Part 2: What was it like when I was my students' age...

Finding Answers… War is Over?

            A few weeks ago my 10^th year as a teacher ended.  I began thinking about my life when I was in 8^th grade, the current age of my students.  I was amazed at how much had changed in twenty years.  AOL was new cutting edge technology.  Now every one of my students has a smart phone, laptop and Ipad.  It boggles my mind; even my 11 year old nephew has an Iphone!  I was still trying to figure out Nintendo at that age.  I can’t imagine what middle school would have been like with that technological access.  In part 1 of this blog I talked about how the movies of Top Gun and Rocky IV were formative to my naïve view of the world as a middle schooler.  I grew up believing many simplistic notions, such as:

·      War did not happen again after WW2

·      America was not only good, but helped the little guy.

·      America = good, Russia = bad

·      Life was good, for everyone.  Everyone had it as easy as me.

·      Racism was something of the past that was now gone.

As a 14 year old, I had so many questions that were awakened in my mind by the beginning of the Gulf War and seeing the film, Forrest Gump.  The first of these was the erroneous symbiotic beliefs that war wouldn’t ever happen again after WW2 and that America always made good moral decisions, or more simply, America = good. 

When the Gulf War began in 1990, it was explained to me that a small defenseless country that I’d never heard of, Kuwait, had been invaded by a greedy, power hungry, dictator next door named Saddam Hussein.  This made sense to my mind.  America was good and helping the little guy from a bully.  The war seemed to be a quick success.  Iraq, led by their “evil dictator” was defeated swiftly and the threat to our friends in the Middle East was ended.  I found that this made me proud as a young American. Here we are being a peace maker and putting the bully in his place.  The one thing that confused me, was the fact that this “evil bully,” Saddam Hussein, was still allowed to be the leader/dictator of Iraq.  I wondered, if he was so bad, why would he be allowed to stay in power?  My mind was taught to be simplistic, but I was starting to ask questions.

Eventually I got to college and revisited this question and what I found out shocked me!  First, Kuwait was actually slant drilling Iraq’s oil.  In other words, they were illegally stealing oil from Iraq.  While it is true that the border is pretty porous between the two countries, this practice understandably infuriated Iraq, as their main income was from oil profits.  Secondly, Kuwait was deliberately flooding the market with oil in order to drive the price down.  This too infuriated Saddam.  While his invasion was fool-hearty at best, his invasion was not totally unjustified, and it was clear that it wasn’t just a bully picking on a little guy.  Kuwait was not being a good neighbor.  Ultimately, the US didn’t get involved to defend the little guy, as I was led to believe, they were primarily concerned with the stability of their oil imports from Kuwait and especially worried about any incursion into Saudi Arabia, one of the largest oil suppliers in the world.

Now, however, more bothersome questions arose.  Why are we supporting and defending a country that was breaking international laws on slant drilling?  Why are we supporting the House of Saud and their dictatorship in Arabia?  Saudi Arabia doesn’t allow women to drive or have any equal rights to men, they allow no freedom of the press and are one of the few countries to not sign the UN Declaration of Human Rights.  Why would we be so cozy with them?  This confused me.  How could we so strongly support a country that was so clearly against the principles we claimed to represent?  The answer really disturbed me, it was one word that I was slowly beginning to realize ran the world.  Money.

Over time I came to the realization through my teenage years that my assumption that war was over was naive and completely wrong.  The Gulf War was just the tip of the iceberg for me.  I began to realize that our military wasn’t on vacation since 1945, but had been deeply involved throughout the world and was stationed in countries all over the globe.  In my formative years (the 1990’s) the United States was involved in conflicts in Somalia, Haiti and The Balkans; yet shockingly absent from even trying to stop the most rapid genocide in history in Rwanda. 

When I was my students’ age, I believed that war ended with WW2 and that America’s actions were always good.  At first, the answers to the questions I asked didn’t make sense to me and I didn’t like them.  But then I realized that no nation or country is more morally superior to any other.  They are all stuck in the Machiavellian world of making decisions based upon survival of the state.  The ultimate goal is to keep power and to expand it, because the belief is; if we don’t, they will.  The “they” is always changing however.  It used to be the Soviets.  Now it is the Chinese or the Islamic fundamentalists, or any of the dozens of other groups mainstream America demonizes.  But there is always a “they.”  And sadly we try to keep this view that “we are better” alive.  I started realizing when I was about my students’ age that this is a myth.  War is a constant in the world and we choose sides not based on morality or Human Rights, but on what will keep us powerful.  It has been a sad realization…

Next time: Racism and race relations….

Remembering when I was my student's age...

      I’m not that old, but I’m starting to realize just how old I am.  When I first started teaching I realized that all of my students were born after the Cold War had ended.  Therefore, they couldn't understand living through that time, even though I lived through very little of it, I remember it well.  But today, my students have all been born after 9-11 and do not have any memory of that defining event…  Things are getting stranger for me as I get older, it’s harder to relate to my students.  They are 13 year old kids with smartphones and Facebook and I still don’t get Twitter.  When I was 13 I’d yet to have even heard of email…  When I think of what I was like when I was their age and what my world was like, really 3 movies come to mind.

Growing up in the 1980’s and 90’s was interesting.  I am now amazed by what I assumed growing up.  Especially when it comes to what I thought was so great about my country and the world.  I remember the pride surrounding the Olympics.  I used to love watching the Olympics, especially when it was us vs. the Russians!  I’m thinking Rocky IV here.  Those were the days.  No matter what sport it was, no matter if it were the summer or the winter games, it was amazing seeing the freedom loving Americans compete against the brain-washed machine like athletes of the communist world.  Rocky represented everything great about America and Ivan Drago represented everything that was wrong with the USSR.  And at the end of that magnificent movie Rocky won, no not just Rocky, but America.  Our culture, our way of life, was shown to be more magnanimous and clearly more human than the defeated robots unthinkingly cheering for the mechanized Drago.  What a great film!  Little did how know how much was over-looked by this convenient way of seeing the world and particularly the US’s role in it.

In all honesty, I never saw Rocky IV until the 90’s, after the Cold War had ended, but it still made me feel glad that I was on the side that won.  One movie I did see as a young boy was only the greatest movie ever, Top Gun.  “I feel the need, the need for speed!”  I can actually quote every line of the film and have unquestionably seen that particular film more than any other.  As a young 7 year old boy, this film made me want to be a pilot.  No that’s not true, I wanted to be a Naval Aviator.  I don’t remember saying this, but my mom says I did… after I first saw the film and told my mom of my desire to join the Navy and become a fighter pilot, she said, “But son, you could die like Goose did.”  Upon that, I gazed at my mom and as serious as a 7 year old boy can be said, “Mom, if I have to die for my country that is ok.”  I was captured by the sensationalism of the film and the amazing Kenny Loggins music.  It was a highway to a danger zone that I wanted to take.  Again, however, so much of the story was missing.

As I moved into middle school I remember studying history and always studying wars, especially World War 2, which my grandfather fought in.  I remember being so relieved, that “we” won the war and good prevailed.  I remember thinking, what would happen if the bad guys actually won?  That thought terrified me, and I assumed everyone shared the same sentiment.  I remember thinking how great of a world we lived in and that war was over, forever!  Those things that I learned about in history class were so far removed the world that I now lived in.  America had won and the world was better for it.  The world I lived in consisted of boring days at a Catholic school, baseball, Disney World and ice cream.  What could be better than that?  War would never happen, could never happen in this world that I lived in.  America had won and would continue to win and all was good. 

CNN footage of the Gulf War. 

I don’t remember how old I was when I first heard of Saddam Hussein, but I must have been about 10.  America was at War again.  Operation Desert Storm.  However, it was explained to me that this was nothing like WW2.  This was a big powerful country sticking up for a little country (Kuwait) who was being bullied by a big one (Iraq).  This made me feel good.  WE were standing up for the little guy against the big bully.  To my 10 year old brain, this made sense.  I didn't need nuance or explanation, it furthered my idea that America was good.  I remember watching this on TV.  A dark screen with the lights of Baghdad in the background and explosions throughout the city.  The “war” seemed to be over very quickly, and now we were only defending a seemingly defenseless people.  Again, I liked that.  It made sense to me.  We always do that.  That was the narrative that I was told about WW1 and WW2 also.  We saved Europe and the “civilized world” not once, but twice from losing to the Germans.  But, I was still confused.  We were now friendly with Germany, how’d that happen?  The big bad bully got to keep his power after the Gulf War, why?  If he really is a big bad bully, shouldn't he be in jail and not the leader of a country?  As I got older, I got more and more confused about these things.

Fast Forward to when I was 14 years old, about the age of my current students.  I had a life changing moment.  I saw Forrest Gump.  I recall that I had nothing to do on a Friday evening and my parents were going to see it, so I tagged along to a movie of which I had no idea what it was.  I learned so much from that movie.  I learned about the 60’s, was introduced to some of the greatest music ever and discovered the importance of being who you are.  Forrest is always just Forrest, he’s never ever trying to be anyone else.  He loves himself and stands up for what his mother taught him.  Jenny on the other hand was searching.  She had lost who Jenny was, it was taken from her at a young age.  The abuse she suffered made her search in every dark corner of the world for Jenny, without ever realizing that happiness stood right in front of her the whole time in a simple loving man. It brought out in me emotions that I never knew I had, it turned a switch on inside of me.  It made me ask more questions. 

Gov. Wallace blocking entrance to the University of Alabama. 

The two issues from Forrest Gump that I really remember thinking about were racially inequality and the Vietnam War.  I knew Forrest Gump was a fictional story and so I partly dismissed the part about the University of Alabama and Governor George Wallace not allowing African American students just 30 short years ago.  I kept asking questions and realized that in fact, this was true.  I was shocked!  In America this happened?  In my parent’s lifetime?  That was the first crack in the mirror for me.  I remember thinking that a black man my dad’s age wouldn’t have been allowed to go to many schools in the South.  This astonished me.  But I also remember thinking, well look how far we have come, nothing like that happens today.  So while that was sad and tragic, America has made up for its sins and is now the “home of the free” and a country based upon equality. 

However, my questions were not answered fully yet.  What about this Vietnam War?  What’s up with that?  You mean, we have fought a war since WW2?  Why Vietnam?  Where is that?  That’s not a real country, is it?  The answer I first got was convenient as it fit right into my paradigm.  Vietnam was a country being taken over by Communists, and we went there to help them.  Oh, that makes sense.  Again, we’re helping, aren't we nice.  But quickly, the answers flooded in. 

The election is over... Thank God!

The election is over.  The expected happened.  The sitting President's party typically loses Congress in the last two years of his term.  The American electorate is a bit fickle, but the real issue is the lack of real options to choose from and the lack of a real debate.  Where was the discussion of "climate change" and "immigration" and wars we continue to fight?  Where is the discussion of the issues really affecting people?  Instead we heard the same old negative rhetoric with the same talking points that lack any real nuanced discussion.    

The big issue NEVER discussed that leads such a great country to silliness every two years is “campaign finance reform!”  Very few elected representatives talk about this.  I get it.  The typical thinking on the Hill is that you do what you need to do to get elected and then you can do something.  But the problem then becomes our elections are turned into a “game” of electing representatives, rather than electing the person with the best ideas. 

People are already limited enough by the two-party system.  But now in order to be elected you have to raise hundreds of thousands, sometimes millions, of dollars to even have a chance.  When will public campaigns without paid advertisements and multiple public forum debates occur?  America is better than this.  And now, we’ve gotten so used to the silliness of our elections and campaigns that the majority of eligible voters do not even vote! 

The system needs to change.  Too many people don’t care and are not given a reason to.  The negative campaigning and lack of real discussion of the issues has continued to make the American election an embarrassment to the world and not what they should be, which is a model of what a Republic could be.   

Neyla's Guatemalan Life...

Me and Mommy in Antigua

We’ve been in Guatemala now for about 3 months and we are really starting to settle in and enjoy the new experience.   We are making new and great friends and we’re discovering our new city and country.  I love our new country; however, I am going to attempt to write this blog from another person’s perspective: Neyla’s.  Unfortunately she is not quite old enough to blog, so I’m going to blog for her.  Here’s your chance to see Guate through Neyla’s eyes:

A few weeks before we left, mommy and daddy started telling me about what sounded like a new magical place that we were moving to: Guatemala!  It sounded so fun and I love just saying it, Wa-te-ma-da.  At least, that’s how I pronounce it.  Mommy and daddy keep taking me on planes all over and so far most of those places have been fun, so I was excited for a new adventure.  

Me and the Guatemalan boy playing
in the fountain in Antigua.  

Daddy left a few days early because mommy said he had to do something called work.  The day mommy and I left I said goodbye to grandma, grandpa and all my cousins and we headed to the airport.  It was not a very fun trip.  Mommy was trying to carry so many bags and me; and on top of that our flight got in 3 hours late to Watemada.  I was so sleepy when daddy met us at the airport and took us to our new home.  I fell asleep immediately and when I awoke I was in our new home with mommy.  

Our new home is so cool.  Mommy has made me not one, but two play rooms.  The first is my art room with all my paint and markers and fun paper.  The other room has a big box house, a play kitchen and my own personal penguin rug!  I love it!  Then upstairs is my bedroom which has a cool pink furry rug and butterfly and flower bedspread and fun flower wall stickers which Mommy let me put on myself.  The best though is all the books mommy gets me from the library.  We read together several times a day and I love it!  

The inside of the house is cool, but the best part is outside, where we have an awesome playground with swings and slides and a soccer field where mommy and I play futbol.  Most days we walk up the hill (I ride in the stroller) and go eat lunch with Daddy at work.  When we get there all of these scary teenagers approach me and make strange noises, I think they think I’m some sort of toy.  But it’s fun.  Each day we walk to the university where mommy and daddy buy me a quesadilla or a grilled cheese and I share a smoothie with mommy.  I love the smoothies!  They’re my favorite.  

Me in the sandbox at
Earthlodge!

Me at Earthlodge with Volcano Agua 
in the background.  

The day to day of my life is pretty packed with fun and exciting things.  First, each day mommy and I wake up and snuggle.  This usually takes anywhere from 5 - 30 minutes depending on how hungry I am.  Next, we’ll eat breakfast, nothing too fancy, usually just cereal and mommy drinks this black stuff called coffee, but she won’t let me have any.  Then if it is not raining, we’ll go to the park and swing, play soccer, do monkey bars or play in the little Neyla sized house.  Mommy is so much fun.  Then, usually the favorite part of my day, visiting daddy at school!  Each day mommy will put me in the stroller and chug up the hill to daddy’s school and we sneak up on him through the back door of his classroom.  We usually walk to buy some lunch and eat a family lunch together.  Then daddy plays catch with me and lets me make drawings for his classroom wall.  

Me, daddy, Papu and Grandma 
in Antigua...
Isn't that volcano in the back cool?

We have even travelled a bit!  On our first trip outside of the city we went to Antigua and mommy and daddy bought me a little Watematan horsey!  He’s so cute.  I slept with him for weeks afterwards.  We walked around the town a bit, actually daddy mostly carried me and I got to play in the water fountain at the center of town with another Watematan boy.  We had so much fun splashing about.  On the way home, I fell asleep in the car.  It’s hard for me to stay awake after such a fun day.

Daddy and I on the airplane
at IRTRA

Another weekend, we went with some friends up to Lake Atitlan.  I enjoyed the park at the restaurant we stopped at, but the boat ride to our hotel was a bit scary.  I’m used to riding large boats in Majuro, but this was a tiny boat with too many people.  I had to sit on Daddy’s lap and I could barely see Mommy.  We got a little wet, but when we got to our hotel, there was a fun doggy and some cool chairs made of tree trunks that I really enjoyed.  Our room was super cool, the beds had white tents over them and I love playing in them.  Sadly, mommy got sick that night and the next day Daddy and I went searching through the small town of San Marcos to find her some Ginger Ale.  After a difficult walk for daddy (not me I was on his shoulders) we finally found some and went back to see if mommy was feeling better.  She wasn’t, so daddy and I went hiking.  It was fun!  We saw birds and flowers and walked a long the lake.  I love hiking with daddy!  

Grandma and I napping...

A few weeks after that we went to a cool place called Earth Lodge.  Daddy went to play some golf, so that left me and mommy during the day to have tons of fun.  We hiked, read books, played on the park and I got to play with a few other kiddos.  It was a fun weekend.  We spent so much time just playing and relaxing, so it was basically like every other day for me, but with a great view.  

Mommy, daddy and I at the
Kite Festival 

Then mommy said that daddy had a long weekend and we were going to do something really really fun. I didn't know what that meant, but I was excited! They took me on Sunday morning to a place called IRTRA. It was a magical land of clown, and rides and shows and all around kid fun! It was awesome. I went on a train, a magic bus, I drove a truck and even went on a ferris wheel. The best was the airplane that daddy took me on, at first I was a little scared, but eventually I grew to love it! It was such a fun day with mommy and daddy!

Last weekend was the best!  Grandma and grandpa came to visit us and I had so much fun with them!  We went to Antigua, played in parks, went swimming and snuggled a lot.  Now that they’re gone, I miss them, but it’ll be Christmas soon and I’ll get to see them and Santa!  

Yesterday we went to see the most giant kites ever and it was so much fun!  I made new friends like Dennis!  He’s my new favorite friend.  The kites were huge, I didn’t know that they made kites so big.  There were so many people around cheering and eating and having fun.  Daddy says that this is a Mayan tradition of flying the kites to be closer to one's ancestors who have passed on.  But I loved the bright colors and the excitement.  I hope we go again next year!

I always fall asleep on car rides home.  But that
Apple juice was mmmmmm  good!  

Overall, I love being able to spend so much time with mommy and I love how much the sun shines here!  

Loving Guatemala, Missing Majuro...

My first three weeks in Guatemala have been nothing short of amazing.  The weather is perfect every single day.  The nature is breath-taking.  The people are warm and welcoming.  My colleages are incredibly helpful and warm.  The work climate is positive and focused on the kids.  The kids are fun and engaging.  The ability to travel virtually every weekend to beautiful locations is intriguing.  In short, I love it. 

                

That is not to say that Guatemala City is some heaven on Earth, in fact, far from it.  The traffic is something that cannot be described.  There are no left turn here and every road is one way.  Often, to get to a store a block away you would have to drive two miles around a ravine and following the one way roads.  On campus, the nature is amazing and the air smells like a Florida morning in spring, but the city as a whole is smoggy.  There are seemingly no emission standards for cars, or if there are, nobody bothers to get them checked.  Crime is a major issue here.  It’s not rampant, but you have to be aware of where you are and if it is wise to be walking in that location.  We are very fortunate to live in an area where there are many places that one can walk safely.  The wealth gap here is startling.  There are some extremely wealthy and so many living in squalor. 

                

I am still learning so much about this country and its people, but so far I love it.  Having said that, I also miss my friends, colleagues and students from Majuro last year.  I wish all of them nothing but the best… and just because I am loving Guatemala doesn’t mean I’m not missing Majuro.  

Guatemala City: First Impressions

First 24 hours in Guatemala

            It has now been almost 24 hours since I arrived in Guatemala City to start my new life in Latin America.  Sadly, Janae and Neyla won’t arrive until Monday night, so I am all alone for the time being.  On a positive note, that gives me time to get our house ready for their arrival and to learn the lay of the land a bit.

            Upon landing and driving from the airport to my new house my very first impression was that it was strikingly similar to other Latin American cities that I have visited.  The streets were crowded and crazy with a sort of organized chaos, adverts in Spanish were all around and street vendors were plentiful.  It was however much more vibrant and beautiful than I imagined.  From what the average American hears about Guatemala in the news I was not sure what to expect, but that first hour was pleasantly surprising to me. 

            Next I arrived at our new home in the La Hoya condo complex.  There was a very secure guardhouse out front with armed guards and a steel reinforced gate, but that is to be expected in virtually any Latin American city.  The green row homes had beautifully manicured gardens and a nice park that I’m sure Neyla will enjoy.  The home itself is incredibly spacious, in fact, I’m not sure what we’re going to do with all the space, so many of you need to come visit!  The style of home here is very different than most homes in Chicago mostly due to the almost perfect climate year round in Guatemala City.  There are several outdoor spaces to be enjoyed and a ton of large sliding doors that invite the natural light and air into your home.  I have to say that it is quite a beautiful to live.  I am very excited to spend the next few years of our lives in this house.  However, there is one downside that I am going to have to do something about.  The shower in the master bedroom is made for a person who is about 5’6’… and as many of you know I am a bit taller than that.

            After settling in I was able to Skype with Neyla and Janae in order to tell them my first impressions and to see their beautiful faces.  I did this on the school’s campus that I will be teaching at and to say that the campus is naturally beautiful is an extreme understatement.  It is wooded, surrounded with gardens and smells like a spring morning in Florida with citrus smells.  After a quick look around the campus I headed off with my new boss for a beer and dinner. 

            We stopped at his place for a minute and had a beer on his back patio and rooftop.  It was the absolute best view I have ever seen in my life!  His house is located on top of a hill and from the rooftop you can see all of Guatemala City and the surrounding volcanoes.  As we were up there the sun was beginning to drop behind the mountains to the west and there was a thunderstorm off to the north of the city.  I think he has gotten accustomed to the amazing view, but I was left with my jaw on the ground. 

            From there we went to dinner in La Cayala, a newer part of the city that reminded me of a very clean and well-kept European town.  The neighborhood had a beautiful Church and center that reminded me of the Spanish steps in Rome.  Beautiful shops, cafes, bars and restaurants surrounded the cobblestone streets.  We settled on a sort of modern sports bar and the food was tasty and relatively inexpensive for such a nice establishment.  My boss commented that this was quite expensive for Guate (as the locals call the city), but believe me it was quite reasonable compared to Chicago restaurants.  The bartender served us the local favorite beer and even gave us a few pints on the house after finding out it was my first night in Guate. 

            It was a great first day here.  I can’t wait for Janae and Neyla to join me!

Embracing Nuance

Too often in the political and geo-political discussions taking place in America and around the world nuance is tragically lost.  A politician or guest on a news program will voice their opinion and be labeled: Anti-American, Anti-Israeli, Anti-Muslim, racist or in favor of something that nobody is in favor of.  Nuance must be embraced if we are to get anywhere toward solving the most complicated issues facing the world.

When Hitler committed his many atrocities, people who were not in favor of these horrific policies were not anti-German or pro-Jewish, they were simply disgusted at how one group of human beings could subject another to such torturous treatment.  The current Israeli-Palestinian conflict in Gaza is similar.  It is wholly unhelpful to view this conflict without great nuance. 

Just because someone has objected to the Israeli government attacking schools and hospitals does not mean that they are Pro-Hamas.  What the Israeli’s are doing is wrong.  They should not be subjecting Palestinian civilians to this sort of everyday living, but at the same time the same can be said about Hamas and the daily threats that Israeli civilians have to live under.  The silent majority are being tragically silenced by the media in America only focusing on Hamas and the too hawkish Israeli government.

I hope and pray for a better discussion to ensue.  Before a peaceful solution can be orchestrated a more balanced, empathetic and nuanced conversation must take place.