Haiku About Highly Appropriate Topics
Kerry Wood, Carlos
Zambrano, Mark Prior? Meet
Gary Sheffield.
Also, my nephew
is eating and will likely
be home very soon!
Tuesday, September 30, 2003
Thursday, September 25, 2003
Touch Screen Ballots Make Us Warm and Fuzzy!
Check it:http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0307/S00065.htm
Check it:
Are Suburbs Dysfunctional?
I'm sure you guys all heard aboutthis . Given the number of students in high schools around the country, and the effect the Columbine massacre no doubt had on this generation of students, it's frankly a wonder we don't see more of these. Condolences to the family and friends of the deceased, and I hope the perpetrator gets the help he needs.
When I heard about this latest incident, I flashed to something I read recently. I believe it was a letter to the editor ofSalon in response to a roundtable discussion among several teenage girls about the movie Thirteen . The author of the letter chided Salon for using teenage girls from different parts of New York City to critique the film, saying something along the lines that kids in New York City simply can't compare their high school and middle school experiences to students in other parts of the country. NYC kids, according to the letter writer, don't have to deal with the cliquishness of early teenage life to the extent that other kids to because they're freer to construct their own identities --- everyone understands that's what you do and tolerates to a greater extent the differences in other people --- and because there's simply so much to do in the city that most kids aren't going to spend time obsessing over who's in and who's out.
I can't speak one way or the other about her direct point; I've only been to NYC a couple times and certainly didn't go to school there or in an urban (or particularly urbane) area. But every time I hear about these shootings, I invariably ponder what it is aboutsuburban and exurban areas that seems to spawn these sorts of things. Or is it just a coincidence that, so far, there hasn't been a major school shooting in an extremely large city?
Columbine affected me not only because of the nature of the crime and the media coverage surrounding it but because every description of Littleton sounded like East Cobb. Affluent, Abercrombie and Fitch-ish, heavy and overt influence of Protestant churches*; hell, even the major employer was similar (both had major military aircraft manufacturing operations nearby). I wasn't long out of high school, and my brother was a sophomore or a junior at the time. At the time the media was placing blame on the boys' parents; onMarilyn Manson ; on their lack of religion; on bullying in the schools. I think they're symptoms, perhaps. Tim Wise, for Alternet, pinned it on white indifference to urban issues ; I think he's perhaps closer but not quite on the mark. Instead, I suspect the issue has more to do with a basic dysfunction in the way suburbs --- especially suburbs of "car cities" --- work.
Why do suburbs exist? I can rattle off a number of reasons. Some exist because of racism; this is affirmatively the case in Atlanta, where "white flight" decimated the Atlanta public school system and quite a bit of the city's bureaucracy for a time in the 1960s, 70s, and into the 80s. Some exist because of people's desire to live somewhere "safe," and to escape real or perceived higher rates of violent crime. Some exist because people can generally afford more land and a bigger house --- or can afford to buy a house, period --- further away from an urban center. Some exist because people want to send their kids to "good" schools and feel they can't in a city. Some exist because people wish to avoid the pace of urban life. The point is, suburbs are rarely a move on the part of their residents towards something positive; rather, they are generally a move away from a perceived negative. Proximity to a city is necessary for most people, though, because cities are job meccas.
The suburb, then, is primarily job-centered; people are tethered to the city for their jobs and live in these communities so that they can get to them relatively conveniently without actually experiencing the negatives of city life. Beyond that, most suburbs are equipped with the accoutrements of learning and money --- good schools, libraries, lots of shopping. The suburbs promote two kinds of culture: an achievement culture, and a consumption culture.
I think it's stretching it to say that either one is essentially dehumanizing. Certainly the drive to achieve and to do great things has inspired most great men and women in history. But that drive being instilled in the very fabric of a culture --- being something that all children in an area are inoculated with --- has got to be novel in human history. Doing one's job well and living an honorable life isn't quite what I'm getting at; rather, in elite suburban high schools, students receive the sort of training befitting a future member of one of the professions. Law, medicine, business, engineering, teaching, perhaps the arts (in an administrative role), journalism, research. A white-collar job is tacitly touted as an end in itself, and students get the message in subtle and not-so-subtle ways that playing "the game," getting good grades, volunteering at the right places, and participating in extracurricular activities is the way to get a good one someday in the future and to make a lot of money. This works brilliantly for students who are inclined towards those paths, and the vast majority of them are; I have no doubt that if I ever make it to a high school reunion, I'll find that at least 95% of my classmates are doing the sorts of jobs that the suburbs work best in nurturing people into. The students the system fails are a small percentage, but they exist --- students on whom constant pressure to "achieve" chafes rather than inspires. They're the ones who might be interested in learning for learning's sake (or not interested in learning at all), but look around at their parents and their neighbors and don't see anything worth aspiring to. And they generally don't see anyone they'd perceive as a worthy role model in their communities because the people who live happy lives that don't fit into the achievement culture mold generally don't live in the suburbs. Why would they?
The consumption culture has less intrinsic redemptive value than the achievement culture but springs from the same urges. The urge to perform a socially valuable contribution is conflated with the urge to engage in something remunerative. Without buying and selling, no money changes hands. Without buying, the people who've "earned" la dolce vita have no totems to identify themselves as members of the upper-middle class. The consumption culture is a trademark of the suburbs, but more of a by-product than anything.
Do achievement and consumption cultures exist in the city? Of course; they might even be amplified. But there's another sort of culture that springs up in cities that's vital to their functionality, and that the suburbs by and large lack. Virtually all decent-sized cities have a major infrastructure that's not centered around money at all. Part of it is creative; most cities have a plethora of music, art, and theatre options, performed and designed by people who aren't getting rich but are doing what they do because they feel they have to. Because they can't do otherwise and live a full life. Part of it is community-oriented; groups of people with specialized needs or who sense holes in their community come together because the city is much more likely to have a critical mass of any particular population. There are many, many more ways to survive in the city than in the suburbs. It's possible to live a bohemian sort of lifestyle because cities are set up to allow that.
I had a point. Yeah. Oh --- in an area where the major memes are "buy, buy, buy" and "become something respectable (so you can buy, buy, buy)," isn't it inevitable that at least a small number of people will wonder whether that's all there is and find no counterargument? Large cities aren't perfect. They're not utopias; if they were we'd all be living in one. But what cities offer for teenagers is proof that, no, high school isn't all there is. There's life --- a real life, not just money, stuff, and middle-class schadenfreude --- outside those walls.
Wow, it's late. I really should stop ranting on no sleep and multiple margaritas. It makes me incoherent.
* This isn't an attack on Protestantism by any means; it's just something the two towns have in common.
I'm sure you guys all heard about
When I heard about this latest incident, I flashed to something I read recently. I believe it was a letter to the editor of
I can't speak one way or the other about her direct point; I've only been to NYC a couple times and certainly didn't go to school there or in an urban (or particularly urbane) area. But every time I hear about these shootings, I invariably ponder what it is about
Columbine affected me not only because of the nature of the crime and the media coverage surrounding it but because every description of Littleton sounded like East Cobb. Affluent, Abercrombie and Fitch-ish, heavy and overt influence of Protestant churches*; hell, even the major employer was similar (both had major military aircraft manufacturing operations nearby). I wasn't long out of high school, and my brother was a sophomore or a junior at the time. At the time the media was placing blame on the boys' parents; on
Why do suburbs exist? I can rattle off a number of reasons. Some exist because of racism; this is affirmatively the case in Atlanta, where "white flight" decimated the Atlanta public school system and quite a bit of the city's bureaucracy for a time in the 1960s, 70s, and into the 80s. Some exist because of people's desire to live somewhere "safe," and to escape real or perceived higher rates of violent crime. Some exist because people can generally afford more land and a bigger house --- or can afford to buy a house, period --- further away from an urban center. Some exist because people want to send their kids to "good" schools and feel they can't in a city. Some exist because people wish to avoid the pace of urban life. The point is, suburbs are rarely a move on the part of their residents towards something positive; rather, they are generally a move away from a perceived negative. Proximity to a city is necessary for most people, though, because cities are job meccas.
The suburb, then, is primarily job-centered; people are tethered to the city for their jobs and live in these communities so that they can get to them relatively conveniently without actually experiencing the negatives of city life. Beyond that, most suburbs are equipped with the accoutrements of learning and money --- good schools, libraries, lots of shopping. The suburbs promote two kinds of culture: an achievement culture, and a consumption culture.
I think it's stretching it to say that either one is essentially dehumanizing. Certainly the drive to achieve and to do great things has inspired most great men and women in history. But that drive being instilled in the very fabric of a culture --- being something that all children in an area are inoculated with --- has got to be novel in human history. Doing one's job well and living an honorable life isn't quite what I'm getting at; rather, in elite suburban high schools, students receive the sort of training befitting a future member of one of the professions. Law, medicine, business, engineering, teaching, perhaps the arts (in an administrative role), journalism, research. A white-collar job is tacitly touted as an end in itself, and students get the message in subtle and not-so-subtle ways that playing "the game," getting good grades, volunteering at the right places, and participating in extracurricular activities is the way to get a good one someday in the future and to make a lot of money. This works brilliantly for students who are inclined towards those paths, and the vast majority of them are; I have no doubt that if I ever make it to a high school reunion, I'll find that at least 95% of my classmates are doing the sorts of jobs that the suburbs work best in nurturing people into. The students the system fails are a small percentage, but they exist --- students on whom constant pressure to "achieve" chafes rather than inspires. They're the ones who might be interested in learning for learning's sake (or not interested in learning at all), but look around at their parents and their neighbors and don't see anything worth aspiring to. And they generally don't see anyone they'd perceive as a worthy role model in their communities because the people who live happy lives that don't fit into the achievement culture mold generally don't live in the suburbs. Why would they?
The consumption culture has less intrinsic redemptive value than the achievement culture but springs from the same urges. The urge to perform a socially valuable contribution is conflated with the urge to engage in something remunerative. Without buying and selling, no money changes hands. Without buying, the people who've "earned" la dolce vita have no totems to identify themselves as members of the upper-middle class. The consumption culture is a trademark of the suburbs, but more of a by-product than anything.
Do achievement and consumption cultures exist in the city? Of course; they might even be amplified. But there's another sort of culture that springs up in cities that's vital to their functionality, and that the suburbs by and large lack. Virtually all decent-sized cities have a major infrastructure that's not centered around money at all. Part of it is creative; most cities have a plethora of music, art, and theatre options, performed and designed by people who aren't getting rich but are doing what they do because they feel they have to. Because they can't do otherwise and live a full life. Part of it is community-oriented; groups of people with specialized needs or who sense holes in their community come together because the city is much more likely to have a critical mass of any particular population. There are many, many more ways to survive in the city than in the suburbs. It's possible to live a bohemian sort of lifestyle because cities are set up to allow that.
I had a point. Yeah. Oh --- in an area where the major memes are "buy, buy, buy" and "become something respectable (so you can buy, buy, buy)," isn't it inevitable that at least a small number of people will wonder whether that's all there is and find no counterargument? Large cities aren't perfect. They're not utopias; if they were we'd all be living in one. But what cities offer for teenagers is proof that, no, high school isn't all there is. There's life --- a real life, not just money, stuff, and middle-class schadenfreude --- outside those walls.
Wow, it's late. I really should stop ranting on no sleep and multiple margaritas. It makes me incoherent.
* This isn't an attack on Protestantism by any means; it's just something the two towns have in common.
Quick Ben Update
Surgery went quite well. He'll be on the ventilator another couple days, and hopefully get to go home in the near future!
More news as events warrant.
Surgery went quite well. He'll be on the ventilator another couple days, and hopefully get to go home in the near future!
More news as events warrant.
Wednesday, September 17, 2003
Pass the Cigars!
Just a quick note to let you know that my Bravos clinching a share of the division title wasn't the best thing to happen today!
I am now the proud aunt of a baby boy, Benjamin James, born this afternoon (Wednesday) around 4:00. 6 lb., 14 oz. Ben still has a long row to hoe -- he'll have to have surgery to repair a herniated diaphragm sometime around Friday -- but early returns are promising. His doctor rated him a 9 (out of 10) on the Apgar scale, and his lungs and heart are apparently working quite well. As my sister has been saying, "pray, wish, or cross your fingers, or do whatever you normally do when you want good things to happen."
Also, as expected, his sister (my niece) was mostly nonplussed at this turn of events. But I'm pretty she'll like being the big sister, getting to do more things, telling Ben how things are done. Why do I feel so sure? Let's just say Sydney has more than a little of her bossy Aunt Micki (that's me) in her.
Just a quick note to let you know that my Bravos clinching a share of the division title wasn't the best thing to happen today!
I am now the proud aunt of a baby boy, Benjamin James, born this afternoon (Wednesday) around 4:00. 6 lb., 14 oz. Ben still has a long row to hoe -- he'll have to have surgery to repair a herniated diaphragm sometime around Friday -- but early returns are promising. His doctor rated him a 9 (out of 10) on the Apgar scale, and his lungs and heart are apparently working quite well. As my sister has been saying, "pray, wish, or cross your fingers, or do whatever you normally do when you want good things to happen."
Also, as expected, his sister (my niece) was mostly nonplussed at this turn of events. But I'm pretty she'll like being the big sister, getting to do more things, telling Ben how things are done. Why do I feel so sure? Let's just say Sydney has more than a little of her bossy Aunt Micki (that's me) in her.
Thursday, September 11, 2003
Helpful Advice for Atlanta Drivers!
1.) Highways are made up of doohickeys called "lanes."
2.) Lanes are marked with dotted or solid lines.
3.) When driving, it is appropriate to choose one lane, and keep the entirety of your vehicle inside it.
4.) Trucks belong in the rightmost lanes.
5.) It is not appropriate to drive below the speed limit on Atlanta highways.
6.) It is not appropriate to drive at the speed limit on Atlanta highways.
7.) Rules 5 and 6 are contraindicated in two instances.
8.) One is inclement weather.
9.) Another is presence of a licensed and regulated speeding ticket-giving authority.
10.) Drivers in the left lane must drive faster than traffic in all other lanes.
11.) Under no circumstances (except as allowed for by rules 7, 8, and 9) should a driver in the left lane drive within ten miles of the speed limit.
12.) It is inappropriate to tailgate a driver complying with rules 10 and 11.
13.) It is even more inappropriate to flash your lights like an idiot because you want to be going 95 at a driver complying with rules 10 and 11.
14.) Failure to comply with rules 12 and 13 might result in my slamming on my brakes to make you soil yourself.
15.) In conclusion: Back off, buttmunch.
16.) Thank you for your time.
1.) Highways are made up of doohickeys called "lanes."
2.) Lanes are marked with dotted or solid lines.
3.) When driving, it is appropriate to choose one lane, and keep the entirety of your vehicle inside it.
4.) Trucks belong in the rightmost lanes.
5.) It is not appropriate to drive below the speed limit on Atlanta highways.
6.) It is not appropriate to drive at the speed limit on Atlanta highways.
7.) Rules 5 and 6 are contraindicated in two instances.
8.) One is inclement weather.
9.) Another is presence of a licensed and regulated speeding ticket-giving authority.
10.) Drivers in the left lane must drive faster than traffic in all other lanes.
11.) Under no circumstances (except as allowed for by rules 7, 8, and 9) should a driver in the left lane drive within ten miles of the speed limit.
12.) It is inappropriate to tailgate a driver complying with rules 10 and 11.
13.) It is even more inappropriate to flash your lights like an idiot because you want to be going 95 at a driver complying with rules 10 and 11.
14.) Failure to comply with rules 12 and 13 might result in my slamming on my brakes to make you soil yourself.
15.) In conclusion: Back off, buttmunch.
16.) Thank you for your time.
Monday, September 08, 2003
Still More Haiku About Inappropriate Subjects
Inspired by Phil's comments at the doubleheader on Friday.
The catcher of the
future is in the present,
bending the space-time
continuum. Johnny
Estrada looks a lot like
Alfred E. Neuman.
Inspired by Phil's comments at the doubleheader on Friday.
The catcher of the
future is in the present,
bending the space-time
continuum. Johnny
Estrada looks a lot like
Alfred E. Neuman.
Thursday, September 04, 2003
Better Late than Never
This is a Good Thing(tm). Now let's see if Congress can get their act together and make sure that control of one of the most important organs of American democracy isn't completely in the hands of various corporations.
This is a Good Thing(tm). Now let's see if Congress can get their act together and make sure that control of one of the most important organs of American democracy isn't completely in the hands of various corporations.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
