Techfun

Hi Mark -

I’ve been having a bit of a midlife crisis. Not so much a crisis actually as an awakening. I don’t know what brought it on but I just turned 35 and it’s long overdue. I think in part it came from my total mental meltdown regarding the Bush/Gore circus following the election. I know it is also in part because of my intentional efforts to expose myself to more news media from outside the US whenever possible, including comparing and contrasting foreign and domestic coverage of singular events. And the rest has to do with my recent change in reading habits from fiction to non-fiction. I have been particularly interested in History lately. The amount of information that is available is astounding. I guess I have Brian to thank for that.

He for me started by giving me a copy of “Lies My Teacher Told Me” by James W. Loewen – a very readable breakdown of 7 high school history text books that points out where they portray less somewhat to extremely inaccurate events in American history all in the name of patriotism. When I finished that I went on to his other work and then started reading Noam Chomsky’s “Understanding Power”. That led me on to more stuff that opened my eyes wider including Howard Zinn and the spoken word material of Jello Biafra. I used to be a big Dead Kennedy’s fan years and years ago and was surprised to see a spoken word CD available on a subscription music site I visit. I downloaded it just to see what he was up to and it was like listening to a more charismatic and rhythmic Chomsky.

I know I am rambling here but I just wanted to tell you that now, in 2003 I finally understand what those t-shirts you wore back at BCCC actually mean. I have always considered myself bright, at least in certain areas, and decently well educated but I feel like a moron who just woke up from a sleep walking existence. Not one single teacher or professor in my entire scholastic career talked about what was actually happening in Nicaragua. I will bet not one of them is teaching their students about what we are doing in Columbia right now. An informal “survey” of my friends and co-workers helped me feel better about my blindness. Not one of them could name the top three countries that are recipients of US military aid. (Israel, Egypt, and Columbia as you probably already knew.)

I think you are aware conservative Republicans reared me. Hell, my stepfather went to high school in the same building as Reagan. Maybe that is what took me so long to realize how much I did not know.

Thanks for working so hard doing what needs to be done all these years since college. Especially for fighting the fights I did not know needed fought.

JD