Aloha . . . tonight I am frustrated and angry at the current state of affairs, specifically the war the United States is prosecuting against Iraq. I consider it an unjust war (leaving open the inevitable question whether there is ever a just war) and am sickened, saddened and ashamed of the United States and its citizens. So what will I do? What can I do?
I wrote to www.refugeerelief.org (again, I have been in touch with them in the past). They are a bunch of 'go to' (to use an American colloquialism) guys whom I would proud to serve with. They engage in medical relief missions - thier website explains it well. I hope to be able to go in June 2003 when I am available. I need to go for my own sanity - getting tired of sitting on my butt in the white suburbs eathing my food, drinking my beer doing nothing to benefit anyone in the long run. Maybe getting back into the world will help.
In the end though, it is for me anyway. Oh sure, we may help a few people here and there, but really, how much can be done against a war that is going to rip through 100 billion dollars in six months. By god, I am against this war and I hate George Bush and somehow, somewhere, I am going to to what I can to fight against his simplistic, zealous, stupid schmuck idiocy. He nor hardly any of his advisers have even been out of the country. Most of them have no other language except English.
Get Colin Powell to be my President. I will work for him, I will vote for him. I may not like him as much as I do others but at least this guy isn't some good ole, aw shucks, lets nuke em asshole that Rumsfeld is. Even more dangerous is good old Wolfie Wolfowitz who in the 1980's authored a paper pleading for the American empire to (I am paraphrasing here) take over the world. Good deal huh? So we can sell more products I guess.
If anyone does ever read this please check out: http://dearraed.blogspot.com
I read about this person through Googles news site link and found it fascinating reading.
I don't want to see the USA die. We stand (supposedly) for some great ideas. We are just lousy at the execution. Our leaders betray us and betray the long term survival of the United States as a nation, as a beacon of hope for repressed peoples . . . but I will never forget this and neither should anyone; that I can only write this because of my privilaged position as a U.S. citizen. However, it is because of this that I have (or hope to have and maintain) a dedication to show a different face to the world and to somehow fight the good fight, engage in the struggle for tolerance, peace and all that other liberal crap I espouse. In the end, it won't do any bloody good, humans are too stupid and selfish en masse.
For now though, at this moment, I go to put the sweetest 12 year old girl I know to bed, to tuck her in and kiss her goodnight and sweet dreams (and pray I don't dream of dead people in my own dreams that haunt me from the ER, from the reading, from the television). How I long to protect her yet instill some sense of justice and duty. Thank god I can go to her, her beautiful mother, and forget, if just for a little while the horrifying tenor and cadence of death and disaster being sowed in Iraq. I will think of the Iraqi's tonight and hope for safety and peace for them and the soldiers that fight on both sides. I must remember compassion.
Thanks for reading this.
David
tuisuva@jps.net
29.3.03
Remembering compassion
Aloha . . . tonight I am frustrated and angry at the current state of affairs, specifically the war the United States is prosecuting against Iraq. I consider it an unjust war (leaving open the inevitable question whether there is ever a just war) and am sickened, saddened and ashamed of the United States and its citizens. So what will I do? What can I do?
I wrote to www.refugeerelief.org (again, I have been in touch with them in the past). They are a bunch of 'go to' (to use an American colloquialism) guys whom I would proud to serve with. They engage in medical relief missions - thier website explains it well. I hope to be able to go in June 2003 when I am available. I need to go for my own sanity - getting tired of sitting on my butt in the white suburbs eating my food, drinking my beer doing nothing to benefit anyone in the long run. Maybe getting back into the world will help.
In the end though, at least I am smart enough that doing relief / medical work is for me anyway, it is largely a selfish enterprise so I can feel better about myself and just maybe my guilt about being an American. Oh sure, we may help a few people here and there, but really, how much can be done against a war that is going to rip through 100 billion dollars in six months. By god, I am against this war and I hate George Bush and somehow, somewhere, I am going to to what I can to fight against his simplistic, zealous, stupid schmuck idiocy. He nor hardly any of his advisers have even been out of the country. Most of them have no other language except English.
Get Colin Powell to be my President. I will work for him, I will vote for him. I may not like him as much as I do others but at least this guy isn't some good ole, aw shucks, lets nuke em asshole that Rumsfeld is. Even more dangerous is good old Wolfie Wolfowitz who in the 1980's authored a paper pleading for the American empire to (I am paraphrasing here) take over the world. Good deal huh? So we can sell more products I guess.
If anyone does ever read this please check out: http://dearraed.blogspot.com
I read about this person through Googles news site link and found it fascinating reading.
I don't want to see the USA die. We stand (supposedly) for some great ideas. We are just lousy at the execution. Our leaders betray us and betray the long term survival of the United States as a nation, as a beacon of hope for repressed peoples . . . but I will never forget this and neither should anyone; that I can only write this because of my privilaged position as a U.S. citizen. However, it is because of this that I have (or hope to have and maintain) a dedication to show a different face to the world and to somehow fight the good fight, engage in the struggle for tolerance, peace and all that other liberal crap I espouse. In the end, it won't do any bloody good, humans are too stupid and selfish en masse.
For now though, at this moment, I go to put the sweetest 12 year old girl I know to bed, to tuck her in and kiss her goodnight and sweet dreams (and pray I don't dream of dead people in my own dreams that haunt me from the ER, from the reading, from the television). How I long to protect her yet instill some sense of justice and duty. Thank god I can go to her, her beautiful mother, and forget, if just for a little while the horrifying tenor and cadence of death and disaster being sowed in Iraq. I will think of the Iraqi's tonight and hope for safety and peace for them and the soldiers that fight on both sides. I must remember compassion.
Thanks for reading this.
David
tuisuva@jps.net
I wrote to www.refugeerelief.org (again, I have been in touch with them in the past). They are a bunch of 'go to' (to use an American colloquialism) guys whom I would proud to serve with. They engage in medical relief missions - thier website explains it well. I hope to be able to go in June 2003 when I am available. I need to go for my own sanity - getting tired of sitting on my butt in the white suburbs eating my food, drinking my beer doing nothing to benefit anyone in the long run. Maybe getting back into the world will help.
In the end though, at least I am smart enough that doing relief / medical work is for me anyway, it is largely a selfish enterprise so I can feel better about myself and just maybe my guilt about being an American. Oh sure, we may help a few people here and there, but really, how much can be done against a war that is going to rip through 100 billion dollars in six months. By god, I am against this war and I hate George Bush and somehow, somewhere, I am going to to what I can to fight against his simplistic, zealous, stupid schmuck idiocy. He nor hardly any of his advisers have even been out of the country. Most of them have no other language except English.
Get Colin Powell to be my President. I will work for him, I will vote for him. I may not like him as much as I do others but at least this guy isn't some good ole, aw shucks, lets nuke em asshole that Rumsfeld is. Even more dangerous is good old Wolfie Wolfowitz who in the 1980's authored a paper pleading for the American empire to (I am paraphrasing here) take over the world. Good deal huh? So we can sell more products I guess.
If anyone does ever read this please check out: http://dearraed.blogspot.com
I read about this person through Googles news site link and found it fascinating reading.
I don't want to see the USA die. We stand (supposedly) for some great ideas. We are just lousy at the execution. Our leaders betray us and betray the long term survival of the United States as a nation, as a beacon of hope for repressed peoples . . . but I will never forget this and neither should anyone; that I can only write this because of my privilaged position as a U.S. citizen. However, it is because of this that I have (or hope to have and maintain) a dedication to show a different face to the world and to somehow fight the good fight, engage in the struggle for tolerance, peace and all that other liberal crap I espouse. In the end, it won't do any bloody good, humans are too stupid and selfish en masse.
For now though, at this moment, I go to put the sweetest 12 year old girl I know to bed, to tuck her in and kiss her goodnight and sweet dreams (and pray I don't dream of dead people in my own dreams that haunt me from the ER, from the reading, from the television). How I long to protect her yet instill some sense of justice and duty. Thank god I can go to her, her beautiful mother, and forget, if just for a little while the horrifying tenor and cadence of death and disaster being sowed in Iraq. I will think of the Iraqi's tonight and hope for safety and peace for them and the soldiers that fight on both sides. I must remember compassion.
Thanks for reading this.
David
tuisuva@jps.net
16.3.03
Aloha . . . I am currently acting in a production of The Laramie Project. It is staged at Santa Rosa Junior College in Northern California. For me, it raises the whole idea or question that I think many of us should be asking of ourselves. What do we want to contribute to society? This has the implicit assumption that we should or want to contribute and that in and of itself, it is a good thing to do so. So what, as an actor do I want to contribute? Why be an actor at all? What do actors contribute to society that improves it and makes it better?
For the most part, I don't think much. Most actors do what they need to survive. Most of us cannot do shows like The Laramie Project when there is no money involved. I am lucky to be able to do a show like this. Very lucky.
Can an actor go from being a piece of fruit in an underwear commercial to doing Brecht, Shakespeare, Ionescue and still be taken seriously? I do not know but I suspect perhaps not.
Don't we, as members of society, have a duty to do 'serious' theater? At least once in awhile so we can prick the balloon of "everything is ok in the world so lets just laugh our way to hell"! At the same time and in the same breath, I would give a lot to work with Steve Martin on just about anything. I am corruptible, offer me enough money and I might reconsider . . . or would I? Could I use the age old excuse of saying, let me sell out now, make the money and spend it later to salve my conscience! I don't know for sure but I hope not and don't think I would.
Special hello to my Hawai'i gang. It was great to talk with Jim Hesse the other night at 1 a.m. in California while I was slaving away on cultures for my bacteriology lab. A long way from home and a long way from a bunch of very wonderful people.
Aloha
For the most part, I don't think much. Most actors do what they need to survive. Most of us cannot do shows like The Laramie Project when there is no money involved. I am lucky to be able to do a show like this. Very lucky.
Can an actor go from being a piece of fruit in an underwear commercial to doing Brecht, Shakespeare, Ionescue and still be taken seriously? I do not know but I suspect perhaps not.
Don't we, as members of society, have a duty to do 'serious' theater? At least once in awhile so we can prick the balloon of "everything is ok in the world so lets just laugh our way to hell"! At the same time and in the same breath, I would give a lot to work with Steve Martin on just about anything. I am corruptible, offer me enough money and I might reconsider . . . or would I? Could I use the age old excuse of saying, let me sell out now, make the money and spend it later to salve my conscience! I don't know for sure but I hope not and don't think I would.
Special hello to my Hawai'i gang. It was great to talk with Jim Hesse the other night at 1 a.m. in California while I was slaving away on cultures for my bacteriology lab. A long way from home and a long way from a bunch of very wonderful people.
Aloha
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