War of the Witches & The Martian!

It was true. At least to me. At least for a little while. I had powers beyond the normal. That’s because, unbeknownst to my unsuspecting fellow fourth graders, I was not from this earth. Thomas “Martin” Strait was actually from Mars. Adopted by the Straits after my escape pod crashed into their backyard, I could do amazing things. I could will the teacher to pick the student I wanted when they raised their hands. I could read people’s minds. I could move my pencil across my desk just by the power of my mind. Well, sometimes I could. It didn’t always work. But it worked enough for me to know that I was, indeed, from someplace else.




But it didn’t stop there! In my classroom, there were also...witches. Yes, a whole coven, led by the nefarious Dona Bow, and her witchy friends Amy and Karen. That’s what was interfering with my powers! That’s why my telepathy and telekinesis didn’t always work!



But, oh, these amazing developments were hard to keep to myself. Soon the girls would know I knew what they were. And, eventually, other students figured out that I was the Martian.



And that is when the nightmare began. That is when my social decline started, spiraling me down into the lower ranks of elementary school cliques. At first they laughed at me because I thought I was a Martian. “You’re not a Martian, Strait! You’re just crazy!” I was baffled as to what to do, and increasingly humiliated.



In my frustration, I did one of the most evil things I have ever done. I dumped pencil shavings all over Dona Bow’s carefully drawn map of South America. It was a stupid, cruel thing to do. Why? Frustration that I was going down while the witches remained popular, some odd notion that Dona could use her witch powers to clear the map thus proving I was right, and, of course, most importantly, in the world of fourth grade logic, I had a huge crush on her and had no idea how to express it.



With that bit of horribleness, I snapped out of it. I confessed to everyone that I wasn’t really a Martian; I was just playing a game. And that just made things worse. Everyone began teasing that I really was a Martian, and said, “C’mon, Strait, move something with your mind! Tell me what I’m thinking! Why don’t you pop up your antenna and wiggle them around!” I became, and remained to one degree or another, the laughingstock of my class.



Eventually, I learned to take their teasing and use it to my advantage as best I could. I learned to use humor, particularly self-deprecating humor and also physical shtick, to get then laughing on my terms instead of theirs. As time passed, I had a bizarre kind of popularity as the class clown or funny guy. But I never felt good about myself again. Not really. I always felt like people really didn’t like me after that. That I had to prove myself just to be with people.



Recently, I have made friends with Dona Bow through the miracle of facebook. The most surprising thing I learned was that she actually enjoyed the witches and Martians game, and her friends played it some at home. That she believed it, at least a little. So I was not the only one with an explosive imagination.



Imagination is often beaten out of us as kids. We tend to blame adults or church or just the way the world works. But sometimes it’s our own peers that make the magic disappear. I’ve tried to hold on to what I could. I love comics and stories, theatre and writing. Even as a dull CPA, I have my own special place, where I can be a Martian if I want to be. And if you some of my staid peers don’t like it, well, that’s tough. I have a special pratfall just for you. So there!

Saturday Political Soap Box 13

The soapbox is back! A little tough to do on Saturday mornings with my son playing morning soccer games. And this topic may not have the "heat" of the others as it's about .........Foreign Policy!!!




This has been an eventful week, as the Libyans moved towards a dramatic resolution with the capture and killing of Ghaddafi, and with the confirmation that we will be removing all troops from Iraq by the end of the year. Also over the course of the last few months there has been the execution and/ or capture of many al Queda leaders. So the question is, whether you're from the right or left or something in between, what has made you happy or unhappy about American foreign policy since the advent of the Obama administration?



For myself, I see a great contrast between the way the Iraq war was engaged, and the more careful support of the Libyan rebellion. We played a much different role, with much greater success, at an incredibly less financial and military cost. Fiscal dollars on Iraq? $800 billion. Fiscal cost of Libya? Slightly over $1 billion.



I think the drawdown on Iraq has been slow, but well within the time frame that was set up for it. The country might fall into civil war, but I think that's equally true whether we have no troops, a few thousand as was originally thought, or 500,000 troops. The next steps depend upon diplomacy and economic support.



Afghanistan I'm less sure about. I don't completely disagree with the approach taken. Left on it's own, it could become a terrorist haven again. But in that regard we have a much worse terrorist haven right down the road in Pakistan. All in all, I think President Obama would have done better following Vice President Biden's suggestions that required fewer troops and more targeted attacks/involvement.



I support a two state solution between Palestine and Israel, but I recognize that as a difficult thing, and that everything else being equal, we have to stand with Israel.



I also believe that it has to be a priority that when we negotiate free trade agreements we have to emphasize worker's rights, salary and working conditions, on all countries involved, including the United States.



When I have done foreign policy questions before, I am always surprised at the amount of isolationist sentiment expressed, even among those who in the past have supported Bush/Cheney's military extremism. There is not only a large rejection of new conflicts (not necessarily a bad thing), but a significant derision of foreign aid, particularly of an economic nature. Given that all foreign policy actions AND inactions have unintended consequences, I still feel it is better to support countries with economic growth and independence than it is to militarily try to impose our will. Many Americans won't bat an eye in spending $800 billion on a war of questionable value, but will go into a we-can't-afford-it apoplectic rage if it's suggested that we could do the same thing with $8 billion of economic aid.



Well, those are my thoughts. What are yours? What makes you happy or unhappy about our foreign policy? What would you like to see us doing differently?

Saturday Political Soap Box 12

Occupy Wall Street! Despite the wishes of corporate America, this doesn't appear to be fading away, but instead growing exponentially. What does it mean to you? What do you hope comes out of it? Is this the beginning of an important social and political movement, or just a bunch of bums wasting our time?




I am really interested in your opinion about the phenomenon and would love to read expressions of your opinions and thoughts.



To me, it is just the beginning of a dramatic refocusing of the nation's attention away from the wasted diversions about government spending, deficits, and anti-health care rants that have dominated America's recession era thinking. It's a notice that there is an understanding that the problems really stem form the domination of Wall Street, Corporations, and wealthy interests, who seem to have complete control of our political system. These are groups who will get bailed out and government largesse and loophole's created for, while the rest of us cope with increasing personal debt and a shrinking job base. That it is not okay that corporate CEO's makes several hundreds times more income than the wages of their average employee. That banks are bailed out, refuse to loan money to individuals and small businesses that helped bail them out, and then when called to account instead invent more fees just to sock it to the rest of us. That corporations have cut millions of jobs in America while adding millions of jobs overseas. That many of the wealthy pay a lower rate of tax than hard working middle class families.



Do they have a coherent, media friendly declaration of purpose? No, of course not. It is an organic movement that is still emerging. Good lord, I'm still trying to figure out what the Tea Party was really all about, other than blind hatred of Obama.



But I think there is a promise there that may actually help us look at things in a new way.



That is a brief sketch of my thoughts. What are yours?



.