Some days have no order to them.

It was an intense day. Music, songs. Unexpected loss. Friends. Strangers. Tears. Love. Prayer. Sky, sun, clouds, smoky fire. A mistake, forgiven. And then another. Some days have no order to them. This day has been like that. 

One marvelous thing leads to another...

March 27, 2014

    I have the habit of looking at photos of people and reading the names underneath, thinking maybe there will be someone I know. And I sometimes find that there is. This time, it was a relative.
    Accidentally discovered, because there was an interesting article in Oregon Quarterly, Winter 2013, about Gordon Gilkey, the man behind the movie “Monuments Men” about saving art work from the Nazis during WWII. And this topic greatly interests me.
    In this issue also was an excerpt from a book about the conscientious objectors in World War II, and there was a photo, and under the photo were names. One of them was Dick Brown. I knew that Mom’s cousin Dick had been a C.O. so I emailed the photo to Mom and she said, “Yes, that’s him.” The book is Here on the Edge by Steve McQuiddy.

    Today I went to Tsunami Bookstore to see if they had a copy of the book, so I could give it to Mom for her birthday. She will be 89 tomorrow. I was carrying my copy of the Oregon Quarterly and when I walked in the door, the girl at the front desk was busy with a guy who looked like he was selling or consigning some books. So I decided to go to the restroom first. When I came out, she was free, so I showed her the article and asked her, “Do you have this book?” She said, “Oh, I was just talking to that guy.” I said, “What guy?” She said the author of the book; he had just dropped off a box of books for them to sell. I said, “Really??? Seriously? That was the guy you were just talking to when I came in?” She said, “Yes.” I said, “Where is he?” She said he was gone; he had just gotten into his car and driven away on his way to the beach for a presentation. I showed her Dick Brown’s picture on the cover, and told her that he was my mom’s cousin. It seemed odd to me, how calm she was, like this was the most common thing in the world to have happen. But I was astonished.
    Maybe that’s why things like this happen to me - because I am continually astonished by them. Yes, I do enjoy the astonishing life.
    She told me that Steve McQuiddy was planning to do a presentation at City Club of Eugene tomorrow, so I bought the book. I guess I’ll go tomorrow, and ask him to sign the copy for Mom.
    So when I got home, I went to Steve McQuiddy’s website and looked around... he is a historian, and he has also written about Opal Whitely. He has fascinating links to fascinating history archival websites. I can get lost in that.


http://hereontheedge.com/

Rust and Diamonds

What's behind the Villanelle

Here's some interesting information about the Villanelle form of poetry.

First Villanelle

My first Villanelle

Villanelle for victims of the new recession (Requiem for a shuttered school)

Ghosts do visit this sunwashed slope

Unfettered free, in shapes of child

Singing lost shanties of rust, diamonds and hope.

As if such dreams could help me cope

Their dresses frilled and eyes so mild

Ghosts do visit this sunwashed slope.

What sight provokes the eye to mope?

Time has turned the songs to wild.

Singing lost shanties of rust, diamonds and hope.

Strangled the shuttered structures grope

Evermore blocked to human child

Ghosts do visit this sunwashed slope.

An accident, perhaps, or twisted rope

Shattered green glass when master riled

Singing lost shanties of rust, diamonds and hope.

Green broke shards 'neath sun's woozy dope

Diamonds amid resting rust of guile

Ghosts do visit this sunwashed slope

Singing lost shanties of rust, diamonds and hope.

~Terry Varner Benge (26 July 2012)

The Surprising Connection Between Hugo and Thirteen

Oh man! We finally went to see "Hugo." I loved this movie! The new 3-D technology was unexpectedly awesome, but this movie is great on so many levels. 3-D was just the icing on the cake - although, actually, the 3-D aspect did relate to the story. And what a fascinating story. I think I'd categorize this film as magical realism, my favorite genre. History, mystery, love, war, friendship, morality, self-discovery, well-developed characters, dreams, imagination, laughter, tears, and Paris. Is there anything this movie doesn't have? The entire film was a visual delight. My gosh, I can't believe people haven't been screaming at me, "You have got to go see "Hugo!"

I was reading up on the creation of Hugo (the film) and learned that the author of the book, "The Invention of Hugo Cabret," Brian Selznik, was influenced by the book "Thirteen" by Remy Charlip and Jerry Joyner. This is a book a bought when I lived in San Francisco because I was totally impressed by the way the objects morph from one thing to another as you turn the pages... I am thrilled that I still have this book.

Amazon.com Exclusive

A Letter from Brian Selznick Dear readers, When I was a kid, two of my favorite books were by an amazing man named Remy Charlip. Fortunately and Thirteen fascinated me in part because, in both books, the very act of turning the pages plays a pivotal role in telling the story. Each turn reveals something new in a way that builds on the image on the previous page. Now that I’m an illustrator myself, I’ve often thought about this dramatic storytelling device and all of its creative possibilities. My new book, The Invention of Hugo Cabret, is a 550 page novel in words and pictures. But unlike most novels, the images in my new book don't just illustrate the story; they help tell it. I've used the lessons I learned from Remy Charlip and other masters of the picture book to create something that is not a exactly a novel, not quite a picture book, not really a graphic novel, or a flip book or a movie, but a combination of all these things. I began thinking about this book ten years ago after seeing some of the magical films of Georges Méliès, the father of science-fiction movies. But it wasn’t until I read a book called Edison's Eve: The Quest for Mechanical Life by Gaby Woods that my story began to come into focus. I discovered that Méliès had a collection of mechanical, wind-up figures (called automata) that were donated to a museum, but which were later destroyed and thrown away. Instantly, I imagined a boy discovering these broken, rusty machines in the garbage, stealing one and attempting to fix it. At that moment, Hugo Cabret was born. A few years ago, I had the honor of meeting Remy Charlip, and I'm proud to say that we've become friends. Last December he was asking me what I was working on, and as I was describing this book to him, I realized that Remy looks exactly like Georges Méliès. I excitedly asked him to pose as the character in my book, and fortunately, he said yes. So every time you see Méliès in The Invention of Hugo Cabret, the person you are really looking at is my dear friend Remy Charlip, who continues to inspire everyone who has the great pleasure of knowing him or seeing his work. Paris in the 1930's, a thief, a broken machine, a strange girl, a mean old man, and the secrets that tie them all together... Welcome to The Invention of Hugo Cabret. Yours, Brian Selznick

OWP & Columbus Day Storm

I'm trying to find my very first blog, created during the Oregon Writing Project in 2005. I think it's gone. But here's something I wrote on another site about my memories of the Columbus Day Storm. Click on the title to see the original website and learn more about the infamous Columbus Day Storm!

I was ten years old; it was the beginning of my 5th grade year, and I was walking home from Lieser School, in Vancouver, Washington. I noticed that the air was very odd. The sky looked yellow and everything was still and silent. Heavy. It was very odd. I stood at the corner of Lieser Road and MacArthur Blvd., where my street, St. Helens Ave., intersected, and I remember looking in all directions, noticing and wondering about the strange weather, and walking on home.

Fast forward a few hours and I was finishing up my ballet class in downtown Vancouver. My parents picked me up and we were going out to dinner. We went to a Chinese Restaurant not far from the dance studio. I remember that I was very very hungry and I couldn't wait for the chow mien. My stomach was growling. It was getting dark outside.

We ordered, but it seemed like it was taking forever for the food to arrive. There was a group in another booth, but they left before getting their food and my parents said they must have been worried about getting home in the storm. But we decided to stick it out. Suddenly the lights went out -- everything in the restaurant was pitch black. We wondered if we were going to get our food. But food had been prepared, so we got to eat. It may have been something different from what we ordered, but we didn't mind. We couldn't really see the food anyway; it was too dark. They brought out candles and we hastily ate our chow mien. Our family -- my dad, mom and younger sister and I -- were the only customers. At that point, with food finally going into my belly, it all seemed like an interesting adventure.

It was windy when we went in, but storms and power outages weren't all that uncommon. I was just a child, but I don't believe my parents or the other adults in the community had any idea of what was coming.

By the time we left, it was getting very very windy. We ran to the car (1951 Ford) and as we drove out of town, store front windows were "popping" left and right. "Look, that window just popped!" "Look! there's another one!" We drove home in blackness; there was no electricity anywhere in the city. Our headlights illuminated flying leaves, branches, and black snake-like power lines, freed from their poles, that whipped across our path and slapped at the car. We were stopped at one point by a huge Douglas fir that had fallen across the main boulevard; we had to drive around it and take another route home.

I don't remember the sounds. It must have been crashing all around us. I think my parents must have had the car radio on, too, trying to get the news.

Our single story home on St. Helens Avenue had been brand new when my parents bought it in 1954. It was one of those 3-bedroom track homes build to accommodate the growing ranks of post-war baby boom families. Behind it rolled an empty field and our dining room had a panorama view of the city of Portland across the Columbia River. We didn't have a basement. The four of us huddled in the darkness, together in my parents' bedroom. I don't remember being frightened, but I think my 9-year old sister was. My parents must have been scared, too, but I didn't know it.

The next morning we awoke to crystal clear blue skies and sunshine. It was such a beautiful day, and we toured the neighborhood, surveying the damage. We were lucky. The only thing we lost was a young tree my dad had planted the year before. Some people lost entire roofs off their houses. Many lost shingles and huge trees that blocked roads and crushed homes and cars. We were warned to stay away from downed power lines, and we thought of all the potential live wires we had come in contact with the night before.

Back at school stories were exchanged. The one I remember most vividly was about the family a few blocks from us, gathered for dinner when a tree fell through the roof, right across the middle of their dining room table, and no one was hurt!

It is interesting to read what other people have to say about their experiences that day. So few seem to remember, or even know that it happened at all. But around here it used to be said that everyone remembers where they were when President Kennedy was shot, and on the day of the Columbus Day storm.

Terry Benge
October 14, 2007

My Wordpress Blog

Here's my Wordpress blog.

http://cloverlawn.wordpress.com/

My Other Blogspot Blog

I'm trying to figure out how to link my other blogs to this site, so that they will all be accessible in one place. So I'll try it this way. Here's one of them.

http://cloverinthelawn.blogspot.com/

Following Myself

I have just started a new blog, because I have changed my gmail address. So now I'd like to merge the two blogs into one, but I can't figure out how to do that. I wonder if it's possible. Meanwhile, I will have to settle for following myself, I guess!

Nothing Interesting

This is an experiment for a friend. I'm just trying to see if the blog update shows up in Facebook. Now I just need something interesting to blog about!

Santa Lucia and Père Noël

This is my Christmas card this year. The drawing was done using a graphite ground and pencil.

What you may not know about the H1N1 virus

This information comes from what I’ve learned from my doctor’s office, the local medical community, Riverbend Urgent Care, the CDC website, and my own personal experience.

If you have a sore throat, body aches, chills, fatigue (overwhelming urge to sleep) and feel woozy -- and these symptoms came on suddenly -- you probably have the flu. There is only one flu going around right now, and that’s the H1N1 flu. According to their website, CDC says that 99% of all flu cases in the USA at this time are the novel H1N1, aka “swine” flu. According to Riverbend Urgent Care, all flu cases in our local area are H1N1.

With H1N1, you don’t necessarily have a fever, and/or your temperature may be sub normal. Yahoo reports that 37% of reported H1N1 cases do not present with fever. My temperature with this virus has been 95.5-96.2 F.

Don’t expect to be able to take a test from your doctor to find out if you have it. Locally, the only way you can be tested for H1N1 specifically is if you are admitted to the hospital. At Urgent Care they told me the test costs $700 and insurance doesn’t pay for it. I suspect that insurance will pay for it if you’re hospitalized, though. There is another test, called a “rapid flu” test. My doctor isn’t doing those anymore, but they are doing them at Urgent Care. They take a swab from the nasal passage or throat, like for a strep test. If it comes back positive, you have the flu, but it doesn’t specify what flu. So, if you have a positive rapid flu test now, they say it’s definitely H1N1, because that’s the only flu going around at this time.

Then they’ll tell you, it doesn’t matter, because they will treat you the same way whether you have H1N1 or seasonal flu. And what treatment is that?

1. Go to bed, get plenty rest and lots of liquids and good nutrition.
2. Stay home! Do not go to school, work, church or the grocery store!

Especially with H1N1, and also for seasonal flu, stay home for 24 hours past when your fever goes away without fever-reducing medication. If you don’t have fever, stay home until you have felt well for 24 hours.

If you are sick stay home. If your kids are sick, keep them at home. Stay home from work and care for them until they are completely over it.

A friend who lives in Germany told me that she’s not worried at all about getting this virus. In Germany, if you get the flu you just go to the doctor, and they will give you Tamuflu, which will reduce the symptoms and duration of the flu, and keep you from being contagious. At Urgent Care they told me that in the US you can only get Tamuflu if you’re hospitalized or have a life-threatening case of the flu.

Since our government won’t order us into quarantine, or even begin to encourage any behavior that might slow down the economy, it’s up to us to take on the responsibility of doing everything we can to keep each other healthy. That means if we are sick, we need to quarantine ourselves.

If you must go out, wear a mask. If your kids are sick, quarantine them.

If you are a teacher or an employer, be flexible in your expectations of your students and your employees. Health is more important than grades, more important than sales, more important than the economy! This flu season is temporary, and we can all get back to life as normal once it passes. For now, slow down and keep the proper perspective.

Be well and help others stay well!

Thinking about Opal

Here’s a link to a beautiful website about Opal Whitely:
http://www.efn.org/~caruso/fairyland/
If you click on the right links, it will take you to her diary, which she wrote when she was seven. I absolutely love it. Opal became famous as a naturalist in her 20’s and then fell into “mental illness” and her diaries were questioned as to their authenticity. She wrote a book called “The Fairyland Around Us” which is very rare now.
When my daughter was little I found a copy in the children’s book section of a used book store here in Eugene. I thought it was going to be about fairies, and when I leafed through it I saw that it wasn’t; it was about nature. It had a price of $5.95 and I decided it was too expensive, so I put it back on the shelf! I was looking for cheap kid’s books for Heather at the time.
Later I found out who Opal Whitely was, read her diary, and realized that it was her book I had held in my hand! I think she was born around the same time as my grandfather (1901), so the descriptions of her growing up in the woods around Cottage Grove remind me in some ways of Grandpa’s youth in the logging camps of Washington State.
Opal died in a mental hospital in England, and one of my book group members got to meet her. Her mother had done extensive history and biographical work about her, and had corresponded with her. So Elizabeth traveled with her mother to England and was able to meet with Opal before she died.

Found in Eugene!

Davy and Peter Rothbart, the brothers who started Found Magazine, brought their traveling show to Sam Bond’s Garage in Eugene yesterday. I’ve been looking forward to it for a couple of months. Last time I saw them in Eugene was probably 3 or 4 years ago. It was before Ancient Vivi was posted on the Found website, on July 24, 2007, before I met Chrome Toaster, Mona Lisa, Nightingale, Jonathan, Sarasara, Midlife Crisis and the others who post regularly. It was before I knew who Davy and Peter were. I heard about them on the radio in 2005 or so and after that I had the website as my home page, but never posted a comment before Ancient Vivi’s birth. Since then I’ve submitted many finds and I’ve had a bunch show up on the website. I’m not sure how many, but less than 10 and probably more than 6. The Stranger and Ramen Boy were two others that showed up after Ancient Vivi, around 2007. After that, I sort of lost track. The most recent was on June 9, 2009.

The show last night was great.. but it would have been more fun to have another Found-crazed person to go with. Daniel humored me by taking photos, and he really enjoyed the show. But he doesn’t really “get” the fascination with found items – his big goal is to toss more stuff into the trash, not to hold onto it!

Nevertheless, the event and talking with Davy was so cool (Peter didn't really seem very interested in talking with me, but that’s okay).. Davy listed off all the people he'd met on tour, like Turbo and Chrome Toaster and Nightingale and also Jonathan. And he didn't seem the least bit surprised to see me. I wasn't sure if he'd know who Clover was. But he did. And when I walked in, he smiled at me like he was expecting me. I guess maybe it's because of MySpace or Facebook; maybe he's seen my picture. Or maybe one of our other mutual friends emailed him to say I would be at the Eugene show? I don't have his email, nor a direct way of communicating with him. I don't know how much he reads the messages on the Foundmagazine MySpace. I've never written to him directly on there. Nevetheless, it seemed like we had already met before. Talking to him was like talking to an old friend.

I was disappointed because I didn't get as much time as I wanted, to visit with Davy, Peter and others who may have been in their entourage (I don’t know if there were others). I had a bunch of questions I wanted to ask them. But Daniel was tired at the end and wanted to leave, so he went on out the door immediately after the show finished, and waited for me. We had taken a few photos with Davy at the end, then I lost my glasses and panicked because I was afraid the waiter had bussed them off a table and tossed them in the garbage. I was blind (well, not quite, but everything was a blur) and I had to go outside and find Daniel and tell him my glasses were gone. So he came back in and found them on the floor. I had looked but hadn’t seen them there. I had taken them off briefly for photos (sometimes the flash reflects), laid them down on the table, and when I reached for them a couple of minutes later they were gone. Apparently they had been swept off the table accidently when it was bussed.

Anyway, I wanted to be able to visit with both Davy and Peter for a little bit longer. Davy had told me that he’d had to get on a plane because the wheel fell off their van, or something like that. I wanted to find out how that happened, where did it happen, and what did that mean they would have to deal with for the rest of the trip? But I didn’t get a chance to ask him about that. I’m hoping they’re keeping a travel blog like they have in the past, so I can find out about how that went. But this tour seems like a grueling pace, with one stop after another, a different city every night. It seems a shame that they can’t stop and spend more time in places like Eugene, where they would certainly find more like-minded souls who appreciated their art!

I thought it was so cool that Davy referred to the whole Found phenomenon as a collaborative art project, that we are all part of.. and he told me about meeting Jonathan (England) as well as others on tour, like Turbo in the Thunderdome, Chrome Toaster and Nightingale.

There was another odd coincidence. I bought a complete 5-volume gift set of the Found Magazines from Peter. It was tied with a pink ruffle cut from a girl’s dress with a tag that said “Claudia.” It's described it in the caption under the photo. I didn’t realize at first that they had used a scrap of clothing as gift wrap at firs. I just saw the tag with the name “Claudia,” so I asked Peter, "Why does it say 'Claudia'?" He said, "I don't know."

Well, the reason I asked is this: The day before we had just arrived home from a trip to the beach. We stopped to pick up our mail, and I got out of the car to get the mail from our mailbox (which is up the street and several houses up the street from our house), and after getting it out of the mailbox I was going to walk down the hill to our house. The neighbor, who lives across the street from our mailbox, was out in her yard, so I stopped to chat. We’ve waved at each other from a distance, but we haven’t really spoken in a few years. Her name is CLAUDIA. Her daughters, Jessie and Nicole, used to baby sit Heather when she was little. So we spent a few minutes catching up on what our girls are doing. Jessie is now 28 and she went to Italy for spring break several years ago and fell in love with an Albanian who was working as a cook in Italy. They married, and had a little girl who is now 8 months old, and have been living in Albania. Well, her mother, CLAUDIA, told me they are coming back next month to live in the US. And guess what.. the baby girl's name is CLAUDIA! The neighbor told me that Claude or Claudia has been a family name for every generation except her daughter’s and that Jessie brought back the tradition by naming her daughter CLAUDIA. Jessie pronounces it "Clow-deeya" the Albanian way to say it. (Claudia happens to be a name I’ve always liked, ever since I had a friend named Claudia Olig in middle school. I also had a friend named Claudette when I was working at Meier & Frank in Portland before I was 21. She was 25, and so worldly and sophisticated!)

Anyway, it shouldn’t have surprised me. This is a typical Found connection/coincidence. All things associated with Found seem to be bathed in this odd magical aura, which has been noted repeatedly – by Chrome Toaster and other found fanatiques..

Anyway, it was a fantastic show and a fun visit, even if too short! I can hardly wait until their next tour, when I hope some of my other found friends can join me for their show!

Invented Languages

This is a fascinating interview about languages.

Ancient Languages

Here's more about ancient languages.

Languages!!

More stuff about languages:
Here's a baby who is speaking baby language. If you listen closely you can hear some English words. Notice her expression when her dad stops paying rapt attention and starts laughing at her. It's pretty obvious she expects him to understand what she's saying, and it's very important.

Choice of language study

This article by Ray Verzasconi comes from the April 9th issue of SPECTRUM, the newsletter of COFLT (Confederation in Orgeon for Language Teaching). The push for implementation of Chinese language programs in public schools at the expense of other languages is short-sighted at best. Language study should not be dictated soley by economic or military rationales.


Some 30-35 years ago, a number of American economists, crunching the data that so intrigue them, predicted that Japan would become the world’s leading economic power by the year 2000. Didn’t happen did it?


Nowadays a new generation of American economists are predicting that China will become the world’s leading economic power by 2050 or so. Will it happen? Well, anything can happen. As Mark Twain said, “The art of prophecy is very difficult, especially when it relates to the future.”


The U.S.A. might sink into a really severe economic depression next week, leaving us all to grub for roots in order to survive, but then, since we have been the primary consumers of Chinese goods, China would sink with us. China now holds over $1 trillion in U.S. government bonds that, if we go bankrupt, would become so much useless paper. The 200 million or so Chinese who now enjoy middleclass comforts could revolt, along with the 800 million or so still struggling with poverty, setting the nation’s economy back to the Dark Ages. By 2050 India might be the world’s leading economic power or, for that matter, Brazil. Then again, global warming might cause such a dislocation in all nations that the term “leading economic power” might be meaningless.


My point is that neither economic development nor national security is in and of itself justification for the study of any language. Look at the maps on the previous page and tell me where the is logic in the decision of Reynolds High School to drop German in order to add Chinese or that of Catlin Gabel School to drop Japanese in order to add Chinese?


We’ve been there before. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, several dozen high schools in Oregon dropped or sharply curtailed French, German or Spanish programs in order to offer Chinese or Japanese. Only a handful of the original Japanese programs survive; none of the Chinese programs. Both suffered from a shortage of qualified teachers and very high student attrition.


About the most ludicrous suggestion I have heard of late comes from David Porter. Mr. Porter has been lobbying various members of the Oregon legislature for over a year. He wants two years of Chinese to be required of all Oregon high school students, and he further wants the legislature to fund a one-month summer study program in China for all of them, insisting that after two years of high school with a one-month stay in China in between, they will all become “advanced” speakers.


One thing that continues to puzzle me is why the Confederation in Oregon for Language Teaching (COFLT) has never developed a language policy that it can handle legislators, school boards and other administrators every and any time someone starts going off on a tangent. I guess for the same reason that ACTFL never has – fear of alienating someone. Interestingly, it is the Modern Language Association (MLA), the “literature” association that represents mostly English and foreign language faculty in higher education that developed a policy over 15 years ago that, in fact, finds a home in the Oregon Road Map.


Yes, a language in addition to English should be part of every school curriculum starting with kindergarten, with an additional language and languages added in subsequent years for “the best and brightest.” And, yes, which language should indeed be left to the local educational agency. Which language really doesn’t matter.

At the same time, language learning takes too much time to keep switching languages in order to teach the langue du jour. COFLT needs to become proactive, not re-active. Once Catlin Gabel decides to drop Japanese or Reynolds High to drop German, a protest is futile.


A language, any language which, for some students will become a stepping stone to studying and learning another language or languages.


Languages for economic development or national security? By the time students really get to the “advanced” level (ACTFL definition), the language may have lost its economic or strategic importance.


At least Congress in recent years has not repeated the errors inherent in the National Defense Education Act (NDEA) of the 1960s, which by default encouraged thousands of school districts nationwide to drop well-established language programs in order to add, hastily, new languages. Since 9/11 the federal government has significantly increased funding for foreign language and international studies programs, K-16 and beyond; but virtually all the programs have a qualifying clause: money will not be provided to start new language programs if, to do so, an existing language program will be dropped. We keep the programs we have and add to them.


Germany remains the world’s third largest economic power; add Austria to the mix; and after the current economic meltdown, its position is likely to be strengthened. Languages for national security? The biggest myth the language associations have helped propagate in the past 50 years is that we do not have enough people who are proficient in “critical languages” working in the federal government. Well, if the State Department, the FBI, CIA, NSI and the military intelligence agencies changed their policies on security clearances, positions would not go begging.


The more sensitive the position, the more thorough the background check in order to obtain a security clearance at a higher level. Guess what? The top security clearances virtually prohibit that anyone have friends and contacts among people who are not part of a country’s elite, and are not staunchly pro-American. Most of the language teachers I know (myself included) wouldn’t qualify.


How can anyone understand and respect people in other cultures if one restricts oneself to those who graduated from Harvard or Yale, speak English and are staunchly pro-American? How can we possibly know what “the street” thinks, especially in those countries with governments that censor the media? The paranoia dates back to the Jacksonian Revolution, the assumption being that anyone too friendly with the natives would “go over to the other side.”


That ideology is central to the long-standing dispute in the U.S. Department of State between “regionalists” and “internationalists.” Regionalists want Foreign Service officers to spend their entire careers in a specific region so they can become bilingual and bicultural; internationalists prefer to move people around to different parts of the world every two years or so; that way, they are less likely to become traitors. Internationalists are really a throwback to English imperialists. Ah, yes, not a few British diplomats in the 19th c. ended up gaining an appreciation of the “native” culture that they ended up denouncing certain imperialist practices.


Except for the Navy, the U.S. military pretty much follows the internationalists. The military spends millions of dollars every year training military personnel foreign languages at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, CA, but if anyone becomes too proficient, he or she is not likely to be stationed very long in a nation where the foreign language is spoken. We had two top Army commanders and a number of lower-level officers in the Middle East at Level 2 (Advanced) or 3 (Superior) proficiency in Farsi before Bush II went to war against Iraq. Most were brought back to Washington D.C. and given dead-end desk jobs or shipped off to another part of the world. So military commanders had to depend on native translators and interpreters who didn’t always understand our language and culture that well.


The Navy is an exception. It has had a tendency in recent years to promote people with Level 2 and higher proficiency in a foreign language to the top ranks and to leave them serve in the same area for their entire career. The Navy apparently has an Admiral in the Pacific Fleet with Level 3 proficiency in Japanese.


A couple of high profile espionage cases in Great Britain in the 1950s also color the entire intelligence and military establishment attitudes toward gays. Of course, back when homosexuality was still a felony crime, gays could easily be blackmailed. Today? Still gays can forget about a career in the intelligence community, no matter if they are bilingual or trilingual. Gay language specialists remain high on the list of those being drummed out of the military.


Taken together, existing language policy as it relates to national security is contradictory. We know it takes a long time, even if we are highly motivated, to achieve a high level of proficiency in another language, and it takes even longer to develop a deep understanding of and respect for another culture – and one can’t possibly do the latter if one socializes only with Harvard-educated foreigners who come from a privileged class. It’s what led to the fiasco in Iran in 1979 and more recently in Iraq.


~Ray Verzasconi, editor

Spectrum 6 April 2009


1. For a recent case of inanity, see Bruce Falconer, “The FBI’s Least Wanted,” Mother Jones (May/June 2009), pp. 40-42 & p. 85. Again, establishment policy (or paranoia) creates a linguistic shortage in a critical language.