LIVING OUT LOUD--July 2010

LIVING OUT LOUD--July 2010

LIVING OUT LOUD--July 2010

This is a blog about a life (mine) that is really largely uneventful but for me quite satisfying, or as Shakespeare once so aptly said, "a poor thing but mine own". I plan to give the bare bones outline of the days, the weeks etc. of my daily experiences with pertinent ( I hope) comments. Why would I want to do this? I suppose, because I can!

July 2010

When one thinks of July in America, one usually thinks of the 4th of July. Independence Day calls forth many memories for all of us. There are the back yard barbecues, the wonderful family picnics, the spectacular fireworks, the nervous dogs. It's a red white and blue kind of day. For me it is the one day of the year when I eat a delicious hot dog and I certainly look forward to that, and of course it is also a day to celebrate freedom. Last week, I finished a book "Waiting" which won the National Book Award. It was written by a Chinese-born author Ha Jin who lives and teaches in America. It is a love story set in China in the 1970's but the underlying theme is about the control of everyday life and the complete loss of freedom for Chinese citizens. The State there controls every aspect of daily life --where you are able to live--where you can go to school-- what careers you are able to have--when you can marry or divorce. There is no part of anyone's personal life that remains untouched by the State. . It reminded me of how fragile a commodity freedom is and how it must be continually guarded so that it can continue to survive. The 4th of July is a good day for us to remember that.

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Also this week I saw the movie "Rendition" . It stars Reese Witherspoon and Meryl Streep. It is an interesting, well done movie about the controversial subject of torture in our country. The question it poses is this, "Is it all right for a democratic country to allow torture of enemy captives in order to get information that might save lives?" Before we can answer that question , we must ask ourselves "Was it all right for Germany and Japan to torture our soldiers in World War 2 ?" I remember during the war how we thought that the Germans and Japanese were inhuman monsters when they tortured our soldiers. It is very difficult for me to think of America as a torturer without changing my opinion of who we are now and how cruel we ultimately might become. If we are to be a truly free and democratic country then we must live by the law and that law must be fair to everyone including prisoners( some of whom may even prove to be innocent.)

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I will be back again soon writing more about "Living Out Loud", to try to understand and illuminate some of the complicated world issues that effect not only my life, but all of our lives.

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