Standing Idly By

Tuesday Morning

4am: Alarm Rings
4:10: Arise from slumber and throw on clothes
4:25: Pack what remains including some snacks
4:30: Final check for important things
4:35: Leave apartment
4:55: Arrive at train station (Back Bay). Stop at ATM.
5am:
Notice some slow moving folks collecting news papers and other items, presumably to make more comfortable sleeping arrangements
5:01:
Notice cops standing about
Try to enter train station
Fail
Ask the Transit Police where the open door is
Police feign ignorance (not generally hard to believe)
More emphatically explain that I have a 5:20 train to catch and that it mustbe open
They tell me that "these people will see you go in and they'll want to go in."
Uh, ok, so maybe they're not wearing pin stripes (thinks she), but what gives? (A thought, not a statement)
"We don't want them here."
Oh right, that. All the homeless people giving you trouble at 5am (A look, not a statement)
"Just wait a minute, ma'am, the train station will open. We just need to clear these people out."
In a sleepy haze (2 hours of sleep at this point), I step casually out of sight behind a pillar.

And then I realize what I'm doing: Standing idly by.

5:05: Cops hold the door open for me.
5:20: Board train
7am: Wake up. Ask self: where was your protest? Draft letter to Fox News about their irresponsible report on Monday night regarding fuel conservation. Feel better about being idle.

I'll post the letter after I'm clear on whether they're going to use it. They won't broadcast these things if they're already published, and blogs count.

Acela and the Associated Press

I was on this train yesterday. The same route. The same time. Just one day earlier.

In case you don't like following links: it crashed. It ran into a car which it dragged for several hundred yards before finally crushing the car beneath the wheels. The grandmother and 8-year-old grandson died, and the 4-year-old granddaughter was critically injured. None of the 116 passengers or 4 crew were hurt.

This article, aside from the obviously alarming things (two people died; I was on it so recently; they don't know how it happened; a 4-year-old may be without a guardian), is alarming for another reason. In every iteration I've seen (all related to the Associated Press), this line appears "None of the 116 passengers or 4 crew was hurt." None is an indefinite pronoun with both singular and plural personalities. You can remember these with the acronym SAMAN: Some, Any, Most, All, None. When these appear before a preposition, the verb following it is either plural or singular depending on the object of the preposition. The preposition in this case is "of"; the object of "of" is "the 116 passengers or 4 crew". Last time I counted 116 + 4 added up to plural and "was" referred to singular things.

Perhaps they were confused with the pronoun "each" which is always singular. As in: to each her own. Or each of these pronouns has its own personality.

Reasons I'm a Democrat : #462

Tom DeLay

(I'm not as old as Matt. So haven't gathered as many reasons.)

Mom Rocks

My mom is the greatest. She is headed to Houston in her car right now. The original plan was to volunteer for three months to help Katrina evacuees find families to live with in Houston. Luckily, Houston wasn't hit as badly as predicted and this is still a possibility. I am so glad that someone from my family is doing the right thing and has the means to be income-free for 3 months. I think I should buy her an iPod. Isn't that a weird thought? Well, maybe not. She's going to be spending a lot of time in her car, needs to be mobile, and CDs weigh a TON! Plus, she's a Mac fiend, so it fits. I'll work on it. Craigslist, here I come.

This does make me feel like I'm doing very little, but I'm also sacrificing my mommy to the land of displaced, unhappy people. I just hope that she finds, well, hope amid all the suffering.

Talk Amongst Yourselves

This weekend was full of voices from my past. It's amazing to me that several of them live within a couple of miles of my house and I never see them. Reliving college memories isn't always the best idea, however, since we all make interesting mistakes in college. Let's just say I didn't feel good for most of today. I suppose it's nice to have time to stop thinking about the day-to-day whether that's work life or my non-stop NPR listening, but I feel a little brain dead.

In other news, this week is going to be crazy with deadlines, missing colleagues, choir rehearsal, watching my Statistics class online because I'll be in New York on Tuesday for another class (Presenting Data and Information with Edward Tufte), all-day choir retreat on Saturday, homework, singing in church choir, and Laura coming Monday. I'm looking forward to being busy, but it might be a little intense and might not result in a lot of blog posts. So talk amongst yourselves.

Non Sequitur

I saw a new part of the world this weekend--Craigville, MA.

You: So why were you there cg?
Me: I was at a church retreat.
You: But, wait, didn't I see you wearing a robe at a party last weekend?
Me: Maybe...

So anyway, I realize it seems like something no one would ever have guessed that I would do of my own accord--much less pay for. But I did. And it was great. They are a very aware group of people, very activistic, very into social justice. They are not bible beaters. They know how to translate their faith to daily, practical life without trying to convert people to their own belief system in the process (except maybe a vision of peace and justice). They are very respectful of difference. They are intellectual, talented, peacful, spiritual, accepting. It's refreshing. And they let me sing. It's great. How else would I ever get to perform Purcell?

Plus, I got to play in the rain, sing with an amazing song/worship/thought/conversation leader from the Iona Community (John Bell), get to know a variety of people from nearly every living generation, and be in a peaceful place with a beach and wildlife and marshes. Pretty hard to beat.

Mi Nombre

Why is it that other people who spell their name like mine simply can't spell? This blogsearch by Google is bringing it to my attention that there are a lot of posers out there (who can't spell anything, not to mention their own name). Look, people, it's mine. I can't help it if your parents aren't as great as mine. And you know what? Mine is actually a mod on a family name, so go back to spelling your name the boring way because I'm the real Slim Shady here, folks.

(I realize that I'm acting somewhat out of character by using the terms "poser" and "Slim Shady", but sometimes you have to break out of convention to make a point.)

Freedom of Fast Information

You might not be able to get an answer out of John Roberts, but damn it if Google isn't trying to fix that. Today Google launched a new Blog search. If you type in my first name, and just my first name, you will see that my blog comes up first. Pretty amazing. So now when I tell people to Google me, it's even easier than I thought.

So what does this all mean? Well for starters, if I want any privacy or anonymity, I need to take down this blog. But since I'm not really into that, I guess it's here to stay. However, it does make me think I should maybe censor myself a little bit because you never know who's watching. Granted, I have the hit counter, but I know for a fact that it thinks I'm visiting from Somerville. I live 2 towns away from Somerville. When Leslie visits the site from Nicaragua, it says she's in Guatemala. There's only this thing called Honduras between the two countries, but still.

Progress is cool. I'm a progressive (whatever that really means--it sounds a lot better than liberal). In any event, it makes this The Onion article look more and more like the truth.

Signer Thugs

The other day, I saw a mixed gender group of about 15 teenagers dressed all in red hanging out in the Downtown Crossing subway station. After about half a minute of watching these apparent gang members, I realized they weren't making a lot of noise like many large groups of kids their age. It was then that I noticed the thing that defines this group and it occured to me that I had seen them before: they were all speaking in sign language.

I'm Good Enough!

I'm smart enough! And gosh darn it, I have some connections that get me into places if I'm not. Today I found out that I am one of the newest members of the Back Bay Chorale. I found out about Saturday's audition on Thursday. Fretted about a song to sing for my requisite prepared piece on Friday. Found sheet music at the public library and bought an iTune recording of one of my favorite Purcell pieces on Saturday, and after listening to it on a loop for about an hour, trotted over to my audition where I was astonished to find out that they were really impressed with the uncommon arrangement I had chosen. Luckily the arrangement matched the recording I bought. I'm sure this made me seem really well-versed in music. Well, no. I just found the only copy the library had and used it.

I'm not sure if it was my own merit or my connection to Laura that got me in, but either way, I'm ok with it. If you're in the Boston area (or if you're not but you might come out just for fun), check out the concert schedule. Or you can become a BBC Insider to keep yourself informed of new developments and to receive pre-concert information and artistic notes. You can also win free tickets if you're an insider.

Cancún: I really did go

Click on the title to see the rest. No, I don't have a new camera. I bribed the boys at the photo shop with a tank of gas to make me a CD from my film images. Shot on Tri-X (400ISO)... not the best choice for the brightest sun ever, but that's what was in the camera and I didn't want to waste it.

What Do These Three Have in Common?

Michael Brown
John Bolton
Rafael Palmeiro

Think about it...

Education II

I ran into education man on the T again today. He had a box with him. I offered him my seat by vacating it. He declined. But someone else took it. So that was good.

What Now?

I was listening to Tom Ashbrook's show "On Point" on WBUR tonight; the story was about accountability regarding Katrina. Not surprisingly, they discussed Bush's flip flopping on the response being "unacceptable" and then the response ok, but the results unacceptable, and so on and so forth. They also talked about disaster response structure etc. His main guest was Robert Block, a WSJ journalist. Good story. But what do we do now? Wait for the investigation by Congress?

Like my buddy Laura, I want to write about something else. I want to hear something else on the radio. I want to read something else in the blogosphere. I want to see another picture on the cover of the Metro. At the same time, it's hard to want to take this off the front page. I don't want Bush/Rove et al to succeed in supressing this and filing it away into the notoriously poor collective U.S. memory. So what do we do?

Well, the poor evacuees don't want to come to Massachusetts. I think they probably saw the words "Nor'easter" and "Cape Cod" combined and decided it wasn't for them. They've already had enough of that, and they might as well have it where it's warm. Or maybe we're too bureaucratic. Or maybe they couldn't understand the accent. Or maybe we just don't have enough soul. Right. So what now? How do we keep the importance level high while not dwelling solely on this story?

I also hope that as much as we want to wipe out the stain George Bush has left on our country, we don't try to use this situation to do that. He may be culpable, but it's not likely that he will be held responsible enough to be impeached. We need to focus on root causes, rather than political issues. It makes for a much stronger argument than just saying I hate GWB over and over again.

We need to figure out how to deal with disasters better, like they do in Japan. Amazing that Typhoon 14, which was reportedly the same size as Katrina with slightly slower winds (something like 170mph), only leaves 18 dead and 9 missing. This is opposed to our "thousands" dead and countless missing. Should FEMA rejoin the cabinet-level organizations? How's Homeland Security? Maybe we could replace Mr. Brown with a nice Japanese ... woman.

How's Chertoff's "City of Louisiana" [sic]?

What do we do now? (I think it's pretty obvious by now that I do not know...yet)

Education

Last week, a man on the T was spouting off his opinion on "higher education." I initially agreed with his first comment: "Wouldn't Boston be nicer without the students?" Well, now that the students have returned to quite selfishly crowd the doors of the subway, yell outside my window all night, and cause certain sidewalks and subways stops to smell like vomit, I can agree that Boston is nicer without the students.

Then he decided to accuse the entire establishment of being a sham. "Do you know what professors are? They're people who have failed at life," he said. First of all, not all professors are life-long academics. Most if not all of them have done work outside of academia in many different countries and return to relay some of the knowledge they've gathered to share with the rest of us. Gracious of them really, as I'm sure some take pay cuts and make other concessions to do it. Mind you, he appeared to be addressing me (I have a hard time pretending not to hear), but there were several other people standing near me who appeared to be offended and perplexed by his comments.

As much as I might disagree with him, being a grad of this sham of an establishment, it does bring up the touchy issue of what a degree is worth. Is it just yet another sign of class used to separate the haves from the have-nots? Is it a four-year vacation for kids with no drive to do anything for themselves? How did an Anthropology degree prepare me for a job managing databases? How did I manage to spend four years in college and never take math? How do I have a job that is so potentially math-oriented without ever having taken math? Oh math.

Oh yeah, the guy on the train: he also brought up the propoganda issue. Yes, it is probably partially propoganda, but so is advertising by McDonald's. College provides a brand of propganda that encourages you to think for yourself--to reason. I have a hard time believing that the system is so tight and focused that it is driving us all in one direction. So I won't. Corporations like McD and Wal-Mart might be a little closer (or the Massachusetts Lottery which just told me, "Even if you don't win, you win. We all win.") to that level of organization. I think it's much better to be indoctrinated by a fight song and a feminist history teacher than an obesity-causing, human rights abusing, corporate America.

Classic Chrystina Optimism

So where's the good? It's been hard to find in the news, though there are stories of people finding people and re-uniting them with their families. The good I see is this: The disaster has (hopefully) awakened people to the frailty of our nation. It has also brought to the table a crisis that may have taken a lot longer to erupt if this hadn't happened: the energy crisis. The constant, but somewhat stable with inflation, rise in gas prices was not doing anything (or doing very little) to encourage people to use more efficient forms of transportation and/or energy. Did you notice that prices for other forms of energy are also increasing (the cost of wood, for example, has already gone up 15-25%). Maybe this sudden shock will alert people that we need to curb our dependence on oil and make use of more creative, sustainable energy sources. Crisis is the mother of a charismatic movement, necessity the mother of invention. Maybe the environmentalists will get some credit from this and not just for being bleeding heart liberals.

You know, I've kind of steered clear of the news on this blog and I feel a little cliche for only bringing it up now, but I simply can't think about anything else. Was this actually optimistic? I guess so. Maybe more like Eeyore optimism.

Surprise, surprise. Mr. Rove is covering up and redirecting blame for the missteps in dealing with Katrina.

SOLD! Red Sox Yankees Tickets Free

I saw the post below on craigslist. Good to see that people are able to help in creative ways. I did edit the post to convert it into coherent English for your reading pleasure. If you'd like to see the original, please click here, while it lasts, anyway. For those of you who don't live 0.43 miles from Fenway, Red Sox/Yankees tickets are like Willy Wonka's golden tickets.

If you want to contribute to the relief fund with your pocketbook, consider finding a matching donation program to double or triple your contribution. Your employer may also match donations.

Craigslist post (reply):
In the 15 minutes this has been posted, I have already received over 150 e-mails. As you see below I was going to give them away, but the generosity offered that I have seen in my e-mail is amazing. I just wanted everyone to know it is nice to see that there are still good people in this country. I will be e-mailing the person that offered the most money. The people of New Orleans need this more than I do for the $60 I paid for the tickets. Thank you all!

Original Post:
I have free Yankees / Red Sox tickets at Fenway. I will be in New Orleans working on the Katrina relief. If you wish to offer me money for the tickets, I will donate the money to the Red Cross.

The tickets are in the bleachers and are for the game 9/30. E-mail me if interested.

Villain

Before anyone starts thinking that I'm saying that this lawlessness in Louisiana is the fault of the poor black people who were stranded in New Orleans, let me clear something up. This morning's post was written in dismay and disgust and outrage and haste.

To quote a good friend ". . . i've got a big what the fuck for our government."

Also, let's not forget that yesterday, to exascerbate the problem (i.e. global warming which is pegged by science as the culprit), the administration is loosening "environmental regulations for gasoline and deisel for all 50 states through Sept. 15 because of a disruption in supplies caused by Hurricane Katrina. The waivers will allow gasoline with higher evaporation rates and diesel fuel with a higher sulfur content to be sold." (Boston Globe).

When I first realized that people had stayed in New Orleans after what I thought was declared a mandatory evacuation, I was perplexed. Then I heard men and women speaking from flooded houses saying things like "Well, I didn't really have anywhere to go." It wasn't just hard-headed irrationalism; it was the lack of means to get themselves to safety. Why was our government not there to assist these people then? If there's a mandatory evacuation, shouldn't officials be proactive and get people out? No, it's clearly more fun to go into the alligator-infested, polluted water of a flooded city to get them.

To quote Michael Moore in his open letter to GWB: "Any idea where all our helicopters are? . . . Also, any idea where all our national guard soldiers are? . . . I especially like how, the day after the hurricane, instead of flying to Louisiana, you flew to San Diego to party with your business peeps. "

All I'm trying to say is that my perspective isn't so naive. I was just absolutely taken aback this morning and after wiping back tears, I had to do something. So I wrote on my blog. Thanks for the responses, public and non-public.

Vulnerability

What does it take to convince people to see the consequences of their own actions? Hospitals in New Orleans are operating on limited electricity and NO plumbling. It's a filthy mess where corpses, unable to be refridgerated, are being kept in a stairwell and patients are being transported by personal watercraft. Why? Because the snipers on the roof scared away the national guard which was originally transporting the sick people in hospital gowns. WHAT THE FUCK!? The SNIPERS? Did anyone else lose it when they heard that? NPR reported that a 10-year-old girl was raped last night. Do these people just not have a conscience?

There's no communication system. There's not a body count because they haven't been able to get to all affected areas yet. Let's repeat this again: There's no running water in the hospital. Now that's sanitary. The national guard has been directed to shoot to kill to control the looters. Who can take advantage of such a vulnerable situation?

Please give these people patience.