Ripped! from the headlines. Wherein I philosophize.

[oceloty]

I don't get to read the New York Times very often. (Shocking, I know.) This is yet another of the things I really regret about my chosen profession, because the writing never fails to make stop and think. Case in point, two articles:

(Registration required to view the articles, or email me, and I'll email you a copy.)

"Even as we’re forcing them

Comments

[executrix]

I'm feeling like being an American means less and less, for ANYBODY--I wish I had an animated icon of various Bushistas: "Someone get/These motherfuckin' snakes/Off my motherfuckin' plane"/(US map). And recruiting anyone, of any ethnicity or language background, into the Army when they're standing in the middle of a very nasty game of Dodgeball, where their government treats them like Wal-Mart workers (complete with locking them in after their shift ends), is desperately problematic.

[lunabee34]

What a brilliant icon idea, Exec.

And one of the things that I have my students do in class is read a handful of essays on different perspectives of what it means to be American. Two that we read that are particularly powerful are Audre Lorde's "The Fourth of July" and Yuh's "Let's Tell the Story of All America's Cultures." They really open up a dialogue for the students.

[oceloty]

Those sound great. Any ideas on where to find them?

[lunabee34]

I can't find the text online. I need to mail those tapes back to you, right? I could mail you a photocopy of those articles with them--they're fairly short.