Pink Blanket Bandits

The Wisdom of the Abursd

2011-03-22T22:57:00.000-07:00

I would argue for a way to vaunt my own weakness
I can no longer decide what should be done
The pursuit of knowledge has left me rudderless
The more I know the less I can say
I call it honesty.
Trapped by my puritanical need for universal application
The need to be understood and not mistook
Leaves me speechless at the edge of decision
Unable to filter the gems from the chaff
wanting all to see my perspective
my invitations go unwanted
The rocks are now my examples
Sharing the only truth they know how
And in the end, aren't they the better for it?

Overcoming Racism Through Conflict

2010-02-28T14:59:00.000-08:00

I will begin my thoughts focusing on what I might call classical United States racism, or the tension between blacks and whites. My thoughts and studies on the problem of race have led me to believe that simply having good feelings toward someone of another race or even having an appreciation of another race is not the same thing as not being racist. The best way to describe my old views of racism is to say that I used to think of racist as a verb and non-racist as a noun. In other words, I always associated racists with acts of violence or hatred and non-racist by their lack of violent or hateful acts. This definition leads people to believe that so long as they don't lynch, burn crosses in people's yards, use the "N" or talk disparagingly of another race, they are not racist. The other implication of this line of thinking is that racism is the perversion or deviation from the natural state of equality. That is to say, we are naturally born non-racist and become racist only through learned behavior.

While the absence of violent and hateful acts is certainly preferable to their presence, their absence does not ensure the absence of racism. In today's racism, if it ever was any different, non-racism should be the verb as it is the "active" state and racism the default. This is because racism is not really about color - which can be overlooked - it really is about dealing with those who are different.

Those people who claim not to be racist because they love everything about another culture know very little about racism. It is not how you react to those you admire who are different than you but rather about how you react to those whose differences challenge you; your self image, your sense of order, justice or decency. Those who have learned how to live alongside people who are different, and different in challenging ways, while retaining their own cultures, have something to teach us about racism.

It is for this reason that I value the moments when we realize the differences that separate us. These moments of conflict create the opportunities necessary to overcome racism. Efforts to overcome racism should not seek to gloss over or eliminate these moments of conflict. If these moments cease to exist it means either we have become homogeneous or rudderless, without culture or norms. Neither of these results would be desirable, the first, possibly more dangerous than the second, results in a society devoid of variety and no closer to tolerance than when it began. The second state would be one that lacked any conviction or community.

Overcoming racism means looking squarely at the differences that challenge you, make you uncomfortable, offend your sense of justice, order or decency and learning to respect one another all the same.

Cumulative Decisions and the Problem of Agency

2010-02-21T15:15:00.000-08:00

We often say that free agency is the freedom to make choices but not to choose the consequences of those choices. The problem with this concept of free agency is that there are really very few unique decisions. That is, there are few decisions that we make that are not, to a large extent, determined by previous decisions.

Life is a series of choices and our choice to follow after righteousness is a cumulative one. Consider the following, if sin does indeed make us dead to righteousness, or rather, if the consequences of one decision alters your nature such that all subsequent decisions are tainted by that experience (think of chemical dependence or decisions that jade or disillusion someone) then are we totally free only for as long as don't make any decisions? If free agency is only the ability to choose, but provides no protection from consequences then I would argue we are only really free once, on our first choice. Every choice thereafter is colored by the choices we made before so it would seem that the older we get, the more choices we make, the less freedom we actually have to choose.

Wordsworth wrote of this phenomenon when he wrote Ode to Intimations of Immortality, "There was a time...when every common sight to me did seem appareled in celestial light...It is not now as it has been of yore;...the things I which I have seen I now can see no more."

In religion we talk about it as the consequences of sin. Our sins make us dead to righteousness.

In every day talk, we call it jaded, cynical, discouragement, untrusting, a grudge, revenge, hate, misery, and the desire that all become as miserable as the you. All those feelings that separate you from feeling close to the divine.
It appears to me, the real gift of agency, comes not as a single premortal endowment or inherent gift to the individual but rather in its application to the day to day disillusionment that would otherwise sweep away any ability for us to choose righteousness.

In the secular world, I believe this is what is meant by living in the moment. The ability to act without the weight of past decisions depressing our spirits or clouding our future.

In the religious world we call this repentance and it is the great news of the gospel. We do not have to be captive to our past decisions. We can live above the reality we experience. And that truly is a gift.

Origami and Origins

2010-01-31T22:15:00.000-08:00

Thoughts to revisit later;
Origami as a transformative art is a better model for understanding life and ecology. Origami destroys nothing, adds nothing but changes everything, even changes dimensions traveling between two dimensions and three. Is it silly to imagine the folding of carbon as the portal between the inanimate and dimension of life?

Urban issues are like traffic, the more you concentrate them the more elaborate and expensive the solutions are. New urbanism's fixation on density is ironically similar to highway engineers fixation on capacity. In both cases the most sensible solutions likely start a long way away from capacity or density. Urban problems would be well served by rural solutions. Observe China.

Research of the minds of adolescents suggest there is an actual physiological change that occurs as the mind ages and teenagers develop more complete reasoning capabilities. The fruit of the forbidden tree in the garden of Eden must have been full of this chemical. There is no sin that separates us from God, only the conscious decision to leave Him for another way.

Yearnings

2009-12-10T22:11:00.000-08:00

I asked her to write my story. The one gifted in writing. The one who had the time. It seems almost unfair that all of us have feelings as deep as the authors we revere. Their literary success depends on their writing echoing in our lives. I recently heard the story of a man locked in a coma for two decades. screaming to get out. Like so many of us who live lives with very small outlets.

The most of us who work because the alarm rings because the sun rises, because there are those who depend on us. And that is where it all begins. Are there those who care about more?

Not me, I wouldn't give a fig for the world and all that's in it if it didn't have those who needed me. Like a giant picture show, images flashing before me, separated distant, flat. But so many act like they do. I find myself being pulled along, wanting to matter somehow to the great beyond, but I find my skills a little wanting, my pace a little too slow. And that, at times, is my salvation.

The world, if it is to be understood, will be understood by those with connections to it. Those who spend their lives in the daily pursuit of the others who need them.

On the Right

2009-08-30T22:00:00.000-07:00

I am of the opinion, that while I believe it to be good policy to limit the size of government, a fixation on reducing the size of government and lowering taxes does not produce an efficient government. I fear that too many people have taken on a tax war without understanding taxes. Believing that governments should be small and not overly taxing on the people is not the same thing as believing that governments, and the taxes that support them are inherently bad.
I believe a far more important discussion than how we should cut taxes, is to discuss how taxes are raised and how they are spent. To do this however, one will need to overcome their instinctual resistance to taxation. Consider the following, unless you are considering cutting taxes in half, governments will continue to spend much more money on programs supported by taxes than the people will save on tax cuts. If the right continues their fixation on tax cuts and reinforces the rhetoric that lower taxes create better governments I fear the result will be a government that continues to waste billions of dollars while its financial stability erodes.

Comrades

2008-12-07T21:58:00.000-08:00

I have sought a cadre of people.
Who will be my partners in crime?
I have felt the need to rest my thoughts on another
And take theirs together as mine.
My world is too big to be populated by myself alone.
My writings have been a good friend to me.
But to see them animated in someone else,
That must be a satisfaction divine.
Give me the pioneers.
Give me a cause to fight in
And a band.
And I would be a happy soldier
singing while I walked in stride.
Engaged in body, soul and mind.
If you find that band,
don't let it dissolve.
For all else you can have again.
But the chance to move as one -
Is the chance for Zion.

Indian Economy

2008-11-30T22:43:00.001-08:00

The Indians spoke in terms of perpetuity; As long as the mountains shall stand or the rivers shall run, etc. They did not speak of ownership in absolute terms did they? Ownership in a mortal world is of necessity limited, it cannot go on forever. Think of the U.S. and it relations with the Indians. They wrote and signed treaties that borrowed the perpetual language from the Indians but they could not possibly have honored those treaties in a society that spoke of ownership and land rights as absolute.

Today the legal definition of "forever" is finite. Not even grave sites are ownership in perpetuity. I might suggest that Indians could speak of perpetual things because they didn't own things. Some have said they owned things in common, but I think that misses the point, Indians didn't own things in common, they simply didn't own anything - at least not in the absolute terms we think of ownership today. I have no rigorous academic basis for this claim but my sense is that Indians saw themselves as stewards toward the Earth and their possessions. A steward recognizes that someday the rightful owner of their stewardship will come calling. A steward has an eye toward the future and the eventual passage of their possessions on to someone else. Forever is only attainable through the passage of many deaths. It is the transition then, from one death to another life, that is the critical link towards perpetuity, not only how one manages life and resources from birth to death.

Come Together

2008-11-30T21:57:00.000-08:00

I am very slow at actually posting these thoughts. It seems they must first go through the filter of my written journal, then if they still seem relevant after a few weeks I post them. The euphoria of the election seems already to be wearing off and this post will likely be a little out of date but I think it still is worth sharing.

I have said leading up to the election that the problem with democrats is that they think that if they can educate enough, everyone will think the way they do. I chuckled to myself at their inability to comprehend why they couldn't win an election and the desperation they felt towards the possibility of loosing another. After witnessing the relief and joy that people around me have been showing now that Obama has been elected, I'm realizing that maybe for too long the Republicans have been the ones who couldn't understand the "other half." A new article in the Seattle PI recorded how democrats, who for years have been too ashamed to fly American flags have been buying them off the shelves. they once again feel like this is their country too.

Now you can't control how people will respond to every situation, but it is a sad state of affairs when a whole block of people are ostracized enough that they feel like they can't wave their own country's flag. This is an exciting opportunity to re-engage the other half of Americans who for so long have felt marginalized or slighted. This is no time for republicans to put away their flags. This is no time for republicans to go searching for their souls. This is the time for people on both sides of the political spectrum to be fully engaged in making the United States a stronger nation.

It may seem a little late to wave the white flag, after you have already lost, but if democrats gloat and the republicans sulk, then we will do no more than alienate the other 50%. A nation cannot be effectively governed by a leader content to carry only 51% of the vote. Fortunately I think we are moving away from this kind of leadership.

Below I have listed two newspaper articles to illustrate the political divide.

Red, white and true blue: City hoists Old Glory
Stores see star-spangled sales
Seattle PI

Thursday, November 6, 2008
By ANDREA JAMES AND KERY MURAKAMI
P-I REPORTERS
Barack Obama's presidential win held a poignant significance for liberal Seattleites: This is their America, too.

The feeling was evident in jubilant partying in the streets, in quiet moments of reflection and in blossoms of red, white and blue.

With newfound patriotism, Seattleites want to wave the flag, hang it from their homes and stick it on their cars.

"The thing that's kind of astounding to me is I never ever would have cared to own a flag," said Rosemary Garner, 42. "This is the first day in my life I actually feel this funny sense of pride about my country. It's a very foreign feeling, but it's a good one."

Garner, a self-described "flag virgin" who lives on Capitol Hill, bought eight flags Wednesday -- some to wave and others to stick on her car to "mix and match with some nice Obama and peace signs. Then I bought a couple of flags for some friends who wanted to hang them from their truck along with their biodiesel stickers."
How does Seattle feel about the election?

The answer is in the numbers: King County voted 72 percent for Obama. Incumbent Democratic Rep. Jim McDermott, whose district includes Seattle, won 85 percent of the vote.

The answer is in their words:
"I'm finally proud to be an American again, after eight years of being ashamed," 66-year-old Mark Lowney said, ticking off a list of complaints, including the Iraq war.

"It's just a rare feeling to feel that type of, I don't know, national connection," said Noah Kriegsmann, a 33-year-old builder from West Seattle. He feels that Obama's win will help America's standing in the world, and he bought a flag to fly on his truck, though he admitted it felt strange to see the flag in his hand.

"I have just historically felt shame for what the symbol of this country is internationally. Being in someplace like Morocco, and Canadians have their flag on their backpacks -- I would never ever do that," he said.

Sitting at Angie's Tavern in Columbia City, Ted Cock, 74, a retired airlines ramp worker, said, "I think everyone in here would say the same thing. We're grateful." Cock, who is African-American, said having a black president was meaningful, certainly. But he was grateful mainly because all the candidates he supported had won.

Cynthia Cohen, owner of Surplus Too Army Navy, summed it up this way: "You can almost just feel it in the air. I think we have a happy world today."
Republicans looked to the future as well.

"I'm very hopeful; Obama seems to be very positive, and he seems to listen to people," said Barbara Fruhling, a Republican, reflecting on the election while walking her daughter's dog in Maple Leaf on Wednesday.

Fruhling said she and her husband worry about the economy, and aren't thrilled about potential tax increases. But still, "I'm a great believer in Thomas Jefferson, democracy, small government, so when I woke up this morning I realized, I'm living in the Democrats' world. But this country was built on the ideal of equality, that people should be judged not by the color of their skin but the cut of their jib, their abilities, so for that, I'm very proud of us as a nation."

The return to business-as-usual felt good.

"I got so tired of all the rhetoric, I stopped listening," said Alison Jaeger, "a dyed-in-the-wool Democrat" who supported Obama. "I'm really glad it's all over and, from my point of view, settled in the right direction."

She and a friend of 20 years, a Seattleite and John McCain supporter, walked around Green Lake on Wednesday. They chatted about everything but the election.
"I voted for McCain, but I'm not sour grapes," said her friend, who did not want her name used. "I've tried to be supportive of all our presidents, whoever it is. It is a hard job -- and worthy of respect."

The answer is in their spending:

At All the King's Flags in Ballard, people have been snatching up American flags.
"Just today I've had a noticeable rush on U.S. flags," said James Sawyer, assistant manager. "I had a lady come in and she said she's happy to be an American again, that's why she was buying a flag."

Of a dozen customers, one had supported McCain and worried about rising taxes, but everyone else was upbeat, manager Alex White said.

While flag waving is normal in some parts of the country, the Stars and Stripes haven't been so ubiquitous in Seattle.

"People around here don't fly flags like they do on the East Coast," said Seattle flag maker Carol Anderson, who hails from Rhode Island but has lived in Seattle for seven years.

The Star-Spangled Banner should transcend political party, said Anderson, who supported Obama.

"I don't care whether it's the Fourth of July or whatever. This country's at war. You'd think that you'd see a few American flags flying. Were they not flying the flag because they don't like George Bush? I mean, give me a break. It should represent more than who's in office. The flag itself to me has always represented an honor."

A New England upbringing has led Briggs Hause, a cashier at Magnolia Ace Hardware, to frequently fly the flag. But she disliked President Bush's leadership so much that she couldn't.

"I haven't the last eight years because I was very depressed with it," said Hause, who gave her age as "in my 60s." "It wasn't my America. I didn't put out one (a flag). Refused to. But now I will."

Seattleites aren't showing their true colors just with flag purchases. Life-sized cardboard cutouts of Obama sold out early on at Champion Party Supply in lower Queen Anne.

As of Wednesday, Vice President-elect Joe Biden was the only cutout left, on sale for $15.

"Poor Joe is a little lonely," said Elizabeth Powell, associate and manager. "McCain sales didn't pick up until the end. ... Most people wanted (Sarah) Palin for joke, that was why she was a big sell."

At Display & Costume in Northgate, Democrat-donkey-themed plates and napkins outsold GOP-elephant ones, said Bill Case, store manager.

"There was definitely a lot more excitement this year," Case said. "We were selling out of the Obama masks and stand-ups before Halloween even ended."
Obama, he said, was the "rock star of the election."

And at Simply Seattle souvenir shop, "Obama cappuccino mix" sold out early on, said Kuniko Nobori, sales associate.

But "McCain mocha" didn't sell even when marked half off. On Wednesday, Simply Seattle was giving the cans away.

Tolerance fails T-shirt test
Chicago Tribune

November 13, 2008
John Kass
As the media keeps gushing on about how America has finally adopted tolerance as the great virtue, and that we're all united now, let's consider the Brave Catherine Vogt Experiment.

Catherine Vogt, 14, is an Illinois 8th grader, the daughter of a liberal mom and a conservative dad. She wanted to conduct an experiment in political tolerance and diversity of opinion at her school in the liberal suburb of Oak Park.

She noticed that fellow students at Gwendolyn Brooks Middle School overwhelmingly supported Barack Obama for president. His campaign kept preaching "inclusion," and she decided to see how included she could be.

So just before the election, Catherine consulted with her history teacher, then bravely wore a unique T-shirt to school and recorded the comments of teachers and students in her journal. The T-shirt bore the simple yet quite subversive words drawn with a red marker:
"McCain Girl."

"I was just really curious how they'd react to something that different, because a lot of people at my school wore Obama shirts and they are big Obama supporters," Catherine told us. "I just really wanted to see what their reaction would be."

Immediately, Catherine learned she was stupid for wearing a shirt with Republican John McCain's name. Not merely stupid. Very stupid.

"People were upset. But they started saying things, calling me very stupid, telling me my shirt was stupid and I shouldn't be wearing it," Catherine said.

Then it got worse.

"One person told me to go die. It was a lot of dying. A lot of comments about how I should be killed," Catherine said, of the tolerance in Oak Park.

But students weren't the only ones surprised that she wore a shirt supporting McCain.

"In one class, I had one teacher say she will not judge me for my choice, but that she was surprised that I supported McCain," Catherine said.

If Catherine was shocked by such passive-aggressive threats from instructors, just wait until she goes to college.

"Later, that teacher found out about the experiment and said she was embarrassed because she knew I was writing down what she said," Catherine said.

One student suggested that she be put up on a cross for her political beliefs.

"He said, 'You should be crucifixed.' It was kind of funny because, I was like, don't you mean 'crucified?' " Catherine said.

Other entries in her notebook involved suggestions by classmates that she be "burned with her shirt on" for "being a filthy-rich Republican."

Some said that because she supported McCain, by extension she supported a plan by deranged skinheads to kill Obama before the election. And I thought such politicized logic was confined to American newsrooms. Yet Catherine refused to argue with her peers. She didn't want to jeopardize her experiment.

"I couldn't show people really what it was for. I really kind of wanted to laugh because they had no idea what I was doing," she said.

Only a few times did anyone say anything remotely positive about her McCain shirt. One girl pulled her aside in a corner, out of earshot of other students, and whispered, "I really like your shirt."
That's when you know America is truly supportive of diversity of opinion, when children must whisper for fear of being ostracized, heckled and crucifixed.

The next day, in part 2 of The Brave Catherine Vogt Experiment, she wore another T-shirt, this one with "Obama Girl" written in blue. And an amazing thing happened.

Catherine wasn't very stupid anymore. She grew brains.

"People liked my shirt. They said things like my brain had come back, and I had put the right shirt on today," Catherine said.
Some students accused her of playing both sides.

"A lot of people liked it. But some people told me I was a flip-flopper," she said. "They said, 'You can't make up your mind. You can't wear a McCain shirt one day and an Obama shirt the next day.' "

But she sure did, and she turned her journal into a report for her history teacher, earning Catherine extra credit. We asked the teacher, Norma Cassin-Pountney, whether it was ironic that Catherine would be subject to such intolerance from pro-Obama supporters in a community that prides itself on its liberal outlook.

"That's what we discussed," Cassin-Pountney said about the debate in the classroom when the experiment was revealed. "I said, here you are, promoting this person [Obama] that believes we are all equal and included, and look what you've done? The students were kind of like, 'Oh, yeah.' I think they got it."

Catherine never told us which candidate she would have voted for if she weren't an 8th grader. But she said she learned what it was like to be in the minority.

"Just being on the outside, how it felt, it was not fun at all," she said.

Don't ever feel as if you must conform, Catherine. Being on the outside isn't so bad. Trust me.

Congratulations! Now you can be co-opted too!

2008-11-16T22:03:00.000-08:00

The following are thoughts I had on the night of November 4th, 2008.
Tonight Barack Obama won the presidential election.
Regardless of your political stripe, I think most can agree that much has been said and I think legitimately appreciated about this election. Tonight Mr. Obama said (I paraphrase) "for any of you who wonder whether the American Dream is still alive - tonight is your answer. Tonight is a victory for the American People!" I wondered would this Country have been a lesser place if McCain had legitimately won the election? Would a popular vote in favor of the republican candidate been some sort of defeat for democracy? I think not. The beauty of the American election process is that every election that results in the candidate with the most popular support winning, is a victory for the American people.
However, the election of an African American to the presidential office does signify a new page in American history. At the very least and most cynical point of view, it shows a willingness to allow a man of color to be co-opted into the presidential political process. Because Obama won, we have a positive affirmation that being black is not enough to automatically disqualify you from being president of the United States of America. In that sense tonight's election is a victory for democracy. That is something to be celebrated, but it is no panacea. Now it means men of color can embody "The Man," make gross misjudgments, align themselves with interests that seem to be, or are actually, at odds with the interests of the country. This is indeed a step forward, and I don't mean that sarcastically. It is the growing up of America and the whole African American population. Once an adult, a child can no longer claim parental abuse. What's more important, parents and children can come to terms with one another on equal grounds. Understand one another. It should be to the great relief of the tired old white man that there now is another kind of man that will shoulder the responsibilities they have until now, so zealously guarded.