The other night I gave a lecture at UC Davis for BRIDGE, the Filipino Outreach and Retention Program. The topic was the Filipino American War, and current militarization in the southern Philippines (as part of Bush’s “war on terrorism” — to deflect criticism, I said, that the war on Iraq was making him neglect the war on Al-Qaida).

In any case, I read the following excerpt below by way of an ending. It’s from a letter by William James — known to most people as a psychologist and the writer of The Varieties of Religious Experience — but also an ardent anti-imperialist as well. (The excerpt is long, but read at least the final paragraph.)

The letter was written to the Boston Evening Transcript in March 1899, just a little over a century ago; I take the excerpt from Boone Schirmer and Stephen Shalom ‘s excellent The Philippines Reader: A History of Colonialism, Neocolonialism, Dictatorship, and Resistance (Boston: South End Press, 1987):

We are now openly engaged in crushing out the sacredest thing in this great human world — the attempt of a people long enslaved to attain to the possession of itself, to organize its laws and government, to be free to follow its internal destinies according to its own ideals. War… aims at destruction, and at nothing else. And splendidly are we carrying out war’s ideal. We are destroying the lives of these islanders by the thousand… But these destructions are the smallest part of our sins. We are destroying down to the root every germ of a healthy national life in these unfortunate people, and we are surely helping to destroy for one generation at least their faith in God and man. No life shall you have, we say, except as a gift from our philanthropy after your unconditional submission to our will….

It is horrible, simply horrible. Surely there cannot be many born and bred Americans who, when they look at the bare fact of what we are doing, and do not blush with burning shame at the unspeakable meanness and ignominy…?

Why, then, do we go on? First, the war fever; and then the pride which always refuses to back down when under fire. But these are passions that interfere with the reasonable settlement of any affair; and in this affair we have to deal with a factor altogether peculiar with our belief, namely, in a national destiny which must be “big” at any cost, and which for some inscrutable reason it has become infamous for us to disbelieve or refuse. We are to be missionaries of civilization, and to bear the white man’s burden, painful as it often is. We must sow our ideals, plant our order, impose our God. The individual lives are nothing. Our duty and our destiny call, and civilization must go on.

Could there be a more damning indictment of that whole blasted idol termed “modern civilization” than this amounts to?…

…The issue is perfectly plain at last. We are cold-bloodedly, wantonly and abominably destroying the soul of a people who never did us an atom of harm in their lives. It is bald, brutal piracy, impossible to dish up any longer in the cold potgrease of President McKinley’s cant… — surely as shamefully evasive a speech, considering the right of the public to know definite facts, as can often have fallen even from a professional politician’s lips. The worst of our imperialists is that they do not themselves know where sincerity ends and insincerity begins….

The impotence of the private individual, with imperialism under full headway as it is, is deplorable indeed. But every American has a voice or a pen, and may use it. So, impelled by my own sense of duty, I write these present words. One by one we shall creep from cover, and the opposition will organize itself.

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Ever since Izzy was about — I don’t know, maybe five, six months old, we’ve had the exact same nighttime routine. Because of this (and other reasons like her temperament) she’s gone down to sleep fairly well; as a matter of fact, she was sleeping through the night by the time she was about four months old.

Usually we would feed her her dinner first, before we eat. Madeline and I will eat dinner while she watches Sesame Street; I know, it’s not a good idea to give kids too much TV, but it relaxes Izzy and gives us a breather while we eat in relative peace.

Then it’s bathtime, which happens every other night: Madeline runs Izzy’s bath (I’m a slow eater, so I’m usually still trying to finish up), and then once the tub is full, we take Izzy to her changing table. The naked baby is brought to the tub, washed (she doesn’t like water over her face, though, so it’s hard to shampoo her hair), and given time to play (she loves bubbles and her rubber duckie), and finally pulled out of the tub (she’s usually complaining by this time, because she loves splashing around), and changed into her sleeper.

We try to read to her afterwards, though this doesn’t always work; her attention span is growing, however. Now she can go and pull books off the shelf, give them to us and say “book.” Her favorite books, it seems, are “Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb” (can’t remember the author right now) and Dr. Seuss’s “Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You?” (She can actually say “moo” if I point to the word, but Madeline won’t believe me.) Margaret Wise Brown’s “Goodnight Moon” and “The Runaway Bunny” get a lot of read-time too, as well as Peter McCarty’s “Baby Steps” and “Hondo and Fabian.”

Then it’s time for bed: one of us gets the milk, while the other sits in the rocking chair with her. After she finishes her bottle (and usually by this time she’s almost asleep), we clean her teeth with a wet cloth, put her in the crib, turn on her music box, and stroke her back a little until she’s finally asleep.

We’ve managed to come up with a little repertoire of songs that work while putting her to sleep; a song she really likes “The Itsy-Bitsy Spider” or “Old McDonald” would be too lively. I’ve found as well that many of the pre-WW2 standards or anything after, say, 1974 — just about the whole fount of songwriting from which I can draw — are too lively or way too slow.

“Close to You,” “Top of the World” and “The Rainbow Connection” work very well; Madeline also likes “Sing” and “Yellow Submarine.” (The latter she adapted with lyrics about Shelby wanting more food to eat, but I won’t quote them here. But see how the first four draw straight from the singer-songwriter tradition of the late ’60s and early ’70s?) I’ve also started singing her one of my dad’s favorite songs, “Red Sails in the Sunset” (the Nat King Cole version).

And I’ll end with a bit of that here:

Red sails in the sunset
Way out on the sea
Go carry my loved one
Home safely to me.

Good night, little Izzy.

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There’s a bit of a backlash now against Norah Jones now that she’s won all her Grammys. Even the New York Times — with the article illustrated by a ludicrous photo of Ms. Jones wearing a tank top about two sizes too small for her — used the phrase (and I may be misremembering this) “oppressive good taste” to refer to her album.

Actually, I really do like that song, but I thought I’d contribute to the backlash — no hard feelings, now — with an AP photo of Ms. Jones doing her best Reese Witherspoon:

If anyone can think of a good caption to this, let me know in the comments section below.

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First there was Otis Fodder‘s 365 Days Project; now Dana Countryman is offering the Cool and Strange Music Magazine Compilation! Is this simply not amazing? Download them now before they’re taken down forever on April 15!

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This is what I’ll be doing on March 5 — no anthropology class!

As the Not In Our Name folks write:

On March 5…

* You could call in sick (sick of war, sick of militarism?)
* You could close your business.
* Professors could cancel classes.
* Students could plan citywide high school walkouts and other campus actions, joining with student strikes being organized across the country.
* City councils and county boards that have passed resolutions against the war could mark the day with town hall meetings, teach-ins or other ways.
* Unions that have passed anti-war resolutions could call job actions.
* You could stand for peace at the nearest post office or government building.
* You could begin a campaign of bold letters to legislators, the president and his secretaries.
* You could establish “no war zones” with signs and banners at strategic intersections (as they are doing in Atlanta).
* You could hang banners from major overpasses (as they are doing in Chicago).
* You could bring your protest to a military facility, with acts of civil disobedience “supporting” the soldiers by attempting to stop the U.S. military machine from sending them off to war.
* Houses of worship could call for special services that day; could call their congregations to protest at military recruiting offices or elsewhere; could open their doors to conscientious objectors.
* You could engage in nonviolent direct action at appropriate locations.
* You could begin a dialogue on how to bring about a peaceful and just world.
* Afternoon or evening convergences could bring together everyone who’s acted earlier in the day to voice opposition in the streets and at community gatherings.

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