Roll up Your Sleeves, America, and Get to Work!

So I didn't do my civic duty this year; I neglected to watch Obama's State of the Union Speech. Parenting got in the way, and when I was able to rejoin Obama I realized he was halfway through his speech and I just wasn't that interested.

But I do care enough about our democracy to skim the text while I watched the replay of an altogether meaningless soccer match (FA Cup...has it lost its relevance?). And while I haven't been watching CNN or Fox News or MSNBC, I've been keeping abreast of the news well enough to know how some of my favorite people responded.

Apparently, America, this is our Sputnik Moment (it seems like we've had at least 5 of those...). We are in danger of falling behind to China or India or Upper Malakvia in everything but our obesity rates. Our kids suck at their maths. They don't read too good. We've lost our ability to build things, we've lost our faith in ourselves and what America can be. Now, we must "invest" in our children's education and infrastructure improvements. However, all of this new "investment" must be set against that whole balanced budget bugaboo. If we can do all of this, then America will retain its place in the world.

Of course, I put "investment" in "quotes" becuase "Republicans" think that "investment" is really a "code word" for increased "government spending". Sarah Palin made this point and went so far as to question the President's leadership, saying that what real leadership is deeds and not words. Pretty tough talk from someone who abandoned her position as a public servant to be little more than a charismatic thought leader with a reality TV show.

You know, I got a questionaire from my congressional representative, and on the matter of a balanced budget I was asked "What do you think we should do to balance the budget?" My two options were (predictably) increase taxes or cut spending.

And I ask: WHY CAN'T WE DO BOTH!

I am not convinced that more government is a bad thing. If you look at many of the great things that America has done, you will find that a powerful centralized government is behind them. World War II was bought and paid for with war bonds and huge amounts of spending on defense. After Sputnik, we launched a huge government effort to supply better education to our children and to propel usinto the space race; it eventaully took us to the moon! How awesome is that? How amazing is that? And as to to Civil Rights; a huge, powerful government was necessary to secure and protect everyone's rights and start to begin to reverse years of institutionalized racism (which our government at one point helped protect, one must admit). Government is required to do things that are bigger then ourselves. Without strong government, our largest ambitions as a nation simply will not be realized.

I beleive that it can even be argued that our nation's founding was almost hampered by a lack of government. In "His Excellency, George Washington", Joseph Ellis remarks that Washington was often envious of his British adversaries and the supply, funding, and command system that a strong centralized government could provide. Lucky we were that another strong government (France, of all people) was willing to supply arms, powder, money, and eventually ships and men, to help win our independence (I am not saying that without France the war would have never been won....but I do find it interesting that the degree of French intervention is often understated, if not totally overlooked). Little wonder that when our delegates sat down to write our constitution, after the years of drift under the weak articles of confederation, Washington and others crafted something with a stronger dose of federal power.

Look, I am not advocating a European system where we all have to pay 75% taxes and we get all kinds of services in return. Those systems are probably unworkable in America, and as we have seen they can have problems of their own. But I do think that its naive to believe that in this day and age we can get by with the small government of Thomas Jefferson or George Washington. To borrow a phrase from Clay Jenkinson: that was a 3 mph world. That type of government is not suited to a 300 mph world.

If some of the greatest things our nation has ever done have had heavy government involvement, they have also been marked with incredible sacrifice. Thousands of men sacrified their lives for freedom in Europe, the Pacific, at Antietam and Gettysburg, and all over the world. Today, as you read this, the men and women of our armed services are risking their lives or preparing to risk our lives, ostensibly fighting for the freedoms we enjoy. Getting to the moon took hard work as well as the loss of some lives. Civil rights were paid for with blood and bravery, prison terms, ordinary people doing extraordinary things.

Maybe, if America is to have a great future, we should all be willing to sacrifice in ways that so many have before. Some of us may need to work a little harder in school, turn off the TV and put down the I-phone and actually do some math. Some of us may have to learn a new trade in school. Some of us may send a son or daughter to war. Some of us may have to take more responsibility for ourselves becuase we can and go without entitlements that someone else desperately needs, and some of us may actually to have pay some taxes.

I am continously befuddled by the fact that we are so willing to wrap ourselves in the flag and send our best and brightest to kill and be killed, and yet when someone wants to raise sales taxes to help provide better education or a more affordable college degree, or if someone wants to put tolls on a bridge or raise the gas tax, we act like the world is ending.

If we really want a balanced budget, if we really want to secure our future, both sides have to own up and make some sacrifices. You can't get there by cutting spending, and you can't there by just raising taxes. In a spirit of sacrifice, we must find a way to do better. You can't have it both ways.

Martin Luther King Day

Today, I had the privilege of listening to Dr. Martin Luther King's "I have a Dream Speech" in its entirety. I must admit, its not something I set out to do; it was, rather, a happy accident. I was tuned in as normal to NPR on the raido in my car, and some show (Talk of the Nation?) was good enough to air the speech in its entirety. It was my good fortunte to hear every word as I drove from my home to the CHKD Thrift Store, where my wife and I were going to buy some stuff we did not need anymore.


As many years as I have been alive, and as much as we talk about Dr. King's Speech, I realized as I was listening that I have never really heard it, that I have never even read it. If you find yourself thinking "you know, I have never really heard it either", do yourself a favor and do so through your medium of choice.

It is an amazing speech, made all the more amazing becuase (as I later learned), the most famous part of the speech, the "I have a dream"s, was not written down. It something that Dr. King was apparently thinking about as he was crafting the speech, but it hadn't made it into the final cut. But as he was giving his address he decided to abandon his prepared text and launched into something that has captured the heart of a nation for the past 47 years.

I was just about moved to tears. Here is a man who is inspiring America to fulfil its promise not with hate but with love, not with a fist but with an open hand, not with denigration of his opponents but rather with a hope that one day we all might see past our differences and unite in a meaningful way.

And I ask myself: where is our Dr. King? Who is inspiring us to be our best selves with an open hand? Is it the Glenn Beck's or the John Stewart's? Is it the Sarah Palins? Is it the Keith Obermans? Is it even the Barak Obamas of this world? Where is our country's champion?

Nick Marickovich Reads the Millenium Trilogy

The film "Nick Marickovich Reads the Millenium Trilogy" is an uplifting story of a man who spends great swaths of the 2010-2011 holiday season reading three remarkable books loaded with sexual violence, good old regular violence, and lots of open face sandwhiches and coffee.

"I'm really glad this movie has finally came together," said Nick Marickovich, who will be played by critically acclaimed Shakesperean actor Sir Arthur Biggles. "I really loved these books (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl who Played with Fire, The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest). The second one is probably my favorite, but the ending of the third is masterful, in my mind. In a few pages, Stieg Larsson manages to bring everything full circle. It is ashame that he died before he could write more of them."

The books tell the story of Lisbeth Salander, a woman in her twenties declared incompetant by the Swedish government who is the victim of continued injustices and sexual violence. She is a vision of empowerment: rather than trying to seek help from the authorities (who are actually against her...its a long story that is best left a mystery for those who want to read the novels) she takes matters into her own hands and exacts revenge against those who cross her with incredible ability.

"She's a fascinating character," said Nick in an interview with WassoBlog. "On the one hand, she operates completely outside the legal system. She is an expert computer hacker. She's a vigillante. She breaks laws left and right. On the other hand she has a very precise code of morality and justice, and she only seeks revenge on those who have transgressed against her. She also really can't relate to people well, though she tries. She takes no pleasure in music, and at the beach instead of sitting down on a towel with a novel like The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo, she will be instead pouring over mathematical equations. "

Lisbeth Salander finds her fate entwined with the journalist Mikel Blomkvist over the course of the trilogy. When asked about Blomkvist, Nick's face clouds over and he launches into a long, rambling dialoge, looking first at the ceiling, then at the floor, then out the window. "Well," he says, "In the first book they are sort of tossed together when they try to solve a murder mystery. They do sort of fall in love...or at least Lisbeth does. But Blomkvist is very casual about most of his relationships. Women just sort of fall into his lap and take off their clothes, and he does really very little to stop them."

"I mean, its a good character trait for him to have, becuase while you might look at it and say 'wow, what a life this guy leads' its a negative trait in this case, and the author explores that. He ends up hurting some people, Lisbeth included. And I don't think its intentional, it just...it is what it is. With a few exceptions, relationships are just a string of casual sexual encounters. You know, when I was reading the books I thought that Blomkvist was dangerously close to being a Jack Ryan, just a perfect guy with lots of guts who manages to do everything right. But this flaw in his character...it saves him in a way. Gives him a chance to grow, if only a little bit."

When asked about the movie, Nick just shrugs his shoulders. "Its no secret that we've been beset by production delays and had some....problems with the cast. But we've come through all those."

When Wassoblog sat down with Sir Arthur Biggles, he had a very different take on things.

"They did not and do not respect my pedigree as an actor. For Christ's sake, I played Romeo on Broadway!"

When confronted with these accusations, director Ron Howard shook his head. "Yeah, the Broadway Dinner Theatre over Morleysville, West Virginia. Oh, and I must inform you that Sir Arthur Biggles, knight of the realm, purchased his knighthood online."

"Yes, I did purchase my knighthood online," said Biggles, lighting a pipe and generally looking sophisticated. "Its perfectly legitimate. Britain is strapped for cash, and they are offering titles up at auction on Ebay. The only requirement is that you be able to speak with an English accent. Since I took a dialects class at the Brookdale Recreation Center in 1997, well, I can. I am an actor, after all. It was the realization of a life long dream."

"He made Helena Bonham Carter [who plays Mrs. Marickovich] cry," said Producer Tom Hanks.

"I told her I met the Queen Mum." said "Sir" Arthur Biggles. "Which I did. I happened to run into her in a pastry shop outside of Lyme on Regis. Why she was there I have idea. I figured she wanted a muffin so I offered her mine. That way she wouldn't have to stoop so low as to actually purchase one. Why she never took my offer I will never understand; I had only taken one bite out of it. BUT ANYWAYS," says Biggles, drawing himself up to full height. "I have met the Queen Mum. I saw Ms. Carter play the Queen Mum in "The King's Speech". Helena Bonham Carter is no Queen Mum."

"This is the most fucked up thing I have ever worked on" muttered Howard as he walked away from the interview.

The movie is slated to open on Memorial Day, 2011.