doctoral candidate in rhetoric and scientific and technical communication
humanity
snitch
0 
The things that human beings do to one another never fails to surprise me. I cannot even begin to think up these things and yet, new atrocities happen every day.
In the Phoenix news today:
The suspects shaved off a portion of the victim’s hair and using a branding iron, wrote the word “snitch†on her face, then blindfolded her, officers said.
Her body was also burned with a propane torch, investigators said.
I am sick to my stomach over this. It pisses me off.
People are frightened enough about coming forward and reporting crimes — especially crimes dealing with domestic violence. Then some monsters come along and mutilate a woman for watching out for their children — children they should have been caring for — and I think this will scare people away from calling the authorities even more.
They waited for her. They waited in the house for her so they could torture her.
I can only imagine what their children have been going through. I hope the children find good homes and that this woman is able to find some semblance of peace after this.
Monsters.
barriers
05 years ago
A month or so ago, I watched a few documentaries on the Sundance Channel about the issue of immigration over the U.S.-Mexico border. I watched these shortly after having returned from northern Mexico, the very area where immigrants arrive in the United States after walking for miles and days over the harsh desert.
The first documentary I watched was Crossing Arizona. This production tried to look at the issue from both sides but I always felt like the makers were trying to make a very specific point about the issue that leaned a bit more toward those who are fighting immigrants. They didn’t talk as much to the people who were trying to come across the border, to them as they did cross over, or understanding what would incite someone to risk his/her life to go to a country that both wants them and hates them. They are entering a very racist, elitist, judgmental society that will treat them badly. And yet, they come by the 1000s.
Why?
The documentary didn’t discuss that at all. Instead, we heard plenty from the so-called Minuteman Project. We heard all about their rights and their feelings about this issue (which, obviously, are very negative toward the immigrants). We heard from a Native American man (Tohono O’odham nation) who puts out water, shares what food he has in his truck, and fights against tribal customs to assist the crossers. While the description of the film says that farmers are interviewed, there was very little of that.
Really, though, the voices of the immigrants themselves were hardly existent at all. I’m not sure if that was intentional but it reminded me of how much disrespect is given to them. We speak of the immigrants, the illegal aliens, the migrant workers. We don’t speak about them as people but as groups (and I’m guilty of this as well). Sure, they did follow 3 men but they didn’t give them a big voice in the film. The “guardians of the border” had much bigger voices.
Why?
I watched another documentary about this topic, as well. Wetback follows the migrants across the Rio Grande. This film gives voice to the people moving across the border, understanding why they make the journey. It delves into the reasons for taking this chance, for making this journey
Maybe this is due to the differences in the ethnicity of the filmakers (although I can’t be particularly sure of ethnicity because there is little about Dan DeVivo, editor of Crossing Arizona). Maybe this is due to who gave them access.
What I’d like to see, though, is a film that actually discusses the real issues of this situation from all sides. I’d also like to hear from the U.N. on this and how the Mexican government (really) feels about it, as well.
We need the migrant workers. Our society doesn’t work without them. But they need a voice and they need to be given more respect. They do an amazing job and we all benefit from their work.
They should, too.
damage
0
“There is no way of measuring the damage to a society when a whole texture of humanity is kept from realizing its own power, when the woman architect who might have reinvented our cities sits barely literate in a semilegal sweatshop on the Texas- Mexican border, when women who should be founding colleges must work their entire lives as domestics.”
Adrienne Rich
Long before we had decided to go to Puerto Peñasco, I was outraged over the politics that are being raised up around the southern U.S. border issues.
I have lived in Arizona for more than twenty years. I have lived with migrant workers as my neighbors, my co-workers, and my friends. I consider the work they do to be invaluable to the economy of the United States.
I’ve wanted to write about the border issue for some time now but I could never quite find the right time. How did it fit in with everything else that was going on?
But this is the thing…
A giant wall will not keep people out if they want to get in bad enough (history has shown us that).
A giant wall only serves to create boundaries between the communication that needs to be ongoing between the nations of Mexico and the United States.
A giant wall creates an air of separatism and an “us versus them” mentality that is not conducive to being good neighbors.
Most of the migrant workers don’t want to live in the United States. They love their own country. That’s where their families are. That’s where their lives are.
They come to the United States to help their families escape the devastating poverty they face in their homeland. They send money home. They return home as often as they can. They, the majority, only come here to work, to earn money, to feed and clothe and house their families.
And I don’t see anything wrong with that. It is a symbiotic relationship. We need them as much as they need us.
But they should be paid a fair wage. And they should be treated well. And they should have benefits while they are here. And they should be able to go home without fear of losing their jobs, of being shot, of dying along the long desolate border.
And it is long and desolate.
As we drove through the hundreds of miles of desert yesterday, I considered the plights of the people trying to make better lives for themselves. Saguaros, chollas, ocotillos, organ pipes, scorpions, snakes, dry sand, hot sun, blowing winds, and no water are only a few of the perils they face as they try to cross the border. That doesn’t take into account steep, rocky mountains, the so-called “minutemen” who “guard” our borders, the border patrol, and the ever-vigilant inhabitants of border towns. Because, afterall, we don’t want them in our backyard.
Children sell tortillas, handmade toys, and washed windshields on the streets just to be able to eat. Children. Children the same age as my beloved niece.
They shouldn’t have to live life like that.
The politics that are happening right now affect real people. Children and adults alike are being told that they are not good enough to share in the wealth that we squander. They do not deserve it because they were not born in the right country, 50 feet across a manmade border.
Shame on us.
safety first
0
This is something I don’t understand about people who are facing eminent danger in natural disasters. Why do they insist on staying in their homes?
I think about the people who refused to leave their homes in spite of hours of warnings before Mt. St. Helens blew. They ended up being crushed in the pyroclastic flows. It couldn’t have been something they really wanted – to die a horrible death. Why did they stay?
The people that were able to leave New Orleans but chose not to (I’m not talking about the poor and disenfranchised who had not alternatives to leave the city). Why did they stay? Did they really want to drown, deal with the lootings, etc., or be subjected to hours and hours of terror while the hurricane ripped through the city?
And now, in Oak Creek Canyon, some people have chosen to stay in their houses. Why?
Isn’t life MUCH more important than material goods? Wouldn’t you rather save yourself, your loved ones, and your pets rather than perish in a fire?
These are the issues:
What is worth so much that people are willing to risk their lives?
To me, it’s rather selfish. They risk not only their own lives and those of their families and pets – but the lives of those who will have to come to their rescue.
positives
0
The positive thing about fires – they give us amazing, beautiful sunsets.
Okay, there are actually many things about fires that are positive but they are also very scary and overwhelming and intense.
I have so much respect for fire – especially now that my brother is a firefighter. I understand it better because he explains it in such great detail.
Did you know that fire grows at a rate of 7:1 per minute? It will reproduce itself seven times over in one minute. The typical Phoenix fire department response is 4 minutes. One small ashtray fire could turn into a very large house fire in 4 minutes.
That is incredible. And scary. And powerful.
The Brins Fire has forced the evacuation of hundreds of people in the Sedona area (a mere 25 miles from Flagstaff). Ash and smoke fills the air of Flagstaff and other surrounding communities.
There are fires on the north rim of the Grand Canyon, in eastern Arizona, and various other places around the state.
Even the smallest of fires are making news tonight (a 2 acre fire was quickly extinguished in an east Flagstaff neighborhood).
What really amazes me, though, is when I see people throw cigarettes out of their cars. Seriously. Okay, could you be MORE stupid? Why not just take a lighter or a match to some dry brush?
Morons. I mean, really. Just plain stupid.
We have professionals fighting our fires. They are good at what they do. Forest fires are hard to contain because it’s difficult to get ahead of them. They can turn in a second and go a direction that wasn’t planned on. But the firefighters that work the fires here in Arizona are awesome.
They really save the day – on more than one day.
blogging and hierarchies
0
I work for a technology department at a state university and we offer trainings on emerging technologies and existing technologies that could be used in classroom settings. Since I have been blogging for nearly 10 years and I have four (or is it five…hmmm) different blogs going, I am the resident expert on blogs.
My blogs don’t have to be popular, mind you, to give me the status of “expert.” I just have to know how to set them up, what the positive and negatives are for educational purposes, and explain general uses for them.
Because of this status, people send me links all of the time. If it mentions blogging, I get the link. Sometimes they are interesting. Yesterday, one of my co-workers sent me this one. It is very interesting.
However (yeah, there had to be a “however”), all of this talk about “A-list, B-list, and C-list” blogs is starting to irritate me. First off, what arbitrary criteria is used to determine the list that you’re on? Who makes these decisions?
Secondly, a majority of the so-called A-list blogs are written by men about politics. It’s rare to find women on those lists and if there are women, they have to write about politics, as well.
Well, as the old saying goes, everything is political. So why, then, aren’t the private sphere issues (those issues that women tend to write about more – home, education, rape, abortion, prostitution, etc.), just as important as Washington politics?
This reminds me of the 1960s and 70s when women were fighting for equal rights and were asking the same questions. Why are home life or women’s issues not considered as important as those public issues of politics or a man’s job? What is it about women that is so threatening that we can’t talk about them or promote them?
So, interestingly enough (or not, depending on your point of view), my entire thesis project is based on the disparity between the promotion of men’s blogs versus women’s blogs and the necessity of promoting women’s blogs because the issues are important.
If you don’t believe me, check out raven star watcher. This is a blog where three women talk about their different lives involved in child prostitution in North America. Yes, in North America. It is still ongoing. It is something we should be talking about – something we should be hearing.
But, of course, it’s not A-list, so it just can’t be that important.
Can it?
peace
0
“I firmly believe that free societies are peaceful societies, and I believe every person desires to be free.”
~ President George W. Bush ~
Today is a fitting day to think about peace. Coretta Scott King, wife to the venerable Martin Luther King, Jr., passed away in her sleep. It is the end of an era in the United States.
We live in a time when peace is not being respected or treated as something that we want to aspire to, no matter what rhetoric is being thrown about by politicians.
“I don’t see how you can be a partner in peace if you advocate the destruction of a country as part of your platform. And I know you can’t be a partner in peace if you have a — if your party has got an armed wing.”
~ President George W. Bush ~
Our highest officials advocate peace but we, too, have an armed wing and in the light of Afghanistan and Iraq, I cannot but think that the citizens of those nations may see us as promoting the destruction of their nations.
What could have been different if we had taken more time to affirm the lack of WMDs? What could have happened if we had had more patience? What could have happened if oil and revenge hadn’t been at the center of a war that is not necessary (as if any war is really necessary)? We will never know. Those opportunities were never given a chance to grow to fruition. It was so much easier to send in troops and take a country by force.
The bombings continue. Civilians are being killed in the streets. Just two weeks ago intelligence thought the number 2 al-Quaeda man was in a village and it was bombed, killing dozens of innocent people but missing him (and he laughs at the United States about this, according to al-Jazeera).
It’s time to stop. It’s time to focus on non-violent means of solving our issues.
What will our children learn from our leaders rushing in to fight fights instead of approaching situations with non-violence in mind? Will they, too, learn that picking up a stick, a knife, or a gun will solve the fight?
“But I, being poor, have only my dreams; I have spread my dreams under your feet; Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.”
~ William Butler Yeats ~
winning
06 years ago
I’ve been thinking about this topic for a while and a conversation that I had last night pushed me in the direction of writing it. While the conversation touched on this, the people involved were not in the same situation and didn’t want to hurt anyone or cause any grief.
I’m not one of those people who thinks that competition is bad. I’m not one of those people who thinks that we should give ribbons to everyone and declare everyone a winner.
I think that healthy competition is good for us. It motivates us. It prompts us to do better, to push ourselves, to invest in something that matters.
But I’m also a little leery when people say they win at an argument or that they have come out on top and it leaves someone else feeling bad or hurt or angry.
I wonder what the point is then. Why would you want to win if you’ve hurt someone else? In the long run does it make you feel better? Does it make you a better person? Does it make you more humane? Probably not.
I like to win as much as the next person. In fact, I have this stupid computer game that I play sometimes for fun. It is impossible to win. I have tried it a million different ways but the way it is set up, I don’t think it’s winnable. So when it comes to the end of the game and I haven’t won, it tells me that I’m a loser. It states, unequivocably, “Loser!” How rude, I tell it each time. You don’t have to laugh at me just because I can’t conquer you.
Winning. We have to win the war on terrorism, drugs, illegal immigration. It’s mandated.
Our society has become about winning. The person who makes the most money says, “I win!” What do you win? 80 hour work weeks? Time away from your family and friends? The pleasure of a missing out on a walk through the forest with your trusted pet?
When we win a war, do we really win? And what happens to those who lose? I can’t help but think of Bosnia and all of the people who still suffer there. Or Afghanistan. Or any number of other places. We won. Yahoo.
It doesn’t make me feel like a winner. I feel like we dropped the ball somewhere and let our fellow mankind down.
We didn’t win. We lost something precious.
And I think we need to think about that. When we say, “I win” what does it mean? Have we let someone down along the way to attain that? Have we hurt someone?
Is conquering things really that important?
sensory surplus
0
I’m currently taking a course in grad school that is an introduction to multimedia design. It’s not what most people envision though. It’s a rhetorical study of visual communications. Why are certain images used? What do they evoke when they are used? What kind of audience response is desired when a specific image is used?
We are tying this in to the concept of peace. How is peace portrayed in visual communications and do images have the same effects on everyone?
Last night I was reading about peace and the visual impact of images. Simon sends me an e-mail about the Canadian elections. We start talking about the new Prime Minister, Harper, and how he has some ultra-conservatives on his team. We talk about what that could mean for Canada.
Because of the books I had been reading just prior to that, my thoughts are on the world at large and how one country’s elections can have an impact on the world at large. And I say this to him:
I’ve been reading the books on peace tonight for my class. I think my head is in that place where I want to believe in the goodness of people and our desire to do right by others all over the world.
Pollyanna-ish, I know.
I think that your election just reminds me that it’s a struggle to have leaders who aren’t all about money or power or control. And is that even possible? Isn’t the whole meaning of being a leader about power and control?
I don’t know.
And then I start thinking about the images that flicker by nightly on the news. We see images of genocide in Darfur. We see killings in the Congo. We see people suffering from natural disasters in Pakistan, Nicaragua, and Indonesia. We see people being stoned, shot, and hung.
And my heart hurts. I feel like there is nothing I can do – it’s just too much.
But those people who have power, they can do so much more. And do they? Do they care about the woman in the Sudan who is hungry and giving everything she has to her child so that he can grow up to fight a battle that he doesn’t need to fight? Do they care about the child in Afghanistan who sees the surplus holdings of the warlords and knows that is the only way to survive?
Do they care?
Do we care?
Or is it all just a little too much? Do we bury our heads in the sand and hope that tomorrow will be a better day?
And if we can make a difference, just by speaking out, helping out when we can, will we? Can we?
I want to believe that I’m a good person and that I would do what I can to make a difference in the lives of others. Even if it is that person one state over who is in despair and tired and lonely and hungry and just needs to know someone cares.
I do. I care.
And if I can do more, I will.
That’s my promise for this new year.
criminal
0
On Wednesday afternoon, as I drove home from work, I was listening to All Things Considered on NPR. As I sat at a train crossing, waiting for an abnormally long train to pass by, I listened to Howard Dully tell his story of being the “recipient”of an orbital lobotomy when he was twelve years old. (His story can be heard or read at NPR’s site: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5014080.)
Tears streamed down my face as I listened to his words. This man, once a boy, went through such a traumatic experience that changed his life. In this narrative, he spoke with his father and asked him “why”. Why did he allow it to happen? Why didn’t he stick up for his son?
Howard had a stepmother who did not like him. She “documented” all of these crimes that he was committing as a family member: he didn’t want to take a bath, he wouldn’t talk, etc. He sounded like a typical twelve-year-old to me.
What really astounded me is that Lithium had already been developed and was being prescribed to people who needed it. This doctor, however, refused to believe that his operation was not needed anymore and continued to bilk people for money for an archaic prodedure. If Howard had needed any help at all (which I highly doubt), he could have taken Lithium instead of having sterilized ice picks shoved into his brain through his eyes.
This made me start thinking about medical procedures. What kinds of procedures are being performed out there that are no longer needed? What doctors are making a buck off of unknowing patients who could get better treatment through more humane methods? Or, even worse, like this doctor, how many doctors out there are performing treatments that they KNOW are not beneficial to their patients but keep doing it for that almight buck?
Grrrr.
It makes me so angry. Howard was one of the lucky ones. His procedure did not leave him as a walking zombie or as a five-year-old. However, he was changed, irrevocably, for the worst.
How many people out there have had the same thing happen to them?