No, YOU'RE an Anti-Semite!

I see by Monday's Oregonian that Christopher Alden's production of Wagner's Flying Dutchman is playing in Portland. Apparently it depicts Captain Vandervecken and his crew as victims of the Holocaust, on the grounds that 1) the Flying Dutchman is the Wandering Jew and 2) Wagner was "a notorious anti-Semite and a darling of Hitler".

The matter of Wagner and anti-Semitism is something of a pet peeve of mine. The matterof Wagner and Hitler is an even bigger one. Reviewer James McQuillen writes that Alden's construction doesn't "hold up to very close scrutiny". That's putting it generously.

First of all, Wagner's anti-Semitism consisted largely of saying that if German Jews wanted to be accepted as Germans, it would help if they spoke German and wore German clothes. Considering that many of his contemporaries wouldn't have been satisfied even by their converting to Christianity, he was hardly the worst enemy German Jewry had in the 19th Century.

And let's not forget we are talking about the 19th Century, as in well before the rise of the Third Reich. Wagner never met Hitler, and there's no indication that the admiration would have been mutual. In fact, let's look at the Wagner operas that Hitler loved so much: did he ever understand them?

The Ring of the Nibelungs cycle can be summarized as, "A man renounces human feeling for the sake of power, and enjoys success for awhile, but in the end loses everything." Hitler did that.

The Flying Dutchman is the story of a man who damns himself by his own self-importance, disguised as obsessive devotion to duty. Hitler did that, too.

How does this sound for a production of the Flying Dutchman: Vandervecken is an unreconstructed Nazi who refuses to admit that the war is over, much less that he was on the wrong side. His U-boat surfaces at a modern-day coastal town, his threadbare uniform contrasting horrifically with the commercial fishermen and tourists. His crew, assembled from a variety of justly-lost causes, are equally out of place in their ski masks, Confederate flags and bomb-belts.

In order to be saved, Vandervecken must strip off the rags of his perverted "duty" and go to his bride as simply a man.

That's a Flying Dutchman I would like to see, and I wouldn't be surprised if Wagner would like it, too.

//The Magicv Eight-Ball says, "You're as much entitled to speak for Wagner as anyone else."\\

The Resemblance is Remarkable

Okay, I'm not going to be re-admitted to the nursing program at LBCC. That's just how it's going to be.

It's remarkable how much my current state resembles the feeling of having a long hank of my intestines torn out. Sometimes it doesn't hurt at all, until I move just wrong.

I'll get over it. The gauze packing will come out eventually.

That's life.

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "You can tell for sure it's life, by the pain."\\

One More Parade

One More Parade
by Phil Ochs

Hup, two, three, four, marching down the street
Rollin’ of the drums and the tramping of the feet
General salutes and the mothers wave and weep
Here comes the big parade

Don’t be afraid, prices paid
One more parade

So young, so strong, so ready for the war
So willing to go and die upon a foreign shore
All march together, everybody looks the same
So there is no one you can blame

Don’t be ashamed, light the flame
One more parade

Listen for the sound and listen for the noise
Listen for the thunder of the marching boys
A few years ago their guns were only toys
Here comes the big parade

Don’t be afraid, prices paid
One more parade

So young, so strong, so ready for the war
So willing to go and die upon a foreign shore
All march together, everybody looks the same
So there is no one you can blame

Don’t be ashamed, light the flame One more parade

Medals on their coats and guns in their hands
Trained to kill as they’re trained to stand
Ten thousand ears need only one command
Here comes the big parade

Don’t be afraid, prices paid
Don’t be ashamed, wars a game
World’s in flames, so start the parade

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "Yeah, sure. Why not?"\\

Testing, 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9....

The final in Nursing 102 was challenging, even if I did take it last year. Oh, well, I passed it. And the next day, Wednesday, came the "skills challenge".

Demonstrate all of the skills that were taught to me last year, in Nursing 101 and 102. All correctly. In a single block of time (just over four hours, as it turns out).

Well, it's over now. And in a few days, I'll find out whether everything I've done so far was worth the doing.

And no, please don't tell me "you did your best". This isn't a piano recital, for crying out loud.

Anyway, I'll know soon enough.

In a few days.

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "Look at the sky this evening."\\

Still True, Still a Good Idea, Still Needed

Still True: Violence against women is a particular problem, requiring particular attention.

Still True: Ann Coulter is beneath contempt.

Still a Good Idea: A bill calling for the removal of barriers to voting by qualified citizens.

What a concept.

Maybe this really is a new Congress.

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "Maybe."\\

Peace Through Peaceful Means

What a concept.

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "Couldn't hurt to try it."\\

Ding-Dong, the Witch Has Stubbed His Toe

Scooter Libby has been found guilty, guilty, guilty.

Not that severe a blow to the Bush gang, but at least it's something.

I'll tell you, though, if it had been Rove, my headline would have read, "The Witch Has Taken a Hard One in the Ding-Dong".

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "Don't be coarse."\\

That's Enough, Ann Coulter!

We've been patient with you, and you have only pushed our limits harder.

Enough.

Go away.

We don't want to play any more.

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "Enough is enough."

Ethiopia is Close to My Heart

Not surprisingly, since three of my four children were born there.

Alas, Ethiopia is, in its own way, as frustrating and heartbreaking a country as my own beloved U.S.A. So much that is wrong, so much that could be made right if only people would work together to right it.

But there are bright moments.

Like the story of Abay Amassu

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "Life goes on."\\

Moral Standard

S.B. 373, the Oregon Legislature's proposed Renewable Energy Standard Act of 2007, is a start, at least.

And let's face it, that other thing is called "non-renewable" for a reason. As in, it won't be there forever?

I think we should take a staunchly conservative approach to energy, by which of course I mean relying on renewable energy before anything else.

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "Prudence, indeed dictates...."\\

Still True, Still A Good Idea

Still True: Free choice does indeed save lives.

Still True

Wal-Mart is still able to surprise me with its sleaziness.

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "Don't be so surprised."\\