Sherry Chandler

Busy Day

Fun day!

No time for computers, which is probably a good thing.

If you’re looking for something sort of fun to read, The Guardian’s Book Blog has Ten Rules for Writing Fiction from the likes of Elmore Leonard, Roddy Doyle, Neil Gaiman, et al.

My favorite was Margaret Atwood (predictable, yes), who begins like this:

1 Take a pencil to write with on aeroplanes. Pens leak. But if the pencil breaks, you can’t sharpen it on the plane, because you can’t take knives with you. Therefore: take two pencils.

2 If both pencils break, you can do a rough sharpening job with a nail file of the metal or glass type.

3 Take something to write on. Paper is good. In a pinch, pieces of wood or your arm will do.

But while Atwood recommends that you consult a thesaurus, I tend more to agree with Roddy Doyle:

6 Do keep a thesaurus, but in the shed at the back of the garden or behind the fridge, somewhere that demands travel or effort. Chances are the words that come into your head will do fine, eg “horse”, “ran”, “said”.

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Another writer’s take on these lists at Phoenicia Publishing.

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On a more serious note, this is wrong.

Read here too.

“I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality.”

Lately, I seem to be trafficking in Nobel Prize acceptance speeches. Here, for MLKJr Day 2010, is a link to that one made by Dr. King on December 10, 1964. Dr. King begins like this:

Your Majesty, Your Royal Highness, Mr. President, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen:

I accept the Nobel Prize for Peace at a moment when 22 million Negroes of the United States of America are engaged in a creative battle to end the long night of racial injustice. I accept this award on behalf of a civil rights movement which is moving with determination and a majestic scorn for risk and danger to establish a reign of freedom and a rule of justice. I am mindful that only yesterday in Birmingham, Alabama, our children, crying out for brotherhood, were answered with fire hoses, snarling dogs and even death. I am mindful that only yesterday in Philadelphia, Mississippi, young people seeking to secure the right to vote were brutalized and murdered. And only yesterday more than 40 houses of worship in the State of Mississippi alone were bombed or burned because they offered a sanctuary to those who would not accept segregation. I am mindful that debilitating and grinding poverty afflicts my people and chains them to the lowest rung of the economic ladder.

Therefore, I must ask why this prize is awarded to a movement which is beleaguered and committed to unrelenting struggle; to a movement which has not won the very peace and brotherhood which is the essence of the Nobel Prize.

After contemplation, I conclude that this award which I receive on behalf of that movement is a profound recognition that nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral question of our time – the need for man to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to violence and oppression. Civilization and violence are antithetical concepts. Negroes of the United States, following the people of India, have demonstrated that nonviolence is not sterile passivity, but a powerful moral force which makes for social transformation. Sooner or later all the people of the world will have to discover a way to live together in peace, and thereby transform this pending cosmic elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood. If this is to be achieved, man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.

. . .

I accept this award today with an abiding faith in America and an audacious faith in the future of mankind. I refuse to accept despair as the final response to the ambiguities of history. I refuse to accept the idea that the “isness” of man’s present nature makes him morally incapable of reaching up for the eternal “oughtness” that forever confronts him. I refuse to accept the idea that man is mere flotsom and jetsom in the river of life, unable to influence the unfolding events which surround him. I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality.

The passage of forty-five years has made us cynical and would seem to have trampled on Dr. King’s vision. Forty-five years have given us Pat Robertson as the voice of Christianity, a voice that seems to drown out the voice of Martin Luther King Jr. His vision of unconditional love seems to have been overcome by a prosperity gospel, which says God rewards the righteous with the goods of this world and those who suffer are being punished for their unrighteousness.

Forty-five years have passed and our current Nobel Peace Prize Laureate tells us we have to make war for peace, an idea I had been foolish enough to think safely discredited by pretty much the entirety of the 20^th Century. Forty-five years have passed and the owner of Blackwater International can — beyond the power of any secular law — declare himself on a Christian Crusade to wipe out the infidels, an idea I had thought discredited by pretty much the entirety of the 12^th century.

It seems to me now that we desperately need to be reminded of Dr. King’s vision, to be reminded that nonviolence is not the same as cowardice, to be reminded that Dr. King said that every man should have something he’d be willing to die for, not something he’d be willing to kill for. And to be reminded that

. . . right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant. I believe that even amid today’s mortar bursts and whining bullets, there is still hope for a brighter tomorrow. I believe that wounded justice, lying prostrate on the blood-flowing streets of our nations, can be lifted from this dust of shame to reign supreme among the children of men. I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits. I believe that what self-centered men have torn down men other-centered can build up. I still believe that one day mankind will bow before the altars of God and be crowned triumphant over war and bloodshed, and nonviolent redemptive good will proclaim the rule of the land. “And the lion and the lamb shall lie down together and every man shall sit under his own vine and fig tree and none shall be afraid.” I still believe that We Shall overcome!

ACLU

I give lip service to a number of causes and organizations here on this blog, but there is one that I support consistently with my purse. That organization is the American Civil Liberties Union.

Glenn Greenwald explains their vital importance here:

It is not hyperbole to say that, over the past decade, there has been no organization more important to the United States, the Constitution, and basic political liberties than the ACLU. From the start of the Bush/Cheney assault on core civil liberties — when most organizations and individuals were petrified of opposing any efforts justified by “terrorism” — the ACLU was one of a small handful of groups which defied that climate of fear by vigorously and fearlessly opposing those erosions. Along with that same small handful of civil liberties and human rights groups, the ACLU since then has been at the center of virtually every fight against government incursions into basic rights. They defend core Constitutional principles regardless of party or ideology, and they continue to lead this fight even now that Bush is gone from office.

Here’s an excerpt from an e-mail I received recently from the ACLU:

For a number of years, the ACLU has received extraordinary support from an anonymous donor, including over $20 million in 2009 alone. He has informed us that, due to market conditions, he will not be able to lend us that support in 2010. This loss of funding will have a particularly hard impact on ACLU programs targeted at the most vulnerable in our society.

In one fell swoop, we stand to lose nearly 25% of the whole organization’s budget—unless you and others step in to help.

David Gelbaum, the largest individual donor in ACLU history—someone who chose to give anonymously for years—decided to reveal the reasons for his support to the ACLU so that we can fully describe this situation to our supporters. In Mr. Gelbaum’s own words, he’s made this decision so that the ACLU, “will not be constrained by donor confidentiality, may fully explain how these programs were created and financed, and may ask others to step forward to help sustain them in the future.”

In response to this crisis, we are engaged in belt-tightening at every level of our organization. We’ve already seen remarkable acts of generosity from donors large and small all across the country.

But protecting the ACLU’s most essential work will require an extraordinary outpouring of support.

You can help by being part of our Acting Together campaign. If we can get 100,000 friends like you to donate to the ACLU by December 31, we’ll be well on our way to keeping essential work on track.

Whatever their virtues, it’s obvious that the Democrats now in control of our Federal government are not going to investigate or even reverse the incursions against civil liberties made by the Bush administration. It’s up to organizations like the ACLU. Greenwald again:

. . .their crucial efforts extend far beyond litigating and lobbying, as they have often been forced to fulfill the investigative and oversight role intended for — but abdicated by — our national media and Congress. Indeed, most of what we know about the Bush torture regime and other lawbreaking schemes is the result not of newspapers or Congressional investigations but the ACLU.

I urge you to support the ACLU. Include them in your seasonal giving.

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By the way, Facebook privacy is one of ACLU’s issues, though I’m not sure there’s anything they can do about malicious viruses.

Thanksgiving greetings

Except for those of you downunder, in which case I wish you crops in the field and not too much heat.

TR took the photo. They were taken, of course, in October. The trees are almost all bare now, and though mornings are still misty, October was prettier. I’d been looking for an excuse to use this photo.

I’m not one to make a big deal of holidays. I tend not to like to be grateful or jolly on demand. And there’s something smug about Thanksgiving.

Which reminds me that I heard on WEKU news the other day that God’s Pantry in Lexington has received a record number of requests for God’s Pantry Thanksgiving baskets:

Mandy Brajuha, who’s a spokeswoman for the Lexington-based program, says more families than ever are participating in the holiday program.

“That number of families was always about 3,500 to 4,000 and we’ve jumped way up over the 5,000 mark this year which really mirrors everything we are seeing in our operation right now,” Brahuja said.

Needy families are picking up Thanksgiving baskets at five pantries in the Lexington area. Brajuha says their numbers have gone up almost three fold over a three year period.

The Salvation Army also got its bellringers out well before Thanksgiving this year in hopes of raising extra funds for the extra demand on their resources.

So, as a nation and as a state, I hope we can approach Thanksgiving with humility and generosity.

And that gives me a chance to mention the second Literary Café South at Natasha’s Bistro and Bar on Tuesday, December 1st, at 8 p.m. All proceeds of the night will go to God’s Pantry Food Bank, providing food for the hungry of Central and Eastern Kentucky. This is the second of a semiannual series, hosted by David Park Musella, who will also be one of the readers at the event. Also reading will be poets Rebecca Gayle Howell, Leatha Kendrick, and Eric Sutherland. Music will be provided by jazz artist Kokichi Tagawa. And I think the cover is $8.

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Added: A Poem for Wild Turkeys.

Holy Geez????

Okay, okay, I give.

I was going to like totally ignore Sarah Palin and her “book,” even bypassing a chance to indulge in schadenfreude when she got booed for stiffing some of her fans.

But you have to go look at Rebecca’s index of indices.

Miffed that Sarah Palin’s new book was published index-less, several people have posted their own indices. It’s unlikely that Palin will thank them for their trouble, given that I laughed aloud at the first two listed below. At the risk of joining the ranks of the lonely and shallow people who don’t admire poor Sarah, here are the indices I’ve seen so far.

Click on over there and give it a look.

On a more serious note, Matt Taibbi has a frightening take on what the Palin phenomenon really means. By way of The Sideshow.

An e-mail from A Thousand Kites

Dear Friend,

We are calling on poets, writers, singers, and our artist friends to submit a work to Thousand Kites for our national radio broadcast “Calls From Home.”

We hope to record hundreds of poems to reach the 2.4 million people in our nation’s prisons. Will you help? (please forward this email)

All you have to do is call 877-518-0606

You can submit your poem (or read a prisoner’s poem if you have permission) by calling it into our toll-free line and recording it on our answering machine. Don’t worry if you slip up, we will edit all calls.

Ten years ago when prisoners in our region’s newly opened Supermax facilities wrote us about human rights abuses and racism we responded as artists. Soon we witnessed the effect our effort had on our region’s prisons. Light truly is the best sanitizer.

One of the first poems that came back to us from Wallens Ridge State Prison was a gripping poem called “Grave Prison Yard.” We responded by creating a public performance. Hear “Grave Prison Yards” and other poems on our website.

We are asking you to submit a work on the themes of incarceration, family, the power to endure and anything that would lift the spirits and spark creativity in our thousands of prisoner listeners.

Your work will be added to our website, broadcast on over 200 radio stations as part of Calls from Home and released as part of a CD celebrating our ten years of creativity, radio, and the power of community.

Call: 877-518-0606.

Learn more about this project.

Peace,
Thousand Kites Team
thousandkitesproject@gmail.com
www.thousandkites.org

When lawyers authorize torture

You need to read David Coles’ The Torture Memos: The Case Against the Lawyers:

History has shown that even officials acting with the best intentions may come to feel, especially in times of crisis, that the end justifies the means, and that the greater good of national security makes it permissible to inflict pain on a resisting suspect to make him talk. History has also shown that inflicting such pain—no matter how “well-intentioned”—dehumanizes both the suspect and his interrogator, corrodes the system of justice, renders a fair trial virtually impossible, and often exacerbates the very threat to the nation’s security that was said to warrant the interrogation tactics in the first place.

Knowing that history, the world’s nations adopted the Geneva Conventions and the Convention Against Torture (in 1949 and 1984), both of which prohibit torture in absolute terms. The Convention Against Torture provides that “no exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture.”

If laws such as the Geneva Conventions and the Convention against Torture are to work, however, lawyers must stand up for them. That means being willing to say no when asked whether it is permissible to subject a human being to the brutality that the CIA proposed. Yet the OLC lawyers always said yes. Where precedents were deemed helpful, they cited them even if they were inapposite; where precedents were unhelpful, they did not cite them, no matter how applicable. They treated the law against torture not as a universal moral prohibition, but as an inconvenient obstacle to be evaded by any means necessary.

Such an approach to the law is especially alarming in view of the particular role of the Office of Legal Counsel. That office is designed to serve as the “constitutional conscience” of the Justice Department.

Bush administration lawyers acted more as though they were mouth-pieces for some mafia don. Or as Cole puts it, as hired guns.

At its best, law is about seeking justice, regulating state power, respecting human dignity, and protecting the vulnerable. Law at its worst treats legal doctrine as infinitely manipulable, capable of being twisted cynically in whatever direction serves the client’s desires. Had the OLC lawyers adhered to the former standard, they could have stopped the CIA abuses in their tracks. Instead, they used law not as a check on power but to facilitate brutality, deployed against captive human beings who had absolutely no other legal recourse.

In light of these actions, it is not enough to order a cessation of such tactics, and a limited investigation of CIA agents who may have gone beyond the OLC guidelines. Official recognition that the OLC guidelines were themselves illegal is essential if we are to uphold a decent standard of law. Official repudiation is also critical if we are to regain respect around the world for the United States as a law-abiding nation, and if we hope to build meaningful safeguards against this kind of descent into cruelty happening again.

Moreover, this is not just a matter of what’s right from the standpoint of morality, history, or foreign relations. The United States is legally bound by the Convention Against Torture to submit any case alleging torture by a person within its jurisdiction “to its competent authorities for the purpose of prosecution.” President Obama and Attorney General Holder have both stated that waterboarding is torture. Accordingly, the United States is legally obligated to investigate not merely those CIA interrogators who went beyond waterboarding, but the lawyers and Cabinet officers who authorized waterboarding and other torture tactics in the first place.

Listen also to the podcast.