‘A Bold Fresh Piece of Humanity’

If you don’t know, this is what one of Bill O’Reilly’s Catholic school nuns called him and is the title of his more recent book, A Bold Fresh Piece of Humanity.  I definitely got some good laughs from the guy who otherwise could be in prison, or so he says.  I came away believing he is trying to use his renown to make a difference for the better.  It’s a book about how he came to think and be the person he is with stories of slugging it out on the playground and pranks on the sisters (nuns).

Two issues, though, were worth further comment for me.

-Not ‘Right’ nor ‘Left’.  It is impossible to be neither right nor left on the political spectrum.  Picking and choosing from both sides still means you are picking a ‘right’ or ‘left’ position.  The two sides are generally opposite points of view.  To me an independent is someone who may lean left or right but who chooses not to align perfectly with mainstream party opinion.  I hope most people can and will think for themselves on issues.  O’Reilly is clearly right leaning but who can sometimes acquiesse to the left on a limited number of issues.  The past he relates in his book only reinforces that idea for me.  I like the term ‘moderate’ because if you trully don’t like extremes, moderate seems to fit linguistically to that idea.

-Taking on evil.  He says that his mission is to take on evil and confront bullies.  While I believe everyone is required to judge what is right and wrong for themselves I constantly find myself, even with the best intentions, making mistakes.  From our limited experiences we may not truly understand the full picture and have to adjucate unfairly.  ‘Evil’ is a trickly label.  The bible, for example, calls suicide evil.  However, a person who is in such desperation is probably not in full control of their mental and emotional state and therefore is not committing a sin.  It is more likely to me that the value of life is the essence of the biblical commandment and each case will be reviewed individually.  The more important point, however, is what is ‘evil’ and if we can firmly label something evil, how do we deal with it?  O’Reilly has chosen to tackle this difficult mission.  Is it an appropriate mission??

Reader’s Note: The book is so much fun on CD.  He reads it himself and hearing his New York drawl is worth the extra pennies.

We Doubled Our Numbers

The preliminary numbers are in for next year’s Arabic classes.  Without the Middle School students’ registrations we have doubled our numbers.  This is exciting.  There, of course, will be some shuffle but at the very least there is some momentum in enrollment.  I think it’s the sh3by (popular) t-shirts we handed out. 

And while I’m on the topic, I have to thank my co-teacher Mohamed El Naggar who has worked very hard on recruitment.  There are a lot of cultural adjustments coming to a new country and working full time.  He has done a great job in overcoming those challenges and making this possible.  Not to mention how much he has helped me with my Arabic.

“Not How Democracy Works”

President Barack Obama spoke to Republicans today. His most powerful point: You can’t get everything you want.  It’s not how democracy works. I predict Obama will go down in history as one of the greats.  Some of my highlights from the discussion:

• Live and Unscripted. Wow.  No other president has ever taken on the opposition and fielded questions unscripted live.  No one before him could do it.  His calmness and intelligence are soothing.
• Left Center. I really see him as left center.  Pelosi and Reid are very left and have been difficult to work with.  Obama, though, is often willing to move to the center.
• Keeping jobs. Whatever side of the aisle congressmen are on, they are often more interested in their jobs than in making things work and talking.  I liked the tone of Obama’s request for compromise.  Compromise is traditionally what has made this country great.  He pointed out specific examples of rhetoric versus reality which limit people from working together.
• Republicans Revealed. I’m so tired of conspiracy theories and Obama demonizing.  People might not agree with everything he does or says but he’s a good man with good intensions.  –And yes, I like the fact that he loves his wife.  A man who can love her is a man I can like.

Interpreting for Weddings

So I get asked to interpret for the ’special day’ once in a while.  And, it’s been quite the experience.  My first time attending a Catholic wedding was to interpret.  You gotta realize, when I walk in the doors, I’m dressed for the occasion but I’m on the job; a machine.  I’m basically paid to be invisible in a very visible way.

What does that mean?  Well, I walk in the door and usually find the wedding coordinator.  They tell me where to stand.  More often than not they point in the direction of the altar or the main focal point.  So imagine seeing your first Catholic wedding from the vantage point of the priest marrying the couple.  What’s going through my mind?  ‘Don’t mess up.’  and ‘Don’t forget the signs for Catholic wedding lingo.’  After all, the entire wedding party is staring at you and the couple.  No pressure.

Why?  Well, a deaf person wants to be able to see me and what’s happening, hence the visibility.  But they don’t want me to be involved.  That’s why their brother or cousin isn’t interpreting.  But I don’t mind.  I get to be a fly on the wall and be invited to all sorts of things I wouldn’t be invited to as a real person.  Again–I’m a machine.

And this is interesting because??…For example:  Afterwards when I interpret conversations; if I’m interpreting for deaf women (not necessarily meaning the bride or groom), the conversations are usually about colors, flowers, outfits, and nerves.  Guess what the guys’ conversations are about?  90%–sex.  The other 10%–They tend to plan excuses to get out of their wife’s plans to bond with family and hang with the boys.

You can learn a lot at weddings.

Like A Little Prayer

Madonna sang, “Like a Little Prayer” at the Hope For Haiti benefit.  I really liked it.  To me it means we are sometimes the hands that bring about the miracles in other people’s lives.  We can’t sit around if we can do something to help.  It’s hard to even fathom what has happened to the Haitians.

Inside Egypt

John R. Bradley doesn’t hold back writing Inside Egypt: The Land of the Pharaohs on the Brink of a Revolution.  He fiercely establishes his self proclaimed thesis that “Egypt is a social tinderbox”.  He has personally touched many of the stories and events through interviews of eye witnesses and in-depth reading of history.

Basically he says that Egypt keeps its tourist driven economy afloat to beguile a pyramid loving West into looking the other way from governmental corruption, torture, dictator tyranny, and economic chaos.  Any Western probe past this supposedly stable regime’s antics, warns Mubarak will usher in Islamic rule via the Muslim Brotherhood.

Bradley is calling Mubarak’s bluff, who initally banned his book in Egypt at its original publishing in 2008.  Egypt has no real taste for the Muslim Brotherhood or for extremist Islamic rule.  He also calls for America to be wiser in its dealings with Egypt.

I have to admit it was somewhat of a painful read.  It made logical much of what I had seen and experienced in Egypt on my three encounters in the country and from the Egyptians I know outside of the country.  The harrassment, the chaos, the poverty, the stagnation, but also the openness, the humor, the rich culture and heritage made more sense.  It is painful the more I know about the prison-like environment which is Egypt for Egyptians.  And probably because in seeing so much poverty and chaos I have struggled to come to grips with why.  This book started to bring those reasons into focus.

On a different note, I turned down the page for this quote which I liked because it made me laugh in relation to Westerners and tourism.  “…much of the rest of the world, too, is only beginning to wake up to any options that go beyond exhibiting a handful of giraffe-necked women to gaping tour groups (page 109).”  This quote may give you a sense of the writing.  In Bill O’Reilly’s often used term, Bradley is “pithy”.

Arabic Challenges

Today I heard that what seemed to me as a very robust Arabic program in a charter school here in Utah has been cut due to budget priorities. I know a little more of the situation and there were some politics involved as well. That’s really too bad. This news also comes on a day when one of the students started to cry during Arabic class.

Definitely once in a while the enormity of the language and the challenging grammar can get to almost anyone. Psychology, in my oppinion plays a key part in this. I try to tell students, if it becomes too much, back off. Take a breath. Then go back when you’re feeling more confident. To me Arabic is not about winning, it’s about staying in the game. Imagine if more people in the US understood the Middle East. This has global implications on many levels.

Martin Luther King Day

I am by no means an expert on the Black Community.  Martin Luther King day has got me thinking, though, of all the fond memories of being in the Black Community; invited in for a day or two or a few weeks.  Whether it was sitting around in the school lounge eating lunch with the Black faculty, interpreting in all Black high schools in Maryland, interpreting for Black employee meetings, I came to enjoy my experiences.

A few of my highlights:

-Teachers telling their students to stop singing.  Students tried to get their teacher off topic by humming some tunes.  And on breaks during class, I saw students huddle for impromptu rap sessions. Not to mention the girl I saw outside in a corner of the building singing at the top of her lungs.

-At lunch, older faculty telling their stories of segregation.

-Walking into a government class and seeing mostly Black historical figures decorating the walls.

-Black employees giving their white co-workers the benefit of the doubt for apparently unfair situations.  (I don’t know if the situations were unfair or not.)  That spirit of forgiveness, though, taught me more respect and tolerance.

-A teacher bearing her testimony of Jesus in front of her English class to some “Amens”.

-An entire Black high school class trying to get me to do the head thing.

-Black preacher sermons.  Love it.

These are moments when you should stop talking and just listen.  It’s a whole different world.  I’m not even saying these experiences are in any way representative of the whole Black community because I really don’t know.  But they remain with me.

Rabbi David Rosen

“If you don’t want religion to be part of the problem, you have to make it part of the solution.”

Rabbi David Rosen reiterated this point in his Truman G. Madsen lecture entitled, “Religion and Peace Making in the Middle East”.  Rabbi Rosen labeled himself ‘dialogian’, a term others coined for him in an introduction before one of his lectures.  According to the person introducing him it means a theologian who dialogues.  People, he said, in threatening environments cling to their identities more than they might.  Jews and Muslims get along but not as well under durress.

Possessing a rich vocabulary, Rabbi Rosen has a way of allowing his audience to feel welcome as guests into the lives of  Jews and Israelis, humanizing them.  You can also easily feel that he is ‘one of us’.  It was this gift of intellect and resonance that ultimately took him from a teaching role with the Brigham Young University’s Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies where I met him.  He is now currently the director of the American Jewish Committee, Department of Interreligious Affairs with a very robust resume of religious outreach and administration.

For those family who read this: Grandpa and Grandma as well as Dave and JoAnn were invited to the special dinner given in his honor before hand.  Elder Holland, President Cecil Samuelson, and others were in attendance at the dinner and then later at the speech.  I think it was a special moment for Grandpa and Grandma to get a chance to reconnect with him after so long.  (If you didn’t know.  Grandpa was the one who originally hired Rabbi Rosen at the Jerusalem Center.)

Ben Dunbar Visits from DC

Ben Dunbar in the red tie, is the program director of TCLP (Teachers of Critical Lanugages Program) with American Councils for International Education.  He, the man who facilitated bringing our exchange teacher Mohamed El Naggar from Egypt, was here today for a site visit.  American Councils works closely with the State Department Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.  He observed our Arabic classes and met with administration, counselors, and district specialists to promote the Arabic program.  We are excited to have him here as Utah is becoming a strong force for Arabic education at the public school level.  He meets tomorrow with UFLA administration (Utah Foreign Language Association), Gregg Roberts (World Language Specialist at the Utah State Office of Education), people at the governor’s office, and many more.