Occupy Chicago - One Year Later

A few weeks ago I attended the Occupy Chicago General Assembly in an attempt to understand what the organization had been doing over the last year. The Occupy Movement, started as "Occupy Wall Street" in New York City, fell out of the mainstream spotlight as the winter weather and presidential politics overwhelmed the protestations of "the 99%" against the control of the elite. I joined some friends at one of the events that Occupy Chicago held last fall in Grant Park, and remembered thinking that this movement would last as long as it had the ability to bring large crowds to conspicuous locations in Chicago, Oakland, Zuccotti Park, and beyond. But I doubted its ability to survive the winter.

One Vote, Two Vote, Red Vote, Blue Vote

Over the last few months, the vilification of local, state, and national candidates for political office has trickled down from the hallowed halls of Washington D.C., through our media outlets, and into our social media pores. Friends, countrymen, posting half-truths and headlines about candidates and political parties, all to the chagrin of the majority of their friends. The vitriol overwhelms friendships, divides families, and befuddles our prior conceptions of who our friends really are.

Be like Water

Bruce Lee is often seen in caricature as a little man in a yellow jump suit, throwing lightening fast limbs, training Chuck Norris and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and throwing his foes across the room with naught-but-a one-inch punch.

We've All Gone to Look For America

These words, penned in 1968 by Paul Simon, encapsulate such deep meaning and cultural angst, even thirty years later.

I posted this simple line to Facebook this weekend:

"We've all gone to look for America."

Without connotation and without direction of what I thought the words meant, it was a concise observation, pregnant with contemplation. Several people reacted politically, a few commented appreciatively, and others simply "liked" it. So what does it mean?

It's Half-time, America

Last weekend, I watched the Superbowl not so much for the action on the field, or Madonna's geriatric acrobatics during the half-time show. I think the most anticipated part of the Superbowl for me was the commercials. This television event has taught consumers and advertisers alike a new way to approach commercials. In a world of Tivo and DV-R, the commercial is no longer an irritating necessity. Advertisers must earn the right to show us the value of their products, and the production quality of the Superbowl's sales pitches is a perfect example of ads that engage the home audience.

Ghosts of Politics Past

With all the political hullabaloo dancing across the airwaves like sparks from a downed power line, I've been thinking a great deal about how the past affects who a person becomes. For every jump in popularity this political season, another skeleton emerges to wreak havoc on the career of a Presidential hopeful.

Observations from 20 Years of Iowa Life - A Different Take on the Same State

University of Iowa Professor Stephen Bloom wrote an article for the Atlantic online last week that has scores of Iowa natives up in arms. The professors inflammatory words about the state that boasts the first Republican primary in a matter of weeks have created quite the cacophony among bloggers, facebookers, and Iowans of all make, model, and color.

Team of Rivals - Finding the Truth Through Your Associations

As I was driving through the gray rain of a Thursday morning commute today, my music player tuned me into a podcast from the awesome folks at MaximumFun.org. One of the segments was an interview with Brooke Gladstone, host and managing editor of On The Media, a radio show about, well, the media. Very meta.

The interview was a hilarious discussion about Gladstones journey around the world and through her career with various media organizations, and ended with a question and answer session with the audience. In that portion, someone asked an incredibly insightful question about the proliferation and diversification of media sources in our time, and how that affects consumption. Simply put, we get our information from so many different sources today, as compared to our grandparents who watched a handful of television channels, listened to a few radio stations, and read the local newspaper for all of their media consumption. So how does that affect what and how we consume?

Brooke referred to a concept coined by Cass Sunstein, a professor at the University of Chicago Law School, known as incestuous amplification. The basic premise of incestuous amplification is that when you surround yourself with people who share the same beliefs and philosophies as your own, you begin to remove a majority of dissenting ideas from your view, thereby seeing the world through a more narrow defining reality. Soon, you only see the world as you believe it is (or should be), and can be oblivious to alternative views.

Arguably, this homophony of perception is running rampant in our government today. Politicians gather in their gaggles of tunnel visioned, party line-cadres, filling each other with vitriolic fervor. As they demonize the other side of the aisle, they often fail to see anything from their soap-box rivals as having an ounce of merit, even when it is a concession or political olive branch. Any chance for bi-partisan conversation is quelled by hate-speech and finger-pointing.

This is evident in daily life as well. We as Americans get into our own bubbles of contextualized news aggregation. Either we are listening to the left-wing whispers of NPR while watching MSNBC and reading the Huffington Post, or we are watching FOX News while listening to Rush Limbaugh and reading Sarah Palin's newest rant about bears. In whichever camp you fall, the fault is equal. You are not getting the full picture.

It was said that when Abraham Lincoln gathered his cabinet, he brought together a "Team of Rivals" (also the name of a recent biography of the 16th President). He refused to surround himself with "yes men", who would drink whatever Kool-Aid he fed them. He wanted his advisors to challenge his ideologies, thereby forcing him to defend himself ferociously before making a fool of himself vociferously.

I believe that, even though the majority of us will never be faced with the challenges that Lincoln dealt with, we can take a cue from this renaissance man's tactics. Force yourself to read news from a source that contradicts your own beliefs. Talk politics with friends that you know you don't agree with. Listen to the other sides ideas. And while doing so, remember to be respectful of those beliefs, as you would like them to be. Don't start a yelling match, but rather approach the conversation as an attempt to learn why they believe the things they do.

When I taught Business Communication at Black Hawk College in Kewanee, Illinois, I had an hour commute, three days a week, to that rural campus outside the "Hog Captial of the World" (self proclaimed). I generally listened to Iowa Public Radio for the first half of the drive, until I lost signal in the rolling hills of the Mississippi river valley. Unable to get anything other than pop-country and farm reports, I would then flip over to the AM dial and tune into Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity. I will admit that I am more an NPR listener than a conservative radio consumer (though please don't assume that this fact makes me a left-wing liberal. My politics are multi-faceted and complex). But over the course of my commute, I actually enjoyed listening to what the far-right conservative yellers had to say. By engaging in this inadvertent political discourse, I was given two very different views of the world, and was able to piece together what I consider a well-rounded view of what was happening in our country's political landscape.

Since then, I have tried to continue to surround myself with people who do not necessarily agree with my political and philosophical views. If I had to come up a list of my personal "Team of Rivals", I might include:

My father Dave Walljasper
My Uncle Jim Engler
My Uncle Doug Walljasper
My previous employer Todd McGreevy
A few of my best friends Mark Shoemaker, Brian Wilcoxon, Adam Lovinggood, Matt Hobbs, and Chris Stemple
My cousins Adam Overberg and Casey Overberg
My old Scoutmaster, Jim Eads
My wife, Annie Walljasper

Some of these folks have extremely different views of the world than I do. Others are very similar to my thoughts. Most are somewhere in between. But together, they've helped me shape the way I see the world around me, and for that, I respect all of their views, no matter how contradictory they may be to my own.

And that, in today's society, is a revolutionary idea that I believe could truly start a renaissance.


~CW

Family Gatherings: Life Lessons from Those Who Know

I went back to Southeast Iowa last weekend for my families Easter celebration. It was everything you'd want in a family gathering - four generations, sharing stories, catching up, collecting pastel plastic ovaloids filled with candy. As I wandered my uncle's house, I reflected on the things I appreciate about my family. These are things that my family will do as long as there are get-togethers such as these. Here are some highlights:

Bi-Partisan Paternal Pundits

My all-knowing uncles heatedly debating political items that Jon Stewart and Rush Limbaugh discussed six weeks ago. I walked into the kitchen for a beverage and was greeted by a cacophony of old men, bickering about birth certificates and Libya's oil output. Tempted to join the fray, I opted to go back into the living room and pretend to watch NASCAR.

The Mysteries Inside of a Child's Mind

Small children have no qualms with sliding down hills in their new Easter clothes, nor do they see anything wrong with picking up dog poop in them. My cousin Holly has a big problem with both, especially when the practices are being done by her children. She is generally a soft spoken woman, but when her daughter was discovered with unmentionable material smeared across her palms, she turned into the mother we all remember having.

"Lillie! Get over here! No, Don't touch anything! Put your hands in the air. That is disgusting!"

We were all so proud.


The Devils Tea

Whiskey. Blended Canadian, preferably Black Velvet. Generally mixed with squirt at a 2/1 ratio. Drink until you agree with the uncles' political views, or no longer care.

This is the beverage of choice for my grandfather, uncles, great uncles, and now my cousins and I. It goes down smooth, and makes engaging conversation even more dynamic.

Carbo-Loading

Plates of pure carbohydrates, covered in carbohydrates, with a side of carbohydrates. And for dessert? Aunt Pat's famous carbohydrate-filled brownies. Welcome to diabetic Hell (the most delicious Hell ever dreamed of).

I think I ate close to 200 carbs in the form of cheesy potatoes, rice casserole, homemade bread, and noodle salad. Add in Brownies, pie, cake, and Easter candy? Goodnight.

Busch Light

My uncle John walks in the house with an open can of Busch light. I'm not sure if he was drinking on the way here, but I wouldn't be surprised. While I question his methods, I commend his brazen love of cheap beer.

The Takeaway

This is my Easter message. Visit your family often. The stories they tell and the history they share are invaluable, and should be treasured and appreciated, even if they are tinged with a little more country than you prefer.

My Great Uncle Don was diagnosed with a rare form of blood cancer a few weeks ago. When I saw him last weekend, he was a hollow shell of what he once was. Struggling to get into the house, he sat down on the couch, out of breath, and proceeded to share with me what he'd been through the last few weeks.

As he recounted doctors visits and hospital tests, he was surprisingly optimistic. He joked and kidded about shots and scans, and was in relatively high spirits. It was then that I realized how important it is to be at family events such as this one. It seems that Uncle Don is going to make it through this episode, but as a man in his early seventies, he had us all worried. And he's not out of the woods quite yet.

So tolerate your family. And open your eyes and your ears. You may actually find some enjoyment in their antics.

Traffic Patterns & Non Conformists

Standing outside the Harrison Hilltop Theatre tonight, I saw as entertaining a performance from the traffic that passed by on the busy one way street as I did at the production of which I'd just walked out.

We were milling about after the show, discussing politics as they related to the farce on the evenings playbill, The Complete History of America, Abridged. During our conversation a car cruised down the street, pulled out into the intersection, and realizing that he was halfway through the red light, froze, not sure whether to back up into oncoming traffic, or run the light.

I attempted to help him with that decision by beckoning him to simply drive on. At that point, he'd already violated the cease and desist order that the overhead signal had commanded. He shrugged and took my advice. We chuckled and then went back to our conversation.

A few moments later, a peculiar looking car came by. It was bedecked in what appeared to be Post-it-notes. As the car fluttered by, we all did a double take, then agreed that, yes, it must have been Post-its. It should be noted that we cannot verify that they were Post-it-notes, but if they were, that man will never forget where he's going.

We resumed our conversation.

Three minutes later, at the same stoplight, another car pulled into the intersection, then suffered an attack of indecision. Again, I waved the befuddled driver on, and they slowly rolled through the intersection, relieved to make it through unscathed and unarrested. We comment on how odd the traffic has been. Little did we know, it was about to get worse.

Not five minutes later, a woman turns onto Harrison from a side street, and commences to careen up the four lanes of the one way street, against the impending traffic. She must have reached 30 M.P.H before realizing that the massive flood of headlights bearing down on her was an indicator of the grave mistake she'd made. She veered off the by-way, but having no side street to relieve her, she instead opted for the grassy lawn of an elementary school. She sat there for a while, waiting for traffic to slow so she could integrate herself into the proper flow of cars and trucks. A few moments later, a police car pulled up along side her vehicle and blocked traffic, allowing her to sheepishly crawl back into traffic – this time traveling downstream.

This is where the story could have ended, if these two characters hadn't gotten stuck at the now infamous traffic signal directly north of our vantage point. As the woman and the police officer sat at the red light, we stood there and blatantly stared at the two parties. Was the officer going to pull her over for her inability to determine the flow of traffic? Was he going to let her off with the shame of her own malfeasance? The red light stretched on for hours as we discussed the possibilities, not trying to hide our vicarious engagement in this precarious event.

Finally the light changed and the woman timidly wheeled past us and attempted to turn off the main thoroughfare. Her eyes were locked on the road, arguably to avoid eye contact with the group of gawking on-lookers. She crawled onto the side street, careful not to make even the tiniest of mistakes.

Two seconds after she had passed, the officer meandered through the intersection in lukewarm pursuit. He glanced as us and, with a nod and a grin, flipped his lights on and rounded the corner, stopping the woman dead in her tracks.

The roar of laughter from our small contingency rivaled the guffaws of the show, but were so much heartier because the source of the humor was so real. It was so asinine, you can't make this stuff up.

So if you're ever on the corner of 16^th street and Harrison street, and are looking for something to do, just look at the traffic. Countless hours of entertainment, and you'll never want to drive down Harrison Street again.

Bureaucrasong - A Political Sing Along

If you haven't noticed, we are in the thick of a mid-term election in these great United States of America. If you haven't noticed, you must be in a coma. I apologize.

I've recently become much more aware of my political environment, due to a number of professional connections in the last six months or so. As I become more interested in who is running things around this country, the more it drives me crazy. As a person who loves communication, discourse, and the free exchange of ideas, the vitriolic hate speech that spews out of the mouths of our representatives makes me want to forget about the whole thing. There is no communication, only shouting at one another until one side passes out from a stress induced heart attack. The funny thing is, both sides don't realize that they are trying to achieve the same thing. And then you add in another group of people who want to bring up alternative ideas to the dichotomy we've been forced to listen to for decades, and it becomes a legitimate three ring circus, with tales of moose hunting Alaskan governors, witches in Delaware, and senatorial candidates worshiping something called the Aqua Buddha. It's maddening. And we, the average Americans, are supposed to make sense of it all and cast an informed vote! Forget about it.

So I wrote a song about all the hornswaggling and buffoonery that's been taking place. I've tried to sift out the real issues in this song, so let me know what you think.

I'd like to remind all of my politically active friends out there that this is a satirical piece. If you can't laugh at yourself, get the Hell out of politics.


Bureaucrasong

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Every other year or so
The leaves they start changing and signs begin to grow
Boasting promises committing words
Slinging mud at the other side like its dog turds
 
Them signs look like burmashave, only it don't make no sense!

You've got the Republicans, they hate the tax
All the while they love to spend our hard earned greenback
Death penalty A-OK. gay marriage aint.
Smoking reefers outa line on thier end o' the debate
They're pro life. They love the babes
But they keep funding wars sending soldiers to their graves
 
That takes care of the reds. Now what about them folks on the other side of the aisle?

If you see a democrat, ask em for a dime
They love to spend our cash, so they'll give you one of mine
They're a bunch o' bleeding hearts, commie socialists
Marry anyone you want woman, man, or fish
Spend a million dollars just to save a tree
Them blue dogs can't remember that freedom isn't free

Them liberals...can't take a joke. Now any a you hearda these Tea party folk?

Theres a new group a folks out there, vying for my vote
Peddling their policies, shovin' em down your throat
Tea party is American, right down to there guns
Take away their freedom and boy you better run
Take the christian right, give 'em a little dope
Don't you dare a tax em, and sure don't mention hope
 
Yes we can. Three's a crowd in politics. Hell, two's a crowd in politics. bunch o' talkin heads.

Ask me who I'm voting for and I don't have a clue
They all say the same damn thing, and what do they really do?
Bitch about each other, piss on the other side
 
Maybe I'll move to Chicago, My vote'll count once I've died.

Happy Voting!