NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

When teaching about militarism I like to use two poems in order to demonstrate the ways that war, military service and sacrifice become naturalized in societies and also the way they come to be challenged. The first is from Roman poet Horace and one of his Odes, in which he coined the line "Dulce Et Decorum Est, Pro Patria Mori" or "It is sweet and fitting to die for one's country." In it, the poet calls upon Romans to develop greater fighter skills in order to frighten off the always growing list of enemies of the empire. The second is written in response to Horace and also to the patriotism and militaristic sentiment that it is meant to evoke. Written by British poet Wilfred Owen, who fought in World War I and died during the war, it illustrates a brutish and ugly face to war, ignoring the glorious odes which people may devise to get young people excited and invested in military service. The famous line from Horace, Owens refers to as "th

It's been a while since I've taught World History I at UOG. I'm teaching it again this semester and it looks to be both frustrating and fun. World History I covers a huge amount of time, much of which rarely entices students. Students who love Gladiator or Spartacus won't necessarily love learning about Marcus Aurelius or the real servile revolts. The students who liked the third Mummy movie starring Jet Li or the movie Hero starring Jet Li, don't necessarily want to learn about the actual Qin Shi Huangdi.  As I regularly tell students, tv shows like Game of Thrones don't really interest me because history itself is just as screwed up, bloody and terrifying. Should I for some reason retreat into the realm of fantasy to imagine that the horrors of the world dance and prance about simply for the enjoyment of my gaze? Nope, what use is that? People who enjoy history in the form of tv shows like that or Netflix or History Channel documentaries want history tamed f

Published on Wednesday, August 1, 2012 by The Nation From the Archive: We Are the Patriots by Gore Vidal CD editor's note: The following essay appeared in the June 2, 2003 edition of The Nation magazine, and we reprint it today following news that Gore Vidal died yesterday at the age of 86:   I belong to a minority that is now one of the smallest in the country and, with every day, grows smaller. I am a veteran of World War II. And I can recall thinking, when I got out of the Army in 1946, Well, that's that. We won. And those who come after us will never need do this again. Then came the two mad wars of imperial vanity--Korea and Vietnam. They were bitter for us, not to mention for the so-called enemy. Next we were enrolled in a perpetual war against what seemed to be the enemy-of-the-month club. This war kept major revenues going to military procurement and secret police, while withhol

From the Huffington Post : Kirk Douglas' tenth book, " I Am Spartacus! Making a Film, Breaking the Blacklist ," is being released today by Open Road Integrated Media. ******************** When you reach 95, after you get over your surprise, you start looking back. I've been thinking a lot about my parents, Russian immigrants who came to this country in 1912 -- exactly one hundred years ago. For them, the United States was a dream beyond description. They couldn't read or write, but they saw a better life for their children in a new country half a world away from their tiny shtetl. Against all odds they crossed the Atlantic. And like millions of people before and after, they passed close to the Statue of Liberty as they entered New York Harbor. Perhaps someone who could read English translated the beautiful words of Emma Lazarus, etched in bronze on the pedestal: "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe

This week in World History we discussed the great debate over how people came into the Pacific thousand of years ago. Since so much of modern knowledge is based on European ideas, there was a consensus for a very long time that the only way in which the islands in the Pacific could have been peopled was through constant and regular, accidents and drift voyages. Since, so much of Europe was based on its ties to the land and the earth, and so much of discursive ascension of Europe, its elevation above the world was tied to the way it conquered the Ocean, it was inconceivable that people before Magellan, Columbus, De Gama and others could have braved the unknown and rather frightening ocean. Ko'lo'lo'na yanggen ti manaotao Uropa siha. Especially if they weren't Europeans. Since by the time Europeans came into the Pacific, there had been people living there for thousands of years, they could not have beaten the Europeans to them by using their own skills. Remember, people