What will our children say about this night?

It is now official: the combat mission is over. No longer will we have the War in Iraq. We may still have an interminable war in Afghanistan, but hopefully this will help the country better allocate its resources and resolve the conflict.

How will this war be remembered? For all the atrocities of the Vietnam War, auteur filmmakers created some incredible stories and broadened the power of celluloid. Think about the first time you saw Marty Sheen staring at the ceiling fans with The Doors blaring into helicopter blades or Robert Duvall and the Flight of the Valkyries in the legendary Apocalypse Now. Or maybe Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket opened your eyes to the cruelness of war. Perhaps the Russian roulette games in The Deer Hunter are enough to churn your stomach. For me, it was the heart-wrenching scenes of Robin Williams addressing the troops in Good Morning, Vietnam. But the catalog of films from that messy and sordid chapter of American history only begins there. Platoon, Casualties of War, Born on the Fourth of July, Forrest Gump, The Quiet American and Across the Universe are just a few of the films that have explored some of the heartbreak and incredible cost of war at home and abroad. Will we see such an array of films about Operation Iraqi Freedom ten, twenty, thirty years from now?

Can’t you just imagine Benicio Del Toro playing the deposed dictator in Saddam on the Lam? Perhaps that might be too irreverent. A more poignant film might see the chaos of the Bush Administration’s infighting before Terence Howard (as Colin Powell) addresses the United Nations. Michael Douglas could portray the meddling Don Rumsfeld and you can dream up your own cast for the film versions of Bob Woodward’s superb trilogy. Or one might see Will Smith delivering the address given tonight by President Obama as he juggles the weight of immense domestic crises with unpopular wars and still other festering international disputes. One can bet that the horrors of Abu Ghraib will be revisited as the My Lai Massacre was a generation ago.

There are stories to be told. Who will tell them? 

Summer’s End

We are at the end of another weekend, the final weekend of August. Once again, I haven’t been able to read as much as I would have liked. Having a toddler certainly contributes to that, but I would also say that I always think I’ll be able to read more on vacations than I ever end up being able.

This was the summer I found more books than I ever have before, plundering book fairs and library sales. I read a couple of pageturners by Michael Connelly and Jonathan Kellerman, in addition to a couple of books by John Updike and the books previously mentioned in my blog, I have been working my way through Richard Wright’s Black Boy. So far, I find I enjoyed Native Son much better.

One more week until the unofficial end of summer, Labor Day. Maybe I’ll finish a couple of books by then.

End of War

After seven and half years, we finally reached the end of the War in Iraq. And yet, in a point I alluded to in my previous post, this war wasn’t real for most Americans. Yes, we saw the names of the fallen soldiers and Marines every Sunday on This Week with George Stephanopolous, and we saw the celebrations as local service members were welcomed home. But it wasn’t real, at least not in the way war was so immediate for Dr. Nafisi and her students, and especially for Amir in The Kite Runner. This was a war we watched on network TV until we cared about neither.

Yes, I have heard stories from servicemen and women about things that didn’t exactly make the nightly news. It was definitely all too real for them and their loved ones. For the rest of us, it was war of words, about whether the troops should be in Iraq and when should they leave. The bombs weren’t going off in our neighbor’s yard, and we didn’t have to wonder who we’d have to confront on the way to the store. I still stand by my opposition to the war, but I have nothing but the utmost respect for the men and women who faced the war that we eventually ignored. Perhaps the best way to honor those who have served is to find the stories of this war and share them with the students I teach.

Worlds Away

I must admit that while reading both Reading Lolita in Tehran and The Kite Runner, I was struck by how differently the world must appear to the respective authors than it did for me. For them and the characters in their books, war was immediate and omnipresent. It was not simply a chapter of homework or a 2 minute blurb on ABC World News Tonight—everything they did or saw was cloaked in the shroud of war. To escape it, they had to leave their homeland, or what remained. When I think of self-preservation, I worry about how I can stretch the next paycheck or whether I should be eating that extra cookie. For Dr. Nafisi, it meant huddling with her children while Tehran was bombed by Iraq. For Amir, he had to put his trust in strangers as he evacuated Afghanistan and on his return to the shell of Kabul. I can send my son to day care without any concern about political unrest. Just toddlers being toddlers, that’s all. No rogue mullahs attempting to usurp power here.

With all this talk about a “Ground Zero Mosque,” I wonder how many of those who are outraged would be more sympathetic if they had read more books like the ones I have just completed. Aside from the fact that the mosque in question would actually be a couple of blocks away from Ground Zero, I think many have made quite a leap, suggesting that mosques breed terrorists because of something intrinsic to Islam. Hello, who was behind the Spanish Inquisition?!!

My point is that if people understood other cultures a little better, there might be fewer such leaps. By no means do I claim to be an expert on any religion, especially Islam, but I belief my understanding of Muslims has been broadened by books such as those above and others, like the autobiography of Benazir Bhutto. Countless books open doors to the customs and rituals of Judaism, Catholicism and numerous other faiths. Think about where your knowledge comes from, how it is shaped. One might even learn considerably more about his own faith, and start to ask better questions or respond to the religion’s teachings in a different way.

Why baseball is like a good book

One of my favorite things about sports, especially baseball, is the fact that a good game is like a good book. You have a reasonable expectation for the outcome based on what you know about the people or characters involved, and then, a few unexpected twists and turns--in addition to adherence to the structure laid forth--you reach the conclusion with a satisfying resolution, even if the outcome isn't what you were pulling for.

Last night, at the Sox game, we saw lot of what one might expect: good pitching, fundamental defense and a few very good plays, and a couple of slight momentum shifts not unlike the action in a good book. In the ninth inning, it seemed a done deal. One of the Sox's most reliable pitchers came on to close out a 2-1 victory--except that didn't happen. A runner reached base, and then an eight-pitch at-bat ensued, one foul ball after another. Once the batter struck out, victory was in hand, no? Instead, the weakest hitter on the opposing team managed to take a splitter that didn't split and deposit it improbably into the left-centerfield stands. A sure victory for the South Siders was turned into a likely defeat.

Of course, when the evening ends with a spectacular fireworks display (more an epilogue than the story's conclusion) against the backdrop of a warm mid-August evening sky, one can feel satisfied that the ride was enjoyable, even if the hero didn't get the girl.

Finding a window to the world

Allow me to introduce myself. I have lived in Chicago for the last decade, falling more and more in love with the city all the time. Having published two books of poetry and a musical, I am now looking to share my enthusiasm for film and book analysis and juxtapose it against the local sports scene, among other things. Along the way, as I work my way into teaching high school, I will be sure to relay some of the literature revelations that I experience with students.

Most of all, I want to establish the important of hearing the stories of the world. Recently, I have read The Kite Runner, Reading Lolita in Tehran, and The Death of Josseline: Immigration Stories from the Arizona-Mexico Badlands, and there are many more interesting works to come. While I respect the right of each person to his or her own viewpoints, my goal to show people how literature (fiction and non-) can better inform decisions. In the end, opposition for opposition's sake benefits no one.

I hope that, by following this blog, you, too, find pieces of information that inspire you to read more about the world around, and maybe we'll share a laugh or two as well.