The Weakness in Me

For the mainstream public, racism is an ideology of their grandparents’ time and something that was buried with them years and years ago. Yet the truth is furthermost from that train of thought, which millions of Americans calmly go to bed with each night before the sweet, tender slumber sets in.

Due to the attack on America at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, an injustice was looming on the horizon. The United States in fear of cohesion shuttled some 110,000 Japanese-Americans into internment camps, mainly isolated to the Pacific Coast. Mostly, two-thirds of the Japanese-Americans were actually U.S. citizens by birth, and the majority of the Japanese-American detainees were to be left there under constant surveillance through the duration of the war. Many of the Japanese-Americans, who were forced from their homes into these internment camps, lost personal property ranging in the hundreds of millions—collectively.

Keeping in mind this is the same Supreme Court that found segregation of blacks and others races prior to this time constitutional, upheld its belief that this support of inequality and degradation of civil liberties were constitutional. And it was not until 1988 that the United States government officially apologized to the Japanese-Americans that were held on grounds of ignorance and speculation. The remaining survivors of these actions—that is, these actions which still haunt the American subconscious—were given $20,000 for cooperation of this tragic failure in American history.

September 11, 2001 scattered any and all beliefs of personal safety, national security, as well as national innocence from shoreline to shoreline. In the name of Allah, many died, without reason and/or understanding, in a matter of hours, if not minutes. The hijackers (using the faith of Islam and text of the Qur’an and the words of the Prophet, Muhammad) attempted to justify acts of nothing more than terroristic against un-expecting by-standers.

Joseph P. Gudel wrote in his article, “A Post 9/11 Look at Islam,” that “within a few days after the terrorist attacks, President Bush went to the Islamic Center of Washington, D.C., and strongly affirmed America’s support for American Muslims, as well as for Muslims worldwide.” The President and many other politicians made it clear—in the days after the attacks through and beyond the declared war against terrorism—that the “War on Terror” was not a war on Islam, because as the President stated about the pugnacious assaults of 9/11, “These acts of violence violate the fundamental tenets of the Islamic faith… The face of terror is not the true face of Islam. That’s not what Islam is all about. Islam is peace.”

Some might argue that Islam is not all peace. For example, Kenneth Woodward in a cover article for Newsweek titled “The Bible and the Qur’an” wrote on one apparent difference between Islam, Judaism, and Christianity: “Israeli commandos do not cite the Hebrew prophet Joshua as they go into battle, but Muslim insurgents can readily invoke the example of their Prophet, Muhammad, who was a military commander himself. And while the Crusaders may have fought with the cross on their shields, they did not—could not—cite words from Jesus to justify their slaughters.”

Following days after the attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) had received claims of personal attacks against Arab-American nationwide numbering somewhere slightly above the 350 mark. These attacks arranged from verbal to physical. But by the end of the month, the reports escalated to some 785 attacks. Many other Muslims found safety and compassion in the arms of their family, friends, and colleagues.

Although these up-surd actions of personal attacks have taken place, the U.S. government has not place Muslims into internment camps throughout the countryside; the President has denounced these attacks of ignorance and hatred. The U.S. government—having learnt from their mistakes throughout history—has not taken people by the masses from their homes placing them in detention camps for the duration of this “War on Terror,” which the President has said would last awhile. Thank God, or Allah (if you will), that we stand strong against these irrational contrivances, which tore our nation in two only half-of-a-century ago. America is still young and hardheaded, but we have proven that we can still learn.


What happened to the Japanese-Americans saddens me deeply—to believe my nation that I love so much would with nothing than speculations forsake the liberties of its citizens. However, it delights me to see that we can learn from our past mistakes, made out of fear, to move beyond ourselves and deal with our fears. I only hope we continue to learn, instead of becoming lackluster. We must improve our economical situation, our educational system, our healthcare administration, our racial inequality, our energy crisis, and mostly our understanding of the world of interdependence and how we are to maintain the edge, which other countries are rapidly moving towards.

Thin Dream

I read once a quote by William James, a 19th Century psychologist and philosopher, that went “when you have a choice and don’t make it, that in itself is a choice.” Some choices in our day-to-day lives are not truly important, such as McDonalds or Taco Bell for lunch or what movie to watch this weekend—if many. Other choices bear more gravity like financial stability, moral integrity, and sound judgment. One of the most significant and debate choices a citizen of a free democracy has is the privilege to decide the leaders and protectors of his or her life and his or her family’s lives.

We, as Americans, have come to believe the things given to us and the things we are accustom to expecting are rights, while privileges are things we only take from those who commit crimes. On the contrary for us to be able to give and receive is a privilege most do not have around the globe. In reality everything can be taken within an instant, except hope, faith, love, and truth. Many will forfeit all hope and any faith and harden themselves to love, no matter the truth.

A classmate last semester told me, “We’re not free.” The only thought I could think was how could she truly believe this with all that Americans have? I wrote in the assignment prior this one, “The appreciation of the little things in life is true freedom.” So, after pondering what she had said, about not being free, it hit me she really is not free—by being in that mindset.

Freedom is a dream. It is a dream of men who have been in bondage, who have been beaten and chained down their whole lives for just being born. It is a dream of people persecuted for their beliefs and a dream of others who are oppressed by tyranny and fear of repercussions for standing-up. Freedom does not mean you receive things for free; it is the possibility of being able to receive. Freedom’s cost is the highest price one can pay, and the ones who pay for it with their lives are the ones who gave it honestly and freely. Freedom is a dream that beats inside every last one of us, yet some need the trepidation of it being taken before they can feel it pounding in their chest.

In book 1 of Plato’s masterpiece, Republic, Socrates says, “Now, the greatest punishment, if one isn’t willing to rule, is to be ruled by someone worse than oneself. And I think that it’s fear of this that makes decent people rule when they do. They approach ruling not as something good or something to be enjoyed, but as something necessary, since it can’t be entrusted to anyone better than—or even as good as—themselves.”

Voting is a privilege. It is a freedom, like others, that many brave men and women gave by bloodshed and many just want to abolish. The men and women we vote for to lead and govern our nation are the men and women who decide the cost of the little things we appreciate.


I felt it was time to add another post. I know that there is no big election soon or anything. But voting is very important to me, because it is the root of our political process—my way of changing the world. Garth Brooks had a song in the mid 90’s on his Fresh Horses album, The Change. In the song there are a few lines that I hold onto, as my driving compass. “It’s not the world that I am changing. I do this so this world will know that it will not change me.”

On the Front Lines: Librarians

Some of you will find what I am about to say either quite thought-provoking or somewhat dull, yet I assure you everyone will agree and, undoubtedly, believe that it is plain old sucking-up.

Librarians are “On the Front Lines” of an educational downfall. They stand on centuries of tradition, while holding the reins to tomorrow. The greatest achievement mankind has ever accomplished is that of the written word.

But before I continue on, let us start with the history of the written word. A&E, the Art of Entrainment channel, did a poll several years back of the most influential people of all times, and can anyone tell me who was number one?

Gutenberg. Johann Gutenberg: The man who invented the printing press.

In 1452 Gutenberg conceives the very idea that will transform the world, as man once knew it to what we now know by the fabrication of movable type. In his workshop he combines the technologies of the day: paper (which came to Italy from China in the 12th Century), oil-based ink (which came into existences during the 10th Century), and the wine-press (which, in one form or another, has been around before Christ). With these three invention commonly used in the 1400’s, the printing press was born.

No more did men copy word after word on to a scroll, then knowing that that scroll would be obsolete and in need of recopying within just a score of years. Man knew even at that time the word was everything, for without it communication would cease and without communication man would never survive. Tom Brown, a tracker who was taught by Native Americans the ways of the old during his childhood went on to train the Delta Forces and other military branches in his twenties’ and thirties’, said once in an interview that “you hear the old saying, ‘survival of the fittest.’ That’s very true, except when it comes to humans. For humans fittest also means knowledge.”

Knowledge is passed through language. From my mouth into your ears you learn what I know, as I will when you speak. From my pen in through your eyes you learn what I know, as I will when you write.

Throughout record history countless writers have told countless stories upon countless pages weaving countless words bounded within countless books to be read by countless readers for countless hours. The pleasures, the pains, the joys, the sorrows, the intrigues, the disappointments, the challenges, the withdrawals, the loves, the losses, the facts, the lies, and the truths captivate people, for people have written these tales for a reason and that reason is to be, at the day’s close, people themselves.

Going back to my original thesis: Librarians are “On the Front Lines” of an educational downfall.

Neil Gaiman, the novelist of the bestsellers American Gods and Neverwhere and the comic book writer of DC comic series, The Sandman, writes, “You know, I love librarians. I really love librarians. I love librarians when they crusade not to be stereotyped as librarians. I love librarians when they're just doing those magic things that librarians do. I love librarians when they're the only person in a ghost town looking after thousands of books.”

Librarians guard the words of those who came before, those who are present, and those who are soon to arrive. A librarian’s post is one worse than that of the Russian Front (World War II, for those who do not remember) and in some ways more important. If librarians lose the lust for their obligations and lay down their defenses, we have lost our history, our art, our knowledge, quintessentially, our edge, and, mostly, our communication.

Columnist for the New York Times--Wednesday and Friday editions--and author of the bestselling nonfiction books, The Lexus and the Olive Tree and The World is Flat: A Brief History of the 21st Century, Thomas L. Friedman, wrote for his Wednesday, May the 6th column, “C.E.O.’s M.I.A.,” that “America faces a huge set of challenges if it is going to retain its competitive edge. As a nation we have a mounting education deficit, energy deficit, budget deficit, health care deficit, and ambition deficit.”

You say with puzzled look creeping across your face and a question in your voice, “Ambition deficit?” And I will say to you, “Damn right! And rightly so!” People speak of ambition, but ambition caught a breeze like an autumn leaf that never yet touched the ground.

Somewhere along the way getting this point in our nation’s history, we forgot the importance of respect for those who hold, essentially, our society within the confines of their shelves. Books birth dreams and kindle passions and push imaginations to a realm of absolute possibilities, and we, as Americans, cannot allow for this process of birthing, kindling, and pushing to lessen the pace, as an anchor would a ship coasting aimlessly within the narrow borders of a fjord.

Education is fueled by ambition and ambition by the birthing of dreams and kindling of passions and the pushing of the imagination. While books are the beacon to which ambition is drawn unto, librarians lay out the course of its navigation. No matter how much and often ignorance grapples with our way of life librarians just knuckle down and stands their ground. Librarians are “On the Front Lines” of an educational downfall.


This is a speech I wrote about two weeks ago, because I had to give one for my Fundamental of Speech course. For years now I have believed that librarians have been mistreated--stereotyped in a light unfavorable to their true cause. All I hope for is that you can obtain a newfound respect for librarians. They are the gatekeepers of our reads and, more importantly, our culture.

A MESSAGE TO THE CITIZENS OF MOOREFIELD

As your mayor I would strive to represent the town as a whole and to forge working relationships with developers, industries, businesses, and other government agencies. Growth is inevitable and all parties participating should understand, accept, and move to make it a manageable growth, instead of ill-planned and irrational growth. Any one party, be it local businesses, national industries, and/or town government, working independently could only lead to the degeneration and degradation of the town’s—in some ways still infant—infrastructure. There will be differences (some obvious and some not so), but these differences must be openly discussed and overcome before workable solutions can be reached. Due to the large number of persons employed within the town and the immediate areas, what occurs here affects this county as well as surrounding counties, municipalities, and lives of their citizens.

As mayor I would work with your elected council for the benefit of everyone involved. Your support and your vote will be appreciated.

Gary Stalnaker
Candidate for Mayor


My grandfather, 72, ran for mayor of our little Appalachian town about mid of last month. He came to me and asked if I would write up an address to be published in the local newspaper, so the citizens would be informed on his stance of businesses and industries. My grandfather won 195 to 40.