November 9, 2005
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Topic: Sinatra
In an effort to better know my parents and their generation, and to discover what all the hype is about, I went to the library and got some Sinatra cd’s…and let me say, they’re pretty damn good. I think I’d kind of like to have a big band at my wedding, and by then I’ll have learned to sing a few of Old Blue Eyes’ favorite tunes.
While at the library, I ran into the mother of a girl I went to school with. I’d last seen her when I was a kid, and I don’t think I ever spoke to her in my life, but she knew all about me from my mom, and I knew that my mom had run into her. We chatted a bit, her daughter is a bit altruistic like me, and is strugglign to figure out what to do with that altruism w/out having to live out of a dumpster (which I basically did for some time…sleeping in car washes and such). She’s now at law school…feeling the pressure there, the same pressure she probably felt at Dartmouth and competing for grades in h.s. Sigh
So…riots continue in France for a 2nd full week now, for those who haven’t read or saw. Two Arabs were killed outside of Paris while fleeing police, which has lead to thousands of frustrated and impovershed French Arabs all over the country, to burn cars and cause all sorts of trouble for the police there.
I’ve been thinking a bit about how we talk to younger people about the world. How we help create cliches like “I want to help create world peace.” I was tutoring a young 7-yr. old to read on Mon, and I asked her, “What do you want to do when you grow up…” hoping that maybe she’d have some advice for me! Her response was, “What job makes a lot of money!” I paused…not wanting to be falsely idealistic and tell her money isn’t important, because, she’s exactly right to want to be comfortably wealthy as she ages, especially growing up in what I believe was Section 8 subsideized housing. I end up saying, “Why don’t you become President,” and quickly realized how stupid that was. Why set unrealistic expectations for a child, especially knowing what I know now about politics.
Thinking further, I decided a good response would be, “be a writer,” especially since we were teaching kids to read. That would probably encourage them to read more, and writing is certainly a life long skill. As far as professions go, growing up with the desire to be a writer, and lead to many professions, from an author, journalist, politcal speech writer, teacher, editor, legal writer, grant writer. It’s something even a 7-yr. old can dream about and begin to pursue, while dreams of being a politician, firefighter, etc. while attainable, are very limited in scope. How’s that for parental advice!
But back to the issue of “achieving world peace,” I think we promote naiivity in people. OK…so you want world peace, let me ask, “where is there currently conflict?” Peace is not an abstract idea, it’s the end of pain and suffering. But pain and suffering and conflict are almost infinite on this planet…the best we can do is try to calm the pain of major sources of pain and suffering. Promoting diplomacy over war. Raising the standard of living for the poor. Trying to rid the world of unecessary causes of death, such as malaria, AIDS, hunger, lack of clean drinking water, etc.
The riots in France have been said to be caused by a failure of the French gov’t to adequately integrate the Muslim community into the country. To allow a culture of racism to evolve. This is not a problem for a Ms. America to tackle.
I’ve been thinking a bit also about what I view as political and social issues that are somewhat complex and difficult to understand, but are made cloudier because of their apparent irrelevance to avg. people. I’ll never forget my skepticism of all things academic. Free trade, colonialism, cold war, watergae, Valerie Plame. Just words. Boring words. Irrelevant words. 1929…1941…1948…just numbers. Old numbers, meaningless, outdated. BORING!!!
So…in the next few months I hope to accomplish two things. To continue to educate myself further about local, national, and global history, as well as following local, national, and global current events. While doing that, I hope to find ways to show how these issues are in some way interesting and relevant, and how they might be explained to someone as young as 7 years old. Because I believe that 7-yr. old is old enough to read about, understand, and try to grapple w/ what is happening in France today.
In other news…Giants, 6-2!!!
I hope many of you recognize these people…Tony Micelli, Angela Bower, Mona, Jonathan Bower, Samantha Micelli…the cast of Whose The Boss!
I was watching the show on UPN this morning while doing my morning eliptical machine thingy…and I remembered how sweet 80′s television is. Sam wanted to go on a ski trip, but couldn’t afford it. Tony, feeling guilty because the salary of a housekeeper isn’t all that high, decides to sell his autographed 1962 Mets baseball to raise the money…now that takes guts.
One thought that struck me like a ton of feathers (because a ton of anything is going to hurt!), is…man, I’m almost old enough to go out w/ a woman like Angela Bower. Yeah…she has kids and is in her late 30′s, probably early 40′s, but if she were to look for a younger guy, that younger guy could be me (not that I’m interested in a woman in her 30′s). But…it’s just strange that all those tv parents I grew up watching, are now people I could sit down and have an adult conversation with, and all those teens like me who I grew up watching, some dreaming about
are now teens I could be leading on a summer trip, or advising them about school and personal issues. Although the real people have grown up, it’s nice to know that in those shows, we’ll have preseved forever an 80′s teen, and an 80′s parent. Just as Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Glenn Miller will always be able to share w/ me a good early to mid-20th century tune.
It’s like reliving my childhood, and the childhood of my parents. Next up…
Comments (8)
Well poor France I guess, but it shows that Police Brutality is not always going to be endured…
There’s just so much more behind what’s going on in France than fires. It’s racial divide, it’s poverty, but it has very little to do with religion at this point, though I’m sure that if this continues, it will. And unfortunately, a large chunk of what’s happening is because there are a lot of bored teenagers, and setting cars on fire is fun.
Our media is making a big deal about this being an Islamic act, but that really isn’t the case, as most of the teens doing this are of African and North African descent, and not all of those Africans are Muslim, as our media would have you think. In Africa, 40% of the population is Muslim, but another 40% are Christian.
And it isn’t just Islamic and African teens doing this rioting: white “French” French, their lineage being in France for hundreds of years have been doing this too. It isn’t just Muslims. I can’t stress that enough. That’s all our media is showing because our government is doing everything in their power to vilify Islam.
And I realize this isn’t what you’re saying, this is mostly me blowing off steam, because despite the fact that I’ve studied French and French society for the last 10 years, I got brushed aside because I refused to believe that it was Muslim terrorists.
What’s going on in France right now is because of the poverty level. Unemployment is high in France right now, and despite being a very diverse country, it is hard to get a job for many people because of the color of their skin.
And this isn’t anything new in France. In May of 1968, student riots shut down the entire country. Check out Wikipedia’s article on it. Civil unrest, protests (called La Greve) are a daily thing in France. But do you hear about it? No. Because who does it? Whites. Did you hear about when the Metro shut down a few months ago because they were in the middle of a strike? No. Because they were middle class citizens.
I’m sorry to be all preachy… but it bothers me that the media isn’t doing a great job of covering all of this…
Hope you’re having a good day.
Thanks…having a great day so far.
My take on the events was that it was more an act of anger by the poor, who HAPPENED to be Muslim, rather than an act by Muslims who HAPPENED to be poor and angry at police. To clarify…I don’t feel as though the acts, which were outrageous in their own right, were acts of Islamic fundamentalism. However, I don’t think it’s a stretch to see how some of these rioting Muslims might soon turn to radical Islam for support.
I’m not an expert on media bias. You say that the media portrays the events as 100% Muslim. Here’s an article to read by someone who believes the media is too liberal, trying to protect Muslims:
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=20100
The author clearly feels that it is extremely important to note that it was PREDOMINANTLY Muslims who are rioting. However, he links to an upcoming Newsweek article:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9938333/site/newsweek/
which explains that their have been similar riots in the past, to protest poverty.
“The alienation and anger in these neighborhoods is not new. Riots broke out in the 1980s and 1990s, prompting new government programs supposed to bring hope to the projects. But as memories of the violence faded, so did funding. Outreach programs have been cut and neighborhood-based police have been pulled out. “We haven’t paid attention for such a long time, there is a sense of abandonment,” says French Sen. Dominique Voynet, who represents the main conflict zone.”
I was afraid that it sounded like I was accusing you of ethnic profiling, which I wasn’t, I promise…
I guess my problem is that working in a very right wing office, they tend to make everything into one extreme or another, and when they heard the word Muslim, they say Terrorist, and the whole thing goes to hell….
But I agree, (and think I said above, don’t know, would have to reread) that it could easily turn into riot for Islamic support.
… and yeah, I realize that the media is covering this decently, but quite a few aren’t, and they’ve gotten under my skin.
Sorry.
Thank you for your comment. Reading the above comments points out one true fact: the riots are not basically about religion, but it could quickly become so, if it hasn’t already. These two kids died while running away from the police, and things started to get really bad here. But their death was not the main reason to these riots. Things have been bad since a long time now, and everyone knew it would happen one day or another. So they started to put cars on fire, which is not the first time. It happened in one suburb, and all the news showed it everywhere, dramatically following each and every detail there was to know. Then it simply became some kind of competition between suburbs, who would burn the more cars, where there would be the more damage.
Kids in these places (poor suburbs of Paris where most arab people live) are just not given the same chance to express themselves as other French people. They do have the French nationality but they are still considered as immigrants, and even if that is right, they are in some way not treated equally. I am not sure as to where all of this is going to lead, all I know is that it has finally started, and as I said, everyone sort of knew it would happen soon.
look into 826NYC – it’s the tutoring center run by Dave Eggers in Park Slope. It’s amazing and I think it’s right up your alley. There’s a website, a store (the Superhero Supply Company) and amazing literacy tutoring center. Plus they have full stock of The Believer and McSweeneys.
Enjoy!
dending on the bar 4-6 dollars with tip
Sometimes the will is best left out of major life decisions. Patience, and the decision will come.
My daughter recently began with a reading tutor, on a very limited basis. I find myself getting a little antsy with her reading ability, but she’s still young (9) and it will come. My worst fear is that she might learn to hate reading, so I’m trying to force myself to be patient (seems like a theme with me today
and let it happen in its own time. Right now, she still loves drawing more than reading. Maybe pictures will always mean more to her than words.