A miserable March day, overcast and cold, rain spit on our faces. Parents, spouses, and children all locked in the same nightmare, a bad dream, an insanity sending men and women off to war but somehow we agreed to let this thing happen. Behind our kids, behind our soldiers standing at attention, there is a graveyard. I am not amused by the irony; I am a part of it. This was the first day of what would be a God-awful fifteen months. On Mother’s Day, two months later, our son the soldier and his National Guard unit deployed to Iraq.
Our Son, The Soldier – Dead for a Moment
A Father's Account of his Son's Deployment in Iraq
January 9th, 2010 · Written by Gregory Roll · No Comments
→ No CommentsTags: Essays · War
You are in my Breeding Territory
The World of Cyber Gender Bending and Computer Cross-Dressing
October 25th, 2009 · Written by Robert Jones · No Comments
Electronic communication networks now construct much of our understanding of reality. The distinct categories of identity that develop in these digital realms along with the interface between the body and these electric fantasies create new possibilities for what some call “computer cross-dressing.” Just as “real world” drag queens disrupt gender categories that were previously considered static, computer cross-dressers deconstruct, explore, and reconstruct new identities. Communities of computer cross-dressers destabilize identity categories so that they are constantly in transit, bearing no stable ontological relationship between what is on the World Wide Web and who is behind the computer.
→ No CommentsTags: Essays · Cyber Identity · Futurism · Technology
Unrealistic Expectations
April 20th, 2008 · Written by Ramla Alethea · 3 Comments
The fact of the matter is, we’re all lying to ourselves. We want to believe it’s possible to be holy. To feel divine. We sacrifice ourselves, put ourselves on the line, with the naïve notion it pleases some disembodied voice in the sky. We look to socially agreed upon models of exemplary “spiritual” human beings and attempt to replicate ad nauseam.
Jesus Christ, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Mother Teresa.
→ 3 CommentsTags: Opinion · Society · Spirituality · Truth
America’s Auto-Addiction
How our car culture ravages the psyche, community, and the natural world
March 19th, 2008 · Written by M. Decker · 1 Comment
Cars, cars, everywhere. From the shores of Hawaii to the mountains of New Mexico to the hamlets of northern Michigan, cars and trucks of all shapes and sizes, running rampant down the streets, possessing highways, monopolizing avenues, pompously pushing their way down lanes, drives, places, and boulevards. Running over pedestrians, bicyclists, and each other. Belching carbon dioxide, spewing oil, gluttonously guzzling gasoline, shedding rubber, metal, glass, and plastic. Shrieking, rumbling and carelessly careening in various directions at multiple speeds. […]
→ 1 CommentTags: Opinion · Addiction · Society · Sprawl · Transportation
Do You Believe in Magic?
November 2nd, 2007 · Written by Jason Glover · 4 Comments
My memories are all artificial. Pre-packaged marketing tools designed to foster brand identity or sell toys. A twisted commercial entourage of ‘80s icons. Thundercats, TMNT, Transformers, Gumby, Ghostbusters, G.I. Joe, Smurfs, Care Bears, Popples. X-men comics. The Olsen twins. That impatient owl licking to the center of Tootsie Roll Pops. Me begging to stop at McDonald’s and get a Happy Meal. Or even better, to go inside and play in the ball pit.
These are the chronicles of my perfect upbringing. I am a walking, talking fulfillment of the American Dream. […]
→ 4 CommentsTags: Opinion · '80s · Childhood · Commercialism · Consumerism