Rebel Legion

Adele made me a Jedi costume and now we are both members of the Rebel Legion.

Here are some pics.

Paying Attention

The 2008 Presidential race is being run at full steam by both political parties. With the general election more than a year away, it makes a person wonder if all the money and energy is really valuable to the nation. Are we getting better informed about who would make a good president or are they busily turning more voters away from the process in apathetic frustration? The process of choosing a candidate to represent each party certainly isn't efficient in any discernible way. Each candidate, no matter how obscure, has spent thousands promoting and running their campaigns. Of all the candidates Mike Gravel seems to have spent the least. However, even he has spent more than a quarter of a million dollars to convince America that he could be the next President. Who is Mike Gravel? Where does Duncan Hunter stand on the issues? Yes, these are both candidates for President running for their parties nomination. Is there value and service to the nation in the money they are spending? Shouldn't we just declare Hillary Clinton and Mitt Romney the de facto candidates now and save ourselves hours of obnoxious ads and mud slinging?
Political campaigns are an exercise as flawed and as inefficient as the government itself. Which makes it a perfect device for vetting out those that don't have the stomach or ability to work within such a system. There are plenty of virtuous, intelligent and creative people working within public service that could guide our country through the problems we face if only the system wasn't so backward, corrupt and contradictory. Unfortunately, after thousands of years of trying to find the perfect system of government, this is the best humanity has come up with. Those that cannot function and get things done in an environment of partisan bickering and closed door dealing have no real claim to become President.
To make the process better would take an engagement of the general population much earlier in the electoral process. That isn't likely to happen. The American voter isn't interested in the process as much as they are the outcome. This is unfortunate because by the time the parties nominate their candidate all the diversity of ideas have been purged by attrition. Right now each party has a spectrum of ideas and view points competing for attention. The only voters that are participating are those people that always participate. The partisan, ideological activists entrench themselves every election with the candidates that most strongly oppose the competing point of view. Long before the major primaries, any candidate that hasn't catered to the activist base of their party will have run out of money and support. Meanwhile, the average American is left wondering why there isn't more choices within the political system.
Everyone watches the Superbowl. We celebrate the game as if it were a national holiday. Far fewer people watch the playoffs. Even less pay attention to the regular season games. There are those fans that watch all the games. They tune to ESPN every day to see highlites and football “experts” critique the game play and evaluate the skill of each team. Politics in America today is very similar. Except that by watching what goes on in the game of politics we can affect who plays in the final game. The lobbyist, activists and handlers of political campaigns are very aware of this truth. This is why they are spending so much money right now on campaigns while no one else seems to be watching. You can't win if you don't play. If you are not playing within the game of politics then your issues, interests and ideals are going to lose. If we want our government to be more responsive, less susceptible to corruption and more representative of the pragmatic nature of the American spirit; then the common person will have to start paying more attention to these early political games.
As Americans, we have a special opportunity this election cycle. Republicans, for the first time in years, are struggling to define themselves as a political unit. Democrats are finding courage in their convictions that has brought a pride to the party that hasn't been there in years. Each political party finds themselves in flux and poised on the edge of a revolution and revitalization of ideals. However, without input and interest from the diversity of American voters it will be easy for the successful candidates to back away from this opportunity of change.
It is not my intent to suggest that Mike Gravel or Duncan Hunter are the best choices for the future of America. The question is: What if they are? By the time most of us will care to investigate the possibilities, these campaigns will long since have been closed down from lack of funds and lack of interest. If people want to have a truly profound effect on who will win coming election then the time to start playing is right now.

Something Different

Tim feeds the early morning camp fire. The morning mist swirls around him as the sun barely lights the sky. The trunks of the trees are black in contrast to the ghostly clouds that scrape the earth before him. The damp wood snaps and crackles. Yellow flames cough out white smoke that makes the fog look dull in comparison. The light of the fire nor the luminous column of smoke give Tim any comfort. Bret would be there soon and Tim knew full well of his own guilt. There was a knot in his stomach as if the world was ending. Here in the fog, his private little hell with only the fire to keep him company. Moreover, it is what he deserved and that hurt the more. Every piece of his life was shattered only the mirror had yet to be broken. He was standing on the edge of that moment, just as the tea cup slips from your hand and all you can do is watch it fall. He curses the moment. Better to be smashed into a thousand pieces than endure this limbo for an instant more. The smashing of his life was inevitable. The pain of waiting for it to happen; excruciating.
A chill ran through his body. His toes were cold inside his boots. He held the soul over the fire. Burning heat filled the soft arch of his foot. He put his foot back down on the ground and stomped the burn out. His toes were still cold. The knot in his stomach all the worse. After an eternity, or several minutes, the sound of tires on gravel could be heard. Bret's truck was finally coming up the drive. A flush of relief and anxiety whitened Tim's face and drained the sound from his ears.
Tim blew air out his lungs with forceful breath to keep his head from swimming in panic. His heart was pounding in his temple. He saw sparkles in his vision and the world swirled with the sensation of faintness. It washed over him with the weight of an ocean wave. Suffocation was the thought in his head now more than the impending confrontation with Bret. He had to breathe, move and think. The only action his body wanted to take was to run.
The lights from Bret's truck peered over the back as it came to a stop up by the house. The feeling of panic buzzed in Tim's ears louder than ever and then subsided as quickly as it had come. The hot flushing of his skin settled to an unexpected calm. Tim could see Bret coming down the trail now, but all Tim wanted to do was sleep. A drowsy quiet settled over Tim's mind. Where fear once clogged his thoughts irritation crept in. Bret was arriving at the most inconvenient of times. All Tim wanted was to rest. Was that so much to ask? “Couldn't we do this later?” he thought. Bret was on his way now and the confrontation was inevitable and immediate and there was nothing either of them could do about it.

Iranian President Wins Again

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is not a good person. I can say this without likelihood of offending any of my readers thanks to the fact that he is a foreign leader that has been antithetical to America and the west. It also happens to be true. His regime suppresses the freedoms of his people and works to destabilize the region for its own gains of power. He denies the preponderance of the historical record on the holocaust and would very much like to see Israel removed from the world map, along with its people. He has a tendency to do one thing and say another or say one thing and do another. He is not a good person nor is he entirely stable. However, that having been said, it must be added that he is not stupid. Unfortunately authorities in America and the west continue to treat him as though he was an ignorant lunatic, rather than the Machiavellian manipulator that he is.
Iran helped 9/11 hijackers enter this country and coordinate the attacks by forging documents to mask the fact that they had passed through the country on several occasions. According to the 9-11 Commission, Iran played an important role in the development and execution of the 9/11 attacks. Most of the rhetoric that was used by the Bush administration to lead us to war with Iraq could have been used to describe with accuracy the Iranian involvement while the Iraq connection was nearly if not completely fictional. Unfortunately the point no longer matters because our government essentially invaded the wrong country. Iran was one of the first countries to condemn the 9/11 attacks and critics here quickly pointed out that Ahmadinejad was simply playing politics. Of course he was, but pointing it out makes us look like ungrateful jerks to an Iranian population that sees their government as representing their views. It is also likely that the Iranian government is ,at some level, supplying weapons to insurgents in Iraq and developing nuclear weapons despite the Iranian President's claims to the contrary. His request to visit the site of ground zero was truly a ploy to create drama and generate publicity for his trip. He is not a good person. However, everything he has done has been effective in promoting and advancing his agenda and goals. The Bush administration, New York City officials and the American media in general have helped play into his hands.
When we look at the issues from the point of view of the Muslim population in general or the fringe fanatical groups of terrorist, we can start to understand how Ahmadinejad is winning the diplomatic, propaganda war. Just look at some of the claims of our own government through the eyes of someone living in the middle east. Our government claims that we do not torture, that we do not invade countries without justification and that our motivations are purely based on the spread of freedom and democracy are all very suspect. From their point of view, saying that Ahmadinejad is a lying manipulator is hypocrisy in the highest extreme. Making the Iranian government our enemy while it ascends to a position of power in the region only legitimizes the point of view of those that we were fighting originally after 9/11; namely Al-Qeada and Bin Laden.
Why not use Iran's dishonest rhetoric against itself. The President of Iran condemns 9/11 and terrorism. Ahmadinejad recognizes that the losses of American lives in New York was a terrible tragedy. He claims to promotes women's rights, doesn't want nuclear weapons and wants to work with the west in developing closer relations. None of these things are likely to be true, but it is all things that he actually said. Critics use President Bush's words against him all of the time, why shouldn't we use Iran's public rhetoric to diminish Mahmoud's support with his jehadist? While openly supporting his public agenda of peace and reconciliation we can still quietly oppose his hidden activities and agendas. In doing this we separate him dogmatically from those radicals that believe that any contact with western culture is a betrayal. What a photo op it would have been for Bush to buy Mahmoud a decadent burger and fries in down town New York City and that they would work together from now on toward world peace and a defeat of terrorism. Mahmoud would never agree of course, but that would be the point of the whole deceitful exercise.
Ahmadinejad is a powerful leader of an important country. America is tied to its region of influence in every way imaginable. Every day we relate to him in terms of; good superpower versus bad Muslim country, we feed his position and his power. This guy is oppressive, manipulative and very clever. His ideas are xenophobic and dangerous and his methods are effective. He is also a powerful force on the world stage and every time we engage him in terms of us versus him we fall right into his trap. He plays nice and smiles while giving talks at Columbia university for propaganda's sake. Aren't we powerful enough as a nation and a culture to beat him at his own game? We had better be, or his recent trip to America will not be the last battle he wins with little more than a wink and a smile.

Remembering Our Ideals

This week marks the sixth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Looking back on that day I am reminded of the grace of spirit that seemed to be universal throughout the country. As a nation, we didn't panic in the face of unknown danger. We unified in grief and resolve. Compassion and sadness was a shared experience that no one could accuse another of having too little of. This was our country. Across the broad diversity of the American population we shared our claim to this nation for the first time in years. America was put to the test on that day. No matter what mistakes we have made between then and now we proved our unity and strength; not despite our diversity, but because of it.
The sky was without airplanes for several days after 9/11. No one traveled. Everything stopped long enough for the nation and the world to register what had happened to us. The world had changed and everyone was aware that the future was not going to be what we had expected. The one certainty was our unity and an absolute confidence that we would not be broken, by this enemy or any other. Six years later there is a part of me that looks back at that time with fondness. There was a confidence in the ability of my government and a belief that our ideals would prove us the better of two warring parties. Liberals and conservatives were not opposite poles of a spectrum of values. We were variations of a common hope that by taking part in our communities and our government we could make both things better. For a brief and shining moment diversity did not mean division. It was the attribute that made us mighty and better than those that attacked us.
Many of these hopes have be dimmed in the passing of time and the inevitable mistakes that all of us made as we tried to find a course to the future. I think back to 2001 when the potential still existed to be the heroes of our creed. That potential still exists, but it seems further away and will always have the tinge of regret attached to our successes. The thought of asking forgiveness for our trespasses never entered my thoughts six years ago. This nation was innocent of wrong according to my limited point of view. Today the actions of our nation become the responsibility of those this government represents; namely all of us that live under its rule. The American virtues of liberty and justice for all have been curtailed by the perception that what we need is the freedom to make war more efficient.
To simply blame this unfortunate truth on those seated in government is to misunderstand how our system of government works. They are the representatives of the will of the American people. If we do not have the energy or the interest to stop where the government is going, then the only people we have to blame is ourselves. The axiom that, “freedom isn't free,” is true on many levels. The complication is that there are several different types of currency that pays for our liberty. One of those burdens is that for our ideals to have value they must be applied and offered to everyone; even our enemies. For my part I am sorry for allowing this government the power it has wielded. The precedents they have set. might one day curtail the rights of those citizens that simply disagree with the majority. If we are to believe that this nation is a functioning democracy then the actions of the government become the propriety of those that are governed. The validity of our freedoms come at the price of having to maintain them for all people, whether they be good, bad, evil or perhaps simply unpopular.
The dignity and heroism that was shown collectively by the American people six years ago is a testament to our strength of character. The failures of the past six years show an insecurity in our own ideals to function in our defense. What happens in the future will depend on the ability to reconcile these issues within ourselves. To take responsibility for our failures and prove our courage in the face of threats to what we hold dear. 9/11 exposed our potential as a nation and the strength of an entire population. Where grief and fear once might have made us fail this potential, the future is ours to create. This anniversary represents a chance to remember what was lost and to hope again toward a shared ideal in the future.

The Masks We Wear

Thousands of true believers gathered in Atlanta this Labor day weekend for the annual Dragon*Con festival; myself included. This congregation believes strongly in Harry Potter, but they do not believe in magic. Others believe in Klingons, but don't believe in aliens. Still others believe in Superman, while others believe in Yoda. You wont find any of these people trying to leap buildings in a single bound or lift rocks with the power of their minds. The common belief amongst these people is that the literature that they consume can and does have value in their lives. They share a belief that heroism is real and can be a model for our own behavior in our mundane yet complicated lives.
The 501st Legion is a group of Star Wars fans who dress in the Imperial garb of those white clad Stormtroopers from the movie series. Their membership numbers more than five thousand. The only requirement for participation is to have a theatrical quality costume resembling a villain from the Star Wars series. Most of these costumes are of the Stormtrooper variety. Why would so many do this? Why troopers? What draws hundreds to hide their personal characteristics under the impersonal garb of an armored soldier from a time and place that does not exist?
The answer to the question reveals the power of the metaphor. Their actions expose a need for such theatrics and play in our lives. This group of play actors help express the sensation that so many of us have today living in the modern world. Each Stormtrooper looks essentially the same. The plastic armor is imposing in its size. The grim faces and dead eyes of the trooper mask, convey a sense of vacancy to their actions. In the face and the form of the uniform there is nothing personal. There is no way of knowing who hides beneath the costume. This is the image of the automaton; doing what they are told without thought to what they might otherwise want to do. As the responsibilities of life push against our personal desires, how many of us feel like these villains of apathy. We do our jobs and pay our bills, never expressing a distinction in our work or our actions from those of our neighbors. It is this burden of necessity that is expressing itself through the mask. Hundreds of men and women marching down Peachtree Avenue in Atlanta, as part of the machine that drives the modern world. Each in their own way reflecting the empire of stress and pressure that every one of us helped to build.
However, under the round white helmets lie individuals as diverse and character filled as any group that might be assembled. Each mask hides a person with their own dreams and aspirations. The people of the 501st are fully aware that they are not defined by the costume that they wear. This is why they put on the armor with a sense of joy and playfulness. When the Star Wars costumes are put away and the work attire is applied for the coming week, the same attitude can be carried. The tie of the business man is worn by some as a chain around ones neck. The mask that some wear come in the form of a strip of cloth with a knot at the neck or a pull over poncho with “How can I help you?” written on the back. Those that can see the lesson behind the Stormtrooper mask do not have to be so burdened. Those things in our lives that keep us from reaching our own personal potentials as individuals doesn't have to be the thing that defines us. It is the striving toward our personal strengths that make us valuable beyond the masks we wear or the roles we play. The hero within can surface from behind the wall of duty and necessity.
There are gatherings of such fans of fantasy literature and art every weekend of the year around the country and around the world. They share a common belief that the media which they enjoy, can enrich their lives and deepen their understanding of the world. It's through the nobility and strength of heroes acting out of the best of what humanity can be that fills us with hope that such strength might be inside us as well. It is the villain that reminds us that evil does not belong to the distant someone else, but can be created out of our own fear and inaction. So much time and money is spent entertaining ourselves in the modern world. How much of this energy is spent simply to fill voids of time? How much television is broadcast for no other reason than to fill time and sell advertisements? How much of this have we already watched and forgotten? The value that fiction fans place on the stories they love might seem strange to those on the outside looking in. However, the silly person dressed as the hero of their comic fantasy is expressing the potential no only of their inner self but of all people. In doing so they define themselves beyond the requirements of their lives and the limitations of their form. It is my hope that everyone, fiction fan or not, can find something that encourages the potential joy of living in their lives. Keep in mind that you do not have to dress like a Stormtrooper to learn something from one that does.

Iraq Withdrawal Consequences

The President has recently drawn parallels between the withdrawal of forces from Viet Nam and the potential withdrawal of our forces from Iraq. His point seems to be that if we had stayed engaged in Southeast Asia that we might have averted the tragedy that took place there. It seems that he is suggesting that American forces should have continued to fight and defend the jungles of Cambodia and Viet Nam until a stable government emerged that would reconcile all parties there in peace. Although this is a very beautiful, idealistic and noble idea, it has a disconnection to the reality of that time as broad as the disconnect that he seems to have in regards to our own.
Withdrawing from Iraq will not be as easy as it was to leave Viet Nam. Although both conflicts share absurdities, they are also very different in scope and dynamic. The Viet Nam conflict was fought on the idea that the spread of communism needed to be halted through military intervention. The justification for waging war in the jungles was that China and the Soviets needed to know that we would fight their ideology where ever they tried to expand it; even in places that were otherwise inconsequential to us. On this front Viet Nam was a success. At least in the view that the spread of communism did not continue with great energy after we withdrew ourselves from Southeast Asia. The failure to install our hoped for government did not impact the United States in any significant way. However the withdrawal of American interest did have significant impact of those left behind.
When we withdrew from Viet Nam, thousands, millions of people died in the aftermath. Their deaths did not appear on YouTube. Their deaths did not appear anywhere in the consciousness of the American people until years later. Their loss did not affect the stock market or make Christmas more difficult to pay for and enjoy. Pictures of the missing line walls of Cambodian museums acknowledging the dead. Piles of bones and skulls stand witness to what transpired there. The after the fact postmortem of a tragedy will not be what faces the American public when our policy in Iraq bears the fruits of its failure. Mist shrouded jungles shielded the western world from the horrors of human purgings and their civil war so many years ago. Today we see and will continue to see the consequences of our actions recorded by every person with a cell phone capable of taking a picture.
It was easier then to turn our attention away from what was happening an ocean away. Easier to disregard the blight of people that had no impact on the lives we lived. Viet Nam was a purely political war. The fact that we had no national interest in the country made it much easier to engage and then remove our forces. There was nothing they had that we needed. No oil, natural resource or strategic position kept America fighting in those jungles for as long as we did. Iraq is far different in this regard. Outside of the debate of when to bring our troops home, troop levels and WMDs sits the fact that we need, have to have, oil from this region of the world. In order to maintain our economy and our extravagant way of life it is necessary for a steady stream of tanker ships to move back and forth from the desserts of the Middle East to the shores of the United States.
Chaos in Iraq means further likelihood of disruptions of oil from the region. This is the ugly truth that no one wants to think too much about. The Middle East matters because it sustains us. Viet Nam never contributed in the maintenance of our way of life. Today the same can be said of Darfur, Sudan and Indonesia. These places can burn with war and conflict and it doesn't affect my job, my future or vacation plans. Turkey is in conflict with the Iraqi Kurds in the north. Iran is pressing its influence into the country from the east while Syria pushes from the west. Saudi Arabia exerts its influence quietly from the south trying to keep its ports open to everyone while still maintaining its monarchy despite the discontent of its people. Under normal circumstances in relationship to any other part of the world, the American public would shrug and turn the channel away from such reports. After all, it is what I do whenever I see something on the issues facing any corner of Africa. There's nothing I can do about it anyway, I tell myself. More importantly, there is nothing it can do to me personally so why engage in futile compassion.
The United States military has worked hard and sacrificed much in the years spent in Iraq. They have done everything that this president has asked them to do. They deserve to be able to say that they accomplished the task they set out to do. Unfortunately the task was flawed from the beginning. The mission was as unrealistic as our president's world view. He and his neo-conservative advisers have failed our service men and women who have worked so hard to give him the world that was in his dreams. The tragedy of Iraq is not a fault of a military failure. The tragedy of Iraq is due to a lack of a pragmatic understanding of the world and implementation of our military. Now is the time to let our armed forces re-engage itself. Redeploy in a new way that might bring a real change to the world stage. Pulling out of Baghdad does not mean defeat of our will or of our troops. It only means that we've come to realize that there are other ways to help and engage in the world and its conflicts. Every person that has served in Iraq wants to believe that they made a positive impact with their presence and sacrifice. Those that have served this President and this country have worked very hard to give us what we need. We need leadership and policy that will allow all of that hard work and resource to be effective and worth the sacrifice. The President is right that we did make mistakes in the era of Viet Nam. Let us not simply let those errors of the past justify our continued errors of judgment in the present. We can't simple remove ourselves from the situation as we did in Viet Nam those many years ago. We can't expect that what happens in the region will not have an impact on the lives we are living here at home. However, we cannot continue to believe that a fairy-tale ending will emerge if we only continue to believe hard enough in the original vision of our President and his circle of true believers.