted as the first American hero. Those who take the responsibility to educate themselves and actually delve into the research to uncover the truth about Columbus know better than to celebrate Columbus. To teach Columbus as a hero to students is to justify the atrocities he caused. It allows children to quietly accept the lesson that conquest and murder stand for human progress. To honor Columbus is to celebrate his legacy of greed and arrogance. It shows to the rest of the world that something is amiss in the American value system.

The telling of the history of Columbus must, at the very least, include the true stories that have been ignored for centuries. The discovery of America is not only from the viewpoint of the discoverers but also from the natives who were there first. Their stories are just as important, if not more, in the birth of the New World. Students need to know the disturbing nature of what in truth is being honored on the second Monday of each October.

the zen warriors