sprung

spring

daffodil with sun and water on it

at the coffee roasting company

Inspired by post #63 Expensive Sandwiches on everybody's new favorite blog, Stuff White People Like, I paid extra attention as I was waiting for someone in a coffee shop in the downtown area of my 'European' little California town the other day.

And I didn't have to wait long. Right in front of me two women sat down. They were white, in their 50s, and on the petite side without being skinny. They were dressed in outfits that women of their age sometimes refer to as casual and 'cute', and that are surprisingly childish. Socks with patterns, keds, cotton pants, and sweatshirts with animal applications.

These two had clearly been brought up to sit properly at a dining table. Knees and ankles together, elbows in. No spilling. No mistakes maneuvering tall wine glasses on a crowded table.

They each had a sandwich, and they split a bottle of red wine.

Their sandwiches were on focaccia bread, oily and chewy. Between the layers of bread I could spot brie, greens, mushrooms. It looked good.

It also looked hard to eat. The sandwiches were inches high. The women started by pressing the layers together and biting off small bites. It didn't go well. Then they tried biting from first the top, and then the bottom layers, while still holding the entire sandwich with both hands.

Bits of mushrooms and little leaves of salad kept falling out. Without missing a beat in their conversation about husbands and children ("he wants to buy a house but we won't be able to help him, and neither will his grandmother at this time") they lifted their forks, and proceeded to put everything that fell out back into the sandwich. They did this with skill, and with practice. They held on to the sandwich with their left hand, put stuff back in using the fork in their right hand. Then they put the fork down, and took another bite.

It was fascinating. I had never seen anything like it. The sandwiches were impractical to start with. But even more impractical was the habit to put the things back in. (Had it been me I would have picked up the stray pieces with my hand, and put them straight into my mouth, sans detour via the bread. And sans fork. Oh, correction. Had the pieces been oily I might have used my fork.)

It looked to me as if these women were trying to pretend they weren't eating with their hands at all. It also looked like a perfect example of middle class distinction: Setting yourself apart by developing irrational ways of doing things, and then proclaiming that those ways of doing things constitute good taste.

tear jerker

So I finally watched Brokeback Mountain. It made me sad. There were some really lovely moments and lots of beautiful mountains, but overall, to me, the movie just had a lot of sorrow. Impossible love is always sad, but when a whole society is against you it's heartbreaking. And it's not fair.

Happy birthday tomorrow Noel. I miss you a lot.

edit, people, edit

My favorite author (one of them) put a link to this blog on her blog.

So that was a recommendation I should trust, right?

I am sure it's good. But I clicked on the link, and closed it again. Too many words. Rarely do I read anything online that is just a block of text. Sorry, can't do it.

who is nerdier, me or my friend (who shall remain nameless but let's call her b to make things easier)?

B gives up computer solitaire for Lent every year.
I buy pretty stamps out of the USA Philatelic ('The Official Source For Stamp Enthusiasts') catalog.

"I found myself understanding physics"

This American Life on testosterone.

(The quote? It's from someone who started taking testosterone as part of his female-to-male sex change.)

everybody forget we are human

So last week Hillary Clinton somewhat unexpectedly announced that she was "honored" to be sitting next to Barack Obama in a debate. Today she is wagging her finger and telling him "Shame on you, Barack Obama!" like an abusive parent.

To me this sounds like crazy behavior. Are we supposed not to care, just because it's politics?

we can only hope

So Daniel Day-Lewis just got an Oscar for There Will Be Blood. First time I remember seeing him was in A Room With a View (1985), and My Beautiful Laundrette (same year).

Let's just say that it's a good thing when people get more interesting as they get older.

yep.

Ing says she gets homesick for Europe when she meets someone who lives there and she talks to them about their everyday life.

I get homesick for Europe when I see the European people at the Academy Awards. They are like a breath of fresh air compared to the neurotic strive for perfection that often defines American fashion.

That's Tilda Swinton there. She is all about the edge. Love her.

happy black history month

proust

Three days a week I have a 45 minutes commute, each way. Some days it takes me an hour. I get up early, get dressed and fed, and then when I am ready to leave I have to wait five minutes while the car warms up. So I sit there.

This morning I thought to myself that there ought to be a way I could make better use of those five minutes. But how?

I decided to lace up my Doc Martens in the car. That's always a chore.

So I walked down the driveway with my boot laces untied. I felt the cold wind and rain against my legs and ankles. I heard the faint swooshing of the laces. I arched my feet inside the shoes to make them stay on. I heard the dull sound of my soles hitting the pavement.

I was myself, at 15.

"whichever way you turn, you end up with your ass behind you," as the swedes would say

Why is it that in the United States you can't criticize your own country? Michelle Obama has said over the last few days that "for the first time in my adult life I am proud of my country." Which isn't exactly criticism, but it's being interpreted as such.

And people are mad.

I remember a few years ago my Australian friend said that she again was "ashamed of her country." I don't know what they had done, but it had to do with policy.

Granted, my friend's husband was not running for president, and she was not on TV. She was just on the email with me. But the sentiment, and the difference in attitude, is interesting to me.

In the US, being "unpatriotic" is very bad. It's pretty much the worst thing ever. It's like being disloyal to your family, and criticizing your parents in public instead of keeping it behind closed doors, under the rug, or wherever others won't see it.

I don't think Swedes feel the same way. And apparently not Australians either. To me it's a sign of weakness not being able to take an honest look at yourself.

So an African American woman is proud that finally her country seems to be ready to elect an African American, or a woman, for president? How can that be a shock to anybody? The fact that she can't say it without being criticized is proof enough, I think. It's still not OK with everybody to admit that the world looks different to you depending on where you are standing.

woo-hoo

Barbara Ehrenreich has a blog.

can't do it without bla-bla

I think it's funny that when Hillary Clinton is criticizing Barack Obama for being all talk and no action, she is doing so in carefully crafted speeches of her own. Like what she said today:

"It’s time we moved from good words to good works, from sound bites to sound solutions.”

So the other guy is speaking too much? Didn't someone put together "from good words to good works, from sound bites to sound solutions” exactly in order to create a good sound bite?

there will be blood

This is a really good movie.

again mayka brings the good stuff

Stuff white people like.
Oh, it's hilarious.

happy valentine's day everybody

right before her el paso, texas speech

Clinton Aide: When you address the Latinos, here are your keywords: family, food, music. Get those in there.
Hillary: Family. Food. Music. Got it. I can do that.

bless you

in the shade

like joan rivers says, "am I smiling?"

Swedish royal family at the Olympics.

pet peeve, tv jargon edition

"Let's take a listen", news anchors say as they introduce an audio or video clip.

What kind of stupid crap is that?

another one of those videos

to be continued, I am sure

The blunt and outspoken Doris Lessing said over the weekend that she thinks that if Barack Obama is elected president, there is a high risk he will be assassinated. I am sure she is not the only one who have had that thought cross her mind.

There is an episode of This American Life where a father talks about teaching his young daughter about Jesus, including the fact that Jesus was killed for his beliefs. When the same young girl later has preschool off for MLK Day she learns about Dr. King. She impresses her father by being able to draw parallels between the two men's ideas. Then she asks him: Was Dr. King killed too?

I watched Bobby the other day, the movie about the assassination of Bobby Kennedy during the California primary in 1968. It's a good movie. The story is told from the perspective of the different people staying and working at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, where Kennedy was shot. There is ample use of footage from 1960s speeches and rallies. You get to hear and see the real Kennedy, not an actor.

America does have a history of killing strong leaders. But the same thing happens in other countries too. There can't be a politician in the world today who isn't aware of the risks involved in running for, and holding, office.

I think it's dangerous if we mold our images of the present on our ideas about the past. I think that's a sure way of having history repeat itself.

Yesterday Ing and I had a short discussion based in a column by Joel Stein in The LA Times. Stein was making mild fun of the enthusiastic Obama followers. Ing thought it was funny, I thought he was being elitist. (And yeah maybe I just didn't have a sense of humor.)

One point that Stein made is that Obama is mainstream. That's true. Even John Edwards was a more progressive candidate. It seemed that it confused Stein that people are rallying around a mainstream guy.

Obama is no Dr. King. Ethel Kennedy has said that he reminds her of her husband Bobby. Caroline Kennedy says he can become a president 'like her father'. But that's rhetoric, and part of the game. He is not them.

If we look at Obama and try to see a black leader from the 60s we are both wrong, and doing him a disservice. Early on in the debates black leaders questioned if he was 'black enough'. I think the truth is that is not black at all, in the American sense. He is not a descendant of slaves, and he has not grown up in the US. He is biracial, with a multicultural background. But, he knows what it's like to be treated as a black man in the US because he lives here.

Richard Rodriguez has written about what it means to be brown. He says that within a few decades all of California will be brown. Look at it that way, and you see it clearly that Obama is not a leader from the past. I know I'll sound like one of those fanatic Obama followers now, but I really think that if he wants to, Barack Obama can become a leader for the future.

But, I agree with Rodriguez when he says that Obama needs to make himself known as mixed for that to happen. Rodriguez says he needs to do so to be able to reach Latinos. To me it's a broader issue. I am waiting for Obama to come out and talk about race beyond the black and white. So far he been skirting the issue of race entirely. But I hope it will happen. I hope caution and political strategy will not stand in the way for it.

bottomless pit

heart

from the doris lessing mailing list

Sat Feb 9, 12:00 PM
STOCKHOLM (AFP) - If Barack Obama becomes the next US president he will surely be assassinated, British Nobel literature laureate Doris Lessing predicted in a newspaper interview published here Saturday.
Obama, who is vying to become the first black president in US history, "would certainly not last long, a black man in the position of president. They would murder him," Lessing, 88, told the Dagens Nyheter daily.
Lessing, who won the 2007 Nobel Literature Prize, said it might be better if Obama's Democratic rival Hillary Clinton were to succeed in her bid to become the first woman president of the United States.
"The best thing would be if they (Clinton and Obama) were to run together. Hillary is a very sharp lady. It might be calmer if she were to win, and not Obama," she said.

-Wow, says I.

light

center

the sun is out

more from the columnists

Ing made me read this article from the LA Times.

Joel Stein says that he thinks it's embarrassing to be among the fanatics of a relatively mainstream presidential candidate.

I don't agree.

For one thing, only a candidate who is popular has a chance of actually getting elected. It might be cooler to support someone with a smaller fan base, just as it's cool to the fan of a band no one but you are your friends have heard of. But if you want your guy to have real impact I guess you need to be prepared to share him. And even share him with people less cool than you.

Stein thinks Obama's followers are embarrassing themselves in making 'We are the World' type videos, and overusing the word inspiration. He quotes his mother, a therapist, who says that people are projecting an awful lot onto him.

I am not so sure. Isn't that what we do in politics, in a democracy, pin our hopes on somebody?

And I think the reason people are projecting a lot is that they, sadly, need a lot. They need things they haven't had in American political life for a long while. Cheesy embarrassing things like hope, and inspiration.


PS. I feel a little bad because I am consciously misrepresenting Joel Stein's views to make a point here. So, in the interest of transparency: I am leaving out the fact that Joel Stein is a fan of Obama. He is. I am sorry.

from babs

So here is an interesting take on Obama by Richard Rodriguez in Salon:

Most Hispanics in the United States are mestizos -- a racial mix of European, African and New World Indian. Most Hispanics would understand Barack Obama if he came to us, not as an African-American but, like us, as a person of confused bloodlines.

Rodriguez also reclassifies Hillary Clinton. While Toni Morrison famously dubbed Bill Clinton the 'first black president', in his article Rodriguez talks about Hillary as a possible first Latina in Chief.

irresistable

I buy The National Enquirer. And I read it. I have no shame.

Every time I get a copy from the rack and put it on the Safeway conveyor belt other people read it too. The check out person. Other customers. The bagger boy.

Today a woman in line at the next check stand over turned around, stretched her neck, and read over the shoulder of my check out woman.

On the front cover? "Best and WORST bikini bodies."

Yep. You guessed it. Fat famous people in their swim wear.

that's a cross section right there

According to my Facebook news feed three of my former students were members of the group I pledge to vote for Barack Obama in the California primary on Feb. 5.

Two men, one woman. One black, one white, one Latina.

fattening up

Because yeah we need the calories for this super stressful Super Tuesday we are all in for.

two hand tacos

When I am by myself I make unorthodox-ly fat little tacos. Very tasty. They have a mixture of chicken, leftover rice, hot sauce, mushrooms, onion and garlic in them. Sometimes a little cheese. I have been told a taco is supposed to be fairly thin. Mine are plump. Mmm.

barack the music video

what do you know

The cable went out in the middle of Super Bowl afternoon.

glass

pretty

beak

household tip

Rub your tea stained china with salt.

blood

Recently Ing wrote about being denied donating blood, due to the fact that she had lived in Europe between 1980 and 1996, and therefore may have been exposed to mad cow disease.

Today San Jose State University is suspending blood drives, "because of a longstanding government policy that bars gay men from donating blood".

The policy has been in place since AIDS first emerged in the United States in the early 1980s. The university finds the policy discriminatory. It is believed SJSU is the first college to ban blood drives as a way of protesting, according to the San Jose Mercury News.

I am a mean cynical person

For a debate in Los Angeles tonight Hillary Clinton is wearing a necklace and earrings made from turquoise, the preferred gemstone of the South West.

hope

My interest in politics is strong, but most of the time I am too idealistic and impatient to be drawn in. I get frustrated and angry.

Barack Obama is the first politician I have heard speak in a way that really resonates with me. Ever since moving to the US 12 years ago I have had a hard time reconciling what I have seen around me with the rhetoric of American politics.

During this time I have seen a lot of tension between races, but also a lot of learning and transformation. I am convinced that people can learn from each other, care about each other, and overcome great challenges. I've seen it so many times. It's been surprising to me that no one ever speaks about it. It seems in general people want to believe that race was dealt with in the 1960's, and if you treat people as if they are the same, they will become the same.

Great achievements were made in the 1960's. But the truth is also that since then people have not really gotten any closer. There is a great deal of division. Until now, no one has spoken about a unity that would be inclusive.

What is happening now makes me happy and optimistic, and my boyfriend is laughing at me for getting all worked up.

I don't care. The world is changing, I am telling you.

on the bandwagon

According to CNN Ted Kennedy is going to endorse Barack Obama tomorrow.

"a president like my father", she says

Caroline Kennedy endorses Barack Obama in The New York Times:

I have never had a president who inspired me the way people tell me that my father inspired them. But for the first time, I believe I have found the man who could be that president — not just for me, but for a new generation of Americans.

it made me cry, I am not gonna lie

My favorite part of Barack Obama's speech after having won the South Carolina primary:

But let me say this, South Carolina. What we've seen in these last weeks is that we're also up against forces that are not the fault of any one campaign, but feed the habits that prevent us from being who we want to be as a nation.

It's the politics that uses religion as a wedge and patriotism as a bludgeon, a politics that tells us that we have to think, act and even vote within the confines of the categories that supposedly define us, the assumption that young people are apathetic, the assumption that Republicans won't cross over, the assumption that the wealthy care nothing for the poor and that the poor don't vote, the assumption that African-Americans can't support the white candidate, whites can't support the African-American candidate, blacks and Latinos cannot come together.

We are here tonight to say that that is not the America we believe in.

Watch the speech here.

frasier vs. mash: sometimes a toss up

Frasier just called Anders Celsius a 'famed Swedish astronomer and compulsive temperature taker.'

I thought that was funny.

life imitates art

I was driving down the hill from Cal State East Bay today in the rain and the wind, when all of a sudden there was what looked like actual honest to God tumbleweed tumbling across the road. Right to left. I only ever saw that in movies before.

(No, that's not the university there. I borrowed the photo. The thing I saw was less dense too.)

the history boys

Oh this is a sweet and lovely movie.

happy mlk day

January 15, 1929-April 4, 1968.

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.

Watch some of Dr. King's speeches here.

red #3

I am all about the lemon peel

And then we made a cobbler with apples. I cooked the apple wedges with sugar, cinnamon, cardamom, and chopped lemon peel. Dan poured rum onto them. Yum.

just a thought, one band-aid later

Maybe the person who sharpens all the knives should also do the dishes.

and oh it was a pretty good wine, actually, because it was a gift

I cooked a bastardized version of Boeuf Bourguignon today. It had beef and wine and garlic, onion, salt, pepper, allspice, and a tiny bit of rosemary. It didn't have bacon in it, and no bay leaf because we were out of bay leaves. No mushrooms because I forgot, and no pearl onions because we didn't have them.

I left it to simmer for many hours. Whenever I thought the flavor needed brightening I added finely chopped lemon peel. It ended up pretty good.

Dan wanted to let potatoes boil in the stew towards the end and I have to admit that was very good, even though I was opposed to it.

red #2

just don't do that to yourself

I wouldn't recommend seeing Once if you have already seen Walk Hard. The Dewey Cox Story. Both movies tell the story of an up and coming musician. But where Once takes itself seriously, Walk Hard makes glorious fun of the entire genre.

If you've seen a hard to impress recording staff be turned around by Dewey Cox's unexpected talent, when the same thing happens to the guy in Once all you can do is laugh. And that is kind of unfortunate.

red

thanks evan

So here's an interesting thought.

it's that time of year again

1. Peel a few blood oranges. Use a knife so that you get the white stuff off too. Slice the oranges thinly.
2. In a shallow bowl mix orange slices with calamata olives, drizzle olive oil on top, and add a little salt.
3. Let sit for a few minutes.
4. Yum.

toni morrison 'wrote' to me

She wanted me to support The Southern Poverty Law Center. In return, my name would be included on the Wall of Tolerance in Montgomery, Alabama.

The wall looks really cool. The fake mass produced stationary was kind of cute. I'll send them some money. Click here for online donations.

the other day hillary clinton said she had 'found her voice'. sadly it sounds to me as if she's lost it again.

"We may differ on minor matters," Mrs. Clinton said of Mr. Obama, "but when it comes to what is really important, we are family." (From The New York Times.)

Just like The Olive Garden, right? "When you're here, you're family."

I'll be honest. I have a hard time with the current pop culture overuse of the word 'family'. To me it's untruthful, and unattractive. It implies a level of intimacy that just cannot be there. In advertising we are used to it. But in politics? Family?

How about colleagues? Colleagues who respect each other? That would actually be more than good enough for me.

I wonder if Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama would consider themselves friends. Then again, we all know you can be family without being friends. But was that what she wanted to say?

quote of the campaign

"I don't like talking about myself."
- Hillary Clinton on Meet the Press.

let's rock and roll

my boyfriend is concerned about the water level in the reservoir

Two weeks of rain later: brown muddy water to the brim.

yep, I am thinking of lou dobbs

I am tired of white men deciding what is racist and not.

"cooking"

1. Make rice.
2. Chop anything.
3. Fry it.
4. Add a couple of tablespoons of Hoisin sauce.
5. Fry a little more.
6. Mmmm.

today's spam

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to choose from any field of your interest.
Only 2 weeks require to delivers the prestigious non-accredited
universities paper to your doorstep.
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sí se puede, take two

Several points can be made in relation to Barack Obama's 'Yes We Can!'-speech. The first one came in the form of a comment to my previous post:

Dialogue about race is most often a black and white issue with no room in between. All the other colors of the rainbow are frequently excluded from conversations about race, ethnicity, etc. It's easier to recall the MLK speech despite the fact that Obama's mention of "Yes we can" is almost a direct translation of "Si se puede". I'm going to tell my migrant students. Ha!

-Frustrated Migrant Student Counselor

The Daily Kos also thinks Obama missed an opportunity to show true solidarity with Latinos:

While some might claim that Obama's use of the slogan in English is an obvious homage to it's originator, and by extension an outreach to Latino voters, the subtlety is easily lost on those not aware of the phrase's history.

sí se puede

Barack Obama made a speech today in which one reoccurring phrase was "yes we can". Again his speech was inspirational. The MSNBC commentators were impressed, and said that they heard echoes of Martin Luther King's famous I have a dream speech.

I actually heard echoes of Cesar Chavez, and the motto of The United Farmworkers.

The Spanish Sí Se Puede has often been translated as Yes We Can, even though that translation has been criticized. "Yes, it can be done" is a more accurate translation.

no rain today

fear or hope, you pick

I remember that some time in 2004 during the last presidential election Bill Clinton spoke out in favor of John Kerry against George W. Bush. Clinton said something along the lines of 'If your choice is between a candidate who asks you to be fearful, and a candidate who asks you to hope, choose the one asking for your hope.'

So it's ironic that his wife is the one talking about fear right now.

I am sure it's all because I joined that group on facebook

Jon Stewart is back!

underestimated dairy product

Sour cream really is very tasty.

yeah, I am all for the inspirational

So I have written my syllabi for the quarter.
And just because I can I sometimes put quotes on them.
I am sure none of the students ever read them.
Or, maybe they do. When they procrastinate.

Anyway. I changed my favorite Dr. King quote:

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.

To my new favorite Dr. King quote:

Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality.

I really think that's true.
Yep. So that's what they can expect in my ethnic studies class.

african american in paris

Act 3 of this radio show will blow your mind. It says something about race that you don't hear a lot. That part starts 40 minutes into the show.

(It does have something do to with Dexter Gordon, but only implicitly.) (He is alright too though.)

separated at birth: kevin & mike. get it?

yeah yeah yeah go to paris already (but don't write about it)

When I was a teenager I wanted to be a foreign correspondent. I thought that would be the coolest job ever.

And, when I was a teenager I had a favorite writer. He just died, and that I is why I think of this right now. The writer's name is Stig Claesson. (Sadly none of his work seems to be translated.)

Stig Claesson was a writer, and an artist. He grew up in Sweden. He was young in the late 1940s when the second world war had just ended. Finally it was possible to travel again, and he wanted to get out. So he left.

He has written about helping to rebuild Europe by hard physical labor, and he has written about happy carefree days in Paris. He and his friends spent years building bridges, digging ditches, traveling, writing, drawing, being poor, and being drunk.

To me that sounded great.

Somewhere in one of those books Stig Claesson reflects that everywhere he went in those years, all over Europe, he would meet the same kind of person. A fresh faced young man or woman, traveling just like him, writing stories about Europe for a small newspaper back home, wherever that might be.

All over the world, Claesson said, you find these people, busy writing home about their lives.

That idea stuck in my head. It seemed to me he was saying that instead of living a life, people were writing about it. I am not sure if he would include himself in that. Maybe not. He probably considered himself part of the scene, and the others merely traveling through.
Stig Claesson is also known for his stories about slightly eccentric and stubborn people living in the Swedish countryside. The stories are tender, respectful, and patient portraits of the ways people are connected to their surroundings.

I think Swedes like to think of those people as quintessentially Swedish. They are not. That's just how people are, everywhere. And I guess the lesson is that after you've been to Paris, you may know to appreciate them.

the empty reservoir before the big rain

They say this summer there will be water rationing.

more on the weather

Grrrrr the cable just went out.

so this is actually a winter storm, not just some rainy weather

You can't tell from this photo but it is really raining like crazy right now. I was out in the street to check on the car cover and I got soaked in a minute. The car seemed OK but a street sign had toppled over right next to it. Toppled over as in the wind had pulled the metal pole right out of the ground.

the iowa caucus (speaking of history)

Youtube clip of the speech. (People are fast.)
Here is a print version of Barack Obama's speech.

more from my favorite radio show

I just finished listening to this episode of This American Life. In it Sarah Vowell goes on a road trip with her sister along the Trail of Tears. Wikipedia tells us that "The Trail of Tears refers to the forced relocation in 1838 of the Cherokee Native American tribe to the Western United States, which resulted in the deaths of an estimated 4,000 Cherokees."

Like many other Americans, Sarah and her sister are part Cherokee. Being at least a little Cherokee in northeastern Oklahoma is about as rare and remarkable as being a Michael Jordan fan in Chicago, she says on the show.

Towards the end of the hour Sarah talks to one of her uncles, and she realizes how deeply impacted by history his life has been. He didn't go to school past third grade because he had to help support his family. And then came the depression, and then the war.

Contemplating her own life, Sarah Vowell comments that she herself is "free of history". I have to get in a car and drive seven states to find it, she says. History has no natural place in her life.

Compared to other cultures, American culture is future oriented. That means that people live their lives with their eyes on the horizon. They define themselves by their plans for the future rather than by their history. The future is simply more important to them than the past. Sarah Vowell's remarks reflect that. Even though she has a strong interest in history, history does not have a presence in her culture.

Oftentimes this attitude is stronger among people who define themselves as white, or whose ancestry is mixed to the point where they don't really identify with any single group. People who identify as Black, Chicano, Jewish, or Japanese American, just to name a few, usually have a stronger sense of history. For them it's easier to see how the history of their people have helped shape their lives today.

The United States is highly individualistic. That means that we have been trained to believe in free will and the power of the individual. We are hellbent on feeling in control, and having our choices matter. That attitude makes it hard to see that our lives are indeed also shaped by circumstances beyond our control. And, that our lives are connected to the lives of people who we have never met.

In reality all of us are just as inscribed in history as Sarah Vowell's uncle, or any other person on the face of the earth. Habits, norms, and life circumstances are handed down to us. The misfortunes, or opportunities, we may have today are often the direct results of decisions made by those who came before us.

Those of us who are not Black, Chicano, Japanese American, or Jewish, are still affected by what happened to those groups. We are all caught in the same web. We may be sitting at different corners of it, but it's still the same web.

For that reason I think it would be helpful if we could broaden our perspective a little. Taking an inclusive approach to history would mean that we would realize that we don't have to be part Cherokee to be influenced by the Trail of Tears. We shouldn't have to be Japanese American to be affected by the internment of people of Japanese descent during the second world war. The Civil Rights Movement did not concern African Americans only. All of these things are part of American history. It affects all of us. It may not affect us in the same way, but it is the history that belongs to all of us.

And then maybe we can use some of that free will to decide on how we are going to let future be shaped by what we have learned.

atonement

Dan and I went to see Atonement. (Yeah yeah yeah, you guessed it: English, and a period piece=my suggestion).

The movie made Dan angry, but I liked it a lot. At the same time it might have been the most unsettling film I have ever seen. I have read a few reviews, and they all do their best trying not to give away the plot while at the same time talking mostly about the plot. Which makes sense because the story does keep you on the edge of your seat.

Crisp English accents, fantastic clothes, and drama aside, what really got me hooked was the time line. It's very cool the way the story is told.

Just don't expect this movie to help you feel better about the world. Very likely it will make you feel worse. By the end of it I wanted to punch Vanessa Redgrave in the nose really really hard. And I am not just saying that either.

the alameda, san jose calif. dec. 30, 2007