one of many in the wild, wild net.

I’ve always had loosely-held opinions.  I figure, I’m no expert on what I’m talking about (most of the time), I just know what I’ve read and decided to accept as true based on other information I’ve read and decided to be true.  But the other day I was reading Whole Earth Discipline: An Ecopragmatist Manifesto by Stewart Brand.  From what I’ve gathered, Mr. Brand is an old environmentalist and has been for a long time.  Decades.  Long enough to remember what the beginnings of the popular environmentalism movement.  Anyway, apparently alot of environmentalists have knee jerk reactions to things like the trend towards urbanization and nuclear power, to name just two.  He’s been around since the beginning, noted what his hopes for the environment were when he was young, and is old enough to know how those hopes panned out, what was right, and what he could have done better, and over the course of decades he’s seen enough to change his stance on some important positions with regards to the environmentalist movement.  If ever you want to stand on the shoulders of a giant, this is the way to do it… by reading this book.

Anyway, one thing he said about his opinions was that they were loosely-held.  I used to hold true the aphorism: “If you don’t stand for anything, you’ll fall for anything.”  It was the only piece of knowledge I’ve encountered that seemed to speak to me… and how I needed to just pick a position and stick with it.  But Mr. Brand, I think, has a very valid counter-opinion in that loosely held opinions means you are open to discussion and learning…

Excerpt from Whole Earth Discipline: An Ecopragmatist Manifesto by Stewart Brand:

… my opinions are strongly stated and loosely held–strongly stated so that clients can get at them to conjure with, loosely held so that facts and the persuasive arguments of others can get at them to change them.  My opinion is not important; it’s just a tool.

When I read this, I had to stop and think (really, to thank God).  I am open to discussion.  I am open to learning.  I consider discussion and learning the most important methods in which mankind will grow and progress.  When we close ourselves off from discourse, we stop learning, and we stop growing.  For myself, I am painfully aware about how little I know about our world and our Universe.  I could hold 10 PhDs and I’ll still feel this way.  There is always something new to discover, and until I am divinely blessed with the boon of knowing everything there is to know about everything–ever–I will keep myself open to opinions, counter-opinions, and–most importantly–facts.

-TJ

I woke up today at 6AM, went to work at 9:30AM, and found out at about 10:10 that they closed the base.  In the timeless words of Homer, “Woohoo!”  Homer Simpson, not Homer of Greek literary renown.

I drove around today, and via a circuitous route I wound up at Barnes & Noble next to the mall next to my apartment.  I browsed around for a book that I eventually found out was just released today (The Death of American Virtue: Clinton vs. Starr by Ken Gormley).  I instead bought two books that I thought might be interesting to read based on the reviews on the back of the books… I know, not very good indicators, but indicators that served the purpose well enough of enticing me to spend money to read what they have to say.  They are Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think by George Lakoff, and Have You Seen My Country Lately? by Jerry Doyle.  The former written by a UC Berkeley Cognitive Linguistics professor, and the latter by a conservative radio talk show host… trust me when I say that I try, in my own quite possibly misguided ways, to look at truly fair resources for reading material, and when I can’t find it I try to balance out what I hear so that I get more than one side of a story.

Anyway, I got into Moral Politics, and after getting through the first chapter I put the book down and started thinking about my own political aspirations.  I’ve toyed with the thought of running for office some day–most likely when I retire from my current office in 15-20 years.  It’s been in my head for a few years now, and I’ve told it to Law and my Dad.  Since I commissioned, I’ve gotten to be involved in stuff that has required interaction with Congress–I’ve never done anything that I could consider “interacting with C0ngress”.  I’ve never even thought that in my lifetime I’d be doing something that could be considered “interacting with Congress”, let alone doing something now.  Suffice it to say, I’ve realized in this last year that I’m alot closer to Washington than I previously thought.  I also realized this last year that the real power apparently is in the Legislative branch of our Government.  Correct me if I’m wrong, but Laws are made in Congress, both at the Federal and State levels.  Anyway, I’ve narrowed down that if I run for office, nationally I want to be a Congressional representative in either the House or Senate.  Local government, I wouldn’t mind running for State congress or even mayor of a town.  As I understand it, these are full-time obligations but not full-time jobs… so definitely I would have to have a source of income other than being in the government.

Blah blah.  Anyway, I was thinking I should, at some point, start keeping a page of what my platform stances are on today’s issues.  I feel I need to declare as soon as possible what my stances are, as that’s something I want to get on record as early as possible so that if I run for office in the future, I’ll have something to point to.  As my views change, so will the page, with narrative explaining why that view changed.

If my speech betrays a politically naive person, consider this–by education, I’m an engineer, and as a private person I tend not to research things I don’t have much interest in.  My knowledge of things not related to engineering is severely lacking but ask me about possibilities and I’ll talk all day about them.  I’m ultimately not interested in what we can’t do, but what we could do–we as a city, a state, a country, and a human community.  As each day comes and goes and I learn a little bit more about my world and my society, and at some point I realized that to effect the greatest good I’ll have to do something that will test the limits of my capacity to make things happen.  I think that working in the Legislative branch will test these limits, while at the same time I can provide the input that I want to give to the leaders of our Nation (or perhaps become one?).  There’s alot I want to say, and I don’t type or speak fast enough to communicate everything that’s whizzing around in my head.

Anyway, more on this later.  I’m at a B&N, it’s 8:30PM (close to my bed time), snow is still coming down, and I have to eat something still.

-TJ

I gotta say this before I lose the thought.  I’ve been playing with Google Sidewiki and an idea just burst into my brain.

First, read this: Google’s Sidewiki page

Then, search google for “sidewiki controversy” and note the opposition to the new communications platform.  Take your time, I’ll still be here.

Now, if you are so politically inclined, you could install google sidewiki, and join or start a conversation on bills that are passing through Washington by going to thomas.loc.gov, searching for–oh, I don’t know–the healthcare bill, and get smart on what it actually says.  Using Google Sidewiki, you can finally leave comments on those pages, so now our elected officials who are cutting-edge enough to have google sidewiki installed can go to thomas.loc.gov and see what the public (or those who have sidewiki installed, anyway) are saying about sections of bills being passed through congress!

I’m gonna try it.

-TJ

I had a whole article written out to point out the discrepancies between two accounts of essentially the same thing–Ft. Hood coverage between cnn.com and foxnews.com.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/11/09/fort.hood.shootings/index.html

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,573547,00.html

Read it and see for yourself… I miss objective news with just the facts.  CNN does a better job of this than Fox News in this case.  CNN’s sources are official, Fox News uses anonymous sources and digs into the guy’s past to find a man relaying a certain perspective of the Major.  Personally, I think this is just a case of a man who lost his shit and happened to be Muslim.  In any case, I would pay attention to Fox News if they spent more time backing up their statements with facts and less time quoting hearsay and opinions from the background while making sure the word “Obama” is posted prominently next to each piece of negative press they have, no matter how unrelated or unattributable that news piece is to our President.  (“Obama Ignores Terror at His Own Peril” appears right next to a bunch of Ft. Hood articles on Fox News–I assume that’s deliberate article placement and not just a website design coincidence.)

Anyway, I have to go to work.

-TJ

So I’ve been thinking about this for a long time.  Months.  Since halfway through OTS, really.  How should one view the heirarchy of military rank?  I’ve seen it two ways.  One is where the Commander leads from the front, providing guidance to his troops, directing them to pursue the vision and mission in his mind which he constantly communicates to his unit.  The other is where the Commander lets his unit know that he is there to serve the unit, that from his level in the organization he has a strategic view and upward reach to help lower tiers of the unit succeed in accomplishing their parts of the mission.  Both of these views have their merits, and both are accurate portrayals of military heirarchy.

I would like to suggest to the internetosphere a conclusion that I’ve reached since pondering this subject from January of this year.  I think the men and women that make up the armed forces should consider themselves standing side-by-side.  All people in the military are of equal worth, from the day zero basic trainee just getting off the bus at Lackland to the distinguished, wisened General at the sunset of their career.  Enlisted and Officers have their roles to play in the organization.  I had a group commander once give propers to his troops, the 150 or so enlisted troops staring back at him, for getting the mission done.  “Without you, there is no mission” is what he said.  True.  Without the commander, there is no defined mission or vision–also true.  What I’ve figured is that we all have our AORs that are important.  As an Airman First Class, they put me on a team of maintainers in charge of keeping a multi-million dollar proprietary piece of shit, and we all had our roles to play.  I was in charge of learning the skills needed to maintain the thing, then to be an active maintainer of said thing.  I had my AOR.  My AOR involved being highly technically knowledgeable on the inner workings of the thing, down to what wires provided what shape and frequency of signals to what ports–and folks, there were lots of wires.  We also had to be highly knowledgeable on the processes and procedures when dealing with maintenance of the thing… and in some respects I hated this even more than having to be technically knowledgeable, because the processes and procedures were not based on science but rather the amount of procedural rigor the designers of the procedure wanted us to practice… I just had to know alot of “crap”.  And all this was in my AOR as an A1C.  As I earned rank as an enlisted troop, I was charged with the above but also growing levels of peer leadership, mentoring, and eventually supervision of Airmen.

Anyway, before I digress even further, let’s get back to the topic.  My AOR now is kinda similar to what it was when I was an A1C, mostly learning, and as an officer being the POC for some high-need resource in the organization… the “go-to guy”, if you will.  Snack-O, although a ridiculous title for a ridiculous job which is to keep our unit snack bar stocked with items the unit’s members actually want and raise money for presents for people going away, promotion, retirement, etc., is under my AOR.  Being a PTL, in charge of leading the unit through PT sessions and monitoring various physical fitness stats, is also under my AOR.  And at the core of my purpose-of-being here in Ohio are my responsibilities as the engineer for the IPT in charge of running a contract for the F-15C MTC–I am responsible for getting myself up-to-speed on the technical aspects of this contract to be able to provide answers to my PM and our bosses, but also to know people who know answers to those questions in the (quite commonly occuring) case I don’t personally know the definitive answer to a technical question.  I once revealed an epiphany to my friend VC over at Living Out Of The Box, that I realized alot of being an officer meant knowing who knew the answer, if I didn’t already personally have the answer.  If I didn’t know, I would know someone or would find someone who knew.

Which brings me to the group commander.  Past and present, the commander doesn’t exist by himself.  He has a vision and a mission, but he can’t do the job alone.  He has resources–people at his front office, people outside on the floor, making the mission happen, day-to-day.  Additionally, he has people higher up in the organization that he reports to.  His AOR may be large, but his actual effective reach is with his team of folks that execute based off of his guidance.  And people higher than him depend on him to give direction below, and honest assessment and status reports above, so that decisions higher than him can be made based on accurate and timely information.

Friends, I see this as a side-by-side level of egality.  We all have our roles to play, with varying degrees of technical knowledge and personal authority.  As one grows in rank, technical knowledge will go down, and personal authority will go up.  I expect and depend upon my current commander to provide me with guidance on what my unit is trying to achieve–I don’t expect him to know the technical details of my F-15C MTC contract better than I do… I expect him to ask me to get that knowledge.  Not to say that he shouldn’t know more than me as the lead engineer, but if he had to ask me for his own situational awareness… that’s my job.  That’s my AOR.  I don’t expect him, in matters regarding physical fitness, to know the BMI measurements of all of his troops off the top of his head… I expect him to get that information from me as the PTL.  Again, my AOR.  It’s his responsibility to make sure his troops are fit to fight.  It’s my responsibility to arm him with the data to execute that part of the mission.  We all have our AORs.

I hope I’m communicating this correctly.  We are all ultimately equally important, and I’m not talking about potential, but the here-and-now.  An Airman guards the gate in the dead of night… important task.  A services troop cooks eggs precisely to-order at the DFAC… important task.  Honor Guard renders the proper respects to the dead during a military burial… important task.  Current leaders eventually move on to other opportunities, and new leaders step into their place… we are all replaceable, and the mission eventually gets done.  Everyone in the military is in charge of something, and we all report to someone, from the day-zero Airman Basic to the SECAF.

Anyway, these are just some observations I’ve made to date.  If I think of anything else, I’ll let you know.

-TJ

10 days left! First thing I did today was go to the computer. Got an email from Meetup.com about stuff happening in Denver which sparked curiosity about what’s going on in LA. I check the website and start browsing stuff happening this week near the 9-triple O-4, and of course the list is long. This catches my eye:

A small snicker, I only briefly imagine what that’s all about. I peruse the list just to see what’s going on tonight (Maybe I can check out some place called Mozambique tonight, saw it twice on the list).

Then I wonder about Dayton, OH, as I’m apt to do these days, and wonder if meetup is used there. So I switch the location and the list is short, but something catches my eye:

I mentally hmmm out of concern. What is this 9/11 truth? So I google “9 11 truth” and start reading the webpage. Top article about someone who wrote a book called End of America, referring to Army Times about an article referring to quelling civil unrest by our military, and how we’re becoming a nation run by martial law once city at a time.

Does this concern me? Yes, but I would like to think that all manner of obstacles and power checks that I personally know are in place would stop something like this from ever happening. We have great leaders in our military… Air Force, Army, Navy, and Marines. I’ve been in for 4 years as an Airman First Class/Senior Airman/Staff Sergeant and plan to go on as a 2nd Lt and beyond, and I can say as a fact we have great leaders from within the military. We are all professionals at arms, and we all swore to protect the president of the United States and the Constitution. Said article refers to us answering directly to the president, which is true, as we are the executive branch of government, as in we as the executive branch put into action/enforce the law. The executive branch, however, does not simply consist of the military, but also your civilian police and FBI, and pretty much any enabler institution that brings the letter of the law to physical realization.

But we know this. My issue is that what isn’t said in said article is that we as military members have a choice to disobey direct orders when there is a clear reason to do so. You won’t find Army troops shooting civilians protesting in Washington DC… it’s funny, because the article cites a demonstration from World War I veterans… yet our nation has allowed even larger peaceful demonstrations since then. Million Man March, anyone? The let’s-fall-down-in-major-intersections-in-an-attempt-to-stop-the-”American-War-Machine” protests from just a few years ago, which, by the way, were dealt with by the civilian police force. Anyway, you won’t find the military shooting peaceful demonstrators. If, God forbid, the situation ever came where we were ordered to do such a horrible thing, that would be in direct contradiction of the rights granted to us as residents of this great country by the Constitution, which we swore an oath to uphold and defend upon entry to service, free speech included. We can say “no”. Perhaps we’ll get fired or in trouble, but people such as the author of End of America and the folks that participate in 9/11 Truth tend to forget that regular human beings are what operate the military. Sure we might be trained and conditioned to react in a battle situation, but we aren’t trained to lose our humanity. When I push myself to run in the morning, I think about my parents, my sisters, my friends, my brothers and sisters in arms, and then… I think about the murderers. The rapists. The people who hate me because I joined the military. The people who don’t understand and don’t want to understand why I do what I do. And you know what? I run harder. I push myself at work to do what I do, because these people are America… the people I love, and the people that I don’t. There are no romantic thoughts of being a hero for just the good, flag-waving people of our country up in this head. All I say is to someone who may spit at my feet is “You’re welcome.” Spit in my face, and you’ll get a knuckle and teeth sandwich.

Then, as if to put the last nail on the coffin for the credibility of the website, I look further down the page at an article talking about how Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW):

From 911truth.org front page:

HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. – One hour before the final presidential debate of the 2008 campaign, fourteen members of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) marched in formation to Hofstra University to present questions to the candidates. IVAW had requested permission from debate moderator Bob Schieffer to ask their questions during the debate, but received no response.

The contingent of veterans in dress and combat uniforms attempted to enter the building where the debate was to be held in order to ask questions about poor veterans’ healthcare and supporting war resisters of the candidates, but were turned back by police. IVAW members at the front of the formation were immediately arrested, and others were pushed back into the crowd by police on horseback. Several members were injured, including former Army Sergeant Nick Morgan who suffered a broken cheekbone when he was trampled by police horses before being arrested.

As my TI from BMT would say when she caught one of us doing something crazy, “Oh really? Really? ” Private organization requests permission from what is essentially a private debate run by a private company. Request unanswered-slash-denied. Okay, perfectly acceptable. Whatever broadcast company Bob Schieffer works for (I can’t remember at the moment) has the right to bar private citizens from entering their private event. That’s like me barring IVAW to march into my backyard to protest, hell to the fuck-no. Go stay on the government-owned sidewalk.

Then the phrase “attempted to enter the building” is quite benign but doesn’t describe the manner in which they attempted. They’re already not invited, why are they still attempting to get in? Isn’t that considered trespassing on private property? I can only imagine that on the use of force model, they went from cooperative to resister, passively or actively I don’t know. I understand that private citizens were allowed to watch the debate live, like university students and such. Maybe if the IVAW guys didn’t arrive in such a showy manner they would have been let in. I don’t know. All I know is that “no means no”, and if IVAW as a group was not invited to participate in the debate, then IVAW as a group should not have tried to march in and circumvent the wishes of the event holders.

I Ctrl+F4′d that window with a snicker. Those 911truth guys are just conspiracy theorists, and the truth is much less complicated than what they wish.

Anyway, after this I was reading up on Law’s blog, and came upon a link pointing to the hypocrisy of the Democratic party. The article didn’t talk about how Obama specifically was a hypocrite, but rather various other people in the Democratic party who portrayed a disdain for the very people they’re supposed to be supportive of, the lower and middle class. It got me to thinking about my own political stance. I’ve always considered myself independent, and as far as the spectrum goes I’m left of center. When I make decisions on political views, it’s because I have a personal reason to do so, and not because all the cool people are/aren’t doing it. I re-evaluated what party I’d identify with, and I think I should just sign up to be a Democrat. I had a discussion with Law a while ago and I think we still disagree on signing up to a party without 100% adopting its views. I originally asked why he didn’t just join a political party so he could vote in primaries, but he said he didn’t agree with any political party. I see it as working within the system to bring about the change that I want. He sees it as being dishonest, being “Republican” without actually being Republican. I see it as a party name, he sees it as the identity of a party. I’m gonna get the chance to visit with him and Cookie this weekend so I’m sure we’ll argue that all we want. I’ll probably get pissed, but that’s just because I’m a hothead. I think I’ll register Democrat when I go to Dayton next year.

Also, I already voted for this election by going directly to the county registrar in Norwalk. I voted for Obama because I’d rather him be my boss instead of McCain… Obama just seems to have a clearer view on what he wants happen to our country than McCain does. I wanted McCain to win the republican nomination in 2000, but this year I don’t want him to be president… it’s a different time, and we’re in a different place, and we need a different leader. That’s my personal stance.

I voted no on Prop 8, not because I have gay friends (which I found out a few months ago I do), but because I thought about it and maybe it’s time we tried this out. Lord knows that the average straight person around here doesn’t think marriage is sacred, what with all the people who marry for reasons other than love (fucked and got pregnant, need citizenship, girl just wants a doctor for a husband, Britney Spears and her 48-hour vegas marriage, crazy high divorce rates, etc.) so the “sanctity of marriage” is already lost… it has been for quite some time. There are gay couples that wish they could get married, that love each other very much… the law should protect them just as much as it protects the people who marry only to take advantage of the perceived benefits.

So yeah, no on Prop 8 because I think in this secular day and age it’s really an irrelevant issue, and the sooner we get it over with the sooner we can focus on the things we actually need. Ridiculous pay increases and better incentives for teachers and nurses, anyone? I’ll pay obscene amounts of money for a great teacher for my (future) kids. I want nurses to be happy so if I wind up at the hospital I’ll get some good healthcare. Knowledge and health are the cornerstone of a thriving society. Without that the infrastructure built on top will topple over. The workforce becomes dumber and dies sooner. Clean methods of power? You betcha, I heart solar energy and high-efficiency wind power generators. And I personally harbor the crazy notion that space travel will be the next gold rush–after we figure out the power situation. I mean, we’re making money on wall street now by other people making money? Oh really? Really? I want a buck in my hand to equate to a dollar worth of something else I can hold in my hand. I’m just saying we can get resources from space if we just went out and looked. Let’s resolve every other earth-bound problem, then we can look to the stars for the way distant future fate of our race. But that’s back-burner head-in-the-clouds thinking for now. Let’s secure democracy for all. Quality healthcare for all. Awesome education for everyone. That’s what we need to be doing.

Phew! That was long. I have no idea why I blab on so much about random crap, and I barely get out. Hyperactive mind, I guess. Well hasta tomorrow.

Damn right I dropped the N-word.

I rarely ever think about race. When I deal with a white person, I don’t ever think of what the difference between how I perceive myself versus how others perceive me… I just have business to take care of, and I’ll present myself in a professional manner… any snide remarks about my race are ignored… that’s just the way things go sometimes.

I never refer to myself as a Flip. For those that don’t know, that’s a supposed derogatory term for someone of Filipino descent, such as myself. My first and only encounter with this, unfortunately, was with another person who happened to have a half-filipino ethnic background. The day I met this person, he asked me if I was a Flip. I responded “no, I’m Filipino,” with as stern a look I could muster, and I didn’t hear about it since. I’ll nip that shit in the bud–I’ll be damed if I let someone start that racial “only between us” name shit.

Which brings me to the title of the post… Nigger is a state of mind. Certain folks will occasionally call each other that when they’re in a social mode I can only describe as “among friends”. Note that I say “certain folks”, because if I wanted to say “some black folks” I would have said “some black folks”. I choose the phrase “certain folks” because apparently it’s not just some black people using this word… on occasion some non-black people will call each other that when they’re socially among friends. “My nigga” or “Nigga please”… when used among friends, it’s not derogatory. I know it’s among friends and sometimes considered in style, but calling others “nigger” is wrong all the same for various reasons. But that’s not what I’m discussing in this post.

I’m trying to get to the core of a problem that some American minority communities have, which is racial identity. Someone tell me how often Martin Luther King Jr. referred to himself as a nigger. Someone tell me when Rosa Parks said “Nigga, please” in casual conversation. I’m willing to stake my pride as a human being that these words were never uttered by these and other true champions of civil rights. I’ve been watching and thinking, and have come to the conclusion that Nigger is a state of mind. When someone identifies themselves as a nigger, it’s not because they’re black, but rather they accept and possibly adhere to a certain culture that advocates blaming circumstances beyond ones control as the cause of some kind of failure. This is probably a difficult concept to grasp, but I have no idea how I came to this conclusion except by riding the train of rational thought on the matter. I’ve concluded that you don’t necessarily have to be black to be a nigger… that sounds crazy and is a bit unnerving but it’s true. I’ve on occasion heard non-blacks of various backgrounds use this phrase to refer to themselves and their friends. I don’t have the whole concept nailed down yet, but the core of my perception of Nigger is that you don’t have to be black to be one, regardless of what some black niggers may tell you or due to the background on the word itself.

My gut feeling on this is that once a person starts using “nigger” or a similar ethnic slur in casual speech (“Flip”, in my case), in their mind they accept the unfortunate perception that as hard as they try in life, they won’t get as far as other successful folks. I’m purposely vague here as I haven’t nailed down what the perception of “other folks” is… I want to say “white folks” but again the image of a successful person is different to everyone, and when I think of successful person I’m thinking of my parents, or a group of people like Bill Gates, Will Smith… yeah. Alot of different folks. A person who uses racial slurs in everyday speech as a method of identifying with someone of the same ethnic background thinks less of their own race, for whatever reason… that much I’ve been able to discern. I’m not a “Flip”. I’m an American of Filipino descent, trying hard to make a living, gain social status–just generally trying to deserve living in a good country. Although I personally feel like I’m doing things later in life than most other folks, I think overall I’m doing alright.

It’s vague, and I’m still trying to form my conclusions revolving around the word “nigger” and the frame of mind someone has when they use what is supposedly a very severe ethnic slur among friends. I value all input one may have on this subject, and even if you call me crazy, threaten to report me to my squadron commander, whatever… it’s your right to say so, and I’ll approve the comment. I’ve been wrong before, but each time I try to take away the lesson from the situation so that I won’t be wrong in the future. But as of right now I stand by my words in this article until given insight otherwise.