The Things They Carried

I first read this book in my sophomore English class eight years ago. I picked it up recently because me and a friend of mine decided to start our own book club and this was the first book we chose to read. Needless to say eight years has made quite the difference, and I know I didn't react this way the first time I read this book.

When I suggested this book I forgot that it was about the Vietnam War. I just vaguely remembered reading it in high school and didn't recall much about it. In fact, I couldn't even recall if I had liked it. When I found that it was about war I was certain that I had hated it, but I still don't remember. Now I think it's the greatest book about war I have ever read (but that could be because it may be the only).

I think the author, Tim O'Brien, paints a reality of war that may be unheard of to those who have never participated in or have never studied war in much detail. I can give you dates and names of famous battles, but I have never studied any war in depth, and as I read the book I was accompanied with intense, real-life war dreams. I've never been a fan of war, let alone have ever participated in one, but I can only imagine what war may be like by the quality of my dreams. It was quite the trip.

The book touched on the turmoil behind the young men who went off to fight, barely in or out of college, barely on their own and barely adults. I can't imagine what it would be like to be drafted and I probably won't ever get the chance to know given current laws, but it made me feel bad that this was something only young men have to face. I'm not concerned about the sexism in the law, but rather the mentality of either having to flee the country to not participate in something of which you don't believe or giving into your embarrassment going to fight in the war (read page 59 for more details). I don't really want the responsibility of making that decision, but I do think it's a little unfair to give it to only one party. I think I would end up reacting like this character:

I remember Mitchell Sanders sitting quietly in the shade of an old banyan tree, He was using a thumbnail to pry off the body lice, working slowly, carefully depositing the lice in a blue USO envelope. His eyes were tired. It had been a long two weeks in the bush. After an hour or so he sealed up the envelope, wrote FREE in the upper right-hand corner, and addressed it to his draft board in Ohio. (31)

I don't know for sure, but I think I'm bratty enough to do that.

In all, I definitely recommend this book. It's well-written and engages you. I'll leave you with this philosophical passage that I've enjoyed pondering.

To generalize about war is like generalizing about peace. Almost everything is true. Almost nothing is true. At its core, perhaps, war is just another name for death, and yet any soldier will tell you, if he tells the truth, that proximity to death brings with it a corresponding proximity to life. After a firefight, there is always the immense pleasure of aliveness. The trees are alive. The grass, the soil-- everything. All around you things are purely living, and you among them, and the aliveness makes you tremble. You feel an intense, out-of-the-skin awareness of your living self--your truest self, the human being you want to be and then become by the force of wanting it. In the midst of evil you want to be a good man. You want decency. You want justice and courtesy and human concord, things you never knew you wanted. There is kind of largeness to it, a kind of godliness. Though it's odd, you're never more alive than when you're almost dead. You recognize what's valuable. Freshly, as if for the first time, you love what's best in yourself and in the world, all that might be lost. (81)

(Lack of) Food for Thought

"Propaganda, stereotypes, and myth govern our thinking about poverty and poor relief much more than the facts do. By current, official measures, for example, more than one-third of poor Americans are children under eighteen years old, more than 10 percent are over age sixty-five, and nearly 40 percent of the adult poor are disabled-- that is, most poor people are 'deserving' or 'involuntarily' poor due to old age, youth, or infirmity."

A lot of us hold the view that poor people are there because they did something wrong. Because we are capable it's hard to find others as not. This is where we first gained our "common" view of those who live in poverty.

"According to the United Nations, slum dwellers were 30 percent of the world's urban population in 2005. By a slum we tend to mean deeply poor and often squalid cityscapes, and while we may overestimate how many poor Americans live in the city, in 2000 there were nonetheless 2,510 neighborhoods in the United States in which 40 percent or more of the populations was poor; 8 million lived in modern ghettoes. Since the 1970s, the number of Americans in areas of concentrated urban poverty had doubled."

What is the true definition of "poor"? How does this compare to the rest of the world and is the American citizen's definition of poor the same as those worldwide?

"'What is to be said of the character of people who, having the power to end all this, permit it to continue?'"

I challenge you to answer that question for yourself. What, if anything, are you doing to help?

"'Everybody knows that money, fame, and success don't necessarily bring happiness. But the other side of that equation is also true: poverty, obscurity, and failure don't necessarily bring unhappiness.'"

I will no where, no how compare myself to those in poverty, but from recent endeavors and finding myself jobless, I've learned more about what is really important to me. I can have fun and find joy without much discretionary income.

"'A very dear friend of mine and I were talking about work and she remarked to me that her husband was angry when she got home at 12 midnight the day before from work. I asked why she worked so late and she to me, "'Janie, don't you know that just before the first of the month we work late upping the prices. . . . this is the time business is good, when the welfare checks come out and food stamps are most used.'"'"

This quote was from 1967. I wonder if the same still applies today? I want to do a study of the cost of the "basic necessities" over a few months time. Maybe I will write one and conduct the research myself. I foresee a lot of challenges such as defining "basic necessities," determining which grocery stores to evaluate, and so forth. I am open to suggestions.


quotes from A People's History of Poverty in America by Stephen Pimpare.

How's your IQ?

If IQ tests measure acquired information are they realistic of our intelligence?

1. What is gray tape and what is it used for?
2. What does dissed mean?
3. What are the advantages and disadvantages of moving often?
4. What is the main kind of work that a bondsman does?
5. What is a roach?
6. How are a pawnshop and a convenience store alike? How are they different?
7. Why is it important for a non-U.S. citizen to have a green card?
8. You go to the bakery store. You can buy five loaves of day-old bread for 39 cents each or seven loaves of three-day-old bread for 28 cents each. Which choice will cost lest?
9. What does deportation mean?
10. What is the difference between marriage and a common law relationship?

From A Framework for Understanding Poverty by Ruby K. Payne, Ph.D

Could you survive in poverty?

In my recent public policy readings I came across this test of being able to survive in poverty:

Can you agree with these statements?:

1. I know which churches and sections of town have the best rummage sales.
2. I know which rummage sales have "bag sales" and when.
3. I know which grocery stores' garbage bins can be accessed for thrown-away food.
4. I know how to get someone out of jail.
5. I know how to physically fight and defend myself physically.
6. I know how to get a gun, even if I have a police record.
7. I know how to keep my clothes from being stolen at the Laundromat.
8. I know what problems to look for in a used car.
9. I know how to live without a checking account.
10. I know how to live without electricity and a phone.
11. I know how to use a knife as scissors.
12. I can entertain a group of friends with my personality and my stories.
13. I know what to do when I don't have money to pay the bills.
14. I know how to move in half a day.
15. I know how to get and use food stamps or an electronic card for benefits.
16. I know where the free medical clinics are.
17. I am very good at trading and bartering.
18. I can get by without a car.

From A Framework for Understanding Poverty by Ruby K. Payne, Ph.D

Goodbye to The West Wing

Last Sunday I finished watching The West Wing. The seven seasons filled my evenings for nearly six months. This is freeing, yet slightly depressing. My evenings will no longer be filled with political drama that coincides with present day happenings, but, hey, I might feel the need to leave my house more, and my friends will appreciate my being able to talk about something besides The West Wing.

To fill my void I've developed a week long reading schedule to keep me busy. It's as follows:

Mondays: Philosophy night

Tuesdays: Public Policy Issue night

Wednesdays: Whatever book most interests me at the moment

Thursdays: Theatrical/Great Author nights

Fridays: Biography night

Saturdays/Sundays: Study nights (languages, GRE, etc.)

Embracing My Nerdiness

Who, when faced with a question about the 25th Amendment, runs to his or her room to pull from his or hers cluttered bookshelf a copy of the Constitution?

Me.

I do it. I mean, I would do it. I did it.

Last night on The West Wing (well really it was the last episode of season 4) the President was enacting the 25th Amendment. Tiffany and I were trying to remember what exactly the 25th Amendment said, so what did I do? I paused the DVD, ran back to my room and pulled out my very own copy of the United States' Constitution. It's complete with various editions of the Constitution, The Articles of Confederation, the Declaration of Independence and various court cases leading to extremely important changes to the US. Apparently this isn't a pretty normal thing to have on your bookshelf... But I have it.

Everyone has a little nerdiness in them, right? Some people love video games, others computer games. Many people geek out over Star Wars, technology or even the latest fashion and boots. I fall for nearly all things political-- and I like it. I don't let this out to just anyone. I mean if you know me well you know I have an opinion and I usually share it carelessly, but if you don't know me well I tend to stay quiet until an invite is secured. You have to really want it otherwise I won't waste a sentence on a conversation that will die quickly. I may not be good at organizing or rallying, but I can read, think and speak. When done properly, those three things are dangerous. I think I'm going to embrace this.

Abandoned & bruised awaiting a cure

In my current stint of being unemployed I have been doing a lot of reading, which isn't anything new or different for me. But this particular day (yesterday), something I read really made me think. I was lying by the pool of my apartment complex with some younger girls from church when I picked up Barack Obama's Dreams from My Father and began to read.

I'm not really sure how long I had been reading, but it was long enough for the girls to migrate to the other end of the pool to discuss life, while dipping their pedicured toes in the water, and for me to read 140 pages. Once you get past the fact that this book was written by a lawyer, a senator and a politician, you realize that this book is about identity, about a son, a friend, a husband and a father. It made me stop and think about my own identity and my passions.

One of my passions is civil rights and African-American history, which first prompted me to read this book. Don't get me wrong, I support Obama more for his politics than the fact that he is of mixed race and struggled during one of the more fascinating time periods of US history. He just makes me think.

At one point in the book his grandfather's friend tells him, "But your grandfather will never know what that feels like," in reference to being black, experiencing the hurt of racism and trying to find your identity living as a black man in a white family. I stopped there and began listening to the girls' chatter. Being further than an earshot away, it was mere whisper in the late afternoon wind that was beginning to blow. They were talking about being orphans and meeting their birth parents, and for the first time it struck me that I will never know what that feels like. That should be an obvious, but when you really look at the implications and what it means it's mind blowing. I will never experience what these young girls have no matter how hard I try. I began to think of other disparities: we grew up in different areas, we are all of different ethnicity. I realized what a role that played in the depth of our friendships and in the depths of our souls and our identity.

I will never know what it fees like to be black and to come up through the struggles of the last 100+ years, but then again, they will never know how it feels to be white. It was completely chance or luck depending on how you look at it, and this effects our friendships. I've come to the point in my life where I don't want to hide my true self any longer, but I'm beginning to wonder what I hold back from people because of our differences...