Idealism or Pragmatism?

I’ve been watching the news about the bills and amendments going through and the fights going on about what defines a marriage, or even a civil union. I’ve been watching the tug of war over abortion, over even organizations that provide abortion as one of their services. I’ve been watching the attempts at redefinition of rape, of personhood, of every possible incarnation to insert a few specific pseudo-religious value systems into a previously democratic government, across and in disregard of a multitude of diverse value systems. All of this despite the injunction to keep church and state separate.

Finally, I have to say that I am disgusted enough to truly consider expatriation. We considered it during the last days of the junior Bush’s administration. But it seemed for a while that things might get better. I’m not sure at this point that they will soon enough. I’ve never been much of an optimist, but I guess I did view this country with some degree of expectation and idealism. No country is ideal, because people are people. But here’s what it comes down to: What if Rosa turns out to be gay? What if she ends up carrying a child that endangers her health, or whatever the circumstance is that she feels that she can’t have a child? I’m pretty sure at this point, that she’s not gay, but who knows what will emerge when she’s old enough to realize that sex isn’t people kissing for a really long time. I despise the thought that in either event she will grow up in a state/country that doesn’t value her enough to recognize a significant part of her adult life, a committed relationship. Even worse, that it doesn’t value her enough to make medical choices that might save her life, whether psychologically or physically. I hate the thought of moving. I swore I was never going to move again. But I find myself considering the same question as my immigrant ancestors before they decided to come to America: Is there somewhere I can go to give my child a better life than the future I see on the horizon here?

What Defines ‘American’ Values?

I was surprised and disappointed at Lowe’s for pulling their ad from All-American Muslim at the request of an anti-Muslim group. I don’t really consider myself an activist. But, I see things like this and it really worries me about how we as a nation are choosing to define ourselves, or at least choosing to define our various citizens, and who is included in being American. I know that to some degree it was always this way, with some groups being feared or shunned. But I guess that at this point, I’m wondering if we have taken a few steps backwards.

http://tv.yahoo.com/news/backlash-lowes-ads-pulled-muslim-show-091701562.html

So, I’ve written a letter to Lowe’s and sent it, posted here.

To Whom It May Concern,

I shopped at Lowes to do home repairs or projects sometimes. You pulled an ad from All-American Muslim, a show which you agreed to support with your ad, because another group wrote that they were against Islam. In bowing to this frank stance of bigotry and removing your ad, I am so offended by your decision that I will no longer be shopping at your store. I am not Muslim. I am Jewish.

My people have historically been at war with various Muslim nations, but I recognize that this has nothing to do with religion, and everything to do with politics. I also recognize that we all live together in America, which gives me the right to be Jewish, my husband the right to be Native American, and these families the right to be Muslim. There are anti-Semitic groups living here in the U.S. too. Would you pull an ad from a show about Jewish people because a neo-Nazi group wrote to you to say that we are evil? Would you post a sign saying that Black people need not shop at your store because someone from the KKK wrote to you demanding segregation? My husband’s nation, along with many other tribes, were once at war with settlers. Should he be discriminated against because his Native American values could clash with some racist ideas that we should all drop who we are and be the same, or else we must be a threat?

It is decisions like yours that give racist groups the ground they need to chip away at the rights and the freedoms of others. Far from representing ‘American values’, it is the most un-American position possible, and you just contributed to it. I choose to shop at companies that are moral and make an effort to represent true democracy and offer to the needs of all of our fellow citizens, Muslims included. So, unless I see a dramatic change in Lowe’s policy, as mentioned earlier, I will no longer be a customer. A copy of this letter will also be posted online. Thank you.

Sincerely,

Rachel Coles

Comment and let me know what you think about this issue?

Milgram’s Experiment and the War on Terror

Many politicians and citizens have raised an uproar decrying the comparison between our use of tactics, such as profiling against a group of people, and against detainees who have not been proved to be guilty of terrorism, and those used by the state of Germany prior to the rise of the Nationalist Party. Invariably, the catchphrase ‘patriotism’ and ‘national security’ get thrown into the argument, and what I believe is the real shape of the situation becomes distorted. Indeed the very mention of the Nationalist Party, because of its overuse as an icon of ultimate evil, sends people flying off the handle in indignation, without any analysis of what the central issues really were that allowed a situation in which otherwise normal sane people did evil things. Or failed to prevent them. And this blanket gag order certainly makes an analysis of our current situation almost impossible. Taboo subjects cannot be explored.

Well, I’m exploring them anyway. I’ve known quite a few German people in my life. I’ve visited Germany. My husband has visited Germany. Everyone I met was very hospitable, nice and about as more or less normal as anyone I encounter here. Though everything was insanely punctual.

This is not to say that the people who did do terrible things or the people who knew about it and did nothing are absolved of their crimes. No. Their actions were inexcusable. But after looking at the Milgram experiment, and frankly, reviewing incidents that cannot be swept under the rug such as the torture at Abu Ghraib, it is somewhat more difficult to look at the individuals involved in the original ‘Axis of Evil’ and say we are different. It makes me wonder how many of us have the potential to become the same kind of monster in similar conditions. This experiment scared the crap out of me.

I think that this topic of comparison has become taboo because we are afraid. We don’t want to see our own potential for such evil acts, so we place a firm barrier there and say, ‘this could never happen here’. But in the 1960s, Stanley Milgram proved definitively for the next twenty years with repeated experiments that it could absolutely happen anywhere in the world with any group of people.

The Milgram experiment consisted of a triad of players: the teacher-subject, the learner-actor, and the authority figure-researcher. The subject was told to have the learner repeat pairs of words. Every time the learner got one wrong, the ‘teacher’ subject was to administer an electric shock. The shocks got progressively stronger until there was a final voltage that would render the learner unconscious. They would begin screaming and pounding on the wall and then finally stop responding if the teacher did administer the final shocks. If the teacher hesitated or asked to stop, they were given verbal prompts to continue four times by the researcher who told them that they must go on, that it was very important. If the teacher protested more than four times, or if they refused to go on, they were released. The learner was an actor. There were no electric shocks in reality. But as far as the subject-teacher knew, they were real.

And consistently in all variations of this experiment in different populations, do you know how many of the subjects continued to the final shocks? Between 61 and 66%. Over half. Over half of people inflicted progressive, painful, and dangerous shocks to someone, rendering them ‘unconscious’ or ‘dead’, since in a few of the scenarios the actor stated they had a ‘heart condition’, simply because they were ordered to do so. These were not enemy soldiers or Nazis. They were not skinheads, they were not white power advocates, or sociopaths. They were school teachers, doctors, lawyers, grocery store clerks, truck drivers, friends, next-door neighbors. They were you and me. That’s a terrifying realization. One that has somehow been lost in the current jingoistic move toward our own brand of nationalism. And I use the term nationalism not as an epithet or a curse word, but as the definition of what we are doing, rallying behind an image of what our leaders decide the US stands for. That’s what nationalism means.

Nationalism has its uses. It can make people proud of who they are. It can make us build a nation with amazing things like roads, sewage systems, as the Romans did, purely on the steam of national pride. The dangerous part of nationalism, however, is that it can be used by the greedy, by the power hungry with some other political agenda, to sharpen the borders between what is and is not American, creating an Other where there was none before. Does it look familiar? It should and if it doesn’t, it is because we are mired in denial.

We are so horrified by the revelations of Milgrams experiment and what it says about the human race, that we forget to be analytical. Some of us declare disgust with humanity, without the most critical question. Why was Milgrams experiment recreated so consistently, and why does it happen in history so often with the same results? Why do we fail to learn from this particular mistake? Because we are primates. Every primate species in the world reacts to an authority structure in a similar way. We do not question authority, whether by force of arms, or by persuasion and influence, except in direct challenge, and this is the exception rather than the rule. The majority of times we are faced with a dilemma to do something wrong which is sanctioned or encouraged by authority, we will do it even when we have an idea that authority is wrong. Because on some level, we are fighting hundreds of thousands of years of programming as a primate species. Does that make humanity evil? No. We are what we are. Does it excuse appalling acts of torture and cruelty? No. But it does explain it. And as we look for answers as to whether we can overcome this programming, they are there.

There was a baboon troop that was documented some years back to have a structure different from every other baboon troop studied. Most of their alpha males had been killed off by some kind of disease, or poaching. In any case, only the gentler males were left. These males became the authority structure, though they chose not to exercise authority except when absolutely necessary. They stood up and fought only if another more aggressive male tried to come in and take over the troop, then the whole troop banded together to ‘discourage’ the intruder from being aggressive. The result was that the aggressive males often stayed in the troop and changed their behavior to become less aggressive and more laid back, because they apparently seemed happier there. In fact, the longevity of these baboon compared to others was marked. They were living longer too.

The amazing thing about humanity is our ability to evolve, to learn from our mistakes, to become different, like these baboons. Milgram’s experiment will rear its ugly head in history again. And maybe we’ll fail another hundred times when faced with the choice between our own internal compass, and an errant authority. But someday we won’t. And that will happen more and more. Why do I believe this? Because many of the past subjects of Milgram’s experiment wrote him later on, despite the emotional distress they felt after a review of the experiment, to tell him that they were glad they had been shown about themselves what the experiment revealed. Many wrote to tell him that they were becoming conscientious objectors when it came to the Vietnam War, because of what they had learned. Whether you agree or disagree about the wisdom of the Vietnam War, the point is that they decided for themselves rather than relied on an authority to make that moral decision for them.

I also know that this slow advance toward individual thought is still happening. If we take the world as it is now, and the world as it was during the Roman Empire, though we make jokes about being the new Roman Empire just short of orgies and vomitoriums, there are profound differences. We collectively agree that slavery is wrong. The proportion of nations who agree that all people should have basic civil rights is the majority. However well or poorly this is executed, the fact that this is even attempted on such a global scale is light years from where we were during the Dark Ages, the Crusades, and the Inquisition.

But progress grinds to a halt if we aren’t allowed to discuss certain issues for fear of offending, if we can’t even have a conversation about history without being branded unpatriotic or accused of disparaging veterans. Veterans are respected with good reason. They are people who act on an urge to be part of something bigger than themselves. This is never a bad thing. It is however a good trait that has been used by unscrupulous people in authority, who then veil their own agendas by forbidding conversation about the history that follows. But the fact remains, and most veterans I have spoken with agree, that the first step to learning from our mistakes, is to admit, collectively with collective responsibility that we’ve made them. Many veterans I’ve encountered, being also honest self-evaluating people, like Milgram’s conscientious objectors, welcome the chance to air their own thoughts instead of keeping them locked behind a wall of silence.

From Skinhead To Hero

There are stories that come along every once in a while that leave you speechless. We look at people and make sometimes educated, sometimes not so educated guesses about what is on their inside based on what is outside. In some instances, as with clothing, tattoos, things we do to our appearance, this process is intended. But every once in a while, what we see gives no hint at all of what is really underneath. And every once in a while we get a glimpse of how fluid we really are as humans, or can be, how we can begin as one thing and become something else. This man’s story is such a story.

This man, Bryon Widner, began as one of the worst racist skinheads. He was described by anti-skinhead movements as one of the most aggressive and confrontational. Then something changed. I don’t know if we will ever know what. I’m guessing that having kids may have had something to do with it. But he not only left the white power group he was in, but decided to speak out against them. He underwent multiple surgeries to remove his facial tattoos, after seeking help from one of his former enemies to get the surgeries. He received death threats against himself and his family. And still continued and spoke up.

I could expound on what kind of courage it takes to leave such a group, or speaking out against their terrorism, or even finally going to a group of people who were enemies and admitting you were wrong. But none of what I am relating conveys the extreme nature of his story or the magnitude of what he did in renouncing his status as completely as he did. None of this conveys the magnitude of what his wife did to support him, or what his family went through. So here is a more extensive article that still does not convey it, but it comes closer.

http://news.yahoo.com/reformed-skinhead-endures-agony-remove-tattoos-162205881.html

I am a cynic and a pessimist. I don’t watch the news because I get too angry. I’m not Anne Frank. I can’t say that I believe that there is good in everyone. But when someone like this comes along, I believe, at least for a little while, that maybe I’m wrong about that. Good luck, Mr. Widner and good luck to your family. I hope you find the peace that you seek. As far as I am concerned, you have earned it. You have made a transition from monster to hero in such a way that we find in myth and legend. And I hope that your message and what you have gone through will change the world. It has certainly changed my perspective of it today.

Death of Troy Davis

Last night Troy Davis, in prison for 22 years, for a crime it looks probable that he did not commit, was executed by lethal injection in the state of Georgia.

http://news.yahoo.com/ga-executes-davis-supporters-claim-injustice-031409578.html

He was convicted back in 1989, of murdering a police officer who worked as a security guard. This police officer was without question a hero. He had served as an Army Ranger, and was in the process of defending a homeless man from a beating when he was shot. The problem is that there is significant reasonable doubt as to whether he was shot by Troy Davis. I personally do not believe he was.  There was the presence of another suspect, Redd Coles (wow, an unfortunate surname for me), there was no physical evidence found to indicate Davis, and seven of the nine ‘witnesses’ recanted and said that they were coerced for their testimony. Not only were there mountains of reasonable doubt, but there were allegations of witness tampering. This case should have been thrown out on that basis alone. One would think. But there were loopholes that kept unreliable testimony in, and kept people from interfering and stopping this. Essentially, Davis was killed by the devil in the details, and by people who knew those details enough to manipulate them.

But it’s done. All the elucidation in the world won’t bring him back.

I’m putting out a quote now by the officer’s family that boiled my blood when I read it. It is unfortunately clear to me now that this officer was the best of them.

According to the news, “Officer MacPhail’s widow, Joan MacPhail-Harris, said it was ‘a time for healing for all families. I will grieve for the Davis family because now they’re going to understand our pain and our hurt,’ she said in a telephone interview from Jackson. ‘My prayers go out to them. I have been praying for them all these years. And I pray there will be some peace along the way for them.’”

I’m not trying to be callous, but it was at this point that I parted company with them and lost sympathy for their grief. I’ve never lost a husband, and hope I never do until we’re crotchety and ancient, when we’re supposed to. But I’ve lost other people, everyone has. And losing someone to murder is an unbelievably horrible thing. We’re primates, and one of our first instincts is retaliation. That’s just one of the facets of our species, as it is with chimps, baboons, etc. But what we strive for in becoming ‘civilized’ is if not to tame that urge, to at least make sure that this urge is aimed in the right direction, hence our laws. Those laws are supposed to prevent more victims, because people stop thinking when they’re angry, and are more likely to harm truly innocent bystanders. In this case, this woman has had 22 years to mitigate her anger at whoever was responsible, and think about her stance and her actions and her words. Clearly, she never did. If you want to be satisfied that someone who you truly believe deserves it, ‘gets what’s coming to them’, I’m not qualified to judge, because I’m human and I’ve had that sentiment. But don’t pretend that it’s righteous or anything other than the urge to vengeance. Be honest about it. I respect that.

However, this is not the Klingon home-world, and we do not live by the sins of our fathers or other family members. To say such a thing to Davis’s family, who were one way or the other never involved, is simply monstrous and inexcusable. At this point, I feel she may not have pulled the trigger of a gun, or put the needle in his arm, but to derive any satisfaction or peace from the suffering of a family of people who never committed any crime themselves and then to have the arrogance to ‘pray for them because now they understand’?…According to Davis’ family, they felt he was innocent, so from their perspective, a terrible crime has been committed against him, and them. “A time for healing for all families…”? There won’t be any healing there. And the widow admitted as much when she stated ‘now they’ll understand the pain and hurt.” How is this statement to be taken as anything other than damning the whole family, whether the individual was guilty or innocent?

Am I being too harsh? Maybe. But I have been accused of something I didn’t do once. And I can say that there are very few things that are more soul-destroying than being a victim of false accusation, because it makes you and people who don’t know you, question the very core of your being. One of the things I so value about this country is the presumption that people are supposed to be innocent. And I get very angry to see that subverted. I fully sympathize with MacPhail’s family’s grief and their desire to see justice done. I even understand if they were satisfied at the death of a man they genuinely believe to be guilty. But to revel in the grief of others may have turned them into the same kind of creatures as the one who murdered their family member.

Finally, I am led to the irony that Iran, one of the countries we never fail to criticize for their laws, has just released two prisoners they took based on a false accusation, while we executed one of ours. Our criticism of Iran for its suppression and imprisonment of its own citizens is well-founded. However, given that prisoners in both of these situations are accused of something and may be innocent, I have to ask what makes their execution of prisoners barbaric and our execution righteous?

Someone died yesterday. While the family of the original victim rejoices in his death, the rest of us will inevitably go on with our work and our day. There is no avoiding that because we all have things that need to get done, paychecks to earn, kids to cook dinner for. But I don’t want to just move on as if Davis’ death were a speedbump in history. His death was much more than a speedbump. It was a tragedy to his family and to the people who hoped that the system would work. He left a hole in the world. And I hope that it is one that we don’t just pave over and forget about. I will try not to.

Troy Davis: Victim of Jim Crow Mentality

Troy Davis, an African American man in jail for the past couple decades, convicted of killing a police officer, is now scheduled to be executed today,  http://news.yahoo.com/troy-davis-issues-parting-cry-execution-025053052.html

This execution in Georgia comes despite condemnation from a former president, and a former pope. And, more important, it comes despite what appears to be overwhelming reasonable doubt that he committed the crime at all. He has maintained his innocence for the entire time of his imprisonment. I know that this alone doesn’t mean much, because the prisons are quoted as being full of innocent men, but given the other circumstances, I am beginning to wonder if that is in fact true. Seven of nine ‘witness’ testimonies were recanted and accompanied by allegations that they were coerced into those testimonies by the police. And there was never any physical evidence, circumstantial or otherwise linking this man to the crime. Amnesty International has taken up this cause. While many activism organizations are plagued with internal problems, in my experience, Amnesty does not take cases like this lightly. If they are paying attention, there is usually something worth paying attention to.

I was a juror once on an assault case. And just one of circumstances alone, the lack of evidence  or the recanted testimonies and allegations of coercion, would have been enough for me to pass on a guilty verdict. But this blatant disregard for reasonable doubt makes me cynical of the justice system of state of Georgia, and the impartiality or even sanity of any citizen who would convict this man and condemn him to the death penalty.

Normally, I don’t jump on the bandwagon of believing that racial bias fuels most decisions, but in this case, I would have to agree when the ACLU cries discrimination. I haven’t seen a more public and frank display of racism since the Jim Crow laws themselves.  And the lack of any question in continuing with execution in the face of so much public doubt, and no consideration or even discussion of clemency makes be actively believe in the claims of forced testimony. In fact it leads me right to notions of corruption in Georgia’s ‘thin blue line’, to claim a scapegoat for the murder from the most convenient victim available to them. And there would be no chance that this corruption would be limited to a couple officers. Such a decision at this point in the justice system is not made by a only few low-ranking officers.

I hope that the authorities reconsider their decision to accept ‘expediency before justice’ as they said in Babylon 5, before Wednesday. And if not, then I hope that something can be done for the Davis family, since it is unlikely they will find justice themselves. Social media is a great tool. I’ll be looking on the internet for sites donating condolences to the family in the event of their loss. I imagine, with the popular response, that there will be many such sites.

Here is the address of Amnesty International, in case you read this and believe that he should not be executed. They have a petition to stop the execution. http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/siteapps/advocacy/ActionItem.aspx?c=6oJCLQPAJiJUG&b=6645049&aid=516533&msource=WPSBTL2970

I never prayed much, except at Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. It is ironic that those high holy days begin slightly over one week after his execution date. Rosh Hashanah is the beginning of the Jewish year, and the first of the days of atonement ending in Yom Kippur. It is a time for people in the Jewish culture to start over, and to reflect on our sins of the past year. Though Troy Davis is not Jewish, and probably neither are most of the other people involved in this case, for me, it is no small tragedy that the biggest sin that could possibly be committed will be within days of our new year, for what seems likely to be a false accusation. I think I’ll pray a little more this year and the theme will be truth.

I’m not into praying for other people. I don’t mind when someone religious who genuinely believes in their faith and has good will says ‘I’ll pray for you…’ to me. Even though it’s not my bag, I feel honored and appreciate the gesture. But I get irritated when someone who is sanctimonious and judgmental says that to me, “I’ll pray for you,” as some parting shot to win an argument, as if they have a direct line to God and are gracing me as a godless heathen with their prayers. Blech. So I won’t pray for these people making the execution decisions, because I won’t pretend good will that I don’t feel toward them. Maybe I should atone for that too, if I were a God-filled person who believed that everyone should be forgiven for everything. But I’m not. So instead, I will take a close look at my own beliefs in the past year and identify if I’ve made judgments about people, or worse, decisions about people that were not based on logic, but on emotionally-based assumptions.