U.S. Soldier Kills Five Comrades

The New York Times reported today that a U.S. soldier stationed in Baghdad killed five of his comrades (click here for the article). Apparently, the soldier was recovering at a clinic for soldiers suffering from war stress.

The easy thing to do is simply make this soldier out to be a villain, to turn him into a sad case of someone who "lost it" during the war. But in the interest of trying to understand how the soldier could do this, it's our job to explore how this could happen -- not in order to excuse it, but in order to find greater clarity in a tragedy.

Are there any artifacts we've read this unit that would help explain how something like this could happen?

Simulation Day

Feel free to create a comment thread here for sharing your thoughts on the simulation.

Do you have any last-minute questions? Strategies? Any lessons you'd like to apply to the simulation from the past unit?

Good luck!

Cars, Layoffs -- Someone has to pay!

Remember the video we watched earlier in this unit that detailed the rise of the Ford assembly line? Well, one of the United States' oldest car manufacturers (GM) is in big trouble. Just recently, President Obama allegedly encouraged GM's CEO to step down. Does this firing seem like a case of the "sacrificial lamb"? There are some connections to AIG bonuses here, too; perhaps this is another case of the public wanting some vindication for the current financial crisis. Here's the link:

"GM boss steps down"

"In the Name of the Romantic Ideal:" American Romanticism (or at least Latin American Romanticism)

Last week one of our classmates made a comment about Che Guevera and his tendency to be Romanticized by Latin Americans, and in some cases, by citizens of the U.S. Even though it's technically not a case of Romanticism in the U.S.A., I couldn't resist posting this because it's such a great example of what Twain criticizes in "Huck Finn."

Click here to have a listen.

I love the phrase the write-in listener uses at the end of her comment: "false heroes to get lost in." How do we, as Americans, get "lost" in heroes?

The Civil War in 4 1/2 Minutes

Bay Area Shooting

Several weeks ago in the Bay Area a man was shot by police officers after he was detained on the platform of subway stop. What’s most shocking about the shooting is that the man was completely incapacitated by the police officers when he was shot. (He was face-down with two officers above him; one officer had his knee on his neck and the officer who fired his gun stepped back and shot him in the back while he was on the ground). Californians protested the killing last Wednesday night and riots eventually broke out in downtown Oakland. Here’s a NY Times article on last week’s events:

New York Times article

We’re sharing this event because it’s a classic AS artifact. While it might be easy to accept or disseminate a highly biased telling of this narrative, we need to ask ourselves these questions: why was the man shot? What’s his story? What are the police officers’ stories? Where’s bias in the video that captured the shooting? Of the various news reports? Where do these narratives intersect to reveal the truth?

And more importantly, this example connects with our unit on Agency and Oppression. How was this man oppressed? How are his family and friends oppressed? How will individuals attempt to turn this into an opportunity for agency? How have community members sought agency in this tragedy? Is protesting a meaningful way of asserting agency? What about rioting?

And lastly, we need to ask this question: did the man’s race impact the fact that he was shot? Would this have happened if he weren’t black? While this question might seem to blatantly insert race into this discussion (a move Americans frequently criticize) I’d argue it’s a fair and obvious question given our country’s history of violence towards blacks. Dodging the question would simply avoid a crucial aspect of this narrative.

Here’s a clip of the video captured by a bystander on a cell phone, and as a disclaimer, it’s graphic, so don’t watch if you think it will be too disturbing.