AmeriCorps/Nonprofit Blog
I have been a very bad blogger this week. Tsk, tsk.
Good news! Unbelievable, actually. We're getting a T1 line! I don't know exactly what that is, but I know it means we will have top-notch internet access, and I will be able to play with our webpage. It will be delightful. :-)
Other rather astounding news: St. John's High School is going to participate in our Cans for Habitat program! And how did they discover this? Because of the little article I wrote in the last newsletter! Amazing. I can barely believe it. I know this might not sound like a big deal, but I worked quite hard on trying to get this initiative underway, and something good actually resulted.
Wow. It's so nice to feel like I've actually done something. I wish it would happen more often!
On a more personal note... well, actually, there's a Habitat/AmeriCorps side to this as well. My good friend Kelly (the "Worcester Kelly" to distinguish her from my "other" Kellys), introduced me to Cafe Press.com. You can open up your own "shop," and design and sell merchandise, for free! If people buy it, great! Cafe Press will send you a check. If not, oh well. I put in an inquiry for GWHFH, but I've also opened up my own shop. As of yet, I don't have anything for sale, but I'm working on a T-shirt which will read: "Liberal and proud of it!" You can visit my currently empty store at www.cafepress.com/jjhsyrinx. (update: shirt now available!)
I spent yesterday on site, installing siding with Hank and Paul. Good times. We did pretty well, I think. Personally, I enjoy working on site more when Leo isn't around.
I like being in charge. :-)
Tonight I will take off my AmeriCorps hat put on my campaign volunteer cap. I volunteered to do something at the Jim McGovern office... I just don't know what, exactly. Stuffing envelopes or database entry or something. Whatever. I'm sure it will be fun.
But last night I was all about being an AmeriCorps VISTA. One of GWHFH's volunteers has a daughter (and the daughter has a friend) who are interested in joining AmeriCorps. So we talked about all sorts of AmeriCorps stuff, and I got a wonderful free dinner.
I was so convincing that I tried to figure out a way to do a third year! :-)
All morning I listened to the BBC report on the seige at the Russian school. I was in such shock, and in such horror, that I couldn't do anything but listen and view the photos. Those children! Those parents! Unimaginable fear, suffering.
And for what? So the Chechen rebels could declare once again that they want an independent nation? I don't blame them for wanting that. To me it seems reasonable. We fought for it against the British. But we didn't ruthlessly kill children to get it. We dumped tea into a harbor. It's almost humours that such an action could mean anything. With every heartless, cruel act of the Chechens, however, they turn themselves into monsters deserving to be "caged" by Russia. And Russia, in turn, can justify their treatment of Chechnya.
It's all such a mess. How did this happen? When did people decide that these actions were justified? If someone wants to blow him/herself up in protest, fine. I would view that as a waste of a life, but if it hurts no one but him/herself (excluding the emotional turmoil of that person's family) go ahead. Blow yourself up and be heard. However, the world's collective social conscious still recalls the image of that man standing in front of the tanks in China (?) That's a couragous act of defiance. One lone man against a stream of tanks. But there's nothing couragous about holing up in a school with over 1,000 children, parents, and teachers and threatening to kill them all.
The world needs a new Ghandi. Of course, the Western world is really floundering in a lack of understanding of the Muslim/ Islamic world. Their culture, their religion, seems to view life, death, courage, and honor so differently. With my Christian upbringing, I can understand martyrdom, but not when that martyr takes innocent bystanders with them. That's murder, not martyr.
Bush and Putin... they sound so upstanding when they declare that they will not negoiate with terrorists. It sounds so righteous to be so uncompromising. But the defiant tones ring empty amidst the bodies of dead children.
The world is fracturing, splintering like glass hit by a bullet. We're retreating into our shells, hiding our heads and dropping bombs. Is the world getting smaller, or just lonlier? We wander alone, peering through smoke and ruin, unable to distinguish between friend and foe. Lashing out, trying to heal our pain by inflicting it upon others.
Bush, and those who follow him gladly, they seem to childish to me. Like kids on a playground beating up the other children to establish authority, to pre-emptively put them in their place. But that only ensures that those bullied will retaliate, if not immediately, than some day--perhaps years afterwards. The bitterness smoldering, revenge brewing, and the grown-ups not paying attention, not taking it seriously. But then those angry victims show up at school with guns--and people die. Bush and Putin say "See, we told you they were bad. Look what they've done." Small voices protest: "But you hurt them first," not justifying the carnage but leveling the field, being level-headed. And they are accused of being traitors, of being unpatriotic.
Are we living in a George Orwell book? Or to find a more current simile: Minority Report. Yes, I'm referring to a Tom Cruise movie. But think about it: they were pre-emptively arresting and incarcerating people before those people had actually committed wrong-doing.
I worry for a society that so strongly backs a leader who prefers harsh action over words--any words. Bush's lack of control over language speaks of more than just a dissmisal of words, of discussion. Can a person with a minimal command of language efficiently reason? What are we without language but animals? Animals who lash out, who can only communicate through red tooth and claw.
Are we reverting to the Lord of the Flies? Fearing a monsterous creature, making sacrifices, banishing all who disagree....
Today I feel the world is dark indeed....
