The Issues

Now that I have a blog, I can spend the entire day speculating about what to write that evening. And when you miss a day, as I did last night (asleep) even more issues pile-up. Since I'm not going to write about my personal life, here are the [other] things I've been thinking about lately:

1) Duke Lacrosse Case (this should get some random readers; I was actually thinking about titling this post "duke rape duke rape duke rape")
2) Immigration reform (clearly, these are not in order of importance)
3) Tuesday's field trip
4) School frustration
5) Sophie's Choice, the book I'm reading

Let me address these one by one, I promise (for my own sake) they will be brief.

1) So they recently indicted a third lacrosse player, team captain and now-graduate David Evans. At first, I prematurely condemned the lacrosse players, thinking that it was reasonable to believe they had committed a crime. At that time, before the first and second DNA tests were conducted, things were unclear. No one had spoken out, except the alleged victim, which left hidden the true details of what happened that night.

Back then, news about the Duke lacrosse story was relegated to blurbs in major news outlets. The backlash was so strong --people were so indignant-- that it almost seemed like something must have happened, since people were now so upset and outraged.

Then came the incessant news reports set to an unchanging backdrop --the lonely white house on Buchanan Blvd., the Newsweek cover story featuring photos of the accused, the uneventful election which Nifong won (in which I abstained from voting), and the second DNA test, which suggested that the accuser did indeed have sexual intercourse that night, just not with any of the Duke players. During this chain of events, my opinion changed from initially shocked and mildly accusatory, to angry about the way the news outlets were "selling" the story. I also began to feel an increasing empathy for the accused, and a rising discontent with the justice system.

A letter to the editor of Newsweek said it well; why does a magazine that claims to take the high road in not publishing the name of a rape victim publish the photographs of two men who have merely been accused of a crime? Theoretically they are still innocent until the moment they are proven guilty, and it looks increasingly like that moment will never arrive.

There is now too much reasonable doubt associated with this case: the lack of DNA matches, the alibis, the other DNA, the other alleged rape involving the accuser, the fact that all the people in the lineup were Duke lacrosse players, a negative polygraph test in the case of Evans...more and more keeps coming to light. In my opinion this makes the decision of the jury (assuming the case goes to trial) a little easier: If hearsay is it, you must acquit.

2) President speaking on primetime (still haven't seen it), activists "storming" the Congress, national guard troops at the border -- the battle for the heart of America rages. Now I sound like a news correspondent. So obviously the President is trying to mollify his base (and the House) by sending the National Guard to the border, while pushing for more "comprehensive" (the buzzword of the week) reforms including a guest-worker program and another of the week's buzz phrases: "a path to citizenship." So we seem to be making progress...when else has Ted Kennedy agreed with the President? Bush is smarter than some of the Republican congress members in realizing that this problem cannot be solved simply by beefing up border security. As much as some politicians and everyday people may hate to admit it, many of the industries that drive economic growth --i.e. construction and manufacturing-- are driven themselves by a horde of underclass illegal immigrant workers.

Perhaps the most telling sound byte from the day may have come from Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff who defended the President's plan against opponents who call it amnesty. In what will I'm sure become an oft-repeated argument, Chertoff reiterated that any illegal immigrants who choose to become citizens will have to pay some sort of fine. This, he claimed, is no more "amnesty" than when someone commits a minor crime, such as a speeding ticket or a noise violation (my examples, I'm sure there are better ones) and is ordered to pay a fine. In the future, this argument can be made to sway those people who realize something bigger than beefing up the border has to be done, but are afraid to "reward" a group of people who have broken the law.

3) Fun yet exhausting. Like some students and even a few teachers, I struggled to keep my eyes open on the bus ride back. Last night I fell asleep during Jeopardy (~7:50 pm) and woke up only twice; once to go to my bed, and the other time to remove my contacts. Eating relatively little and not exercising made me lethargic and belligerent today, a fact that I'm sure my 3rd grade students could attest to. Which brings me to...

4) Facing utter frustration during the school day, mostly dealing with behavior but occasionally with achievement. As a teacher and a person, I normally have a well of patience for dealing with children...more than most people I would imagine. But when I hit that day where I am tired, and I just want to go home, I lose it a lot quicker. In the classroom, I sometimes lash out at the kids, sometimes not even the ones who are the culprits. Then, later, I blame myself for these outbursts and convince myself that I am not a good enough teacher to get through to these kids. Especially when I have to compare myself to my peers.

5) Famous book. Amateurish title. Sophie's Choice? It sounds like an afterschool special:

Sophie is a straight-A student and the girl nextdoor until she meets Nathan, the motorcycle-riding, rebellious bad boy of Flatbush. Nathan takes her to the movies, to the park, tells her she's the most beautiful creature he's ever laid eyes on --but what is he really after? In a moment of passion at Coney Island, the two lovers consummate their love --but at what cost? When Sophie finds out she is pregnant, Nathan disappears into the grizzly streets of Manhattan, leaving her with a devastating choice. Find Nathan or find Planned Parenthood. What will she choose?

Not to rag on the book. I like it so far...but what is it with writers of Styron's generation and their insatiable libidos? Stingo, Styron, Portnoy, Roth; maybe it was an excess of Freudian psychology at a young age.

And let me just say that it is definitely pretentious to write a book where the main character is a poorly fictionalized version of you. Congrats again to Styron and Roth. I wonder if they are friends...