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One minute a day keeps the fantods away.
Sunday, November 28, 2004
So today, then:
One good minute, courtesy of Meet the Press***1***. This is about a forty-five second exchange between Al Sharpton (at his best a great mix of James Brown and Howard Dean; at his worst...) and two very hardcore conservative high-profile crazies. The conversation veered between absolute chaos and genuine discussion. Falwell came off as his normal self, but this Land fellow was trying to angle in as the "less-crazy, more palatable" version of a Right-Winger. Sharpton wasn't having it. Land finally crossed the threshold with his comparison of the Right Wing's attempt to outlaw abortion with Martin Luther King's drive for Civil Rights in the American South. Insert your best Sharpton impression when necessary. My favorite line from Falwell is in bold, and should be the soundbite for every breath he makes in public from here on in. Enjoy.
REV. SHARPTON: The right wing was opposed to the civil rights movement.
DR. LAND: Martin Luther King Jr. is a personal hero of mine, Al.
REV. SHARPTON: Good.
DR. LAND: And he imposed his moral values on Lester Maddox and George Wallace, thank God.
REV. SHARPTON: No, no, what he did was fought against the Southern conservative values of those days.
DR. LAND: No, no. He passed a law that made it illegal.
REV. SHARPTON: Don't rewrite history, sir.
DR. LAND: No. He passed a law that made it illegal.
REV. SHARPTON: He fought the Southern Convention that you represent. Dr. King fought that convention. Let's not rewrite history.
DR. LAND: Al, you know, you want a right wing...
REV. SHARPTON: Are you going to deny that the Southern Baptist Convention was for segregation?
DR. LAND: No. We've apologized for it.
REV. SHARPTON: So don't say that Dr. King...
DR. LAND: And we...
REV. SHARPTON: Don't distort that history.
DR. LAND: Dr. King passed a civil rights law...
REV. SHARPTON: Had to fight your convention to do that.
DR. LAND: He passed a civil rights law.
REV. SHARPTON: And he had to fight your convention to do that.
DR. LAND: All right.
REV. SHARPTON: And I'm fighting your convention to keep people...
MR. RUSSERT: All right. All right.
DR. FALWELL: Give the little babies the right to vote.
MR. RUSSERT: All right. We're gonna take...
REV. SHARPTON: And I want those babies to have a good life, but I don't want them not to have civil liberties.
MR. RUSSERT: We're going to take a break. Peace, peace, peace. We'll be right back.
REV. SHARPTON: How can you say peace with these folks?
***1*** Two programs I don't miss on Sunday mornings: Meet the Press and The McLaughlin Group. Sunday isn't Sunday without some hypocrit politician backpedalling or Eleanor Clift dutifully berating one (or more) pigheaded Conservative blowhard.
Postscript (1)
Hear...Iron & Wine Our Endless Numbered Days
Read...Graham Greene Brighton Rock
One good minute, courtesy of Meet the Press***1***. This is about a forty-five second exchange between Al Sharpton (at his best a great mix of James Brown and Howard Dean; at his worst...) and two very hardcore conservative high-profile crazies. The conversation veered between absolute chaos and genuine discussion. Falwell came off as his normal self, but this Land fellow was trying to angle in as the "less-crazy, more palatable" version of a Right-Winger. Sharpton wasn't having it. Land finally crossed the threshold with his comparison of the Right Wing's attempt to outlaw abortion with Martin Luther King's drive for Civil Rights in the American South. Insert your best Sharpton impression when necessary. My favorite line from Falwell is in bold, and should be the soundbite for every breath he makes in public from here on in. Enjoy.
REV. SHARPTON: The right wing was opposed to the civil rights movement.
DR. LAND: Martin Luther King Jr. is a personal hero of mine, Al.
REV. SHARPTON: Good.
DR. LAND: And he imposed his moral values on Lester Maddox and George Wallace, thank God.
REV. SHARPTON: No, no, what he did was fought against the Southern conservative values of those days.
DR. LAND: No, no. He passed a law that made it illegal.
REV. SHARPTON: Don't rewrite history, sir.
DR. LAND: No. He passed a law that made it illegal.
REV. SHARPTON: He fought the Southern Convention that you represent. Dr. King fought that convention. Let's not rewrite history.
DR. LAND: Al, you know, you want a right wing...
REV. SHARPTON: Are you going to deny that the Southern Baptist Convention was for segregation?
DR. LAND: No. We've apologized for it.
REV. SHARPTON: So don't say that Dr. King...
DR. LAND: And we...
REV. SHARPTON: Don't distort that history.
DR. LAND: Dr. King passed a civil rights law...
REV. SHARPTON: Had to fight your convention to do that.
DR. LAND: He passed a civil rights law.
REV. SHARPTON: And he had to fight your convention to do that.
DR. LAND: All right.
REV. SHARPTON: And I'm fighting your convention to keep people...
MR. RUSSERT: All right. All right.
DR. FALWELL: Give the little babies the right to vote.
MR. RUSSERT: All right. We're gonna take...
REV. SHARPTON: And I want those babies to have a good life, but I don't want them not to have civil liberties.
MR. RUSSERT: We're going to take a break. Peace, peace, peace. We'll be right back.
REV. SHARPTON: How can you say peace with these folks?
***1*** Two programs I don't miss on Sunday mornings: Meet the Press and The McLaughlin Group. Sunday isn't Sunday without some hypocrit politician backpedalling or Eleanor Clift dutifully berating one (or more) pigheaded Conservative blowhard.
Postscript (1)
Hear...Iron & Wine Our Endless Numbered Days
Read...Graham Greene Brighton Rock
Wednesday, November 24, 2004
So today, then.
Pep assembly schedule. Kids get to leave early by class to go to the auditorium. I have 10th graders 8th hour. They're supposed to leave two minutes after the 9th graders. So I say, "Today, you are 9th graders." I was tired; I didn't have the heart to keep them two extra minutes. I nod and raise my eyebrows. "Right?" Most of them get it right away. Then, the others.
One doesn't get it.
A girl--a nice girl, let me insert that, but not a good student--looks at me, quizzed. Her brain is churning. Lightbulb slowly burns. Like a good standup comedian (and that's my metaphor for teaching--it's like doing the same fifty minute set of jokes to the same audience for nine months and getting depressed at the lack of laughter), I wait. I can see this coming a mile away. She's confused, and when confused sometimes kids get snotty.
"We're Sophomores," she says, as if I'm the dumbest of the dumb.
One good minute.
Postscript (1):
I'll do better.
Postscript (2):
I spend my hours: teaching (themes of grief, loneliness and physical self-love in Ordinary People; trying not to snooze through House on Mango Street; doing my own bit of subversion via Super Size Me and selections from No Logo); buying a house (financing 101, saving money for a three hundred dollar TV, worrying about interest rates); spending (limited) time with the wife (going to the DMV, sleeping, watching The Incredibles); reading (Brighton Rock, No Logo, and The Quiet American); listening (The Arcade Fire, still; Gillian Welch; Styrofoam)
Pep assembly schedule. Kids get to leave early by class to go to the auditorium. I have 10th graders 8th hour. They're supposed to leave two minutes after the 9th graders. So I say, "Today, you are 9th graders." I was tired; I didn't have the heart to keep them two extra minutes. I nod and raise my eyebrows. "Right?" Most of them get it right away. Then, the others.
One doesn't get it.
A girl--a nice girl, let me insert that, but not a good student--looks at me, quizzed. Her brain is churning. Lightbulb slowly burns. Like a good standup comedian (and that's my metaphor for teaching--it's like doing the same fifty minute set of jokes to the same audience for nine months and getting depressed at the lack of laughter), I wait. I can see this coming a mile away. She's confused, and when confused sometimes kids get snotty.
"We're Sophomores," she says, as if I'm the dumbest of the dumb.
One good minute.
Postscript (1):
I'll do better.
Postscript (2):
I spend my hours: teaching (themes of grief, loneliness and physical self-love in Ordinary People; trying not to snooze through House on Mango Street; doing my own bit of subversion via Super Size Me and selections from No Logo); buying a house (financing 101, saving money for a three hundred dollar TV, worrying about interest rates); spending (limited) time with the wife (going to the DMV, sleeping, watching The Incredibles); reading (Brighton Rock, No Logo, and The Quiet American); listening (The Arcade Fire, still; Gillian Welch; Styrofoam)
