Get outta town. No, seriously.

Yang Peiyi, You’re Not Ugly; They Are
[By Masha Ma, Epoch Times staff--August 17, 2008. Article here.]

It’s a story we all know by now. Yang Peiyi was preparing for what was supposed to be the performance of her little life. Fifteen minutes before she was to sing “Ode to the Nation,” and as four billion tuned in to watch the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympic Games, Yang Peiyi was told she’d been replaced.

But as her nine-year-old replacement took to the stage and began to sing, what Yang heard was her own voice piping over the loudspeakers. The replacement was lip-syncing. Yet it was the replacement, Lin Miaoke, who became an instant star in China.

Days later the show’s musical director Chen Qigang confessed to the lip-syncing but asserted it was “a choice we had to make.”

“The reason for this is that we must put our country’s interest first,” Chen said. In short, Yang’s appearance on stage would have tarnished the nation’s image. Sure, Yang has some crooked teeth. But she’s seven years old.

While you might expect Yang to have been devastated by the incident, she was gracious in an interview with Chinese state-run media. She said she was happy just to have had her voice used in the show.

Sounds composed–too composed–for a seven-year-old, doesn’t it?

China-born and China-bred, I can relate to Yang. When I was nine, my school formed ties with a school in Canada. Some students were chosen to be pen pals with Canadian students. I asked to be a pen pal but was told my image was not good enough to represent the school.

That was heartbreaking for a nine-year-old. For a week I would cry at home after school every day. My mom tried to console me by telling me a girl’s brain was more important than her face (which I don’t believe is true, at least not in China). Despite my mom’s efforts, my self-esteem had been shattered.

Yet I was surprisingly chosen to be a pen pal when one of the school’s vice-principals overruled the decision that I was not attractive enough. I recall the vice-principal and a teacher debating the merits of my appearance in front of me, as though one were trying to sell the other a horse. Though finally chosen, I was haunted by the thought that I was the ugliest of the students allowed to take part.

Later I received several letters from my Canadian pen pal, a girl named Candice. Each letter had already been opened and reviewed by the school, something none of us found odd. The school was the authority, after all.
I still remember what Candice wrote in her first letter. She told me that she had a brother and was raising gold fish at home. I responded as I was told to: “Let’s contribute to the friendship between China and Canada.”

Looking back on my experience, I ask myself: had I been rejected as Yang Peiyi, what would I tell the media? I know I would sound pretty composed, too: “I am not sad because I believe the national interest is higher than anything.” In fact, many kids in China can easily learn how to talk this way from the media, their teachers, and even their parents.

But what is the national interest? In the eyes of the Communist regime, an individual, be it an adult or a child, is nothing but a cog in a giant state machine, which can be replaced or discarded without thought, and whose job it is to help paint an image of perfection for the outside world. The regime has always been trying to make people believe this theory.

Yang Peiyi, you’re not ugly. The regime that refuses to respect its people is the ugly one.

[Masha Ma is a graduate of Peking University in Beijing and holds an M.A. degree from the Munk Centre for International Studies at the University of Toronto. She is now completing a degree for juris doctor at University of Toronto’s Faculty of Law and writes a weekly column on culture for the Chinese edition of The Epoch Times.]

(Okay, and you want to see the “ugly” little girl? Here she is.

In the first place, she’s beautiful, and in the second place, anyone anywhere who participates in something like this needs their head examined and that’s only the beginning. And I’m coming to believe that everyone in this country is going to need some serious therapy. “Ugly” is something you never just “get used to”.)

Want more? Listen to Masha Ma’s segment on Talk of the Nation from last night, and then join in the discussion.

“Chef Child once part of spy ring”

Chef Child once part of spy ring
By Brett J. Blackledge and Randy Herschaft, Associated Press

WASHINGTON–Famed chef Julia Child shared a secret with Supreme Court Justice Arthur Goldberg and Chicago White Sox catcher Moe Berg at a time when the Nazies threatened the world.

They served in an international spy ring managed by the Office of Strategic Services, an early version of the CIA created in World War II by Presdent Franklin Roosevelt.

The secret comes out today, all of the names and previously classified files identifying nearly 24,000 spies who formed the first centralized intelligence effort by the United States.

The National Archives, which this week released a list of the names found in the records, will make available for the first time all 750,000 pages identifying the vast spy network of military and civilian operatives.

They were soldiers, actors, historians, lawyers, athletes, professors, reporters. But for several years during World War II, they were known simply as the OSS. They studied military plans, created propaganda, infiltrated enemy ranks and stirred resistance among foreign troops.

Among the more than 35,000 OSS personnel files are applications, commendations and handwritten notes identifying young recruits who, like Child, Goldberg and Berg, earned greater acclaim in other fields–Arthur Schlesinger Jr., a historian and special assistant to President Kennedy; Sterling Hayden, a film and television actor whose work include a role in “The Godfather”; and Thomas Braden, an author whose “Eight is Enough” book inspired the 1970s television series.

[Source: The Dayton Daily News; Thursday, August 14, 2008.]

Spy Tales: a TV chef, Oscar winner, JFK adviser
By Brett J. Blackledge and Randy Herschaft, Associated Press

WASHINGTON–Where do you look when you want to recruit spies? Just about everywhere, judging from the formerly top-secret records of the World War II agency that became today’s CIA.

There was the young woman who became TV chef Julia Child. And labor lawyer Arthur Goldberg who became a Supreme Court justice. And young scholar Arthur Schlesinger who became a presidential adviser.

Not to mention a codes enthusiast who later ran CBS, an Oscar-winning Hollywood director and the sons of Ernest Hemingway and Teddy Roosevelt.

Names and details on nearly 24,000 one-time intelligence workers are included among 750,000 formerly top-secret government records released Thursday by the National Archives. The documents describe a worldwide spy network during World War II managed by the Office of Strategic Services, the intelligence outfit that later became the CIA.

The personnel files, long withheld from the public, provide insights into young agents now known for other careers. For instance, when Julia McWilliams, later the ebullient chef, applied to work for the spy agency, she admitted at least one failing: impulsiveness.

At 28 as an advertising manager at W&J Sloane furniture store in Beverly Hills, Calif., she clashed with new store managers and left her job abruptly.

“I made a tactical error and was out,” she explained in a handwritten note attached to her application to join OSS. “However, I learned a lot about advertising and wish I had been older and more experienced so that I could have handled the situation, as it was a most interesting position.”

She was hired in the summer of 1942 for clerical work with the intelligence agency and later worked directly for OSS Director William Donovan, the personnel records show.

Some of the others:

-Acclaimed movie director John Ford, whose skill as a videographer qualified him to manage wartime spy photography.

-Chicago lawyer Goldberg, whose early legal work with labor unions made him an attractive spy candidate to rally European labor unions to help with the war effort, years before President Kennedy appointed him to the Supreme Court.

-And Schlesinger, who spent much of his time with OSS working in London as an intelligence officer and writer on the political staff, producing reports on political activities.

“His understanding and familiarity with the political history of European countries, achieved by years of study and firsthand observation … admirably qualify him for this responsible work,” one OSS official wrote about Schlesinger, who became a noted historian and one of Kennedy’s closest advisers.

The records show that Ford left his successful Hollywood life as a movie director to become a secret agent in 1941, later rising to serve as Donovan’s chief adviser. He was cited by his superiors for bravery, taking a position to film one mission that was “an obvious and clear target.” He survived “continuous attack and was wounded” while he continued filming, one commendation in his file states.

Ford already had won three of his four Academy Awards for films directed before joining OSS, including “The Grapes of Wrath.”

Long before Lawrence Tisch took over CBS, he had a fascination with breaking secret codes, working on them as a hobby in his home, one OSS record shows. Tisch was hired as an OSS agent to work on cracking enemy codes because of his skills.

The documents offer other observations, including one about OSS agent Kermit Roosevelt, the son of President Theodore Roosevelt. On OSS official writes: “Sometimes in spite of himself, he finds himself involved in policy matters by superiors who wish to take advantage of his name.”

The personnel files from the CIA archives raise questions about another World War II mystery — the role of jailed mobster Charles “Lucky” Luciano in wartime intelligence efforts. An archivist’s note that reads “Lucky?” near the name Michael Luciano on a list of OSS agents questions whether this is the gangster.

It’s not likely, but it’s not clear, said William Cunliffe, an archivist who has worked extensively with the OSS records at the National Archives. Cunliffe said while Luciano’s cooperation with Naval Intelligence officers during World War II has been written about, none of the OSS files indicates he served officially with that agency.

Charles Pinck, who leads the OSS Society formed by former agents and their relatives, said Luciano the mob boss was never an OSS agent.

The OSS file for Michael Luciano includes a single page, without any other identifying information.

Some of those like Child on the list have been identified previously as having worked for the OSS, but their personnel records have never been made available to the public.

[Source: The Dayton Daily News; Wednesday, August 13, 2008. Associted Press writers Natasha Metzler and Stephanie S. Garlow also contributed to this report.]

(I’m thrilled about this! I’m not quite sure what it is, I think it’s the combination of political intrigue and the fact that It Could Be Anybody. It’s just like a wartime Agatha Christie!)

When the working day is done,

Oh girls, they wanna have fun.

I have got to tell you, I am extremely excited about Miley Cyrus‘ new cd Breakout. It’s worth buying even just for her rendition of Cyndi Lauper’s  WONDERFUL song “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.” Yes it is. If you don’t believe me here it is on YouTube.

I’m twenty. Yes. I also have a thing for all things Radio Disney. Actually just all things Disney. I admit that as soon as I saw the tracklist of this cd, I was shrieking. It’s a song for the parents and the children! OMJ! 80s babies rejoice! And it’s extremely danceable, mind you. This is no Kidz Bop performance. It’s got class. If it doesn’t inspire some fancy footwork out of you, I don’t know what’s wrong with you. Okay, just kidding, but I still don’t know how you can stand standing still. I predict this song will be a standard sleepover staple.

Can you hear the church bells ringing, far, far away?

Regardless of your political affiliation or belief system, you should be aware that Republicans, contrary to popular opinion, do not “get” all the people of faith. About 2/3 of Democrats attend worship services regularly, and if you ask one of them how they can be a Christian and a Democrat, you just might get the oh-so-shocking answer that their faith has made them a Democrat. It’s wise not to polarize Republicans and Democrats into the “God-fearing” party and the “atheist” party–there are both kinds of people in both parties. Plus a billion other kinds of people. It’s getting hard to keep people in their appropriate little boxes [and I think that's a good thing!]..For any Democrats of faith out there, or for anyone who would like to better understand how the whole faith-politics thing works together on the left, you might want to check out Amy Sullivan’s The Party Faithful: How and Why Democrats Are Closing the God Gap. Now I’m not trying to make a case for or against any of the people mentioned below..I believe in me thinking for myself and you thinking for yourself. With that said, here are a few of my favorite parts:

“I grew up in this church….I was a nerdy mess of orthodontics [and] peach plastic eyeglasses…but the congregation at First Baptist welcomed me with open arms as a child of God.

“Now, at the end of what had been a gut-wrenching week, in which I had been strong for everyone else, I needed to be wrapped in that faith again. I felt comforted in this church. I felt at home. I felt as if I were finally catching my breath. I tried to remember why it had been so long since I had visited. And then I tuned back into Pastor Mike’s sermon just in time to hear him declare that it wasn’t possible to be a good Christian and a Democrat.

“The pronouncement, and the matter-of-fact tone in which it was delivered, knocked the wind out of me. My liberal politics were, after all, due in large part to the Gospel lessons I had absorbed at First Baptist, over years of Sunday sermons, Wednesday-evening church clubs, youth retreats, and devotions. A painfully literal kid, I took seriously Jesus’ instructions in Matthew 25 on how to be righteous: “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in.” At a young age, that meant constantly worrying that I wasn’t doing enough for the “least of these,” that I might inadvertently have snubbed Jesus-in-disguise by failing to share my fruit roll-ups with a classmate who forgot his lunch. Over time this impulse developed into a more concrete political conviction that citizens–and governments–had a moral obligation to take care of the poor, the sick, the marginalized.

“By the time I graduated from high school, however, those Gospel lessons had been subsumed by a different kind of politics at my church. An assistant pastor rebuked me for taking a course on Zen philosophy and the writings of Emerson (”The Bible says to beware of false religions”). Antiabortion messages found their way into the occasional Advent sermon. I heard less and less about the inherent failings of humankind and more about the moral turpitude of liberals. As a result, I sought out different church homes in other cities. But First Baptist retained a special distinction as the place that had formed my faith, and it was still the congregation I turned to in this time of crisis.

“With Pastor Mike’s words still ricocheting inside my head, I bristled at his implication. The God of Abraham and Isaac, the God who created the heavens and the earth, the God I was taught to trust and obey, could not be squeezed into the narrow confines of partisan politics. He wasn’t anybody’s campaign surrogate, and He certainly didn’t do endorsements. Baptists believe in an active and engaged God. But there is a difference between believing that the hand of God occasionally intervenes in human events and that it pulls the lever for Republican candidates.”

                                                                                                                                                                             

“Clinton’s moral failure became the proof many skeptics needed to expose what they had always believed to be the insincerity of his religious convictions. They had never quite been able to square the idea that a Democratic politician could truly be devout and knowledgeable about religion. Now they could rest easy, trusting once again the instincts that had told them it was all an act.

“Privately, both Clintons turned to the ministers in their lives to work through their anger and guilt. Mrs. Clinton relied on Donald Jones, who had been her youth minister when she was a teenager and First United Methodist Church in Park Ridge, Illinois. He prayed with the first lady, reminding her that sin and grace coexist–each is necessary for the other. The president asked three pastors–Phil Wogaman, the senior minister at Foundry Methodist; Campolo, and Gordon MacDonald from Lexington, Massachusetts–th help restore his “spiritual health.” At least once a month, the men came to the White House to pray, read Scripture, and force Clinton the man to answer some tough questions. For their efforts, the men of faith bore the brunt of outrage from their colleagues. “Don’t you understand that this man does not deserve grace?” one pastor wrote to Campolo.

“Conservative Christians, who hold as a key theological doctrine that man is inherently sinful (”For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”), were hardest on Clinton. When the president reacted as most Christians are taught–by confessing his sin, asking for forgiveness, and expressing his desire to repent–they savaged him for exploiting religion….Clinton couldn’t possibly be repentant…because he was Clinton. As a Democrat, the president was presumed to be a secularist at heart; if he embraced religion, it could only be for false reasons. But this view stands in stark contrast to assumptions about conservative politicians and faith. Republicans often benefit from having a narrative of moral failure followed by repentance–it is seen as proof that their personal faith is sincere and that they recognize that all humans are fallible. Almost nine years after Clinton’s confession, Newt Gingrich would appear on the radio show hosted by conservative Christian leader James Dobson to declare that he, too, had been cheating on his wife with a political aide at the same time that he was leading the charge for Clinton’s impeachment. Gingrich’s announcement was not condemned as exploitation of religion; it was a necessary prelude for a potential presidential campaign, providing evidence of his humble faith. “Conservatives,” says Flo McAfee, Clinton’s religious liaison, “can say, ‘I have fallen and I have sinned,’ and then the can rise again. And again and again.”

And here are a few other interesting statements:

“Yes, four thousand abortions take place every day. But nine thousand people will die from HIV/AIDS today. Thirty thousand children will die of malnutrition or from diseases spread by unclean drinking water. How can I say that abortions are more important than anything else? We need to broaden what ‘life’ issues are.” -Jim Wallis

“Jesus tells us that the real spiritual renewal that we need requires a faith that goes beyond even accepting the truth of his message. It requires literally a movement toward the person of Jesus, an attachment that requires us to live our lives in a manner that reflects the fullness of our faith and that allows Jesus to become for us truly a lifesaving force.” and

“The Bible tells us that in others we encounter the face of God. I was hungry and you fed me, thirsty and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you received me in your home, naked and you clothed me….this is the final judgment of who we are, and what our life will mean.” -John Kerry

 ”There’s nothing conservative or political in singing about Jesus at the top of your lungs.” -Amy Sullivan

Congrats, 2008 Poetry Winners :]

Yesterday the Dayton Daily News printed some of this year’s winning poems. You can read them all here. These are my favorites:

“Cannot” by Mary Mykytka [youth category]

I want to write
But there are no words
I want to sing
But there are no birds

I want to dance
But there are no steps
I want to sleep
But I cannot rest

I want to sing
But I have no voice
I want to scream
But I have no choice

I want to cry
But there are no tears
I want to live
But there are no years

I want to laugh
But I cannot breathe
I want to go
But I cannot leave

 

“Night Wish” by Emily Reeve [youth category]

Sing to the stars,
Enlighten the night.
Sing to the moon,
So strong and bright.
Wait for the sun
To bring the day.
Wait for the sun
Then be on your way.

Open your eyes,
Greet the day.
Morning has come,
Now be on your way.
The creatures emerge,
The shadows recede.
Go out and find life,
The life we receive.

Life and love,
Our family gives.
Courage, support,
In our friends live.
But what we give back
Is our own.
Give back your love
To your home.

 

“Dust Storm” by Doug Edwards [teen category]

The wind
can’t see the way
the hills rise to meet her.
She doesn’t know she’s dancing with
the earth.
The earth
can feel the wind,
but is always falling
behind, as she gently kisses
the soil.
The soil
longs to follow
and begins to rise to
the sky, locked in the embrace of
the wind.

 

“Donut Haiku” by Colleen Kochensparger [teen category]

If all my wishes
Fit in my bedroom and were
Doughnuts, I’d be fat.

 

 

“Death of a Church” by Robert Miller [adult category]

Deep in the Morgan County hills and hollows, heaven calls out.

Children splash in galvanized wash tubs in the shade of the old tobacco barn,
dreaming of cream-covered strawberries and blackberry cobbler.
Mercy, it’s hotter than blazes.

But as the sun peeks over the ridges at noon, the church remains deep in shadow.
No one seeks Jesus there–not for decades.

Strains of sacred hymns still echo off hard poplar pews, faint and reverent.

Or may be it’s just the sound of the walls peeling and ceilings flaking?

Like the “civilized” missionary women who came to save them,
they all left, one by one, until no one came at all.

Abandoned and forgotten, the church sits in lonely silence, a victim of the coal bust.

Oh, in these Eastern Kentucky foothills, heaven still calls,
but there is no one in the church to answer.
Mute and impotent, the union church faces death with bitter grace.

For most of all, it misses the children.

 

“A Softness About You” by Michael Eldridge [adult category]

There is a softness about you that lingers in the air as you pass by
There is a light in your eyes, when you smile
It shows your intelligence of thought
Your confidence as a woman
And the fears you try to hide
You tasted the sweet and sour morsels of love
know the pains and passions
And felt the warmth of being needed
You are a rain person, aware of the seasons of the year
the crispness of a winter morning
the sweet smell of a spring rain
a summer sunset over the mountains
and
the myriad of colors of an autumn day
You like touching and being touched
You are to yourself not always what you are to others
And yet
You are reaching out, as are we all, to share-