Rachel's Letters Home

One of the most powerful things about Rachel was her analysis and understanding of all the injustices that are being perpetrated throughout the world.

-- Matthew Ford

 

 

Most of all, I am grateful that I could be her father.

-- Craig Corrie

 

 

Following are excerpts from Rachel Corrie's e-mail messages home to her family (published by numerous sources). I'm posting them because, if you haven't read them before, you need to. You need to know Rachel Corrie. I wish I had.

 

 

February 7, 2003

 

Hi friends and family, and others,

 

I have been in Palestine for two weeks and one hour now, and I still have very few words to describe what I see. It is most difficult for me to think about what's going on here when I sit down to write back to the United States. Something about the virtual portal into luxury. I don't know if many of the children here have ever existed without tank-shell holes in their walls and the towers of an occupying army surveying them constantly from the near horizons. I think, although I'm not entirely sure, that even the smallest of these children understand that life is not like this everywhere. An eight-year-old was shot and killed by an Israeli tank two days before I got here, and many of the children murmur his name to me - Ali - or point at the posters of him on the walls. The children also love to get me to practice my limited Arabic by asking me, "Kaif Sharon?" "Kaif Bush?" and they laugh when I say, "Bush Majnoon", "Sharon Majnoon" back in my limited arabic. (How is Sharon? How is Bush? Bush is crazy. Sharon is crazy.) Of course this isn't quite what I believe, and some of the adults who have the English correct me: "Bush mish Majnoon" ... Bush is a businessman. Today I tried to learn to say, "Bush is a tool", but I don't think it translated quite right. But anyway, there are eight-year-olds here much more aware of the workings of the global power structure than I was just a few years ago.

 

Nevertheless, no amount of reading, attendance at conferences, documentary viewing and word of mouth could have prepared me for the reality of the situation here. You just can't imagine it unless you see it - and even then you are always well aware that your experience of it is not at all the reality: what with the difficulties the Israeli army would face if they shot an unarmed US citizen, and with the fact that I have money to buy water when the army destroys wells, and the fact, of course, that I have the option of leaving. Nobody in my family has been shot, driving in their car, by a rocket launcher from a tower at the end of a major street in my hometown. I have a home. I am allowed to go see the ocean. When I leave for school or work I can be relatively certain that there will not be a heavily armed soldier waiting halfway between Mud Bay and downtown Olympia at a checkpoint with the power to decide whether I can go about my business, and whether I can get home again when I'm done. As an afterthought to all this rambling, I am in Rafah: a city of about 140,000 people, approximately 60% of whom are refugees - many of whom are twice or three times refugees. Today, as I walked on top of the rubble where homes once stood, Egyptian soldiers called to me from the other side of the border, "Go! Go!" because a tank was coming. And then waving and "What's your name?". Something disturbing about this friendly curiosity. It reminded me of how much, to some degree, we are all kids curious about other kids. Egyptian kids shouting at strange women wandering into the path of tanks. Palestinian kids shot from the tanks when they peak out from behind walls to see what's going on. International kids standing in front of tanks with banners. Israeli kids in the tanks anonymously - occasionally shouting and also occasionally waving - many forced to be here, many just agressive - shooting into the houses as we wander away.

 

I've been having trouble accessing news about the outside world here, but I hear an escalation of war on Iraq is inevitable. There is a great deal of concern here about the "reoccupation of Gaza". Gaza is reoccupied every day to various extents but I think the fear is that the tanks will enter all the streets and remain here instead of entering some of the streets and then withdrawing after some hours or days to observe and shoot from the edges of the communities. If people aren't already thinking about the consequences of this war for the people of the entire region then I hope you will start.

 

My love to everyone. My love to my mom. My love to smooch. My love to fg and barnhair and sesamees and Lincoln School. My love to Olympia.

 

Rachel

 

 

February 20, 2003

 

Mama,

 

Now the Israeli army has actually dug up the road to Gaza, and both of the major checkpoints are closed. This means that Palestinians who want to go and register for their next quarter at university can't. People can't get to their jobs and those who are trapped on the other side can't get home; and internationals, who have a meeting tomorrow in the West Bank, won't make it. We could probably make it through if we made serious use of our international white person privilege, but that would also mean some risk of arrest and deportation, even though none of us has done anything illegal.

 

The Gaza Strip is divided in thirds now. There is some talk about the "reoccupation of Gaza", but I seriously doubt this will happen, because I think it would be a geopolitically stupid move for Israel right now. I think the more likely thing is an increase in smaller below-the-international-outcry-radar incursions and possibly the oft-hinted "population transfer".

 

I am staying put in Rafah for now, no plans to head north. I still feel like I'm relatively safe and think that my most likely risk in case of a larger-scale incursion is arrest. A move to reoccupy Gaza would generate a much larger outcry than Sharon's assassination-during-peace-negotiations/land grab strategy, which is working very well now to create settlements all over, slowly but surely eliminating any meaningful possibility for Palestinian self-determination. Know that I have a lot of very nice Palestinians looking after me. I have a small flu bug, and got some very nice lemony drinks to cure me. Also, the woman who keeps the key for the well where we still sleep keeps asking me about you. She doesn't speak a bit of English, but she asks about my mom pretty frequently - wants to make sure I'm calling you.

 

Love to you and Dad and Sarah and Chris and everybody.

 

Rachel

 

 

February 27, 2003

 

Mama,

 

Love you. Really miss you. I have bad nightmares about tanks and bulldozers outside our house and you and me inside. Sometimes the adrenaline acts as an anesthetic for weeks and then in the evening or at night it just hits me again - a little bit of the reality of the situation. I am really scared for the people here. Yesterday, I watched a father lead his two tiny children, holding his hands, out into the sight of tanks and a sniper tower and bulldozers and Jeeps because he thought his house was going to be exploded. Jenny and I stayed in the house with several women and two small babies. It was our mistake in translation that caused him to think it was his house that was being exploded. In fact, the Israeli army was in the process of detonating an explosive in the ground nearby - one that appears to have been planted by Palestinian resistance.

 

This is in the area where Sunday about 150 men were rounded up and contained outside the settlement with gunfire over their heads and around them, while tanks and bulldozers destroyed 25 greenhouses - the livelihoods for 300 people. The explosive was right in front of the greenhouses - right in the point of entry for tanks that might come back again. I was terrified to think that this man felt it was less of a risk to walk out in view of the tanks with his kids than to stay in his house. I was really scared that they were all going to be shot and I tried to stand between them and the tank. This happens every day, but just this father walking out with his two little kids just looking very sad, just happened to get my attention more at this particular moment, probably because I felt it was our translation problems that made him leave.

 

I thought a lot about what you said on the phone about Palestinian violence not helping the situation. Sixty thousand workers from Rafah worked in Israel two years ago. Now only 600 can go to Israel for jobs. Of these 600, many have moved, because the three checkpoints between here and Ashkelon (the closest city in Israel) make what used to be a 40-minute drive, now a 12-hour or impassible journey. In addition, what Rafah identified in 1999 as sources of economic growth are all completely destroyed - the Gaza international airport (runways demolished, totally closed); the border for trade with Egypt (now with a giant Israeli sniper tower in the middle of the crossing); access to the ocean (completely cut off in the last two years by a checkpoint and the Gush Katif settlement). The count of homes destroyed in Rafah since the beginning of this intifada is up around 600, by and large people with no connection to the resistance but who happen to live along the border. I think it is maybe official now that Rafah is the poorest place in the world. There used to be a middle class here - recently. We also get reports that in the past, Gazan flower shipments to Europe were delayed for two weeks at the Erez crossing for security inspections. You can imagine the value of two-week-old cut flowers in the European market, so that market dried up. And then the bulldozers come and take out people's vegetable farms and gardens. What is left for people? Tell me if you can think of anything. I can't.

 

If any of us had our lives and welfare completely strangled, lived with children in a shrinking place where we knew, because of previous experience, that soldiers and tanks and bulldozers could come for us at any moment and destroy all the greenhouses that we had been cultivating for however long, and did this while some of us were beaten and held captive with 149 other people for several hours - do you think we might try to use somewhat violent means to protect whatever fragments remained? I think about this especially when I see orchards and greenhouses and fruit trees destroyed - just years of care and cultivation. I think about you and how long it takes to make things grow and what a labour of love it is. I really think, in a similar situation, most people would defend themselves as best they could. I think Uncle Craig would. I think probably Grandma would. I think I would.

 

You asked me about non-violent resistance.

 

When that explosive detonated yesterday it broke all the windows in the family's house. I was in the process of being served tea and playing with the two small babies. I'm having a hard time right now. Just feel sick to my stomach a lot from being doted on all the time, very sweetly, by people who are facing doom. I know that from the United States, it all sounds like hyperbole. Honestly, a lot of the time the sheer kindness of the people here, coupled with the overwhelming evidence of the wilful destruction of their lives, makes it seem unreal to me. I really can't believe that something like this can happen in the world without a bigger outcry about it. It really hurts me, again, like it has hurt me in the past, to witness how awful we can allow the world to be. I felt after talking to you that maybe you didn't completely believe me. I think it's actually good if you don't, because I do believe pretty much above all else in the importance of independent critical thinking. And I also realise that with you I'm much less careful than usual about trying to source every assertion that I make. A lot of the reason for that is I know that you actually do go and do your own research. But it makes me worry about the job I'm doing. All of the situation that I tried to enumerate above - and a lot of other things - constitutes a somewhat gradual - often hidden, but nevertheless massive - removal and destruction of the ability of a particular group of people to survive. This is what I am seeing here. The assassinations, rocket attacks and shooting of children are atrocities - but in focusing on them I'm terrified of missing their context. The vast majority of people here - even if they had the economic means to escape, even if they actually wanted to give up resisting on their land and just leave (which appears to be maybe the less nefarious of Sharon's possible goals), can't leave. Because they can't even get into Israel to apply for visas, and because their destination countries won't let them in (both our country and Arab countries). So I think when all means of survival is cut off in a pen (Gaza) which people can't get out of, I think that qualifies as genocide. Even if they could get out, I think it would still qualify as genocide. Maybe you could look up the definition of genocide according to international law. I don't remember it right now. I'm going to get better at illustrating this, hopefully. I don't like to use those charged words. I think you know this about me. I really value words. I really try to illustrate and let people draw their own conclusions.

 

Anyway, I'm rambling. Just want to write to my Mom and tell her that I'm witnessing this chronic, insidious genocide and I'm really scared, and questioning my fundamental belief in the goodness of human nature. This has to stop. I think it is a good idea for us all to drop everything and devote our lives to making this stop. I don't think it's an extremist thing to do anymore. I still really want to dance around to Pat Benatar and have boyfriends and make comics for my coworkers. But I also want this to stop. Disbelief and horror is what I feel. Disappointment. I am disappointed that this is the base reality of our world and that we, in fact, participate in it. This is not at all what I asked for when I came into this world. This is not at all what the people here asked for when they came into this world. This is not the world you and Dad wanted me to come into when you decided to have me. This is not what I meant when I looked at Capital Lake and said: "This is the wide world and I'm coming to it." I did not mean that I was coming into a world where I could live a comfortable life and possibly, with no effort at all, exist in complete unawareness of my participation in genocide. More big explosions somewhere in the distance outside.

 

When I come back from Palestine, I probably will have nightmares and constantly feel guilty for not being here, but I can channel that into more work. Coming here is one of the better things I've ever done. So when I sound crazy, or if the Israeli military should break with their racist tendency not to injure white people, please pin the reason squarely on the fact that I am in the midst of a genocide which I am also indirectly supporting, and for which my government is largely responsible.

 

I love you and Dad. Sorry for the diatribe. OK, some strange men next to me just gave me some peas, so I need to eat and thank them.

 

Rachel

 

 

February 28, 2003

 

Thanks, Mom, for your response to my email. It really helps me to get word from you, and from other people who care about me.

 

After I wrote to you I went incommunicado from the affinity group for about 10 hours which I spent with a family on the front line in Hi Salam - who fixed me dinner - and have cable TV. The two front rooms of their house are unusable because gunshots have been fired through the walls, so the whole family - three kids and two parents - sleep in the parent's bedroom. I sleep on the floor next to the youngest daughter, Iman, and we all shared blankets. I helped the son with his English homework a little, and we all watched Pet Semetery, which is a horrifying movie. I think they all thought it was pretty funny how much trouble I had watching it. Friday is the holiday, and when I woke up they were watching Gummy Bears dubbed into Arabic. So I ate breakfast with them and sat there for a while and just enjoyed being in this big puddle of blankets with this family watching what for me seemed like Saturday morning cartoons. Then I walked some way to B'razil, which is where Nidal and Mansur and Grandmother and Rafat and all the rest of the big family that has really wholeheartedly adopted me live. (The other day, by the way, Grandmother gave me a pantomimed lecture in Arabic that involved a lot of blowing and pointing to her black shawl. I got Nidal to tell her that my mother would appreciate knowing that someone here was giving me a lecture about smoking turning my lungs black.) I met their sister-in-law, who is visiting from Nusserat camp, and played with her small baby.

 

Nidal's English gets better every day. He's the one who calls me, "My sister". He started teaching Grandmother how to say, "Hello. How are you?" In English. You can always hear the tanks and bulldozers passing by, but all of these people are genuinely cheerful with each other, and with me. When I am with Palestinian friends I tend to be somewhat less horrified than when I am trying to act in a role of human rights observer, documenter, or direct-action resister. They are a good example of how to be in it for the long haul. I know that the situation gets to them - and may ultimately get them - on all kinds of levels, but I am nevertheless amazed at their strength in being able to defend such a large degree of their humanity - laughter, generosity, family-time - against the incredible horror occurring in their lives and against the constant presence of death. I felt much better after this morning. I spent a lot of time writing about the disappointment of discovering, somewhat first-hand, the degree of evil of which we are still capable. I should at least mention that I am also discovering a degree of strength and of basic ability for humans to remain human in the direst of circumstances - which I also haven't seen before. I think the word is dignity. I wish you could meet these people. Maybe, hopefully, someday you will.

 

 

Related sites & articles:

 

A Tribute to Rachel Corrie: Photo Essay

          Warning: Includes graphic images of Rachel's death.

 

'Destined to make a difference'

The Olympian, March 23, 2003

 

Rachel Corrie Spotted with Che and Mumia

Muslim WakeUp!, June 12, 2003

 

Parents pick up banner of slain activist daughter

The Olympian, June 14, 2003

 

The Meaning of Rachel Corrie

Edward Said, June 23, 2003

 

Ambient Death in Palestine

Paul de Rooij, June 26, 2003

 

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Comments

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Posted Sun, 29 Jun 2003 22:38:57 GMT

Dave Pollard:

 

Fine work compiling the story of Rachel Corrie, DT. There is too much opinion and not enough research in the blogosphere, and your blog helps restore the balance.

 

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Posted Mon, 30 Jun 2003 09:15:42 GMT

Lee:

 

Those letters were heartbreaking. Especially chilling were the mentions of her fear of the ever-present "bulldozers and tanks".

 

After Rachel Corrie's death, there were some people saying the most horrible things about her. I wonder if they would ever have the courage to stand up for something they believed in? To die for it?

 

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Posted Mon, 30 Jun 2003 16:08:42 GMT

Julie:

 

Oh DT. I read about this story in minor detail before but I just went and read every link and found some more on it that were linked and I am so saddened by this. Like I have said before I don't know why I even get shocked about things anymore but this story shocks me as a whole. The fact that someone can see a human being standing in front of their HUGE machine and just run over them AND THEN BACK UP AGAIN. God what is this world coming to? I know that is rhetorical but my heart aches so much for people. I look at another human being in the face and don't understand how anyone could want to look into the eyes of a man or woman and kill them.

 

We are now becoming a society of people that are numbed by gruesome scenes of death from Hollywood. We are trained in our minds that it is somehow fake or made up. We see it everyday and it had made us as a society numb.

 

Why am I not numb? and others are so numb...

 

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Posted Mon, 30 Jun 2003 21:07:48 GMT

stewed_tea:

 

Well done, DT, for your hard work on the Rachel Corrie entries. Eye-opening, provocative stuff. Thanks for picking up the Sojourners article too - I missed that one!

 

Posted 5:41:28 PM   Send comment

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IDF Soldiers Off Hook for Killing Rachel Corrie

Israel’s military prosecutor has exonerated Israeli soldiers in the March death of an American peace activist, the army said today, refuting eyewitness claims that the woman was in line of sight of the bulldozer driver who buried her alive in the Gaza Strip.

 

Rachel Corrie, 23, of Olympia, Wash., was crushed to death on March 16 while trying to block the demolition of the house of a doctor in the Rafah refugee camp by standing in front of the army bulldozer. The army said the home was being destroyed in an effort to block arms smuggling. ...

 

At the time of the incident, members of her pro-Palestinian group, International Solidarity Movement, claimed that Corrie was visible to the bulldozer driver and that her death was malicious.

 

"When the bulldozer refused to stop or turn aside, (Rachel) climbed up onto the mound of dirt and rubble being gathered in front of it ... to look directly at the driver, who kept on advancing," the International Solidarity Movement said in a statement.

 

According to the army, military police investigating the Corrie case found that the soldiers operating the bulldozer were unaware of her presence in the area and had no intention of harming her. ...

 

Israeli soldiers exonerated in death of Olympia peace activist

Seattle Times

June 27, 2003

 

You can call them "soldiers" if you want, even if I think "lying murderous bastards" is much more fitting.

 

Got a problem with that?

 

I guess all the Palestinians who have been bulldozed to death inside their own homes were "invisible" too.

 

 

Related articles:

 

Reflections on Rachel Corrie's Murder: Contrary to Israeli army statements claiming that Rachel's death was "accidental," and that she and other internationals present acted "very irresponsibly, putting everyone in danger" ... eyewitness testimony and photographs clearly show that Corrie was well marked, had a megaphone, was standing in clear view of the driver, and posed no threat to anyone. (See the photo essay and direct eyewitness testimony posted on the Electronic Intifada website at http://www.electronicintifada.net/.) Israeli "damage control" efforts have led to simultaneous (and contradictory) claims that Rachel "jumped" in front of the bulldozer, that she lay down in front of it, that she "tripped and fell" and the driver could not stop in time, that the driver could not see her due to poor bulldozer windows and visibility, and so on. Systematic attempts have also been made to blame her (and the International Solidarity Movement more generally) for her own death, and to deflect criticism away from those responsible (from the driver to the Occupation itself) by saying, "What do you expect when you come to a combat zone?" or "What was she doing there anyway?" [Canadian Dimension, March 20, 2003]

 

Accounts of Corrie's death still conflict: The initial autopsy performed on Rachel Corrie by an Israeli pathologist at the National Center of Forensic Medicine in Tel Aviv was blunt in its narrative. It noted breaks in the ribs, the spinal cord and the shoulder blades, and tear wounds in the right lung. The report, issued March 20, concluded that Corrie's death was caused by pressure on the chest "from a mechanical apparatus." But subsequent reports filed by the Israeli military have concluded that "Ms. Corrie was not run over by the bulldozer." A detailed Israeli Defense Forces document titled "The Death of Rachel Corrie" does not mention the pathologist's belief that a mechanical apparatus caused the death. The IDF presented the classified Israeli document to some members of Congress in April. The Corrie family gave it to Gannett News Service this week. It concludes that Corrie was fatally injured "when earth and debris accidentally fell on her." [The Olympian, June 14, 2003]

 

Army pardoned for burying woman alive [AP, June 28, 2003]

 

In Israel, is it now okay to kill Americans? [Sojourners: Christians for Justice and Peace, July-August, 2003]

 

Posted 5:39:00 PM   Send comment

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True SNAFU: All NIC'd Up

Sez Middle East Online: "US authorities in Iraq... were forced to change name of planned forces originally entitled New Iraqi Corps whose initials in Arabic produce a colourful synonym for fornication. ... 'I am told reliably but unanimously that that acronym is not a nice word in Arabic,' a senior official from the Coalition Provisional Authority said Tuesday. 'Therefore we had to come up with another word.' The force is to be known as the New Iraqi Army."

 

Reminds me of "Operation Iraqi Liberation," the "alternative name of US military action, but dropped from consideration because of obvious implication of acronym (OIL)."

 

(You do know what SNAFU stands for, don't you?)

 

Posted 4:32:06 PM   Send comment

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Bush's "War Chest"

I'll need a calculator for this:

 

A member of U.S. commando unit hunting for Saddam Hussein was killed Thursday and eight other special operations troops were wounded in an ambush by anti-coalition urban guerrillas, the U.S. military said. ... [CNN, June 26, 2003]

 

At least 18 U.S. military personnel have been killed in attacks since President Bush declared the end of major hostilities in Iraq on May 1, and there have been dozens of other ambushes. ... [Washington Post, June 27, 2003]

 

The latest death brings to 57 the number of US troops who have died since President George W. Bush declared the war in Iraq effectively over on May 1, according to a count from US military statements. ... [Middle East Online, June 27, 2003]

 

A U.S. soldier was shot in the head while buying digital video discs at a shop in Baghdad on Friday, the shop owner and other witnesses said. The U.S. military had no immediate comment on the report. It was not clear from witness accounts whether his wound was fatal. ... [Reuters, June 27, 2003]

 

The Army identified the two missing soldiers in Iraq on Friday as members of an artillery unit based in Fort Sill, Okla. The missing men are Sgt. 1st Class Gladimir Phillippe, 37, of Linden, N.J., and Pfc. Kevin Ott, 27, of Columbus, Ohio, the Army said. The two soldiers and their Humvee disappeared Wednesday night near Balad, a town north of Baghdad where American troops have searched for supporters of ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. They still were missing Friday. "We don't know if they were abducted, or they were just killed," said Sgt. Patrick Compton, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad. ... [AP, June 27, 2003]

 

U.S. forces in Iraq found the bodies of two missing soldiers on Saturday north of the Iraqi capital just hours after guerrilla-style attackers killed one serviceman and wounded four others in a Baghdad neighborhood. U.S. Central Command gave no details on the circumstances of the deaths of the two soldiers, missing since Wednesday, but a senior U.S. military official in Iraq said a spate of attacks on occupation forces indicated the war in Iraq was not over. "The first clear message that we have to take out of here is that this war is not over. I think that is pretty clear to all of us," the senior officer told reporters. [Reuters, June 28, 2003]

 

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, asked Friday about the mounting casualties, told reporters, "It's not possible yet to characterize what's happening in terms such as 'an organized insurgency' or 'it has a central nervous system directing it.' ... I mourn for the loss of every young man or woman who puts his life or her life at risk and loses their life in the cause of freedom. But we're going to stick with it..." [CNN, June 28, 2003]

 

One U.S. soldier was killed and four others wounded in an attack in Baghdad overnight, raising to 22 the number of Americans killed by hostile fire in Iraq since the end of the war, officials said Saturday. Attacks on the occupation forces have continued unabated in recent days... One military officer said a U.S. convoy came under a grenade attack around 11 p.m. (1900 GMT) -- just when a U.S.-imposed curfew takes effect. Earlier Friday another U.S. soldier was shot in the head and critically wounded while shopping in Baghdad. American officials in Iraq have called the attacks "militarily insignificant" because they do not reduce the capacity of the 156,000 American troops in the country, of which 53,000 are in Baghdad alone. [Reuters, June 28, 2003]

 

Meanwhile, back on the campaign trail, Bush smirks, stuffs his pockets with the contributions of the unwitting, and then goes on vacation (as usual):

 

In a quick campaign stop Friday in the traditionally liberal Bay Area, President Bush successfully tapped the deep pockets of Silicon Valley supporters who added $1.6 million to his re-election campaign war chest -- part of one of the most lucrative days in the president's re-election campaign so far. Bush also pocketed more than $3 million in contributions at a formal dinner at the Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles on Friday evening before heading to Texas for a weekend at his ranch, campaign officials said. [San Jose Mercury News, June 28, 2003]

 

Let's see... By my count, 60 U.S. troops have died since Bush declared his little "war" over. Oops, sorry -- make that "at least 61," according to today's Washington Post. And how many were killed during combat? 139, I think, bringing the total to around 200. The Post says it's over 200, but 200 is an easier number to work with (especially for a victim of 1960s New Math* like me), so let's go with that.

 

Now, Bush soaked up $1.6 million yesterday from the stupidest people Northern California has to offer (who either number 72% fewer -- or are 72% less stupid -- than New Yorkers who brainlessly forked over $5.65 mill last week, and only 53% as stupid as Angelenos**), and another $3 million from L.A. Add that to the $11.9 million he's collected already, and that's $16.5 million.

 

Looks like BushCo's ROI is currently $82,500 for every dead U.S. soldier.

 

Gee, you think Andrew Pokorny's wife might be comforted by that thought? How about the Bunces, or the Swifts, who are still waiting to hear if they're going to make the ultimate campaign contribution anytime soon?

 

What do you mean, I'm not making sense? You think there's something wrong with my logic? That I'm stretching way too far, comparing apples and oranges?

 

If so, then you don't understand business -- BushCo business.

 

Because that's all it is, boys and girls: the BushCo balance sheet, with every dead soldier nothing more than a liability. And once BushCo really gets its hands on all that oil, the ROI will be billions to one. Count on it.

 

So how many body bags are we going to need before liabilities run too high?

 

How high is up?

 

Considering how much money BushCo stands to make on this oil war, there is no upper limit.

 

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* In the 1960s, Math teachers, overwhelmed by notions of cultural subjectivism and inclined, as was the contemporary zeitgeist, to question rigid theories of learning as potentially autocratic, decided that the Arabic number system's (the number system we use) reliance on the number '10' as a base for arithmetic, geometric, and algebraic learning was arbitrary and probably Euro-centric. Instead, the New Math devoted extensive time to learning alternate number bases, such as 7. (In a base seven system, the number '6' would still be written '6', but '12' would be written as '15' and '16' would be written as '22').

 

The idea was not to develop a better basis for understanding higher math (since base 7 is pretty useless in, for example, calculus) but to convince students of the fallacy of the objective reality of numbers. '12', in the New Math, is not necessarily '12,' since in a base 7 system it would be '15.' Numbers, for New Mathematicians, are nothing other than 'numerals,' signifiers. Though the concept of '15 elephants' is real, it would be insufficient to abstract that to '15,' since '15' is unnecessarily filial to the base ten number system. Instead, to answer the question, "How many elephants are there?" a student would have to answer something along the lines of "The amount of elephants that, in a base ten number system, we would usually express using the numeral '15'." The New Math also focused extensively on things like set theory and 'congruence arithmetic' rather than multiplication tables and long division.

 

This system, the 'New Math' of the 1960s, was, predictably, a resounding failure which did little more than confuse students. Test scores plummeted, students turned away from Math, and before long the New Math was dropped.

 

Alexander Nazaryan and Alexander Wilson

The Fuzziest of Disciplines

Dartmouth Review

January 13, 1999

 

* * Don't be offended, New Yorkers and Angelenos; NYC is my favorite city in the world, and I still have a healthy love-hate relationship with L.A. (which was my home for years). I'm just irked that the Boy King sucked any money out of NYC, L.A., or S.F. at all. I think we should find out who all the idiots (i.e., Bush contributors) are, and entice them into moving to a hopelessly Bush-controlled state, like Texas, or Utah (both of which have a lot more room than we do). No, I wouldn't mind losing rich locals like Don Brooks; what good is another VC who's not investing in the busted dot-com industry anymore? He sure isn't doing anything about my job situation.

 

Posted 12:56:27 PM   Send comment

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