mr. daniels

Yesterday (Monday 3/25) was a long, very good day.

It started out, like most weekdays, with me going to school at 7am, observing first period (even giving some notes when Mr. Grady had to take care of some girls’ softball coaching stuff), and teaching third, and fourth period classes. My classes are still in the NonFiction unit, and we read a short essay called “A Taste of Snow”, written by a woman whose first experience seeing snow was at a Japanese internment camp in California during WWII. The essay I had the students write was to trace a life-changing experience they have had, from the old attitude about something, through the experience, and to their new attitude. Mr. Grady’s great example was how he used to love english muffin pizzas, then saw his friend in kindergarten who had just eaten 15 pizzas throw up all over the bus (inciting everyone else to puke), and now he can’t even look at english muffin pizzas without getting sick. I graded a lot of papers during my free period and caught up on planning work. I also observed another student teacher, Jason Efland, do an activity in his history class using the Iraq war and some “facts” from newspapers… I really cannot believe it, but 100% of the students in his class claimed to be in favor of the U.S. invading and taking over Iraq, and all of them even explained their opinion in detail—that Saddam is a bad ruler and should be taken out because he is terrible to his own people, “supports terrorism,” and “is a big threat to the U.S.”

Well, in place of the frustration I usually feel, I know what to say to that now. I went to the Speaker’s Forum (an organization whose once vice-president I know and love) event on Tuesday night—Scott Ritter, former Chief Weapons inspector in Iraq from 1991-1998. He is a HUGE anti-war speaker, but he’s a Marine, a Republican, and someone who voted for George W. Bush. Basically he is angry with the Bush Administration for its lies, and its agenda of becoming a world dominating Imperialist superpower. He laid out a rebuttal to every single one of the reasons Colin Powell presented to the U.N. for a pre-emptive strike on Iraq. First of all, it is physically and logically impossible for Iraq to have any CHEMICAL, BIOLOGICAL, or NUCLEAR weapons, or even if they did, for them to be able to use them on the U.S. This comes from a lot of details and facts that Ritter collected over 7 years, and proved to the U.S. government that Iraq was 95-99% disarmed by 1998. Now our government is bombing a country and sending in troops based on their assumption that without being 100% sure, Iraq must be a huge “threat.”

In almost racist statements (which he later clarified), Ritter described the Iraqis as very incompetent with their “weapons of mass destruction.” He knows what it would take for anthrax to work—they don’t have the technology to make it work. He knows what it would take for a nerve gas strike—they logically can’t make it happen and hide their factories and artillery. He knows what it would take for nuclear weapons—they just can’t do it with the aluminum rods the U.S. used as an excuse to go to war.

Scary things… North Korea really is a worse threat. The U.S. is basically planning to have “Zero Tolerance” towards any country who is getting more powerful—or even close—to us. Now they are armed with nuclear weapons, and the U.S. would definitely fire first--- which would be a terrible war, more terrible than anything else.

Oh, and did i mention that even if Bush WAS elected legally (which he wasn’t), and isn’t a “fictitous president,” he is still DEFINITELY A WAR CRIMINAL. Ritter brought up the fact that article 6 of the U.S. constitution places us as a signatory in the charter for the United Nations, and their law is our law. In this international law, “NO WAR SHALL BE WAGED WITH THE GOAL OF REGIME CHANGE.” Well, what has Bush been saying all this time? That “Regime Change” is what we’re all about in this war. So our government is doing things—and admitting to the reasons!!!—that we HUNG NAZIS for at Nuremburg. Crazy.

Scott Ritter said-- DO NOT FEEL HELPLESS during this war. i felt so inspired and empowered just hearing someone with a conservative worldview confirm with first-hand observations and FACTS what we're all abstractly feeling right now. that it's an unjust war. but he put the burden on the PEOPLE to do something about it-- get the elected officials to work for us again. and the best thing i can do is try to tell some of these facts from an honest guy (i truly believe) to people who are "on the fence" about what we're doing in iraq.

that's it for politics right now. i really don't want to fight with other human beings about whether or not this war is right or wrong. all war is wrong. that's what i believe anyway. i just have to stop being so lazy and try to do something.

any ideas? what do we do? what can we do?

-h

so in these tumultuous times, we're all doing what we're doing, and trying to get by, just as we were before "operation shock and awe" began.

i am in a band called bastille, and we just finished our demo cd. we had gone into the studio a month before and recorded the basic bass, drums, and guitar tracks for 5 songs. this past week we went back in and laid down vocals, solidified the mixing, and finished 3 tracks for release as a "demo" to pass around until we can go back in and finish 9 good songs for a real album. the whole experience has been very rewarding and interesting. i never knew that you could do so many things-- or would want to do so many things-- to "tweak" the sound of a record. at first i was hesitant, because we went in wanting a "live" sound, and i thought that meant that we would stay true to the live recording of us playing together at the same time. but we did a lot of overdubs of guitars and noises (which sound great), and we "replaced" some of my bass drum sounds with digital bass drums sounds from other recordings. this means that instead of the actual drum that i hit with my foot pedal, the beat is digitally replaced. it is the same rhythm and pattern that i played, but not the actual sound that i made. weird! one amazing thing that we did was record a bunch of sound bites from CNN on thursday, the first full-coverage day of the Iraq war, and paste some onto our mix in a low-level distorded sound under the verse section of the song "mercury in retrograde". the result is creepy and fascinating, because, as a happy accident, not something we intentionally went for, the woman's voice in the background picks up at a pause right before a heavy part, and says, "this is what we're trained to do. LET'S GO." it may be misconstrued as pro-war, pro-troops, let's do the damn thing and bomb Iraq, but we hope that it is ambiguous enough to be open to interpretation, or understood as accidental and ironic and anti-war, as the lyrics of the song, about miscommunication in a bad relationship (nothing i wrote), may be loosely interpreted. the few people we have played the demo for seem to dig it, and our minimalist black and white packaging looks very cool. to hear an mp3, go to http://www.angelfire.com/indie/bastille . go to "sounds" to hear an mp3 of one of our best songs, called "Patient Me" (not the one with the CNN clip). if you know me and want a FREE copy of the demo, please email me: hdaniels@clarku.edu or harrisodaniels@hotmail.com or bastille@excite.com (yes, shameless self promotion, yes so very proud we are of all of them).

i just got a new credit card from "the motley fool" http://www.fool.com/ , which is a good financial advice website. the card will help me fund my africa trip without having to pay back a lot of fees. it is 0 % interest through September, which helps. this summer i hope to make a lot of money to pay back those wonderful credit card companies that let our dreams beyond our means become realities... for a price.

i'm still happy as hell about going to visit Julie in Namibia. i just have a lot to do before then, like find out what job i'll have for next year, finish my student teaching, find and buy a used car, finish making my "E-Portfolio" of videos, photos, and writings of my student teaching experience, and.... ummmm... a lot of fun stuff! i don't know, it's not like i'm just waiting through everything else to get to may 4th when i board a plane and challenge everyone's expectations of what i "should" be doing.... but it's hard not to wish it was that day right now. i miss the girl. julie. julie joy. how could i not miss her like crazy?

as far as teaching goes, i'm finding that it's very therapeutic for me to get down to the level, no bullshit, and teach 9th grade english. no drama, no frustrations, no insecurities, no ambiguity, no pain, no messing around. just me, 24 kids, and some learning to do for all of us. it's exciting.

more on this later, as i should go out and live life instead of just try to explain it here.

if you know me, you know i've been inconsistent lately, and bear with me. i do have the potential to be stable sometimes.

Peace
h.

rest assured i get no kickbacks from saying this, but the opportunity to have a webjournal, or blog, is just great.

i love this boston band called "karate." they are touring europe right now, and their drummer gavin mccarthy has an excellent web tour diary. check it out: gavin mccarthy dot com

ugh... war. i knew about it early because julie heard from a woman working at the u.s. embassy in namibia.

around afternoon time nambia (6 or 7 am Eastern time). : they were briefed on the fact that ground troops has just crossed over into Iraq and the invasion had begun.

8:00 pm Eastern time (about 13 hours later): the u.s. just starts to find out about the war thru media outlets.

the point? this attack came WELL BEFORE the end of the supposed "48 hour" deadline Bush set monday night.

it did not surprise me at all... but it still angers me.

lies, lies, lies.

DON'T watch the tv news. you're better off going to theonion.com.
for real news, go to indymedia.org.

i don't know.

i think a lot more people -- especially people in power -- should try admitting this too.

i don't know.

i therefore have no right to judge anyone, or hurt anyone.

how about that?

peace.

war does funny things to men...

men do funny things to war.

let's take the men out of power. they're too funny.

trying to recap on the past week plus...

my friend shahin had a visitor this week. jeremy van, a very laid back friend from orange county, california. somehow jeremy and i became instant friends, and due to shahin's workload, he often became my visitor.

we went around worcester doing crazy young man things friday night and saturday (not sleeping/staying up all night), then took a bus to boston saturday night. we spent a few hours napping on my cousin's floor, then got to logan airport at 8am to meet my friend nicole's friend breanne duncan, who lives in albuquerque, new mexico, but is on a nationwide visit to computer science grad schools-- USC, UCLA, UCSB, and Harvard. we hung out in boston, on the common, in various eateries and coffeeshops, etc etc until she could check into her hotel at harvard square. all involved were on SERIOUS sleep depravation-- breanne had 2 redeye flights from l.a. to las vegas and l.v. to boston delayed because of computer software problems and a heart attack, respectively. so no one was too coherent, but it was a great 4-way friend-of-a-friend visit.

we came back to worcester sunday night, where movies were watched, tea drank, fun times had.

monday i taught school, then spent the afternoon enjoying the nice weather... upwards of 50 degrees in mass! very nice relief to the extreme winter we may still be in the middle of.

oh yeah... on saturday night i booked a flight, $1000 plus on credit i can't pay back anytime soon, to fly to Johannesburg, South Africa, then to Windhoek, Namibia from May 3rd to May 16th. I am visiting Julie. not because i NEED to see her (one week before she was originally scheduled to return to the U.S.?), but because i need to see Namibia WITH her. when else could i do this? anyway, we will travel together for 2 weeks, be it within the city of Windhoek, to South Africa, to Zambia (Victoria Falls), to Swakopmund, Namibia, or to the desert sand dunes, or even from the bedroom to the kitchen. i feel great about this crazy whim becoming a reality.

yes, so we are bombing Iraq. Deja vu to 1990-1991, when i was in 5th grade. is this really happening? yup. i don't have a whole hell of a lot to say about this.

so basically we have this: a war is happening in which the United
States is bombing and attacking with ground troops Iraq. most of the
world, and a good portion of the US disagrees with this war. anything
can happen. more terrorist acts are imminent. our president is fucking
things up. julie is in namibia. i am visiting her.

i'm not sure if the protests are accomplishing
much. i don't know a whole lot, but i feel comfortable saying that
about all you can do in this situation, during war-- the most
revolutionary act of defiance-- is to LOVE. and that is what i am
daring to do. and to continue my life and not be afraid.

PLEASE tell me as much as you care to about your fears, thoughts, feelings, etc.

harrisodaniels@hotmail.com
hdaniels@clarku.edu

508 890 5694.

live. love. don't be afraid.

ps- this is what i answered to my mother's statement of "You're going in spite of the war?"

"I am going to visit Julie in Namibia in spite of everything except Love, Adventure, and Youth."

cocky. bold. cheesy. i know this. but i believe in it.

when i say "good times," it means so much. it's hard to unpack it all for the sake of readers i'm not sure benefit much from my posting, because the closest ones to me hear it all from me day to day. so what's the point of this? a really selfish one. it feels so good to type what i feel when i get the chance.

to vent a frustration.

to share an exciting piece of good news.

to think "out loud" and explore questions.

anyway, i just got a $345 check from clark university that covers my travel, registration, and cab fares for my february trip to albuquerque, new mexico. ROCK!

i am pondering something i did not previously consider: charging a flight to namibia and visiting julie. it's crazy. we're young. debt builds up, but we don't get chances like this too often.

i am carless (due to totalling a ford taurus with a not-so-bad dent) but i'll get some money for the car they took last week...

i am steadily doing a good job of teaching. i have a lot of responsibilities. last week at south a bomb threat was called in and we had to walk over to sullivan middle school and wait for over an hour in the gym, then the cafeteria. i took charge of my "team" of 100+ kids and kept us all together. today a teacher called out last minute and i substitute-taught 2 math classes... i didn't teach math, but i kept the kids from getting too out of control.

this whole "balance between being an adult and a young person" thing is getting better. i can spend money irresponsibly, rock out, be in love, and travel the world, as long as it's not august - june, monday - friday, 7am - 2pm. this teaching thing appeals to me more and more.

that's all for now i guess. call me if you know the number, email me if you know it, come to my apartment if you know the address. let's connect and talk in person. because honestly, this blog will always be only half the story.

good times indeed for mr daniels and his cronies.

"i just can't find the time to write my mind the way i want it to read" - wilco

been a little while since i've been able to update the world on the activities of mr daniels...

heard from julie. she's alive and she's happy and that's making me more alive and happier.

been teaching 3 classes, sometimes 4, doing a good job, and going to be "subversive" and teach some propaganda on war in iraq, both sides, very soon. also droppin' some "autobiography of malcolm x" on the kids soon... with the spike lee film (parts at least) too.

good times... bastille finishing up a cd, other good stuff, more later.

-h

a great weekend visit from my old friend dennis atwood did wonders for my spirits. this week is the clark university spring break, but i will be teaching high school every day. my roommate sihaya is off, but she has work to do. my colleague shahin is visiting a friend in ohio. i am getting through this next week without seeing some of my closest friends, and that's okay.

i just got a new position: because i suggested using a yahoo group message board for better communication at a meeting for the Worcester Natural Foods Co-Op (an all-natural, organic food buying club of which i am a member), i have now become the administrator for the message board. exciting! i love the people and the food involved in this thing; all very honest and good.

ah, so we begin another week soon. i'm excited to see what it brings. hope you are too.