Linus is Awesome

Did you ever notice how Linus usually has the political ideas?  How old is this kid supposed to be?  Six or seven?  He’s wonderful.

Good News, Bad News

• Location: kids section, Cracker Barrel, Sturbridge-ish area
• Date: Saturday, May 24, 2008
• Description: Gray crane with this quote by Confucius: “The small man thinks that small acts of goodness are of no benefit, and does not do them; and that small deeds of evil do no harm, and does not refrain from them. Hence, his wickedness becomes so great that it cannot be concealed, and his guilt so great that it cannot be pardoned.”

I came across this article first today.  Summary: A UN probe has uncovered reports of sexual abuse from peacekeeping forces sent throughout the world.  Not everyone who is a peacekeeper molests children, but the inquiry found several instances and consider there to be more.  Um, excuse me?  Peacekeeping forces are molesting children?  How is that even possible?

The important thing to remember is that not all peacekeeping forces are abusive — there are people out there who take the job seriously and try to do good.  I had to keep reminding myself of this after I read the article.  If I’m not making myself clear here, let’s just consider this for a minute: peacekeepers are sexually assaulting children before they’ll give aid — causing a lack of peace.  I am disgusted on so many levels.

And now for the good news: Berlin, Germany gives a memorial to the homosexuals murdered by the Nazis in WWII.  Finally.  The article explains the highs and lows of creating this memorial, like how long it took to depict this.  As an added bonus, though we learn that the Mayor of Berlin is openly gay.  That’s nice.  You don’t see that too often.  Do we have any openly homosexual politicians in this country?  You think I’d know these things.

I forgot to add alcohol to the list of things I won’t ingest yesterday.  No alcohol, no chocolate.  What is this world coming to?

A Day of Links

I came across this blog post today on the main page of WordPress, and ended up clicking the link to this article. I am disgusted. The article in question is about Joe Francis, founder of the Girls Gone Wild movies. You should read about his behavior and what the videos entail, and then go see one angry girl for information about everything. I can’t talk about this, or else I might be sick.

I also bookmarked this wikipedia article about a ancient Greek play for a rainy day. If you don’t know anything about Greek theatre, let me enlighten you. Theatre for the Greeks was cathartic — they went to experience emotion and cleansing. They were big on art and music and learning, so this play called “Peace” is kind of a big deal. Especially since it shows people have been talking about peace for a long time. I’m pretty excited. I like Greek theatre. Roman theatre is more about sex and alcohol and partying. They didn’t care for enlightenment and morals and everything. Stupid Romans.

I’m kind of down today.  I was thinking about Michael Jackson and how he had his skin whitened.  I asked my mom one time about why someone would want their skin lightened like that, but I don’t remember the answer she gave — probably something like, “Some people just want to look different.”  I guess I was too young to learn that some people are discriminated against because of their skin color.  However, I was a curious child, and I couldn’t let the matter rest.  I asked, “Well, is there a surgery for white people to turn into black people?”  I’m pretty sure my mom just stared at me.  Maybe it was the way I phrased the question.  I don’t know.

I Should go to Books Anonymous

• Location: on a table, Louisa’s Pizza World
• Date: May 16, 2008
• Description: light purple crane with the quote: “Don’t do nothing because you can’t everything. Do something. Anything.” by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau.

That’s turning out to be one of my most favorite quotes, which is why I wrote it on my one piece of light purple origami paper. That’s right, I play favorites.

I’m currently embroiled in a book called The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. I have a confession to make: I hate it. I can’t stop reading it — it’s like watching a train wreck; I can’t tear my eyes away. Part of the problem is that I never have anything new to read, so when I do it becomes an obsession. I don’t do anything but read for however long it takes me to finish the book. It’s very distracting.

So the book. Right. It’s a historical fiction novel set in the mid to late 1100s, and follows specific people who interact with each other throughout the course of their lives as they build a cathedral. The writing’s not bad, the characters are not unbelievable. The story itself is revolting to me. There’s all this violence and bloodshed and rape and assault. I almost puked while reading a rape scene, it was so horrifying. It’s not one of those books I can finish in a few days, either. I’ve been reading since Friday and I’m only 476 pages into this 900 page beast (don’t fault me for my slowness, okay? I had to work both days this weekend).

After about 150 pages, I told Seth of my displeasure with the graphic nature with the book. His response: “Well, that’s how things were in the middle ages, right?”

That got me to thinking. Yes, it’s how things were, but part of me is so heartsick because a lot of it is also how things are right now — there are still people intent on gaining power over others through fear and violence, and they express it in many of the same ways. It disgusts me. It makes me wish we wouldn’t use history as justification (the “it’s in our nature” excuse). Most of all, it makes me wish I never had to hear about any of it. Maybe that’s part of the reason why I cling to Disney sometimes.

I think I mentioned before that I’m very sensitive to behaviors that perpetuate fear as power, even the “little things” like sexist comments. Most people wouldn’t speak up when someone says… you know what? I can’t think of an example. Here’s an entire blog about what I’m talking about. Read it and rest assured, I don’t laugh at comments like the ones this schmuck comes up with, and I won’t hesitate to tell them why I’m not laughing. If people like me don’t learn about rape and violence, though, then who will?

Outrage! Scandal!

• Location: Pikalo Pizzeria, IFA Villas Bavaro Resort, Punta Cana, Dominican Republic
• Date: May 11 (?), 2008
• Description: yellow crane with some words on it.  I’m not sure which ones.  It’s some quote that I wrote down a few months ago and then gave to my sister and then she didn’t leave the crane for months.  Months!  But it’s a yellow crane with orange lettering.

My sister went to the Dominican Republic last week for a destination wedding (not her own) and left a crane as well.  I gave her this crane way back in February, and I guess she got a little stressed over finding the perfect spot for it.  This looks pretty ideal to me.  It’s kind of driving me bonkers that I can’t remember the quote/lyric/poem/words.

In lieu of a quote, we’ll have to discuss this article.  Summary: At some point during his campaign, Obama said he’d be willing to meet with the leaders of hostile nations.  Today at Israel’s 60th Independence day anniversary celebration, Bush insulted Obama in an underhanded way by comparing leaders who’d be willing to talk before war to Nazi appeasers during WWII.

Essentially, Bush is saying it’s a really dumb idea to try to put off war with preemptive peace talks.  I think I’d be okay with Bush’s stance on things — not saying I agree, mind you, but just agreeing to disagree since he’ll be gone next year anyway — if a member of Bush’s own camp didn’t let this jewel of a quote slip yesterday: “We need to figure out a way to develop some leverage with respect to the Iranians and then sit down and talk with them.”  Does Bush not talk to his own Secretary of Defense?

There is a difference in preventative negotiation vs. 5-years-into-the-war talks, but how is one any less honorable than the other?  I would think the first option deserves more commendation because when you’re trying to prevent something, that means both sides are already mad enough to go to war but very few or no lives have been lost yet.  It takes some effort to keep a cool head when you’re angry — I imagine it takes tons of effort to keep an entire nation cool enough to consider peace talks when all its citizens are angry, like after 9/11.  And we’re all angry now anyway, but we’ve suffered more casualties.  Could we have prevented the 4000+ US troop deaths if we had sat down and talked beforehand?

Okay, I’ve changed my mind; Bush’s stance is dumb.  This is not the Nazi era, and our weapons are far worse than they were when we first joined WWII, so going straight to war is a bad idea (not like it was good in WWII anyway), and comparing people willing to talk for peace to Nazi appeasers is tasteless, rude and unnecessary.  Jeez.  I don’t know if I have the heart to send Bush a peace crane — sometimes his choices irk me so bad.  But isn’t that the point of this whole exercise: to extend the olive branch to those you normally wouldn’t?  Hm.  I guess that means I’m sending the President a peace crane.

Oh, by the way, I think I remember that I wrote the definition of peace on this crane.  I think.