A Blog Invitation

[Chuck Stromme]

"Be careful what you ask for" as the saying goes. I have been involved with a UCLA professor and blogger in an interesting exchange HERE. I didn't like what he wrote and I told him so. It's clear that we are not of like minds but I didn't expect that anyway and he has treated me fairly.

The upshot of that exchange is that he has invited me to write a guest blog on the topic "Why Young Americans Should Care About the Republic of Georgia". Just as some of you have commented about posting at WriteNow!, I am a little bit intimidated about writing that guest spot. Yes, the shoe really is on the other foot now and I can't succumb to my strong temptation to pass without losing my cred here.

So OK, into the fray I go. I'll submit it tomorrow, Dec. 31. Between now and then if you have something you want me to say or avoid saying, please either email or call me or post something here. I'll be sure to let you know when he posts it.

BTW, if you're blogging about something you'd like us to know about, please share it here. Give us a link and a chance to read and post.

Chuck

[Chuck Stromme]

Professor Burgos has MUCH more to say about me (one blushes) in his blog today "Whither the Neocons", where you may recognize yours truly as "Commenter Chuck S." I hope you'll read it and form your own opinions. If you are moved to respond, that's even better but PLEASE do not post in my defense, should you be so moved. He has treated me right and I am capable of defending myself as well as allowing others to speak their minds about me. And I have to admit with a smile, he gives as good as he gets.

Heck, yesterday I couldn't even define neocon. Now I are one.

Chuck

[Chuck Stromme]

Darned if he didn't go ahead and do it. You can see my guest blog on Russell Burgos' blog site Danger Close HERE today. Just below it is his set-up piece. His piece went far beyond any minimum requirements for hospitality and grace and I was humbled and grateful. No responses yet.

I had more than the usual fear about submitting this piece, which I will also add to our "Politics" forum. Not only did I feel absolutely vulnerable, exposed to however many of his students, fellow (and likely sympathetic) UCLA faculty and staff and his regular and occasional readers might actually read it, I also feared that it was some kind of set-up in order to give me a taste of my own medicine. I can't deny that he had every right to do that. I was uncharitable in my comments to him.

I learned a lot from this experience and from his generosity and I won't soon forget it or him.

Be sure to scroll down past my piece and his set-up. He has hilarious posts and pix on The Global War on Spelling. You're gonna love 'em.

If I can do it, you can do it. Write blogs, write stories and poems, just write something and share it with us. I can promise that you won't be nearly as scared as I was when I submitted this piece. After all, in my mind it could have been the start of the Global War on Chuck.

Chuck

[Ransom Southerland]

Two things come to mind as I slog through the blog:

1. Lisa's comments challenge me to dig a little deeper about what motivates me to be passionate. This happens once in a while and I'm sorry to say, I have to THINK about the things that move me. Not sure what that's all about, but its a good time (new year and all) to think about it and be a little more directed about the "deeper issues" of my life.

2. Professor Burgos has the TIME to think, ponder, mull over, write - then rewrite about whatever hits him. I think people are moved by not only WHAT someone says, but HOW they say it. Often we don't even remember WHAT was said, we just remember how we felt about it afterward. Do you remember how you felt the first time you really heard:

"And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man."

or . . .

" . . . But this is not merely a race. Space is open to us now; and our eagerness to share its meaning is not governed by the efforts of others. We go into space because whatever mankind must undertake, free men must fully share."

or this . . .

"I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed--"We hold these these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose governor's lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, and rough places will be made plains, and the crooked places will be made straight,and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith with which I return to the south. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning "My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring."

And if America is to be a great nation this must come true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.

Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado.

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous peaks of California.

But not only that--let freedom ring from Stone Mountain in Georgia.

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From
every mountainside, let freedom ring.

When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual,

"Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at
last!"

------

These things ALL move me - some to tears. Why? Because they all had something to say, they were passionate about it AND they were able to convey their passion. In fact, in these examples, it strikes me they may not have been able to do anything less. These were "soul" issues.

It occurs to me, when people write, lecture, speak, teach (I remember someone once said to me, "There CAN be teaching WITHOUT learning.") . . . all those things, without passion for much of anything but to exercise their right to express an elitist sarcasm born of too much time and resource to cost them personally, their best effort produces something best described by a few lines from the movie, "Jaws." To wit:

"And, you know, the thing about a shark... he's got lifeless eyes. Black eyes. Like a doll's eyes. When he comes at ya, doesn't seem to be living... until he bites ya, and those black eyes roll over white and then... ah then you hear that terrible high-pitched screamin'. The ocean turns red, and despite all the poundin' and the hollerin', they all come in and they... rip you to pieces. You know by the end of that first dawn, lost a hundred men. I don't know how many sharks, maybe a thousand. I know how many men, they averaged six an hour."

Ransom






Chuck Stromme said:

Darned if he didn't go ahead and do it. You can see my guest blog on Russell Burgos' blog site Danger Close HERE today. Just below it is his set-up piece. His piece went far beyond any minimum requirements for hospitality and grace and I was humbled and grateful. No responses yet.

I had more than the usual fear about submitting this piece, which I will also add to our "Politics" forum. Not only did I feel absolutely vulnerable, exposed to however many of his students, fellow (and likely sympathetic) UCLA faculty and staff and his regular and occasional readers might actually read it, I also feared that it was some kind of set-up in order to give me a taste of my own medicine. I can't deny that he had every right to do that. I was uncharitable in my comments to him.

I learned a lot from this experience and from his generosity and I won't soon forget it or him.

Be sure to scroll down past my piece and his set-up. He has hilarious posts and pix on The Global War on Spelling. You're gonna love 'em.

If I can do it, you can do it. Write blogs, write stories and poems, just write something and share it with us. I can promise that you won't be nearly as scared as I was when I submitted this piece. After all, in my mind it could have been the start of the Global War on Chuck.

Chuck