Extraordinary Machine

May Day: The Death of Osama bin Laden

Before I begin, let me be clear: I do not believe that Osama bin Laden was a good person. I do believe that he fought for what he believed to be right, but did so in a way which no one can defend. He is responsible, in part, for the tragedy which took place on 9/11, and those events are surely reprehensible, horrific, and utterly inhumane.

However, the events that took place on Twitter, Facebook, and on the Boston Common last night were not at all warranted.

Statuses and tweets about how happy people were that Osama had been killed were everywhere. People in the Common celebrated and shouted things like “Yes We Can” and “Nah, Nah, Nah, Nah, Hey, Hey, Hey, Goodbye!” followed by cheers of glee. And throughout all of this, people began to discuss how proud they were to be Americans.

One status last night read, “I have never been more proud of America.”

Really? There is nothing else that has occurred within your lifetime that has made you more proud to live in this country than the day we killed a man?

Let me name some of the dates that I take pride in. Dates that make me truly proud to live in this country:

May 17, 2004: Same-sex marriage is made legal in Massachusetts, making it the first state and sixth jurisdiction in the world to recognize my right to marry whomever I chose

November 7, 2006: Deval Patrick is elected as Massachusetts’ first African American Governor

January 4, 2007: Nancy Pelosi becomes the first female Speaker of the House

January 20, 2007: Hillary Clinton announces her bid for the White House

February 5, 2008: I cast my first vote, for Hillary Clinton, after turning 18 on January 21, 2008

June 7, 2008: Hillary Clinton withdraws from the Democratic presidential primary and addresses her supporters, stating “Although we weren’t able to shatter that highest, hardest glass ceiling this time, thanks to you, it’s got about 18 million cracks in it!”

November 4, 2008: Barack Obama is elected as the first African American President

April 3, 2009: Same-sex marriage is legalized in Iowa

September 1, 2009: Same-sex marriage is legalized in Vermont. It is the first time that such rights were granted through the legislature, as opposed to through the courts

December 18, 2009: Same-sex marriage is legalized in Washington, DC

January 1, 2010: Same-sex marriage is legalized in New Hampshire

March 23, 2010: Congress passes a universal health care bill, ensuring that everyone has access to medical care

December 22, 2010: President Obama signs the repeal of the DADT policy

April 5, 2011: MA Governor Deval Patrick nominates Barbara Lenk to the Supreme Judicial Court, the first openly gay person to ever be nominated

These are dates that make me proud of my state and of my country. Not the murder of a man.

Celebrating and taking pride in the death of anyone is terrible. It simply perpetuates the hatred and malice that Osama used as a means to an end. Last night should have been a time for reflection - a peaceful vigil commemorating those who we lost on 9/11, the soldiers who gave their lives overseas, and the many innocent civilians who have lost their lives from the violence in the Middle East. We must remember that the War in Iraq has taken the lives of over 100,000 innocent Iraqi civilians. We must remember that we too have blood on our hands. It’s easy not to think about that because we don’t see it. We have compassion for the victims of 9/11 and our soldiers who have been killed in the line of duty as well as their families, and rightly so, but we too often forget the toll that this is taking on those in the midst of all this violence.

We live in an ethnocentric society where it is very difficult for people to have compassion and sympathize with those in the Middle East who are simply trying to live their lives amongst more violence than any of us will see in a lifetime, a great deal of which is our own government’s doing.

What I experienced last night was horrific and truly says something about our nation’s character. Celebrating violence only creates violence. It makes it acceptable. I will never, and never have, condoned violence or war and will never ever celebrate the death of another human being, no matter what their crime or atrocities. Because it simply promotes hatred and more violence. 

Osama bin Laden was a terrible man. He should have stood trial for crimes against humanity for the atrocities he conspired. But the cycle of invasion, war, hatred, and violence must stop somewhere. It must stop with us. We must learn from the peaceful revolutions which took place in India under Gandhi or to the more recent revolution in Egypt which also largely relied on peaceful demonstrations and civil disobedience. To those who say war is the only answer, that killing Osama was the right thing to do, I say LOVE IS LOUDER.

And I will never be convinced of anything else.

Oscars!

Despite the fact that every year my Oscar predictions are wrong, here we go:

Best Picture

• Black Swan
• The Fighter
• Inception
• The Kids are All Right
• Toy Story 3
• The King’s Speech
• The Social Network
• True Grit
• Winter’s Bone
• 127 Hours

Best Actor

• Jesse Eisenberg, The Social Network
• Colin Firth, The King’s Speech
• James Franco, 127 Hours
• Jeff Bridges, True Grit
• Javier Bardem, Biutiful

Best Actress

• Annette Bening, The Kids are All Right
• Nicole Kidman, Rabbit Hole
• Jennifer Lawrence, Winter’s Bone
• Natalie Portman, Black Swan
• Michelle Williams, Blue Valentine

Best Supporting Actor

• Christian Bale, The Fighter
• Mark Ruffalo, The Kids are All Right
• John Hawkes, Winter’s Bone
• Jeremy Renner, The Town
• Geoffrey Rush, The King’s Speech

Best Supporting Actress

• Amy Adams, The Fighter
• Helena Bonham Carter, The King’s Speech
• Hailee Steinfeld, True Grit
• Melissa Leo, The Fighter
• Jacki Weaver, Animal Kingdom

Best Original Screenplay

• Mike Leigh, Another Year
• Scott Silver, Paul Tamasay, Eric Johnson, The Fighter
• Christopher Nolan, Inception
• Lisa Cholodenko and Stuart Blumberg, The Kids are All Right
• David Seidler, The King’s Speech

Best Adapted Screenplay

• Danny Boyle and Simon Beaufroy, 127 Hours
• Aaron Sorkin, The Social Network
• Ethan Coen and Joel Coen, True Grit
• Debra Granik and Anne Rosselini, Winter’s Bone
• John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, Lee Unkrich, Michael Arndt, Toy Story 3

Various Other Categories

Best Original Score, The Social Network

Best Original Song, Country Strong

Best Art Direction, Alice in Wonderland

Theater as Political Communication

The first time I realized how powerful theater is as a tool for social and political change was during my junior year of high school. I was directing a show called Bang Bang You’re Dead. The show was about a high school shooting. Throughout the play, we hear from the victims of the shooting, the shooter himself, and the administrators at the high school as well as law enforcement officials.

The show is emotionally powerful and communicates a strong anti-violence and anti-bullying message throughout. For this reason, I reunited many members of the cast in April 2009 at a vigil to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Columbine shootings as well as the life of Carl Walker-Hoover, who committed suicide earlier that month.

We circulated petitions calling for anti-bullying legislation, stricter federal gun regulations, and funding for mental health services in schools. We held signs calling for an end to gun violence, intolerance, and bullying.

Desiree Fiske and Kayla Manzi, two LHS alumni, light candles at the vigil for the Columbine victims and Carl Walker-Hoover on the town common in Ludlow, MA.

In the fall of 2008, my former drama club performed The Laramie Project. It was a huge undertaking, and, although I had graduated, I helped out a great deal on the production. I ended up using their experiences as a basis for one of my first college papers: The Political Communication of The Laramie Project: Hate is NOT a Laramie Value.

The cast and crew of the Drama Fiefdom at Ludlow’s 2008 performance of The Laramie Project

The play, which poses a question similar to that which Romaine Patterson, an actual Laramie resident at the time of the Shepard tragedy, asks in a letter she wrote following the publication of the play: “Each of us has a role, just as Matthew had, and as I have to make the world a better place. My question to you is, when you leave today what will YOU do to make the world a better place? What is your role?”

This question clearly articulates why theater is such a powerful tool for those looking to make social and political change. The actors and script capture the audience’s attention and moves them. It stirs them to action. In the case of The Laramie Project, it makes people want to ensure that such a tragedy will never happen again.

It is my belief that, as the Commonwealth moves forward with putting the new anti-bullying legislation into practice, theater should be used as a tool. I truly believe that, especially middle and high school administrators, should reach out to nearby colleges and their own drama clubs to put on productions that deal with the theme of bullying, violence in schools, and intolerance. Such productions have the ability to move students and teachers to action on these issues. They contain a certain pathos, an emotional appeal, which makes the issue real. They show students the effects of their actions and help them become more self-aware.

I hope to, in my last semester here at Emerson, assemble a cast, crew, and group of writers to produce a show that will showcase the effects of all of these issues: bullying, teen suicide, intolerance, and violence in schools. In addition to performing the show, I would like to include psychology majors or youth service majors from other schools in the area to lead discussion groups with students on these issues.

Hopefully, this goal comes to fruition and can provide help to those students throughout the Greater Boston area who need it most.

I feel that this would be a fantastic way to end my college career - to actually make a difference in the lives of others.

That is all I really hope for. As a victim of bullying and someone who struggles with thoughts of suicide myself, I just hope that I can help prevent others from having to experience what I did.

My Pretty Life

“I am a note, passed back and forth. I get your attention; you open me up and I give you all that I have and, in that moment, I feel that you love me. I have your eyes upon me, your honest attention. And you care about me, you even tell me so and, in the warmth of your affection, I feel at peace. But you only read me for a moment, then you drop me to the floor; I am trash to you. Nothing, worthless, not worth a glance. Maybe you step on me, maybe you kick me to the side. I am dirty and cold, alone on the floor where everyone can see me. When everybody is looking, I am just a scrap of nothing, a crumpled up girl with no purpose. But then, someone else picks me up. And I am at peace again, for this new attention is just as beautiful as the last, just as sweetly warming; but just as before, I am only important for a short while. Soon, and I know it, I will be dropped back to the floor or into the waste basket. To sit and wait for someone else to pick me up. I hope someone will. Maybe one day, somebody will hold onto me, keep me, slip me in between the pages of their life, flatten me out, make me neat and clean again. But until then, I am a note passed back and forth.”

This is a monologue from Pete Clark’s play My Pretty Life. It’s going to be performed by my high school’s drama club in a few weeks.

I can’t help but feel terrible whenever I hear it.

Remembering Phoebe Prince…

Tonight I will be standing with countless others on the South Hadley common to remember the tragic suicide of Phoebe Prince. Together, we will not only commemorate her life, but also call for an end to the senseless intolerance and bullying that continues to plague our schools.

However, watching the news coverage of the first anniversary of Miss Prince’s death this morning, I was severely disturbed. Each channel discussed how it was Prince’s death that prompted the legislature to pass anti-bullying legislation. How it was HER death that drew our attention to the issues of bullying and suicide.

The problem is that, like numerous politicians, these news outlets completely neglected the suicide of Carl Walker-Hoover almost a year before Prince, in April 2009. The anchors made no mention of the young boy, who was endlessly bullied for being perceived by his peers as gay or his mother, Sirdeaner Walker, who lobbied hard for bullying laws. Had the media and the government acknowledged the death of Walker-Hoover, and passed anti-bullying legislation sooner, Phoebe Prince’s death may have been prevented. And there would be no need for any vigil tonight.

Over the course of the recent race for district attorney, former state senator Steve Buoniconti assured me that the legislature recognized the tragedy of Walker-Hoover’s death and had begun work on the legislation after his suicide. However, his own actions during the campaign, including being unable to produce any sort of press release or news article commenting Walker-Hoover’s death, as well as the media’s blanket statements this morning about anti-bullying legislation being a direct result of Prince’s death, contradict Buoniconti.

I am not writing this to argue over who should get the credit for the passage of this law. Rather, I am writing this in defense of a young, gay, black boy from Springfield who’s suicide went under-reported by the media and unrecognized by the legislature. I am writing this wishing that our lawmakers hadn’t waited for something to happen to a pretty white girl from suburbia before they acted.

It seems our culture tends to ignore tragedies and flaws until they affect someone who the media and government deem important. This is true in the recent shootings in Arizona as well. I understand the magnitude of this event, but I question the media’s attention to this specific tragedy, as well as our government’s renewed call for debates on gun control and expanded mental health services.

Why didn’t the media cover the shooting in Mattapan, which left four, including a toddler, dead this past September? Why was there no presidential memorial service there? What about the three shootings that all occurred in the same week in Springfield last March? No calls for gun control or mental health funding after those.

As a country, we must view each suicide and each murder as important and tragic. If we act in this way, necessary preventative measures will be put into place sooner and lives will be spared.

I understand that this has become a bit of a rant (and somewhat convoluted). But, if you take nothing else away from this, please, please, remember:

Today is not just about Phoebe Prince. It has to be about everyone who has faced intolerance and harassment. It has to be about everyone who have taken their lives both before and after her for whatever reason. And it has to be about everyone who have been hurt by violence in any way.

Hope that made some sort of sense.

Of Course No One Can Beat Brown…

Boston Mayor Thomas Menino may have had a point this week when he stated that ‘no Democrat’ could beat Scott Brown in 2012. However, his assertion is only valid when one is forced to think inside the box that is the Massachusetts Democratic establishment (white, old men). If we’re only looking at the candidates who have polled poorly in potential match-ups with Brown (Reps Markey, Capuano, and Lynch), then of course there is no Democrat with the ability to defeat Brown. However, when we look to other possible Democratic options, outsiders perhaps, there are many qualified contenders.

Research shows that women must be asked several times before considering a run for office. I suggest we start begging Ms. Sirdeaner Walker of Springfield to run for US Senate in 2012.

Ms. Walker, the anti-bullying activist and human service worker who lost her son to bullying-induced suicide, has not only helped pass a comprehensive anti-bullying law in Massachusetts, without even holding office, but has also met with powerful media and political leaders including Oprah Winfrey, Anderson Cooper, and US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. She is currently a board member of GLSEN (the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education and a director at a non-profit working on homelessness. She is more than qualified to serve the people of Massachusetts in the US Senate and would be a tireless and passionate advocate for better schools, gay rights, and healthcare.

And, she has the something extra, the star power that the Democratic Party needs to wrestle the seat from Brown.

Once again, we should be begging her to run.

Do It Better

“Do It Better”

Cold metal is no antidote
Or drug
For hands
Not when it’s
Not a little tectonic
Who doesn’t have the time
To have sympathy
for Satan?
Is that why you skip your chores
And leave the villages starving
And the apples unpicked
To walk down
Some stairs
And into some power?
They ask if
I’m ok
I tell them
“Yes, It’s just a defense
I’m still in the process
Of changing clothes”
Because they are all far too small
And we’re running out of
Shoes to fill
And roles to play
And hairs to cut
Orchards are prettier unpicked
So here,
Read my lines again

The Young John Ohh Appreciation Post

iwishicouldsleeep:

-savinggrace:

(Source: kenorsen, via ruthless-time)