Name calling.
I suppose it could be much, much worse for a tall, skinny Chinese guy, but I hated to be called
"Yao Ming" by strangers. Drunk guys in bars do it. Kids at the playground do it. On the street, on the buses... you name it. That is until today. I was at work and the janitors were stripping and waxing the floors. One of them, trying to prevent me from messing up their work, called out "Yao Ming" to get my attention. Instead of getting annoyed, it hit me. Maybe all those times people call me "Yao" is not because they think it is funny, but it was just an awkward but friendly way to getting my attention. They just don't know my name, but neither do I know their names even though I see some of them at work everyday. Perhaps it is like calling someone who looked Indian, "Gandhi." Being a minority and on the receiving end of such greeting, I can be understandably a bit more sensitve--"is that all you know of anyone from China?" Yet, being compared to a multi-million international icon is not insulting but a compliment, albeit a crude one. So for the time being, I won't be getting mad by all the Yao-lings, and will try to learn more of the names of people I see everyday.
Meaningless Sacrifice?
I heard stories from soldiers currently in Iraq on
"This American Life," the radio show on NPR. Most of them don't want to stop the war because, to them, that would mean all the sacrifice and death of their comrads are for not. This argument is heart-breaking, has been used a lot, but is flawed nevertheless.
Beside the
"sunken cost" argument put forth by economists--when some undertaking is obviously bad, past investment is not justification for further investment--there is another argument. Fighting a battle for a worthy cause with flawed plans while having the best of intentions happens all the time.
All new medical treatments to cure previously uncurable diseases are required to go through rigorous rounds of clinical trials. Gene therapy used to be a hot area of such research until a few years ago.
A young patient died at the hospital of University of Pennsylvania as a participant in the gene therapy trial to cure his disease. The trial was halted. Other trials also had been stopped due to the occurance of leukemia in several patients. Clearly, doctors involved in these trials had noble goals, comprehensible planning (the best current science and technology can provide), and were treating patients that knew they were taking risks and consented to them. Yet the trials had to be stopped even though they could still provide invaluable data for future research and treatment designs. Did anyone say "we can't stop it now with the job half-finished. If we do, then Jesse would have died in vain." And if someone did, would the rest of the medical community listen?
Now compare a well-designed medical trial to rid patients of life-threatening diseases to a poorly planned war, to rid people in foreign land of their dictator, without their consent. The war is going badly, and after two years, maybe it is time to consider different strategies. And removing U.S. troops should be one of the alternative solutions to be considered. No, that does not mean the life lost and/or ruined will be rendered meaningless. I hope people will learn the true cost of war and the passion of a hostile civilization under occupation, just as doctors at Penn and elsewhere learned fromt the unfortunated patients in their trials.
God and football.
Mr. Jerry Falwell, ironic, isn't it? The football team of the Liberty University, a school you founded and serves as the Chancellor, is 1-9. Division I-AA or not, a 1-9 record is pretty much a disaster for a football team, even if it is nicknamed "the Flames." So what does Falwell, a fundamental evangelical Christian, do? Give personal inspirational speeches to the coaches and players? Stress the importance of Christian values in the face of adversity? Scrap the football progam that has lost $7.4 millions last year, and give the money saved to the victims of real natural disasters? Nope. He
fired the coach and the athletic directors. Surely, if he really believed in the miraculous power of God, he should have prayed harder, and eventually the team will be saved. But apparently he is short in faith and really wants a top-20 team when he is still alive.
Perhaps, he should listen his fellow fundie, Pat Robertson on the topics of God and disasters. Robertson
"lectured" the residents of Dover, PA, on the consequences of rejecting Intelligent Design:
if there is a disaster in your area, don't turn to God, you just rejected Him from your city...And don't wonder why He hasn't helped you when problems begin, if they begin. I'm not saying they will, but if they do, just remember, you just voted God out of your city. And if that's the case, don't ask for His help because he might not be there.So, the question to you, Mr Falwell: why has Jesus Christ, the Lord and Savior, has forsaken you and your $7.4 million football team?
P.S. It's not
Dr. Falwell. He graduated from
Baptist Bible College, Springfield, Mo, and only has honoary degrees from three theology schools. So no, that means you are not a "Dr," Mr. Falwell.
Arm chair quarterback
I love playing video games of football and baseball games, specially when I could manage the rosters and call plays. And I love second-guessing coaches and managers of professional teams on TV about every decision they make. Somehow I got this idea that without actually playing these sports, I am just as competent as these men who have spent all their lives living, breathing and dreaming about the sport. And I am not alone.
No, I am not talking about Joe Blow from the sports bar yelling at the big screen every Sunday, I am talking about people at the White House. They feel qualified to tell everyone how to fight a war and interrogate suspected terrorists without have ever done it themselves. Meanwhile, former generals (Powell) and ex-POWs (McCain) who have personally experienced the ugly side of warfare and torture are up-in-arms about the conduct of this on-going war. Maybe Cheney has extensive experience in torturing and that is why he is so admant about keeping the door open for the CIA. The defenders of Cheney are usually law professors and TV/internet commentators whose tortuous interrogative skills have been well-honed, I presume, on their law students and callers to their radio shows, while I do not hear much murmur from actual CIA officials who are pro-torture. But hey, after burning the midnight oil three nights in a roll to watch an entire season of "24," everyone should know how successful Jack Bauer is at extracting information from terrorists. Speaking of which, where is Jack, and how many 24-hours does he need to get Osama?
