Dymphna at Gates of Vienna takes an idea and runs with it; the idea being that of bloggers crossing the picket lines of the striking screenwriters.
How would you go about marching on a picket line in cyberspace, anyway? Set up a cron job to broadcast “Unfair!” or “Down with (insert-name-here)!” on an IRC channel?
Update: Had to replace the angle brackets in the second placard slogan with parentheses – the angle brackets and what was inside them were being “swallowed.”
Cassandra is hanging up her keyboard, at least as far as her website is concerned. I’m sorry to see her go – she’s been one of my daily reads for some time. One thing she added in the comments to her goodbye post really struck me:
Anna, when you move every one to three years, certain things civilians take for granted (like permanent relationships with people) aren’t things you can take for granted. I have become close to people I moved away from and was never stationed with again. Ever.
I have had relatives I didn’t see for years because we were both in the service. And now one of their sons is dead. I didn’t get to watch him grow up – the years between three and fourteen just flew by.
And then it was too late and there were no more years where that came from. So sometimes it is not a question of ‘getting out’, but of making friends where you can. And for me, making a few close friends on the Internet meant that for the first time in my whole life, when I moved, nothing changed in my friendship.
Think on that a bit.
I grew up as an Air Force brat, then went into the Navy. I intended to make it a career, although that’s not how things worked out. There’s a deep difference between the military and many civilians because of this … you tend to presume that people won’t be around for long, because everybody is transient.
One of my friends at the Naval Academy came from a small town in Alabama. Before he entered the Academy, he hadn’t been more than about 50 miles from home. He grew up in the house his grandfather had built, which was three blocks away from the house his grandfather had been born in.
He had roots in his community. I have no doubt that, for the rest of his life, he’ll be able to return there and find people who know him, either directly or through his family.
I don’t have that. Before I entered the Academy, I’d lived in two places in Texas, Colorado (two houses, but only a few blocks apart), Philadelphia, two locations in France, and two in England.
I’ve been living in and around Denver since I left the Navy (over 25 years, now), but it’s not home in that sense. I have nowhere that’s home in that sense. That’s partly because Denver, like any city, is too big. In such a place, you set down roots in a neighborhood, not in the city as a whole.
Apart from the hassle/trauma of moving, I’d have little heartache picking up and going somewhere else. Sure, I have friends I’d miss, but I’ve never set down strong roots here. I’m not sure I’d know how. After growing up moving every couple of years, I haven’t found anyplace that resonates with me. Denver’s fine, it’s comfortable, but when you get down to it, it’s just another place.
There are compensations. I have friends I made over 35 years ago … we don’t keep in touch, but when we get together, it feels like we’re picking things up pretty much right where we left off. I’ve seen more of the world than most people. I consider this valuable for several reasons. There are many beautiful places that aren’t in the US. Cities in other countries don’t look the same as cities here, and that has effects on city life and culture. There’s more history that’s accessible in other places (such as Europe or Japan). I have first-hand experience, not so much as some, but enough to be instructive, that the way people live here isn’t the way they live elsewhere. Antigua is probably the place where that was the most obvious to me.
American life in general has become more mobile over the last several decades, but it’s still American life. Moving every few years is pretty much universal in the military, and exposure to other cultures is more common.
Military life is different from civilian life, for the families as well as the military members themselves. As Cassandra suggests with relation to the effects of military life and the internet on personal relationships, it’s worth thinking about.
… and then there are sea stories.
I was never near Diego Garcia or in the brown-shoe Navy myself, but this brings back memories.
Robert Samuelson talks here about commas, diverging into a mention of multitasking and trends in work hours in industrialized nations. It’s an interesting column, and the theme ties in with my recent minor rant.
Chef Mojo at Daily Pundit describes his experiences with hearing aids over the years, and what has changed in the last five. It’s a very moving story.
Kim du Toit has an essay on the meaning of the 4th of July, from the perspective of someone who was born American, just not in America.
The essay by Peter Schramm that he links to makes the point that we aren’t passing on the background, the scaffolding, if you will, that was used to build this country. When I was growing up, we had required courses called Civics and Social Studies and American History that passed this knowledge on (or, at least, made the attempt – you know how students are). We don’t seem to have those courses anymore, and there appears to be active hostility to the idea that America is, or even can be, a force for good in the world.
We now neglect teaching American history, replacing it with world history or multicultural studies. There’s nothing wrong with those, but they shouldn’t replace the teaching of our own history and culture. If you don’t value it, and teach your children that it is something of value, then they’ll have less desire to preserve it.
I understand the point of view Mr. du Toit and Mr. Schramm hold, although perhaps not with the same immediacy. I think any experience of living in a foreign country, or even visiting, if you keep your eyes open, will provide perspective on life in America.
In my case, although I am an American citizen from birth, I was born in England, which led to my having to deal with some less-than-usual paperwork in high school. Because of the location of my birth, and the fact that my mother was British, the US considered that I had dual citizenship with Great Britain. Since I had an American father and an English mother, Great Britain said I was 100% American. Had my father been British and my mother American, though, they’d have gone along with the dual citizenship idea. In any case, I applied to the Air Force and Naval Academies when I was in high school, and the dual citizenship thing came up. As a result, I ended up having to swear out an oath renouncing allegiance to any foreign powers before I could be accepted. So, I’ve got non-passport documentation to prove that I’m an American citizen. I presume that naturalized citizens have something similar, although I’ve never bothered to check.
In any case, I’ve lived in other countries, and I’ve visited yet others. Although there are beautiful places around the world, several of which I’d love to spend extended periods visiting, this country is still the only place I really want to live in.
Jed points out the essay Why the Gun is Civilization. Well-said, in my opinion.
After I read that one, I looked around Marko’s site a little and found this other post, We don’t need to learn no foreignese. This one hits a couple of my other hot buttons. The first is that, if you want to learn a language for business purposes, learn English.
And, I mean, learn English. I happen to enjoy reading fanfiction, much of which is pretty bad. Some is surprisingly good, but more is abysmal. One of the things that makes for a painful read is the fact that many of the authors don’t know English. I’m not talking about the ones for whom it’s a second language – it’s usually pretty obvious when that’s the case. I’m talking about the native speakers who haven’t learned proper spelling, grammar, or idioms.
Who don’t know which to use of “to,” “two,” and “too.”
Who use “would of” instead of “would have.”
Who write (and this is surprisingly common, in my experience) “If that’s what you think, you’ve got another thing coming.”
Who use “who” where “whom” would be correct, and sometimes sprinkle “whom” in a few inappropriate places because they’ve seen it used in other writing.
Who misuse “your” and “you’re.”
Who don’t know where commas go, nor when semicolons or periods should be used in their stead.
Who use “loose” when the correct word would be “lose.”
Every word processor I’m aware of these days (and many text editors) has a spelling checker. Grammar checkers come with some, and are available for others. Books abound on the subject, both academic and popular. My daughter ran off with my copy of The Transitive Vampire; I suppose I’m lucky that she let me keep Eats, Shoots, and Leaves. English is the most common business language, for historical reasons, and because we drive the global economy. Learn to speak and write it properly, particularly if you need to use it professionally.
If you want to learn a language for purposes other than business, you can choose from any number of other languages. I have friends who learned Japanese so that they could watch anime and read manga. This was before English translations became widely available, and learning Japanese (or reading a plot synopsis produced by someone who knew the language) was about the only way to follow the action. One of these friends now travels to Japan on his company’s business; his knowledge of the language became a professional asset.
I have other friends who learned Portuguese and Swahili, because they served in the Peace Corps in countries where those languages were spoken. Another friend used to be a business translator of French.
It’s true that geography doesn’t provide much reason for Americans to learn a second language; it’s not like Europe, where a day’s driving can potentially take you through several countries. Demographics can provide a reason, though. I once read that there were 26 languages in use in the San Francisco school system, because there was a requirement that teachers be available who could teach in every child’s native language.
If there’s a Chinatown, a Little Italy, or any other such neighborhood in your city, you’ll find people there who speak that language, and I doubt that there’s anywhere in the country where Spanish wouldn’t be useful (although that leads into another rant). Here in Denver, we have a large Vietnamese community, as well as a Greektown. We have organized societies for learning French and Japanese that I’m aware of, and there may be other such groups.
To an extent, it’s intellectual curiosity – it sometimes seems that it’s actively discouraged. Accept what you’re told, and don’t ask questions. To an extent, it’s relevance – if nobody in your area speaks Catalan, unless you have a specific reason to learn apart from, “That would be a cool language to learn,” you’re going to have trouble. And, to an extent, it’s need – unless you have an actual or perceived need, there’s little to drive you toward learning another language in this country.
My needs with respect to learning another language aren’t very important; my job won’t be affected, nor will much of my personal life. It’s more for fun, and to “prevent my brain from ossifying.” I also think there’s a good chance that the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis will turn out to be correct, which is one reason (and a good one, in my mind) to learn another language.
But mostly, it’s for fun.
Peter Collier has a very good article over at OpinionJournal on the stories behind Memorial Day. I don’t have his book on Medal of Honor awardees; I have this one.
I haven’t finished it yet. It’s the sort of thing I can only read a little at a time. I just find it a little too intense to read more than a few stories at a time. I remember getting choked up when I’d read the citations on the dioramas around the periphery of Memorial Hall, portraying the actions for which several Medals of Honor were awarded. As I’ve told people before, I’m just a sucker for stories of duty, honor, and sacrifice.