Forever A Fangirl

So who gave her the idea she can't do math?

I substitute taught the past two days--one day with learning and emotionally disabled 7/8 th graders. They were a group of only eight and were just terrific kids. Very broad range of difficulties from mild retardation to pretty severe emotional issues. One boy seemed totally fine--smart, helpful, well-mannered. If I were his parents I'd be wondering when he was going to be in the mainstream classes...and then there was my first grade class today. Thirty-one 6 year olds. Our school district is getting terribly overcrowded (the teachers are poised to go on strike any day now) and there is just no way that quality education can be maintained with that many young children in one class with one teacher. During the Math lesson I was trying to teach them the different ways to add numbers to equal "7" and then "8." Several of them just couldn't get it and they should have been pulled out and given one-on-one help but you can't do that. The kicker was when a little girl, after repeatedly expressing the opinion that she could not do the work finally blurted, "I'm Mexican. I can't do math." OMG. Where on earth did that come from? It took me several seconds to muster an answer but when I did it was to the effect that it didn't matter if a child is Caucasian, Mexican (which I realize "officially" is still considered a type of Caucasian), or Korean. All children can learn Math. She didn't have any accent whatsoever and I've taught the bilingual first grade at that school and if she truly had language issues she'd be in it. But she expressed herself very clearly. So who gave her the idea she can't do math?
Anyhoo, I got so involved in the topic that I didn't notice we were out of time and the end-of-day bell rang and mass panic ensued. Little bodies were heaped upon each other as they jostled for coats and backpacks and such. I kept saying Everyone, calm down, it's okay, but I may as well have been barking at the moon. At least no one missed their bus and only one lunch box was forgotten.

Behind The Gun Of A Humvee

I haven't yet quite figured out why Merideth Howard's death strikes such a chord in me.
Is it her youthful-looking, outdoorsy, far-too-much-life-in-her-to-die-yet photograph?

Maybe.

Is it the fact that at age 52 she would have been not much older than I am my brother? (in other words, she could have been my big sister).

Possibly.

Is it that her death at age 52 is tragic and unnecessary?

Not any more so than the first person to die or the others with and near her when she died.

Does it upset me that because of the protracted situation resulting from our invasion and occupation of Iraq that Sgt. Howard, who was getting ready to retire, would never in a million years have been in the circumstances she found herself in?
Well yes, I'm probably as upset as the next person about the sheer ludicrousness of putting so many good people in harm's way for reasons purely political.

But none of these reasons really seem to answer the question of why her death gets under my skin--why I come back around to wondering why? Why?

There's no more point in playing the blame game. It's too late for that. I guess the question to focus on now is When? When will we get the frak out of Iraq so that the US military is not stretched so thin that a woman who most probably had many good years left with her newly wedded husband is now forever gone.

Link to her obit guest book:

http://obits.cleveland.com/Cleveland/GB/GuestbookView.aspx?PersonId=19200928&PageNo=1

Army Sgt. 1st Class Merideth L. Howard

52, of Alameda, Calif.; assigned to the 405th Civil Affairs Battalion, Army Reserve, Fort Bragg, N.C.; killed Sept. 8 when a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device detonated near her Humvee in Kabul, Afghanistan. Also killed was Staff Sgt. Robert J. Paul.

 

Howard, the oldest known woman to die in combat, was behind the gun of a Humvee

She was 52 when Afghan bomb struck

By Kim Barker and James Janega, Tribune staff reporters. Kim Barker reported from Mehtarlam and James Janega from Waukesha

September 24, 2006

MEHTARLAM, Afghanistan -- The older soldiers called themselves the Gray Brigade, but Sgt. 1st Class Merideth Howard never talked about her age. Soon, no one asked.

In training, the Waukesha, Wis., resident ran as hard as men much younger. She became a gunner on a Humvee at this small military base, building a wooden box to stand on so she could see over the turret.

Her last night here, Howard and Staff Sgt. Robert Paul sat on the back stoop of their barracks with the base cook, as usual.

"We started talking about the time she got shot at," said Air Force Tech. Sgt. Marlin McDaniel, 42, the cook. "I said I'd probably duck. I wouldn't know what to do. But they both basically said at the same time, `When it's your time to go, it's your time to go.'"

The next day, Howard and Paul made a supply run to a U.S. military base near the Afghan capital. They never made it back, dying in a fiery suicide bombing in Kabul on Sept. 8.

At 52, Howard, who had gray hair and an infectious smile, became the oldest known American woman to die in combat.

The fact that she was even here, serving as a gunner on a Humvee, shows the drain that two wars have put on an all-volunteer military. She was the new face of the military's civil affairs units, which do reconstruction and relief work. Constant deployments have tapped out the regular Army Reservists who most often filled those jobs in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Howard never had been deployed before, not since joining the Reserves on a whim in 1988. After her medical unit was disbanded in 1996, she was assigned to the Individual Ready Reserves, for soldiers without a unit. She still went to monthly drills but mainly handled paperwork, biding her time, putting in her 20 years before earning retirement benefits.

But as a stopgap--and in a first for the U.S. military--provincial reconstruction teams in Afghanistan were being filled by a mix of Navy, Air Force, Army, National Guard and Reserve soldiers. And many in the Reserves were like Howard, in the Individual Ready Reserves, home also to retired soldiers who had recently left the Army. A few regular reservists, such as Paul, volunteered for civil affairs. The rest, such as Howard, were called up last December.

"We were a little surprised," said Master Sgt. Robyn Fees, 50, who became a close friend of Howard's after the two were called up. "We didn't even know what `civil affairs' was, to be honest with you."

Howard was a no-frills woman, more comfortable pounding a hammer than wearing a dress, those who served with her said. In Afghanistan, she often visited the base area known as Home Depot, where the wood was stored, and built herself a rudimentary armoire and a side table. Her hammer still sits in her room on base. An unfinished picture frame, made from Afghan carved wood she bought at a local bazaar, waits on her desk

She was used to challenges. Born and raised in Corpus Christi, Texas, Howard wanted to be a firefighter, but her hometown did not hire women. So in 1978 she joined the department in Bryan, Texas, as its first female firefighter. She later became a fire risk-management specialist with insurance companies, eventually helping set up a consulting company in California.

In 1991, Howard started dating Hugh Hvolboll, who made fireworks for a living. "You set them off, and I'll decide how much damage they cause," Howard would joke. In 2004 the couple moved to Waukesha for his job. They never felt the need to get married, not until she was called up in December. Slightly nervous, Howard wanted to make their relationship official.

"As a boyfriend, I would have no status with the Army," Hvolboll said. "As a husband, I did."

In late April, the nine members of Howard's civil affairs team arrived at the Mehtarlam base in eastern Laghman province. They formed the core of the provincial reconstruction team.

Paul, 43, of Hammond, Ind., had more experience than the rest. An urban planner and a Peace Corps veteran, he had volunteered to spend all of 2004 in Iraq on a provincial reconstruction team.

Paul embraced civil affairs and all that it meant. He died with about $800 in his pocket, a sum that was to have bought a set of false teeth for the mayor of Mehtarlam.

Civil affairs is not a new concept for the U.S. military, but provincial reconstruction teams are. The first team began its work in Afghanistan in 2003, a calculated attempt to try to fight the Taliban by helping Afghans rebuild. Almost immediately, the teams became controversial. Aid agencies accused the teams of blurring the line between the military and aid, possibly endangering traditional relief workers.

But the teams spread to Iraq, and throughout Afghanistan. There are now 24 provincial reconstruction teams here, and a 25th is being set up in eastern Nuristan province.

It is not easy work. Almost 30 years of war have destroyed any professional class in Afghanistan. There are few engineers, architects, doctors or teachers. Achieving anything here takes many attempts. Hospital Road in Mehtarlam, for example, will soon have to be redone for the third time.

On a mission by Howard's unit here last week--the first since she and Paul were killed--Capt. Walter Christian, 36, visited the town's power plant project. Once finished, 800 of the 2,000 homes in town should have power. But the director of the plant mistakenly planned to install the wrong kind of wire. And the old engineer had suddenly left.

"That's pretty much a problem," said Christian, an Army Reservist, shaking his head.

At the new public-safety building, workers did not put enough mortar between the bricks. The stairs were a mess.

The soldiers tried to visit the orphanage, their third attempt. But again, no one showed up at the governor's office to help them find it.

In May, Howard was filmed for a U.S. military video highlighting reconstruction work. She is serious, with no evidence of her normal laugh. She stands in a village near the Mehtarlam base, the wind blowing through her hair, her face pink from the hot sun, just after handing out backpacks to kids.

"We have a good relationship with the people here in the village," she says. "And of course, as [with] everybody in Afghanistan, they are in need."

At first, Howard handled paperwork at the base, tracking projects and applying for money. She was good but longed to be off the base, to go on missions, to be out with the Afghan people. She wanted to be a gunner.

"She wanted to do everything," said Air Force Tech. Sgt. Felicia Mason, 37, who later became Howard's roommate. "She wanted to be able to excel in everything. Because she didn't want anyone to say she couldn't do it because she was a woman.

Howard got her chance. The civil affairs team of nine shrank. One soldier went home after a non-combat injury, another was sent to Nuristan, and the gunner to Jalalabad.

One video shows Howard training on an automatic grenade launcher. She stands on a box inside the turret, trying to squeeze the triggers. "See what you mean, ma'am," she says to 1st Lt. Bernice Logan, an Army Reservist, who had told her the triggers were tough. The trainer tells Howard she might want to put the gun on "fire" and remove the safety. Howard laughs. "That could be the problem."

Howard told a cousin back home she was surprised at what she was doing. She told her husband that one day she realized she enjoyed it. In August, she told Christian she was thinking of extending her tour.

"Merideth liked to live life as an adventure," her husband said.

According to Pentagon policy, women are excluded from serving in combat units, though in the chaotic realities of Iraq and Afghanistan, their support roles have grown ever closer to the front lines.

Howard's death makes her the oldest U.S. servicewoman known to have died in combat, said Judy Bellafaire, chief historian at the Women in Military Service for America Memorial Foundation near Arlington National Cemetery. A 52-year-old nurse died in Vietnam, but from a stroke, she said. Even so, there still was some uncertainty. Records for World War II and earlier conflicts often omit ages

On missions in Afghanistan, Paul was the driver and Howard was the gunner, standing on the box to make up for her height, about 5-foot-4. For Afghans in this conservative tribal area, where most women wear burqas that cover everything, it must have been a bizarre sight: a gray-haired woman in a helmet on top of a Humvee.

"That's why Sgt. Howard loved the turret," said Air Force Senior Airman Brenda Patterson, 26. "She wanted to give little girls dreams of their own."

The supply run to Bagram Air Base, north of Kabul, happened every month or two. On this trip, the soldiers picked up mail, ammunition, supplies and three new Humvees, with adjustable platforms for the gunner.

For the first time, Howard would not need her wooden box.

It's going to get very wet up there

U.S. Rep. Edward Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat and a senior member of the House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee, said the change seems to be driven by "commerce rather than common sense security concerns." He noted that progress has lagged on developing and funding advanced explosive detection technology.

I so totally saw this coming. The big clue came when one of the first items after baby formula to be allowed on planes after the initial ban of everything liquid or gel was lipstick. Lipstick! How can anyone deem lipstick  important enough to be in the very first group of items deemed safe??? I mean, who was even thinking about lipstick for goodness sake?! And the kicker--they've  approved lip gloss now, too (see below).
Dear gord, I feel so. much. safer.


U.S. to let air travelers carry some liquids
Mon Sep 25, 2006 02:52 PM ET 

By John Crawley

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States partly lifted on Monday its ban on liquids in carry-on bags on airline flights, a policy imposed last month after authorities in London said they foiled a plot to bomb U.S.-bound flights.

Under the new plan, travelers may carry drinks and other items purchased in the secure areas of the airport. They also may bring travel-size lip gloss, hand lotion and other toiletries of 3 ounces (90 ml) or less that will be subject to screening and then placed in a small clear plastic bag.

The measure takes effect on Tuesday and is the second time the ban, introduced on August 10, has been revised. Homeland security officials called the latest change a prudent step but said the main provisions will remain in place indefinitely because the threat of attacks on aircraft has not diminished.

"After the initial, total ban, we have learned enough from the U.K. investigation to say with confidence that small, travel-size liquids are safe to bring through security checkpoints in limited numbers," said Kip Hawley, the Bush administration official overseeing U.S. transportation security.

All liquids and gels were banned as carry-on items by U.S. officials last month after the British government arrested two dozen people and foiled what it said was a plot to simultaneously blow up several airliners using liquid explosives.

The ban for U.S. airlines was eased a few days later to permit small amounts of nonprescription liquid medication, including pain relievers and cough medicines as well as gels and other medicines for diabetics.

Canada also adopted the latest change, and U.S. officials said Britain and other European nations are expected to consider similar steps in the coming weeks.

Michael Jackson, deputy homeland security secretary, said the threat posed by liquid explosives or other bombs remains a serious concern and the U.S. aviation system is still at its second-highest level of alert -- orange.

"I don't expect this threat to go away or diminish,"   Jackson told reporters.

STRAIN ON BAGGAGE SYSTEMS

But government security planners believe that mixing multiple small containers of liquids into a large enough explosive on board an aircraft would be difficult. They said they have a "comfort level" with this week's change that they can balance security needs and passenger convenience.

Jackson also said homeland security officials were mindful of traveler complaints and the sizable increase in checked luggage as passengers sought to avoid security headaches and handed over more bags at check-in counters to be stored during flight.

"We thought we could relieve the pressure there," Jackson   said of the heavier workload for airline employees.

Airlines said the change on drinks and small liquids is welcome action. "It is clear that the TSA has performed deliberate and careful risk analysis to identify which items passengers can safely bring on board," said James May, chief executive of the trade group that represents major carriers.

Jackson said he did not expect any additional measures to relax the liquid ban unless technological advances in bomb screening allowed for a new policy.

 

---

Beast

Raven--all 12 pounds of her _ always_  goes for the throat when "attacking" a stuffed animal. Then she shakes it until she breaks it's neck.

There's a limit to every dog's domestication.

Beast.

And What Did YOU Do Today to Save The World?

Clinton raises $7.3 bln to help tackle world woes
Fri Sep 22, 2006 03:53 PM ET 

By Michelle Nichols

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Former U.S. President Bill Clinton wrapped up his second annual brainstorming summit on Friday with commitments worth $7.3 billion to combat illness, poverty, religious and ethnic conflict and climate change.

The 215 commitments secured during the three-day Clinton Global Initiative in New York were headlined by British billionaire Richard Branson's pledge on Thursday to spend an estimated $3 billion over 10 years fighting global warming.

While the 2006 initiative secured less than the 300 or so commitments made during the inaugural event last year, the value of this year's pledges almost tripled the $2.5 billion achieved in 2005.

"What Richard Branson did here is wonderful, but you don't need $3 billion to replicate it," Clinton told the summit, adding the aim of the initiative was simply to "create a piece of common ground in a highly contentious world."

Media mogul Rupert Murdoch, chief executive of News Corp. also reminded people that commitments to tackle the world's woes did not need to involve a big monetary donation.

"We can do many, many things -- they're not multibillion dollar things -- but maybe they're more valuable," Murdoch said at the event.

Among the pledges made was a commitment to create a green fund expected to raise up to $1 billion and to be managed by former World Bank President James Wolfensohn to support investments in renewable energy.

Microfinance nonprofit Opportunity International pledged to provide $500 million in loans, savings, insurance, and training to help 50 million people work their way out of poverty around the world.

The world's biggest diamond producer, De Beers, pledged $2 million to help improve the lives of diamond miners in Tanzania, frequently exploited by middlemen and rogue traders.

Merck & Co. Inc. committed $75 million in a partnership with the government of Nicaragua to vaccinate every child born in Nicaragua over the next three years against rotavirus, the most common cause of severe diarrhea among children.

The initiative grew out of Clinton's frustration as president from 1993 to 2001 at attending conferences on important world issues that were all talk and no action.

Among those helping generate ideas and money at the summit were billionaire businessmen Bill Gates and Warren Buffett and 50 current and former heads of state, along with entertainer Barbra Streisand.

In a recorded message shown at the initiative, former South African President Nelson Mandela commended the 1,000 people attending the summit for accepting Clinton's call to action.

"This initiative is a global movement where every word spoken, every partnership discovered and every promise made can have a direct impact on the lives of millions of people across our planet for generations to come," Mandela said.

Three Million Years Old

And so Lucy http://cyncity.typepad.com/cyn_city/images/lucyreducpixchicagofield325.jpg    has a baby...

Little Girl, 3 Million Years Old, Offers New Hints on Evolution 

By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD

If the fossil Lucy, the most famous woman from out of the deep human past, had a child, it might have looked a lot like the bundle of skull and bones uncovered by scientists digging in the badlands of Ethiopia.

The paleontologists who are announcing the discovery in the journal Nature today said the 3.3-million-year-old fossils were of the earliest well-preserved child ever found in the human lineage. It was estimated to be about 3 years old at death, probably female and a member of the Australopithecus afarensis species, the same as Lucy’s.

An analysis of the skeleton revealed evidence of a species in transition, the scientists said in interviews yesterday.

The lower limbs supported earlier findings that afarensis walked upright, like modern humans. But gorillalike arms and shoulders suggested that it possibly retained an ancestral ability to climb and swing through the trees.

“Her completeness, antiquity and age at death make this find unprecedented in the history of paleoanthropology,” said Zeresenay Alemseged, the Ethiopian leader of the discovery team and a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany.

Two reports of the findings are being published in Nature. The National Geographic Society, a supporter of the research, will run a popular article on the fossil child in the November issue of its magazine.

At a news conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the scientists gave the fossil the name Selam, which means peace in Ethiopia’s official Amharic language.

Scientists not involved in the research said the fossils were a significant find that should provide new insights about the afarensis species and a little-known period of early human origins.

“The child really confirms that afarensis was walking upright,” said Tim D. White, a paleoanthropologist at the University of California, Berkeley. “It has the potential to answer old questions and raises some new ones” — including their behavior in trees. Dr. White, who has found even earlier human ancestors in Ethiopia, participated in the analysis of the 3.2-million-year-old Lucy fossils. They were uncovered not far away in Ethiopia in 1974 by Donald C. Johanson, who is now director of the Institute of Human Origins at Arizona State University.

Other discoveries show that the afarensis species, a major branch of the human family tree, lived in Africa from earlier than 3.7 million to 3 million years ago.

In an accompanying commentary in the journal, Bernard Wood of George Washington University, who had no part in the discovery, said the specimen was “a veritable mine of information about a crucial stage in human evolutionary history.”

Dr. Wood, a paleoanthropologist, also noted how rare it was for the fragile bones of infants to survive long enough to fossilize. “But if they do, they provide precious evidence about the growth and development of the individual and the species,” he wrote.

Until now, Dr. Wood said, the earliest comparably complete specimen of a human-related child was that of a Neanderthal who lived less than 300,000 years ago in Syria.

The discovery team said the largely intact condition of the fossils indicated that the child was presumably buried in sand and rocks shortly after death during a flood in a desert region known today as Dikika, in northeastern Ethiopia.

Then, in December 2000, along came a team of fossil hunters led by Dr. Alemseged. On a steep hillside, one of the men, Tilahun Gebreselassie of the Ethiopia Ministry of Culture and Tourism, was the first to see the child’s tiny face looking up from a block of sandstone. It was a long and projecting face with a flat nose.

The face and skull were clearly that of a young afarensis, the scientists concluded almost immediately.

Dr. Alemseged’s team spent much of the last five years extracting the rest of the specimen from the surrounding stone with dentist’s drills and picks. The tedious work exposed the full cranium and jaws, the torso and spinal column, limbs and the left foot. The child’s one complete finger was curled in a tiny grasp, much like a young chimpanzee’s. The skeleton is much more complete than Lucy’s.

Although the fossils are still being studied, Dr. Alemseged and his colleagues noted several important findings and areas for further research. The Dikika girl’s brain size, for example, was about the same as that of a similarly aged chimpanzee, but a comparison with adult afarensis skulls indicates a relatively slow brain growth slightly closer to that of humans.

The presence of a hyoid bone was a surprise. It is a rarely preserved bone in the larynx, or voice box, that supports muscles of the throat and tongue. The bone in the infant appeared to be primitive and more similar to those found in apes than in humans, the scientists said, but is the first hyoid found in such an early human-related species and thus important in research about the origins of human speech.

The first relatively complete shoulder blades to be found in an australopithecine individual was one of the most puzzling aspects of the discovery, several scientists said. The lower body appeared to be adapted for upright walking by afarensis. But the shoulders and long arms were more apelike.

In the journal report, Dr. Alemseged and his team wrote that “the functional interpretation of these features is highly debated, with some arguing that the upper limb features are nonfunctional retentions from a common ancestor only, whereas others proposed that they were preserved because A. afarensis maintained, to some degree, an arboreal component in its locomotor repertoire.”

 

Fremd parent's rabid parenting comes in handy

Fremd High School raked in some good parental bucks tonight.
Spouse and I are very careful with purchases but from two skinflints like us Fremd got: A basic Parent Booster membership, the sale of a new, discounted-by-45 cents copy of A Tale Of Two Cities, a pledge to buy really expensive cheesecake--money goes to our son's band account (first I heard he has one :eek:) and a decision to start paying for trumpet lessons at $18 for every 30 minutes. There were hundreds of parents there and about two-thirds judging from their lifestyles were in positions to drop much bigger bucks than we did. And it sure looked like they were.  So yay! Fremd. Your cheerleaders and string quartet and little band at the front door were all pretty cool. And the cheesecake samples were yummy  (and very large :D).

Most of Chris's teachers seem from OK to very likable.
I'll censor myself about the one I had a bad reaction to after listening to his spiel about his really great website. I asked why, on the primary site, my son's on-line grades were "defaulting" to F's. (Guy hadn't bothered to entered the grades as I believe he's not keen on doing it and so far, it's "optional.")

This is where Fremd parent's rabid parenting comes in handy. The upper-middle class majority who make up my son's schoolmate's parental units skew very high as Internet users. And who isn't going to check  your kid's grades online every now and again as all-but-one of my son's classes were?
But this teacher lied about it and as we left other parents shared the same beef with me in re: him slacking whilst we were/are repeatedly urged to check the grades online--but since it was compressed class time we agreed to let it go--'cos the grades are correct now--lucky for us all. Pfft.

Anyway, my son has some very cool young women teaching his English and German classes. Seemingly thrilled to be there--one appearing quite bright and enthusiastic about her subject & class and the other seeming enthusiastic and very personable about...everyone and everything.

I'm beat and I didn't even get to talk about my fantastic fourth grade class today.

Cheers!

--Cyn

Open House tonight

Oooh, high school parent Open House tonight. Starts at 6:30...and there's no planned ending! Woot! Think I'm a gonna go to the "resource center" where all the guidance counselors are staked out and hang with my homies. (I used to counsel familys, couples & individuals.) Otherwise, my trek will consist of following a "compressed schedule" where each of my son's classes is slated to go for  just enough time for the last parent straggler to come in and the teacher to begin to speak and then for the "class" to end so we can spend almost as much time jogging to the next class. I sound much too pessimistic. I'd better start working on my glad-to-be here smile now! Note: Since early summer, I have visited my son's new high school about one half-dozen times for orientation-type activities. Is there a time when we are allowed to be done? His grades are posted on-line and I have all his teacher's email addy's & phone numbers.* Maybe more imporatantly most of the time I am home when he gets home and we do our "debriefing" or deconstruction of his day/what he still needs to do. Can I be informed enough now? Pul-leeeze?

Battlestar Galactica S3: RD Moore and His Lodestar

There have been many "How Star Trek influenced my life"-type pieces written over the years but Battlestar Galactica's Ronald D. Moore makes some read-worthy observations about what he learned and how he applies it to the creating of the current incarnation of BSG (soon coming to the Sci-Fi Network near you).

BSG is a favourite teevee show of mine. three of the four four actors on the right are Canadian (so's the highly esteemed Michael Hogan (far left) as the 2nd in command, Col. Tigh)-- :) and they kick a**, lol. The very hunky Tahmoh Penikett is the lone male on the far right in this picture, poor guy.
BSG is filmed in Vancouver so I'm pretty sure most of the extras are Canucks, too.
Even so, besides Starbuck, Mary McDonnell's nuanced portrayal of  the conflicted "president" Laura Roslin (formerly 43rd in line to succession--everyone ahead of her died in Cylon attacks and S2 ended with her being replaced by the nefarious, possibly insane Dr. Gaius Baltar) is my favourite female character on the show.

Why watch the show? Read the article. If you are/ever were a Trekker, you'll get it.--Cyn


September 18, 2006

Op-Ed Contributor
By RONALD D. MOORE

Altadena, Calif.

FOUR decades ago, when the starship Enterprise first settled into orbit around Planet M-113 on Sept. 8, 1966, I was 2 years old. I could not have known it at the time, but “Star Trek” would literally change my life.

To say that any television show has changed one’s life is to invite both mockery and pity for a poor, shuttered geek who must surely have been denied direct sunlight and the attention of women for the better part of his days. But in lieu of offering documentary proof that I do not, in fact, still reside in my parents’ basement, let me simply tell you how “Star Trek” informed the way I look at the world.

“Star Trek” is often reduced to kitsch: Kirk’s paunch, Spock’s pointy ears, green-skinned alien girls. But it was more than escapism and rubber-suited aliens. It was a morality play, with Capt. James T. Kirk as a futuristic John F. Kennedy piloting a warp-driven PT-109 through the far reaches of the galaxy.

Kirk, for me, embodied an American idea: His mission was to explore the final frontier, not to conquer it. He was moral without moralizing. Week after week, he confronted the specters of intolerance and injustice, and week after week found a way to defeat them without ever becoming them. Jim Kirk may have beat up his share of bad guys, but you could never imagine him torturing them.

A favorite quote: “We’re human beings, with the blood of a million savage years on our hands. But we can stop it. We can admit that we’re killers, but we won’t kill today.” Kirk clearly understood humanity’s many flaws, yet never lost faith in our ability to rise above the muck and reach for the stars.

“Star Trek” painted a noble, heroic vision of the future, and that vision became my lodestar.

As I grew into adolescence, the show provided a handy reference against which to judge the questions that my young mind began to ask: What is the obligation of a free society toward the less fortunate? Does an “advanced” culture have the right to spread its ideas among more “primitive” ones? What does it mean to be human, and at what point do we lose our humanity to our technology?

And as I grew into an adult, and my political views took shape, I treasured “Star Trek” as a dream of what my country could one day become — a liberal and tolerant society, unafraid to live by its ideals in a dangerous universe, and secure in the knowledge that its greatness derived from the strength of its ideas rather than the power of its phasers.

In my 20’s, through a combination of luck and determination, I fulfilled my childhood dream — I became a writer for “Star Trek.”

For 10 years, I helped propel the latter-day incarnations of “Trek” into new territory while keeping alive the set of moral principles I’d taken to heart. As I plotted the adventures of the Enterprise-D and the travails of the space station Deep Space 9, I gradually became interested in pushing the boundaries of “Star Trek,” and began to let Captains Picard and Sisko find the shades of gray in a universe Kirk sometimes saw only in black and white.

Science fiction on film and television has, over the past four decades, moved decisively away from the optimism of “Star Trek.” “Blade Runner,” “Alien” and “The Matrix” posit much darker, dystopian futures; even the “Star Wars” movies posit the rise of a galactic empire founded on “the dark side.” Social and commercial explanations abound for this shift, but my theory is that “Star Trek” set the gold standard for the idealistic vision of tomorrow and no one has successfully challenged it.

Nowadays, it may appear that I’ve turned a blind eye to my lodestar as the crew of the battlestar Galactica behave in ways that would’ve been unthinkable in the “Star Trek” universe that Gene Roddenberry created. But “Battlestar Galactica” remains very much informed by the lessons I learned from that slightly paunchy man in the gold pajama top on the good ship Enterprise.

My characters may not have all the answers (sometimes they’re not even aware of the questions) but they contain kernels of both good and evil in their hearts and continue to struggle for salvation and redemption against the darker angels of their natures. Their defeats are many, their victories few, but somehow, some way, they never give up the dream of finding a better tomorrow.

And, thanks to a 40-year-old television show, neither do I.

Ronald D. Moore is the writer of “Battlestar Galactica.”

Musings

Got caught in a downpour today whilst doing volunteer work. Within seconds of a coworker's cluing me into the approaching storm, thunder was crashing. By the time I climbed inside the Mustang I was wet. By the time I'd gotten the Mustang's roof raised and windows closed and had run back into the store I was soaked to the skin. It was kinda fun.

I'm having a blast catching up on "Weeds." It's fast becoming a favourite show of mine--and bonus--it's only a half hour long.

I've had to remove many photographs from my TypePad blog--some of which were my favourites--stuff that I thought was my best work. Even so my work had become pretty spotty and generic. I think it is in part due to the fact that as much as I like my Nikon D-70--it is quite cumbersome. One does not just grab it and run--which is really my style of getting the shots I like. So.

Now I'm also using a pocket-size camera to get some snaps as they strike my fancy instead of wishing that I'd brought the big camera. Can't yet DL the snaps as it is a 2001 Nikon CoolPix without any accessories except the battery charger--so I've ordered a USB camera cable.

Did some errands yesterday but top-down motoring on a pleasant day made for a great drive.

Picked up a teaching day for tomorrow--2nd grade--all day. Pretty darned sure I'll sleep well tomorrow night.

Spouse is always trying to coax me into shopping at Costco--especially on sample and "travelling (food) roadshow" days. People quite literally make a meal of it so before I went to Wings to volunteer I took my youngest son and we joined the throngs munching on spinach & feta cheese chicken sausage and 3 other variations--all "fresh, no nitrates, nitrites, MSG, or hormones!", vegetable lasagna, Goose Island Orange Cream soda with a dollop of vanilla ice cream, three kinds of "Nuts on Clark" gourmet popcorn, & all-natural apple juice.

I passed on the three kinds of  bakery layered cakes, the Home Run Inn pizza, the bagel (hot dog) bites, avocado dip, barbecue sauce, and the Kefir (ugh, liquid yogurt--why?!).

So the downside is that my Mom had a stroke and my father has shut out both my brother and me--no communication since the one email two days ago. We both left ans. machine msgs. and sent emails--nada communicada. Very worrying & frustrating. I was sleeping badly before due to the on-call thing with sub-teaching. Now I sleep badly and get the bonus of bad dreams when I do sleep.

Bigger downside is that I'm bingeing which is an almost extinct behaviour for me. I really just have to let this pass and not make it mean more than it does. Normal people binge very occasionally (they might call it "eating like a pig" or "really overeating.")  I just have this lovely life-long struggle with eating so I know when I'm out of control. I feel awful.

James Blunt's "You're Beautiful" Spoof

Presented by Tom Cellie

The last line got me... :D

I've seen two other versions of this--they both have still photos or graphics. I like this one better because it allows my imagination to fill in the blanks.

Looking Back

  This was the first self portrait ever...using a 2.1 pixel camera on a timer.

So where has the creative spark gone? Good question. One I need to think on for a bit.

                                                                              

This was my first submission to The Mirror Project . I notice there's a number of Cloud Gate photos there, atm. :)

Then and Now

This is how I first got acquainted with September 11, 2001--moving & still pictures.  My spouse had phoned home from work suggesting I take a look . I was asleep being a fairly new heart failure patient and I thought it odd that he should urge me to watch news of it as he knows I don't watch television during the day. When I tuned in the second building had just been hit--neither had yet collapsed. I sat--all day-- transfixed and horrified by the televised events.

The only televised events comparable to 9/11 that I can recall seeing are when JFK was shot--hours and hours of televised coverage. I was not yet five years--old but I can still remember that--mostly the feeling. Then in 1972 when I was age 12 that awful massacre of Israeli Olympic athletes who in the first hours of the attack were believed to have possibly been alive.

It's the same with 9/11--the awful feeling that creeps back as the video is played back.

The folks you can see in the shot on the left of the 'screen' are the lucky ones that lived to tell about day-- like Pearl Harbor-- "that shall forever live in infamy."

I taught grade school art today

Wow, where to begin…I taught grade school art today—mostly 1st graders. My very first class a little boy threw up—on another boy too—much spewage—and we were out in a trailer in higher eighties heat and bright sun. I won't go on about how the trailer uh, portable classroom smelled the rest of the day. I was happy enough that I got the class pretty much back on task once the janitor had come and mopped up and sprayed the biohazard. It’s wasn’t entirely horrible though –and considering this school is one of the lower performing schools in the district & overcrowded to boot—I was pleasantly surprised.

Sleep's been horrible…won’t even go into that.

We are going to the 86th annual German American Festival in Chicago on Sunday after Roger finishes work. I’m excited! Chris will get full credit for a major project in his German II class if he writes about the fest, which features food, beer & wine, music, dancing, & cultural (something). I’m interested in the food, beer & music. It’s in the fun Lincoln Square area which we haven’t really hung out in for years (shame on us). I need to get some rest. Have a great weekend! --Cyn

Teaching today

Current mood: rushed Myspace Layouts & Graphics Grammar school Art...cool. Currently listening : Linda Ronstadt: Greatest Hits By Linda Ronstadt Release date: By 25 October, 1990

School lessons you won't find in any textbook

Published September 6, 2006

by Mary Schmich of the Chicago Tribune

On the first day of 1st grade, I learned the first of the school lessons that would stick with me for life.

I'd gotten up in the dark that morning to put on my new uniform--blue skirt, white shirt, ankle socks--knowing that it was only in the privacy before dawn that I could stand at the mirror long enough to properly admire the new me. Adult, at last.

I soon found myself marching into a classroom along with my new schoolmates, a couple dozen of us little people bobbing through our vast new world like dinghies cut loose from the mother boats.

I took my assigned desk in the crowd of strangers. So many new friends and rivals. The thrill felt an awful lot like nausea.

Had there ever been a moment that cried louder for the familiar comfort of my left thumb?

My parents had tried to cure me of the innocent pleasure of thumb-sucking as if it were on a moral par with bonking my brothers on the head with a Coke bottle. Lectures. Rewards. Vaseline, which even an illiterate knew could be washed off with a little soap.

Nothing worked. Nothing worked because I couldn't understand the why of it. Why not do something that felt so good?

And so there at my new desk, I plunged my thumb between my little teeth. That's when I happened to glance toward the girl in the next row.

Stupid, I thought. That girl looks so stupid. What a baby, sitting there in her new grown-up uniform--with her thumb in her mouth.

Thus it came to pass that on the first day of 1st grade I gave up my thumb cold turkey.

Seeing her, I saw myself. I saw that what had felt OK at home looked ridiculous in public. To live in the world, I was beginning to understand, required compromise.

When you enter school, you enter society. You learn not just readin' and writin' but relatin', how to get ahead and get along. The world becomes your mirror.

In tribute to back-to-school week, here a few other lessons I learned in school:

People who raise their hands fastest aren't always the smartest.

There's more than one way to be smart. Sometimes, the smartest way is to be quiet.

If you've got something to say, speak up.

There's always someone smarter. And cuter. And more popular.

Popularity is overrated. The desire to be popular can lead you to do the wrong thing.

You may not be sure what the right thing is until you've done the wrong one. This applies to the math test and the friends you choose.

So the test isn't fair. Study for it anyway.

Better to be alert for the test than to exhaust yourself studying all night. At least that's what I've heard.

No matter how nice you are, there will always be people who don't like you. Sometimes it's because you're so annoyingly nice.

Nice is overrated.

It's still better to be nice than mean.

Even the prom queen is worried she's unpopular.

Just because it feels good doesn't mean you should do it.

Sometimes you can make the grade without doing the work, but sometimes isn't always.

Humiliation is as inevitable as a pop quiz. You may pee on the floor during the spelling bee. You may throw up after drinking warm cafeteria milk for lunch. You will survive. It's too humiliating to admit how I know this.

Be nice to the weird kids. And not only because some of them will grow up to be richer and cuter than you.

Weird is underrated. Cultivate your own weirdness.

Spend less time looking in the mirror. All mirrors are slightly warped.

Reasonable compromise is not the same as dangerous conformity. But beware--they can look alike.

Ask why. When you get a good answer, keep asking why.

Most of the things you learn in school won't sink in until you're out.

Not everything you learn in school is right. But to me, Pluto will always be a planet.

Got This Year's Disney Album Up

Click

Long weekend

We won't be having much sun here at all for the long weekend. That's kind of poopy but you take what you get. Hopefully, no rain on Sat/Sun will mean some outside time. I need to get down to the city to get some current photographs of the public sculpture "Cloudgate" (which Chicagoans have fondly nicknamed "the Bean"). I'd love to see it again before the weather really turns--and since the seams were sanded down, making it completely finished. I'll have to look and see what kind of Labour Day activities may be going on down by Lake Michigan (where the Bean is perched) so we can make a bit of a day of it. Everyone is pretty wiped out from a busy week so tonight we're doing take out (not sure what--we still have to vote on it) then watching Charlie & the Chocolate Factory. I made my son and spouse turn it off two night's ago as they both had very early wake-up times the next day and they both booed me pretty loudly. It didn't phase me as it's on a bunch of times and besides, there's got to be at least one enforcer in the household. Cheers, everyone! --Cyn

San Diego, August 2006