Author Archives: Rites of Patches

Why Do You Love This?

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Nike is a far better symbol for America than Columbia. Not only is Nike appropriate as the Goddess of Victory (Success in almost 90% of our military conflicts), but also as the Goddess of Just Doing a Thing. We do. We don’t think; frequently before, but especially after. For all America’s positive traits, we are not a nation of reflection.

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Some months back, I posted an essay claiming that American society places an extremely high value on violence. If this is true, the Western is easily the most “American” style of film.

After all, consider the subtext of every Western: Justice (read: violence) dispensed from the twin barrels of a righteous sawed-off shotgun. Others will fail you. Society will fail you. The law, most of all, will fail you. Your convictions, backed by a six-shooter (and a high-powered rifle for that guy on the rooftop), never will.

It doesn’t get more American than that.

Before I watched Unforgiven, I had never enjoyed a Western. Unforgiven, though, is perhaps less a Western than it is a deconstruction or critique of Westerns. Unforgiven took apart the myth of frontier justice and replaced it with something far messier and far uglier.

It asked the quintessentially un-American question: Why do you love this?

The violence of Unforgiven is merely pervasive; its consequences are inescapable. Continue reading →

The Causes and Conduct of The Flight of the Nez Perce

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(Editor’s Note: This is a college essay I finished in 2006. It’s one of the best papers I’ve ever written and it’s about one of my favorite figures in  American History. I hope you get something from it.)

In September of 1805, several Nez Perce children were approached by mysterious creatures riding on horseback.  The Nez Perce noted the hair on their faces, thinking that perhaps they were descendents of some sort of canine (Nerburn, 4).­­­  The Nez Perce took in the disheveled travelers and helped them restore the strength they had lost during their long journey.  The Nez Perce provided the weary voyagers with food and a place to rest while the Dog Men generously gave gifts to the Nez Perce and amazed them with guns and modern medicine.

This was “first contact” between the Nez Perce and America.  The “Dog Men” were none other than Meriwether Lewis, William Clark, and the Corps of Discovery.  Lewis and Clark parted on amiable terms with the Nez Perce; so much so that when they returned, they saw a Nez Perce chief flying the American flag they had given him (Nerburn, 6).

Unfortunately, the Nez Perce, like many Native American tribes and nations before them, would become a proud people nearly destroyed by the avarice of the Whites.  Despite their early friendship, the relationship between the Nez Perce and the Whites would soon sour due to the hypocrisy of early missionaries and settlers and a basic misunderstanding of Nez Perce culture by the Federal Government. These factors would produce the grievances that would culminate in the epic “Flight” of the Nez Perce.

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Green Energy & National Security

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With all due respect to necessity, war is the mother of all invention.

Need to find planes? Invent radar. Need to find submarines? Invent sonar. Need to wipe out cities? Split the atom. Need to beat the Soviets to the moon? Invent the math and technology required to do so.

If green energy and renewable fuels will be necessary for future military conflict, perhaps we should stop presenting them as environmental issues and instead frame them as matters of national security.

After all, how many years of economically sensible oil consumption remain? 30? 45? 60? A little more than that? Do we really need to wait for dire circumstances to develop an alternative means to operate tanks, trucks, aircraft, and warships? Being an innovator in this regard would give our nation a massive strategic advantage, not only placing us ahead of the international curve, but no longer making us dependent upon Middle Eastern despots for our energy needs.

If a Minnesota high schooler can turn floating plants into biodiesel, don’t tell me our nation’s finest scientists and engineers can’t get this done with a little gumption and a whole lot of funding.

The best news is that once alternate fuels become a national security concern, funding becomes infinite and criticism becomes irrelevant. The list of Defense Department cost overruns and cancelled military programs stretches a mile long.

In the end, everyone wins. Politicians get votes. The military gets money and new toys. The defense industry gets to build the things. America enjoys long-term security and energy stability. The entire planet reaps the environmental benefits. The only losers are the oil companies, who will either need to invest in something else or fall back to their GIANT FUCKING PILES OF MONEY.

The only missing ingredient is a leader with long-term vision and political courage. I’m not holding my breath either, but I will be thinking about this in 2016. Money talks, but an informed, intelligent electorate is far louder.

Thoreau: Justice by Any Means

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(Editor’s Note: This is a college essay I finished in 2005. It’s one of the best papers I’ve ever written and it’s about one of my favorite figures in  American History. I hope you get something from it.)

In many ways, Henry David Thoreau has been seen as the darling of American pacifists and peace activists.  Thoreau has certainly given contemporary nonviolence activists reason to praise him.  After all, he did write “Civil Disobedience,” the clearest articulation of the purpose of and logic behind nonviolent resistance.  Although an American classic, “Civil Disobedience” is perhaps more famous for being Gandhi’s guide to nonviolent resistance.1  Despite the laurels bestowed upon him by non-violent resisters, Thoreau was much more concerned with establishing a truly just government than limiting the means by which he was willing to achieve that end.

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Sea of Troubles

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Oppression. Revolution. 80,000 dead. I am hesitant by nature, but this does not often apply to my intellectual proclamations. We get involved or we don’t. We send weapons or we don’t. We invade or we don’t. Yet, the Syrian Civil War reduces me to Hamlet, putting off making a decision as to what must be done.

Or mustn’t.

I know many truths, as well as the truths that contradict those truths. Continue reading →

History Year

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We are several months removed from the 38th Black History Month of the 2013th White History Year.

Hopefully, it will be the last of both.

Perhaps you heard it from Morgan Freeman. Perhaps you heard it from someone else. Perhaps you are hearing it for the first time. Setting aside a month for Black History encourages tokenism and promotes the sort of marginalization that the creation of Negro History Week in 1926 tried to combat. Continue reading →

Nathanael Greene & the Formation of the American Republic

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(Editor’s Note: This is a college essay I finished on 11/10/05. It’s one of the best papers I’ve ever written and it’s about one of the most unappreciated and underrated figures in American History. I hope you get something from it.)

At first glance, Nathanael Greene appears to be a most unlikely candidate for savior of a fledgling nation.  His father scorned formal education.  He walked with a limp and had problems with one eye.  He was also given to asthma attacks that would keep him awake all night. Most damning of all was his Quaker background. In spite of all these perceived defects, Nathanael Greene was the man who the embryonic United States needed to secure its liberties and guarantee independence.  Without General Greene, the ideas advanced by more intellectually perceptive patriots would not have had a country in which to take root.  Nathanael Greene’s ideology leading up to, and role during, the American Revolution created an ardent patriot who led with action rather than prose and a nationalist who was bound to be discouraged by some of the conditions following the war.

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Just Do Your Job

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Last year, linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo, previously known only to special teams aficionados, gained national attention when a Maryland state delegate asked the Ravens to prevent Ayanbadejo from speaking out in support of same-sex marriage. Vikings punter Chris Kluwe published a response on Deadspin eviscerating said delegate, becoming a national civil rights figure himself. Now, both are out of jobs.

This isn’t about them. After all, Ayanbadejo himself noted that he was 36 years old and not producing like he used to. As a Vikings fan, I know firsthand that Chris Kluwe was and is a maddeningly frustrating punter. These decisions can be easily defended in a football context.

This is about the rest of us. Continue reading →

Assholes

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Middle school sucked. I don’t think I could have placed the reason why at the time, but now I’m pretty sure that the reason middle school sucked was because it was full of assholes. Scores of small, hormone-inundated assholes who can’t value anything over themselves. It’s wasn’t totally their fault, but still… assholes.

So I waited until high school. Continue reading →

Asking the Wrong Question

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(Editor’s Note: This is a slightly updated version of something posted as a Facebook note several years ago.)

Wisconsin’s labor issues disturb me.

If this were to come to Minnesota (and it probably will), I would have a very hard time deciding what to do. Certainly, my right to bargain collectively is important to me. But it is not as important as my responsibility to help my students grow as learners and individuals? How can I fight for my own rights at the expense of my students’ right to an education? The fact is that I don’t know what I believe on this issue. Continue reading →