| PRESIDENT OBAMA WALKS THE WALK ON THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA. The last thing that President Barack Obama did during his first visit to China was to take a solitary stroll on the ramparts of the Great Wall of China. During those precious quiet minutes alone, what thoughts could have crossed his mind? Earlier, many hefty issues were raised with Hu Jintao, President of China and General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party. Trade and currency, censorship, human rights, global warning, military cooperation, – these and others were broached and none conclusively resolved. Our president must have sensed a more muscular China, flexing and pushing harder against a United States still struggling at home with high unemployment and a high federal deficit. Could his mind’s eye wander back to that oversized portrait of Mao ZeDong still framing Tian An Men? If he did, he must have recalled the most famous, indeed, infamous dicta of China’s Great Dictator – “Political Power Grows Out of the Barrel of the Gun.” If he did, he could have taken genuine comfort and even inspiration knowing that by his initiative and display of humility, he has taken great steps towards disarming the dead hand of the Chairman. When two mighty nuclear armed nations engage in dialogue, however chilly and seemingly unproductive, they are unlikely to resort to armed conflict, however great the differences. And the dialogue must and will continue. Did Obama think of another wall of recent memory – the Berlin Wall? If he did, he must have recalled the clarion challenge issued by President Ronald Reagan: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.” If he did, our President must have smiled to himself and said very quietly “Mr. Hu, I shall be back.” And the World will be a better place for it. An Opinion by Charleston C. K. Wang, November 23, 2009 |
| V More Photonews to come. Visit www.wangnews.net again and soon! V V |
| From Left to Right - Charleston C. K. Wang, Esq., Professor Mary Ellen O'Connell & Dean Gordon A. Christenson, Emeritus |
THE ASIAN AMERICAN HOUR has gotten bigger - we are now on the air weekly on public radio WAIF-CINCINNATI 88.3 FM and our broadcast time has moved to prime-time Monday evenings, 5 - 6 PM. THE ASIAN AMERICAN HOUR will continue to feature talk, and music, and other good things with a discernable slant towards Asian American affairs, immigration, and many other issues of interest to our community-at-large. THE ASIAN AMERICAN HOUR is produced and hosted by Charleston Wang with Mary Joan Reutter as co-host, together with our distinguished guests. So, tune in to THE ASIAN AMERICAN HOUR on WAIF-CINCINNATI 88.3 FM. every Monday 5-6 PM. Get the latest on the Asian American community in Cincinnati, the fast growing & mobile community in the Tri-state. After listening to the THE ASIAN AMERICAN HOUR, e-mail us direct feedback and thoughts by clicking here. If you or a friend wish to be a guest on THE ASIAN AMERICAN HOUR, please let us know. Tune in to THE ASIAN AMERICAN HOUR every Monday 5 - 6 PM on WAIF 88.3 FM Cincinnati on the air or on the internet streaming audio by clicking here, |
| THE ASIAN AMERICAN HOUR on WAIF 88.3 FM Cincinnati IS NOW A WEEKLY PRIME-TIME SHOW EVERY MONDAY EVENING 5 - 6 P.M. Informing the People of Cincinnati (and Beyond) since 6/7/2001. asianamericanhour@wangnews.net |
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December 2009 Extra
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| Your breath is sweet. Your eyes are like two jewels in the sky. Your back is straight, your hair is smooth on the pillow where you lie. But I don't sense affection. No gratitude or love. Your loyalty is not to me but to the stars above. One more cup of coffee for the road. One more cup of coffee 'fore I go to the valley below. BOB DYLAN. |
| Roaring Tigers, Leaping Carp Decoding the Symbolic Language of Chinese Animal Painting Cincinnati Art Museum 10/09/09 to 01/03/10 For more information, click here |
| VOLUNTEER PHYSICIANS OF MERCY CARE CLINIC: From Left to Right: DR. TARIQ SULTAN, DR. NEMAT MOUSSAVIAN, DR. DAN ROTH |
| Remembering those who died at the Coliseum on 12/3/1979 (The Who Concert Tragedy): • Jacqueline L. Eckerle, 15 • Karen L. Morrison, 15 • Bryan J. Wagner, 17 • Peter Douglas Bowes, 18 • David J. Heck, 19 • Stephen McGhee Preston, 19 • Phillip K. Snyder, 20 • Connie Sue Burns, 21 • Walter H. Adams, Jr., 22 • James Theodore Warmoth, 21 • Teva Rae Ladd, 27 |
| Memorial Prayer Service at Christ Church Cathedral 12/03/2009 |
12/03/2009
| PAINTING LINCOLN IN LYTLE PARK, SPRING 2009 Photo by Charleston C. K. Wang Published in CAPTURECINCINNATI 2009 |
Mary Ellen O'Connell
| From left to right: John Sniegocki, Douglas Bolton, Bishop Thomas E. Breidenthal, (Ret.) Judge Ann Marie Tracey, Ohio Senator Eric Kearney, and Nick Clooney |
| To order your copy of CAPTURECINCINNATI 2009, click here. |
For more information on this tragedy and the lessons learned click here
A Sad Happy Thanksgiving
Reflections on Life In the Turn Lane
by Beverly Jones, December 5, 2009
I’m not sure naming the day after Thanksgiving Black Friday was intended to have a double
meaning. Black as in merchandising profits and, these days, Black as in bleak. Thanks - giving is
probably not first on the list of concerns for those of us in debt, without homes or job prospects.
Even for those of us without acute economic distress these are not the best of times, nor the worst
of times, but “angry and nasty” times according to NY Times’columnist Judith Warner. She finds it
in parking lot encounters and elevator rudeness where people show “a kind of thin-skinned
intolerance that justifies itself as an injured sense of propriety but is, in fact, nothing more than free-
floating hate.”
I’m getting a bit edgy myself as Tuesday’s military speech by President Obama approaches.
Escalation of our involvement in Afghanistan seems predestined; it’s redundant to say this is not
the kind of change I believe in. To me Obama’s direction of more, not less, cancels his words of
peace and, even tarnishes his Nobel Peace Prize. Historian Gary Wills has written this week:
“I am told by people I respect that Barack Obama cannot pull out of both Iraq and Afghanistan
without becoming a one-term president.”
Wills goes on to suggest that Obama’s political sacrifice would be worth it to put an end to endless
war. “But I would rather see him a one-term president than have him pass on another unwinnable
war to the person who will follow him in office.”
Some leader has to break the spell before costs mount further while our wars are passed from
president to president.” November 23, 2009, The New York Times Review of Books
I saw the rock musical Hair recently. It’s the 40 year old rendition of the cultural and human
conflicts during the Vietnam War; a mirror of our issues and Wills’ comments. Stunning! It
celebrates life and paints the black/bleak costs of Empire – in music at 120 db. Not only did it work,
it elicited tears for many of us, tapping how we really feel about war, politics and adolescent
struggles.
To me that’s the value of the arts – to connect reality to the human experience, feelings and all.
Clapping and singing Let the Sunshine In with the cast and audience was a nostalgic oasis in our
desert of overly analyzed, data driven Information.
Where’s our music, poetry, art?
We hear about how many military personnel have whatever variety of injuries, how much
rehabilitation costs, the toll on their families. I’d like to hear some discussion about human
vulnerability – that perhaps people are not made for war and multiple tours of duty.
There’s a cure for PTSD and amputations – stop the conditions that create them. Or, dear Barack,
at least talk about that possibility. You make good speeches – put some words of real peace in our
heads.
I still have an ember of hope left that you will at least say the words, because words do matter; they
keep ideas alive. But, after Tuesday my ember will probably turn to ash.
An earlier war, World War II, pushed theologian Reinhold Niebuhr to incorporate the evils of society
into his worldview of God and creation. His conclusion:
“...humans are caught between our freedom and our limits [mortality], we are desperately fearful.”
We deal with this fear by denial of our limits – hubris.
“This shows itself in “arrogance, pretension and self-interest.” “The Ethic of Love and the Ways of
the World”, Ross McKenzie, Education for Ministry series: Theological Choices.
Could there be any better description for these bleak times?
Wills said, “...some leader has to break the spell...” How about ‘some leader’ talking real talk and
not the perpetuation of our denial. Maybe that’s why we’re hearing more about costs of health care
and the war(s) and little about the human morass in which we find ourselves. We’ve given the
microphone to Sarah and her teabagging friends to act out our denial for us. That makes me twice
afraid.
Martin Luther King, Jr and Gandhi lived in bleak times too. But they were realists – they carried the
dream of justice as they battled the forces of hubris. Their dreams, our dreams, did not die with
them. Neibuhr calls us to accept
“...the idea that our dream of social perfection (the Kingdom of God) is God’s to fulfill and not ours,
then we can work together toward that end without illusion or despair.”
Somehow, I see Barack attempting to walk this path. The hubris of his detractors on the right and
left obscures this reality.
The message I hear in this season of reflection: Yes, it’s bleak; but that’s not all. We have the light
of “working together without illusion or despair.”
For this I’m thankful.
© Beverly Jones 2009
Doing Good. Together.
Reflections on Life In the Turn Lane
by Beverly Jones, December 5, 2009
I’m not sure naming the day after Thanksgiving Black Friday was intended to have a double
meaning. Black as in merchandising profits and, these days, Black as in bleak. Thanks - giving is
probably not first on the list of concerns for those of us in debt, without homes or job prospects.
Even for those of us without acute economic distress these are not the best of times, nor the worst
of times, but “angry and nasty” times according to NY Times’columnist Judith Warner. She finds it
in parking lot encounters and elevator rudeness where people show “a kind of thin-skinned
intolerance that justifies itself as an injured sense of propriety but is, in fact, nothing more than free-
floating hate.”
I’m getting a bit edgy myself as Tuesday’s military speech by President Obama approaches.
Escalation of our involvement in Afghanistan seems predestined; it’s redundant to say this is not
the kind of change I believe in. To me Obama’s direction of more, not less, cancels his words of
peace and, even tarnishes his Nobel Peace Prize. Historian Gary Wills has written this week:
“I am told by people I respect that Barack Obama cannot pull out of both Iraq and Afghanistan
without becoming a one-term president.”
Wills goes on to suggest that Obama’s political sacrifice would be worth it to put an end to endless
war. “But I would rather see him a one-term president than have him pass on another unwinnable
war to the person who will follow him in office.”
Some leader has to break the spell before costs mount further while our wars are passed from
president to president.” November 23, 2009, The New York Times Review of Books
I saw the rock musical Hair recently. It’s the 40 year old rendition of the cultural and human
conflicts during the Vietnam War; a mirror of our issues and Wills’ comments. Stunning! It
celebrates life and paints the black/bleak costs of Empire – in music at 120 db. Not only did it work,
it elicited tears for many of us, tapping how we really feel about war, politics and adolescent
struggles.
To me that’s the value of the arts – to connect reality to the human experience, feelings and all.
Clapping and singing Let the Sunshine In with the cast and audience was a nostalgic oasis in our
desert of overly analyzed, data driven Information.
Where’s our music, poetry, art?
We hear about how many military personnel have whatever variety of injuries, how much
rehabilitation costs, the toll on their families. I’d like to hear some discussion about human
vulnerability – that perhaps people are not made for war and multiple tours of duty.
There’s a cure for PTSD and amputations – stop the conditions that create them. Or, dear Barack,
at least talk about that possibility. You make good speeches – put some words of real peace in our
heads.
I still have an ember of hope left that you will at least say the words, because words do matter; they
keep ideas alive. But, after Tuesday my ember will probably turn to ash.
An earlier war, World War II, pushed theologian Reinhold Niebuhr to incorporate the evils of society
into his worldview of God and creation. His conclusion:
“...humans are caught between our freedom and our limits [mortality], we are desperately fearful.”
We deal with this fear by denial of our limits – hubris.
“This shows itself in “arrogance, pretension and self-interest.” “The Ethic of Love and the Ways of
the World”, Ross McKenzie, Education for Ministry series: Theological Choices.
Could there be any better description for these bleak times?
Wills said, “...some leader has to break the spell...” How about ‘some leader’ talking real talk and
not the perpetuation of our denial. Maybe that’s why we’re hearing more about costs of health care
and the war(s) and little about the human morass in which we find ourselves. We’ve given the
microphone to Sarah and her teabagging friends to act out our denial for us. That makes me twice
afraid.
Martin Luther King, Jr and Gandhi lived in bleak times too. But they were realists – they carried the
dream of justice as they battled the forces of hubris. Their dreams, our dreams, did not die with
them. Neibuhr calls us to accept
“...the idea that our dream of social perfection (the Kingdom of God) is God’s to fulfill and not ours,
then we can work together toward that end without illusion or despair.”
Somehow, I see Barack attempting to walk this path. The hubris of his detractors on the right and
left obscures this reality.
The message I hear in this season of reflection: Yes, it’s bleak; but that’s not all. We have the light
of “working together without illusion or despair.”
For this I’m thankful.
© Beverly Jones 2009
Doing Good. Together.
| Santa Claus at 5000 Club To see more photonews of Santa, click here. |
| LESSONS & CAROLS AT CHRIST CHURCH CATHEDRAL IN THE CITY OF CINCINNATI |
| A SEASON OF JOY AND HOPE BEST WISHES FOR 2010 |
| The Beefeaters of Christ Church Cathedral in the City of Cincinnatio |
December 4, 2009