Friday, February 25, 2011

Reasons for Optimism

  As I was writing the post I had planned for today about delusions of grandeur among many teachers, it suddenly occurred to me that the tone of this blog has been fairly pessimistic and critical since it started X weeks ago. I do not consider myself a negative person, and most of my criticism, I believe, is well-founded. However, I do not consider myself a pessimist, so I thought this week, I'd talk about some good things in the world at present.

For example, though some naysayers have decried recent democratic uprisings in various Middle Eastern countries as potentially dangerous to U.S. interests, I find it remarkable that so many people oppressed by autocrats for such a long time are managing to fight for their freedom, though it may cost them their lives. At the time of this writing, the AP has reported that the half of Libya that is no longer under Moammar Gadhafi's control has already set up an interim government. That's pretty amazing, I think you'll agree.

  In my scholastic life, I am working harder and having more expected of me than ever before. On the other hand, every Tuesday and Thursday I work with a second grader at an elementary school on literacy activities, the end of which always consists of a joke. Part of the reason I came to the College of Education was that, unlike some other majors, it was clear that they appreciated an active sense of humor. And now, I get to bring back all my best jokes from my youth, jokes that I still incidentally find laughter-inducing. For some members of my cohort, I am the go-to guy for good jokes or joke evaluation. A recent gem: Why did the orange go to the doctor? He wasn't peeling well! Seriously, in how many other majors would my childish sense of humor be an asset?

Though I am critical of many things and people, I still live in the best country in the world. I eat fairly well, I am healthy, my family is healthy, I am happy most of the time, I have two fine jobs, a mind that keeps me amused and questioning, and am living through an exciting and eventful time in history that in almost no way directly affects me. I've got a great life.


Plus, I've got a mustache.

Friday, February 18, 2011

Death does not make you a better person

Last week, it was "Israel Shabbat" at Hillel, where along with Hillels across country, we were honoring some American guy who fought in the Israeli Army, came home and advocated for peace by organizing campus events (which, as I will likely post on later, is 7 times out of 10, a largely masturbatory gesture, especially when it is centered around something as nebulous as "peace"), and then was killed by a drunken driver.
And the reason we are celebrating this particular person, though one person said that I should say this out loud when I brought it up, is essentially because this guy happens to be dead.
I discussed this in a earlier post about the renaming of part of Martin Luther King Boulevard to the JJ Seabrook Bridge, and I'll say what I implied then: By virtue of dying, your accomplishments while living do not increase in importance. Or, to put it simply, death does not make you a better person.
   I'm not talking about martyrdom. People who die defending something they believe in are excellent fodder for honoring dinners and the like. I use the word "fodder" to emphasize what these people tend to become. While they may actually have believed in something during their lifetime, they have, in death, become only a symbol used for some political cause.    I am also inclined to question the efficacy of such a symbol. As in an example, I recall from many years ago in which an American went to great lengths to fight in the Israeli army and died in the line of duty, who became the topic of his sister's speech at an event I was attending. As I sat there in the auditorium listening to this guy's sister laud her late brother, I wondered the purpose of the speech. Was his example supposed to inspire me to go join the Israeli army? Was it saying, "Look at what he did for Israel, the least you could do is buy Israeli chocolate."? At least in my case (and I suspect, the case of many others in the room), I only felt some combination of annoyance that I was having to listen to this guy's dull story, jealousy that he was probably a better person than I and distraction by every other thing in the room.

In the case of the Israel Shabbat honoree, he doesn't even get to count as a martyr for dedication to Israel because he died by an unrelated incident. Despite this, it is expected that we should give him this special honor, while others who fight in the Israeli Army or advocate for peace are given no such honor, and indeed, are often overlooked entirely. I said something similar in the article directly preceding this one.

If the only reason someone is being honored is that they happen to have died after doing a good deed, perhaps the honor should be reconsidered.

Friday, February 11, 2011

The Magician With Short-term Memory Loss

I'd like to say some words about some people I know. Though I am hesitant to talk behind anyone's back, I would be willing to say these things to their faces, so I feel okay about it.
So, I'm listening to one of these people lamenting over his poorness and his current lack of funds. At one point, this guy says he has $9 in his bank account.
And yet this man works at one of the highest-paying jobs in low-skill labor. Where does his money go if it has appeared to disappear so suddenly?

I posit that this is analogous to a magician with short-term memory loss who goes, "Watch me make this rabbit disappear." and then moments later, "What happened to my rabbit?"
  Allow me to draw you a picture:
"Oh, I don't shop at Wal-Mart because I don't agree with them."- Our magician.
He buys organic food (albeit primarily supported by food stamps), a somewhat ironic move if you consider his other habits. Namely, he, on a daily basis, engages in a mass of cigarettes, hard liquor and beer consumption.
  Now, I'm not against having a good time, but couple this with the fact that he rarely, if ever, saves from his paycheck. When an unexpected financial emergency arose, he had nothing to fall back on.

This is the life of the magician with short-term memory loss. He has engaged in irresponsible (bordering on nonexistent) money management and yet becomes shocked when he ends up with no money. I'm not saying that this is a bad way to live your life (though it is not one I agree with), but if you are living it, don't be surprised by the results.

Friday, February 4, 2011

The Efficiency of Charity

Have you ever noticed that people who spend money to travel somewhere to go help others can't shut up about it?
  Last week, I heard a d'var about how someone spent their winter break on a program that had them travel to Miami to build and plant a garden for some inner city schools there. This is a pretty common sort of service project these trips accomplish and are, I assume, based on the assumption that the charity college students are most qualified for is manual labor. Except for the obvious labor inefficiencies, it all sounds pretty good when you look at it on the surface.

   Upon just a little closer inspection, however, many problems come to light. Consider, for example, the idea of traveling 1000 some-odd miles from Texas to Florida. Where that might be justified if the location to which you are traveling has been devastated by a major disaster that is sufficiently devastating that the available volunteers in the area is insufficient. Otherwise, the travel is unnecessary and possibly harming. There are ample opportunities for helping people in the Austin community (A Google search for "Austin Volunteer Opportunities" found 395,000 results), many of which have equal to or greater than need to the gardening needs of inner city schools in Florida. But do the people who go on the trips regular volunteers in their community? More than not, they perform zero to little community service in their daily lives, except where they are required to.
  And yet the people who actually make a difference in society by spending their time and money directly in their communities are rarely recognized for their actions, much less given a public platform to talk about their work, but if someone paid to travel someplace to do something that could more easily and efficiently done by others.

  This is my message to you, people who travel across the country to help people so they can brag about it later— Take a regular vacation and, if you really want to help people, try to make a difference at home, using the skills you have. People won't be as impressed as if you told them you plowed a field for some underprivileged Florida schoolchildren, but it is the right thing to do.






Note: I am not decrying the work of such organizations as Doctors Without Borders, Engineers Without Borders, or other groups that use their expertise to help those who are far more in need than anyone in the volunteer's local community.