Trying to follow

Okay, nothing really special there except a bio of sorts.
I realized I was sending a lot of emails and newly interacting with people in my new home of Minneapolis, and rather then having my blog in my signature which could cover any number of random topics on a given day, I needed to have more of a ‘resume-portfolio-this is me’ type of site. And of course, no one else in the world has picked up ariahfine.com yet so now it’s all mine.

Thought I’d mention it so you could browse over and give me your thoughts and/or opinions on it. It’s meant to be quite simple, focusing on the areas I’m most interested in: Writing, Community Organizing, and Web Consulting.

I’m also trying to figure out how to, or if I should, link that to this blog, etc. Any professional opinions on that?

Hop over to ariahfine.com and then hop back and give me your thoughts.

These are some hard hitting videos this week. They are each about 5 minutes long and worth the watch.

Hammoudi, subtitles so you’ll need to pay attention (ht. Chris)

Iraq: One Winter Soldier’s Tale (ht. Zach)

Noam Chomsky Sports Commentator, a bit heady, but scathing critique of our sports and entertainment culture

I asked Michael from The Ooze if it would be okay if I went ahead and made some badges and tried to put together a semi-official list of those who are part of the Ooze Select Blogger group. This will hopefully allow people to read a variety of reviews on the materials that we are sent. Basically the list of blogs below are bloggers who were selected by The Ooze to receive books from publishers and authors to review and blog about (obviously in hopes of creating interest and buzz around their particular book).

I wasn’t given an official list, so we’ll let the Blogosphere do it’s magic and allow those who are Select bloggers to discover this post, comment below so I can add you, and steal the Select Blogger Badge below.

I’m starting the list with the first ten select bloggers I can find via a google blog search. There are 50 out there so try and find your way over and I’ll add to the list as you comment.

The Ooze Select Blogger List (In no particular order):

1. Rev. Todd
2. Consuming Worship
3. Blake Huggins
4. Trying to Follow
5. Recliner Ramblings
6. Some Strange Ideas
7. Solar Crash
8. Todd Littleton
9. Julie Clawson
10. Calacirian
11. Notes From Off Center
12. Keeping Feet
13. Swinging From The Vine
14. Intercession City
15. Gavin
16. Blind Beggar
17. Sally’s Journey
18. If God Is Love
19. Sensual Jesus
20. What Canst Thou Say?
21. Into The Subversion
22. Some Strange Ideas
23. Kingdom Grace
24. Jonathan Merritt
25. And More to come….

A note to select bloggers: If you are planning on tagging or categorizing your Ooze Book reviews in some fashion, please post the url to that category or tag page on your blog rather then just the blog url itself. I figure ’select’ bloggers ought to be web-savvy enough to get the badge on their own page, but let me know if you need help. (I would appreciate it if you would copy the image to your own server).

About four years ago I was reading the paper in a small town in Minnesota. I read an article by Congressman Mark Kennedy entitled: “The Great Experiment” which discussed the sacrifices many soldiers had made to make this country what it is today. I felt the need to reply in this letter to the editor that you see below. I’ve left it unedited, but I’ll include further thoughts at the end. Surprisingly, the local paper published my letter the following week:

The Failing Experiment
I want to first of all thank Congressman Mark Kennedy for his article concerning this country’s “Independence Day.” There is certainly room for celebration and many of the historical facts he pointed out are worth noting and esteeming. Unfortunately I fear Congressman Kennedy missed out on the whole picture of the American Experiment and I feel the need to complete, or at least add to his summary.
It is true our Experiment has succeeded because of sacrifice, but whose sacrifice? Let us not forget the genocide of the Native Americans - from whom we took and still keep this land. They sacrificed many lives to our “Manifest Destiny.” Even today the effects of this sacrifice are felt and if you dare look, they are still seen. Our brothers and sisters of the human race live on small, infertile plots of land that we’ve forced them to, and the effects of injustice for hundreds of years can be seen clearly today. The Native Americans sacrificed.
Let us remember that the fourth of July is Independence for only part of the citizens of this country. It wasn’t until December 1865 that the denial of freedom (slavery) was abolished by law in this country. And we shouldn’t fool ourselves into thinking that this is a reality today. It takes only a brief look at the statistics to see that even since the Civil Rights movement of the sixties, we are still discriminating against people because of their skin (look up red-lining, the education system, and the demographic layout of most cities). It was on the backs of our brothers and sisters of the human race from Africa that this country began to thrive. It was their sacrifice for which they currently still have never reaped full benefits.
They sacrificed as soldiers too, Africans, Mexicans, Japanese, Native Americans - only to return to a “free” nation where they were discriminated against and treated as less than human. Remember the sacrifice of the American citizens of Japanese decent forced into Internment camps in the Desert. Remember the replacement of slaves with sharecropping and cheap labor from Mexico which we discriminate against yet desperately “need” in order to keep our way of living “affordable” for us.
There are many more groups that have been sacrificed to this American Experiment, but only one more I will note in this summary. They are half the population and for years have fed, clothed, cleaned, and cared for generations of American men. Women, they celebrate their independence on August 26, 1920 when the law at least extended to them the vote. They, like these many other groups, are still fighting for the freedom we will celebrate July 4th.
Celebrate your freedom on Sunday, but open your eyes to reality. Freedom even in America is only for the privileged, unless we choose to make it for everybody. Freedom will never come at the barrel of a gun. It will take sacrifice, sacrifice from you and me, not our lives, but our love. Will you sacrifice with love for that freedom you so enjoy to be extended to all people?

There is probably much more to say on this Independence day about the current state of affairs in our country, but I’ll leave that mostly to your own reflection. Let me only remind you that we celebrate this day while Guantanamo remains operational, are nations attempt to spread “freedom” is showing tragic and horrific results, and racism, sexism and much discrimination still lies unaddressed in our society.

Celebrate the 4th, but please do so with these words in mind.

photo credit

(photo credit [photo not of me])
Here’s my basic premise: The person whose only interaction with people of a different cultural/ethnic group is in a serving/charity capacity is likely to form stereotypes about that group based on that limited and extremely isolated interaction.

I myself went to a fairly large, suburban, predominately white church during my formative high school years. I went on three “missions” trips while attending there to: Mexico, South Dakota and D.C. On each trip we worked with a different ethnic group: Hispanics in Mexico, Native Peoples in South Dakota, and African-American’s in D.C. Now, Madison, where I grew up, is fairly diverse, so I had the good fortune of those not being my only interactions with other races, but they were some of the most significant interactions I had had with anyone of Hispanic or Native origin.

When I went to College I met and discovered a large number of other students had had similar “missions” trip experience. Some had even gone to countries in Africa and Asia. However, my more shocking discovery was the number of students who had come from far more ethnically homogenous (read: mostly White) cities, towns and neighborhoods then even I did. In addition, it seemed that in those homogenous neighborhoods, the rare interaction with a person of a different ethnicity typically involved that person in a serving capacity. Even our college campus, Wheaton College, was an example of this. The number of students and facility from multi-cultural backgrounds had been growing, but a large amount of white students primary interaction with different ethnicities was the cafeteria workers.

Now, couple those brief interactions with the limited portrayal of ethnic minorities in the media (again, often overly portrayed in historically oppressed or currently oppressed roles), and then we send them on “mission” trips. This might sound harsh, but I think the feeling behind many of those trips is the chance to “go help those poor unfortunate people.” The combination of all of these interactions creates, I believe, a strong stereotype of other cultures, and not only are they stereotypes, but the are dangers in that the person doesn’t seem them as stereotypes, but as fact, since they have by and large proved true in their interactions.

This is just one of the reason I think so much structural racism still exist in our country. It’s why efforts like affirmative action are necessary and why many voices are still needed to speak up against unjustice and prejudice, yes even racist, treatment.