Let's condemn MC Rove
As though the Democrats were little children whose actions needed to be reformed, corrected. As though the Republicans can condescendingly say to us as a group, "Now, now, let's not be too hasty." And for the New York Times to call the tension between Republicans and Democrats "chiding," that's unacceptable! The article itself starts off well: "WASHINGTON, April 24 — President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney aggressively challenged the motives of Congressional Democrats on Tuesday, as the House and Senate prepared to consider a war spending bill that would order troops to be withdrawn from Iraq beginning later this year" (
here).
That's better wording. "Aggressively challenged" implies equal footing between the conflicting parties, whereas "chiding" implies a parent and a child, a correction to a mistake. The Republicans are in no way paternalistically correcting the Democrats' "mistake" of wanting to withdraw troops - there is no mistake, and even if it were a mistake to want to end a war that's accomplishing nothing, it would be the Democrats' right under the First Amendment to voice their opinion. No one has the right to "chide" us, no one has the right to assume they're taking the higher path and that those against the war are taking the lower. This is a tactic that the Bush Administration has used again and again over the last six years, to assume that they're right and that everyone else is wrong, and to approach every situation with that assumption. Cheney, especially, implies quite masterfully with his impressive use of praeteritio that his opponents are wrong, not only because they're Democratic, but because they're subversively undermining America, and because they believe in killing fetuses. In other words, not a fair battle, because he's taking away his opponents' arguments whilst labeling them as baby-killers who want to destroy the convention of marriage, and uninformed Americans will assume that the opponent is the bad guy. In the same way, to speak condescendingly and treat the Democrats like children is to attempt to convey to the American people that the Democrats are a badly behaved, subversive political group. And I find that genuinely disgusting. So, simply as a matter of respect, let's not ever use the word "chide" in conjunction with politics.
But as long as we're on the subject of criticizing political choices... MC Rove? This act is cannot even be chided. Chiding is good-natured, but watching Rove make a joke of himself, of the administration (which has already made a joke of itself far too many times in the past six years), and of his and other politicians' responsibility during a WAR made me feel anything BUT good-natured... I was offended, I was humiliated, and most of all I was disgusted. How is it that such twisted, megalomaniacal politicians can be representing us right now? As Barack Obama begins to gain such sweeping (and well-deserved!) support, I feel a wave of hope, and also of total, blind LOVE for everyone else who is supporting him, and beginning to become involved and interested in politics again. For the past six years politics have been repulsive and dominated by sleazy war-makers who don't care about the people, who are interested neither in us nor in capturing our interest. So now that Obama is inviting people to get involved again, to CARE about things again, about politics and our future and being a unified country that is NOT mired in a war, it's refreshing. It's wonderfully refreshing not to feel apathetic.
I must admit I've never seen anything quite so painful as MC Rove's lovely show, but nevertheless whenever I see anything awful or humiliating within the Bush Administration, I just close my eyes and silently remind myself, "Two more years.... Two more years..."
It's getting excitingly close!
Labels: politics
Happy Earth Day!
Because I made and kept (so far) only one New Year's Resolution, to watch no television, I shall treat Earth Day as a time to make an additional resolution, because I think it is as good a time as any to try to make changes for the better. Watching no more television was a personal resolution, to help myself be a tad better (addendum: I shall limit my time online as well); but considering the intent of Earth Day - to help make the world a tad better - my resolution shall be to treat it well, and so I will cut back on the one thing that I can: driving. As often as I can, I will take public transportation between school and home, walking where I need to. That should be every day of the week excepting Tuesdays and Thursdays, when I need to be at work immediately after school, and every other Saturday, when I am shadowing a doctor out in Monterey Park. So starting on Monday, I will commute via bus from my house to the Gold Line, and then to the nearest station to school via train.
This is my Earth Day Resolution!
Rejection as a means of finding my place
So I didn't actually get into any schools other than St Andrews, and I feel as though this is karma's way of telling me that I should have withdrawn from them as St Andrews was my first choice, and fate's way of telling me that St Andrews is indeed the school for me, despite my concerns regarding its academic flexibility.
After opening two rejection letters and a wait list - Swarthmore, Middlebury and Reed, respectively - I felt initially crestfallen, and then almost immediately after a sense of belonging, of now being affiliated with one and only one University, and that is St Andrews. Not since I was accepted at St Andrews had I felt so completely sure of my place there, without hesitance or the lingering thought that if I got into Middlebury perhaps I might go there instead. And that feels wonderful, to be one hundred percent committed to my first choice school. I'm sending in the necessary forms this week - I've already asked Reed to take me off the wait list - and then I will be officially part of the St Andrews class of 2011!
Labels: college, St Andrews
Day off? Sleep.
Aaand my last post was definitely about how I should take ants as my role models, because they are hard workers. It
has been a stressful week...
But it's the weekend! And a three-day weekend at that! I got Friday off, and spent the day doing NOTHING. Well, that is deceitful - in actuality, I washed a lot of dishes (by a lot, I mean one half sink full, which is considerably less than my mother washes every other day..... but SHH, I washed dishes and it doesn't matter how many, it still earns me goody points!); I went down to the Caltech gym and pitifully used machines set at about 20 to 30 pounds... and I rewatched So I Married an Axe Murderer, with Mike Myers. Great movie.
So my day was endlessly constructive. I still have an essay to write for Monday.... but all of Saturday and Sunday to do it (that's the kind of thinking that's gonna get me through college)! I'm foolishly awaiting a phone call that I know won't come, from a dashing someone I met the other day. But I'm checking my phone significantly less obsessively than in the past, because there's just so much going on with school and my life that allows me no time to concern myself with other matters. So, he calls, he doesn't call... oh well. I got up the nerve to go and talk to him, contrary to my inherent shyness, which is definitely valuable in itself whether or not anything comes of it. It gives me hope that I won't be a loner in college! Which, by the way, I am looking forward to ridiculously right now. It's because senior year is stressful, and my mind wants me to be elsewhere... Scotland being an excellent alternative.
Scotland! I'm so excited. I worry at times that I'm putting too much importance on location, though - at the moment I am facing a dilemma, which is this: I am interested in chemistry and in the Classics, which are in two separate Faculties at St Andrews.... and it is very difficult to switch Faculties. At the moment I'm in the Faculty of Science, and if I decide that I want to pursue the Classics I'm going to have to switch to the Faculty of Arts, which I should do soon (the sooner the better!). I am reluctant to make such a huge decision so early on, which makes me worry whether St Andrews is right for me, a generally indecisive person. However, nothing could effectively deter me from going short of the earth opening up and swallowing the school - so, something I need to think about over the next few months, definitely. For I do love ancient Greek!
Labels: St Andrews
Determination
So everything has not been solved since yesterday, when I had to remind myself to breath so as not to be frantic, but a few developments have occurred which are making it a little easier to sit back, relax, and smile. What's been freaking me out is the commitment I made to a Caltech professor to help him do a project in conjunction with my school - it involves doing a survey of all the students and then following up with an experiment of sorts with the 5th and 6th grade (nothing sciency and alarming, but rather questions based on their answers to the survey). Well, the survey asks about friendship networks, which to my mind is a little awkward (list up to eight of your friends) - what if they don't have eight friends to list? What if girls list others as their friends, and are not listed in return? Touchy, but hey, it's for the sake of science.
Anyways, I wasn't receiving any help in organizing this at Westridge. My job is to talk to the administrators, get the survey okayed, talk to teachers and find out when is best to give the survey, and then talk to my own teachers so that I can work out with them when I need to leave class to administer the survey. When talking to Dr. Goeree at Caltech, it seems easy. When alone and unaided at Westridge and faced with a slew of teachers who probably don't want to lose a lot of lesson time this close to the end of the year, as well as administrators who have bigger things to think about than a pesky little survey, it seems pretty daunting.
All week I've been feeling as though nothing will come of this, that my attempts to communicate with teachers and find out who is willing to give up lesson time, and whether the administrators will okay the survey, is all quite futile. I feel like I've been beating my head against a brick wall, simply because I don't know who to talk to, and I don't feel comfortable asking teachers for class time. And, well, no one's really making it easy. I'd really like someone to just tell me what to do and whom to talk to, but I guess that kind of defeats the purpose of getting older, and doing more independent work. I've committed to a tough project, which involves talking to a lot of administrators, being a diplomat of sorts between Caltech and my school. And that puts me way out of my element, which is actually something pretty valuable in the end, I suppose. I'd really rather just do research on mold spores, research which doesn't involve email after email after email trying to arrange and plan and organize. But here I am doing just that, and now that things are finally beginning to fall together (just beginning, knock on wood - I don't want to jinx it, since it's only just starting to look up!), it feel amazing. As it's not something I feel comfortable with, that I will have done it will be that much more exciting.
I've got the lower school surveys okayed, and am starting with them on Monday; I still have to work out the middle school surveys, which are slightly less important; and then, least important, the high school surveys. And so far I'm on schedule - I told Dr. Goeree at Caltech that I would try and start surveying next Monday, crossing my fingers behind my back. After all, that was pretty immediate for such late notice, and I wasn't sure if the administration would support me. I really expected to have to email him and tell him that I couldn't start for another week or so more. But lo and behold, gradually it's coming together. I have not let down Dr. Goeree, and I'm even happier about that than that it's working out - I feel proud that I haven't messed up, and that I'm holding my end opposite a Caltech professor.
This ant picture is from the space gel ant farm I got my mom for Christmas. It's pretty chill. When scientists sent ants up in space, they discovered that dirt just floated around and was no use for the ants, so they developed a clear blue-ish gel that serves as food, water and dirt for the ants, and does not float. I attached the picture to this post because those little gals are just so determined, so focused - they are distracted by nothing, even though their lives seem so pointless. I have a lot of admiration for them, and the steadfast way in which they tunnel deeper and deeper into the space gel, building a tiny, queenless colony. So, when I begin to feel overwhelmed, I suppose I can remind myself of these gals. No matter if anyone make it hard for me to do this survey, or if it's difficult to coordinate with all the teachers, I'll just plow on. After all, these ants do too, and in a significantly less exciting environment.
Labels: Westridge
Photo shoot of my cat
Because I spend way too much time taking pictures of her, instead of doing constructive things like getting scholarships and doing my homework...
Labels: my kitty
Familiar scents
I helped my friend develop a roll of film today after school. Well, I more of stood around and made wisecracks while being more or less unhelpful, but at least I was there for moral support and such. She's doing something photography-related for her senior project, which I'm now rather jealous of - I'm going to shadow a doctor, which at the moment seems a very scary and unfamiliar project. But anyway, coming home I smelled my hands and discovered the scent of the chemicals still clinging onto them. Inexplicably, one of my favorite scents has always been the smell of developer, which smells like the musty, heavy scent of bacon - it brings back all the summers I spent doing photography next to the woodworking shop at Poly, and then at Westridge... it's one of those scents that I can breathe really deeply to!
In other news, AAAH! When I forget to put everything into perspective, I suddenly feel as though the entire universe is pitted against me, and that it's mostly concentrated in the current and following week. Then I have something to eat, take a couple deep breaths, remind myself that it's okay if things don't work out, that all I have are a few assignments which can each easily be done; it's okay if I make mistakes and if not everything I do is perfect. And once I do that, once I remind myself to enjoy instead of stress, I feel better about this week. I've foolishly committed to a few things, which I didn't realize would require so much work as they do, but it's not the end of the world. Everything's cool.
And even better with the sense of calm I always get from the darkroom :)
Labels: Westridge
The right to debate
It's a sad democracy when we can't even debate a highly contested war in the Senate. Though a majority of the Senate is in favor of debating the war, they are four votes short of 60 (it's 56 for and 34 against), and can't debate something that is relevant to our lives. Obviously the 60-majority rule is so that the Senate won't debate stupid things like how to redesign the lawn at Camp David, but there is something wrong with it if it also precludes the discussion of a monumentally important topic such as the war, which does affect everyone in the country. It isn't appropriate to
not discuss something of national relevance! The argument the Republicans are making is hardly valid - they say that it hinders the president's agenda in Iraq to stop and debate the war, but if the majority of the American people does not support the war then why should we bow down to the president's agenda? If the point of patriotism is to not
get in the way of the president's agenda, then how is that not leaning toward dictatorship? The definition of democracy is rule by the people, and when the people don't even have the right to stand up and dissent, then that is not a real democracy.
And the growing hype surrounding Iran disgusts me. We have no excuse to fight with or invade Iran, but I'm scared that that is next on Mr. Bush's agenda. This reminds me of the gradual frenzy surrounding Iraq four years ago, as "evidence" slowly began to come to light to implicate them as accessories to terrorism (because all terrorism ever has originated from Iraq), and despite the lack of facts or proof, the American people got so caught up in the scare that they immediately supported a war. I'm worried that that could happen again with Iran, but incredulous that the administration would even try it again. I hope they don't.
Labels: politics
