Vitreous Time

Saturday, June 25, 2011

Final Thoughts

This interesting as well as final unit of English 1A covering Tim O'Brien's "The Things They Carried" changed my thoughts on war. Before this unit in class I considered war a necessity that was on the large front patriotic, but always justified. With Vietnam being the subject matter, I learned again that some small research can change one's mind.

Vietnam I always knew was a defeat, but now I know that it was the beginning of a public discussion on mental defect, as well as physical, being things soldiers sustain during fighting. I still believe war a necessary but primal thing that we humans have to resort to when other venues have been exhausted.

This English class has taught me in a good atmosphere how to articulate my thought better and enjoy debate more than ever before.

Thank you.

A misleading start

One of the most helpful phrases I learned in philosophy class is:

"If you start with a false premise, you can only come out with a false conclusion." One may argue that Vietnam was a mixed bag, that is: we went in with good intentions and messed up the operation, or we went in with bad causes and we still messed up the opportunity. One might attempt a feeble just war defense of the Vietnam War.

The United States President of the time, Richard Nixon, famously a paranoid man, created for the United States a conflict untenable which gladly resulted in retreat / surrender. Because of the unrighteous start it was impossible to win.

May we not repeat with the same mistakes being repeated.

A common trial

Tim O'Brien shared with the world that he has indeed contemplated suicide. In the New York Times, he is attributed to have gone down that path from personal challenges but in another article it becomes clear that he made the decision to go on and continue to make a voice for those whom see Vietnam as "a subject almost too painful for Americans to bear."

I take solace in the fact that Tim O'Brien, among other veterans, continue to take courage and still live with us.

The Heart of the matter

In a New York Times article "Asking the Whole Country to Embrace a War Story" we learn finding what's what can be difficult. Knowing the difference between the enemy and friendlies creates huge dissonance for the soldier:

In comparing Vietnam to current wars, O'Brien is quoted:

“Obviously there are differences,” he said, “chief among them the absence of the draft. But there are enough similarities. These are wars in which there are no uniforms, no front, no rear. Who’s the enemy? What do you shoot back at? Whom do you trust? At the bottom, all wars are the same because they involve death and maiming and wounding, and grieving mothers, fathers, sons and daughters."

Recently, people have gathered to do "Big Reads" for "The Things They Carried." People have the chance to read aloud parts of the story one at a time, in order to see the story in a different light.

This too could be a helpful activity for yourself and others.

After Effects

Tim O'Brien sparks for many veterans of the Vietnam conflict as a successful writer: someone able

to communicate some of the trauma sustained in war. But in an article showcased on The New York Times entitled "Wrestling With War And Love; Raw Pain, Relived Tim O'Brien's Way" Tim O'Brien still has his work cut out for him. It's easy to understand that some echos of th epast return for a person who survived Vietnam. Looking back on "The Things They Carried" it seems one must indeed make peace instead of just writing it down.

Monday, June 20, 2011

The 'American' War

People in Vietnam, as of 2010, seem largely uninterested in Tim O'Brien's and Americans storytelling of the U.S. war in Vietnam. Partly due to censorship, but also to other factors such as Vietnam being the winning side, it becomes hard for Vietnamese people to identify or even understand the sadness included in O'Brien's work.

Fortunately, something that the Vietnamese seem to be interested in is surrealism - not being real experience. Maybe with Tim O'Brien being published in local language his view can be known.

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Taking care of one's own

News alert! According to a recent Gallup.com poll entitled “Americans’ Ratings of Current Direction of Economy,” “more than half [people polled] still say U.S. is in recession or depression.” Everyday people across the nation feel this financial quagmire not just in sympathetic television shows; these days piggy banks are becoming anemic, children are going without weekly movie rentals, and households are being less power warmed by heating systems. This situation got personal. With all things financial at the front of many Americans minds the questions arise: Who’s to blame? What am I to do? The global crisis can be successfully worked out of by promoting a culture of self-sufficiency.

For those of us who were lucky enough to have allowances when they were younger, we all learned that spending beyond your means is a bad idea. Later in life the overspending person describes themselves “being in too deep” as if there remains no solution to the problem. For instance, a farmer who speculates that with his new farm equipment production will increase 20%, he will be able to cover his payments on the equipment, and still turn out a profit. Now take that farmer, but change him to a global company with the aspiration to speculate in, say, a completely new product with no data to support the risky buy. Chances are the farmer with known risks will at least take less of a hit on his finances if the plan falls through. Bringing these ideas back to our childhood the solution to economic hardship is to get serious about living within your means. And even if we got balancing our small budgets wrong the first time that “failure… [could be a] success if we learn from it” (Brainyquote.com).

Self-sufficiency, as Dictionary.com defines it, means to be “able to supply one’s own… needs without external assistance” (Dictionary.com). Looking here and then at the past events of the last three and a half years there are countless examples of groups or individuals being unable to supply their own needs without debt. At the most basic level, the global financial crisis can be attributed to anyone or group not being responsible in their financial lives.

The effect self-sufficiency financial conversions will have on the larger scale is not dissimilar to newly baked cookie aroma traveling to the next room. Financial sufficiency will “boil over,” much like a pot of water boils over, and infect others based on how the change of heart from a financial freshman to a veteran financial junior has impacted their lives.

The financial crisis was caused, ultimately, by lack of self sufficiency and the solution is for individuals to become responsible with their financial futures. In order to rectify the gross amount of financial drowning many people have and are still going through every individual should first work towards being fiscally viable for themselves and the kind of life they would like to live. Living that secure life out will in turn show fellow Americans just how easy it is to own things that one can pay for. Of course, there are some plain and obvious examples where people need to be taken care of: the ill, disabled but for the most part taking care of oneself first is of the utmost importance. Oftentimes the simplest answer is the correct one: Stewardesses say, “Put your oxygen mask on first before you try to help someone else.”

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