Three Cups of Tea

I just finished reading this book - what a powerful read! I don't want to give away too much here because I'll also be talking about it for my end-of-semester presentation, but I'll give a short summary and touch on some of the themes that relate to what we've talked about in class.

Greg Mortenson started out as an ordinary mountain climber - his mission in life was to summit K2. He failed in his attempt and instead ended up lost and struggling for survival in Korphe, a small village in Northern Pakistan. After the residents of this village helped to nurture him back to health, he vowed to build a school to repay them. The rest of the book is about his quest to fulfill this promise, and the doors that opened for him through his determination, perseverance, and vision.

As an avid reader and writer I have to make a disclaimer that the writing is not the best part of this book. I think Relin, the writer, gets bogged down in too many unimportant details that slow down the reader. But the story itself and the unflinching character of Greg Mortenson compel you to keep reading.

The themes in this book relate to much of what we have talked about in class. One of Greg's strongest beliefs is in the power of education to dismantle poverty and inequality in society. In conservative Islamic cultures such as Pakistan and Afghanistan, this belief is truly radical, especially as it relates to women. Greg also believes that providing education to girls is the key to helping these impoverished village communities develop; he focuses especially on infant mortality rates, which are shown to decrease if girls are educated.

After the rise of Al Quada and the 9/11 attacks, you think that Greg is going to get out of this region as soon as possible: instead, he does the opposite. He decides to expand his school-building to Afghanistan, and he becomes an advocate for rebuilding there at a grassroots level even as the military is pouring millions of dollars into the war.

Obviously, Greg Mortenson is an example of one of those rare role models we have talked about in class: he is someone who sets out to make a difference, and he does. He doesn't succeed through luck or easy breaks, but through hard work, tough times, and lots of determination. Reading his story gives me hope that I, too, can make a difference as an ordinary person if I follow my vision and don't give up.

Union workers campaigning for Obama

Listen to a podcast of This American Life story To listen to the segment on union workers campaigning for Obama, go about half-way through.

Yet another one of my blog entries that has originated from a story on NPR - can you tell that I listen to that station a lot while I'm driving? This story caught my attention because it touches on the subject of class as well as race. This American Life has followed union workers in PA who are actively campaigning for Obama and encounter the issue of race daily.

At one point in the story commentator Ira Glass states that if you equate white male union worker with McCain, you're wrong. A lot of these union workers have had to confront racism in themselves and their fellow workers in making a decision about who to vote for in this race. One worker shares a story of confronting a co-worker and friend who states outright that he won't vote for Obama because he'd never vote for a black man. I thought it was especially poignant how this man expressed disappointment in his coworker's views, and stated that he felt "betrayed" to know how this man truly felt.

Probably the most striking story for me was the man who said he did not consider himself racist, but when it came to voting he was leaning more towards McCain. Then he heard a union leader speak and encourage everyone to imagine that race was not part of the campaign - i.e. if both candidates were white, who would you vote for? Only then did he realize that his views aligned more with Obama's, and he became an adamant supporter of Obama.

This story is encouraging to me because it represents not only the ground war on the voting front, but also the ground war on the racism front. I think as someone who is middle-class and college-educated, I have the misperception that it is my responsibility to educate those who aren't as "enlightened" about issues such as racism. In reality, though, these fellow union workers are doing a much better job than any intellectual argument would, because they are meeting their coworkers at their level and speaking with the power of experience behind them.

How prejudiced are Americans against Muslims?

Colin Powell speaks in favor of Obama

It makes me proud to be an American when I read articles like this. Of course, I am biased in favor of Obama to begin with, so it makes me excited to think that someone with the credentials and the Republican party affiliation such as Powell feels led to endorse him. Some conservatives would argue that this is a matter of supporting him because he is of the same racial background, but Powell argues against that in this article.

There are many things that make me proud in reading this article: the first is that Powell is calling out the McCain campaign on using polarizing rhetoric in order to make Obama look like a risky candidate (and having Palin on board as VP isn't risky???) This idea was highlighted in my favorite column in the Kent Stater, written by a political science senior who often articulates his thoughts about political issues. A recent column described the inflammatory reaction against Obama in McCain rally's - an old man carrying a stuffed monkey labeled "Obama" and people calling Obama a "terrorist" and "unpatriotic." I agree that this rhetoric has gone too far, and although the negative campaigning is coming strong from both directions, you don't see people making these kind of sweeping generalizations about McCain (Palin, maybe...).

But the thing that made me BY FAR the most proud in this article is Powell's statement that Obama has "always been a Christian. But the really right answer is, what if he is [a Muslim]? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer's no, that's not America. Is there something wrong with some 7-year-old Muslim-American kid believing that he or she could be president?" I wanted to stand up and cheer when I read that statement. Ever since reading "Three Cups of Tea," a non-fiction book set in Islamic Pakistan and Afghanistan, I have come to realize more and more how prejudice against Islamic people - and the Islamic religion - is becoming (or already is) acceptable and mainstreamed in American culture. Muslims are being ostracized in the way that the Japanese were in WW2. Have we learned nothing from our past?? Instead of addressing this prejudice, people like Obama and McCain avoid the issue for fear that they will be called "unpatriotic" themselves. But thankfully Powell shows us that SOMEONE is willing to take a stand and say what needs to be said. Now, if only people would be willing to listen....

10 Years since Matthew Shepard Hate Crime

Listen to the story on NPR

I heard this story on NPR as I was driving to school, and it seemed to serendipitously concide with the week that we are discussing issues surrounding gender and sexual orientation. As I was walking to/from the library to check out the video It's Elementary, I also noticed signs on the sidewalk saying "Remember Matthew Shepard!" and "It's ok to be gay." I'm not sure if this week was planned to coincide with the 10th year of Matthew Shepard's murder (probably not!) but it's quite timely that it did.

I remember hearing about this story when I was in college, although at the time it did not have a huge impact on me. I was still living in a sheltered environment and I didn't have any openly gay friends that I knew of. 10 years later, I hear about this story and I am apalled that crimes like this happen - but even more so, I am appalled that people - like the ones in this story - make up excuses to cover up the prejudices that are a the root at the crime. For example, people are quoted in this story as saying that it is a drug-related issue and not related to sexual orientation at all. It seems that this story is completely unfounded, but perpetuated to make the crime look more acceptable.

I find Shepard's mother Judy to be an inspiration and an example of how to be an advocate for gay and lesbian rights. Since losing Matthew, she says that she thinks he would be "proud" of her and "surprised" to see what she has accomplished in this new role. Too often it takes some tragic or hateful incident to prompt people to action! I also think that she can play a unique role as a heterosexual advocate of gay/lesbian rights; as was mentioned in "It's Elementary in Appalachia," having strong heterosexual role models who are willing to make sacrifices for gay rights is powerful and necessary to see some of these changes be made in our society.

SNL Vice President Debate

This clever SNL parody captures some of the highlights of the vice-presidential debate. Their discussion over granting rights to same-sex couples relates to some of the discussion we had in class on how to teach acceptance of different sexual orientations.

One thing I noticed during the actual vice presidential debate that of course the skit writers picked up on is that gay rights are not going to be strongly advocated by either party in this election (or in the near future). Basically, if you are gay or lesbian, the best you can hope for is a law that grants you as a couple the same rights as a married couple. But even the Democrats, who supposedly support these rights, will not come out and say "We support gay marriage."

I guess I don't understand people who see gay marriage as undermining the American family. Yes, it doesn't fit the picture-perfect view we have of the American family as a mom, a dad, a son, a daughter, a pet dog, and a white picket fence. But whose family does fit this stereotype? People get divorced at an alarming rate and I don't see candidates saying divorcees should not be allowed to get remarried because it threatens the American family. I'm not saying we should move backwards and refuse others the right to get married - I'm just saying that the argument that gay marriage undermines family values is ridiculous, and that a hundred other equally-founded arguments could be used to prevent other people from getting married. This argument is simply used to mask a prejudice that people are too close-minded to acknowledge.

This little skit also hones in on the "tolerance" word. Tina Fey, portraying Palin, says that she "tolerates gays" and even "knows a few of them - but not personally." The implication of the word "tolerates" is that she puts up with them despite her best judgment, like you would tolerate sitting next to a person with bad B.O. Although I am in favor of the idealogy of teaching tolerance, the more I hear that word, the less tolerant I am of it! I think "acceptance" or "respect" would be a much better word because it offers a more positive / proactive view than a negative / reactive view towards differences.

John Ridley on Weightism

Weightism Article

Katherine brought the subject up of weightism in our last class, and since she did I have had this "ism" pop into my everyday life. My husband manages a retail store that is connected to a larger business, and part of his responsibilities include hiring people to work in the store. Other people who are part of the business are in on the hiring process (i.e. the owner and head of HR), since it is a small business. Well recently Joe hired a heavier man, and the owner was in on the hiring process. Later, however, the owner heard someone comment on the man's weight and decided that since he was overweight he should not be working in retail - and he asked my husband to fire him! I was appalled and outraged that this happened, and I told my husband so. He finds it hard to stand up to the business owner (since obviously it can effect his job), and this kind of thing has happened before where he works.

If you read John Ridley's article, I think you will agree that weightism is one of the last acceptable prejudices in our society. America does have a problem with obesity, but like racism or any other "ism" it is more a result of systemic inequalities and problems with our society than it is the fault of any one individually. What makes me so angry is that people like John Ridley don't seem to understand this - they blame obesity solely on the person who is overweight without that society contributes to this problem. For example - the fact that the cheapest foods are the ones that are the most processed and contain the most saturated fat contributes to the combined problem of obesity being a problem with the poor.

I find major fault with his argument that any individual can control their weight - which he says makes it a different issue from race or gender (I guess he isn't taking into account the fact that people can now change their gender!). Who in a society as un-friendly towards the overweight as ours is would CHOOSE to be fat? Anyone who is even 5 pounds "overweight" is always talking about dieting and trying to lose weight. In women especially this can become an obsession. I think most people have as much control over their weight as they do their gender - our body shape comes mostly from our genetic code, not just our eating habits!

Our society has a problem with eating - people eat too much, or they eat the wrong thing, or they eat to little, or they make themselves throw up, or they become completely obsessed with eating the right thing to the point where they live their life around their eating habits. None of these lifestyles are healthy, and I think our society needs to work to find a way to encourage people to live healthy lifestyles and NOT to point fingers at people who have a different body shape than the one that is held up as the ideal by the media.