The Narrative Image

According to a March 22nd Oregonian article ( Student’s Photo of War Protest Stirs Controversy ), a college student posted 240 photos of the peace rally and conservative Portland radio host Lars Larson picked only three of them to show that, “…some members of this community advocate killing soldiers”. (Note: I visited the Lars Larson site on March 24th to see how the images were used but couldn’t find them. The images reportedly show protesters burning an effigy of a U.S. soldier.) Another conservative commentator concluded that “Portland hates America”. It is frustrating that the images of a few self-styled ‘anarchists’ could be so readily used to misrepresent the actions of over 10,000 other activists who marched in a positive, peaceful manner to express opposition to the war. It shows that in the increasingly polarized battle between liberals and conservatives, each side seems to have already formulated their respective conclusions making data that fits these predetermined conclusio...

“Nice War, Ass-face!” Sentiments expressed on placard at 03/18/07 Peace Rally & March “…Christianity says that you should love your enemy. It certainly doesn’t say that you should vaporize his children. But it goes much further than that. It says not just abide your enemy, not just tolerate him, love him. Well it is important to ask, what does that mean? Is this just window dressing, or do the Christians mean it?” Carl Sagan – The Varieties of Scientific Experience I observed Portland’s Peace Rally and March on Sunday. According to the Oregonian, there were likely more than ten thousand people demonstrating a desire to end the war and get our troops back home. In a stunning example of cognitive dissonance, a tiny portion of ‘peace’ marchers appeared to be practicing terrorism, hatred and/or police-baiting. These marchers proved to be the exception to the rule. Creating a solemn moment, these participants use draped coffins to educate viewers like me that for every Americ...

“Long ago when the mountains were people…” The Columbia River as seen from vantage point below the current Bridge of the Gods at Cascade Locks The Great Spirit settled a land dispute between two brothers by giving them each territory on opposite sides of the Columbia. The Great Spirit made a bridge across the river as a sign of peace. A natural land bridge on a somewhat smaller scale than the legendary one The two peoples visited each other for many moons, but soon they became greedy and quarrelsome and began doing evil. The Great Spirit was displeased and stopped the sun from shining on them. Clear cutting on the Pacific Crest Trail on the way to Table Mountain The people had no fire and when the rains came, they became cold. They began to pray to the Great Spirit for fire. Cloud shrouded trees at the edge of the Columbia The Great Spirit sent an Old Woman (who still had fire) to the middle of the bridge to tend the fire for the people on both sides of the river. In exchange for th...

The way I understand it, we are all descendants of an original replicator. Our D.N.A. convincingly shows that almost all life is related. If we trace our ancestry through the evolutionary bush, it goes something like: Initial mystery replicator – bacteria – sponges – worms – things with backbones – fish – mammals – beavers – primates – monkeys – hominids. The inference here is that humans are simply animals, yet a resounding majority of humans prefer to think that humans must be much more than just animals and cite as evidence special human features like opposable thumbs, the ability to brew beer, self-consciousness, oral and written language skills, culture, and eternal souls. Nobel laureate Francis Crick, in his book the Astonishing Hypothesis almost apologetically tries to explain that, “… “You”, your joys and your sorrows, your memories and your ambitions, your sense of personal identity and free will, are in fact no more than the behavior of a vast assembly of nerve cells and the...