Sunday, May 7, 2017

A World History Lesson for President Trump, from a Nationally Certified History Teacher.

Hello President Trump!

I’m not only a high school World History teacher, but am also one of the 320 million American citizens you represent. After seeing the interview where you said Andrew Jackson was very upset about the Civil War, despite the fact that he was dead several years before it began, I realized how necessary it is that you have at least one basic lesson in World History. The lesson I’ll present is the first lesson my students get when we start to discuss World War I, at the beginning of 4th quarter.

Everyone in Europe knows, and some Americans know, World War I was sparked when Archduke Ferdinand, of Austria-Hungary, was assassinated by Gavrilo Princip, a member of a radical, nationalist organization in Serbia. Princip shot and killed Ferdinand, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, and also his wife Sophie, while they were riding in the backseat of a car in a ceremonial motorcade through the streets of Sarajevo. You can picture JFK being shot in the convertible in Dallas? This was just like that, just with a much older car.

Before we go on, let me reassure you that Austria-Hungary is no longer a country, so don’t worry about reaching out to their King, or Emperor, or whatever sort of leader you think might be in charge over there.

While Ferdinand's assassination was the spark, most Europeans know, and a few Americans know, this wasn’t the cause. There were four causes of World War I, which can be easily remembered by the mnemonic (memory device) MAIN. The M stand for Militarism. The A stands for Alliances. The I stands for Imperialism. The N stands for Nationalism. Let’s look at these four causes.

Militarism: If you have a knife, but your biggest enemy has a gun, you want a bigger gun. If you have a bigger gun, your enemy wants an even bigger gun. If your enemy gets that bigger gun, you want a fully-automatic, military-grade rifle, with night-vision scope and laser sight. When you get that, he gets something that can shoot from the sky, and so on, and so on… Nations do the same thing. England had the biggest navy at the time. Remember that the sun never set on the British Empire? It takes a lot of ships to keep control over that many territories in the world, so their navy was enormous. Germany’s Kaiser Wilhelm wanted to have a navy that was larger than the two next strongest navies combined -- England and whoever was next. So Germany started building ships and submarines at break-neck pace, and when Great Britain saw Germany increasing its navy, they started building more ships, because England wanted to remain the largest navy in the world. You see how this might cause an endless escalation of arming the world’s greatest powers? Besides England and Germany, others in the area got nervous about all the naval power surrounding them, so they started ramping up military production as well. One doesn’t spend millions of Marks, Rubles, Franks, Pounds, or Dollars on weapons, with no intention of using them. I tell my students it would be like spending the entire school budget on the football team, but never having it play a game. Where you spend your money tells people where your priorities lie. Channeling that much money to your military demonstrates a readiness to deploy that military.

Alliances:
You’re familiar with NATO. Sometimes you tell us you think it’s a good thing. Other times you tell us you think it’s a bad thing. It didn’t exist prior to World War I. But there were some verbal agreements between gentlemen. The Czar of Russia, the Kaiser of Germany, and the King of England were all…. get this… first cousins! Yep. Queen Victoria was their grandmother. Yes, THAT Queen Victoria. You’re probably familiar with Victorian architecture and Victorian fashion. All of that came into vogue when Queen Victoria was in power in England. Three of her grandsons would eventually rule three of the greatest powers in the world, and they’d go to war against one another. Alliances are good when someone has your back. You know that if someone attacks you, your ally will be behind you. But alliances like this had never existed before, so when war began they created a surprising effect, like a brush fire suddenly turning into a massive conflagration across Europe. Soon countries all over the world were at war. The United States knew better than to get involved. At first. We wanted no part of such a horrible war, we didn’t cause it, and we didn’t need to enter it. But we were very happy to increase our manufacture and sales of weapons and planes. Our economy grew by leaps and bounds once the fighting began. Wars are nothing if not exceedingly profitable, for some.

But I digress. The economics of war is another issue for another class, so I won’t get into that lesson here. Long story short, the leader of Austria-Hungary was furious at the assassination of his heir, so he declared war on Serbia. Russia was an ally of Serbia, so Czar Nicholas of Russia declared war on Austria-Hungary. Germany promised to defend Austria-Hungary, so Germany's Kaiser Wilhelm declared war on his own cousin, Czar Nicholas, in Russia. King George in England entered the conflict on the side of Serbia and his cousin Czar Nicholas in Russia, also declaring war on his own first cousin, Kaiser Wilhelm in Germany, and on it went until dozens and dozens of countries all over the world were fighting.

Imperialism:
When I say that countries all over the world were fighting, I mean that every British colony around the world was fighting for Great Britain, every country colonized by the French was fighting for France, German colonies fought for Germany. You get the idea.  Additionally, there were conflicts between European nations over the borders and land claims of lands they claimed in Africa and Asia.  "If your land lies on that side of the river, and my land on this side, who controls fishing, transportation, and dumping of waste in the river?"  England controlled India, Egypt, Palestine, South Africa, Canada, Australia, Iraq,… Let’s look at what some of the other countries around the world were called at that time. There was the Belgian Congo, French Indochina, German West Africa… Africans and Asians may have had no interest in the war engulfing Europe, but since they weren’t in control their own destinies, they were dragged in.

Nationalism:
German leaders were saying things like “Germany First!” English leaders were saying, “England First!” French leaders were saying, “France First!” Nationalism, in wartime, isn’t just a celebration of one’s own culture. It’s a rejection of other cultures. If Germany is awesome, as so many Germans believed, then France and Russia and Italy and Spain must suck. If everyone feels that every other culture sucks, it’s not too hard to see everyone who is “other” as inferior, even to the point of being worthy of elimination. Nationalism can be very galvanizing, and while pride in one’s country is a fabulous thing, condescension toward other countries can be a very dangerous thing.  

Relevance:
I’m only telling you this lesson because it’s important to learn from the past, and I can’t believe all these causes of war are coming together again in such a glaringly obvious way. Here’s how you are contributing to all four factors.

Militarism: By telling the entire world that you’ll cut spending on absolutely everything, from children’s health care, to after school programs, to school lunches for impoverished children, to our world-renowned National Parks Service, to the National Endowment for the Arts, to Sesame Street – but are willing to increase spending and hiring in the military, you’re giving the rest of the world a reason to strengthen their own militaries. Guys like Kim Jong-Un can point to American military build-up and justify his own nuclear weapons testing. So can China. So can Pakistan. So can every country we make nervous right now, which somehow recently started to include Australia – a mind-boggling development if ever there was one.

Alliances:
If two boys offend and provoke each other, they’re likely to get into a fist fight at school. But if one boy has several friends behind him, the other boy probably won’t throw a punch. You may not see it this way, but most people see leaders of nations as grown-up boys who still offend and provoke each other, and sometimes want to throw punches. Having allies is a deterrent to war. When Saddam Hussein, a grown-up bully, invaded Kuwait in 1990, he had to contend with a huge coalition of countries rushing to Kuwait’s defense. Little, tiny Kuwait! The United Nations member nations sent soldiers and weapons, bombed the bejeezus out of the Iraqi military, and saw Kuwait’s sovereignty restored to them. Vulnerable countries, like Kuwait (and Israel), need strong allies, or else they’d be easily dominated. We might have the mightiest military in the world, but we still need our allies. Russia is up to no good, China never has our best interests in mind, and there are so many other countries who would "love to see those smug, arrogant, American assholes finally get what’s coming to them.” You might not like the phrase at this point, but we truly are “Stronger Together.” So let’s be nicer to our allies, ok? (Seriously. Would it have killed you to shake Angela Merkel’s hand?)

The “I” for “Imperialism” seems outdated. The era of European nations controlling most of Africa and Asia is over. We might better substitute the “I” in M-A-I-N for words like “Ignorant,” or “Incompetent,” or “Idiotic.” For example, sending a few people to South Korea to poison his half-brother out of paranoia at losing his authority is something a crazy leader like Kim Jong-un would do. Similarly, rejecting the Climate Change findings of the world’s entire scientific community, while believing the batshit crazy rantings of Alt-right media outlets, is a sign of an unhinged person. Concocting a story about being wiretapped by Obama, while dismissing all of the evidence to the contrary, is akin to Kim Jong-un’s paranoid approach to the world. But while it might be tempting to reassign the letter “I” to mean Ignorant, Ill-informed, Imbicile, I regret to inform you that it would be premature. Imperialism seems ridiculous in a 21st century context, but when Kim Jong-un tests his missiles and fires up the people of North Korea, he’s warning them of American Imperialism. When Osama bin Laden recruited his radical followers, he cited American Imperialism. Americans see ourselves as the defenders of Democracy, and as the champions of free people around the world. Other nations see us setting up military bases in Saudi Arabia in 1991, to repel Saddam Hussein from Kuwait, and then never leaving. Other nations saw us lead the international effort to demilitarize Iraq, but then after Iraq had dismantled their weapons program, the United States overthrew their leader, against the opposition of the United Nations and our closest allies, and then we helped set up an Iraqi government that would serve our own interests. When the government of Iraq fell, looters broke into museums and ran off with priceless antiquities, because our soldiers weren’t commanded to protect those things. Our soldiers were given orders to secure the oil wells, and they did that brilliantly. Why would any other nation dismantle their weapons program after seeing what happened to Iraq? America is not trusted by several countries around the world, but Mr. President, your rhetoric takes things to a new and terrifying level for everyone. You said of Iraq, “We should have kept the oil. I would have kept the oil.”  That’s what an imperialist would say. It suggests to other nations that the United States can decide whether to “keep the oil” or “let them keep it”. In no way does it convey to them that their oil is THEIR oil. Your statements raise a lot of anxiety in every nation that is less powerful economically or militarily than the United States. That would be every other nation in the world.

Nationalism: I don’t need to say much about this. “America First” isn’t very original. We’ve heard it before. Can you guess who said the following statements? “Germany First!” “Italy First!” “Russia First!” “Japan First!” If you guessed, “Those were the statements of the craziest dictators in the history of the world, and their nationalist ideas led to a loss of life and treasure at a level no one could ever have imagined,” you’d be correct. I love my country. I mean it. I LOVE the United States. It’s magnificent, and fantastic, or as you’d say, “really, really great.” I am so proud of American inventiveness, a Constitution that has been the model of all Democratic countries around the world, the American flag planted on the moon, the automobile, the telephone, the electric light bulb, the Personal Computer, the Internet, and the ideals of liberty and democracy we stand for and defend. There’s nowhere in the world I’d rather call home. But being a proud American does not require that I think Mexicans are murderers and drug dealers and rapists, or that Iraqis owe us anything, or that all Muslims hate America, or that refugees are dangerous. Being a proud American doesn't make me likely to look out on a crowd and point to someone while saying, “Look at my African-American over there!” Being a proud American doesn't lead me to use the name "Pocahontas" as an insult. My being a proud American is the opposite of those things. My being a proud American allows me to see the Mexican, and the Iraqi, and the Muslim, the African-American, the refugee, and the Native American as neighbors in a diverse and ever-interconnecting world.

I hope this little history lesson helps you make some important decisions in the years ahead, as you continue to lead the country I have been so proud to call home for my whole life. Unless it is in fact your goal that we end up in a world war (and I'm not ruling that out, considering the economic incentives that lie therein), there are some ways you should tweak your never-ending campaign rallies to avoid stirring up anti-foreign sentiment. I’d be happy to write your speeches, but I fear that you’d go off script and let “the Donald” shine through, so it would be far better If you just start seeing things the way they really are – enemies as enemies, allies as allies, scientific facts as facts, journalists as truth-seekers, and so on.

If you found this helpful, please let me know. I’ve got other lessons to share – lessons on the long-term and world-wide detriment of “trickle-down economics” in America, the incredible economic benefits for all that arise from increasing the minimum wage, the fabulous economic positives of moving to renewable energy, the history of the world’s great religions, the disastrous consequences of school privatization with public funds, and the importance of a free press in a democracy. Best wishes for the rest of your term. We’re all resting our hopes on you!!

Sincerely,


Karina Doyle – proud American

Friday, February 24, 2017

Gender vs. Genitals: The Bathroom Agenda That Wasn't

Last year, 2016, was the deadliest year for transgender Americans. Despite the horrors of record numbers of transgender people being killed, and a history of transgender people being gang raped, burned to death, tortured to death, or castrated, yesterday President Trump repealed the guidance pertaining to transgender students, put forth by President Obama last year. This guidance instructed school districts to allow transgender students to use the restroom that matches their gender identity. Conservatives refer to the liberal "bathroom agenda" as something that puts our children (daughters) at risk of being sexually assaulted in public restrooms by male sexual predators who pretend to be female. Who opposes these conservative measures? Over 200 local, state, and national organizations that actually work to protect people against sexual assault and domestic violence. Let's examine the facts to see how conservatives have targeted one of the most abused minorities in our society, while simultaneously portraying themselves as the victims.

GENDER

Let's start with a conversation about gender. I'm a high school teacher. Imagine someone asks me how many boys and girls I have in a class. I can usually answer this by simply looking at the list of names. David is a boy. Catherine is a girl. Linda is a girl. John is a boy.  Tracy and Jamie are... Oh, I'm not sure. On the first day of school my students enter the room. Here comes Jamie, wearing a form-fitting sweater, capri pants, attractive mid-height boots that match her belt, mascara, nail polish, long hair. Jamie's a girl. Here comes Tracy. Tracy is wearing a baggy hooded sweatshirt and blue jeans that sag. I can see the top of Tracy's boxer shorts. There's a bit of stubble on Tracy's face. Tracy uses the term "bro" while bumping fists with Michael, who is wearing a football jersey. In an instant I have identified the gender of every single student in my classroom, and I haven't seen anyone's genitals.

"WAIT!" say conservatives against the so-called "bathroom agenda". "How can you possibly know how many girls and boys are in your class if you haven't seen any genitals?"

GENITALS

This illustrates the most important error concerning transgender legislation. Lawmakers aren't stating that only men can enter men's restrooms. They are saying that only penises can enter men's restrooms. This might seem like the same thing, but it isn't. Not always. About 6 in every 1,000 people are transgender. That means the woman in the restroom who is re-applying her mascara in the mirror, and fussing over the chip in her nail polish -- has a penis. The man you see in the restroom, with the sleeveless t-shirt, flat chest, camouflage cap, and a beard -- has a vagina.

This is not an easy thing to comprehend. I totally understand. I was never taught that girls could have penises and boys could have vaginas. It seems completely absurd. To most people it feels as absurd as if I hold up a photo of an elephant and say "this is an elephant, but 1% of the time this could be a giraffe." It's incomprehensible. The "T" in LGBT has long been misunderstood and I'll soon explain how it has also been misrepresented. As a person who is not Transgender I do not claim to be an expert. I'm just pointing out that we already know who the women in our midst are, and if one of them walks into a men's restroom there will be a lot of discomfort from the guys at the urinals. If she pulls up her dress to reveal a penis as proof of restroom eligibility, she might be beaten to death.

SEXUAL IDENTITY vs. SEXUAL ORIENTATION

LGBT stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender. The LGB all have to do with sexual orientation. The T has to do with sexual identity. Sex organs are the sole determinant of "Gender" on a birth certificate. If a baby enters the world with a vagina, that baby is a female. Transgender individuals identify as one gender, while possessing the genitals of the other. It must be understood that sexual identity -- "are you a boy or girl?" is not the same as sexual orientation -- "do you feel attracted more to boys or to girls?" A toddler can tell you if he's a boy. But he won't know who he is attracted to until he starts to feel an attraction -- which won't happen until his early teens.

"THE TRANSGENDER AGENDA"

I have recently read articles about how "the transgender agenda" is currently targeting the traditional binary bathroom model, but its ultimate agenda is to de-sex society. These articles claim that marriage equality efforts by gays and lesbians was one step toward this agenda, which disrupted the husband/wife relationship that is the bedrock of human society, and now we have to deal with men wanting to go into women's bathrooms. WHEN WILL IT END?! As is always the case in these articles, the people in the majority seek to make themselves out to be victims. They are outraged that their religious freedoms are being trampled by those who seek to upend God's design. When presenting one's self as a victim, the other person is automatically placed in the position of aggressor. An attacker. The step that is skipped entirely is the one where one makes a case that transgender people prey on people in bathrooms. By saying we'll be safer in the women's room if we disallow transgender women to enter them is to imply that they are abusers. They are not. There has never been any evidence to support this claim whatsoever. But people sure are afraid.

But seriously, all that lady with the penis wants to do is pee! Can you please stop inventing this crazy de-genderizing conspiracy theory and JUST. LET. HER. PEE?

THE REAL VICTIMS

Firing up fear about how transgender people are part of a conspiracy to upend the very foundation of human society has horrible consequences. Hostility toward transgender people is EXCEEDINGLY common, The danger comes not just from others, but from themselves. Half of all transgender adults report having attempted suicide at some point during their lifetimes. HALF! Sixty-four percent have been victims of sexual assault as a result of their transgender status.

Keep in mind, that's only the ones who managed to survive suicide or fatal attacks long enough to make it to the survey. It's impossible to know how many lost their lives before getting the chance to answer.

Those who live their lives as the gender they know they are, rather than the gender assigned to them on a birth certificate, face an incredibly threatening world. Read about the fatal beating of this woman, or this woman, or just read this jaw-dropping list of people in a Wikipedia page that is being constantly updated. Just Google "Transgender violence" to see that none of the violence is ever the transgender person doing the attacking.

RESTROOM VULNERABILITIES

Another absurd thing about the transgender legislation is the staged portrayal of men preying on girls in restrooms. Sexual predators do exist, in alarming numbers. They occasionally target children in restrooms. Those children are boys. It's mind-boggling that people claim our children will be safe from sexual predators if we keep all penises in the men's rooms. If we want our children safe from sexual predators, we need to focus our attentions on sexual predators, not transgender people.

NOT "THE WRONG BODY"

We've heard journalists describe transgender people as "trapped in the wrong body." This is an unfortunate portrayal, because the bodies we have are the ones God gave us. If we think that God doesn't make mistakes, then the man with a vagina is exactly as he should be. To call him "her" because "she" hasn't had "the surgery" is an act of oppression. To ask him whether or not he is going to have "the surgery" is really impertinent and offensive. If you look masculine but tell me your Joe's daughter, I will not respond this way: "Daughter? Hm. So, ...you have a vagina?" I'll just take your word for it. Who would know better than Joe's daughter if she's a female? Stop getting hung up on the body you think someone else should have, and just be nice to people. Also, don't pity the person. To portray the person as "trapped in the wrong body" is to suggest that they are a pitiable victim. Gender Dysphoria is a real and miserable condition caused mostly by the world telling transgender people they are broken. But transgender people can live very happy lives, as long as legislators and abusers aren't in the habit of attacking them.

TERMINOLOGY

If a guy tells you he's a guy, then he's a guy. Stop saying "she" or "her" about him.
If a woman tells you she's a woman, then she's a woman. Stop saying "he" or "him" about her.
If someone tells you what gender they are, accept that you may never know what genitals are between his/her legs. If a masculine person walks into a ladies' room, assume that person can read basic signage and knows that's where she belongs.

"Transvestite" is the term we all became very familiar with by watching The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Everyone in my generation can picture the "Transsexual Transvestite from Transylvania" doing "The Time Warp" in HIS fish-net stockings. This is just one more reason why we are all so confused! We watch a great movie, while throwing toilet paper and toast, and four decades later we realize we have learned all the wrong terminology. Tim Curry in drag is not one bit transgender. He's just a guy in fishnet nylons. Transvestites are men in drag, so Dr. Frank-N-Furter qualifies as a transvestite.

"Transgender" is the term to indicate one whose own sense of gender is not the same as the one in the vital statistics records.

"Transsexual" is a term going through some evolution. It used to mean someone who had surgically transitioned from one gender to the other, because "sex" refers to the genitals, while "gender" refers to the identity. But someone may take male or female hormones that change everything from vocal range to facial hair to breast development, so "the surgery" doesn't have to happen for someone to be considered "transsexual".

Don't say "tranny." It's rude.

TRANSGENDER PEOPLE I KNOW

I only know I know four transgender people personally. I say "know I know" because I went to a local showing of a documentary called "Faces and Facets of the Transgender Experience," and was shocked to see that some of the transgender people featured in the documentary were sitting near me in the theater. I never would have otherwise known they were transgender. That bearded guy leaning against the wall in a flannel shirt and jeans looks like a regular guy. He "passed," one might say. People who "pass" are those who everyone assumes has always been the gender they claim to be. They probably started the transition from one gender to another at a young age. We are all encountering transgender people all the time, and we just don't know it because they are living authentic lives and look the way they feel.

Some were forced to delay the transition, being advised by well-meaning parents, and under-informed health-care providers, that what they were stating so forcefully and consistently as children was "a phase." During puberty they went through permanent physical changes. In some cases these physical changes lead to a serious crisis of identity and an inability to "pass" without significant surgery, which is an enormous financial and emotional burden that not everyone can bear.

One thing that has surprised me as I have gotten to know some transgender people, is that many transgender women weren't super girly before transitioning. Of the four transgender women I've gotten to know personally, one had been a champion race car driver and auto mechanic, another had been a high-ranking police officer, another had been a combat soldier, and another had been a construction engineer. Another, who I've never met, was the greatest male athlete in the entire world... until she told the world she was actually Caitlyn Jenner. To one transgender friend I commented with sarcasm that I wouldn't expect transgender women to be such macho men. I would have expected pre-transitiion transgender women to be the stereotypical effeminate male with flamboyant mannerisms -- hair stylists, fashion designers,  maybe Broadway musical choreographers who employ copious use of "jazz hands". She replied, "We go through a lot to try and make our dads proud of us."

Transgender people put up with a lot. Try not to be yet another facet of what they have to endure.

If you want to know more about this (since I'm not an expert), start with PFLAG and GLSEN,