Category: Personal

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[speeches]

Topic: About This Blog
As you’ll note, there’s now a new [speeches] link at the top of the box on the left side of this page. Click through to get a list of UN speeches I’ve worked on, as posted on the website of the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Korea to the United Nations. I’ll try to keep this page up to date, so you can take a look at what I spend my days doing when I’m not writing this blog. (If you’re especially intrepid, obsessive and bored, you can also fish around the UN website itself and find these speeches in PDF and/or on video.)
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[gowanus artists open tour 2004]

Topic: Around Town
On October 23rd and 24th, 80 South Brooklyn artists will open their studios in the Gowanus Canal area for the Gowanus Artists Open Tour 2004. Last year, when I was still new to the neighborhood, I stumbled on this event and was fascinated by what I found. It was an opportunity both to see a lot of very good art by people who haven’t yet gotten much attention, and to explore the lofts and byways of the streets around the Gowanus Canal. If you live in the neighborhood, this is an event not to be missed.
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[my first speech]

Topic: United Nations
For the first time, a speech that I worked on was read at the United Nations — in the Security Council, no less, as part of a debate on justice and the rule of law in post-conflict societies. I suppose eventually this will become routine, and certainly it was a routine speech, but at the moment this is incredibly exciting for me.

It’d be more than unfair to characterize it as my speech, because most of it was assembled by counsellors here at the Korean Mission, who gave it its shape and content, and it was Ambassador Kim who presumably directed them, as well as approving and delivering the speech. But I did work on it, editing it extensively and providing a lot of the language. So now a little bit of my writing has found its way into the permanent record of the United Nations.

To read the speech yourself:

  1. Click here.
  2. Find the meeting records for “6 Oct.”
  3. Click on “S/PV.5052 (Resumption 1).” (It’s a PDF file, so Adobe Acrobat is required. Also, you’ll have to turn off any personal firewalls to get access.)
  4. Scroll to page 26.

If you’re a glutton for punishment, you can also watch the speech:

  1. Click here.
  2. Scroll to “6 October 04.”
  3. Click on “Archived Video” for the pm session. (Requires RealPlayer.)
  4. Scroll forward to 2:06:30 and enjoy. And try not to get distracted by the guy picking his nose just upstage.

Bonus: Scroll back to 1:42:30 or so and watch the delegate from Singapore refer to Humpty Dumpty.

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[the war in real terms]

Topic: Foreign Affairs
A couple of days ago, my brother-in-law (my wife’s sister’s husband) was deployed to Iraq. He’s a captain in the Marines, serving as a logistics officer at Camp Fallujah. He’s not a combat soldier, but already he’s come under fire twice: once when a rocket-propelled grenade was fired at his transport helicopter on the way to the camp, then once when the camp was shelled, as it is regularly. The shells are just pointed and fired, not aimed, so they fall pretty much at random throughout the camp. In the last month, these attacks have killed two soldiers.

This is the real deal. This is a member of my family who is risking his life just by being where he is.

My emotional response at this point is complicated and difficult to articulate. I’m worried, first of all. He has a wife and four kids who would be devastated if something happened to him, and I am trying hard not to imagine the emotional impact it would have on my wife, her other siblings, her parents. I have the selfish thought that I really, really, really don’t want to spend years of my life dealing with that emotional wreckage.

I’m also angry that the situation in Iraq is so bad. I feel that our leaders have seriously let us down, and now that feeling has become personal and immediate. His six-month stint will almost certainly be renewed, so we can’t count the days until he comes home. Nor do I think our leaders have done all they can to keep our soldiers safe, or to help them complete their missions so that they don’t have to be over there anymore.

And I’m afraid of what this experience could do to my brother-in-law, because I think we’ve stumbled into a dirty war. I have enormous confidence in him personally — he’s one of the most competent, upright, decent, moral people I’ve ever known, he’s extremely intelligent, he has an abiding religious faith, and he has a kind of personal calm and centeredness that would make him the first person I’d want standing by me in an emergency. But war is terrible, and being involved in a war can be damaging in so many ways.

I’m proud of him for being a soldier who is brave enough to risk everything in the service of our country. I just want him to get home safe.

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[getting out the vote]

Topic: Politics
For a long time now, I’ve had the sense that the Democratic base is way more motivated in this election than is the Republican base. Bush’s radicalism has unified Democrats, pushing up numbers and involvement during the primaries and leading to one of the smoothest, least divisive conventions I can remember. Dems still feel cheated by the 2000 election, they’re furious over the exploitation of 9/11 and deeply unhappy with the Iraq war, and they’re passionate about wanting Bush out. Their enthusiasm shows in the innovative ways they’ve gone about campaigning: raising tons of money from a huge number of donors online, taking full advantage of 527s, using MeetUp.com to organize, etc.

Meanwhile, a lot of Republicans are unhappy with Bush’s performance. The fiscal conservative crowd is aghast at the giant deficits, the neocons are panicky about the poor execution of their grand Middle Eastern dreams, the military is feeling put upon and ill used, the libertarians are uncomfortable with the Patriot Act, and Christian right is disappointed at how little action there’s been toward a more faith-based America now that one of their own is sitting in the Oval Office. The Bush campaign has had to vet crowds for loyalty and has shown little creativity beyond inventive smears.

Until now, this was just a vague feeling. But according to today’s New York Times, Democrats are way ahead of Republicans in registering voters in the battleground states of Florida and Ohio, and there are indications that they’re ahead elsewhere as well. This effort could make the difference.

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[facts about new york]

Topic: Around Town
Here are some fascinating facts about New York City, courtesy of the US government (via CoolGov):

 

  • New York City is 44.7% white, 27.0% Hispanic or Latino, 26.6% black or African American and 9.8% Asian.
  • We’ve got 5,430 “Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander persons.”
  • 35.9% of New Yorkers are foreign-born. In Queens, it’s 46.1%.
  • Mean travel time to work is 40 minutes.
  • 21.2% of New Yorkers are below the poverty line. In the Bronx, it’s 30.7%.

 

 

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[don’t believe the hype]

Topic: Politics
The received wisdom at this point is that Bush has built an indomitable lead since the Republican National Convention: look at those giant leads Time and Gallup have given the president. But before you fold up shop, here’s a corrective from Alan Abramowitz, via Ruy Texeira:

The Gallup tracking poll … gyrated wildly in the weeks leading up to the [2000] election, sometimes showing sizeable leads for Bush, sometimes showing sizeable leads for Gore, and sometimes showing a close race. Indeed, only 10 days before Election Day, Gallup’s tracking poll had George Bush leading Al Gore by 13 points — similar to Bush’s lead over John Kerry [among likely voters] in Gallup’s most recent 2004 poll.

That’s about 14 points off for Gallup, considering the final vote count in 2000. A similar margin this time puts Kerry in the White House.

Keep an eye on Ruy Texeira for thoughtful (if partisan) insights into what polls actually mean. They’re not as simple as they sound.

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[the american taliban]

Topic: Politics
From my friend Daniel Kleinfeld:

From Jimmy Swaggart’s sermon this weekend:

“I’m trying to find the correct name for it … this utter absolute, asinine, idiotic stupidity of men marrying men. … I’ve never seen a man in my life I wanted to marry. And I’m gonna be blunt and plain: if one ever looks at me like that, I’m gonna kill him and tell God he died.”

Fundamentalist death threats aimed at 10% of the population — imagine substituting any other minority in there (easy to imagine, actually: “If a nigra looks at my daughter like that, I’m gonna kill him and tell God he died”).

Hard to believe? Watch the video: http://www.oliverwillis.com/stuff/swaggart.wmv

And don’t stop until the very end, when he gets a big round of applause with the words “our president, George Bush” and his proposed constitutional amendment. This is the face of the base, and it’s terrifying.

I have several things to add:

1. Jimmy Swaggart is in little danger of being hit on by a homosexual.

2. What the fuck is an “abomnation”? There’s an i in there, genius. All three times.

3. As for these “abomnations,” it always bugs me how selective the Christians are with that. They seize on Leviticus 20:13 (“If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.”) and on Leviticus 18:22 (“Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.”) But a search for “abomination” (with an i) in the King James Bible comes up with a lot of results, many of which lead to the inevitable question, why don’t fundamentalist Christians keep kosher?

Some favorites:

Leviticus 11:10-11: “10 And all that have not fins and scales in the seas, and in the rivers, of all that move in the waters, and of any living thing which is in the waters, they shall be an abomination unto you: 11 They shall be even an abomination unto you; ye shall not eat of their flesh, but ye shall have their carcases in abomination.” (Note that that’s two abominations, as many as homosexuals get. No more lobster dinners, Christians!)

Deuteronomy 22:5: “The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman’s garment: for all that do so are abomination unto the LORD thy God.” (No more pants suits for you, Christian ladies!)

Deuteronomy 27:15: “Cursed be the man that maketh any graven or molten image, an abomination unto the LORD, the work of the hands of the craftsman, and putteth it in a secret place. And all the people shall answer and say, Amen.” (No more Franklin Mint goodies for you, Christians! In fact, no more coins at all!)

Proverbs 11:1: “A false balance is abomination to the LORD: but a just weight is his delight.” (Make sure your bathroom scale is calibrated, or it’s hell for you!)

Proverbs 12:22: “Lying lips are abomination to the LORD: but they that deal truly are his delight.” (Guess Dubya and Colin Powell and all them folks are an abomination to the LORD.)

And none of this even begins to get into the zillions of weird Levitical laws that Christians are more than happy to ignore. Basically, if you’re gonna start throwing around lines from the Books of Moses as your justification, you damn well better be an Orthodox Jew, because Orthodox Jews are the only people crazy enough to follow each and every commandment in that wacky Ancient Near Eastern epic. (No, they no longer sprinkle blood around with their thumbs in the Tabernacle, but at least each missing sacrifice is replaced with a prayer.)

If you can stomach shellfish, you have no business condemning other people’s Levitical “abomnations.”

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[from flesh to fleisch]

Topic: Around Town
Okay, this is just weird: Al Goldstein, founder of Screw magazine and longtime professional asshole, has taken a job as a greeter at the Second Avenue Deli, where my family has been getting exquisite sandwiches since the place opened in 1954. Apparently a homeless and destitute Goldstein showed up at the deli, which was founded by his longtime friend Abe Lebewohl, and asked Abie’s brother Ira for a job. (Abe was murdered several years ago in a robbery.) The Villager has details.