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| notes from underground - societal whispers all the news that print will fit. |
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Saturday, April 12, 2003 np: open window, open book. i just read this editorial response to my article from some time ago about my opposition to howard coble speaking at my graduation on may 10th. by this point, of course, howard has withdrawn as speaker. he also withdrew from the panel that myself and several others spent some hard time putting together for the sake of political diversity having an opportunity to be heard. so, to a certain extent, howard won. he's not speaking at commencement, but by refusing to come and dialogue with the campus, he has turned it around and made myself and others look like reductionist, dogmatic liberals. politicians are slippery beasts but i thought howard might at least have the decency to come and speak with his constituants. representatives ought to every now and again, afterall. the aforementioned editorial response tore into me for ignoring 'historical facts' and that i should have 'done my research' about the internment. the argument was that the internment was entirely justified by a certain event that the government had to take into consideration. okay. i understand what led to the internment. what i don't understand is how anyone could possibly think that a stray incident could be the justification for locking up an entire ethnicity? it doesn't jive with the constitution from my understanding. and it flies directly in the face of what we've been propositioning as the land of the free for centuries now. violation of constitutional rights is never fine, no matter what the incentive. there's a standard to uphold, otherwise anything can happen. and that's the point. howard coble's comments aren't about what he meant. as a politician he ought to know that. it's about how comments are interpreted. and even when howard 'apologized' he still didn't clarify his ideas well enough to give me a sense of comfort about him as a speaker. it's a shame that we can't know precisely what a person was thinking or meant when they give a statement. a lot of times things are taken out of context. but howard, given the opportunity to explain, still came up short. for me, this isn't about, as my distinguished comrade in the editorial said, the 'liberal cause du jour.' far from it. this is about a continuing and disturbing set of trends from representatives of the country. things are said which are not just disturbing for the 'liberal' set here at guilford, but around the country. from trent lott to howard coble to rep. cubin of wyoming. increasingly ridiculous statements that aren't being questioned aside from the occasional wrist slap. trent lott has probably tasted the most stinging rebuttle, which i find interesting considering his statement was the one that was the least obviously troubling. since then it's only gotten worse and to less and less attention. which is why i've had such a difficult time dealing with howard over these past few months. in all my problems with howard speaking at my commencement, the goal was never to keep him from coming to campus. as a conscious quaker i realize the importance of active listening and dialogue. and with howard speaking at commencement, all i saw was a group of seniors getting mad with no chance to respond. i proposed howard be moved from graduation to some sort of panel discussion. the idea there being that we could give him more time to elaborate and field questions as well as have supporting and opposing views represented by other panelists. the panel was supposed to include eric muller, who is a law professor at unc-chapel hill. in addition it was to have a former internment camp prisoner, a member of the department of justice and a member of the ACLU. the former internee we had lined up was john tateishi, the national director of the japanese-american citizens league. but coble refused to play with tateishi on the panel. he said the JACL had been rabidly pursuing him since the initial comments and had made "personal" attacks against him. he also expressed worry that the panel would turn into a "circus" and be an "embarassment" for both himself and the college. from my point of view, talking with your constituents can only be positive. it can only reflect well on your dedication to serving those who elect you as well as the college for setting this up. howard has still agreed to do a private discussion with 25 students, 15 faculty and staff members and kent (chabotar, president) on monday at ragsdale house. it's a small consideration considering that the entire campus can't bear witness. so for failing to communicate with the community..i'm disappointed in howard. and i feel that on my end, we failed just a bit in making this a positive step. truth is forever revealing itself. on a sidenote...and this part of the entry may seem trivial or silly, but i saw the drive-by truckers last night. now, as a lifetime southerner, i've taken a lot of grief for my homeland. it's not easy to grow up educated in the south and yet, still feel very proud and protective of where you're from. unfortunately, a lot of people who are educated here in the south begin to hate it, loathe it. talk about it as if it's a land of fools and idiots. and those from outside it, because of the way it is stereotyped in the media and entertainment, have ridiculous ideas about the people and the cities and so forth. so when intelligent arguments or representations of the south raise their head, it's something of which to take notice. it happens as often as it does for any other part of the country. it's just that sometimes that intelligence is 'masked' because of stereotypes about what constitutes intelligence. but the plethora of southern authors, politicians, thinkers, historians and so forth..not to mention that the south is responsible for the invention of the only two truly american types of music (blues and country)..well, the south has it all. that 'all' includes a lot of ugly history that is inseperable from a person's experience as a southerner, mine included. the history of slavery, the civil war, reconstruction, jim crow, the klan, lynchings, the civil rights movement. moments of intense despair and intense happiness. as much as the south seemed to be the most racist area of the country (something i chalk up to one of my favourite quotes by dr. king (paraphrasing): at least in the south they have the decency to hate you to your face. in the north, racism was more economic and backstabbing.) the leaders who emerged to take this entire country out of its absurd daydream of white supremacy were from the south as well. heroes and villians. the drive-by truckers represent an element of the south that has emerged largely thanks to the cultural importance of music and storytelling. i can't claim him as a true southerner since he was from oklahoma, but woody guthrie certainly upped the ante on what it meant to be a 'backwoods' man, yet one of the most literate and creative minds of your time. the drive-by truckers have that same impact. their music is a bit obvious, but not. lynyrd skynyrd is an obvious influence, as are the other southern rock bands of that period. but other elements rear their heads. live, the sloppy elegance of the replacements are a touchstone. cheap trick, the stones, even some elements of punk rise to the surface. and while their obvious musicianship and somehow creative style are hallmarks of what make them superb, there is something that raises the bar even further. the lyrics. patterson hood, their lead singer, has a knack for putting to paper what it means to be a member of the working class in the south. even pieces that the band themselves will throw out as a 'drinkin' song' (such as the remarkable "why henry drinks") turn out to be about a lot more than just getting wasted, as the title might hint at. "the living bubba" is an amazingly sharp portrayal of a musician dying of AIDS who is begging for time enough for 'one more show.' and in their 2001 masterpiece, southern rock opera, the truckers took on the history of racism with an eye to the details that made the stories that much more relevent. patterson hood's main point in dealing with his family's history with slavery is in pointing out that, much like 90 - 95% of southerners during the civil war, his family did not own slaves. yet his ancestor was conscripted into the confederate army to fight. the constant idea of 'rich man's war, poor man's fight' is inherent in their work. shot at the battle of shiloh, he was left with a scar through his entire body. the idea of how those fighting for the confederacy, who had no clear stakes in the preservation of slavery, were fighting to protect their homeland is brought up. not nearly focused upon as the sheer class divide, but an important point none the less. not everyone who fought in the confederacy was racist, although certainly a higher percentage than we'd prefer based on present day standards would be there. so as the drive-by truckers lay out tales of the south in traditional southern rock form, with some traditional southern phrasing, it becomes easy for those who take no time to overlook them. hicks. crackers. drunks. but stay the course. read their lyrics. and discover something deeper and more self-searching. at least..that's what i've found within their work. something that truly speaks to me. when you grow up white, male and southern, sometimes its hard to find things to be proud of. everything your ancestry speaks of betrays the scourge of the world. but with the drive-by truckers, there is faith and truth and discovery. and there is hope. above all. and now to something completely mind-numbing: j's indie/rock mayhem - 9th april 2003 Theme Song - Peaches - "Rock Show" > World Leader Pretend - "Fit For Faded" [gee..you think they like REM a bit? a great album that shows a lot of potential for this band.] Spoon - "Jonathan Fisk" [going to see spoon tonight along with crooked fingers.] Supergrass - "Seen the Light" X - "It's Who You Know" [damnit..X really rock.] > The Jayhawks - "Eyes of Sarahjane" [a beautiful, brilliant song from the new jayhawks album.] Radiohead - "Like Spinning Plates" [this was possibly my favourite song from amnesiac so i thought i'd pop it on as their new album approaches.] M. Ward - "Let's Dance" [such a great cover.] Howe Home - "Blood Orange" > The Stone Roses - "Elephant Stone" [from the new best of album. the stone roses...are..well. amazing.] The Clean - "Wipe Me, I'm Lucky" [i love this anthology the more i play of it.] Mary Lou Lord - "You're Gonna Make Me Lonseome When You Go" Bob Dylan - "Boots of Spanish Leather" [my favourite dylan song, coupled with a great cover of a great dylan song by mary lou lord.] > Fischerspooner - "The 15th" Lucinda Williams - "Those Three Days" [possibly my favourite song from her new record, which is incredible.] Placebo - "The Bitter End" [this album...rules.] Randy Newman - "Political Science" > El Guapo - "Just Don't Know" [one of the only four active bands on dischord records, but this is an awesome album. very different from all the other dischord stuff.] Josh Rouse - "Nothing Gives Me Pleasure" [his new album, 1972, is coming out this summer. hoorah!] REM - "Gardening at Night" [from their chronictown ep from wayyyy back in the day.] Stephen Malkmus - "Craw Song" [from his new album.] > Kathleen Edwards - "Westby" Sahara Hotnights - "Teenage Kicks" [yeah..a cover of the undertones' old classic. not that great though.] Jonny Polonsky - "Love Lovely Love" [a totally overlooked power pop album from the mid-90s. produced by frank black. a great little album.] Cody Chesnutt - "Upstarts in a Blowout" [cody chesnutt rules.] > The Church - "Under the Milky Way" Hayden - "Middle of July" Lyle Lovett - "Nobody Knows Me" The Byrds - "You Don't Miss Your Water" [...'til the well runs dry.] > Mandatory 'Mats - The Replacements - "Hey, Good Lookin' (live)" thanks for being patient. posted by J. Neas | 4/12/2003 03:03:00 PM
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