Thursday, November 11, 2010

Why the 11th is important ....

As individuals and as institutions free of the influence of non-accountable tax dollars, we must work as hard as possible to make sure that we don't let agenda driven, tax payer funded, self-hating individuals dominate the discussion.

Via the American Legion's blog
TheBurnPit - we have a nice summary of the intellectual capital that made up the $140,000 paid by the National Endowment for the Humanities in part for the East-West Center of University of Hawaii's conference; History and Commemoration: Legacies of the Pacific War.

Some of the jewels;
Several years ago, I was recruited to a teaching position at West O‘ahu College, and, largely out of a sense that no opportunity should go uninvestigated, my wife and I toured the campus with the humanities chair. The thing that struck us first was that I would forever be looking down at the fleet of U.S. warships, the symbol of American power and the symbol of our dispossession, as long as I worked there. I decided they could not pay me enough. But in a sense, Pearl Harbor is that visual and kinetic reminder not only of our loss—and by “our” I mean Kanaka Maoli—but of our helplessness as well. It is not that the ships and armed soldiers themselves are menacing so much as it is the sense that they belong to that place now and we do not. (Page 5)

Thus I can understand how cultural meanings are transferred between generations—imperfectly. Whatever it was that drew my parents to solidarity with American soldiers and sailors simply did not cross the boundaries of our generations’ whole. Thus, I need to remember that my attitudes about the meaning of their presence here will not cross into my children’s lives as thoroughly as I might wish. (Page 14)
...
It should be noted that sexual assaults against local women by U.S. military personnel are not random and isolated incidents. Rather, they are direct outcomes of the political, economic, military, and sexual complex that has long enabled and sustained U.S. hegemony within the Pacific and Asia region. In this complex, the dominant culture of U.S. militarized masculinity requires and underwrites a desire to dominate, possess, and destroy the “feminine”—in other words, precisely those elements that are subordinated and repudiated in constituting soldierly subjects. Given the United States’ political and economic dominance in the region, military personnel stationed there perceive the local population as a subordinated people; local women, signifying both the subordinated and the repudiated in the ideology of U.S. military masculinity, become the logical targets toward which soldiers invest their desires for destruction and domination. This militarized male sexuality, moreover, is assumed to be uncontrollable and not be excessively punished. Immediately after the 1995 rape incident, Admiral John Macke was forced to resign for a controversial public statement in which he remarked, “For the money [the perpetrators] rented the van, they could have had a girl.”
...
A 30-minute trip to the Arizona Memorial, however, provides these Japanese visitors with an entirely different feeling. The contrast between Japanese-dominated Waikiki and the American-dominated national memorial in Pearl Harbor is so striking that Japanese visitors frequently note in the visitor survey questionnaire they are surprised and feel rather unsettled to find ‘so few Japanese here, unlike Waikiki’. At the same time, this lack of a Japanese presence and the American-ness of the site satisfy their expectations as tourists in America. Here is a site that is definitely not ‘pretty much the same as Japan’, a place where the Japanese are made to feel ‘other’. This feeling of marginality, which is in sharp contrast with their experience in Waikiki, further enhances their international perspective on the site and enables them to script and rescript their experience within a nation-based framework. This scripting, while offering possibilities for de-Americanizing the significance of this American monument, simultaneously submerges other possible perspectives on the site. Most visitors are unable to see the memorial and the past it represents in ways that are not bound by national frameworks. The historically contested sense of the place as a part of a formerly independent kingdom, which did not belong to either of the two nations that serve as the constitutive elements of the memorial today, simply remains unrecognized. Many Japanese visitors, in that respect, forget as much as they remember through this intense lesson in history.
...
Both the memorial and the cemetery are tacitly gendered spaces, where inscriptions of masculinity and femininity are hidden in plain sight/site. Tracking “the often silent and hidden operations of gender”3 at Punchbowl leads into an implicitly masculine space, one that is planned, controlled, disciplined, orderly. The memorial tells a monoglossic, regulated story of external danger and national victory….

Alongside the pomp of militarized memories in the memorial is the circumstance of undifferentiated, singular representations of dead men in the cemetery. Again, there is no disorder: no children, no animals, no stray saplings, no unapproved flowers.4 There is a great deal of open, quiet space in the cemetery, but there is nothing peaceful about it. “Civilian” cemeteries in Honolulu and elsewhere often reveal a certain acceptance of jumble, of differences in the size, scale, inscription, and tilt of headstones, the placement of trees, the arrangement of flowers. Community cemeteries often present many invitations to enter; they allow memory to grow. Punchbowl manufactures a predigested set of memories; like the dead men beneath the ground, the visitors are all expected to march to the same drummer.
Now I remember why I decided a PhD in History was not in my future.

That is why you should think real carefully where your children go to college - and ask who their professors are.

More importantly, it is why over dinner tonight - at a minimum - you should take some time to talk about the 11th hour, of the 11th day, of the 11th month.

At least they left the WWI dead alone. For 1100, 11/11/10, this will do.

50 comments:

eric said...

It's no longer history. It's creative writing. As someone who studied history and math back when the combination of logic and fact finding weren't considered odd, the current environment makes me weep.

eric said...

It's no longer history. It's creative writing. As someone who studied history and math back when the combination of logic and fact finding weren't considered odd, the current environment makes me weep.

eric said...

It's no longer history. It's creative writing. As someone who studied history and math back when the combination of logic and fact finding weren't considered odd, the current environment makes me weep.

LT B said...

Diversity Thursday possibility is Stossel's affirmative action cupcake sale. I think it is on this Friday. As for revisionist historians... Go bl*w a donkey!

cdrsalamander said...

Dude, not this THU ... anyway ... stop stealing next week's thunder (if they have embed'ble video by next week)

Grumpy Old Ham said...

<span>Thus, I need to remember that my attitudes about the meaning of their presence here will not cross into my children’s lives as thoroughly as I might wish.</span>

Thank Pele for that.

All these Hawaiian Sovereignty moonbats who believe all would be well in the 'aina if only that nasty Captain Cook had just left them alone fail to appreciate what is represented by the Arizona Memorial -- namely that someone else would have come along sooner or later and taken the 'aina in a much less benign manner than those pesky haoles did.

Beside, IIRC the moonbats' patron saint Slick Willie apologized for our 1893 "insensitivity", so I'm not really clear on what their gripe is.

Grandpa Bluewater said...

Eric:

1. Academia is gone to hell, shot through with cowardice and the glorification of cowards. There are, none the less, some fine military historians left.

2.  The shameless abuse of innocent "Send" boxes and enter keys by out of contol male military conservative white racist bloggers must end.": sign on side of hippie painted VW bus seen heading your way. :)

LT Rusty said...

What?  You've got embeddable video of revisionist historians blowing donkeys??!?!!?

Phib, why're you holding out on us??!?!

Aubrey said...

I have no real reply for this - the idiocy and sheer, blind hatred of the piece just leaves me numb.  I have degrees in both history and linguistics (which is even more dominated by lefties than i history), but thankfully I was privileged to have studied under professors who believed in the sanctity of knowledge, and in arming their students to form their own opinions rather than inculcating whatever prejudices those men had.

I still have extremely fond memories of the four professors (from two different universities) that I consider my mentors - from them I gained not only a breadth of knowledge and a lifelong love of learning, but also an appreciation for evaluating all sides and not allowing my opinions to blind my outlook or color my thinking.

That being said, I bailed out on formal academia for a reason - I doubt if very many kids at all can find men like that in today's universities.

Anonymous said...

Bravo to URR for his comments to his professor [see below]!

It is obvious that the professorette in this story is also "full of sh*t!"

Add the National Endowment for the Humanities to the list of worthless cancers sustained by tax dollars that must be defunded immediately and permanently.

Byron said...

Glad I didn't show up there. I probably would have spent a few nights in the local lock up. This is another reason why my grandson did not go to public school. Now, if only I can convince him not to go to Amherst :(

UltimaRatioRegis said...

I believe it was that incident that kept me from winning academic honors.  That, and a lousy GPA. 

LT B said...

Yeah, he's had it since he went to TJ on liberty when he was an Ensign.  :)

Andrewdb said...

As much as I don't like this kind of thing in the Academy, I do think the kids can be trusted to see through a lot of this cr*p. 

My niece attends a Univ. of California campus.  She makes me look like a liberal.  She has a great story about her fellow student's reaction to an honor seminar on third world sweatshops - a young lady (another student) from India wanted to know why the presenter didn't want third world women to have independent incomes.  The presenter just ignored the question, but the students all understood the point.

Andy said...

Two data points on this confluence of Veteran's Day/Armistice Day and Diversity Thursday:

A) Son #1 is an Anthroplogy Major at a Top 100 Liberal Arts College.  he is also half-way through the Marines' Platoon Leader Course on his journey to become an Officer of Marines.  He has challeneged the liberal cant of his professors and fellow students openely in class, but has done so successfully enough to be carrying a 3.87 GPA.  He has had several of his profs tell him that while they disagree with him, he makes his arguements so convincingly that it is worthy of note and respect.  Plus I think they're a little intimindated by the high-and-tight. <g>  So take heart; with courage and commitment (hmmm, I think we've heard that somewhere before) our young 'uns can fight back with the words and logic the left claims to love so much.

B) On the other hand, as Sal has so amply demonstrated, the moonbats also live quite well within the DON.  To wit, this perversion of one Naval Aviator's real legacy into one that fits the Diversity Mafia's meme and reduces a great warrior to a characture:
http://www.navalhistory.org/2010/11/11/eugene-valencia-and-diversity/

The UNSI should be ashamed of itself for this one.
</g>

CV60 said...

If I can add one more small data point.  I live near Madison, Wisconsin, a hotbed of liberalism. Last night, my 5th grade daughters came from school with a letter from the principal asking all vets to show up at the school flagpole today at 0820 for a brief ceremony. This morning there were ten vets, some in uniform representing the USA, USN, USAF and USMC, standing by the flagpole.  A pretty good showing for a short notice, workday ceremony.  The 500-students then came out, we did a flag raising, said the pledge of allegiance.  The principal gave a short speech on how vets defend the US and our freedom.  When the students were asked if they had any family members who were vets, about 80% raised their hands.  The students then filed by and shook our hands.   All in a small town outside of Madison, Wisconsin.  My point to this?  The military is still appreciated, even near a hotbed of liberalism. 

PS-Yes, it was the best Veteran's Day I've ever had.

CDR K said...

Disgusting, silly, and awkward post all at the same time.  My comment was held for moderation -- we'll see if they post it:

A "flamboyant" and "mecurial" Latino?  The diversity bullies stereotype, but it's ok when they do it.

TheThunderingHerd said...

Re:  "...<span>will not cross into my children’s lives as thoroughly as I might wish"</span>

I was a Series Commander at MCRD San Diego in the late '70's.  At every graduation there was a mom or dad, still wearing their 60's hippie best, that felt the need to share with me (always with a serious expression) that they never thought that their son would end up in a place "like this" after they raised him with "good values".  My stock response:  "Aren't you lucky", delivered up close and with a big grin.

BTW, the UH is good school for vets, even with the usual university nut jobs/moonbats.  Went there to get my grad school ticket punched after my last duty station at MCAS Kaneohe.  Lots of vets, outstanding VA reps and support, many students that had parents and grandparents with civilian careers on military bases, and solid professors with real world experience.  Not the Harvard of the Pacific, but we owned a house, the wife had a teaching job, the G.I. bill covered the tuition, and what can I say ....I'd do it all over again in a heartbeat!  

C-dore 14 said...

Andy, Your comment at navalhistory.org is eloquent and to the point.  Thank you.

ewok40k said...

And it is Independence Day here in Poland :) Breakup of the old empires was resurrection time for us.
Caught a glimpse of military vehicles convoy heading to the military equipment display on the occassion today morning, including BMP-1,s Rosomak APCs, Dana 152mm SP howitzers and some 23mm  flak guns. Military is still top in the social trust rankings since the rankings started after the end of communism.

Kristen said...

Happy Independence Day, ewok!  We were in Vienna for a wedding a few years ago, and took the opportunity to dash up to Krakow for a brief visit.  What a beautiful place.  It was my first time in Poland, and I hope to return one day.

Jim. said...

A tribute from a San Diego realtor. No, I am not this man -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NJelugC0B0

The Usual Suspect said...

Hopefully, it was one of those upstairs shows.

Southern Air Pirate said...

When I was a tour guide on USS Old Boat and everytime I would get college professors or even teachers onboard as part of community relations. They would be amazed at the levels of responsibilities that we gave to kids that were 18 to 20yrs old. That they just make smaller dollar figure then they were, when you even add in non-pay bennies (holiday/sick time, living allowances, etc). Most of the time these educational folks would walk away amazed not only in what we do, but also how bad they had treated some military folks. I am also reminded of the classic Kipling poem "Tommy" every time I see people bad mouth a military member.

DM05 said...

Been to punchbowl, know much of the Islands, and this NEH "work" is toilet paper that needs to be flushed periodically. That said, a great Vet's day ceromony at the local HS with 2,000 respectful kids, couple hundred vets, a nice show/speaker, and of course the musical service medley. Proud to stand during Anchor's Away, and always will be, even with all the constructive past criticism of spineless political 4 stars and diversity nazis.

The WWII occupation friend next to me was crying often, having never been welcomed by the youth like that, or at least for years. And yeah, he's savvy enough to remember the Vietnam/hollow years.

The introduction of the local Gold Star familes (plural) shook this old Sailor to the soul, and yep, tears. Never forget, never give in, and we're all part of a long line of freedom defenders. That said, hope everyone had a great Veterans Day.

Wharf Rat said...

URR:

Where do I sign up to be on your team?  I have never been soooo proud to 'like' a response on 'old phibs' place.  Your logic is without compare.  If you had a blog, this paragraph should be the title.

<span>To which I asked why he would have a college professor teaching who was full of sh*t.  He then informed me that I was never to make a similar comment in that professor's class again.  At which point I informed him that if the professor said anything else similar, I would again tell him he was full of sh*t.  And that it wasn't "his" class, but mine, considering I was paying for the education.  
</span>

ewok40k said...

Welcome anytime :) You wont find a friendlier place as a guest or more hostile as invader...

UltimaRatioRegis said...

To the professor's credit (it was a TA who objected to the Dean), he wasn't bothered by the remark, and told the Dean that at least I was intellectually engaged and active. 

Another memorable incident up at HC was the Spring of 1984, in a lecture by two Marxist professors, George Hampsch and Judith Chubb, the remark had been made by the lecturer (Chubb) that the Soviets hadn't really occupied any part of Europe that wasn't in their traditional sphere of influence. 

I asked the question: "What about Prague?  Czechoslovakia had been in the Western camp and Prague was a Western city."

To which, with an appropriate eye roll, Chubb replied: "You MUST be joking!", getting knowing snickers from some of the other students at the lecture.

Fast forward to 1992, and the end of the "Velvet Revolution", and Vaclav Havel is elected to lead the Czech Republic.

Havel declared that Prague had always been a WESTERN city subsumed by the Soviets, and he welcomed the return of religious and political freedom now that the Russians were gone. 

If I weren't busy getting ready to deploy, I would have called Professor Chubb and reminded her of her snippy, intellectually superior attitude, and her mistaken beliefs about what she lectured about. 

But then again, what would Vaclav Havel know about Czechoslovakia that a Marxist professor at Holy Cross didn't?

Westpac Warrior said...

MONEY!  They want MONEY!

ewok40k said...

@ Soviet sphere of influence: heck, Prague aside, what about a Berlin, which had its own sphere of influence not too long ago?
And in Poland forced Russian/Soviet domination resulted in uprisings/civil unrest in:
1768, 1794, 1831, 1863, 1905, 1918 (succesful!), 1956, 1970, 1980-81, 1988-9 (succesful!)
You can almost see uprising every 30 years. Any other regime save Tsar autocracy and Communism would just give up due to costs of enforcing rule...

C-dore 14 said...

Pirate, Carriers tend to get a significant number of visitors who range from educators to celebrities and politicians.  During one "Guest of the Navy" event in SOCAL, one of our visitors was the rock star, David Crosby (who is extremely interested in sailing and aviation).  The guests were up on the Flag Bridge watching an UNREP when he remarked that he wondered where we got all the 18 and 19 year olds who could handle the responsibility we gave him because of the lack of responsibility he saw in the people of that age that he came in contact with.  I turned in my bridge chair and told him that they came from the same place the kids he saw came from.  The difference was that we set standards for them, give them important tasks to accomplish, and we don't let them use drugs.  Then I turned back to watch the CG make her approach.

UltimaRatioRegis said...

E40,

According to those two "educators", the Soviet experiment would have worked if only THEY were in charge.  And the "Soviet sphere" extended to Harvard, Berkeley, and Madison, WI.  (which, maybe it did.)

C-dore 14 said...

URR, I enjoy using the terms "dustbin of history" and "Soviet Union" in the same sentence.

UltimaRatioRegis said...

I would enjoy it more if our college faculties didn't sound like the 21st COMINTERN.

ewok40k said...

I assume they still mourn the fall of the Soviet Union as "greatest geopolitical tragedy of the century"...
That quotation is courtesy of Mr.Putin :)
What I find most ironic and history's supreme justice, is that it was workers movement of Solidarity that spelled the end of dictature that claimed to be the workers paradise.

UltimaRatioRegis said...

I was in HS for the Gdansk strike and Walesa's Solidarity movement's heyday.  But it was still fresh when I entered college (1982).  I do remember the Polish shipyard workers being spoken of by the Poly Sci cabal as being brave, sure, but somehow a little ungrateful.  After all, Jaruzelski was being quite reasonable.....

Byron said...

Sierra Hotel, C-dore, Sierra Hotel! Bet he opened up a box of "Shut the hell up" real quick!

Aubrey said...

Krakow and Gdansk are two of my favorite places to visit in the world (the others in the top 5 being Dubrovnik, Cesky Krumlov and Rome).  Anyone heading even remotely that way gets a harangue from me to go visit any of the above...

Grumpy Old Ham said...

Game, set, match -- hell, the whole tournament to AR!

SCOTTtheBADGER said...

HUZZAH! C-Dore 14!  Very Well Done, Indeed!

Grumpy Old Ham said...

Indeed.  Some of those folks may have a beef with OHA but their message is getting lost in the moonbat noise level.

As one of my previous bosses said:  "It doesn't matter what they're talking about, eventually they're always talking about money!"

SCOTTtheBADGER said...

happy Independence day, albeit a bit late, Ewok!  The Polish people are a planetary treasure. Long may they exsist, and thrive.

SCOTTtheBADGER said...

There are parts of Madison that are still part of the Soviet Union.

SCOTTtheBADGER said...

The Soviets occupied Austria at the end of WWII, as well.  Again, just another part of the Russian Sphere of Influence.

Southern Air Pirate said...

C-dore,

I completely understand. I blew one College Professor away one time on the ship during a tour and explained that I was responsible for the maintenance multi-million aircraft and doing maintenance equivalent to having a BS in electrical engineering. All while recieiving E-5 pay (about 35k a year). This college professor, asked me how I could to that without an college degree? I told her that I could do this cause I saw education as a toolbox for my job and not a means to a job. That caused a few gaps in the group this college professor was in. I was later told as escorting the group off, a couple of them told me that they wish a few more of thier students understood my wantingness to serve and my willingness to not depend on my education to grant me a job.

ewok40k said...

On a side note, has anyone studied the successful COIN campaign by Sri Lanka against the Tamil Tigers - a pretty formidable force that has been using small sea supply fleet and used suicide bombers years before they got fashionable in the Middle East?

C-dore 14 said...

Badger, As are parts of Seattle and the SF Bay Area.

twinkie said...

As a current US/military history Ph.D. student at Kansas (occasionally called by some as "Berkeley on the Kaw"), there is hope for the future.  The military historian graduate students regaularly punch above their weight class in terms of classroom participation and preparation for class meetings.  While gender studies and postmodernist thought have become parts of academia, the professors I've had here who are explicitly not military historians have been actually very accepting of the military historians in their classes, and we have, in essence, a seat the the table.

I readily agree that academia was politicized in the 1960s, but many of those professors are starting to retire and the new crop of graduate students are much more appreciative of the obligations and sacrifices that people in the military make.  Military history has been largely resistant to some of the newer trends in history, but if the articles I see in the Journal of Military History (an academic peer-reviewed journal) are any indicator, there's a light at the end of the tunnel.

I think armed conflict over the last decade has driven home to the current crop of graduate students that professional military men and women are not the droids that some stereotypes might have held, and that I don't think anyone was particularly expecting me to apply the lessons of tours to Iraq and Afghanistan as a campaign planner to things like the civil rights movement or the KKK.  My non-military classmates were somewhat surprised (in a good way) when I (and a few other combat veterans in the class) made the point that those power relationships mirrored almost exactly the way the Taliban used to take control of areas in Afghanistan.

I've been a believer in the power of education to make me a better practitioner - I'm also an active duty Army strategist and my graduate education has been a tremendous intellectual sharpening stone.  Veterans have the power to bring some of that back to the academic institutions, a little bit at a time.

cdrsalamander said...

When you try to get a position and work towards tenure - I wish you the best of luck.

twinkie said...

I'm reminded of someone who had mentioned that he preferred being in academia because it didn't require him to have to justify actual practice and back up assertions up that he knew were going to be executed by others.  I've done enough operational-level planning where I'd rather be in that universe than in academia.  The doctorate I'm pursuing is for personal reasons above all others; I have every expectation of going to a combatant command or somewhere in the National Capital Region to make use of that education.

I agree that tenure is a pipe dream for a retired officer, not something I expect to change very soon.  I will be interested in seeing how long Pete Mansoor stays at Ohio State (where he got his Ph.D., although his bigger claim to fame was being GEN Petraeus's XO at MNF-I), although Mansoor is very much a unique case.