2001-09-16 - 11:06 a.m.

New Age

Though many people in the world have learned to live with fear and far less liberty than I have for years, I can't help but think that the human race might be on the verge of entering a new age. This doesn't mean things will be better, nor does it mean that my own quality of life will be worse. Just significantly different.

Yesterday I dropped Cricket off with her Berkeley friends. I've really enjoyed her company, but there is a part of me that is a bit sad too. Not because of anything Cricket did (she is a wonderful person ... in fact, someday I hope to find somebody whom I might have a deeper relationship with whom is similar to her), but rather Cricket always seems to be around me when I'm sad. And I've had both personal and larger common reasons to be upset for the past two weeks.

I couldn't help but notice all the American flags on freeway overpasses and outside of people's homes and apartments. Californians are typically very open minded and not rash, however, all the talk coming from my own family scares the shit out of me.

I agree that flying the American flag right now is a powerful symbol of solidarity, but I worry about how Americans interpet that solidarity. The US Congress passed several bills in support of the President. A representative from California (I believe she is from Oakland, Rep. Barbara Lee) was the lone dissenting vote on a measure that would authorize the President to take whatever action necessary.

OK, so I've not read the bill. But for years I was active in student government, and I've always believed that a dissenting opinion is important to democracy.

My ability to go to a BDSM club or wear a skirt as a guy actually comes from the fact that (1) people before me gave their lives that I could speak out and be different, and (2) that people like Rep. Lee can speak their minds and not be killed in the night. We can't afford to be "gothic princesses" hiding behind our parent's protection anymore.

Apology to Japan: 1995

In 1995 President Clinton was debating issuing a formal apology to Japan for America's decision to drop two atomic bombs on civilian populations in 1945. At my university, Texas A&M, I read some opinion page articles from students about how "right" it was for the United States to drop the bombs in 1945 in order to save American lives.

Since I was active in Model United Nations programs, I wrote a response to the school paper and explained my informed opinion as: "As right as it was to drop the bomb in 1945, more American lives could be spared in 1995 or 2005 if the United States took the higher moral ground and spoke out against the use of weapons of mass destruction."

As a result of my paper, I had a death threat on my answering machine and several of my friends ended up getting into fist fights in order to perserve my "honor". It was a terrible time for me. I had taken several Japanese history and politics classes, and without a doubt, an apology issued to Japan would strength international relations in East Asia. And yet a bunch of other people were questioning me both in private and through personal attacks in the school newspaper. It was not fun.

Several weeks later a series of articles written by WWII vets came in and wrote about how my opinion actually reflected their own. They wrote that undoubtedly that the dropping of the bomb saved their very own lives, and yet they too felt that part of learning to forgive and create a "safe" world is learning to apologize for your past actions.

They wrote about how they were ashamed of the students of Texas A&M and how they publically attacked me in the paper. My opinion of Americans was raised considerably.

The lesson learned is it is OK to dissent. And it actually is constructive to change your opinion and apologize when you've done something to hurt somebody.

While I'm very aware that the next terrorist attack on American soil may easily be related to a thermonuclear explosion or something like a biological weapon, I'm less afraid about my physical safety as I am about my civil liberties. It was once written that, "America is like a sleeping dragon." I too actually am in more fear of my neighbors than I am of terrorists. One group wishes to take away my life, and yet the other ironically wants to protect it - but at what point to we become the very monsters that did this to us?

Perhaps this is why I have so many problems with dominant girls (not women, women are mature enough to realize when they've crossed the line). I want to live my life my way. I hate it when they start yelling at me to do things their way. This too scares the shit out of me.

I don't know Rep. Barbara Lee, but I'd very much like to hear her reason for voting no. And I'd like to take the time to write her a letter explaining that no matter what her reason is, that this historian will record her voice as that of somebody who has the courage to stick to her opinion and voice it publically at a time that very well may mean the end of her own public career.

-=-

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