It's an Old Story:

The New York Times is running a story in today's edition under the headline: "U.S. Enriches Companies Defying Its Policy on Iran." The Times reveals that over 100 billion dollars in contracts have been let to companies doing business with Iran even as the U.S. government is attempting to convince China to go along with its position that economic dealings with the country should be sorely limited in light of Iran's development of a nuclear weapon.

While this hypocrisy may anger some, there is nothing new in the behavior. Some in the west are fond of pointing out that even as Nazi Germany was invading the U.S.S.R. in 1941 the Russians were shipping raw materials into the country; however, the United States was no different. American companies were fulfilling contracts with the Germans leading right up to the war as well, just as they were with the Japanese. When it comes to business, profits trump all else.


War and the Telling of It:

Roman Skaskiw has written as well as anyone about the modern soldier's experience in the two Bush wars, and in today's New York Times he addresses the issue of whether fiction can ever adequately portray the experience of war.

Today is an especially relevant day to address this topic because it's Oscar day. Two movies, The Hurt Locker and The Messenger have received multiple nominations, and the question about whether or not either of these two movies accurately portrays the soldier's experience has been a hot one in the press.

The answer is of course "No." No retelling of any event can ever, with complete accuracy, bring about the re-creation of an original event. While the retelling of it might recapture the experience for one person, it will ring false for another, no matter whether historical or novelistic. If it were otherwise, we would need only one book, one movie, one story, one epic poem, and think how boring that would be.


Obama Supports Teacher Firings:

The teachers unions are outraged that the man they supported for president is in favor of the action taken in Rhode Island where all 93 teachers were fired in a "failing school." Others are happy to see the president's support in a radical action taken in the name of improved education.

The truth is that the firings will change nothing, just as the other radical actions taken in the past decade have amounted to nothing in terms of improving education in the U.S. Until we realize the lesson of the three decades following the Second World War, that the responsibility to learn lies with the student, education will continue to languish. Certainly a good student learns more with (not from) a good teacher rather than a poor one, but a good student learns regardless of the quality of the teacher.

By the way, no one knows how we learn, we only know that it happens. And the most important influences on our processes for doing so occur before we ever enter a classroom.