Yesterday while sitting in the clinic waiting for a mammogram, I was browsing through a House and Garden magazine and came across this picture of a living room that stopped my random page-turning. Along two walls made almost entirely of glass sat two chrome-legged minimalist modern white couches, and two coffee tables, maybe cherry. Maybe plastic. The tables were very rectangular, very shiny, very stark. One had nothing but a huge clear glass vase on it, a sphere resting on the smallest of area, holding two long oak tree branches sitting in water that filled what I'm sure was a mathematical two thirds of the vase. On the other coffee table were two art books, stacked just oh so slightly off-center.
There was no sign of life.
I couldn't help but wonder who could possibly use a room like this. I compared it to my own living room, where the coffee table is the main depository for assorted magazines, videotapes, DVDs, partly-read books, half-eaten bowls of popcorn, and on which the main attraction is a basket of coasters lifted from local restaurants and bars. Not to mention the one leg that the male cat likes to use as a scratching post when we're not looking. Or when he even thinks we're not looking.
I kept staring at that vase, wondering how long it would take our youngest cat to pull out the tree branches, drink the water, and knock the whole arrangement on the floor.
Friday, May 19, 2006
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
american culture
This morning I got one of those "often forwarded" emails from a cousin...... the kind that screams about being American and promoting American culture and speaking English......and instead of just deleting I decided to respond.
I consider this hate-filled racism. Not only that, but it's sprinkled with half-truths. Take a look at http://www.snopes.com/rumors/american.htm and follow the links. Perhaps some people have been watching a little too much O'Reilly and/or listening to a bit too much Rush Limbaugh.
Also, here's an article about immigrant influence on American culture published by the Cato Institute, a non-profit public policy research foundation headquarted in Washington, D.C.:
http://www.cato.org/research/articles/griswold-020218.html
If you have a short attention span, at least read the first two paragraphs, and this statement: "A National Academy of Science study has shown that the typical immigrant and his or her offspring will pay a net $80,000 more in taxes during their lifetimes than they collect in government services."
And think about some things:
My own grandparents were immigrants and all four of them spoke another language besides English. None of them ever learned English exceptionally well, although they could communicate. Does that make them less American than those Americans who emigrated from England? How about me or you?
Undocumented workers are welcome to join the military and die in Iraq... and plenty of them do. They are fighting for your freedom to treat them like trash and spread hate.
Millions of men and women who sought and won freedom in and for America WERE and ARE immigrants.
Nobody learns to speak English the second they make their way across the border, whether they are crossing legally or illegally, visiting or staying, children or adults. Learning a language is a process that can take up to seven years in order to communicate effectively in school and the work place. Would you suggest that people remain mute until they learn the language enough to your liking? And while I'm at it, the goal of bilingual education is help children learn English, not to keep them from learning it.
NOBODY forces ANYBODY to say "Season's Greetings" instead of "Merry Christmas".... In fact, "Season's Greetings" is used to denote the entire holiday season, which includes not only Christmas but Thanksgiving and New Year's as well. Not only that, but it is used by commercial establishments because they know that everybody shopping in their stores does not celebrate Christmas and they are out for the almighty dollar. It's economic, pure and simple.
It is not "politically correct" to discuss the ways that America offends others in the world, and to look at how or why such hatred of America has come to be. It's called "thinking." This is what diplomacy is all about, and anyone who thinks America is always right ought to pick up and read a book called "A People's History of the United States" by Howard Zinn. It might open some eyes a little.
As for the statement that Americans have their own culture, their own society, their own language and their own lifestyle, I would ask for examples, please. Unless you are talking about Native American rituals, every aspect of American culture has been created from the contributions of immigrants from all over the world. Think about it the next time you...
eat ravioli for Thanksgiving (Italian)
whack a pinata at a birthday party (Mexican)
eat a hot dog and drink a beer (German)
eat a linguicia (Portuguese)
go out for Chinese food (doh)
have a birthday party (German)
teach your children about Santa Claus (Dutch)
hang mistletoe (Scandanavian)
decorate with poinsettias (Mexican, Hindu, and Muslim)
send Christmas cards (English)
celebrate on Christmas Eve (Jewish and Islamic)
write a letter to Santa Claus (Finnish)
cut a Jack-o-Lantern (Irish)
wear a Halloween costume (Celtic)
bake an apple pie (English)
explode a firecracker (Chinese)
drink your morning coffee (Arabian/Turkish/African)
hide Easter eggs (German)
Off the top of my head, the only uniquely American tradition I can think of is Thanksgiving as a celebration of bounty and the eating of turkey on that day, and if the Native Americans had not saved the Pilgrims' asses, there wouldn't even be that. (For a real eye-opener about the Pilgrims and Thanksgiving, go to http://www.2020tech.com/thanks/temp.html )
I am tired of the so-called "Christians" in this country whining about being discriminated against and trying to take away everyone else's freedom, starting with their tirade about how America was founded by Christians. Read a little history on that. It's not quite true, at least not the way you think of Christians today.
*Real* Christians would have tolerance for difference and look at the plight of immigrants as a human problem to solve. *Real* Christians ACT like Christians, they don't just yell about being Christian. Jesus said, "Love one another."
As for leaving the country, I suggest that more people ought to actually read the Constitution. You can find it here:
http://www.usconstitution.net/const.html
Or go straight to the Bill of Rights:
http://usinfo.state.gov/usa/infousa/facts/funddocs/billeng.htm
.
I consider this hate-filled racism. Not only that, but it's sprinkled with half-truths. Take a look at http://www.snopes.com/rumors/american.htm and follow the links. Perhaps some people have been watching a little too much O'Reilly and/or listening to a bit too much Rush Limbaugh.
Also, here's an article about immigrant influence on American culture published by the Cato Institute, a non-profit public policy research foundation headquarted in Washington, D.C.:
http://www.cato.org/research/articles/griswold-020218.html
If you have a short attention span, at least read the first two paragraphs, and this statement: "A National Academy of Science study has shown that the typical immigrant and his or her offspring will pay a net $80,000 more in taxes during their lifetimes than they collect in government services."
And think about some things:
My own grandparents were immigrants and all four of them spoke another language besides English. None of them ever learned English exceptionally well, although they could communicate. Does that make them less American than those Americans who emigrated from England? How about me or you?
Undocumented workers are welcome to join the military and die in Iraq... and plenty of them do. They are fighting for your freedom to treat them like trash and spread hate.
Millions of men and women who sought and won freedom in and for America WERE and ARE immigrants.
Nobody learns to speak English the second they make their way across the border, whether they are crossing legally or illegally, visiting or staying, children or adults. Learning a language is a process that can take up to seven years in order to communicate effectively in school and the work place. Would you suggest that people remain mute until they learn the language enough to your liking? And while I'm at it, the goal of bilingual education is help children learn English, not to keep them from learning it.
NOBODY forces ANYBODY to say "Season's Greetings" instead of "Merry Christmas".... In fact, "Season's Greetings" is used to denote the entire holiday season, which includes not only Christmas but Thanksgiving and New Year's as well. Not only that, but it is used by commercial establishments because they know that everybody shopping in their stores does not celebrate Christmas and they are out for the almighty dollar. It's economic, pure and simple.
It is not "politically correct" to discuss the ways that America offends others in the world, and to look at how or why such hatred of America has come to be. It's called "thinking." This is what diplomacy is all about, and anyone who thinks America is always right ought to pick up and read a book called "A People's History of the United States" by Howard Zinn. It might open some eyes a little.
As for the statement that Americans have their own culture, their own society, their own language and their own lifestyle, I would ask for examples, please. Unless you are talking about Native American rituals, every aspect of American culture has been created from the contributions of immigrants from all over the world. Think about it the next time you...
eat ravioli for Thanksgiving (Italian)
whack a pinata at a birthday party (Mexican)
eat a hot dog and drink a beer (German)
eat a linguicia (Portuguese)
go out for Chinese food (doh)
have a birthday party (German)
teach your children about Santa Claus (Dutch)
hang mistletoe (Scandanavian)
decorate with poinsettias (Mexican, Hindu, and Muslim)
send Christmas cards (English)
celebrate on Christmas Eve (Jewish and Islamic)
write a letter to Santa Claus (Finnish)
cut a Jack-o-Lantern (Irish)
wear a Halloween costume (Celtic)
bake an apple pie (English)
explode a firecracker (Chinese)
drink your morning coffee (Arabian/Turkish/African)
hide Easter eggs (German)
Off the top of my head, the only uniquely American tradition I can think of is Thanksgiving as a celebration of bounty and the eating of turkey on that day, and if the Native Americans had not saved the Pilgrims' asses, there wouldn't even be that. (For a real eye-opener about the Pilgrims and Thanksgiving, go to http://www.2020tech.com/thanks/temp.html )
I am tired of the so-called "Christians" in this country whining about being discriminated against and trying to take away everyone else's freedom, starting with their tirade about how America was founded by Christians. Read a little history on that. It's not quite true, at least not the way you think of Christians today.
*Real* Christians would have tolerance for difference and look at the plight of immigrants as a human problem to solve. *Real* Christians ACT like Christians, they don't just yell about being Christian. Jesus said, "Love one another."
As for leaving the country, I suggest that more people ought to actually read the Constitution. You can find it here:
http://www.usconstitution.net/const.html
Or go straight to the Bill of Rights:
http://usinfo.state.gov/usa/infousa/facts/funddocs/billeng.htm
.
Thursday, May 11, 2006
language
The local post office has double glass entrance doors. On the inside, there is a sign on the "in" door which says, "Do not enter." Since one can't enter when one is already inside, shouldn't it say, "Do not exit"?
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