(no subject)
Anyone want to go see Journey, Heart and Cheap Trick? It's September 7 at Riverbend. I'm so there. I already had a ton of Journey downloaded and over the past few weeks I've been on a Heart kick. New music basically sucks. I've been downloading stuff from the 60s, 70s and 80s which is so much better than anything on the Top 40 playlists now. And I totally do not feel bad about downloading music because if I didn't, I would never listen to this stuff. I probably would not have gone to the Van Halen concert and I definitely would not be wanting to spend money to go see Tom Petty, James Taylor, Journey, Heart and Cheap Trick this summer.
Anyway... school is ridiculous! I'm taking two summer classes, each is three and a half hours, twice a week for six weeks. The first two hours are fine but the third KILLS me. I leave for work around 6:30am, leave around 5:15, then sit in class from 6-9:30. It's the worst. It's European History I, and right now we're talking about the Greeks and Romans. We're not to the classical period yet, we're just leaving the archaic. I am so not impressed with them. When they were fighting amongst each other in spread out, un-unified city-states and ethnos (villages or small towns scattered across a wide region -- possible vocab word for the quiz next week!) the Chinese already had a fucking empire! There was already culture and literature in China, and the Western view of civilization starts with Greece? That is total bullshit. Education in America is fucked up. For some reason, this pisses me off. I'm angry that NO ONE ever told me about this until college. And unless the high school history curriculum has changed drastically in the last 10 years, I probably won't be able to tell these kids major truths -- there was a SECOND Holocaust in WWII in China, much more violent than the European one, and which would have killed many more if the West had ignored it like they did the European Holocaust. That China and India and the Middle East were forming empire and culture and civilization and exploring the world when the West was still fighting within itself like children. History should be about facts and truth, not driven by guilt or a feeling of superiority, which I believe are the main reasons for the disgustingly Euro-centric stories we've been fed all our lives. And don't even get me started about the warped American history that we were all force-fed. All I have to say about any war (save for the major world wars) is one thing that one of my poli sci profs said in a U.S. Foreign Policy class that really stuck with me: "One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter." Remember that. Take any conflict and put yourself on the other side. Imagine what the innocent citizens in these conflicts are feeling or thinking, whether it's justified or whether they've been fed propaganda by their leaders, and then maybe you can see the British point of view during the American Revolution (which, by the way, was a revolt against a legitimate government, no matter how it's presented in American history classes), or the Cubans after the Batistas, the Russians under the Soviets, or even bin Laden's followers. These things are NEVER black and white. There are too many shades of gray. Unfortunately, there are too many instances in American history where things are always presented in black or white, good vs evil, us vs them. That is so detrimental to the development of an educated citizenry who could be able to contribute to a democratic process.
So that's my rant for today. Questions? Comments? I could go on, but I have stuff to do.
In other news, I hear we're going to Taste of Cincinnati tomorrow. Yay! My bus got detoured lastnight because of the street closings and the jerk in the Metro office couldn't tell me where the new pickup point was! He told me I should find another ride home! There was drama with my idiot sister which I might go into later, so I ended up getting a ride home from my friend at work. Seriously! The Metro guy told me to find another ride! I'm going to the office to complain on Tuesday. Maybe I can get a couple free tokens or something.
And things seem to be going really well on other fronts. Those who know what I'm talking about can hear some more details tonight or tomorrow. =)
Anyway... school is ridiculous! I'm taking two summer classes, each is three and a half hours, twice a week for six weeks. The first two hours are fine but the third KILLS me. I leave for work around 6:30am, leave around 5:15, then sit in class from 6-9:30. It's the worst. It's European History I, and right now we're talking about the Greeks and Romans. We're not to the classical period yet, we're just leaving the archaic. I am so not impressed with them. When they were fighting amongst each other in spread out, un-unified city-states and ethnos (villages or small towns scattered across a wide region -- possible vocab word for the quiz next week!) the Chinese already had a fucking empire! There was already culture and literature in China, and the Western view of civilization starts with Greece? That is total bullshit. Education in America is fucked up. For some reason, this pisses me off. I'm angry that NO ONE ever told me about this until college. And unless the high school history curriculum has changed drastically in the last 10 years, I probably won't be able to tell these kids major truths -- there was a SECOND Holocaust in WWII in China, much more violent than the European one, and which would have killed many more if the West had ignored it like they did the European Holocaust. That China and India and the Middle East were forming empire and culture and civilization and exploring the world when the West was still fighting within itself like children. History should be about facts and truth, not driven by guilt or a feeling of superiority, which I believe are the main reasons for the disgustingly Euro-centric stories we've been fed all our lives. And don't even get me started about the warped American history that we were all force-fed. All I have to say about any war (save for the major world wars) is one thing that one of my poli sci profs said in a U.S. Foreign Policy class that really stuck with me: "One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter." Remember that. Take any conflict and put yourself on the other side. Imagine what the innocent citizens in these conflicts are feeling or thinking, whether it's justified or whether they've been fed propaganda by their leaders, and then maybe you can see the British point of view during the American Revolution (which, by the way, was a revolt against a legitimate government, no matter how it's presented in American history classes), or the Cubans after the Batistas, the Russians under the Soviets, or even bin Laden's followers. These things are NEVER black and white. There are too many shades of gray. Unfortunately, there are too many instances in American history where things are always presented in black or white, good vs evil, us vs them. That is so detrimental to the development of an educated citizenry who could be able to contribute to a democratic process.
So that's my rant for today. Questions? Comments? I could go on, but I have stuff to do.
In other news, I hear we're going to Taste of Cincinnati tomorrow. Yay! My bus got detoured lastnight because of the street closings and the jerk in the Metro office couldn't tell me where the new pickup point was! He told me I should find another ride home! There was drama with my idiot sister which I might go into later, so I ended up getting a ride home from my friend at work. Seriously! The Metro guy told me to find another ride! I'm going to the office to complain on Tuesday. Maybe I can get a couple free tokens or something.
And things seem to be going really well on other fronts. Those who know what I'm talking about can hear some more details tonight or tomorrow. =)