Fred and Floe

I wrote this when I was young. It is perhaps not a coincidence that I found it, stuffed in a file in my parents house, when I did. I duly dedicate it to the girl I love on the eve of my adventure in Arabia. I love you Charisse...

Fred and Floe
by Cory Stephens
2/29/ (year unknown)

Immediately the doctor rushed in. Everyone was having mixed feelings about the birth. Some were happy, some were worried, but all were excited.

After the longest six hours of all their lives, Fred was born.

After the delivery everyone was silent, in the room there was no movement, except for the murmur of a muffled cry. The child was born with no mouth.

As Fred grew up it was very difficult. He had to get very painful shots, for nutrients, every day, he couldn't laugh, he had very much trouble communicating, and on top of all that, the other snobby kids laughed at poor mouthless Fred.

When he was a decade old he had a very tense surgery. It dragged on for about one very long week.

And after that hard, long, wait, it all failed (and costed A LOT of money).

One day when Fred was seventeen he fell desperately in love with a girl named Floe. It took her an awful long to figure out that she was desperately in love also. All during this period of time her peers picked on her because she dated Fred.

After about one or two years passed, Fred took Floe out to eat and said in sign language, "Floe, will you marry me?"

In partial astonishment Floe said, "What took you so long, of course I will!" They set a wedding date for six months later.

Finally the weddings eve arrived. Everyone was in sparkling tears. They are all so happily proud of both Fred Alexander and soon to be Mrs. Floe Alexander! The wedding day arrived and after the "I do" part, the reverend said, "You may try to kiss the bride."

About a year after their marriage doctors heard of the awkward wedding and decided to help Fred free of charge! Fred and Floe soon agreed to do it.

Two weeks later Fred found himself in an operating chair being gassed. A few hours later Fred woke up.

He could feel hard things, TEETH, a squishy thing, a tongue, and a little thing that dangles in the back of his throat. The surgery had succeeded!!

After a month of hard training Fred could eat with utinsels, talk, and KISS!!

For the first time in his life no one stares, he can eat, he can be a normal person. Best of all, he won't owe the doctor a billion dollars!

The Myopic Commenting on the Myopic

Letter to the Editor regarding the article on the Jerusalem dividing wall link

Ok, so I am disappointed that the Daily Universe decided not to address the bias and racial undertones of Abigail Shaha's article on the division wall. But to publish a letter to the editor which repeats the exact same prejudice and ignorance to the situation? "how myopic and distorted" indeed.

"Intimating that "trash-littered, crumbling" East Jerusalem is the wall's fault again shows a lack of understanding. The sad condition of many Palestinian communities lies solely at their own government's feet. First, successive Palestinian governments have alternately supported and turned a blind eye to terrorism, which was the impetus for the wall in the first place. Second, these regimes' corruption and mismanagement have led to the sorry state of the West Bank's economy. While we wish a better life for the Palestinian people, their plight is their own doing - not Israel's and certainly not Israel's wall." - Taylor, Blasucci

Again, I would challenge, strongly, the moral high ground that Taylor and Blasucci award Israel. A simple internet search will produce the evidence that outside of the comfortable sphere of our college lives, seemingly obvious truths of Israeli innocence against Palestinian hostility is widely and hotly debated example. I do not claim that the tables are turned, a Palestinian angel verses an Israeli devil, but rather hope that the studious and critical reader of the news will understand that there is a war going on that has no right or reason to claim to be a battle of moral verses amoral, right verses wrong, or one-sided self defense against an incomprehensible and chaotic aggressor. Just like every other war in history, it is a matter of opposing political entities struggling to legitimize and expand their influence where someone else thinks they shouldn't. Both sides are virtuous and justified and both sides have historically and repeatedly commited gross violations of human rights and decency.

The solution to this whole ordeal is not the assignation of blame and name calling. It is the struggle to legitimize and recognize the grievances of both parties and work toward a mutual respect and for the rights of each to exist. Unfortunately, this has been made monumentally more difficult as each side progressively losses confidence in the integrity of the other due to skewed reality, broken promises, hidden agendas, and fruitless political dances. The future of the region doesn't seem bright when even our university can't see past the rhetoric.

Jerusalem in a nutshell?

Excerpt taken from The Daily Universe, April 8, 2008 link

BYU Students Experience Tension of the Middle East
By Abigail Shaha - 8 Apr 2008

She said it was cold, even under the hot desert sun. All 436 feet of it - like a cold scar on the landscape.

"There was this ancient world and then a new wall, with hate and malice splashed across it," said Kira Dockum, a junior from Kennewick, Wash. "It looks so abrasive, so big and imposing. The people on either side are exactly the same."

...

City Divisions

Within the city itself, Jerusalem is divided into East Jerusalem, the trash-littered crumbling portion of the city inhabited mostly by Palestinians, and West Jerusalem, the Israeli side with modern buildings and clean streets. Locals call the street straddling the divide "no man's land." The entire country follows a similar separation pattern.

BYU associate professor of geography Chad Emmett said the separation is more than a physical distinction.

"They're segregated, not intentionally but by the people's choice," Emmett said. "[Areas controlled by Israel] have more parks, play grounds, community service organizations, they're just nicer towns - it's where the money is spent."

Laker said there was never trash in West Jerusalem, while in East Jerusalem "we were constantly trudging through garbage." East Jerusalem reminded Merrell of a dysfunctional society, while West Jerusalem felt like an American city.

"You can just feel the tension," said Trevor Tuttle, a sophomore from Orem. "They never interact."

The agitation spilled into other areas too. Hunt had locals stare at her unashamed for her blonde hair. Mike Infanger, a junior from Gooding, Idaho, had fruit thrown at him by Palestinian children who mistook him for an Israeli. Brooklyn Roeller, a sophomore from Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, was shunned by local shopkeepers for being a woman. Emily Hixson, a junior from Los Banos, Calif., even had to dodge stray donkeys roaming the streets.

But students said the clear divisions and obvious tension didn't scare them.

"They take really good care of you at the Jerusalem Center," Hixson said. "I felt more unsafe living in Long Beach than in Jerusalem."

... [end excerpt]

So what confuses me is the disjointed feeling I got when I read this article in The Daily Universe about student reactions to the Holy City on their sojourn to the BYU Jerusalem Center. In the beginning Shaha quotes Dockum who describes this wall with "hate and malice splashed across it..." and then notices that the people on either side are exactly the same.

So with this idea of hate and malice, Shaha continues to describe the two divisions, "East Jerusalem, the trash-littered crumbling portion of the city inhabited mostly by Palestinians" and "West Jerusalem, the Israeli side with modern buildings and clean streets." She continues to note reactions from several people. Emmett, "[Areas controlled by Israel] have more parks, play grounds, community service organizations, they're just nicer towns - it's where the money is spent" and Laker mentioned that he never had to trudge through garbage in West Jerusalem and the apparent dysfunction that plagued East Jerusalem. This is in addition to the local Palestinians who stare at the blonde American and throw fruit at another, not to mention the rampant sexism and stray donkeys. But at least the Israeli soldiers are there to protect them from the hate and malice of the other.

To put it bluntly, Shaha comes off as very one sided and surprising content to assign the blame to the "dysfunctional" Palestinian society without regard to the political complexity of the situation. Some things she, her interviewees, and her readers may consider:

What are the political undertones of a story such as this?

Where does Israel's money come from?

What effect does international recognition of a country's government have on basic social services such as trash collection?

What biases do American students and faculty have when they enter the Middle East?

What effect does one-sided journalism have on perpetuating the demonization of "the other"

In a conflict lasting more than half a century, can either side justifiably claim the "morally high ground"?

If "the people on either side are exactly the same," why would one produce seeming chaos and the other pleasant organization?

Each of these may be loaded questions, but I hope we recognize that there are two sides to every war, and every commentary has a bias and an agenda. Unfortunately we cannot assign recitude according to who has the nicer park.

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