What will it take?

Today I am having a hard time being optimistic about our species and its ability to rise to the many challenges it faces. Partly because of yet another senseless act of savage gun violence. But it's bigger than that. I truly wonder what it will take for the human race to look itself in the mirror, accept that it's made many bad decisions, and start making better ones. For the sake of future generations. For the sake of our world. For example:

There is overwhelming evidence that more guns and less gun regulations lead to more gun violence. It's a well documented fact. Yet every time we witness yet another barbaric act of gun violence, there are plenty of passionate people who insist guns aren't the problem, and some even claim more guns are the answer.

There is overwhelming evidence that deregulation of industries leads to better outcomes for a few people and much worse outcomes for everyone else. Yet half of Congress still argues that less regulation is what we need to achieve prosperity.

There is overwhelming evidence that trickle down economics have never worked, except to make a very small minority of rich people much richer, and everyone else poorer and less financially secure. Yet many on Capitol Hill are still speaking with confidence that this is what this country needs.

There is overwhelming evidence that we now have a food system that is killing us. Heart disease, diabetes, cancer, obesity and many other ailments are directly linked to the way we feed ourselves and what we allow corporations to put in our food and drinks. National mourning follows when an act of public violence takes innocent lives, yet hundreds of thousands of people are being killed by their food every year with hardly any outrage.

There is overwhelming evidence that our energy and industrial systems are rapidly warming our planet and destabilizing our climate, leading to certain catastrophic outcomes especially for the most disadvantaged people on this planet. Yet we fail to act.

What will it take? Why is it that we've been conditioned to be more afraid of things that are very unlikely to happen to us (like shark attacks or snake bites or plane crashes) than to take proven steps to prevent things that are very likely to happen to us (like cancer, climate change, etc...)? It's beyond comprehension for the left-brain thinker that I am.

Some of the problems we face will not all easily be solved. But they will certainly not be solved if we can't even accept them as problems and accept that we need to work on solutions. 

Photo Book

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Photo books are the perfect gift for any occasion.

Anger Management

It fascinates me to observe what makes people angry these days.

Am particularly interested by the rage inspired in so many by the idea that more Americans should have access to healthcare. Hard to understand, especially since it's still pay-to-play and still controlled by private insurers, so these people's beloved illusion of  'free-market magic' is still safe-and-sound, thanks to close to $200M of bribes from insurance lobby. These are the same angry people, by the way, who are usually the ones waving signs saying 'Don't mess with my Medicare'... The irony is lost on them...

At the same time of course, a whole host of things are happening before our eyes, and it baffles me that not more people are in a permanent state of outrage over them. A short list would include:
- Our air and water are being poisoned and our planet's life-sustaining resources are being fast depleted in the name of profits.
- Our food is filled with cancer-causing chemicals and obesity-causing additives while robbed of brain-developing nutrients. Also in the name of profits.
- Our political and judicial system is now fully controlled by private money.
- The US Constitution is now considered by many as a quaint historical document mainly useful when needed to somehow justify that every citizen should have the right to arm themselves to the teeth. All these other inconvenient articles and amendments are just guidelines, not rules, right?
- Our war machine is a tool of industry aimed at controlling the flow of natural resources at artificially low prices (if you exclude the cost of war of course, but businesses don't get to pay that, taxpayers do). Where are the old days of fabricating wars just in the name of ideological superiority and as a way to enrich the military industrial complex?
- America believes the world's most dangerous religious extremists are somewhere in the Middle East. The rest of the world believes they are in the US. And not Muslim.
- The real problem with taxpayer-funded welfare in the US has to do with the hundreds of billions given away to large, rich private interests in the form of all kinds of subsidies, right to unfairly exploit public lands and natural resources, tax breaks and the like.
- The American dream is dead. Best predictor of a man's lifetime income is his father's. The country's wealth is gradually and increasingly being amassed by a smaller number of people, who then use their immense wealth and power to ensure nobody interferes with that wealth and power.
- We love to say US is #1. At what? Not quality of life. Or education. Or health. Or freedom. Or opportunity. Or democracy. But obesity and other preventable diseases? Household debt? Pollution? Cost of healthcare? Cost of higher education? You bet!

So if giving more people access to healthcare is what really pisses you off, turn off Fox News and whatever hate-radio you listen to, and pay attention to what's really happening. Our country's future success depends on it.

Hope and Despair

A few days ago I was trying to offer the following advice to one of my daughters as a path to happiness: Let the positive in your life outshine the negative. Indeed, at any given moment, there are things we can focus on that make us feel grateful, proud, hopeful, joyful; and others that make us feel hopeless, horrified, angry, helpless.

I use this a lot in my own life. I have so much to be grateful for in my personal and professional lives, I consider myself truly privileged. And yet there are things I care deeply about such as social and environmental justice or warfare and institutional violence and their devastating impacts on entire generations around the world, and there is seldom much to rejoice about in these domains. These things are so heavy, so fundamental, how can I stand to be happy when our planet is being raped every day in the name of greed, when innocent populations in so many places have to endure the brutality of war and persecution, again in the name of greed, or dogma, or both?

It's a tough balancing act not to fall into apathy and become numb, while not letting a state of permanent outrage completely consume your peace of mind and the joy you can bring to others in their lives.

Yesterday was a good day in several ways. President Obama gave hope to a large number of aspiring American citizens who have lived under the label of 'illegals' because of the way their parents entered the US. France won their soccer match. I got to spend quality time with my teenage daughter. I got to exercise a little even.

But then I learned of a tragic event unfolding in the life of someone I care about. And at that point, it is so hard not to let the despair and hopelessness outsize everything else. In the end, the quality of our lives are defined by our personal relationships. We are social creatures by design. And when tragedy strikes someone  close, we feel it so much more strongly.

Someone wrote recently that if everyone got to personally experience the horror of war, the pain of starvation, the devastation of environmental destruction, we would all be more committed to making these things end. Maybe. In the meantime, I will carry on trying to use all the good in my life as positive energy to deal with that which I want to see change. Knowing that one some days, that balance just can't be achieved.

Reblogging: Open Letter to UC Davis Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi

I am reblogging this excellent post found at http://bicyclebarricade.wordpress.com/2011/11/19/open-letter-to-chancellor-linda-p-b-katehi/. These words are powerful and need to be echoed.

Open Letter to Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi

Posted on November 19, 2011 by crank

18 November 2011

Open Letter to Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi

Linda P.B. Katehi,

I am a junior faculty member at UC Davis. I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of English, and I teach in the Program in Critical Theory and in Science & Technology Studies. I have a strong record of research, teaching, and service. I am currently a Board Member of the Davis Faculty Association. I have also taken an active role in supporting the student movement to defend public education on our campus and throughout the UC system. In a word: I am the sort of young faculty member, like many of my colleagues, this campus needs. I am an asset to the University of California at Davis.

You are not.

I write to you and to my colleagues for three reasons:

1) to express my outrage at the police brutality which occurred against students engaged in peaceful protest on the UC Davis campus today

2) to hold you accountable for this police brutality

3) to demand your immediate resignation

Today you ordered police onto our campus to clear student protesters from the quad. These were protesters who participated in a rally speaking out against tuition increases and police brutality on UC campuses on Tuesday—a rally that I organized, and which was endorsed by the Davis Faculty Association. These students attended that rally in response to a call for solidarity from students and faculty who were bludgeoned with batons,hospitalized, and arrested at UC Berkeley last week. In the highest tradition of non-violent civil disobedience, those protesters had linked arms and held their ground in defense of tents they set up beside Sproul Hall. In a gesture of solidarity with those students and faculty, and in solidarity with the national Occupy movement, students at UC Davis set up tents on the main quad. When you ordered police outfitted with riot helmets, brandishing batons and teargas guns to remove their tents today, those students sat down on the ground in a circle and linked arms to protect them.

What happened next?

Without any provocation whatsoever, other than the bodies of these students sitting where they were on the ground, with their arms linked, police pepper-sprayed students. Students remained on the ground, now writhing in pain, with their arms linked.

What happened next?

Police used batons to try to push the students apart. Those they could separate, they arrested, kneeling on their bodies and pushing their heads into the ground. Those they could not separate, they pepper-sprayed directly in the face, holding these students as they did so. When students covered their eyes with their clothing, police forced open their mouths and pepper-sprayed down their throats. Several of these students were hospitalized. Others are seriously injured. One of them, forty-five minutes after being pepper-sprayed down his throat, was still coughing up blood.

This is what happened. You are responsible for it.

You are responsible for it because this is what happens when UC Chancellors order police onto our campuses to disperse peaceful protesters through the use of force: students get hurt. Faculty get hurt. One of the most inspiring things (inspiring for those of us who care about students who assert their rights to free speech and peaceful assembly) about the demonstration in Berkeley on November 9 is that UC Berkeley faculty stood together with students, their arms linked together. Associate Professor of English Celeste Langan was grabbed by her hair, thrown on the ground, and arrested. Associate Professor Geoffrey O’Brien was injured by baton blows. Professor Robert Hass, former Poet Laureate of the United States, National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize winner, was also struck with a baton. These faculty stood together with students in solidarity, and they too were beaten and arrested by the police. In writing this letter, I stand together with those faculty and with the students they supported.

One week after this happened at UC Berkeley, you ordered police to clear tents from the quad at UC Davis. When students responded in the same way—linking arms and holding their ground—police also responded in the same way: with violent force. The fact is: the administration of UC campuses systematically uses police brutality to terrorize students and faculty, to crush political dissent on our campuses, and to suppress free speech and peaceful assembly. Many people know this. Many more people are learning it very quickly.

You are responsible for the police violence directed against students on the UC Davis quad on November 18, 2011. As I said, I am writing to hold you responsible and to demand your immediate resignation on these grounds.

On Wednesday November 16, you issued a letter by email to the campus community. In this letter, you discussed a hate crime which occurred at UC Davis on Sunday November 13. In this letter, you express concern about the safety of our students. You write, “it is particularly disturbing that such an act of intolerance should occur at a time when the campus community is working to create a safe and inviting space for all our students.” You write, “while these are turbulent economic times, as a campus community, we must all be committed to a safe, welcoming environment that advances our efforts to diversity and excellence at UC Davis.”

I will leave it to my colleagues and every reader of this letter to decide what poses a greater threat to “a safe and inviting space for all our students” or “a safe, welcoming environment” at UC Davis: 1) Setting up tents on the quad in solidarity with faculty and students brutalized by police at UC Berkeley? or 2) Sending in riot police to disperse students with batons, pepper-spray, and tear-gas guns, while those students sit peacefully on the ground with their arms linked? Is this what you have in mind when you refer to creating “a safe and inviting space?” Is this what you have in mind when you express commitment to “a safe, welcoming environment?”

I am writing to tell you in no uncertain terms that there must be space for protest on our campus. There must be space for political dissent on our campus. There must be space for civil disobedience on our campus. There must be space for students to assert their right to decide on the form of their protest, their dissent, and their civil disobedience—including the simple act of setting up tents in solidarity with other students who have done so. There must be space for protest and dissent, especially, when the object of protest and dissent is police brutality itself. You may not order police to forcefully disperse student protesters peacefully protesting police brutality. You may not do so. It is not an option available to you as the Chancellor of a UC campus. That is why I am calling for your immediate resignation.

Your words express concern for the safety of our students. Your actions express no concern whatsoever for the safety of our students. I deduce from this discrepancy that you are not, in fact, concerned about the safety of our students. Your actions directly threaten the safety of our students. And I want you to know that this is clear. It is clear to anyone who reads your campus emails concerning our “Principles of Community” and who also takes the time to inform themselves about your actions. You should bear in mind that when you send emails to the UC Davis community, you address a body of faculty and students who are well trained to see through rhetoric that evinces care for students while implicitly threatening them. I see through your rhetoric very clearly. You also write to a campus community that knows how to speak truth to power. That is what I am doing.

I call for your resignation because you are unfit to do your job. You are unfit to ensure the safety of students at UC Davis. In fact: you are the primary threat to the safety of students at UC Davis. As such, I call upon you to resign immediately.

Sincerely,

Nathan Brown
Assistant Professor
Department of English
Program in Critical Theory
University of California at Davis

Hope for the future

I did something new tonight. I taught my first ever college course. And I really liked it.


Through the solid partnership I now have with the ASU School of Sustainability, I was invited to teach an upper division capstone course on any subject I deemed relevant and one where I felt I could add meaningful value. Jodi, knowing how I enjoy coaching and mentoring others in their careers, brilliantly suggested I bring that passion to the classroom. The enthusiastic reception from the School and tonight from the students confirms this was very good advice.


Tonight I feel very hopeful for the future. In that classroom I got to hear from 18 or so students who came across as smart yet humble, highly motivated to make a difference in the world but also closer to home. Not idealists, a refreshingly pragmatic group ready to roll up their sleeves and do something. Even if it's hard. Even if it doesn't pay a whole lot. What they want in return? Happiness for themselves and the opportunity to bring happiness and justice to others in the process.


This is the next generation. It is ready. It is aware. It is bright. It is not overly cynical - although clearly disappointed in their elders, who can blame them? I am grateful to have the chance to guide them and hopefully help them achieve even greater things. Go Devils!

Freedom

I recently played in a friendly tennis mixer organized for the 4th of July weekend. Holiday themed attire was encouraged. One of the women there wore a shirt saying 'Got Freedom?', inspired by the now classic 'Got Milk?' ad campaign. A car in the parking lot had a bumper sticker showing the emblem of the US Marines and the words 'My son fights for our freedom'. Various July 4th inspired headlines and commercials say things along the lines of 'Celebrate Freedom'. Got me thinking about freedom...

The US was founded on some very noble ideals. We are all created equal. We all have inalienable rights. We are all free to pursue happiness. Of course, when these things were declared, they were aspirational goals, not realities. Women had much fewer rights than men. Most black people in the US were enslaved. Native Americans were considered 'hostile savages' just because they were defending their ancestral lands from invasion. And so on. There was a lot of work to do, and it was very bold and progressive of the Founding Fathers to lay out that kind of vision. Nothing like that really existed anywhere else on such a scale, which is why this country became such a beacon for the rest of the world.

Fast forward to present day. I find there is a dramatic gap between the ideals upon which this country was founded - those that make us most proud to be American - and the reality that results from the policies and actions of the US. Worse, we are increasingly comfortable explaining our many departures from these ideals whenever they are not convenient.

There are unfortunately so many examples to draw from lately. Here are a few:

- Torture is wrong and illegal, except when deemed necessary, then it's OK

- Everyone is entitled to due process, except if we don't have a case against them, then it's OK to hold them indefinitely without being charged with a crime or given access to an attorney 

- Corruption is illegal, but it's perfectly OK to give millions to people in power and expect favors in return

- Free speech is protected, unless you publish embarrassing truths about the government, then you're deemed an enemy of the State

- Freedom of assembly is protected, unless you plan to assemble in order to use free speech to voice your disagreement with your government, then may be preventively detained or violently disbanded

- Interfering in other countries' elections and affairs is illegal and wrong, unless we think that country will elect someone who will put their own country's interests ahead of US interests, then we may interfere

- No one's above the law. Unless they have powerful friends and tons of money

- Human rights abuses are always wrong. Especially if committed by countries whose natural resources we covet, then we use that as a pretense for war. Unless they are committed by close allies like Israel or Saudi Arabia, then we look the other way

This is certainly not limited to government policy. This is evident everywhere, nowhere more so than in religion. Massive gaps exist between what religion teaches and what is done in the name of religion. I can sort of blame the abuses of the Spanish inquisition or the Crusades on complete ignorance and lack of information. But in today's day and age, I cannot stand those who advocate violence, intolerance or persecution in the name of religions that preach peace and tolerance. Be they Mullahs, Ayatollahs, priests, popes, ministers, or simply 'deeply religious' politicians.

Closer to my line of work, look at the hypocrisy with regards to climate change. All serious science proves it beyond doubt. All major political parties in the world except one recognize its existence and need to address it. Can you guess the one outlier? If you guessed the US Republican Party, you're right. In the list of Key Issues on their website, climate change is nowhere. Even if it's the most pressing and complex problem humanity faces...

Most large organizations are quite forthcoming about the need to address climate change. But some of them are talking out of both sides of their mouths: Exxon Mobil says clearly on their website: ''Rising greenhouse gas emissions pose significant risks to society and ecosystems'. Yet they are also spending millions to fabricate scientific doubt about climate change, and millions more lobbying against any attempt to regulate or lower emissions. The US Chamber of Commerce says on their website ‘The U.S. Chamber of Commerce believes climate change is an important issue for policymakers to address.’ Yet, they are spending tens of millions of dollars lobbying against any legislative effort to address the problem and are financially supporting the biggest climate deniers in Congress. 

The main common thread among all these things, in my opinion, is money. Lots of it. We spend trillions of dollars to fund a military empire primarily designed to protect and further American interests in the world. Those interests generate many more trillions. The people and groups on the receiving end of most of that money are very rich, very powerful, and very determined to make sure the flow of money doesn't stop.

Another way to say that is that sending our sons and daughters to all corners of the globe has little if anything to do with 'protecting our freedom' as most people understand it. It is mostly about protecting our freedom to access natural resources as we please, to maintain privileged access for our products and services, and to export our ideology to the rest of the world. Nobody's really out to take our freedom away. Those who fight us are usually aiming to protect or regain their own...

On this 4th of July, let's celebrate the vision the Founding Fathers had for our nation and our world, and let's commit to reforming our institutions so that this vision can one day become reality.