Hilary vs Barack

So this is the debate for the last few months amongst Democrats (which is most people I know - I do live in Portland and went to Brown). At first it seemed like just an exercise for us Oregonians because we don't vote until May 20th for our primary. And this year, with all the primaries being moved up to January and February it seemed very unlikely that our votes would make a difference.

I have been teaching about the primaries every Wednesday morning in my senior class- counting the votes and delegates and caucases. It has been fascinating to watch. My students have been asking me each time "so what's going to happen?" And I honestly told them that I have no clue. One student (a Republican) has declared the race over about 5 times during the updates.

So my dad caucased for Senator Clinton in the Washington caucases, my sister voted for Senator Obama in the Washington DC primaries. My uncle said "of course Hilary" when I asked who he supported. My mom is becoming passionately supportive of Obama and says that most of her friends are as well. A younger female cousin has written an open letter to Clinton about her inspiration. Several Brown friends of mine are active Obama supporters (I can tell from their Facebook stuff), and at least one works for the Clinton campaign. So much for help from my friends and family.

I am finding it difficult to figure out how to decide this. Do I base it on who I see as the most qualified for the job? I do think that Senator Clinton has a lot more experience, but there are examples of inexperienced politicians becoming great Presidents. Do I base it on who I think could beat Senator McCain, the Republican nominee? Well that depends on so many factors which I will discuss later. Do I base it on which candidate will repair our relationship with the world? Probably all of them, including McCain would be an improvement. Clinton might be the least improvement because of her association with past events. So far again, no help.

I have heard some interesting theories about what should influence my vote. "We shouldn't have the same two families be in charge of the countries for such a long time. If Clinton wins, then that will be over 20 years." "Obama is inspirational in a way that we haven't seen in a long time." But are those good theories for voting?

It's probably a cop-out, but I am still not sure. I have two months to figure it out, and hopefully I can find my way. But damn it's fun to be a student of politics right now.

Words Matter

So one of my least favorite things is when I am debating with someone and they say "well that's just semantics," as though the meaning of words and what words you use is not important to the overall debate itself. But of course, semantics is incredibly important.

The meaning of words as we use them is constantly changing, but vital to what makes a society. Sociologists have studied how different groups create meaning and that what makes it a cohesive unit. So the value and meaning of words can make boundaries and create a culture.

An example of the punch that a word can hold is in this recent news story.
http://www.reuters.com/article/email/idUSL2868601720080229

An Israeli official, speaking about what they were going to do to people in Gaza if rocket fire from there did not stop, said that a "shoah" was going to happen to them. I was stunned when I heard the news story on the radio.

I became familiar with the word "shoah" when I was asked to write curriculum for the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation. That was an organization in Southern California that was started by Steven Spielberg after Schindler's List to document survivor's stories of the Holocaust. I went down to Universal Studios about 6 years ago and worked with other teachers and even got to meet Steven Speilberg. By that point they had interviewed on tape about 50,00 survivors, and created DVD's and documentaries of some of the stories. The organization still exists, but now is part of USC. http://college.usc.edu/vhi/

This organization now works to document other genocides such as Rwanda and through education try to overcome prejudice, intolerance and bigotry. They still use the word "Shoah" in their title, which has been the Hebrew word for the Holocaust. According to dictionary.com, it comes from the Hebrew word for calamity or disaster.

So semantically, someone who was in the Israeli military used a word for the Holocaust as a threat. Wow.

My second example of word meaning is from our esteemed commander in chief.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080226/pl_afp/useconomybush_080226224122
About two weeks ago he declared at a press conference that we were not in a recession, but rather in a slow down.

Now I am teaching economics right now so I feel I need to educate our president. The normal goal of our economy is to be in growth, or what they call "expansion." A recession is when the growth slows down. That is, the economy is still growing but not growing as fast. In contrast, a depression is when the economy declines.

Now technically economists don't usually call it a recession until the slowing down happens for two quarters or more. So although I would like to correct our President Bush for saying we are not in a recession but a slow down by saying that a "slow down" IS a recession, it won't actually be a recession unless his "slow down" lasts for 6 months. But I was not impressed with our leaders grasp of economic definitions.

So dangit - semantics matter!! What words mean can change things completely. So pay attention.

Is this what prostitute feel like?

This doesn't make any sense, I know. I am the most skeptical usually. But this is what I feel like tonight.

We went to a friend's house to watch the Super Bowl. He is a man in his late 50's, early 60's who used to be a teacher and now sells textbooks. There were several people there who regularly play poker together, including my husband. I knew that they would be drinking and playing poker all day.

I didn't come over to the house until right before the game (I was grading papers). When I got there, most of the crowd was intently playing poker. And they stayed playing poker for most of the football game. But the host was cooking meat, and was almost dangerously drunk. He was a great host who kept offering everyone food and drinks. But by the 2nd quarter, several of us were worried that he would burn down the house.

So I chatted up the host, and talked with everyone at the party. I was charming and I am sure that everyone thought I was having a great time, despite my rolling my eyes about entertaining the drunk host. But then I went home and cried, for like an hour.

I am not one of those women. I don't cry for no reason. I don't cry that often. I am not that neurotic. Really. But I spent the last 2 hours trying to convince my husband I was not crazy. He held me and tried to be understanding, but he really had no idea.

It's a weird feeling. It's not like heartbreak, or fear, or anxiety. But it made me feel shitty.

So what happened? Well when the host was so drunk that he couldn't stand up in the kitchen I suggested he sit down on the couch and watch the game. He wanted to fix the fire but several of us were worried that bad things would happen if he worked on that. But not long after he sat down he wanted to get up. So I said that he should drink some water, I even brought water over to him and said he should drink it. I noticed he was looking down my shirt when I handed him the glass. So I said "in order to look at my tits you have to drink the water." I don't know why I said it. I guess I figured that I had an angle and so I should work it.

For the next 2 hours that was my angle. The other people in the party helped me with making sure that he didn't try to work the fire, or the stove (we had all been scared with his attempts earlier). But they all seemed to be grateful that I was making sure that he was sitting down. So I sat next to him and let him tell me, for 2 hours, that I had great tits. And then I went home and cried.

He tried reaching at me and I stopped him. I teased him and told him that he should respect me for my brain - he said that of course he does. He also said the only reason that he wasn't feeling me up was because my husband was there, playing poker. I told him that he wouldn't be allowed to feel me up even if I didn't have a husband. He sang the praises of my breasts repetively as I tried to make sure that he didnt do something stupid. The weird thing was that none of the things he was saying was new. I had heard stuff like for years - college, my job delivering fork lift parts to mechanics, grad school, etc. Did it bother me then like it bothered me tonight?

When I got home I tried to explain to my husband why I was bawling. He wanted to understand, and he did a good job of holding me. But I knew that he didn't get why I was so upset. Hell, I don't know why I am so upset. I just know that I felt like crying when I thought about tonight and it doesn't make any sense.

I wonder if I always felt like that when guys talked like that to me but I blocked it. I think I thought I was in control back then - like I was the one calling the shots. But I don't think I was - and I think I always knew it. What the hell kind of woman or feminist was I? Telling myself that I know what was going on and that I am a respected person at the same time that men make me feel like a piece of meat. Men who swear that they love my brain at the same time they are looking down my chest. It's amazing how many men who are liberal, men who swear that they respect women for who they are, can make me feel like crap.

I don't know if any of this can make sense. And of course I have never been a prostitute so I don't really know what it feels like. But I do know that I really felt like shit tonight. And I didn't do anything wrong. I just felt like I did.

Two Great Movie Scenes

Last night "When Harry Met Sally" was on tv. That is one of those movies that is so ingrained in my life that I could walk up to my sister and say "Who is supposed to be the dog in this scenario?" and she would immediately respond "I am the dog? I am the dog?"

But it reminded me that there are certain movies scenes that are so amazingly choreographed that I could watch them over and over and still be amazed at the timing.

One of those scenes is in "When Harry Met Sally." It is close to the end of the movie, right after Harry and Sally "do it" and he leaves to go home. Both of them immediately call their best friends, who happen to be a couple. The writing and timing is so great for that scene. I would've put a link to a clip online but apparently people are much more interested in putting a clip of the fake orgasm scene.

The next really great scene is the train scene in "The Untouchables."
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2932661216466771305&q=untouchables+train+station&total=3&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0
I have heard that this was stolen by DePalma (the director) from other movies but I don't care. The purposely slow drawn out timing is so compelling. The sound choices are very interesting.

Anyway - I just wanted to share the joy whenever I watch those 2 scenes. There are probably better complete movies and other great scenes but those are the ones that I enjoy.

I love College Football

I don't know why. It's a beautiful thing. I didn't even go to a school with a well-known football program. But I went to more games than all of my friends. (Of course I hung out with the football players more too)

Football is like chess in the fact that it's complicated and planned, but then the chess pieces have heart and soul. So you are paying attention to the plays, but then you are paying attention to the players. Love that.

And then college football. College is so much more interesting than pro. It goes without saying in basketball. But this year really exemplified the fact that the rankings always change in college football. Anything can happen.

I do wish that we had something other than BCS - but I am not unique in saying that. I actually liked the old Bowl system - all on January 1st, always good games, always good rivalries. But now that we have something that seems random and unfair and stretches out to January 7th (good lord!!) we might as well have a playoff system.

But until then, I will continue to enjoy the football season we have had so far. Of course, I am especially excited because I am a huge Oregon Ducks fan and they are doing very well. But I enjoy watching all the games. PSU games - I-AA games, SEC games - anything. I still check the Ivy League standings and root for Brown against Yale.

What sucks about this year is that my husband and I have spent the last 8-9 Saturdays building a front porch on our house - which means we have missed a bunch of games. (Watching them and listening to them while working) I guess absence does make the heart grow fonder.

Teaching in the Age of Information

It started innocuously enough. I started collecting student emails when they first became popular – but I never used them. And parents were the main people who emailed me about their student’s status. I only started getting student cell phone numbers when we were working on outside projects; You know – I call students because they are missing play rehearsal. Or Constitutional Law meetings. I ended up getting the phone numbers of the tech crew kids on the play so we could talk about props or sets or lights. Using my cell phone to get a hold of students seemed like a good way to use time efficiently. Of course then the students had my number as well.

You know I created an account on myspace solely to find a rap DJ that I know in town. I wanted him to come and give a lecture to my African-American History class about the history of hip-hop. And the only way to reach him was through myspace. So I created a profile – just really briefly. But then students started asking to be my “friend” on myspace (to avoid creepiness I never asked a student to be my friend). And sending me messages and comments.

So now I have a bunch of students who have my email, my myspace account, and my cell phone number. This means that any point of the day or night they can get in touch with me. And sometimes they do.

I have had messages about assignments – from a student who feels like he can’t finish the paper assigned, or from someone who thinks the questions on the book were stupid. I get text messages telling me that they will be late, cell phone calls asking me when the assignment is due.

But then I start to get questions that were not directly related to school. How should I ask this girl to prom? What should I wear to this event? These are questions that I would be happy to give advice on in school, but now they are asking me off duty.

So do they ever cross the line? Well I was really glad I had my phone turned off when I got a text message at 3am from a student who finally finished a paper for me. And sometimes I have been contacted late at night and I don’t know if they are contacting me because they need help or because they just want to talk.

Let’s just say that no one in teacher school told me how to handle this. If I want to help students become better human beings, I don’t believe that education stops at the school house door, and I want to help students with their quandaries, then I embrace the way that we can communicate. On the other hand, I have to figure out how to balance their needs with mine.

To a teenager, almost all crises are life-threatening. They don’t have a date to the prom, or their parent hits them, sometimes they reach out in the same way for help. I have to try to filter between the angst to help them with what they need but not lose myself and my time in the process.

Have a Magical Day!!

A colleague of mine here at school, teaches an entire unit about the danger of the Disney Empire. Now she is umm, passionately liberal, and so I thought perhaps that she was a bit paranoid. I had been to Disneyland twice as a kid, I have seen my fair share of Disney movies (including OMG High School Musical), and even the Broadway verson of Lion King. But an evil empire?

That was before I stayed at Walt Disney World for a week. Ironically enough the conference I was at was addressing how schools can help bridge the gap for poor students. And I was in a place designed to squeeze the most money out of families.

WDW seems to be a corporate city within a city. One of my colleagues at the conference said it was like a corporate Vatican. Once you crossed into their land, everything was different. The street signs all have Mickey ears on them. There are no visible signs of infrastructure (apparently it's all underground) and it's sparkling clean.

The first problem that I had was the maps. Maps given out at the hotel only had a few streets shown inside WDW, so I went straight to the Disney store located inside my hotel. But those maps are more artistic renditions of buildings - most unlabeledwith a few roads. There are 4 theme parks, 3 water parks, one very big marketplace with restaurants and stores and clubs, apparently 5 golf courses, and what seems to be 15-20 resorts each with their own restaurants, bars and shops. (This does not count the 6 hotels that are on WDW land, including my hotel, the Hilton) Everything is far enough away from everything else that it is not walkable.

What if you wanted to find something specific like a sports bar, or a hair salon? Could you easily look on a Disney map and find where to go? Absolutely not. Although the entire place is run and owned by the same corporation, and they obviously have a complicated system in place to clean and staff the entire place, getting around and finding things is not part of what they help you with.

As an example, on our second evening after our conference, we decided to try and visit one of the theme parks, eat dinner and watch Monday Night Football. Disney owns ABC, which owns ESPN so clearly there would be a ESPN Zone or someplace like that. The problem was that no one seemed to know if there were one anywhere. Not at the Disney store at our hotel, not at Downtown Disney(the huge marketplace), not at WDW MGM Studios (the theme park). So we went to these places and tried to have fun, but it was getting later and later and we hadn't eaten and couldn't find a sports bar. Several Disney "cast members" (any employee, from janitor to CEO apparently) said something like "oh yeah - I think there is one in this one place." But either they couldn't tell us how to get there, or there was no sports bar when we did.

Finally we left MGM Studios theme park at 10pm and headed toward the buses (more about that later) and one of the guys directing people to the buses told us to get on a boat and get off at the Boardwalk (whatever that was), and walk to the end and there was one. And we did - and it was there. A HUGE ESPN bar with big signs out front advertising MNF. It was a miracle.

It turns out "The Boardwalk" is one of those many Disney resorts on the property. And as I said, each one has a different theme, different shops and restaurants. And none of them seem to know what is located at the other ones.

So the maps are confusing and unhelpful. But wait there's more. Maybe because it was built over wetlands, or maybe just to be special, the roads are windy and illogical. Those street signs with Mickey ears were very confusing. It's hard to explain just why they were so confusing - I just could never figure out where we were - and I am a good navigator. It didn't match the maps at all (roads, scale, buildings) and the signs were not consistent. I can imagine if a family were in a car, then there would be a lot of chasing your own tail.

If you didn't have a car, there were Disney buses that went between all of the resorts, theme parks and water parks. There were different buses that went from the 6 special hotels and the theme parks. There were boats that went between some of the theme parks and some of the resorts. Every time we got on any of these, it seemed to take 45 minutes to get anywhere. It really did seem like they wanted you to get lost. (No transportation out of the WDW boundary except by car/taxi)

And then there was cost. For one person over the age of 9 to go to one theme park it was $71. (Age 3-9 it's $60) And to visit more than theme park in one day or to go to the water parks as well you could add that for $45 more. But apparently there are many ways to get around this. We did by going after 4pm (special conference price) and so the cost was only $43. (Only $43? Like that's a huge bargain?) Apparently if you go multiple days it gets cheaper the more days you go, and there are coupons and stuff. But we started trying to calculate what a family of four would pay to go, calculating food, toys, hotel. It boggled the mind.

There was some stuff I liked. Once I got to the theme park, the 3 rides I went on ($14.33 a ride btw) weren't bad. I had been looking forward to going on "Star Tours" since it came out when I was 16. Man I woulda loved that when I was 16. But it has not been updated, either with Star Wars story or new ride technology since 1988 - so a little bit of a letdown.

In the middle of Downtown Disney there is a group of nightclubs - the area is called "Pleasure Island." On my last evening we went and got the $22 wristband so we could visit each one (pretty good bargain actually). Comedy club, 70's and 80's music, BET, and one that was a mix of top 40 music were the ones we went to and they were pretty good. (The other two were a techno club and one called "The Adventurer's Club" which from the outside looked like the set of Indiana Jones) Good music, good dancing, strong drinks. Very different personalities in each one.

Little incongruous to be at BET listen to hard core hip-hop and pass a door that says "Cast Members Only" on the way to the bathroom. And when they shut the clubs down, some of the conversations I heard around me were umm, kinda un-Disney like. But hell - they are the ones who named it Pleasure Island.

One evening I took it upon myself to get a haircut. Instead of wandering around like for the sports bar, I decided to call around. None of the Disney literature had the phone numbers, but I did get out the yellow pages and matching up the names of the resorts on one of the maps with the names of the resorts in the phone book, I called around. I was unsuccessful in finding a place that could cut my hair with my schedule. But I did find out that many of the employees (oops I mean cast members) would end their conversation with "Have a Magical Day!" What the heck do you say to that in response?

I finally found a place that I could walk to that was off WDW land, amazingly enough. A strip mall across the street that was the boundary. It was a relief - straight roads, garbage cans, no cast members. I did find out that people in Orlando seem to be really friendly even if they aren't part of Disney. And the people at the salon explained to me the love/hate relationship the town has with the place. The guy who cut my hair likes it so much he lives in Celebration, Florida, a Disney planned town. But the makeup lady called the whole thing "Stepford" and was creeped out by it.

I did enjoy myself but it felt like I had to put some basic travel beliefs aside. No trying to walk everywhere to get a feel for the place, or look for a local authentic restaurant. No control over transportation or navigation. Just enter this world, be prepared to pay a lot everywhere, and spend a lot of time getting anywhere. Have a magical day!!