Dr. Serling-love or, How I Learned to Start Worrying and Hate the Bomb

 

www.icanw.org

The old episodes of the Twilight Zone, especially those exemplifying fear of “the bomb”, may seem campy and even cliché to us today. We laugh at the bad special effects and overacting of people who are supposed to pretend that the world has ended with the 1950’s. It has been 65 years after the detonation of the first nuclear bomb, and now nuclear power is now something we take for granted. It powers our lives and (more importantly) represents the fear of the past; an issue that is dearly out of touch with today’s problems.  This, coupled with the growing age of people who actually remember the Cold War, is leading the world down a cataclysmic path. If the old saying is true that “those who forget history are doomed to repeat it”, then we risk being the last generation to ever let past lessons slip through our fingers. 

An informative article from the Huffington Post (here) by Robert Creamer gives a chilling account of where the nations of the world, still unstable and bristling with nuclear weapons, are headed. It is hard to sum up in a single paragraph, but basically boils down to how any nuclear conflict or event can affect every living thing on the planet. To put it in perspective, natural events like volcanic eruptions in the Southeast tropics have killed a year’s worth of crops in the eastern United States. Even a non-direct nuclear attack (in any part of the world) has the potential to cause worldwide climate change and endanger our very survival as a species. The ‘Nuclear Winter’ scenario that scared so many in the 1980’s still remains a reality, but has now become an issue that represents that time, not our current worldview.

In the article, Creamer demonstrates a scenario in which the nations of Pakistan and India (who have been in conflict for years and both retain nuclear warheads) were to launch their stockpiles. The results are truly mortifying:

“Their study assumed that India and Pakistan would each use 50 nuclear weapons. The total of 100 weapons used represents only .4% of the world’s 25,000 nuclear weapons. It found that such a war would kill approximately 20 million people from the direct bomb effects and subsequent fires and radiation. Their model shows it would likely kill another 1 billion people — about a seventh of the world’s population — from starvation caused by the agricultural collapse. These effects would happen over a decade. You can imagine that those threatened with starvation would not die quietly. Rather the world would witness an economic and political crisis without any parallel in recorded history.”

As anyone who can read a news site can tell you, this is not a far-fetched sci-fi doomsday prediction. It is a study of what could – and would- actually happen, if the political situation for these two nations reached its breaking point. But the biggest threat is not even from a political breakdown such as this, but the introduction of an outside party to the nuclear fold.

Al-Qaeda and other terrorist organizations have vowed to obtain and actually use nuclear weapons. However they obtain them – through defectors from other nuclear nations, espionage, etc. – it would spell certain doom for everything: us, them, the others, the people and places and things you’ve never knew existed. The immeasurable chaos, destruction and human suffering that would result from a nuclear strike are exactly what the terrorist organizations of the world wish to cause. The fact that they themselves would not be spared is no deterrent.

Although it is almost impossible to take an outside perspective on these scenarios, consider this. One could claim that the elimination of a weapon (that the species can control) that has the potential to make the entire species extinct would be its number one priority. And yet, nuclear disarmament is too often a backburner issue for Congress and for the rest of the world. President Obama has made the call for world free of nuclear weapons – however, the paranoia of our nation and others as brought the issue at a glacial pace of progression. But elimination of nuclear weapons is not just a pipe dream. If the proper steps were taken, this nightmarish vision of the future could be easily nipped in the bud.

If the U.S. Senate were to ratify the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, then steps could be taken to progress the issue in other nations as well. Since the U.S. and Russia own 90% of the world’s nuclear stockpile, a ban on future tests and commitment to reduce supply could give the other nations the peace of mind needed to push this idea into a reality. This, along with the ratification and recognition of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty for all eight nuclear nations, would give the world what it needs to eliminate the threat. While the method of making nuclear weapons can never be destroyed, the materials (highly-enriched plutonium or uranium) needed to create new ones could be regulated and controlled.

“Neither of these elements occurs in nature in a form usable to build nuclear weapons. Nuclear reactors used for peaceful purposes do not necessarily require weapons grade fissile material. Both must be created by human manufacturing processes that can be monitored and prevented with appropriate international agreements. Current weapons-grade fissile materials could be locked down under international control, and further production could be banned”

So yes, this is a dream that has the possibility to be realized. But it is not something we should solely leave to our politicians to decide. We need to do our part to make this happen. It could be argued that the actions of the people, including you, would never make a difference in such a high-profile issue. But the protests this year in the Arab world and even the birth of our country have shown, people can have the power. And you, yes YOU, have the chance to make a difference. By taking the time to visit the web site for the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, you can find out how to contribute to the cause. Volunteering your time, lobbying your local government representatives, and even something as simple as signing a petition or sharing a link on Facebook. All these can drive us closer to a more peaceful future for our species and all life on Earth. It could be a future where the pretense of nuclear annihilation really is the stuff of outdated camp and toothless concerns of the past, an impossible fear that we can finally relegate to the outer reaches of the Twilight Zone.

Apathy and Ignorance in the Face of International Strife, a.k.a Business as Usual

 

Remember the whole ‘freedom fries’ thing a few years ago? What a ridiculous and backwards incident that was! Truly an embarrassing footnote in almost a decade-long history of mind-numbing Bush logic (Bushit?) which hopefully most of us are glad to see come to an end. Just another strange part of American history, pockmarked with fear and ignorance, that history teachers of the future will be hard-pressed to explain to their perplexed students (that is, if there are any left). It had the rest of the world shaking their heads and provided an answer to the age-old question: “Yes, people really can be that stupid”. But Francophobia is so fun, why leave it as an isolated incident? Why not use any news about France to lash out with the same close-minded, isolationist thinking that old Dubya made so popular? Of course, straight-out fear mongering is so …passé, as a certain nation of cheese-munching surrender monkeys would say. I know! We’ll get back to the schoolyard basics of stereotypes! That will get the average Joe’s attention. And what better website to broadcast it on than the front page of San Diego’s own news monolith, the UT? Take a read, citizen, and educate yourself!

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/oct/21/the-french-are-striking-over-what/

Though the stereotypes sprinkled throughout the article of the French as beret-wearing rat-like people is amusing, what makes the article true journalistic gold is the way the author presents the American public. ‘Befuddled Yanks’, I think was the term? Not to mention his assertion of American superiority in the ‘what are they, crazy?’ manner of writing about something that means a lot to an entire population. As you read the article, you could almost picture some bitter curmudgeon hearing one sentence of a news story and deciding to write his opinion on it in the ol’ John Henry type mindset: ‘I’m too busy WERKIN’ to protest, dagnabbit!” Truly, there is no better stereotype than the one he impasses about us, in the same holier-than-thou, America-above-the-world attitude that was dated and obsolete 30 years ago. Or perhaps he’s just playing to ‘older crowd’ that still thinks this way? Anything to sell papers, I guess…that is, if this even gets printed. God forbid anyone over 45 attempts to use a computer.

So when you get past the faux-patriotism and attempts to write off French ideals through bad puns, what is left? He does make a small comment about France’s history in helping America exist in that little revolutionary war (Ooo, Ralph, you REBEL!) but follows up with a comment about how ‘America’s pride in productivity has helped it weather the recession’ because that American workin’ man, he don’t ask no questions! But what about this article from last year, that rates the quality of life for workers in France as the highest in the world, with the United States pulling in at number 7, behind even New Zealand and Switzerland? Last I checked, productivity doesn’t mean shit if you’re miserable.

Maybe the real issue I have with this article is the patronizing attitude it takes toward an issue that really means something to the people of France. This is an ideal that these people hold very dear to them – an inalienable right, if you will – and the author patronizes the issue with a very blasé take on the entire thing. His tone disrespects the fact that this is an issue that (a large majority of) the people of France are willing to turn their entire country upside down for, and instead acts as if the French have nothing better to do than protest just for the sake of protesting. As if they could never have any real concerns because the average American retirement age is 70 and not 60. There’s that ‘oh, we’re so tough’ attitude again. Maybe it’s me, but should that be looked at as a fault? Shouldn’t the fact that the average American has to work, and could risk bankruptcy and poverty, up to an age when they should be enjoying their “golden years” be seen as a failure on our part?

Before you pass me off as some liberal brain-washed nut job, please understand that I am just trying to offer some balance. Everyone in our great nation is entitled to their opinion, even if it is wrong. It is part of what makes our country great. Likewise, the French are not without fault: I can pass judgment on the French government for their own treatment of religious freedom in their country. But the fact is that articles like this, that encourage people to think – inside and outside our country – that the U.S. espouses this sort of oblivious, folksy, and half-baked worldview, have no place in how we should perceive the modern world. All it does is put up more divisions where they needn’t be. Perhaps instead of being so critical of ideals, we should consider what they mean to people outside our own country? Or, at the very least, cast a critical eye at our own values? After all, there is no “planet France”, only the planet Earth that we all share, which is getting to be a smaller and smaller place everyday. At some point, everyone is going to have to make their own personal choice about how they want to live: hating their neighbors or learning to live with them. Personally? I will encourage the attitude that supports the latter. Whichever you choose to follow is your decision to make. After all, c’est votre vie.

　

“Clinical Legal Education in China” Synopsis

Here is a small piece I wrote about an article entitled: “Clinical Legal Education in China: In Pursuit of a Culture of Law and a Mission of Social Justice” by Pamela Phan.

 Most people in the West still have a very backward idea of China as a completely communist dictatorship, despite its involvement and contributions to the U.S. economy today. The fact is that there are many capitalistic influences and aspects of modern China that are helping the country economically on an unprecedented scale. However, it is these same capitalistic influences that are making modern Chinese society consider re-conceptualization and reform of the law. Up until recently, the majority of the Chinese people believed that the government only used law to the benefit of the party (and they would be right) and that the law would not protect ordinary citizens. In fact, as said in the article, modern students of clinical law have the hardest time convincing older citizens that the law can and will protect them – if they follow the proper due process.

            Many older Chinese and even ordinary modern citizens believe that “Confucianism and communist ideology have overwhelmed the rule of law” (Phan, 4) and that the law only exists to serve the interests of the state. This is a result of not just a culture that has lived under communism, but a culture in which the law was dictated by feudalistic norms for thousands of years. While lawyers and law students do offer services to citizens in modern China, their actions sometimes reinforce these beliefs. This is because students studying clinical law are often required to give legal service while still in school, even though they are inexperienced (Phan, 5). Another factor that goes against the success of these students is that they are often taught law in a closed classroom rhetoric, without realistic experience before they are expected to defend people. Coupled with the fact that these high-society students are serving a populous which is well below the poverty line, it is easy to see why citizens find it hard to put their trust in the culture of law.

             Even to go about improving these Clinical Law institutions would present problems. Some people think that using a more American system of law and teaching would be the answer. However, this would clash with traditional Chinese values and norms, as well as with government regulations. Some Clinical Law schools have been shut down by the Chinese government because of their lawsuits against government agencies for toxic waste spills (Phan, 12). In order for these institutions to have lasting social change, they must learn and serve the Chinese sense of justice and the interests of the people. For instance, as seen in the movie, one Chinese man brought his legal case to light after watching “Judge Bao”, a television series about a feudal Chinese judge who solves cases with fairness, impartiality, and a Chinese perspective of justice. “Indeed, there is an entirely new generation of “social provocateurs” in China. The whole nation, including the government, has expressed a willingness to listen to these visionaries and has every incentive to join the broader community of nations promoting the rule of law” (Phan, 15).

            The article echoed many of the same claims as others about the topic, but also went into greater detail regarding capitalistic businesses and legal issues in modern China. The movement of multinational corporations into China necessitates legal reform not only on a state vs. corporate level, but a people vs. state level. In order for corporations to work outside and inside of China, they need to learn and respect cultural differences, tastes, and values. For example, the lipstick company that wanted to produce as well as sell inside of China was told “people here don’t wear makeup”. The people employed by these multinationals will be expected by the world community to have the same rights as employees in other countries. On the flip side, these corporations should also be held responsible for any unlawful actions committed outside their countries of origin. In short, it would benefit legal culture in China to mirror the approach of capitalism and learn to strike a delicate balance with not just the government, but the Chinese people.

New SD Reader article: The Autumn Kaleidoscope Got Changed

The San Diego Reader printed my CD review for Black Moth Super Rainbow’s The Autumn Kaleidoscope Got Changed! Click on the link here http://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2010/jan/14/autumn-kaleidoscope-got-changed/ to take a look, then click “More Matt Lewis” at the bottom of the article to see what I’ve written for them in the past.

Children and Families: “At-Promise” article

This was an article I wrote for my “Youth and Society” class about the article “Children and Families ‘at promise’: Deconstructing the Discourse of Risk”, by Beth Blue Swadener.

            Is there anything positive about the term, “at-risk”? Before you even know or learn anything about a person, describing them as “at-risk” already casts them in a negative light, despite whatever qualities they may possess. Although it is a term that can be helpful to someone in regards to their health or state of mind, too often is this term thrown around to describe teens or children. If a child hears themselves described as an “at-risk” person, it will most likely affect their confidence and self-esteem negatively. A child or teen is overlooked for their redeeming qualities and set up to fail, all with a simple misuse of language.

The case of the freedom writers is a textbook example. All of these kids were “at-risk” for something: gang violence, child abuse, drug abuse, psychological problems. Because of these labels, they were put into remedial classes and described as lost causes. However, their teacher saw the potential in them for great things if they were only given the means and the inspiration to do so. When the teens felt that freedom of expression and the respect and caring from their peers, they blossomed. Now these students have written their own book and have been the most successful students of their graduating class. Funny to think that these were the kids who themselves were not planning on living past the age of 19. All it took to change their lives around was a little positive thinking and support from their teacher and their peers.

The article “Children and Families ‘At-Promise’” also advocates this idea of positive reinforcement. All the phrase “at-risk” does is reinforce and perpetuate a negative presumption of people who are poor, live hard lives, or are different from the wealthy, healthy upper- echelon which we assume “make the rules”. Instead of believing that these people have the ability to do great things despite their social situation, they are looked down upon. This stereotype is so great and pervasive that it leads the “at-risk” people to believe they are “at-risk” and therefore, have less confidence in themselves and their abilities. What should be considered elitist and classist opinions of the wealthy become self-fulfilling prophecies not just for the poor, but for their children as well.

A child or teen does not have to be poor or socially unimportant to feel this way. The disrespect with which teens are treated only causes them to repay their elders with disrespect. Adults are reaping what they sow when they are condescending to a teenager or unfairly judge a child. They expect children and teens to act like small adults, when really they are on a whole other stage of life. A more positive way to describe these kids is “at-promise”; that they have the ability for greatness if they are told so. Adults have a lot of influence on kids, and if this influence is channeled into a loving, compassionate, and understanding way, than a child will grow up right.

This new way of thinking can start right at home, with parents. Instead of chastising or talking down to teenagers, listen to them; being able to explain and relate to a problem will have far greater impact then dealing out punishment for it. The same can go for teachers, coaches, counselors, and all adults who interact with teens: have them believe that they don’t need to learn how to be great, but rather that the ability is already inside them.

Hello.

Here you will find some of my writing samples. Some have been published, but others have never been seen before! Hope you enjoy them!