HeiBlog

I grew up in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania and was around “plain folk” for most of my formative years. They live all around the county and really are a part of the culture and fabric of the area. Most people in the county seem to view them with an amount of respect and leave them alone. In the worst case their buggies are a traffic hazard and the “road apples” annoying. The massacre at an Amish school a few weeks ago shock me as it did everybody else. The response of the Amish did not surprise me. It was one of forgiveness and gratitude, pure and simple, this is their way. This type of community is the backbone of the county. People there will always take care of their own. I didn’t see that until I moved to Boston 9 years ago.

My mother sends me clippings from USA Today that she thinks I might find interesting. One was a letter from a man in Texas, pretty much hit the nail on the head for my thoughts about this whole event:

“The dignity and constraint of the Amish in Light of this tragedy are a lesson in life for all of us.

You will note they did not flood the streets and burn the state flag, not did they place a fatwa on the window of the killer. They did not say it was a racist act, nor did they declare religious persecution. You will not see a gaggle of lawyers nor will they be calling for Senate hearings or the formation of a bipartisan commission to investigate the matter.

Instead, the Amish will accept this as a rare act of a single deranged man, and they will bury their dead in their own private and reserved way.

The dignity of their response is a lesson not only for the state, but also for the nation and the world.”

I’ve been in the section of the county where the shootings took place. Driving through there you feel like you have stepped back in time. The Amish live, for the most part, as they did 200 years ago. This extends beyond the practical and to their morals and culture. They are the real conservatives, not those that pay lip service to “tradition” or “morals.”

In the modern age we have lost what the Amish value and hold dear, and relegate them to the thoughts of those who could be called Romantics. This is a sad event. Something that can only be fixed on the individual level. For myself I choose to help people who I think share my end goal of individuals making each other’s lives a bit easier. You don’t need a tragedy or religion to motivate this, you just need to be.

A tangent… Think about the problems and stress in your life. Make a list. How many of them are caused by humankind or its inventions (physical or abstract)? How many of them could be fixed by mankind? I think you will find the answers to be “Most” and “All.”

Some people have been congratulating me on finishing my PhD, well as said I didn’t. So what really happened? Basically about two-thirds of my defense committee was unhappy with my dissertation. My discussion is the biggest issue, mainly due to it being short and too negative. I’m sure some other issues will come up as I get the corrected chapters back from my third reader.

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I’ve been reading more rumblings about the movement to impeach W. Parallels are being made to Nixon, as cited by a recent article in The Nation by former Congresswoman and member o the judiciary committee during the impeachment proceedings, Elizabeth Holtzman.

The strongest argument for impeachment is the recent alleged abuse of domestic wiretapping. The key here is the violation of the oreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) act, which as was passed after the whole debacle with Nixon. Congress realized that wiretaps were necessary and that in some cases secrecy needed to be maintained so the FISA had a provision were the taps were approved by secret court, further in the case of the emergency they could be approved 72 hours AFTER the tap had been started. Cringely had a nice write up about these and other types of wiretaps. It ends up that the vast majority of requests put to the FISA court are approved, mainly because the Department of Justice’s standard for submission was might than the court’s. Bush is claiming the ability to override the the law under his powers as the Commander In Chief (my reading of the Constitution is that that only applies to the military, but I’m just a lowly citizen of this country, what do I know). With the the kind of accept rate that has been seen from the court why do you not ask?

Holtzman beings up the issues of the Iraq war and torture as well. True that these have illegal leanings, but I don’t think they will hold up. This administration had ridden in the gray zone of the rule of law more than any I can remember. The NSDAP might have one-uped them though. You remember those guys. Germany, 1933 ring any bells?

The two questions though that nobody seems to be asking about the removal of the President from office are: “Do you really want Dick Cheney in the Oval Office?” and “Does it really matter?”

Sure you have to hang somebody an the guy up front is the easiest target. Really though if we want to get rid of the people causing all the real problems focusing on Bush is a waste of time. Yes, he’s the President and is responsible for all of this miss. But, look at the real state of the Presidency it’s way too complicated a job for one person to handle. You need to look at who has the power in the Republican party, why people are supporting them. Impeachment is a short-term fix, a bloody nose. Clinton’s impeachment was more of a waste of time and a dirty trick on the part of the conservatives. The progressives in Congress shouldn’t fall for the same ploy. Go to the grass roots, get the support that you need. Actually enact some change rather than just blowing hot air.

I was just thinking today that it has been 10 years since I’ve been in any relationship that I considered “serious.” There have been one or two since then where the other person was more invested then I was, but naturally they didn’t really last long enough to be of any consequence in my mind, more miscommunications then anything else. Since college the dating I’ve tried to do and people I’ve meet has been minimal, usually in spurts corresponding to the seasons. I have a fairly busy life that is for the most part satisfying and I wouldn’t say that I am unhappy. Some of my single friends seem to be in similar situations.

When I meet someone I’m interested in I find myself asking if they are “worth my time,” since that is really what is most valuable to me. Is the time spend with them enjoyable or would I rather be doing something else. I guess this is a normal state of mind, wondering whether you want to put forth the extra effort for that person to try and make them feel like they mean something to you.
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Well, we were expecting a protest today here at Boston University Medical Center. One person I talked said they were expecting about 1,000 - 2,000 people. At around 6 the Boston Police had blocked off the entrance to the parking lot behind BioSquare (where the new bioterrorism lab is supposed to be build). About 20 minutes later the crowd turned down Albany street crossed in front of my building and turned up West Newton.

There might have been about 200 people. The protest was not specifically against the bioterrorism facility (which will contain a Level 4 facility, the source of most of the protest here in Boston) as I had expected. It was more of an anti-medical research protest. There were anti-animal testing, anti-animal cruelty, anti-terrorism facility, and some pro-Nader folks bring up the rear. Up the middle of the group was a white thing which I think represented anthrax. Very peaceful and organized, a bit anti-climatic though. At least we still have the right to protest, even if it requires a permit and police escort.

Who else can play “push the spent chewing gum around the urinal drain” and not touch the gun? Not that you would want to after it had been in there for a few days.

This morning as I was walking to work I noticed one of my favorite tendencies common in groups of people. I was crossing the street at a fairly busy intersection. The road I am facing is one way and splits (straight and right turn) at the interaction. The right turn lane has its own signal and a crosswalk. From the other side of the crosswalk you can not see on coming traffic until it is too late (people tend to drive quite fast around the corner). Across from me was a group of about 10 people, apparently attending a conference as designated by their conformity tags, was waiting for the light change.

There was not any on coming traffic so I crossed against the light. Immediately the people at the head of the group started looking to their right, seeing if it was safe. They start across the intersection and the whole group follows suit. Now the amusing part is that, as far as I could tell, only the people at the front bothered to check for traffic. This is also a common behavior on the main campus of my University, which has a busy avenue and a trolly line as its Quad. Each year we have at least one undergraduate get pegged by a car or a train.

How many other creatures do you know that heard themselves and make their own stockades?