FLOWERS FOR ISAAK

Bill of Rights for Young Piano Students?

2012-01-31T06:50:00.002-05:00

Believe me, there are times in the middle of the night when I question whether I have reasonable expectations. Teachers try a variety of approaches, and perhaps when it comes to performance--not just on stage, but when playing selected passages for a teacher--I have seen students stage forms of protest. I've seen shows of boredom, fidgeting, and outright acts of sabotage (like the pencil that has rolled under the keys, so the keyboard will no longer work).

From the a piano teacher's view, please forgive us when we seem demanding. In teaching an art and discipline...we all need to recognize that however fun we try to make the endeavor, there will be times that you will be asked to try a skill that we think you are prepared for, despite your trepidation!

1/31 Update: if I needed any consoling, NPR aired an old interview with the minimalist composer, Philip Glass (1999, with Ira Glass). To paraphrase, what he learned from his experience with a demanding lady teacher in Paris was...TO DEVELOP YOUR OWN STYLE, YOU MUST FIRST HAVE TECHNIQUE. --PHILIP GLASS (Yes!!!)

But purely from the student-consumer's point of view, here is an article by another one of those purely fun-loving piano instruction enterprises, if there really is one.

A BILL OF RIGHTS FOR CHILDREN'S PIANO LESSONS

by John Aschenbrenner

This may be of interest only to the piano teacher, but I have the feeling it may be of use to parents who are wondering why their kids are having a bad time with piano lessons.
First of all, if your child does not enjoy piano lessons, something is very wrong. Having taught an almost encyclopedic roster of kids, I can tell you that a creative piano teacher can teach ANY child, if the teacher is prepared to be patient enough.
There may be many reasons why a child is uncomfortable with piano lessons.
The primary reason is usually the teacher. Almost all piano teachers of young children are too strict and not creative enough to interest the child in the piano. It’s as simple as that. There are a lot of bad piano teachers out there, and a lot of impatient kids.
The age of the child may demand a different approach than the teacher is prepared to give, or is capable of giving. The reason for this is that there are a wide variety of personalities in children and gifts in terms of piano, but only one accepted methodology of introducing children to the piano.
You’re headed for Carnegie hall, and if you don’t make the grade, you’re a failure: that’s the mindset of the conventional piano teacher. Do you want to expose your child to this competitive teaching racket, or do you wisely simply want them to enjoy music and play it as well as they can?
Each child is an individual and needs to be treated as such. But the piano teaching business has in essence not changed since Carl Czerny in the early 1800’s: you put this finger here, you play it now. For all their colored pages and big notes, modern piano methods are not unlike the early ones. The problems of teaching children the piano have not changed at all since the great J.S. Bach taught his kids in 1700: you have five fingers, so we’ll use them as a group. Easy to say, but not so easy for a 5 or 6 year old to do.
Consider the manner of the piano teacher. Are they patient, warm and humorous? Or are they gruff, demanding and stingy on praise? It’s one thing to be demanding of a child that has shown promise and WANTS to be driven harder. It’s quite another to apply that expectation and standard to a child of lesser but still respectable gifts. The truth is that every child deserves to learn and be taught the piano within their limits, at their pace, and in such a way that increases their self esteem no matter how small their honest efforts might be.
In fact, let us draw up a hypothetical BILL OF RIGHTS for a child’s piano lesson.
A child has a right to an interesting, entertaining experience at the piano. A child is not there to meet the piano teacher’s expectation, but rather to fulfill their own talents in the best way they can. It’s the teacher’s job to be creative enough to allow ANY child to achieve that.
A child has the right to play music that interests them. A teacher has to be creative enough to find out how to teach a child the musical principles based on what the CHILD can understand. There are many ways to skin a cat: you can just as easily use music the child knows and enjoys (Star Wars, for example) rather than the dry-as-dust exercise pieces with which even the best piano methods are loaded. They’re not all bad, but kids are turned off by endless repetition of “pretend music.” Let them play what they want. It will make repetition easier and more rewarding. It is the teacher’s job to forge that material into a musical education, and if you’re a halfway decent musician, you’ll be able to do it with style!
A child has the right to a bad day. We all do. I’ve seen over-pressured kids just wilt at the thought of even a modest additional amount of work. Let’s face it, piano lessons are an elective. Be creative enough to know how to disguise repetition as a game, and the wisdom to know when to back off and simply play piano games.
A child has a right to a lesson that is not entirely concerned with reading music and fingering. Those two areas are all that most teachers do during a lesson. But what about listening, ear training, history, composition, finger games, counting games, and a thousand other playful ruses that can be used to interest a child in the piano? What about playing by ear, playing by chords, improvising, memorizing and a thousand other creative methods that might unlock the child’s enthusiasm? There is not just one right way to teach all children, but there is one right way to teach an individual child. A teacher who uses the same approach for all students is a poor and lazy teacher.
A child has a right to a pace of work that does not exhaust them. Many teachers forget how deeply fatiguing reading music is for small children. It requires such abstract thought that most kids can bear it for a few minutes, but get very uncomfortable after that short period. Be creative enough to know when to move to something else, or you risk exhausting the child and their enthusiasm.
Never forget it is their piano lesson, not yours. It’s not a platform to expound your knowledge and authority, and expose their ignorance. It’s your opportunity to interest them in a fun activity that has great intellectual benefits for them.
By John Aschenbrenner Copyright 2000 Walden Pond Press.
THE PIANO WHISPERER
DON'T CALL IT PRACTICE, CALL IT PLAY
MY CHILD WANT TO QUIT PIANO
WHY KIDS NEED FREEDOM TO LEARN PIANO

Summative and Formative Assessments, defined (article attached)

2012-01-22T17:59:00.003-05:00

http://www.amle.org/Publications/WebExclusive/Assessment/tabid/1120/Default.aspx

Formative and Summative Assessments in the Classroom

Catherine Garrison & Michael Ehringhaus

"Summative Assessments are given periodically to determine at a particular point in time what students know and do not know. Many associate summative assessments only with standardized tests such as state assessments, but they are also used at and are an important part of district and classroom programs. Summative assessment at the district/classroom level is an accountability measure that is generally used as part of the grading process. The list is long, but here are some examples of summative assessments:

State assessments
District benchmark or interim assessments
End-of-unit or chapter tests
End-of-term or semester exams
Scores that are used for accountability for schools (AYP) and students (report card grades).

The key is to think of summative assessment as a means to gauge, at a particular point in time, student learning relative to content standards. Although the information that is gleaned from this type of assessment is important, it can only help in evaluating certain aspects of the learning process. Because they are spread out and occur after instruction every few weeks, months, or once a year, summative assessments are tools to help evaluate the effectiveness of programs, school improvement goals, alignment of curriculum, or student placement in specific programs. Summative assessments happen too far down the learning path to provide information at the classroom level and to make instructional adjustments and interventions during the learning process. It takes formative assessment to accomplish this.

Formative Assessment is part of the instructional process. When incorporated into classroom practice, it provides the information needed to adjust teaching and learning while they are happening. In this sense, formative assessment informs both teachers and students about student understanding at a point when timely adjustments can be made. These adjustments help to ensure students achieve, targeted standards-based learning goals within a set time frame. Although formative assessment strategies appear in a variety of formats, there are some distinct ways to distinguish them from summative assessments.

One distinction is to think of formative assessment as "practice." We do not hold students accountable in "grade book fashion" for skills and concepts they have just been introduced to or are learning. We must allow for practice. Formative assessment helps teachers determine next steps during the learning process as the instruction approaches the summative assessment of student learning. A good analogy for this is the road test that is required to receive a driver's license. What if, before getting your driver's license, you received a grade every time you sat behind the wheel to practice driving? What if your final grade for the driving test was the average of all of the grades you received while practicing? Because of the initial low grades you received during the process of learning to drive, your final grade would not accurately reflect your ability to drive a car. In the beginning of learning to drive, how confident or motivated to learn would you feel? Would any of the grades you received provide you with guidance on what you needed to do next to improve your driving skills? Your final driving test, or summative assessment, would be the accountability measure that establishes whether or not you have the driving skills necessary for a driver's license—not a reflection of all the driving practice that leads to it. The same holds true for classroom instruction, learning, and assessment.

Another distinction that underpins formative assessment is student involvement. If students are not involved in the assessment process, formative assessment is not practiced or implemented to its full effectiveness. Students need to be involved both as assessors of their own learning and as resources to other students. There are numerous strategies teachers can implement to engage students. In fact, research shows that the involvement in and ownership of their work increases students' motivation to learn. This does not mean the absence of teacher involvement. To the contrary, teachers are critical in identifying learning goals, setting clear criteria for success, and designing assessment tasks that provide evidence of student learning."

from "What is Occam's Razor?" [page in full]

2012-01-21T00:17:00.001-05:00

http://www.math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/General/occam.html

Updated 1997 by Sugihara Hiroshi.
Original by Phil Gibbs 1996.

What is Occam's Razor?

Occam's (or Ockham's) razor is a principle attributed to the 14th century logician and Franciscan friar William of Ockham. Ockham was the village in the English county of Surrey where he was born.
The principle states that "Entities should not be multiplied unnecessarily." Sometimes it is quoted in one of its original Latin forms to give it an air of authenticity:
"Pluralitas non est ponenda sine neccesitate"
"Frustra fit per plura quod potest fieri per pauciora"
"Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem"
In fact, only the first two of these forms appear in his surviving works and the third was written by a later scholar. William used the principle to justify many conclusions, including the statement that "God's existence cannot be deduced by reason alone." That one didn't make him very popular with the Pope.
Many scientists have adopted or reinvented Occam's Razor, as in Leibniz's "identity of observables" and Isaac Newton stated the rule: "We are to admit no more causes of natural things than such as are both true and sufficient to explain their appearances."
The most useful statement of the principle for scientists is
"when you have two competing theories that make exactly the same predictions, the simpler one is the better."
In physics we use the razor to shave away metaphysical concepts. The canonical example is Einstein's theory of special relativity compared with Lorentz's theory that ruler's contract and clocks slow down when in motion through the ether. Einstein's equations for transforming spacetime are the same as Lorentz's equations for transforming rulers and clocks, but Einstein and Poincaré recognised that the ether could not be detected according to the equations of Lorentz and Maxwell. By Occam's razor it had to be eliminated.
The principle has also been used to justify uncertainty in quantum mechanics. Heisenberg deduced his uncertainty principle from the quantum nature of light and the effect of measurement.
Stephen Hawking writes in A Brief History of Time:
"We could still imagine that there is a set of laws that determines events completely for some supernatural being, who could observe the present state of the universe without disturbing it. However, such models of the universe are not of much interest to us mortals. It seems better to employ the principle known as Occam's razor and cut out all the features of the theory that cannot be observed."
But uncertainty and the non-existence of the ether cannot be deduced from Occam's Razor alone. It can separate two theories that make the same predictions, but does not rule out other theories that might make a different prediction. Empirical evidence is also required, and Occam himself argued forempiricism, not against it.
Ernst Mach advocated a version of Occam's razor which he called the Principle of Economy, stating that "Scientists must use the simplest means of arriving at their results and exclude everything not perceived by the senses." Taken to its logical conclusion, this philosophy becomes positivism; the belief that there is no difference between something that exists but is not observable and something that doesn't exist at all. Mach influenced Einstein when he argued that space and time are not absolute but he also applied positivism to molecules. Mach and his followers claimed that molecules were metaphysical because they were too small to detect directly. This was despite the success the molecular theory had in explaining chemical reactions and thermodynamics. It is ironic that while applying the principle of economy to throw out the concept of the ether and an absolute rest frame, Einstein published almost simultaneously a paper on brownian motion which confirmed the reality of molecules and thus dealt a blow against the use of positivism. The moral of this story is that Occam's razor should not be wielded blindly. As Einstein put it in his Autobiographical notes:

"This is an interesting example of the fact that even scholars of audacious spirit and fine instinct can be obstructed in the interpretation of facts by philosophical prejudices."
Occam's razor is often cited in stronger forms than Occam intended, as in the following statements. . .
"If you have two theories that both explain the observed facts, then you should use the simplest until more evidence comes along"
"The simplest explanation for some phenomenon is more likely to be accurate than more complicated explanations."
"If you have two equally likely solutions to a problem, choose the simplest."
"The explanation requiring the fewest assumptions is most likely to be correct."
. . .or in the only form that takes its own advice. . .
"Keep things simple!"
Notice how the principle has strengthened in these forms which should be more correctly called the law of parsimony, or the rule of simplicity. To begin with, we used Occam's razor to separate theories that would predict the same result for all experiments. Now we are trying to choose between theories that make different predictions. This is not what Occam intended. Should we not test those predictions instead? Obviously we should eventually, but suppose we are at an early stage and are not yet ready to do the experiments. We are just looking for guidance in developing a theory.
This principle goes back at least as far as Aristotle, who wrote "Nature operates in the shortest way possible." Aristotle went too far in believing that experiment and observation were unnecessary. The principle of simplicity works as a heuristic rule of thumb, but some people quote it as if it were an axiom of physics, which it is not. It can work well in philosophy or particle physics, but less often so in cosmology or psychology, where things usually turn out to be more complicated than you ever expected. Perhaps a quote from Shakespeare would be more appropriate than Occam's razor: "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.".
Simplicity is subjective and the universe does not always have the same ideas about simplicity as we do. Successful theorists often speak of symmetry and beauty as well as simplicity. In 1939 Paul Dirac wrote "The research worker, in his effort to express the fundamental laws of Nature in mathematical form, should strive mainly for mathematical beauty. It often happens that the requirements of simplicity and beauty are the same, but where they clash the latter must take precedence."
The law of parsimony is no substitute for insight, logic and the scientific method. It should never be relied upon to make or defend a conclusion. As arbiters of correctness, only logical consistency and empirical evidence are absolute. Dirac was very successful with his method. He constructed the relativistic field equation for the electron and used it to predict the positron. But he was not suggesting that physics should be based on mathematical beauty alone. He fully appreciated the need for experimental verification.
The final word is of unknown origin, although it's often attributed to Einstein, himself a master of the quotable one liner:
"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler."
The pithiness of this quote disguises the fact that no one knows whether Einstein actually said it (this version comes from the Reader's Digest, 1977 [US: July, UK: October?). It may well be a precis of the last few pages of his "The Meaning of Relativity" (5th edition), in which he writes of his unified field theory: "In my opinion the theory here is the logically simplest relativistic field theory that is at all possible. But this does not mean that Nature might not obey a more complex theory. More complex theories have frequently been proposed. . . In my view, such more complicated systems and their combinations should be considered only if there exist physical-empirical reasons to do so."
References:

Mind

A Brief History of Time.

Autobiographical notes

Principia: The System of the World

The Long, Pale Moon Project? Nabaloi in 12 Lessons?

2012-01-12T11:22:00.001-05:00

I started a new blog at the end of last year, titled "Long, Pale Moon Project." It focuses on poetic translations, linguistics, and second language learning. Please DO visit it! I may also applaud related academic projects here. For example, this link http://www.upb.edu.ph/attachments/article/65/June2011.pdf is a pdf file of a recent UP Baguio newsletter which showcases the good work being done there. In its pages, it mentions the work of the linguist E.L. Pungayan, who authored "Nabaloi in 12 Lessons."

What do you mean there's no English future tense?

2011-11-30T14:53:00.000-05:00

from http://www.polysyllabic.com/?q=navigating/auxiliary/tense/future

"Some people have trouble accepting that English lacks a future tense. If you are in that group, there are several points to keep in mind.

First, remember that tense is not the same as time. To say that English lacks a future tense does not mean that it has no way of referring to the future. It has many ways to do that. In English, the future is a time-reference, but not a tense.

Second, English may lack a future tense, but other languages do have one, particularly languages you are likely to have studied in school, such as Spanish, French, or Latin. Indeed, the tense system of Latin is partly at fault for the way that tense is taught today. When the early grammarians sat down to write the first grammars of English, they took Latin as the model, and simply filled in the categories that worked for Latin with their nearest English equivalents.

It should not be surprising that different languages should vary in how many tenses they have. After all, one of the reason that languages are different is because they follow different sets of rules. There is nothing logically necessary about dividing time up into past, present, and future, and even given a three-fold distinction, there is no logical requirement that each distinction must be expressed through tense."

fut. Future, the verb tense indicating time to come. English lacks a pure future tense, but Latin and other languages have it.

(http://www.etymonline.com/abbr.php)

Etymology: (1275–1325; ME tens < MF < L tempus time, tense)

(http://www.definitions.net/definition/tense)

Why the change in tenses? (re: "The Turnip")

2011-11-16T09:45:00.001-05:00

It looks strange at first, but from an instructional standpoint, the repetitive parts (that I italicized) encourage a dramatic reading that all children will enjoy participating in. It's what's called a "choral" reading, as though they were all singing together in a chorus. Ancient Greek plays were done that way.

What I like most about the use of this story for teaching is that there is a consistent use of preposition, direct object, and narrative past tense, and choral present tense.

My Translation of "The Turnip"--Tolstoy's folktale.

2011-11-16T09:35:00.001-05:00

Here is my basic translation of The Turnip story, edited by T.M. Tumorova, published by Boris. V. Treshemetsky, 2000.

Grandfather planted a turnip.

The turnip grew and grew.

Grandfather stood and tried to pull the turnip from the earth.

He pulls and he pulls, but he can't pull it out!

Grandfather called Grandmother.

Grandmother behind Grandfather, Grandfather behind the turnip.

They pull and pull, but they can't pull it out!

Grandmother called Grand-daughter.

Grand-daughter behind Grandmother, Grandmother behind Grandfather, Grandfather behind the turnip.

They pull and pull, but they can't pull it out!

Grand-daughter called over to Zhuchka (her dog).

Zhuchka behind Grand-daughter, Grand-daughter behind Grandmother, Grandmother behind Grandfather, Grandfather behind the turnip.They pull and pull, but they can't pull it out!

Zhuchka called over to the cat.

The cat behind Zhuchka, Zhuchka behind Grand-daughter, Grand-daughter behind Grandmother, Grandmother behind Grandfather, Grandfather behind the turnip.

They pull and pull, but they can't pull it out!

The cat called over to the mouse.

The mouse behind the cat, the cat behind Zhuchka, Zhuchka behind Grand-daughter, Grand-daughter behind Grandmother, Grandmother behind Grandfather, Grandfather behind the turnip.

They pull and pull...and they pull out the turnip!

Teacher Questions Doing Overnight Field Trip Duty

2011-11-06T18:33:00.000-05:00

Our daughter is bombarding us with arguments why she should be able to go on several days long overnight field trip for the public schools. We've already said "No." As I surf the Net for multiple counter-arguments, this part of a discussion thread brought some much-needed laugh medicine. DF

not for me

01-30-2007, 10:05 AM #11

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"The teacher is required to sleep with the kids and participate in all activities (snorkeling, kayaking, etc...)."

I don't like to swim. There is no way I would get in a swimsuit and snorkel.

"The teacher is required to sleep with the kids"

Never in a million years would I share a room with children that are not my own. This is a lawsuit waiting to happen.

Do I think you are horrible if you refuse to go? No I think you are making a reasoned choice.

In my opinion if the science teacher has planned the trip and she is not willing to go then she needs to get parent chaperones to participate.

Julien knows his capitals, abc's and planets

2011-11-02T11:55:00.002-04:00

Pragmatic ESOL Approach to Teaching Indirect Objects

2011-10-31T20:27:00.000-04:00

For the purposes of teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL), the "receiver of the action" approach is a good rule of thumb. It can be inferred, in most cases where there is an inanimate object and a person or animal, that the person would receive the roses, or you could Give a dog a bone.

The only situations I can think of involving people only might be, Show me the lawyer. Or, Show Mary the jury. But this is something more advanced that an interpreter or translator might face, not an ESOL student.

Review of Katherine Larson's Radial Symmetry (2011 Winner of YYPS)

2011-10-27T23:57:00.001-04:00

from the second half of Plunkett's review at http://www.bookforum.com/index.php?pn=pubdates&id=8355

The book, Radial Symmetry, earned Larson the Yale Series of Younger Poets prize, which since it started in 1919 has honored promising young poets for their first books, poets such as John Ashbery and Adrienne Rich and Robert Hass, titans whom Larson can stand with. She is that good, and her style captures and expands on some of the most significant stylistic achievements of contemporary American verse. Larson, a molecular biologist, has Hass’s exquisite descriptions of nature (a squid has “no blood / only textures of gills folded like satin, / suction cups like planets in rows”), with a measured sensuousness whose sounds trace our reactions, enticing “satin,” strange “suction,” mysterious “planets.” Larson’s poems say little about herself but manage the felt intimacy of the best Confessional verse (Anne Sexton’s, Robert Lowell’s):

Last night I threw my lab coat in the fire

and drove all night through the Arizona desert

with a thermos full of silver Tequila.

Larson retells Greek myths with the longing, rage, and beautiful brutality of a young Louise Glück (although Larson contains her anger more than Glück, the Yale Series’s judge):

…And the windows lit

with displays of red corals

from just off the coast

said to be the blood that streamed

from Medusa’s severed neck

when Perseus laid her head beside the sea.

Larson has Jorie Graham’s mastery of rhythm and pacing, her looping, involuted meters:

Here are the goblets filled with wine.

The smell of sunlight

fading from the stones.

“The smell of sunlight fading from the stones” is antiquated, Wordsworthian—in imperfect iambic pentameter—but the “sunlight” / “fading” line-break gives a pause just long enough to save the familiar rhythm and to make it feel strange. Graham is known for grand abstract proclamations (“But there are, there really are, things in the world, you must believe me”), proclamations Larson makes and then turns into questions she explores further: “Either everything’s sublime,” she writes, “or nothing is” (meaning that there aren’t sublime things or that the absence of things is sublime?). “Science,” Larson writes,

beyond pheromones, hormones, aesthetics of bone,

every time I make love for love’s sake alone,

I betray you.

“Betray” as in “break faith”? As in “reveal”?

Larson gives a clear image of her poems’ mystery, of how she explores like a sailor and builds like a craftsman and analyzes like a scientist, and of how she, as an artist, renders and deepens the problems that caused her to wonder. She complicates the ideas she offers most clearly, to enrich the basic mysteries. Her meanings, the vessels of her poems, “expand even as [they] fall apart,” like a quantum universe that fixes itself when it’s observed, and as the puzzle of knowing her world gives way to the mystery of how to observe it and of how to live in it:

The astronomer gazes out

one eye at a time

to a sky that expands

even as it falls apart

like a paper boat dissolving in bilge.

On Louise Glück and the Yale Series of Younger Poets by Meghan O'Rourke

2011-10-27T23:55:00.000-04:00

I'm nearing forty, and my dream may come and go...but here's a worthy tribute to the prize. Also, from what I've read, the 2011 prize-winner turned out a lovely manuscript for the ages. DFR

On Louise Glück and the Yale Series of Younger Poets by Meghan O'Rourke (2008)

Ten years ago, Yale University Press prepared an anthology of poems selected from its Yale Series of Younger Poets, a prize that leads to the publication of a first book by an American poet under forty. In its early incarnation, during the years following the First World War, the Yale Series published a number of rather dull volumes of neoclassical poems espousing the virtues of patriotism. Its editors, all of whom worked at the press, ignored the more interesting and destabilizing work being done by American modernists at home and abroad. After some ups and downs, and the decision to invite well-known poets to select the prize winners, the series achieved true renown in the 1950s and 1960s. During this period, the Yale prize was given to, among others, Adrienne Rich, John Ashbery, Jack Gilbert, Jean Valentine, and James Tate. (Its new relevance could in part be attributed to W. H. Auden, who, when displeased with the finalists, would cast about for a more interesting manuscript.) By the late 1990s, however, the series was hardly at its apogee. Its most recent editor, James Dickey, had grown ill, and was unable to devote his full attention to the duties of selection and editing; two of the books he chose were published after he died.

More than that, the aesthetic balkanization of the poetry world had led to a kind of tentativeness in the editorial stance of many of its editors. The selections lacked coherence, ranging from the unsentimental naturalism of Talvikki Ansel's My Shining Archipelago to the urbane, Europe-infused lyrics of Ellen Hinsey's Cities of Memory. The editors now changed every four years, meaning that the structure itself was ill-suited to the establishment of a notable editorial vision. By 1997, the series seemed to have diminished in stature, even when it published interesting books.

Over the last five years, this has changed, largely due to the work of a new judge, Louise Glück, who has held the series' reins since 2003. The revival of the series is epitomized by (and perhaps due to) Glück's active editing of the prize: where some of her predecessors were reluctant to read manuscripts, she embraces the task avidly. In his first year as editor, Archibald MacLeish, for example, grudgingly read 12 manuscripts, selected by readers at the press, only to complain about the "millions of pages" he had been asked to read. Glück, by contrast, reads about one hundred manuscripts per year. She also has requested that the manuscripts arrive without name, publications page, acknowledgment, or the evaluative notes from the press's screeners, so that she is not unduly influenced by others' opinions. More notably, she encourages close contenders to work on their manuscripts and re-submit them. In some cases, she will meet with those writers and explain her hesitations, going closely through a manuscript to tighten it up. (This practice originally concerned John Kulka, the Yale editor who oversaw the series, according to Glück. But, as she says, the Yale Prize is designed to cultivate young writers, and she does not guarantee that anyone she has worked with will win the prize.) One thing that unifies the books is how much thought has gone into the selection and the order of the poems, as well as the use of sections to create mini-narratives or tensions within the larger work.

Of course, none of this would matter if Glück weren't choosing remarkable books in the first place. Each of Glück's selections so far-Peter Streckfus' The Cuckoo, Richard Siken's Crush, Jay Hopler's Green Squall, Jessica Fisher's Frail-Craft-is impressive in its own way. (The latest selection in the series is Fady Joudah's The Earth in the Attic, forthcoming this spring.) The collections are not of a piece: their formal strategies, thematic preoccupations, and tonal range vary dramatically. But they are unified by an engagement with what Frank Bidart has called "the radical given": each writer speaks with a profound sense that a stance of enigmatic remove is not sufficient. For the most part, they resist the de facto armored irony typical in poems of younger poets today, a limited style that Glück tartly diagnoses in her introduction to Green Squall:

Irony has become less part of a whole tonal range than a scrupulous inhibiting armor, the disguise by which one modern soul recognizes another. In contemporary practice, it is characterized by acute self-consciousness without analytic detachment, a frozen position as opposed to a means of inquiry. Essential, at every moment, to signal that one knows one is not the first to think or feel what one thinks or feels. This stance is absolutely at odds with the actual sensations of feeling, certainly, as well with the sensations of making-the sense, immediate and absolute, of unprecedented being, the exalted intensification of that fundamental isolation which marks all things mortal.

Instead, the books have what Glück calls in her introduction to Frail-Craft a "quality of persistent strangeness," which derives in part from their accepting certain contemporary conventions while strenuously resisting others, as the poets seek to redefine the relationship between contingent human speech and the hard realities of the insensate world around them. The result is idiosyncratic, off-kilter, often or occasionally brilliant. That is not to over-hype the books: each writer has his or her weaknesses, his or her lesser poems. But none is working complacently within poetic convention. At the same time, what Glück says about Jessica Fisher could apply to all of them: "experiment never deteriorates into complacency."

Certainly, Peter Streckfus' The Cuckoo looks nothing like most first books of poetry. The Cuckoo constellates itself around questions of travel, or, more specifically, of journey. The cuckoo's journey, of course, is a non-teleological one; it has nonsense as its goal. Streckfus employs a poetics of nonsense as a way of mining fresh perceptions from unexpected juxtaposition, and, perhaps, as a way of exploring the problem of human self-consciousness. Generally, the tone is playful yet ascetic, steeped in the stringency of the Zen koan: "I'll speak nonsense. You speak truth. We'll see what comes of it," the poet writes in "After Words." The cuckoo is a descendant of Keats' nightingale: a bird that sang in dim ease, not knowing anything about time. In contemplating the bird, the poet understands his dilemma anew: access to language makes our songs less song-like, more abstracted, referential. The book's first poem, "The English"-meant to evoke not only the inhabitants of that British Isle, but the language itself-establishes the poet's preoccupation with this dilemma. It takes the form of a dialogue:

Crusoe: A bee.

Friday: Bee?

C: Aye, a bee.

F: Bee.

C: Aye.

later.

C: City.

F: Cee Dee.

C: City.

The poem stages several transformations neatly: the move from nature to civilization; the move from sound to sense; the perennial reminder-in the form of poetry-that the more one longs to access a nature beyond self-consciousness, the more one is cut off from it.

The Cuckoo's peregrinations comprise many perverse songs, as one would expect. Over the course of the book we are taken on a seventh century Buddhist monk's journey from China to India, immersed in Francis Parkman's descriptions of nineteenth century life on the Oregon Trail, and thrown back to Ronald Reagan's boyhood. Deploying a wide variety of forms-from prose poems to couplets to loose hexameters-Streckfus explores violence from a holy fool's perspective, and by juxtaposing the cultural modes of East and West. His speakers wish to be birds ("The Bird") or to live fully in the moment ("Memories are Nothing, Today is Important"). Like the cuckoo, many of the longer poems here borrow from existing sources ("At Eagle Grief.", "The Organum," "Journey to the West") for their language, but some of the finest poems are hermetic lyrics in which the speakers' desires remain fuzzy, nearly recalcitrant, like the half-transmitted instruction of someone raised in a world alien to us.

The Fool, of course, is less self-conscious than the rest of us: he resides outside the usual perimeters of accepted behaviors. Knowing less about how the world is supposed to be than we do, he can therefore see more about how it is. One of the strongest sections of the book is the concluding section of "Event," in which a lichee tree witnesses a concubine beaten to death, and mistakes this violence for normal human generation:

Because I'd seen them so often come here

to the most remote part of the garden and rub the centers

of their bodies together beneath their changing petals,

I considered them part of my own. And they considered me the same

coming to me as they did on this day.

They took one of my fruit and gave it to her, and then taking my

branch and stripping it of all its leaves,

and stripping her garments, they beat her with my branch,

the white flesh of my fruit running through her fisted hand until it

held only my seed.

[.]

I saw her stiffen, from blossom to dead

and pregnant fruit, the white flesh almost beaten away, her

body rolled to a ball.

I saw a kind of shell within her open, its contents taken by the wind.

Ah, so this is how they are borne.

Streckfus' poems are peculiar enough to resist swift summary, but one key element of his work concerns its insistence on deconstructing narratives, commenting on the artificiality of making even as the poet continues to make: "I know nothing / of goats. I apologize beforehand that they become tangled in / my story. The billy will wish it'd never had horns, / its whole life spent / licking its own penis and scratching those castles on its head / as if they were boils that needed lancing." The poems possess a kind of innocent vulgarity, as if they were spoken by the son of Pan, rather than the son of Man. The result expands the post-Romantic poem's relation to its own tradition, allowing Streckfus the illusion of pitting "inhuman" curiosity against human longing.

Where The Cuckoo aims for Buddhist equanimity, Glück's second selection, Richard Siken's Crush, has all the urgent desperation of a junkie in need of a fix. It is characterized formally by its long lines, its reliance on anaphora, and its use of fractured syntax, all of which evoke excess, trauma, a speaker in thrall to (or forced to submit to) his own need. One of the finest poems in the collection, "Scheherazade," opens the book and set the stage for these concerns:

Tell me about the dream were we pull the bodies out of the lake

and dress them in warm clothes again.

How it was late, and no one could sleep, the horses running

until they forget they are horses.

It's not like a tree whose roots have to end somewhere,

it's more like a song on a policeman's radio,

how we rolled up the carpet so we could dance, and the days

were bright red, and every time we kissed there was another apple to slice into

pieces.

Crush is divided in three sections, in which a crisis of desire is laid out, examined, swerved away from—the middle section deals with childhood and adolescence—and finally left behind, without being fully resolved. In treating romantic and sexual desire and its perilous consequences —death, pain, violence, broken hearts—the poems risk melodrama but rarely indulge in it. The book is restrained by a hard-won shell of control, one that derives from Siken's self-aware interrogation of his own impulse to tell these stories, and his skilled use of cadence and structure. Consider how the second poem, "Dirty Valentine," countermands the needy insistence of "Scheherazade," undercutting the apparent rawness of the voice: "There are so many things I'm not allowed to tell you," it opens, "I touch myself, I dream. / Wearing your clothes or standing in the shower."

The poems in Crush rely heavily on cinematic tropes and methods-jump cuts, panning shots, vignettes. In "Dirty Valentine," the poet construes a love affair as a movie, campy yet sincere:

We're filming the movie called Planet of Love-

there's sex of course, and ballroom dancing,

fancy clothes and waterlilies in the pod, and half the night you're

a dependable chap, mounting the stairs in lamplight to the bath, but then

the too white teeth all night,

all over the American Sky, too much to bear . . .

If Streckfus' speakers are passionate in their efforts not to be human, Siken's seem all too perilously human. Self-awareness is ratcheted up to an excruciating level, culminating in its most extreme form in a fascination with violence, a fetishistic death wish ("damn if there isn't anything sexier / than a slender boy with a handgun, / a fast car, a bottle of pills"). Yet Siken's speakers have an ambivalent, clear-eyed relationship to their own status as humans, doomed to an incomplete self-consciousness. Actors in a larger story than themselves, they are less concerned with the individual's post-Romantic longing than with the form longing takes in all of us.

Hence the insistent use of the second person "you" as an address to the lover, which draws the reader into the poem, implicating her in this drama of violence, power, and desire: "I take off my hands and I give them to you but you don't / want them, so I take them back . . ." Many of the poems in Crush rely on an "I do this, you do that" syntax, exchanging intimacies and refusals of intimacy until clarity arrives, often in the form of a skeptical cynicism ("Someone once told me that explaining is an admission of failure. / I'm sure you remember, I was on the phone with you, sweetheart.") The circularity of this approach could be stifling, but in the strongest poems it conveys erotic cruelty and the impossibility of satisfying desire. Satisfying desire would extinguish it, and if there is anything the desirer wants more than the object of his desire, it is to sustain his need for the love object.

Siken evokes conventional male tropes of violence and cruelty and ties them to a homosexual coming-of-age narrative, in which an adolescent boy cannot make his desire known to its object for fear of being beat up, shunned, or worse. The speaker is thus doubly aware of the violence of desire, experiencing both the vulturous hunger of Eros and the cooler knowledge that this appetite is verboten; to reveal it could expose him to a complicated shame were he to be rejected for his very sexuality.

As stylistically and tonally different as The Cuckoo and Crush are, both books foreground the impulse to storytell so that they may ruthlessly interrogate it. These self-aware speakers cannot merely inhabit their own story of loss, love, and transcendence, even though, as "Scheherazade" suggests, they sense that stories can save or kill. The end of "Dirty Valentine" reads "We know how the light works, / we know where the sound is coming from. / Verse. Chorus. Verse. / I'm sorry. We know how it works. The world is no longer mysterious." Such knowingness can seem too easily jaded. But Siken establishes a profound tension between the assertion of jadedness and the mystery enacted on the page: the mystery that knowing doesn't stop us from feeling.

Jay Hopler's Green Squall is the atmospheric Floridian Odyssey of a "mad scientist" (Glück's term) where Siken's Crush is a post-modern film-noir. By turns naïve and knowing, crude and cunning, Green Squall participates in a variety of traditions that at first seem utterly distinct from one another. The profundity of the best poems derives from the sense of a solitary being, not quite classifiable-an adult son still living with his mother-observing the world around him more closely than it deigns to observe him. This imbalance allows the poet permission-permission to be unfashionable, sui generis, distinct, almost ahistorical (not quite). Thus, "In the Garden," the first poem:

And the sky!

Nooned with the steadfast blue enthusiasm

Of an empty nursery.

Crooked lizards grassed in yellow shade.

The grass was lizarding.

Green and on a rampage.

Shade tenacious in the crook of a bent stem.

Noon. This noon-

Skyed, blue and full of hum, full of bloom.

The grass was lizarding.

Nature is not entirely benign, in Hopler's version of it, nor do parents take care of their young as they are expected to. There is the peculiarity of the "blue enthusiasm / Of an empty nursery." There are the lizards doing their business, intangibly connected to the grass in which they move. There is the grass itself "lizarding." There is a failure of boundaries, of the ability to make distinctions-a problem that troubles all these poets, in fact. Language is simultaneously impoverished and enriched by its contact with nature, which is alien to the human mind, beyond language, alive with a kind of totemic power that tantalizes and scares the speaker/perceiver of these poem-scenes.

In this tropical menagerie, the speakers find themselves oversexed yet asexual, uncertain of their relationship to nature. Are they natural? Or fantastical? It becomes difficult to tell which is which when one inhabits a landscape of such wild vitality. It also becomes difficult to tell when one is alone as much as Hopler's speaker is; nearly the only other human figure to cast a shadow on this landscape is his mother. Hopler's Green Squall is infused with the landscape of Florida and inflected by Wallace Stevens' vivid descriptive language; Hopler's voice, though, is far more playful and self-abasing. It is not as invested in language as an ornamental addition to reality, a self-conscious affirmation of the poet's role as maker of things, i.e, poems. Hopler doesn't want to fashion artifacts so much as register the atmosphere in which artifacts are made. We do not get from him the poem that would take the place of a mountain. Rather, we get expressions of what Glück terms "entropy" explored as a preoccupation with fading fertility.

Like The Cuckoo, Hopler's Green Squall can profitably be read in relation to Keats and his nightingale. Where Keats' speaker was at pains to say he did not envy the nightingale his song, Hopler's speaker is full of envy, and for the strangest things:

1

There is a hole in the garden. It is empty. I envy it.

Emptiness: the only freedom there is

In a fallen world.

2

Father sunflower, forgive me—. I have been so preoccupied

with my backaches and my headaches,

With my sore back and my headaches and my beat-skipping

heart,

I have ignored the subtle huzzah of the date palms and

daisies, of the blue daze and the date palms-

3

Or don't forgive me, what do I

care?

I am tired of asking for forgiveness; I am tired of being

frightened all the time.

I want to run down the street with a vicious erection,

Impaling everything, screaming obscenities

And flapping my arms; fuck the date palms,

Fuck the daisies-

In another poem, Hopler's speaker tells us he cannot conceive of a more genuine happiness than solitude, a vantage point consistent with his speaker's attempts to achieve a state of pure being, a total sensory deprivation; he wants the emptiness of being without self, of being a hole, if not a bird. The closest state we have to that is solitude, in which we can experience sensations without naming them, as if we were Adam in the garden, knowing nothing of apples. The only other human figure we meet is the speaker's mother, who both oppresses and enables the poet. She appears most often as the recipient of lament ("What have I done, Mother, / That I should spend my life / Alone?"), functioning like a human replacement for God, underscoring the absence of the divine in Hopler's robust tragicomic vision.

Jessica Fisher's Frail-Craft is perhaps the most reticent of the four books discussed here. Like the earlier prize-winners, it handles narrative cautiously, as something to be alluded to but never relied upon or explicated. Divided into four sections, the book explores the intersection between memory, sensory perceptions, "reality," and language. What distinguishes the poems is the way that time ravels and unravels, as it might in a dream; indeed, many of these poems concern dreams, dreams that persist, as one speaker puts it, beyond waking. Fisher is interested in trying to convey, as Glück puts it, "emotional power without insisting on correlation between emotional event and insight." Her poems question our habits of thinking about the relationship between what the eye sees and what it understands.

The first poem in the book, "Journey," reflects Fisher's intelligent practice of appearing to establish a linear narrative that quickly reveals itself as multivalent, nonlinear, incapable of distinguishing between "then" and "now," a kind of linguistic Mobius strip:

Because the valley spreads wide, ridged with the signs

we read; or because what we needed was always at hand-

reach down and there was a book, there a slipper, there a glass

of ice cold water. Hopefully we walked

the paths laid before us, there was a burr-brush,

there a blue jay, quail and other creatures, too many

to follow. Where did they go once we lost their lead?

Which is to say, where did we not go? Quick, quick,

they called to us, but we heard only the sound

of our boots on dried leaves, and were mesmerized;

we spoke to one another of things in the path,

we chucked to our horses, when we had them . . .

Time here is cyclical, experienced by the speaker in a manner she cannot relate in a direct fashion; she chooses, instead, to move in and out of events as they unfold, to express sensation, to organize her observations around rhythms rather than plot, as Virginia Woolf (whom Fisher refers to elsewhere) once put it. Where these travelers are, and when, becomes increasingly hard to determine, even though the title suggests a teleological account. Instead, these travelers leave the forest and sleep only to find themselves back in the forest, somehow, somewhen:

. . . We tried to climb to a loft in the branches,

being wary of night's prowlers, but the trunk tore our hands

and we bedded down in a hollow, the horses' quiet whinny

our lullaby. And what do you think we dreamt, there in

the forest with no voice left to call with? We dreamt

of the spread palm of the valley, of the path that led

from ridge to ridge, past elation, and then into the forest.

A large portion of Frail-Craft-the title derives from a phrase Jacques Lacan once used-is devoted to prose poems. Fisher is drawn to vignette and ellipsis, and in the hazy background of these poems lurk shades of violence, abuse, the death of a child (perhaps a brother), the loss of a lover. The themes, are large; the manner contained and pointedly imprecise.

Like Streckfus's, these speakers distrust the rigid logic of sense. So they repeatedly dredge their dream life for clues that might help them apprehend their experience more clearly. Yet they are also suspicious, like many a modern speaker, of the notion of an "inner life" that might be tangibly rendered. In one of the book's strongest pieces, the prose poem "Novella," Fisher writes: "Nowhere could I find the story that I craved, that would describe nothing in great detail . . . I began to think of the incredible boredom of reading." There is a slight feyness to the tone here, the sound of a voice trying out a proposition: having learned about the world by reading, it is only now, it would seem, coming to suspect that there are things in the world it cannot read about, for they have not been written. But the feyness is justified by the context of the poem; it is not attitudinal affect, but the identifiable position of a speaker in the throes of dilemma. ("Novella," as Glück notes in her introduction, demands being read in full, rather than in quotation.)

Like her fellow prize-winners, Fisher regards language as an imperfect medium, anything but transparent: "Although here and now is the medium you move through, there and then is the time of your verbs, every one of them conjugated, forgetful of the infinite which was their tense when they began and which they yearn for." If we have become habituated to interrogating language, searching out its contingent relationship to what words denote, then Frail-Craft suggests we have not fully considered how what we see is merely an interpretation of an unknowable reality we create: "The eye is a roving light, it wants what it sees, and is what it wants." Rather than assume her own detachment from the world, Fisher tries to inhabit this idea. She dramatizes the way her speakers come within grasp of narrative only to slide into a new dream, a new misconception. It is the ruthlessness with which these speakers report on these misconceptions, these purposeless but entrapping dreams, that elevates their reports to literature.

Clearly, the books Glück has chosen so far are as different as they are similar. But each one engages the post-Romantic, post-Modern problem of how to deal freshly with the burden of human subjectivity. Considered together, the books are an indicator of the fact that Glück’s accomplishments as an editor extend far beyond the selection of the winners themselves. Unlike almost all of her editor predecessors, Glück works closely with the winning author on the manuscript after it is selected (as well, sometimes, as before, as noted above). For example, Crush, Richard Siken's book, changed between the time of selection and its publication. Glück proposed cutting the book and rearranging sections of the poems. Speaking by phone from her home in Cambridge, Glück told me, "Every phrase was an iota too long, yet you had to preserve the quality of excess." And it's not that Glück is creating miniature replicas of herself: she stressed that all she was doing was prompting Siken to see the poems with fresh eyes, helping him revise. No one reading the books Glück has selected to date would mistake it for one of hers, even if one hears echoes of her voice now and then.

One can discern from that statement about complacency ("experiment never deteriorates into complacency") something about Glück's stance as series editor: thus far, she has published poets who press gently against the traditional shapes of the lyric poem. But her introductions powerfully articulate how (and in what ways) the selected books refuse to participate in what Robert Pinsky once called, in The Situation of Poetry, the "enigmatic, slangy, fey, tough . . . knowing, ironic superiority to parts of one's own mind" that characterized in his view a significant portion of contemporary American poetry. If the Yale poets published by Glück doubt the possibility of authority, of stable selfhood, they don't take their limitations for granted, or refuse the possibility of a connection between world and self. They are, instead, sincere in their confusion. In being so, they rescue the term "sincerity" from its dire association with an authentic expression of selfhood, and restore to it, instead, its connection to the intuitions, briefly glimpsed, of possibilities of "clean, pure sound"-unadulterated by the tinny overtones of fashion or trite self-awareness.

Meghan O'Rourke is a poetry editor at The Paris Review and a culture critic for Slate. She is also the author of book of poems, Halflife (W.W. Norton), which was a finalist for the Paterson Poetry Prize.

You might also enjoy:

Meghan O'Rourke • Once; Preparation; Appeal to the Self; Anesthesia; Twenty-first Century Fireworks; My Life as a Ruler

David Baker • A Conversation with Meghan O'Rourke

Meghan O'Rourke • Winter Palace; The Lost Sister; Peep Show; Sandy Hook; War Lullaby

More Discussion Boards

2011-10-17T09:18:00.003-04:00

Brandi, your posting reminds us to be attentive to the particular needs of the students. It is tempting to just fly through a teaching script/lesson plan, but what is the point if a student who is having difficulty adjusting for one reason or another, is left behind?

Wanna Be a Teacher Discussion Boards

2011-10-12T11:32:00.000-04:00

My last teaching demo recently blew up in my face. I'm trying to be more focused. Second-guessing while on stage simply doesn't work!!! Here are my posts from this morning's discussion board contributions for school.

"The classroom teacher's role in language learning is indeed multifaceted as mentioned elsewhere on this discussion board. Managing the variety of learners and learning styles, modeling learning strategies in an engaging manner, and presenting a focused minilesson is a start. But then one must constantly be monitoring and appropriately responding to student feedback, tailoring and keeping track of assessments to ensure group and individual student progress. To wear so many hats, to a certain extent you need to be a good actor and leader, and to never forget to be compassionate. "

"I particularly liked that the passive voice presentation used student-generated sentences. Not only would students be more invested in the activity, but more importantly, the sentences were authentic and some examples even illustrated nicely for us when and how passive does not "work." (e.g. when only WHERE? or WHEN? is answered) In this manner, working sentences and error-sentences were arrived at naturally."

While we're at it, what is a "cline"? ;-)

2011-09-29T17:55:00.000-04:00

Definition of CLINE

: a gradient of morphological or physiological change in a group of related organisms usually along a line of environmental or geographic transition

— clin·al \ˈklī-nəl\ adjective

— clin·al·ly \-nə-lē\ adverb

Origin of CLINE

Greek klinein

First Known Use: 1938

Rhymes with CLINE

bine, brine, chine, dine, dyne, fine, Jain, line, Main, mine, nine, pine, Quine, Rhine, rind, shine, shrine, sign, spine, spline, stein, swine, syne, thine, tine, trine, twine, vine, whine, wine

Instantiation in Grammar, Modals

2011-09-28T18:02:00.001-04:00

instantiation. [theoretical] [French: actualisation]The cline between the overall systemic potential of language and the text (instance of the potential). Intermediate between these two on the cline of instantiation are registers (registerial varieties of the overall potential). At higher-level system of context, the overall systemic potential is associated with context of culture, registers with situation types and texts with situations. Instantiation also refers to the process of moving between potential and instance - the process of actualizing the system in text. => LexCart Section 1.6.1

[taken from uber-cool linguistics blog found on-line http://www.ling.mq.edu.au/nlp/resource/VirtuallLibrary/Glossary/sysglossary.htm ]

What is a cipher?

2011-09-27T10:14:00.002-04:00

Fans of Roger Ebert, Unite!

2011-09-27T10:12:00.000-04:00

Confessions of a Critic: Roger Ebert’s Life Itself By Michael Mirasol

Roger Ebert won the Pulitzer Prize for criticism in 1975; 36 years later, he makes himself the subject of "Life Itself"

“You see a lot, Doctor. But are you strong enough to point that high-powered perception at yourself? … why don’t you look at yourself and write down what you see? Or maybe you’re afraid to.” – Clarice Starling, The Silence of the Lambs

“Critic” is generally viewed as a negative word. Look it up in any dictionary, and you’ll find that it primarily means a person expressing unfavorable opinions. But once I realized my love of movies, and discovered Roger Ebert, that definition melted away.

Growing up in the Philippines, I always dreamed of meeting Roger. He was the first to give a voice to my sentiments about my favorite films and gave me pause whenever he could not recommend those that I had liked. I read every piece of his I could find and listened to every assessment (or argument) he and his famed partner Gene Siskel made every week. He inspired me and I suspect a great many others to write about the movies, sparking a new generation of film critics both online and off. Ask us about any picture, and we can tell you if he liked it or not.

There are of course other notable film critics, many of whom I greatly admire for their erudition in deconstructing the art form. But I value Roger’s critique above all else because of the many things that make it unique. There’s the lyricism drawn from a deep knowledge and love of prose and poetry. The thoughtfulness. The non-condescending wit.

But most of all, there is his gregarious openness and honesty, as he goes out of his way to share many things about himself to make his point. I remember when he revealed how his parents died from lung cancer in his review of The Insider; his internal debate on why he disliked Iris so intensely; and his classic Great Movies piece on E.T., written as a love letter to his grandchildren. Has any cineaste since Pauline Kael been so good at making the movies so personal? It reflects how he adheres to Robert Warshow’s credo. “A man goes to the movies. The critic must be honest enough to admit he is that man.”

It is no different with Roger Ebert’s memoir Life Itself, where he points his high-powered perception at himself. It first unfolds as a rich recollection of beloved people and places. Roger’s powers of evocation have never been more fully utilized as he describes his childhood, adolescence, and entry into adulthood. I can still remember his basement smelling of green onions, diners with convertibles waiting to be served with trays, and hot printing press rooms with sweat dripping onto the headlines.

Those he holds dear are given their time and due. There are so many of them that you might not remember them all. But he makes sure that those he loves most won’t be forgotten. Such as his father, Walter whom he called “Daddy” ‘til his last day; His mother Annabel who embodied two important phases in his life; his editor Bob Zonka who first assigned him as a film critic and became his second father figure. There are professors and nuns whom he admired and challenged; dearest friends like John McHugh and Bill Nack whom he cherishes; Schools and institutions to which he takes us on a proud and nostalgic trip.

He then takes time to acknowledge the film greats who surely must have made the greatest impressions on him: Directors such as Russ Meyer, Martin Scorsese, Robert Altman, Woody Allen, Ingmar Bergman, and Werner Herzog, Actors such as Lee Marvin, Robert Mitchum, and John Wayne. These of course are the familiar names Roger has often mentioned through the years. What is amazing are the tales of those first time meetings; of conversations and stories you may have never heard of.

Like the one where Roger explains how Shari Eubank should return in Russ Meyer’s SuperVixens:

“Resurrection,” I explained. “When they last saw her, she was dead in the bathtub. Now it’s dawn.” I pointed out to the top of a small nearby peak. “The bathtub is on the mountaintop. The sun is rising. We play Thus Spake Zarathustra. Now she’s SuperAngel. We see her rising out of the bathtub wearing a see-through diaphanous gown. She is alive.”

Russ liked it. “All we have to do is get the bathtub up there,” he said.

Or Roger’s interview with Robert Mitchum with him driving near Pittsburgh on the way to the set of Going Home. Mitchum’s friend Tim Lawless was by his side:

“Here’s Route Eight now,” Tim said.

“That’s Exit Eight, not Route Eight,” Mitchum said.

“We’re going to be real late,” Tim said.

“They can rehearse,” Mitchum said. “They can practice falling off stairs, tripping over lights, and shouting at each other in the middle of a take.”

The car was back in the tunnel again now. Tim came down through a series of cloverleafs and found himself back on Route 79, headed for the airport.

“I’m lost,” he said. “Baby, I am lost.”

In desperation, he made a U-turn across six lanes of traffic and found himself on an up ramp going in the wrong direction with a cop walking slowly across the street toward him.

Then there are Scorsese’s intense wounds from his split with his ex-wife Isabella Rossellini. Here’s there conversation in 1983 about James Toback’s Exposed, starring Nastassja Kinski:

“I can’t bear to see Kinski in anything,” Scorsese said. “She reminds me too much of Isabella. It tears me apart. I can’t even go to see a film by the Tiavani brothers, because Isabella and I had a little courtship on the set of their films. I can’t ever go back to the island of Salina, where Visconti’s The Leopard was shot, because we were there. In fact, I can hardly even watch a film by Visconti without growing depressed.”

And Woody Allen’s comments on fame, as told to Roger:

“Yes people said to me, ‘Are you worried about having this having an impact in your career?’ But from where I sat, it couldn’t have an impact. Am I going to be less popular? I wasn’t popular when people thought I was popular. I never had a big audience to begin with. And it never mattered to me. If people said to me tomorrow that I couldn’t make a movie again because no one would come, it wouldn’t bother me in the slightest.”

Ebert with longtime TV partner Gene Siskel on the set of "At the Movies"

He then of course delves into what he know of his persona: His partnership with Siskel, their influence and their special bond nurtured through several groundbreaking TV shows with the trademark Thumbs Up and Thumbs Down. There’s the city of Chicago with its good eats (Billy Goat Tavern) and good drinks (O’Rourke’s); South Africa, Venice, and Cannes. He builds on stories that he has partly shared with avid readers of his blog: There’s Chaz, the love of his life; his alcoholism which nearly ended it, and his bouts with cancer.

These memories are vivid and in hindsight, what I expected. What I did not expect was how far Roger was willing to go, as if he realized the life story he was telling was following a revealing yet predictable path. In the last ten chapters or so, he goes completely out of his comfort zone, bravely reckoning with events and issues with truths just realized upon reflection.

Though he dedicates an entire chapter to his mother Annabel early in the book, he does not spare us later on from the negative influences she had on his life, such as the effect of his perceived inadequacy:

FROM THE EARLIEST days of my adolescence, my love life was conducted in secrecy. My behavior centered on a paralyzing reluctance to engage my mother’s anger. Her conviction that I was destined for the Church led to hostility toward any expression of my sexuality. Late one night after an orgasmic session in the front seat of my car in front of one of the university residence halls, I hung my blue jeans in back of my closet, planning to wash them later. With an uncanny sixth sense, she found them there the next morning and waved the proof of my sin before me, accusing me of having “wasted a baby.” I felt humiliated. I began to keep as much of my life as possible a secret from her. If my father had been alive it would have been different, I believe, but he was not alive.

This impact snowballs looms over his later relationships, damaging his first few chances at having a life partner and a family. Roger recalls a conversation with his Aunt Martha over his love for Sarah Nance, a divorced nurse, and her three children Rita, Gregory and Britt from her previous marriage. He compares his relationship with her to his first serious girlfriend, Tal Gilat.

What I should have done, she thought, was marry Sarah. That might have led to disaster. I had the decade of my worst drinking ahead of me. Sarah also drank too much, which is why, unlike Tal, she tolerated my own boozing. It’s likely that the result for the kids would have been the misery of an alcoholic household. Once years later when Rita Marie and Britt were visiting Chicago for a family reunion, we had a long talk. I saw that while Rita had a clear view of the reality of those days, Britt felt abandoned by me. In his mind, I had left. He never knew his birth father, but I was the father who had walked out, and that still hurt.

Indeed, his desire to be father comes through the strongest. Roger has never had any children of his own, but there were times where he thought where he might have had one:

If the child had been born, I would have claimed it as my own and wanted to raise it, while marrying the mother. That would have been absolute. I related this story of “my only child” to Chaz, and told her, “If the telephone were to ring today and the person on the other end were to say You are my biological father, I would weep with joy.”

There is also a kind of tragic reckoning with his mother’s fate at the hands of alcoholism, which she suffered from during her second marriage after Roger’s father had passed away. Such knowledge is doubly heartbreaking, knowing his own demons with the disease:

My mother was a good woman, and I loved her. I had a happy childhood and was loved and encouraged. Alcoholism changed her, and I should know as well as anyone how that happens. The Annabel people loved was lovable. … That was the mother I had. Alcoholism is a terrible disease and I am glad I had it because I can understand what happened to her, and how it damaged my own emotional growth. I buried myself in movies that allowed me to live vicariously.

Late into the book he digs into his health. What is striking is the sense of how much he seems to blame himself:

The Internet is said to be responsible for helping patients take control of their own diseases. Few movies are ever made about sick people courageously taking doctors’ advice. No, they get bright ideas online. I believe my infatuation with neutron radiation led directly to the failure of all three of my facial surgeries, the loss of my jaw, loss of the ability to eat, drink, and speak, and the surgical damage to my right shoulder and back as my poor body was plundered for still more reconstructive transplants. Today I look like an exhibit in the Texas Chainsaw Museum.

And in his last few paragraphs, though he has no illusions about a light at the end of the tunnel, he remains equanimous:

I KNOW IT is coming, and I do not fear it, because I believe there is nothing on the other side of death to fear. I hope to be spared as much pain as possible on the approaching path. I was perfectly content before I was born, and I think of death as the same state. I am grateful for the gifts of intelligence, love, wonder, and laughter. You can’t say it wasn’t interesting. My lifetime’s memories are what I have brought home from the trip. I will require them for eternity no more than that little souvenir of the Eiffel Tower I brought home from Paris.

These may not be the thoughts his ardent fans want to hear. They are painful and soul-baringly honest. But that’s what shines through in this book. Above all, Roger treasures honesty as a means to understanding. He values it in his vocation, in his loved ones and all the other pillars of his life. As someone who has looked up to him as a hero and a friend, his memoir is an intimate and forthright privilege. Roger Ebert is honest enough to admit he is that man.

The critic Matt Zoller Seitz once said that, “People don’t read film criticism. People read critics.” Life Itself confirms it.

I believe that if, at the end, according to our abilities, we have done something to make others a little happier, and something to make ourselves a little happier, that is about the best we can do. To make others less happy is a crime. To make ourselves unhappy is where all crime starts. We must try to contribute joy to the world. That is true no matter what our problems, our faith, our health, our circumstances. We must try. I didn’t always know this, and am happy I lived long enough to find it out.” – R.E.

Michael Mirasol is a film critic from the Phillipines and one of Roger Ebert’s Far Flung Correspondents.

Sep 26, 2011

Chirbit - 你好吗？How are you? - FunChinese - share audio easily

2011-09-23T14:11:00.000-04:00

Chirbit - 你好吗？How are you? - FunChinese - share audio easily

My son Julien and I are currently putting this song to memory. Lyrics by Helen Chen, inspired by Patty-cake nursery rhyme song.

Earning the Teacher Duet

2011-09-23T13:11:00.000-04:00

Just wanting to share the joy of ensemble work as a reward for learning an early John Thompson piece.

Stem and Leaf Plots in Statistics, with variations

2011-09-20T10:26:00.002-04:00

Serving as a tutor is a joy, because I'm able to review topics and understand their relevance in not only academia but work and everyday life.

For those of you who appreciate the educational topics that I occasionally post by link or in toto, enjoy.

http://cnx.org/content/m10157/latest/

I'm Being Stalked

2011-09-19T14:23:00.000-04:00

As I was clearing out junk mail from an old account, I saw a highly mispelled message pop up at the the moment that I deleted it. As it referred to Erik but was mispelled "eric," I looked for it in the deleted files folder before permanently deleting everything.

Sure enough, the letter was the rambling, anonymous letter, threatening sort that you used to read cut out from various mismatched letters from magazines. I see the anonymous writer wrote from a yahoo account.

Just letting you know that I may be stalking you, too.

May truth and love prevail.

Two Chakras for Personal Healing

2011-09-15T23:06:00.000-04:00

THE 13 CHAKRA SYSTEM from onehealsone.co.uk

Root Chakra

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1 Symbolism

:: Opening Root/Base/Red Chakra

Positive - Channels high energy and inspiration into creativity and service, feels secure with self.

Negative - Feels blocked, stuck, frustrated; feels inferior, ill, lethargic, insecure, possibly addicted.

:: The Use of Colour : Red / Black

Colour can often have reference attributing to symbolic meanings or significance this can be to objects, events, relationships etc. Red is hot. It's a strong color that conjures up a range of seemingly conflicting emotions from passionate love to violence and warfare.

Good Red

* Red letter day - important or significant occasion

* Red carpet treatment - make someone feel special, treat them as if they are a celebrity

* Roll out the red carpet - same as above

* Red sky in the morning, sailor's warning; red sky at night, sailor's delight - pay attention to good and bad warning signs

* Paint the town red - celebrate, go out partying

* Red eye - an overnight flight

Bad Red

* Seeing red - to be angry

* Red herring - something that deceives or distracts attention from the truth

* In the red - being overdrawn at the bank or losing money

* Red flag - denotes danger, warning, or an impending battle

Good Black

* Black tie - formal (as in formal party attire)

* Black belt - expert (especially in martial arts)

* Blackwash - bring things out in the open In the black - having money, doing well in business

* Men in black - government agents

* Black box - equipment or apparatus

* Pitch black - dark as night, very black

Bad Black

* Black out - Loss of consciouness or the act of erasing something

* Blackout - loss of electricity or turning out the lights

* Black eye - damage such as damage to one's reputation, slander, unpopular

* Black-hearted - evil

* Blackguard - a scoundrel

* Black sheep - an outcast from a family or from society

* Black market - illegal trade (goods or money)

* Blackmail - obtaining something by threat

* Blacklist - list of people or organizations to boycott, avoid, or punish

:: Issue

Endorsement of something or someone, need/want approval. 'Seal of approval'.

:: Metaphysical Law

The Law of Action - Moving into Life

No matter what we feel or know, no matter what our potential gifts or talents, ONLY ACTION BRINGS THEM TO LIFE!

:: Symbolic Colour

The colour of Blood and Fire. Red is strength and power, dazzling stimulating, heat, intensity, activity and passion. Activity red for traffic lights, red light barring entry to film or broadcasting studios, as well as being the red lamp which used to mark the entry to licensed brothels which is contradictory since instead of forbidding access, it invites it! American Indians as young people of both sexes painted themselves with red which would arouse their strength and quicken their desire. Red acquired healing properties and became an indispensable healing colour all used in countless traditions.

:: Positive Aspects Of The Root

Great calmness, able to release past issues, improved self-survival instincts, good circulation, strength and courage.

:: Negative Aspects Of The Root

Anger, resentment, lust, exploding temper and stuck in the past.

:: Musical Note

Each chakra vibrates at a different frequency. When in balance, the chakra will resonate with the musical note C.

:: Moon Cycle And Season

Bat Moon 26th July to 22nd August.

Keywords Attract, Unify and Purpose.

:: Element

Fire.

:: Aztec's Deities / Mayan Gods

Xiuhtecuhtli - God of Fire and Time

Symbolises Initiation and Impregnation

:: Suggested Sacred Sites / Holy Well's

Orions Belt, Thornborough, Yorkshire.

Externsteine Rocks, Germany

Holy Well

Bath Hot Spring's

:: Where Is Your Red/Black

Are you wearing Red or Black today?

Does this colour feature regularly in your life?

How do you feel about this colour?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2 Patterns and Balance

:: Astrological Wheel - Known As The First House

The First House is the light you bring on earth for others. It can harden into a persona or mask. But it is also your original self, announcing, 'I'm Here'. The Persona, the face you show the world, your personality, your personal affairs, physical appearance, and physical make-up, how the world sees you, general conditions of health and susceptibility to illness, the house of the ego and I.

:: Archetypal Patterns

What are the Archetypes?

They are patterns of the psyche that make up an energetic realm that you were assigned to before you were born. The Universe works on our behalf through archetypal patterns. We each have personal mythologies.

Social Conditioning - in personal identity which reflects in patterns: Anger, Irritability, Strong Sexual Desires, Conqueror, Alchemist, Child, Rebel, Coward.

Having difficulties in relating to your energy. These can reflect a 'warrior style pattern', Mother /Father in conditioning, Child, Clown, Victim, Prostitue, Saboteur and the predator in ourself.

:: Numerology

1 - Creativity and Confidence, opening up.

Positives - Self sufficient, determined, natural leader, innovative

Negatives - Can be on either extreme of being too bossy, shy or impulsive.

Careers - Politics, celebrity or business entrepreneur

:: Shadow Chakra

Mental lethargy, 'ungrounded', 'spaced out', unfocused mind, difficulty achieving goals, lack of confidence, weak, suicidal, self- destructive, egotistical, domineering, greedy, addicted to materialism, low sex drive/high sex drive. Fear of abandonment.

:: Light Chakra

Centered, grounded, vitality, focused, nourishment, safety, standing up for oneself, loyalty, support and tribal honour code.

:: Planet

Mars - Your Passion for Life. God of War. Mars orbit lies between Earth and Jupiter. Approx half the size of the Earth. Orbit of approx 2 years. Reddish colour caused by iron-rich dust.

Positive Traits - Adventurous and energetic, pioneering and courageous, enthusiastic and confident, dynamic and quick-witted, assertive, willful and initiative.

Negative Traits - Selfish and quick-tempered, impulsive and impatient, foolhardy and dare-devil, aggressive, headstrong, selfish.

Keywords - Assertively, urgently, forthrightly, selfishly.

:: Your Root Is Out Of Balance When...

You regularly find yourself involved in arguments or conflict.

You have angry outbursts or temper tantrums.

You feel that others aren't listening to you or taking account of your needs.

Your quick to point out people's faults or complain about services that you perceive as substandard.

You don't like being wrong.

You use force or verbal aggression to get your way.

Your first response to anyone who upsets you is to retaliate.

You can't stand losing and could be described as competitive.

:: Astrological Sign

ARIES - Arians want to stand out from the crowd and have all the will to succeed. They are basically uncomplicated, direct in their approach and able to cope in a straightforward manner with the day to day problems of life. They strip away everything that is not necessary to the achievement of their goals, whether these are immediate or long-term for example, the menu for tonight's dinner or the details of a contract. Their ability to see clearly the essential elements of important decisions is both enviable and convincing.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

3 Physical Balance

:: Empowering Affirmations

There is vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated into positive action.

There is only one of you in all this time, your expression is unique.

:: Crystals And Minerals

Crystals can be used in many ways, we suggest you intuitively place on your body or carry in your pocket, place around your bed at night time, or add it to your drinking water.

Bloodstone - Good to purify the blood, kidneys, bladder, intestines and liver. Neutralises toxins within the body. Bloodstone has been used in the treatment of leukemia. Balances the bloodflow, especially useful for heavy periods.

Garnet - Provides purification, cleansing and elimination of that which is in disorder. An excellent stone for the spine and spinal fluid, bone and cellular structure. It has been used to treat and balance sexual energies and to enhance the assimilation of iodine, calcium, magnesium and Vitamins A, D and E. Can help repair and prevent damage to DNA structures.

Hematite - Can be used for leg cramps, blood disorders (anemia) nervous disorders and insomnia. Can assist spinal alignment by placing hematite at the base and top of spine. Accelerates the healing process for breaks and fractures of bones.

Ruby - Encourages one to follow bliss! It is said that ruby will light the darkness on all levels. The energy can assist in changing ones world, promoting creativity and expansiveness in awareness and manifestation. It has been used in the treatment of fever, heart disorders relating to blood flow.

Smoky Quartz - An excellent stone for 'grounding', enhancing attentiveness in the moment and protection. Suggest that the point faces away when laying quartz on or around the body.

:: The Use Of Essential Oils

Essential oils contain many therapeutic properties, you can introduce these in the home in a variety of ways ie, atomiser, bathing, massage and steam inhalation.

Nervous Tension and Stress - Cedarwood

Depression and Nervous Exhaustion - Patchouli

Athletes Foot - Clove Bud, Eucalyptus and Tea Tree

Chilblains - Lemon, Lime and Black Pepper.

:: Foods - A good Way To Feed Your Chakra

Red foods contain lycopene, which reduces the risk of prostate cancer.

Red Meat, Strawberries, Red Cherries, Tomatoes, Red Lentils, Raspberrys, Watermelon, Pizza, Ketchup, Bolognese, Black salsify, Red Peppers, Red Chillis, Cranberries, Red Apples, Rhubarb, Beetroot, Radishes.

Instead of taking a statin drug, eat watermelon - it does the job just as well, researchers have discovered. The fruit is the richest edible source of the amino acid L-citrulline, which regulates healthy blood pressure. Once in the body, L-citrulline is converted to L-arginine, another amino acid. However, the latter can cause nausea, gastrointestinal problems and diarrhea when it's taken as a dietary supplement, especially among adults who already suffer from raised blood pressure. In a small study of nine adults, their blood pressure normalized after they consumed six grams of watermelon extract every day for six weeks.

:: The Use Of Natural Remedies

Create your own herbal infusion, tincture, cream or ointment.

Circulation: - Poppy

Stimulant: - Rose

Depression: - St. Johns Wort

Blood Disorders - Panax Ginseng

Skin Disorders - Spirulina

:: Homeopathic Remedies

Dizziness: Arnica, Theriden, Causticum

Depression: Aurum Met, Causticum, China

Hemorrhoids: Hamamelis, Aesculus.

Erectile Dysfunction: Lycopedium, Agnus Castus,

Confusion: Cannabis Ind

Irritability/Anger: Nux Vomica, Lycopodium

Painful Menstruation with Depression and Self-Pity: Pulsatilla

with Irritability, Tearfulness and Indifference: Sepia

soothed by heat and pressure: Mag Phos.

:: Flower Essences

Anger, Short Temper, Hateful and Jealous - Beech, Holly, Chicory and Impatiens(Bach), Mountain Devil (Australian Bush Flower), Blue Elf Viola(Alaskan)

Ungrounded, Vague and Scattered Thoughts - Clematis, (Bach), Jacaranda, Red Lily, Sundew(Australian Bush Flower), Northern Turkeyblade(Alaskan)

:: Mayan Magnetic Tone - Tone 1

Magnetic Tone of Purpose

Attract Energy - Receive

Keywords - Attract, unify, purpose

Mayan Name - Hun

Power - Represented by one dot, visualise the dot on a piece of paper, it attracts you like a magnet, the beginning of a series of 13. Use this to set a purpose, receive and collect energy.

Guidance - Initiate new creation in tune with your Higher Self and Divine Purpose.

Query - Do you dare to receive!

:: Totem Helpers

Every animal has a powerful spirit, personality and characteristics unique to that power animal.

Elephant - Ancient Power, Solidity, Strength, Royalty.

Ostrich - Becoming Grounded.

:: Location In The Body

Perineum/Coccyx - The beginning of the Egyptian 13 Chakra System is located between the genitals and anus.

:: Body Parts/Glands And Organs

Spine - Coccyx, Feet, Legs, Blood, Nervous System, Lymphatic System, Circulatory System, Vagina and Testes, Large and Small Intestine, Rectum, Skin.

:: Practical Suggestions

Here is a sample list of ideas to assist clearing and activating your root chakra. 1. Exercise for at least 20 minutes a day.

2. Do not raise your voice in anger.

3. Clear out clutter from the house.

4. Do some gardening or take a walk in nature.

5. Sort out finances, catch up with all paperwork.

6. Practice forgiveness, the quickest way to release anger and

resentment.

7. Take responsibility for everything that happens in your life.

8. Laugh out aloud!

Put some Red in your life when you want:

* increased enthusiasm and interest

* more energy

* action and confidence to go after your dreams

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

4 Mystical

:: Chant/Prayer

I call to mind a Great Mystery; circular things, without an end; or beginning or middle; In here.

I call to mind the Great Unseen; for who can say where Spirit starts

and where it goes and if it ends In here.

I call to mind its eternal Breath; its wisdom and its strength renewed

coming back to where it began; In here.

Symbolism

:: Opening Mouth/Silver Chakra

Positive - Lives in alignment with higher principles, leads by example, manifests depth, charisma, and wisdom.

Negative - Has lost sight of higher purpose: feels lonely and cutoff, locked in the mind, out of touch with heart and intuitive guidance.

:: The Use of The Colour Silver

Silver is the metallic shade of the colour gray closest to that of polished silver. In heraldry there is no distinction between silver and white, represented as "argent".

The visual sensation usually associated with the metal silver is its metallic shine. This cannot be reproduced by a simple solid colour, because the shiny effect is due to the material's brightness varying with the surface angle to the light source. Consequently in art one would normally use a metallic paint that glitters like real silver.

Good Silver

* Silver screen - movies, especially classic movies

* Silver-tongued - witty, eloquent speaker

* Pieces of silver - money, especially coins

Bad Silver

* Silver-tongued devil - articulate speaker perceived to be insincere, possibly a liar

* Born with a silver spoon in one's mouth - usually used as a put down against someone born into a wealthy family who never had to work for a living

:: Issue

Personal Belief System - Knowing of Abundance

:: Metaphysical Law

The Law of Faith/Trusting in Spirit.

We all know more than we believe.

:: Symbolic Colour

The colour of silver is white the Latin word for silver. Argentum derives from the Sanskrit word meaning 'white' and shining small wonder. The metallic colour can be associated with dignity of kinship. Silver is also the symbol of purity in all its forms. It is pure light. It passes, unsullied and transparent through crystal clear water, the reflection of a mirror or the flashing of a diamond. It is like a clear conscious pure intent. Open heartedness, fair dealing. It summons faithfulness to follow in its footsteps. Clear can be applied anywhere. It brings light into all chakras and all parts of the body. Clear is frozen light containing all colours. Transparency.

:: Positive Aspects Of Silver

The passive intuitive, 'Yin' principle in creation and your innermost link with the Creator - your Divine essence, with opening of this chakra you become more aware of your Divine purpose; with the realisation that all things will be achieved according to Divine Plan, Spiritual Protection, can remove 'negative powers' - Victory Communication comes with dedication to God/Goddess - astral teachers

:: Negative Aspects Of Silver

Fear of Spiritual Contact, lack of ambition, lacking understanding of metaphysics.

:: Musical Note

Each chakra vibrates at a different frequency. When in balance, the chakra will resonate with the muscial note G#.

:: Moon Cycle and Season

Jaguar Moon 7th March to 3rd April.

Keywords - Realise, Pulse, Intention.

:: Element

Fire

:: Aztec Deities/Mayan Gods

To be advised

:: Suggested Sacred Sites/Holy Wells

Ayrs Rock, Budapest, Barcelona, Sedona.

:: Where is your Silver/Grey

Are you wearing Silver/Grey today?

Do you have this colour in your wardrobe?

Does this colour feature regularly in your life?

How do you feel about this colour?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2 Patterns and Balance

:: Planet

Jupiter - The Meaning of Life

The largest planet in the solar system.

Orbits once every 11.86 years.

It has a magnetic field 20,000 times stronger than that of Earth and sends out radio waves.

Jupiter lies between Mars and Saturn.

These stripe ranges of colour include a bright yellow, grey, brown and blue.

Positive Traits - Optimistic and freedom-loving, jovial and good-humoured, honest and straightforward, intellectual and philisophical.

Negative Traits - Blindly optimistic and careless, irresponsible and superficial, tactless and restless.

Keywords - Philosophically, freely, exploratively, offhandedly

:: Astrological Sign

SAGITTARIUS

Challenge is important in a fulfilling Sagittarian life. When an achievement is accomplished, Sagittarius soon begins work on the next one. The compulsion to set new targets and meet them is so strong that it can become all-engrossing, with present activities being skimped because their eye is always on future plans.

Sagittarian enthusiasm, optimism and zest forl ife are second to none but must be controlled. The worst fault, restlessness, can be a severe problem, for Sagittarians don't always see projects through to the end.

:: Astrological Wheel - Known As The Ninth House

9th House is the house of God - whatever you value most highly, including your ethics, morals, philosophy, religion, spirituality. It's your way to understanding why you're doing what you do, including your arguments with God. The archetype in this house will lead you to a true understanding of what leads you to the Divine or Truth, anything that opens your horizons, the super conscious mind, hope, optimism and success.

:: Archetypal Patterns

What are the Archetypes?

They are patterns of the psyche that make up an energetic realm that you were assigned to before you were born. The Universe works on our behalf through archetypal patterns. We each have personal mythologies. Eg Michael Jackson - Peter Pan, the eternal child!

The archetypal pattern which you would find for this is a Messenger, - find a pattern of risk taking, trust, truth and discovery. Religion is a faith you have in yourself or other's. Benevolent Father, Philosopher, Politician, Judge, Priest, Healer, Prostitute, Mystic.

:: Numerology

9 - Life Purpose -

My life is my teaching - By Mahatma Gandhi.

Positives - Perfectionist, compassionate, intuitive and creative

Negatives - Fixated on details, addictive personality

Careers - Community leader or business entrepreneur

:: Shadow Chakra

Expression with malevolence towards self and others

Missing of meaning of creation, lack of faith, misuse of spiritual power.

:: Light Chakra

Fearless communication with the spiritual realms. Expression with calmness and ease, understanding of abundance, trust in your own madness.

:: Your Mouth Is Out Of Balance When

You use words to wound others.

You gossip.

You stammer/stutter through fear of what others may say.

You bite off more than you can chew.

You lie.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

3 Physical Balance

:: Location In The Body

Mouth

:: Body Parts Glands and Organs

Skull, Chin, Jaw, Mouth,Teeth, Gums, Tongue, Nervous System, Lymphatic System.

:: Empowering Affirmations

Yet the timeless in you is aware of life's timelessness and knows that yesterday is but today's memory and tomorrow is today's dream. By Kihill-Gibran.

:: Crystals And Minerals

Crystals can be used in many ways, we suggest you intuitively place on your body or carry in your pocket, place around your bed at night time or add it to your drinking water!

Epistilbite - Assist in verbal communication and enhancing listening abilities and supports the stability and structure of the gums and teeth.

Lapis Lazuli - Promotes the connection between the physical and celestial planes representing wisdom and the mystical realms. Good for problems related to hearing loss and the eustachian tube.

It can help to relieve the symptoms of insomnia, vertigo and dizziness.

Stichtite - Promotes thinking with love before speaking with intellect. Excellent to treat gum dis-ease and provide stability of the teeth. Encourages a gentle attitude towards the self and others.

Sodalite - Improve calcium deficiencies, and dispel insomnia. Can also be used to enhance truthfulness verbalising emotions.

:: The Use Of Essential Oils

Halitosis - Bergamot, Cardomon, Sweet Fennel and Mint

Cold Sores - Eucalyptus, Lemon and Tea Tree

Excessive Talking - Cypress

:: Foods - A Good Way To Feed Your Chakra

Sesame Seeds, Fish, Mushrooms, Lychee, Oats

:: The Use Of Natural Remedies

Create your own herbal infusion, tincture, cream or ointment.

Cold Sores - St. Johns Wort.

Toothache - Prickly Ash

Mouth Ulcers - Borax

Gum Disease - Aloe Vera

Toothache - Clove

Coldsore - Hypericum Tincture

:: Homeopathic Remedies

Mouth Ulcers: Arsen alb.

Gingivitis: Merc sol, Nat mur.

Inflammation: Apis

:: Flower Essences

Lack of Ambition - Wild Rose and Gorse

Protection - Walnut (Bach), Fringed Violet(Australian Bush Flower), Guardian(Alaskan)

Lack of Trust in Oneself - Cerato (Bach), Bush Fuchsia, Hibbertia(Australian Bush Flower)

:: Mayan Magnetic Tone 9 - Solar Tone

Solar Tone of Intention

Realise Energy - Mobilise

Keywords - Realise, pulse, intention

Mayan Name - Bolon

Power - At the 9th Tone, you are very close to realising your purpose. Feel it pulsating within to materialise it on this planet. Intention is 100% as it emanates outwards towards the sun.

Guidance - Move into action with passion, enthusiasm and urgency.

Query - Do you exhaust yourself with distrations?

:: Totem Helper

Badger - Bold Self-Expression and Reliance - Keeper of Stories

:: Practical Suggestions

Put some Silver in your life when you want:

* to emphasize your willingness to comply

* a neutral, non-invasive feeling

* to reduce the intense energy of another color

* to feel detached or isolated

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

4 Mystical

:: Chant/Prayer

Hu-La the word is the mirror where in the Divine reverberates outwardly. Through sound the world will be reabsorbed. In word is both sound and light, for light is the meaning of the word - sufi mantra.

:: Dualism - Two Basic Opposing Elements

Men are disturbed not by things that happen, But by their opinions of the things that happen. Epictetus (55-135)

An Elegaic Poem by Brenda Rauch

2011-09-14T15:37:00.000-04:00

Brenda Rauch, the author of the following elegy, is the wife of Erik's Uncle Bernie (paternal side).

MEMORIES OF ERIK

Smiling Eyes
An Almost Grin
And A Grace
From Knowledge
Held Within.

Never a Harsh
Or Unkind Word.
A Caring And
Gentle Soul
Who Appreciated All
Life Had To Hold.
An Unending Search
For Knowledge
For Truth
For Beauty
For Nature
For Love
For God
And For All The Universe Would Not Withhold

In My Mind's Eye
I Can See His Delight
In The Simplest Of Things;
Like A Starry Night
Or A Fragile Bloom
On The Side Of A Hill
And When I
Notice These Now,
He Is With Me
Still.

These Are Gifts
He's Left On My Heart
I'm Happy To Know
I Was Here At The Start
Of A Life That
Was Happy And
A Gift To Those
Who Knew The Child
And The Man Who Arose.

Twin Souls from a Service Perspective

2011-09-03T12:26:00.002-04:00

The Mayans predicted the end of the old reality to commence on December 21st, 2012. The Mayan calendar ends on that date. The famous Edgar Cayce prophesied that by the end of the New Age of Aquarius, we will become a completely telepathic civilization. This is a 5th dimensional state of being. Twin Flames have a special contribution in the unification of the individual and at a planetary level.

The concept of Twin Flames should not be romanticized, as the union exists solely to attain servitude to the planetary, cosmic and universal consciousness. Love that is apparent in the third dimension has traditionally focused on the attention and emotions towards another person and originates on a sexual or personality level; often demanding persistent compromises to make the partnership work.

The Twin Flame union would become a continual unified field with a gateway to the higher dimensional frequencies of oneness, inherently functioning as a single consciousness. It will not be dependent on the talents or vocations of either partner; it is the unit that is commissioned for service, not the individual expression of the unit.

However, before an individual can meet and unite with their Twin Flame there is a myriad of work to enhance the consciousness; such as releasing, healing and becoming an integrated whole. The heart must be strong and resilient through suffering grief, pain and loss as well as experiencing many unified and loving soul mate relationships; which would contribute to the intensity of being finally united with the twin flame.

A love correlation cannot exist in a co-dependent, ego-based relationship or from a perceived 'need' that another person would make them whole and complete. Each half must initially balance their inner male and female energies before they can unite. A powerful resonant magnetic energy field with a flow of total and unconditional love can attract twin flames, invoking a spiritual connection between the trinity or triad of the Divine All That Is and the twin flames, joined by their one soul and eternally allied to God.

When each twin has achieved an equivocal equilibrium and both resonate to an identical vibration of the higher consciousness; the Twin Flame should automatically appear, as the creator has orchestrated the union. It will happen because the Twin Flames have been sealed irrevocably together from the moment of their creation.

Interesting synchronicities can often pave the way to a reunion; which often involve the numbers 11:11 - common in Twin Flame soul unions. Eleven is considered to be a master number and is thought to be the number of the spiritual messenger. Two 'ones' are united to form pillars to the heavenly gate - the connection between yin and yang, female and male. The significance of two into one is the perfect symbol for a Twin Flame.

If Twin Flames happen to meet when they are in a loving relationship or a marriage, it is unwise to disrupt any present connections. The energies must first be dismantled and balanced before the Twin Flames can freely come together. However Twin Flames should continue to work together at an energetic level. Since the Earth is moving ultimately into a fifth dimensional alignment, all Twin Flames would be reunited in other dimensions. The meeting of another Twin Flame calls upon the individual to grow spiritually; heal emotionally, mentally and physically and to look beyond the ego, physical limitations and age differences.

Physical appearance has little or nothing to do with a pairing. Twin souls do not necessarily look alike. Many seem to be complete opposites such as brunette with blond, blue eyes/brown eyes, thick hair/thin hair, large boned/small boned. But the twin souls that do resemble each other seem to have a common ancestry, even if it's only from one side of either family.

It is also common that many twin souls have their sun signs in the same element. The elements and signs are:

AIR: Gemini, Libra, Aquarius

FIRE: Aries, Leo, Sagittarius

WATER: Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces

EARTH: Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn

Twin Souls are destined to meet when a personal planet is in progression to the sun/moon or midpoint on each natal chart. The numbers 6, 9, 15, 24, 27 are frequently part of the birthdays and Twin Souls can often meet on any of those days.

When Twin Flames connect, they generate a vortex of energy that could be seen as a light in the darkness of society's consciousness. With the implementation the whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts: the two create three and the third becomes a very potent force, a force of light and love at an extremely pure level.

The energy combined from both Twins, is different from that of individuals. It is a special offering that the Twins give to each other and expend in their service to humanity. On our planet, out of the darkness light will emanate, illuminated by an increased number of flames. Each flame represents the conscious and harmonious relationship between Twin Souls. As the numbers of Twin Soul couples come together, there will be a multitude of flames; an abundance of light and a profusion of energy on the Planet which would act as a catalyst and help to effectuate the expected breakthrough in consciousness for the evolution of Earth.

Article Source: Kirsten Jones

Everything you wanted to know about Twin Souls and Soul Mates

2011-09-03T12:24:00.000-04:00

By Dr. Tan Kheng Khoo

There is much confusion about soul mates and twin souls. Very often these two terms have been used synonymously. They are not synonymous. One can and do have many soul mates but one has only one twin soul. In order to understand how these terms come about one must begin from the beginning. Aeons ago, many dispatches of souls or sparks of divinity were discharged from the Source or Godhead. These were destined to be human souls. The numbers in each dispatch vary considerably. The least number is a few, but the numbers may go to millions. The usual numbers are in the hundreds or thousands. The numbers are dependent on the maturity of the souls and the main purpose of their journey. The more mature or spiritually advanced they are the lesser number will be in the outburst. The first timers will be in the hundreds of thousands or millions. This process has been going on from time immemorial: there was no beginning and it looks as if there is no end.

Take an average group of a hundred and twenty eight souls in the one discharge from the Source. They begin to cool on the way down to the physical world. There are many, many worlds in just as many universes. This group of souls has decided to target planet earth. They start to descend through the pre-angelic and angelic realms in a very hazy and dreamy fashion. Very little is remembered of this period. Memory of the remaining journey down the celestial, spiritual, mental, astral and etheric realms is just as blurred. The entire journey down to the etheric/physical realm takes thousands of millions of years until they arrive at a physical planet. In the first incarnation, the group went into rocks as minerals. The entire group of souls took form in the same mineral, e.g. jade or calcium. They remain in these rocks until they were about to be upgraded to vegetation and that was when the planet had to disintegrate into smithereens. The life span as a rock took millions of years.

In the next stage the total soul group of one hundred and twenty eight souls would have to change planet. This time round they would go into the vegetation kingdom. Again all of them would remain in the same family of plants as they progressed. If the leader decides to be an orchid, the remaining soul mates would become the same type of orchid. From thence onwards, the whole group would grow spiritually by dying and being reborn into different types of vegetation, e.g. bushes, flowers and trees of various types etc. It is in this kingdom that we first learnt about death. We were destroyed by being trampled upon or eaten by animals or humans. After millions of years of being in the vegetation kingdom, we then moved on to the animal kingdom. Hitherto and including the animal kingdom we remain as group souls although we have already been individualized. At this stage the total group of 128 souls tend to remain as one type of animal. As group souls we do not have self-awareness. We only know the difference between ‘us’ and ‘them’. Again having reincarnated through many categories of animals, we arrive at being Australopithecus afarensis more than 3 million years ago. Then Homo habilis (the handy human) lived in Africa roughly 2.5 million years ago. Homo habilis walked upright and has the same dexterity as modern man. He had a brain half the size of modern man. This is the first precursor of man. The Australopithecus had a brain capacity of 400 cc. Then roughly about more than 1.5 million years ago Homo habilis evolved into Homo erectus, which has an average brain capacity of 850 c.c.

The Neanderthal is the transitional stage between the H. habilis and H. sapiens. The Neanderthal who was the first H.sapiens came about 200,000 years ago and became extinct 35,000 years ago. It has the same brain capacity as modern man, but its skull structure is more primitive than modern man's. The Neanderthal is the first human ancestor to bury his dead. This is about 60,000 years ago. However, around 35,000 years ago, the Cro-magnons completely replaced the Neanderthals and totally populated the earth. The Cro-magnons has a brain capacity of about 1,400 c.c. At this human stage, the Cro-magnons begin to ‘know that we know’. From this point onwards, the Cro-magnons began the human journey in earnest. We began to feel instinctively when we met our soul mates: there was an instant attraction to all the other 127 soul mates, but we still did not know that each of us has a twin. In the vegetable and animal stages we tended to move in the same group, and we were always not very far from each other including our twins. However, as humans we may be dispersed thousands of miles away from our soul mates. And as soon as we meet any one in our soul group we instantly feel an attraction to the other. In the primitive stages of our human evolution we certainly would not be able to differentiate between our soul mates and our twin. It is only very much later, nearing the time of the return journey to the spiritual realms that we are able to recognize our twin.

The Breakdown of the Group and Its Return

Taking the example of a group of 128 souls as above, the breakdown goes like this. It is first broken down by half i.e. 64 in each. Then these two sub-groups are further divided into 32, then 16, 8, 4 and ultimately two. The final division is when the last two is separated into twin souls. As the breakdown proceeded from the total group of 128 down to the last twin, there is pain and suffering at every separation, until the last divide the pain is the most excruciating. At this juncture, both twins vowed to seek out each other no matter how long and what hardship it entails. Of course, when the twins meet and merge back again, their task will be to conglomerate and amalgamate the entire group of 128 back to the same original whole again. When will this process start? It will be when the entire group is about to finish with their education on earth. That means in simple religious language, they are about to be enlightened. Or some would have been enlightened already, but there would also be a few stragglers left behind on earth. There could be a long wait at this border of astral/etheric realm, as some of the stragglers may take a much longer time than their fellow soul mates. However, there is some compensation at this juncture because most of the group would have found their twins and some would have already merged with their twins. Although most twin souls tend to be near each other during the last 2 lives, not all are so fortunate. So a few souls may have to wait for their twins at the border. Every member of the original group must be enlightened to merge together before they can start the journey of crossing over to the spiritual realm.

So one can see that from the beginning as primitive man one is able to feel the presence of a fellow soul mate. There is no logical reason for the attraction or liking of the soul mate. The feeling is just there. At this primitive stage, one cannot recognize the soul mate as a twin, although the twin attraction may be the strongest of them all.. That is all. There is no reason or accounting for it. Throughout the hundreds of thousands of incarnations, we have wives or husbands and lovers, and if they are not our twins or soul mates the attraction wanes in the next incarnation. One must also marry or have lovers from other soul groups, some of whom have been antagonistic towards our own soul group. Hence the intense quarrelling and bickering in marriages. However, one must remember that no matter whom we marry or have as our family members every experience in every incarnation is part of our spiritual growth. The reason we separated in the first place is to gather experience and learn to love unconditionally. That means we have to breakout of this mold of inbreeding with our own soul mates and whatever knowledge and wisdom we gather from other soul groups is to enrich our experience. Even in the same soul group, every one of the 128 is a different soul. And although the twins are very similar in character and have almost identical vibrations, they are again different. Their vibrations in this cohesive total group would have encoded the tendencies, characteristics and the level of development into every soul of the group. In other words, the larger the group emitted from the source, the less developed will the soul mates be and therefore the mutual attraction is less powerful than the much smaller groups. The smaller the group and the longer they stayed together, the more developed they are and, therefore, the stronger will be the mutual attraction. This principle will continue until the very Old Soul who will incarnate as an avatar who is composed of a small group of 2, 4 or 8 souls, which do not subdivide. These remain fused as one Old Soul, a sage or an avatar. Although an avatar has to go through the same rounds like the rest of us, he always takes the leading position in whichever kingdom he is in, e.g. lion in the animal kingdom, an oak tree in the vegetable kingdom or as a Buddha or Lao-tzu in a human.

Soul Mates

Soul mates are from a unique group that was discharged aeons ago from the Source. They cohered and were merged for ages as they descend through all the realms down to the physical. The older and wiser groups would have stayed together longer and the more similar they would be, because they would have shared more characteristics when they are together. They would have imbibed through osmosis so many peculiarities, traits, and tendencies from one another. When the 128 souls are distributed throughout the 7 billion citizens of the world, the chances of many soul mates meeting per incarnation are fairly slim. From all the many acquaintances and friends that we meet and know in this life, how many have turned out to be close friends? No more than a handful. Normally it is only one or two. This number would be the same for soul mates.

How do we recognize our soul mates? The best way is to improve our own soul quality in order for our mates to appear. That means we would recognize the soul in the person. When we meet a soul mate, there is an instant liking. Then as we come to know him or her better, we find that there is agreement in things that are important. Our attitude towards life situations is the same, although our interests may be different. The quality of our soul level is very similar: we have compassion, empathy, and realize that the purpose of life is to let go. There is no jealousy arising, and the harmony and love that are flowing to and fro would make us happy in each other’s presence. The love energy between two soul mates can only be surpassed by the love between twin souls. Whilst the love of twin souls is always with the opposite sex that of soul mates can be with both. Strong and lasting homosexual love between two individuals is almost always between soul mates and not twin souls unless one of the twins has decided to change sex for that particular incarnation. Neither is it likely between souls of two different groups. A twin in spirit may guide a grounded twin.

Each soul is supposed to experience everything in the universe before its return to the source. It is definitely impossible for a single soul to do this. Therefore, the scheme of group soul has been formulated in order that each soul can go out and experience as much as possible, but there is no necessity for each to gather all the experiences. When they finally assemble together they would have accumulated and aggregated enough knowledge and wisdom for the whole group, as the sum of the total cargo would be adequate for the entire group to pass the test. The total experience and knowledge is assimilated by all and sundry, and therefore every soul in the group would be just as knowledgeable as the whole group.

The second point in the function of the grouping is the return. Alone, the single soul cannot find its way back to the Source. They can only find their way back when joined as the original group. The group is now greatly enlarged because of its cargo of love and wisdom, although the numbers are the same as before. One can see the joy and happiness of the whole group joined together as a cohesive whole, bubbling its way back to the Source, joining up with other groups on the way up.

As a group the karma earned must now be shared by all. When one soul goes astray, the entire group has to pay for it. So one soul may delay the cross over and ascent of the whole group. However, as some of the souls in the group have done well, so the entire group would also enjoy the fruits thereof.

Soul Mates within a Family

Do soul mates tend to aggregate in one genetic family? The answer is not often. If they do incarnate in one genetic family, it would be mostly two to three in number. The usual number is two. Genetically they would be sister and brother, father and daughter or mother and son or husband and wife. Except as husband and wife, twin souls very rarely incarnate in the same family. This is because of the incestuous tendencies in the other combinations. Some cases of incest between father and daughter is due to the fact that they are twin souls. In the other combinations, certainly favoritism would arise, and that would lead to jealousy and guilt. The soul mates in the same family would not know of the reason for their fondness for each other, let alone for the other members outside the soul group to realize this affinity.

Needless to say, the best arena for spiritual practice is in the earthly family. The diversity of souls from different soul groups and the different levels of maturity provide the right mix and background for all the members in the family to practice. The more advanced members of the family will be able to pull up the less developed members. The challenges, the inequalities and the petty jealousies are all excellent material for growth. Although the souls in one family usually fall into a vibrational range, some of them may come from different soul groups and even from different universes. In the latter cases, the number and extent of conflicts can be quite horrendous, testing the members of the earth family to breaking point. Then there may arise misunderstanding, tension and embittered battles, which will be the perfect scenario for evil forces to intervene. At this point, drug and alcohol addiction, child and wife abuse and murder etc could enter this power play. Heavy karma is then incurred. This precipitate evolution is forced upon the family, as they were too tardy and lackadaisical hitherto. The resistance to growth has resulted in the pain and suffering as a wake up call. Therefore, we can now understand the process in the genesis of family karma.

Companion Soulmates: this is a subdivision of soul mates in which couples in the same group soul have created strong relationships over many incarnations. They may incarnate as husband and wife, brother and sister, father and daughter or mother and son. They may also come down as just mere friends. These companion soulmates might have incarnated together for hundreds of times, but they are not twin souls. Their love for each other is the strongest amongst soul mates, but still it has not the same magnitude as that of a twin soul.

Soul Mates as Married Couples

The love between two soul mates is very intense and strong. In fact quite a few of these love affairs have been written up as famous love stories e.g. "Wuthering Heights," "Romeo and Juliet" and "Gone with the Wind."

That means when soul mates marry, they appear as if they are twin souls, but the discerning can pick up certain telltale signs, which can differentiate one from the other. Although their love and harmony are usually of a grand affair, there will still be fuel for spiritual growth. Fuel in this instance means fodder for disagreements and misunderstandings leading to fights and even separations. In every crisis, if one is willing to learn from the mistakes that accrue from the crisis, then it becomes a spiritual lesson. On the whole, there is much more harmony and peace in a household headed by two soul mates than a family headed by two souls from different groups.

All soul mate relationships are purely for spiritual growth. We achieve this by transforming ourselves, and we can only transform ourselves by learning from others and by interacting with them. This learning must be repeated over and over again until the lessons are learned especially through knowing ourselves. This could then lead to the soul mates loving themselves and then one another. Both would then be able to establish a spiritual ideal that becomes a guiding principle for the whole family to practice with. The ideal soul-mate parents would tend to set an example to their children hoping that the children would grow up to be uprighteous.

Lastly, the married soul mates must work up their relationship into a state of unconditional (soul) love. This love does not ask for any return, thanks or gratitude, but the one would always place the needs of the other above his or her own. After achieving this type of love to our soul mates, we then learn to do the same with the rest of the family. This commodity of divine love should then be spread to whoever comes into our acquaintanceship. And in this way we should be able to treat everybody as if they are our soul mates even though they are not from the same soul group.

Soul Mates as Platonic Friends

There are true friendships without sexual involvement. These could be man-woman friendships or that of the same sex. The friendship is truly platonic and one friend would literally place the wants and needs of the other above his or her own. Idle speculators always misunderstood this type of soul-mate relationship, and they have been wrongly labeled as homosexual or extramarital relationships. These friendships are invariably life long. They often triumph over all sorts of adversities and hardships. The divine or unconditional love of soul mates is here as much as a married couple, but no sex is involved. Some of these are companion soulmates.

Soul Mates as Comrades

Within some group souls, there may be a coming together of more than two to three soul mates for a single mission or purpose. These enlarged gatherings may be seen in political, religious, academic and military groups. There is also an occasional special, select unit, organized to tackle a unique task. You can imagine how concentrated and excited is a group of researchers embarking on a completely new find, a break through that is of Noble Prize status. Then, also is the secretive and subversive political nucleus, which is enthusiastically working under cover to topple the existing corrupt government. All the core groups in these earthshaking endeavours are soul mates with one aim for the good of mankind.

In religion, the exemplary groups are Jesus and his 12 disciples. Jesus is the grand old soul, the avatar. His 12 disciples are from the same group soul. Similarly, the other avatar, Gautama Buddha, was also accompanied by his soul mates. These were his disciples who became enlightened saints, e.g. Sariputta and Moggallana. From these examples we can see the dedication with which these soul mates pursued their goal of forming a new religion for the good of mankind. Near the end not all their disciples had uniform faith. One can now question whether Judas was truly a soul mate of Jesus. Or was he from another soul group? I prefer to believe that he was from the same group, or else Jesus would not have been crucified. Because of his crucifixion and his ‘rising from the dead’ that a new religion was formed.

Groups of Advanced Souls Descending to Service

Throughout the history of the earth, there have been periods during which groups of advanced souls descend to enrich earth’s art and scientific stature. In music, the era of Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Mozart and Haydn has never been repeated. No other period has seen such giants coming down during such a short span of time. One can also cite the great master painters like Leonardo daVinci, Michelangelo, Raphael etc coming down to improve the artistic quality of the earth. Then you have the great thinkers like Newton, Copernicus, Galileo and Einstein. These geniuses do not come down together at the same time, but they each bring down their scientific and philosophical thoughts during a short span of time e.g. within a couple of centuries, which is short in cosmic time. Then in psychology one has Freud, Jung, Adler, Rank and Reich. These masters definitely put psychology on the map. At the moment, you have the transpersonal psychologists in California, e.g. Ken Wilber, Stanislav and Christina Grof and Roberto Assagioli. Again throughout history, authors of great literature came down in waves in different countries like Russia, China, England and France etc.

These soul-mate groups may not come down at the same time, but their theme is singular and so is their locality: e.g. Europe and the United States. The giant musicians are mainly from Austria and Germany. The psychologists are from Europe. So one can see that their mission or purpose is to propagate divine music or disseminate art or uplift the standard of science. Each group has one aim, and their sole purpose is to promote that aim. One may also guess that the great English writers appearing during the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries may come from the same group.

Twin Souls

Twin souls are the last two souls to individualize. They are the last two peas from the same pod. At that final separation, they vowed to be reunited after they have completed their earthly duties, before they cross over to the spiritual realm for the ascent back to the Source. Whilst they were still fused together in the same pod, their sexual gender is androgynous and not male or female. It is only when they finally separate into individuals that they take on their basic gender of male and female. This basic gender will be with the twins throughout their repeated sojourns on earth until they meet again to merge. Once they merged they revert back to be androgynous. Whilst they are alone, whether they are on earth or in spirit, although they are either basically male or female, both contain the yang and yin elements. In other words, both contain male and female characteristics in each of them, and each of them has to balance the male and female elements to suit their sexual agenda for that incarnation. A basic male will adjust more yang into his psyche. Similarly, a female will have more yin in hers. A basic male who wants to be physically female for a particular incarnation may do so, as he has both elements in his etheric and other subtle bodies.

Another sure pointer to the fact that we have both gender elements in us is at the stage of adolescence. A young boy growing up to be an adult male may have homosexual tendencies like having a crush on another male, usually someone he hero worships. Then when he finally overcomes the traumas of adolescence, he becomes a full-blooded male again, without the slightest homosexual tendency left. This is also true of female adolescence.

We have many soul mates, but each of us has only one twin soul. A twin soul has every ingredient to be a whole individual. He is not a soul cut into half. However, as he has shared the same pod for the entire journey downward towards the physical earth with his twin, that attachment and longing for the twin is always there in the subliminal consciousness. The incessant throbbing of desire for the other twin is never far beneath the subconscious. It becomes more and more cogent when the soul nears the heightened state of enlightenment. That means that as soon as we become humans we have been working and practicing to achieve the ideal state to merge with our twin. This could have taken us hundreds of thousands of incarnations. As twin souls are so alike to start with, they must make the rounds to develop and learn other things so that when they merge the fused twin souls will be much richer. After the fusion, the entity will not be twosome but threesome! According to Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov, ‘a human meets his twin soul twelve times during his incarnations on earth.’ Prior to the ultimate meeting, some of the incarnations are fraught with suffering, like Romeo and Juliet. That means that even though we meet our twin it does not mean a blissful marriage for us. Pain and suffering beset the twins like the rest, but their love with one another is always steadfast. I believe that the last incarnation is different. In this last lifetime, both will be carrying out a mission for the benefit of mankind, and this last life on earth should be free of health and wealth problems. I may be wrong here, but I presume that this should be the case. Otherwise they cannot carry out their duty or mission well. Edgar Cayce and his twin soul, Glynn Davis are a good example. Both were healthy until they died. Glynn died much later, and she was the one that carried out Edgar Cayce' s work till the day she passed over. Glynn Davis was Edgar Cayce's secretary for years. She was hard working, dedicated and methodical and she is the one that recorded all Edgar Cayce's readings for posterity. The twin souls were dedicated to the same service for mankind.

How to Prepare for Our Twin?

We prepare by growing spiritually, so that we become whole and independent. We have to increase our vibrations by eradicating greed, lust and anger. From our normal selfishness we repeatedly convert it to selflessness. The greatest task is to humble ourselves, otherwise pride would blind us to our twin. Then comes a stage of divine discontent, which can be obliterated by forgiveness. Forgive oneself first and then forgive the others. Then learn to love oneself and then others. In the life before the one in which we would be meeting our twins we should be well developed spiritually. Our mission is known, and we would be pursuing our life plan with determination and joy. There would be self-discipline. One twin could be running parallel jobs without realizing the presence of the other. And yet, one twin is helping the other through energy interchange. This process is not recognized by both. The best way to increase our spiritual status is to go inwards. Summarizing the methods for preparation to meet our twin:

Spiritual discipline: Adopt a spiritual discipline, which includes meditation. The latter would accomplish silence and stillness with emptiness of thoughts. In that silence and stillness a small little voice will surface to let us know what further steps to take. This discipline would also help us to eradicate lust, greed, anger, selfishness and pride. It is of course a slow process, but with meditation it is faster than any other method. In the depth of that emptiness and stillness, bliss will automatically arise, and if one is able to retain that bliss, joy and happiness will be our lot throughout the day. ‘Be still and know that I am God’.

Let go: While on this path, the essential goal would be to let go. One must be satisfied with what material comfort that is available to us. ‘Enough is enough’ should be everybody’s motto. The pursuit of the 5 C’s in the developing and developed countries has been the bugbear. They work furiously just to acquire (1) cars, (2) condominium, (3) credit cards, (4) career, and (5) clubs membership to neurotic proportions. They forget that we cannot take it with us. A story here would illustrate this point brilliantly. A young student is sent overseas to study certain skills. This overseas country has a currency control. No money may be brought in or taken out of the country. However the student may earn a living to feed himself and pay for his tuition fees. The scholarship is for ten years. So he took a part time job while studying the skills that he was sent to learn. This part time job was so successful that in two years he made it a full time job. Then he acquired a flat, a car with credit cards. He joined prestigious clubs of that country, and he made his lucrative job his career, forgetting what he went there for. The skills that he went to learn were compassion, wisdom and unconditional love. All these were totally forgotten. So by the end of ten years at which time he has to go home, he failed miserably to acquire these skills. Neither could he bring home all his wealth because the foreign country does not allow any expatriation of its currency, and also his home country does not use money. The currency in his home is karma and merit. This is exactly what happens to all of us, except that the length of overseas study is between 50 to 80 years and not ten. And the country of our foreign study is planet earth. Our home is the spirit world.

Our path and skills: We are all endowed with certain skills, carried over from past lives. We follow our propensities and the one that gives us the most happiness should be grasped and developed as a profession or vocation. It may not be lucrative at all, but nevertheless it is satisfying. With this talent as his lifework he may be able to earn a living as well as provide a service to mankind. That means if one’s job were to help the handicapped, the aged sick or retarded children then one’s occupation would also be part of one’s spiritual growth. If our work is to teach the young, equally one should put one’s heart and soul into the teaching and not merely take the teaching as earning one’s keep. The teacher should also instill spiritual qualities in his instructions.

Nature and Nurture: In our recreation, one should indulge in nature. Exercising on the beach or in the woods or amongst the trees is par excellence. Walking in the woods, swimming in the seas and gardening to grow flowers and bushes for beauty should be actively cultivated. Other forms of recreations should include appreciation of classical music. Mozart, Brahms, Beethoven, Schubert and Mahler are the music of choice. If one is not familiar with these composers, try to learn to appreciate them. Loud, rock music especially of the hard metal variety should be avoided at all costs, because these types of music would definitely end up in deafness and it also arouses our third chakra to unseemly proportions. Lastly, one should care for this body and mind. Proper food, vegetables and fish, and avoidance of alcohol, drugs and smoking constitute clean living. Then enough rest in the form of sleep should do for the ordinary person, but for the spiritually minded, meditation is a must.

The penultimate step: From now onwards we must behave as if every relationship could possibly be the ultimate one. She or he may not be the right one, but at least we know how to behave when we finally meet the real twin. Every time we enter into a relationship, we treat the other person as if he or she is our twin. The other person’s happiness must be above our own. We go to great lengths to make the other happy and secure even to our own detriment. One must remember that at this penultimate stage, both twins are on the verge of enlightenment and periods of loneliness or solitude invariably accompanies the seekers. These periods of loneliness are a false sense of separation from our soul. Therefore, meditating inwards to realize our true self is an immediate solution. When our true self is realized, bliss is there. The loneliness and sadness will vanish right away with the light accompanying the soul.

Recognizing the Twin

Twin souls have the same vibrations. They come form the same mould, although not from the same womb. They are like one person bisected into two, but not one soul divided into two. Therefore, even after millions of years of separation, when they meet they know instinctively that that this is the twin. Their vision, feeling and purpose are one. They see the same vision from the same spot, unlike two other people with two different sets of eyes, which see the same scene juxtaposed with one another. The twin souls see the same scene with their combined third eye. The scene arouses the same feeling in both, although both are of different personalities. In fact what they see may even be complimentary. This must be the case, as they are now brought together for a single purpose. The feeling for each other is nothing less than divines love. The unconditionality of their love equals loving your neighbour as thyself or loving the other as yourself. One does not love the other despite the other’s faults; one loves the other for the other’s faults as much as for the other’s virtues.

The love of twin souls is an ideal to be copied by all. The harmony and care do not allow of envy, irritation or exasperation for the other. Pain and suffering are not allowed to emerge from either party. If there is any infliction of pain it is due to an error of omission or lack of awareness. There is absolutely no intention to hurt.

The First Meeting

As mentioned by Omraam Mikhael Ivahov, twin souls meet about twelve times in our human incarnations. That means before this last sojourn, there could have been at least eleven previous meetings. Every meeting would have been melodramatic, memorable and electric. According to Sufi teachings, twin souls are like two Roman rings interlocking with each other. They may come very close when they enter a relationship in an incarnation, which means the two rings almost superimpose. But when they separate due to disagreements or reincarnating in different countries, the rings try to break away, but it is not possible. They remain inter-linked throughout their sojourns on earth and during intermissions in spirit. There is always a varying amount of common space between the two rings. During any twin-soul encounter, it is bound to be hypnotically momentous. A special feeling of energy seems to pass from one to the another beyond their control. This passage of energy is both nice and exciting. This is twin soul recognizing one another without involving the intellect. These twin souls encounter the same feeling and the same quality of love and it means the end of their loneliness. However, not all meetings of twin souls end well. Some cannot even get together. Some divorce after marriage, and they die without fulfillment. Of course, these are not their last incarnations.

Now in the last meeting before their ascent to the spiritual realms, both twins are either enlightened or nearly so. Therefore at this stage the recognition must be mutual. As they are so developed their mission in this last incarnation has a common purpose. Having the same aspirations, both would be working for the good of humanity. Their same intensity of love and compassion would make them persistent in their common pursuit. One could be the leader or innovator whilst the other is the steady workhorse. Both must be preferably, in either in arts or in science. So that the effort is not dissipated by one being in the arts and the other in science. However, this fact is not essential. Their common goal is generally to uplift and enhance the quality of humanity. Both could be in the healing profession or in the promotion of arts etc. Even if they do not work in the same place, having the same vision their work could become complimentary, since they have the same preferences, tastes and predilection. Their mental capacity is of the same order. Their tastes in food, music and sense of humour are all the same. Both will either like the mountains or the sea. Their handwriting and the lines on their palms are similar. At this stage of development, they both possess a polished sense of humour and are good-natured. One could go on ad nauseam. You have to meet a couple of twin souls yourself to see how much in unison they behave. Of course, as human beings there may be twin souls who still have some differences and friendly competition may ensue. The outcome is the betterment of humanity. The so-called fight would not last long and the make-up is the sweeter. Sometimes twin souls appear to be doing the same thing at the same time, e.g. writing letters to one another at the same time.

Before the meeting, the twins usually can sense that the time is coming near for them to meet. Then when they meet during the last incarnation, the charged electricity and explosion would indicate in no uncertain terms that ‘this is it’. However, this is not the end. Rather, it is the beginning of an ongoing process in this last incarnation. Both have still to develop and practice. Both have to continue to work at themselves so that their perfection will entitle them to journey in the spiritual realms forever never to return to earth.

When they do meet, the age difference is of no consequence to them. The disparity could be as much as fifty years, but it is totally of no importance to the twins. They do not try to change each other for both accept each other as they are. Both are usually in the same state of health: both are either healthy or both are in the same state of incapacity. Both normally have strong telepathic linkages, and if one is sad so is the other. Conversely, happiness in one very often infects the other even though they may be thousands of miles apart. Lastly, both tend to incarnate into similar social circumstances; otherwise some difficulties may arise due to the disparate social status.

False Twin

Sometimes in our enthusiasm we see a twin when he or she is not one. In a joyful relationship, the mistake is understandable. However, the mistake may be stretched until both parties are hurt, more so by the dreamer. We grab at the similarities and enlarge them to fantasy level. Then when the relationship is dying, when everybody else can see it, the illusion is still perpetuated to our great cost.

With our karma we formulate our G-plan (life plan) before coming down to earth. Our G-plan can still be modified or changed because of our freedom of choice. On the other hand in the matter of our twin, there is no choice. From the moment we individualize, our twin is destined to come back to us in the final incarnation. No amount of imagination or wishing can bring forth our twin at the time we want it.

In our loneliness, we are very vulnerable. We ourselves may construct the delusion and the make belief will drive us further away from our true twin. So-called gurus, who will pronounce to a lonely woman that she is his twin soul, may also accentuate the illusion. After some time the guru will discard this ‘twin’ and go for another. The same ploy is used. Because he is a guru the woman tends to believe him implicitly. Sometimes the guru even mentions that he has two twins! This false guru dazzles the disciple with his light, as the victim wants to believe because of her loneliness, and it is better to have a twin who is a guru than to have one who is an ordinary person.

The time to meet our twin is beyond our control. It entirely depends on the spiritual progress of the twins. After sounding the warning above, I would like to end this section with a cheerful note. As we cross over to the Aquarian age, there will be many meetings of twin souls, much more than hitherto. This is the good news. That also means that at each meeting the twosome will emit a light much brighter than the sum of two. It also means that with so many twins joining up throughout the whole world, there will be a great proliferation of lights across the globe, and this on its own will change the consciousness of planet earth. We would certainly be entering the age of enlightenment during this Aquarian age.

Twin Soul Sex

When they do meet, physical sex will not be the end all and be all of all pleasures. Of course, they still enjoy sexual pleasure, but it is no more the ultimate. It is love between two bodies as well as two souls. At this present age very few twins are already consummating their union in spirit. Physically they do not have to be together. They may be thousands of miles apart, but their spirits meet and conjoin. The joy and pleasure is much more satisfying than physical lovemaking. This is the opinion of all those who have experienced it.

Twin Soul Difficulties

When twin souls first meet even in their final incarnation, some of them will have differences in physical, emotional and intellectual content of the two personalities. Firstly, one soul has to adjust his difficulties within himself. Then he has to match whatever he has to the other. That means he has to clear all his own foibles, needs, cravings and ill will before he meets his twin as a fully satisfied individual. He should be ready to serve the other by putting the requirements of the other twin before his own. And vice versa. The struggle between themselves and together will definitely go to enhance the twinship. This is so because they have different psychological background and different personalities with emotional divergence. There will be normal conflicts when the two have such a close relationship, but the conflicts will be rapidly resolved. This is because their goal is the same. The emotional conflict is almost unbearable because they are twins. So in order not to see the other suffer, they tend to solve the problem as soon as possible.

As they have been travelling by themselves, they have earned good and bad karma of their own. Once they meet and work together, they must now try and clear both karmic debts jointly. Similarly, good karma earned by both independently will be enjoyed by both. In fact, as karma is created at the soul level, both have been influenced by the other’s karma imperceptibly.

There will definitely be stress in some couples, and in these they may even break up temporarily. Some couples will have to suffer together because of joined karma. There are so many possibilities in so many combinations and permutations. In some, the different backgrounds and karma would have brought together two very different individuals. This fact does not bother them at all. In this instance, "opposites do attract". All the differences go to complement their lives. So differences in physical, emotional and psychological make up do not tear them apart irrevocably, because their souls are joined together like Siamese twins. The compatibility here is at the spiritual level. That alone counts.

Obstacles to be encountered

The obstacles within the individual should mostly be solved by the time of the meeting. However, there may be few external obstacles that present themselves. One or both twins could have already been married when they meet. The eternal triangle is usually dealt by the almost enlightened individuals with accommodation to the existing families. If one were to hear that someone has walked out on the family to be with his or her twin soul, one can rest assured that it is not a twin soul union in their final incarnation. The already committed twin is too responsible and would continue to honour the pre-existing marriage. The twins will know that there must be a very good reason for this inconvenience. It could be a test or because of unresolved karmic obligations. The twins would then remain as loving friends or colleagues without marriage disruptions. This is due to fact that they are no more powered by passionate physical sex, as their love is above that. They may meet at night in spirit for the purpose of uplifting a common cause. They may meet in either the astral or mental world. They know that their separation is temporary and nothing in the world can stop their final union. Of course very occasionally their meeting could precipitate a marriage breakup, but this is with a marriage that is already collapsing. The breakup may induce some benefit to the aggrieved members, who can start anew with their own new partners. With this in mind, the twins who are uniting in this last incarnation, would have cultivated fidelity, joy, love and trust, and their union would be as solid as a rock.

However, there may still be a few cases, where one soul has not reached the same level as the other. One partner may outgrow the other, and the demands of the less developed may be irksome to most other partners. However to the developed twin this mild set back must be met with tolerance and patience, otherwise the growth may be stunted. At this juncture it is a shame to let the stunting be a deterrent for further growth. For instance, if one soul were to suffer from some neurotic illness, this fact may be detrimental for both. So the care-giving partner has to sacrifice his smooth progression to confront the neurotic partner with the truth of the difficulty. This may rock the marriage, but it has to be done. You do not spare the rod because you are afraid to hurt the naughty child. The soft stance will hurt the child more at a later date. This self-sacrifice must be persistent and long standing otherwise it will not work, for most neurotic diseases are brought over from past lives. The effort is worth it for it is for the mutual good of both, and the reward is enlightenment with the ultimate union with one’s twin. Thence the cross over to the higher spiritual realms never to return to earth again!

Conclusion

Every body on earth has been drawing closer and closer to his or her twin soul, whether they know it or not, whether they want it or not. The journey of this search started the minute we individualize aeons ago. In the earlier stages, we were ignorant of this treasure hunt. We just obeyed our instincts and desires. It is only now when we are crossing over to the Aquarian age that we are much more aware of the reason for this path. There appears to be some degree of urgency in this search, just because we are nearing the end of our search. When we are going to meet our twin is not for us to know. It can be tomorrow or even the next life. As in the mystic path, when one finds oneself in the ‘dark night of the soul’, one knows that the time is nigh. At this stage of our search, the loneliness is intense. This darkness of sadness, suffering and pain has no end in sight. However, lo and behold one’s twin suddenly turns up at the next corner! She could be the nurse, doctor or the social worker. Or the twin may be at the church gathering that you started to attend. One never knows, but the twin will certainly appear. If it is not in this life, then it will be the next life at the latest. So do not despair. The twin will definitely turn up. You have no choice in this matter.

References:

Twin Souls – A Guide to Finding Your True Spiritual Partner by Patricia Joudry and Maurie Pressman MD. Published by Element Books.

Cords That Cannot Be Broken – A Study Of Twin Souls by Judith Merville. Published by Regency Press.

St. Germain: Twin Souls and Soulmates channeled through Azena Ramanda and Claire Heartsong. Published by Triad.

Edgar Cayce on Soul Mates—Unlocking the Dynamics of Soul Attraction. By Kevin J. Todeschi. Published By A.R.E. Press

Meditation on Geneva homestay

2011-08-29T21:09:00.001-04:00

Meditation on Swiss homestayby Dawn Reyes on Wednesday, 17 August 2011 at 12:25

I was eager to reminisce about my Swiss homestay when William asked me about that time, via Facebook. It was only a one-week stay in 1988. Strangely, my freshman year journal, the postcard from Vivien, the mix tape from Samanthe, and the candid photos were within easy reach. This speaks volumes: I have lost many treasured mementos due to dislocation and petty theft. Is it possible that the experience of the visit had more than sentimental value?

William teaches at a Montessori school now, and is earnest about learning more about his own childhood experiences and how they could be integrated into his practice as an educator. From William's FB postings, revels in nature, family, and picnic outings with friends and loved ones. (Or, do I say the latter because I met him at age 5, and he had two favorite books: La Sirene (The Little Mermaid) and another one about teddy bears going on a "pic-nique.") A year after the trip, I wrote an essay for my sophomore English class entitled "Swiss Miss": I think it captured the excitement of being a young teen and savoring a cosmopolitan European town and culture. But these notes now are from the humane and sociological perspective.

Note: Names have been changed to protect the privacy of generous persons described.

Jodi (Swiss-German, assistant social worker, late 30s): The mother of Samanthe (my peer), Vivien, and Will. She physically resembles Glenn Close and is refreshingly liberal in mindset. She lets her kids experiment to learn, to do what they want within reasonable limits. She's sensible and fun to be with.

July came and went

2011-08-29T20:56:00.001-04:00

I posted this remembrance of Erik (aka "Isaak") in my Facebook notes section. Funny that I didn't think of posting it here, the website inspired by Isaak. He would be glad whenever I reactivate this site!

Erik, when I last heard his voice...by Dawn Reyes on Monday, 11 July 2011 at 21:23

My friend Erik, who passed away six years ago, had a life of profound and lasting impact. Tomorrow marks the day when I thought I last heard his voice. I was teaching piano to a retired schoolteacher when I took the call on my cellphone. I assumed he had two numbers because I had recognized that number pop up before....To me, it was the most open and beautiful and joyful voice saying "Hiiiiii." Knowing he would appreciate that I was otherwise occupied, I said "hi"and quickly explained that I was teaching a lesson. Then I hung up. I never heard from him again. I thought he was callously ignoring me after five days passed with no response. I received a letter eight days later from his mother (whom I'd never previously met before, butwhose warm and merry voice I had once heard on the phone) saying that her son Erik was dead. He died in a hiking accident in California. He traveled frequently and inexplicably, and yet so easilycommunicated his quiet and joyful appreciation of things and life around him. Perhaps that caller was just a telemarketer pretending to be my friend. I prefer to think that it was Erik, who had somehow broken through one last time, his last earthly connection to tell me that he was happy and glad that we were friends.

Dawn Feliciano (Reyes) 07.11.11

"Becoming George Sand": quotations from novel by Rosalind Brackenbury

2011-07-27T16:14:00.000-04:00

"Les apres sentiers: the bitter paths. It's become a summary, this phrase, of what happens in marriage, in relationships, when suddenly the ways part and the shocking otherness of the other person is revealed at the same time as is the shocking vulnerability of both." (263)

"There are things she and Edward are not saying, because what they want to say is perhaps new, and they don't want to jeopardize its frail existence. It's like walking along a tightrope towards another person, both of you balancing something nearly impossible on your heads, your hands outstretched to stay upright, refuse gravity, take the small steps needed." (274)

Making Jose Rizal Relevant

2011-07-16T13:37:00.001-04:00

Once in awhile, the blather of FB is cut through by someone who remembers to care. As a nod to the Philippines' national hero, a contest posed the question, "What would Jose Rizal blog?" Lest the chatter devolve to something trivial, someone took the trouble to reframe a possible point of view:

Eliseo Art A. Silva 's comment below:

Disheartening to see, that 150 years since Rizal's coming into this world, we had barely touched on the true global impact and significance of Rizal. We see him only on the local level, when in reality- his reach is well beyond our shores.

H...is campaign for separatism the moment he wrote NOLI and Fili, and formed LA LIGA-converged, Spain, USA, Cuba, China, and after Ultimo Adios was read in 1902 to secure passage of the PH Organic Act in the halls of US Congress(at a time when African Americans has yet to be granted their rights) impacted Indonesia and India's own War of Independence. Gandhi himself acknowledged Rizal as a forerunner, and Nehru recalled how shocked they were in reading in their dailies shiploads upon shiploads of US soldiers being sent to pacify a nation without prior history of uninterrupted sense of nationhood with only 30,000 barefoot Filipinos against a total of 126,000 US invaders, for almost 3 years. This transcendental achievement of Filipino unity was attributed to Rizal and inspired their own struggle for independence.

Jose Rizal disassociated himself politically to acquire an objective perspective as an intellectual, creating an effective roadmap for our country. We lack the global perspective in our appreciation of Rizal.

We have to consider for example, Howard Zinn's opinion that the Cuban version of the Spanish American War was motivated in large part by the USA to prevent mulattos or non-white leadership of the Cuban Revolution to take leadership after a victorious revolution-creating a Black Republic. In this context- Rizal saw Cuba as a possible foreign ally for an Independent Philippines- giving light to his voluntary request to be assigned in Cuba.

He himself predicted that the USA can be quite a "troublesome rival" should the US gets into the business of conquest- for he witnessed firsthand what he termed as one of America's defects: "the US has no real civil liberty."

The impact of Mi Ultimo Adios from the moment Bonifacio translated it into Tagalog for distribution among the Katipuneros in the 1896 PH Revolution, to the reading of its English version (by Charles Derbyshire) in its entirety in the Halls of US Congress on June 19, 1902 by US Congressman Cooper of Wisconsin, which secured the support needed to grant Filipinos their stepping stones to eventual Independence- at a time when the same congress still had the Chinese Exclusion Act in effect until the 40s and Americans of African descent has yet to be granted equal rights as US citizens; and the Indonesian version being read over Jakarta, Indonesian Radio on December 30, 1945-which their nation's soldiers of independence eventually recited before going into battle- has been overlooked even 150 years after his birth.

We should also remember that after Rizal's poem planted the seeds in the US for the Filipinos own version of their 1902-1946 Civil Rights movement, Rizal Day celebrations throughout this time in America was the platform used by Americans-both Filipino and non-Filipino heritage to advocate for Filipino aspirations of Freedom and Independence- which spawned several US publications on Jose Rizal including "The Hero of the Filipinos. The Story of Jose Rizal, Poet, Patriot and Martyr" by Charles Edward Russell and E.B. Rodriguez published in New York in 1923, for the American public.See more

05 July at 02:50 ·UnlikeLike · 1 personYou like this.

Watching The Longest Day on 4th of July

2011-07-04T18:15:00.001-04:00

The Longest Day, starring John Wayne and Henry Fonda, is a riveting WWII film based on the book by Cornelius Ryan. It takes pains to portray the events leading to D-Day with historical accuracy, with captioned names of notable figures and subtitles for authentic French and German speaking parts. You feel like you're watching a piece of actual, literary, and cinematic history!

Urine is not a bad idea for a jellyfish sting

2011-06-26T11:04:00.001-04:00

TODAY show this Saturday morning was myth-busting urine for a jellyfish sting remedy, instead advocating for vinegar. However, in terms of pH, pee is not such a bad idea. Pee is classified as somewhere between base and acid, and as we know, vinegar functions as a weak acid.

Here's some pH info i just surfed for:

"Urine pH is used to classify urine as either a dilute acid or base solution. Seven is the point of neutrality on the pH scale. The lower the pH, the greater the acidity of a solution; the higher the pH, the greater the alkalinity. The glomerular filtrate of blood is usually acidified by the kidneys from a pH of approximately 7.4 to a pH of about 6 in the urine. Depending on the person's acid-base status, the pH of urine may range from 4.5 to 8. The kidneys maintain normal acid-base balance primarily through the reabsorption of sodium and the tubular secretion of hydrogen and ammonium ions. Urine becomes increasingly acidic as the amount of sodium and excess acid retained by the body increases. Alkaline urine, usually containing bicarbonate-carbonic acid buffer, is normally excreted when there is an excess of base or alkali in the body. Secretion of an acid or alkaline urine by the kidneys is one of the most important mechanisms the body uses to maintain a constant body pH.

A highly acidic urine pH occurs in:

Acidosis

Uncontrolled diabetes

Diarrhea

Starvation and dehydration

Respiratory diseases in which carbon dioxide retention occurs and acidosis develops

A highly alkaline urine occurs in:

Urinary tract obstruction

Pyloric obstruction

Salicylate intoxication

Renal tubular acidosis

Chronic renal failure

Respiratory diseases that involve hyperventilation (blowing off carbon dioxide and the development of alkalosis)

In people who are not vegetarians, the pH of urine tends to be acidic. A diet rich in citrus fruits, legumes, and vegetables raises the pH and produces urine that is more alkaline. Most of the bacteria responsible for urinary tract infections make the urine more alkaline because the bacteria split urea into ammonia and other alkaline waste products. The urine pH varies in different types of acidosis and alkalosis. Control of pH is important in the management of several diseases, including bacteriuria, renal calculi, and drug therapy.

The formation of renal stones is related to the urine pH. Patients being treated for renal calculi are frequently given diets or medications to change the pH of the urine so that kidney stones will not form. Calcium phosphate, calcium carbonate, and magnesium phosphate stones develop in alkaline urine; when this occurs, the urine is kept acidic. Uric acid, cystine, and calcium oxalate stones precipitate in acidic urine; in this situation, the urine should be kept alkaline or less acidic than normal. Drugs such as streptomycin, neomycin, and kanamycin are effective in treating urinary tract infections if the urine is alkaline. During treatment with sulfa drugs, alkaline urine helps prevent formation of sulfonamide crystals.

Here are important points to remember about urinary pH:

An accurate measurement of urinary pH can be done only on a freshly voided specimen. If urine must be kept for any length of time before analysis, it should be refrigerated.

During sleep, decreased pulmonary ventilation causes respiratory acidosis. As a result, a first waking urine specimen is usually highly acidic.

Bacteria causing a urinary tract infection or bacterial contamination will produce alkaline urine.

A diet rich in citrus fruits, most vegetables, and legumes will keep the urine alkaline.

A diet high in meat and cranberry juice will keep the urine acidic.

Urine pH is an important screening test for the diagnosis of renal disease, respiratory disease, and certain metabolic disorders.

If urine pH is to be useful, it is necessary to use pH information in comparison with other diagnostic information. "

Determining vectors: awesome blog found!

2011-06-22T11:27:00.000-04:00

Composition of Concurrent Forces

by bpearson on August 14, 2009 · 1 comment

in Lesson Plans

OBJECT: To determine by means of vector diagrams the resultant of several concurrent forces and to check the accuracy of the result on a force table.

METHOD: Each student is assigned a problem. In this problem it is assumed that the magnitude and direction of certain forces acting on a body are known. The resultant and anti-resultant (equilibrant) of these given forces are determined both by graphical method and by the use of trigonometric relationships. The accuracy of the result is checked on a force table.

THEORY: Measurable quantities may be classified as either (I) scalar quantities or (2) vector quantities. A scalar quantity has magnitude only but a vector quantity has both magnitude and direction. For example, since to specify completely the velocity of a body it is necessary to state not only how fast it is traveling but in what direction it is going, velocity is a vector quantity. However, the mass of a body is completely specified by a magnitude and mass is a scalar quantity. Since the weight of a body is the force with which it is attracted by the earth, weight is a vector quantity.

Since weight and mass are different physical concepts, they should not be measured in the same units. The gram is a unit of mass. The force with which the earth attracts a one gram mass is called a gram weight of force.

Fig. 1 illustrates the method of representing vector quantities. Assume that the vector quantities here considered are forces, but the method applies equally well for all vector quantities. A symbol used to indicate the magnitude and direction of a vector quantity is called a vector. In this case the arrow A is a vector representing a force. The length of the line oa is drawn to scale to indicate the magnitude of the force. For example, 1cm might be taken to represent 200 gram weight of force. The direction of the line oa indicates the direction of the force and the arrow head indicates the sense, in this case from left to right. Similarly, the vectors B and C represent other forces.

If two or more forces are concurrent (meet at a common point) they may be replaced by a single force called the resultant.

One method of finding the resultant is indicated in Fig. 1. Having drawn the vectors A and B to scale and in the proper directions, the parallelogram oamb is constructed. The diagonal M of this parallelogram represents the resultant of the forces A and B. The scale previously chosen is used to determine the magnitude of the resultant and a protractor to determine the angle it makes with some chosen direction (the positive direction of A, for example). Since M may be used to replace A and B it should be obvious that M may be combined with C to find the resultant of A, B, and C. This method is known as the parallelogram method. The resultant of two or more forces is sometimes called the vector sum of the forces.

An alternative method of finding the resultant, called the polygon method, is illustrated in Fig. 2. The vector A is first constructed and from the head of A the vector B is drawn. Since the triangle formed by the vectors A, B, and M, in Fig. 2 and the triangle oam in Fig. 1 are identical, the vector M is the resultant of A and B. Similarly, the vector R is the resultant of A, B, and C. When the resultant of several forces is required, this method is somewhat simpler than the parallelogram method. It should be noted that when the parallelogram method is used, the arrows, with their tails together, all radiate from a common point, but that in the case of the polygon method the tail of the second arrow coincides with the head of the first, etc.

The resultant may also be determined analytically with the aid of trigonometric relationships. Applying these relations to Fig. 2 gives

M2 = A2 + B2 + 2ABcosβ (1)

and

tanθ = Bsinβ/(A + Bcosβ) (2)

In many types of problems it is simpler to start by first resolving each force into components. In Fig. 3 the force B is the resultant of forces Bx and By and, therefore, conditions are not disturbed by replacing the single force B by these two forces. Bx and By are said to be the components of B. It is customary to determine the components of a force along mutually perpendicular axes, usually horizontal and vertical. It is obvious in Fig. 3 that Bx = Bcosβ and Bx = Bsinβ. Fig. 4 illustrates the component method of computing the resultant of A, B, and C. The X-axis is so chosen that it coincides with the vector A and the vectors B and C are resolved into X- and Y -components. The three forces A, B, and C have been replaced by five forces (A has no Y -component). The sum of the component along either axis may be computed by algebraic addition. Calling the sum of the X-components Fx and the sum of the Y-components Fy, it follows that the resultant R is given by the equation

R2 = (Fx)2 + (Fx)2 (3)

and that the angle φ-the angle that R makes with the X-axis- may be determined from the equation

tanφ = Fy/Fx (4)

A body is said to be in equilibrium if it has no acceleration. A body that has no acceleration may be either at rest or moving with uniform speed in a straight line.

This experiment treats with a body at rest. From Newton’s second law it follows that if a body is in equilibrium the resultant of all the forces acting on it must be zero. If the forces acting on a body have a resultant other than zero, the body may be put into equilibrium by adding a force equal and opposite to the resultant force. This force is called the anti-resultant or equilibrant force.

APPARATUS:

The apparatus consists of a protractor, parallel ruler, and a force table. The force table is illustrated in Fig 5. The circular tabletop, calibrated in degrees, is mounted on a vertical rod held in a heavy tripod base equipped with leveling screws as shown in the illustration. The body whose equilibrium is under study is the ring at the center of the table. The central pin holds this ring in position when the weights are unbalanced. The forces acting on this ring are the tensions in the cords. If the friction in the pulleys is negligible the tensions in the cords are equal to the downward pull of gravity on the suspended masses. Each pulley clamp has an index by means of which the direction of the corresponding force may be read on the circular scale.

PROCEDURE: Each student is assigned one of the problems in Table 1 (or a similar problem) by the instructor

Using the parallelogram method, determine graphically the resultant and equilibrant of A and B. On the same diagram, determine the resultant and equilibrant of A, B, and C. Choose a scale such that the finished vector diagram will almost fill the sheet of paper, Use a sharp pencil and construct as accurately as the instruments will permit. Check both of the above results on the force table. In each case, when the adjustments on the force table have been completed, ask the instructor to check the results.

Using the polygon method determine graphically the resultant of A, B, and C. Compare this result with the one obtained above.

Using Eqs. (1) and (2) determine the resultant of B and C. Check the result on the force table.

Use the component method, illustrated in Fig. 4, and trigonometric relationships to compute the resultant of A, B, and C. Compare with the results above.

Determine experimentally on the force table (without the aid of vector diagrams) the equilibrant of A and C.

QUESTIONS:

The forces in this experiment act on a ring but are said to be concurrent. Explain. If the cords were attached rigidly to the ring would the forces necessarily be concurrent?

Indicate whether each of the following is a vector or scalar quantity: speed, velocity, mass, weight, work, torque, volume.

A hammock is supported by two hooks at the same level. A man is seated in this hammock. Under what conditions will the pull on each hook be equal to the man’s weight?

A body, weight W, is attached by a string, length l, to a hook on a vertical wall. A horizontal force F acting on the body holds it at a distance d from the wall. Derive the equation which gives the force F in terms of W, l, and d.

If two forces A and B are in line the resultant is A±B. Show how this follows from Eq. 1.

Equipment List

Economy Force Table

From: Cenco Physics Selected Experiments in Physics (No. 71990-131), Copyright, 2003, Sargent-Welch Scientific Company.

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Tagged as: concurrent force, force, force table, Physics, selective experiments in physics, vectors

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1 regina January 18, 2010 at 10:19 am

this helps me much in my formal laboratory report. so nice.thanks =]

CCBC Community Book Selection

2011-06-16T21:46:00.000-04:00

Excerpt posted on NPR radio:

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

By Rebecca Skloot

Hardcover, 368 pages

Crown

PROLOGUE

The Woman in the Photograph

There's a photo on my wall of a woman I've never met, its left corner torn and patched together with tape. She looks straight into the camera and smiles, hands on hips, dress suit neatly pressed, lips painted deep red. It's the late 1940s and she hasn't yet reached the age of thirty. Her light brown skin is smooth, her eyes still young and playful, oblivious to the tumor growing inside her — a tumor that would leave her five children motherless and change the future of medicine. Beneath the photo, a caption says her name is "Henrietta Lacks, Helen Lane or Helen Larson."

No one knows who took that picture, but it's appeared hundreds of times in magazines and science textbooks, on blogs and laboratory walls. She's usually identified as Helen Lane, but often she has no name at all. She's simply called HeLa, the code name given to the world's first immortal human cells — her cells, cut from her cervix just months before she died.

Her real name is Henrietta Lacks.

I've spent years staring at that photo, wondering what kind of life she led, what happened to her children, and what she'd think about cells from her cervix living on forever —bought, sold, packaged, and shipped by the trillions to laboratories around the world. I've tried to imagine how she'd feel knowing that her cells went up in the first space missions to see what would happen to human cells in zero gravity, or that they helped with some of the most important advances in medicine: the polio vaccine, chemotherapy, cloning, gene mapping, in vitro fertilization. I'm pretty sure that she — like most of us — would be shocked to hear that there are trillions more of her cells growing in laboratories now than there ever were in her body.

There's no way of knowing exactly how many of Henrietta's cells are alive today. One scientist estimates that if you could pile all HeLa cells ever grown onto a scale, they'd weigh more than 50 million metric tons — an inconceivable number, given that an individual cell weighs almost nothing. Another scientist calculated that if you could lay all HeLa cells ever grown end-to-end, they'd wrap around the Earth at least three times, spanning more than 350 million feet. In her prime, Henrietta herself stood only a bit over five feet tall.

I first learned about HeLa cells and the woman behind them in 1988, thirty-seven years after her death, when I was sixteen and sitting in a community college biology class. My instructor, Donald Defler, a gnomish balding man, paced at the front of the lecture hall and flipped on an overhead projector. He pointed to two diagrams that appeared on the wall behind him. They were schematics of the cell reproduction cycle, but to me they just looked like a neon-colored mess of arrows, squares, and circles with words I didn't understand, like "MPF Triggering a Chain Reaction of Protein Activations."

I was a kid who'd failed freshman year at the regular public high school because she never showed up. I'd transferred to an alternative school that offered dream studies instead of biology, so I was taking Defler's class for high-school credit, which meant that I was sitting in a college lecture hall at sixteen with words like mitosis and kinase inhibitors flying around. I was completely lost.

"Do we have to memorize everything on those diagrams?" one student yelled.

Yes, Defler said, we had to memorize the diagrams, and yes, they'd be on the test, but that didn't matter right then. What he wanted us to understand was that cells are amazing things: There are about one hundred trillion of them in our bodies, each so small that several thousand could fit on the period at the end of this sentence. They make up all our tissues — muscle, bone, blood — which in turn make up our organs.

Under the microscope, a cell looks a lot like a fried egg: It has a white (the cytoplasm) that's full of water and proteins to keep it fed, and a yolk (the nucleus) that holds all the genetic information that makes you you. The cytoplasm buzzes like a New York City street. It's crammed full of molecules and vessels endlessly shuttling enzymes and sugars from one part of the cell to another, pumping water, nutrients, and oxygen in and out of the cell. All the while, little cytoplasmic factories work 24/7, cranking out sugars, fats, proteins, and energy to keep the whole thing running and feed the nucleus. The nucleus is the brains of the operation; inside every nucleus within each cell in your body, there's an identical copy of your entire genome. That genome tells cells when to grow and divide and makes sure they do their jobs, whether that's controlling your heartbeat or helping your brain understand the words on this page.

Defler paced the front of the classroom telling us how mitosis — the process of cell division — makes it possible for embryos to grow into babies, and for our bodies to create new cells for healing wounds or replenishing blood we've lost. It was beautiful, he said, like a perfectly choreographed dance.

All it takes is one small mistake anywhere in the division process for cells to start growing out of control, he told us. Just one enzyme misfiring, just one wrong protein activation, and you could have cancer. Mitosis goes haywire, which is how it spreads.

"We learned that by studying cancer cells in culture," Defler said. He grinned and spun to face the board, where he wrote two words in enormous print: HENRIETTA LACKS.

Henrietta died in 1951 from a vicious case of cervical cancer, he told us. But before she died, a surgeon took samples of her tumor and put them in a petri dish. Scientists had been trying to keep human cells alive in culture for decades, but they all eventually died. Henrietta's were different: they reproduced an entire generation every twenty-four hours, and they never stopped. They became the first immortal human cells ever grown in a laboratory.

"Henrietta's cells have now been living outside her body far longer than they ever lived inside it," Defler said. If we went to almost any cell culture lab in the world and opened its freezers, he told us, we'd probably find millions — if not billions — of Henrietta's cells in small vials on ice.

Her cells were part of research into the genes that cause cancer and those that suppress it; they helped develop drugs for treating herpes, leukemia, influenza, hemophilia, and Parkinson's disease; and they've been used to study lactose digestion, sexually transmitted diseases, appendicitis, human longevity, mosquito mating, and the negative cellular effects of working in sewers. Their chromosomes and proteins have been studied with such detail and precision that scientists know their every quirk. Like guinea pigs and mice, Henrietta's cells have become the standard laboratory workhorse.

"HeLa cells were one of the most important things that happened to medicine in the last hundred years," Defler said.

Then, matter-of-factly, almost as an afterthought, he said, "She was a black woman." He erased her name in one fast swipe and blew the chalk from his hands. Class was over.

As the other students filed out of the room, I sat thinking, That's it? That's all we get? There has to be more to the story.

I followed Defler to his office.

"Where was she from?" I asked. "Did she know how important her cells were? Did she have any children?"

"I wish I could tell you," he said, "but no one knows anything about her."

After class, I ran home and threw myself onto my bed with my biology textbook. I looked up "cell culture" in the index, and there she was, a small parenthetical:

In culture, cancer cells can go on dividing indefinitely, if they have a continual supply of nutrients, and thus are said to be "immortal." A striking example is a cell line that has been reproducing in culture since 1951. (Cells of this line are called HeLa cells because their original source was a tumor removed from a woman named Henrietta Lacks.)

That was it. I looked up HeLa in my parents' encyclopedia, then my dictionary: No Henrietta.

As I graduated from high school and worked my way through college toward a biology degree, HeLa cells were omnipresent. I heard about them in histology, neurology, pathology; I used them in experiments on how neighboring cells communicate. But after Mr. Defler, no one mentioned Henrietta.

When I got my first computer in the mid-nineties and started using the Internet, I searched for information about her, but found only confused snippets: most sites said her name was Helen Lane; some said she died in the thirties; others said the forties, fifties, or even sixties. Some said ovarian cancer killed her, others said breast or cervical cancer.

Eventually I tracked down a few magazine articles about her from the seventies. Ebony quoted Henrietta's husband saying, "All I remember is that she had this disease, and right after she died they called me in the office wanting to get my permission to take a sample of some kind. I decided not to let them." Jet said the family was angry — angry that Henrietta's cells were being sold for twenty-five dollars a vial, and angry that articles had been published about the cells without their knowledge. It said, "Pounding in the back of their heads was a gnawing feeling that science and the press had taken advantage of them."

The articles all ran photos of Henrietta's family: her oldest son sitting at his dining room table in Baltimore, looking at a genetics textbook. Her middle son in military uniform, smiling and holding a baby. But one picture stood out more than any other: in it, Henrietta's daughter, Deborah Lacks, is surrounded by family, everyone smiling, arms around each other, eyes bright and excited. Except Deborah. She stands in the foreground looking alone, almost as if someone pasted her into the photo after the fact. She's twenty-six years old and beautiful, with short brown hair and catlike eyes. But those eyes glare at the camera, hard and serious. The caption said the family had found out just a few months earlier that Henrietta's cells were still alive, yet at that point she'd been dead for twenty-five years.

All of the stories mentioned that scientists had begun doing research on Henrietta's children, but the Lackses didn't seem to know what that research was for. They said they were being tested to see if they had the cancer that killed Henrietta, but according to the reporters, scientists were studying the Lacks family to learn more about Henrietta's cells. The stories quoted her son Lawrence, who wanted to know if the immortality of his mother's cells meant that he might live forever too. But one member of the family remained voiceless: Henrietta's daughter, Deborah.

As I worked my way through graduate school studying writing, I became fixated on the idea of someday telling Henrietta's story. At one point I even called directory assistance in Baltimore looking for Henrietta's husband, David Lacks, but he wasn't listed. I had the idea that I'd write a book that was a biography of both the cells and the woman they came from — someone's daughter, wife, and mother.

I couldn't have imagined it then, but that phone call would mark the beginning of a decadelong adventure through scientific laboratories, hospitals, and mental institutions, with a cast of characters that would include Nobel laureates, grocery store clerks, convicted felons, and a professional con artist. While trying to make sense of the history of cell culture and the complicated ethical debate surrounding the use of human tissues in research, I'd be accused of conspiracy and slammed into a wall both physically and metaphorically, and I'd eventually find myself on the receiving end of something that looked a lot like an exorcism. I did eventually meet Deborah, who would turn out to be one of the strongest and most resilient women I'd ever known. We'd form a deep personal bond, and slowly, without realizing it, I'd become a character in her story, and she in mine.

Deborah and I came from very different cultures: I grew up white and agnostic in the Pacific Northwest, my roots half New York Jew and half Midwestern Protestant; Deborah was a deeply religious black Christian from the South. I tended to leave the room when religion came up in conversation because it made me uncomfortable; Deborah's family tended toward preaching, faith healings, and sometimes voodoo. She grew up in a black neighborhood that was one of the poorest and most dangerous in the country; I grew up in a safe, quiet middle-class neighborhood in a predominantly white city and went to high school with a total of two black students. I was a science journalist who referred to all things supernatural as "woo-woo stuff"; Deborah believed Henrietta's spirit lived on in her cells, controlling the life of anyone who crossed its paths. Including me.

"How else do you explain why your science teacher knew her real name when everyone else called her Helen Lane?" Deborah would say. "She was trying to get your attention." This thinking would apply to everything in my life: when I married while writing this book, it was because Henrietta wanted someone to take care of me while I worked. When I divorced, it was because she'd decided he was getting in the way of the book. When an editor who insisted I take the Lacks family out of the book was injured in a mysterious accident, Deborah said that's what happens when you piss Henrietta off.

The Lackses challenged everything I thought I knew about faith, science, journalism, and race. Ultimately, this book is the result. It's not only the story of HeLa cells and Henrietta Lacks, but of Henrietta's family — particularly Deborah — and their lifelong struggle to make peace with the existence of those cells, and the science that made them possible.

Excerpted from The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot Copyright 2010 by Rebecca Skloot. Excerpted by permission of Crown, a division of Random House Inc. All rights reserved.

NY Times Review of A Woman in Jerusalem

2011-05-25T10:08:00.000-04:00

I've been participating in a book club hosted by a film studies professor. We are approaching the books we've been wanting to read (bucket list) with gusto, alternating "alive and dead" authors. Dostoevsky, Laura Lippman,Wharton, David Mitchell, Melville, and now, A.B. Yehoshua. I enjoyed reading this one in the past week, and I see that a New York Times review echoes my impressions. Good review, good book!

Review by CLAIRE MESSUD

Published: August 13, 2006

“The Jews take Jerusalem wherever they go, and the more of them take it with them, the lighter it becomes,” a character in A. B. Yehoshua’s wonderful 1989 novel, “Mr. Mani,” explains, speaking of the disjunction between a symbolic Jerusalem and the actual city. The enormous weight of Jerusalem as metaphor is everywhere in Yehoshua’s fiction; and can be found again, and powerfully, in his remarkable new book, “A Woman in Jerusalem."

A WOMAN IN JERUSALEM

By A.B. Yehoshua.

Translated by Hillel Halkin.

237 pp. Harcourt. $25.

This novel has about it the force and deceptive simplicity of a masterpiece: terse (or relatively so, given that Yehoshua’s novels are often long), eminently readable but resonantly dense. Translated eloquently by Hillel Halkin, the book follows a straight trajectory from the heart of Jerusalem to the most remote corner of a former Soviet republic. It has two central characters, one alive and one dead; but only the deceased is granted a name.

Indeed, she is the only character in the novel who enjoys this luxury; although technically, her name is not given but restored to her after a week of anonymity. A recent immigrant to Israel, not herself Jewish, 48-year-old Yulia Ragayev has been killed in a suicide bombing, with no identification on her person other than a pay stub from the bakery where she worked. A scandal-mongering tabloid journalist writes an exposé about her abandonment in the hospital, headlined “The Shocking Inhumanity Behind Our Daily Bread”; but the newspaper releases the article to the bakery owner for comment before its publication.

The bakery owner, a man of 87, finely described (“his great pompadour of ancient hair swelled in the muted light like the plumes of a royal pheasant”) does what any clever boss would do, and passes the buck. He sends his human resources manager — as the nameless main character is called throughout the novel — to identify the woman and figure out how her absence went unnoticed for so long. Thirty-nine, recently divorced, caught in his own small state of despair, he embarks upon a dogged and epic adventure, first to ascertain the facts, then to restore Yulia Ragayev’s humanity and eventually to restore her to her family.

As the one who renamed the bakery’s “personnel division” the “human resources division,” this weary bureaucrat has the chance to prove both his humanity and his resourcefulness, an irony Yehoshua manipulates to strong effect: the resource manager’s very namelessness takes on a poetic force.

The novel’s pace is stately but firm, like a funeral procession, as the resource manager moves first through the bakery, where he extracts a pained confession of love for Yulia Ragayev from the night-shift supervisor; then through the city, from the hospital morgue to the woman’s home, a garden shack in a downtown neighborhood. In the company of the coffin (and, as it happens, the journalist, referred to only as “the weasel”), he eventually leaves Israel and travels to Yulia Ragayev’s home country, an unnamed former Soviet republic numbingly cold in its winter freeze.

The visit begins inauspiciously. The resource manager remains trapped for hours in the airport with the coffin. In the face of indifference or hostility from all authorities and kin, including Ragayev’s angry teenage son, he decides to return her body to her mother, in a remote village several days’ journey away: “What a turn of events,” he reflects, “A foreign woman 10 years older than myself, whom I can’t even remember, has become my sole responsibility. National Insurance has closed her file, her ex-husband has turned his back on her, her lover disappeared long ago, and even the consul no longer wishes to represent her. That leaves me in a cold, primitive land in the company of two journalists who think I’m a story, led by a teenage boy I’m not sure I can handle. How could I have known last Tuesday, when I promised to take this woman on my back, that she would weigh as much as she does?”

How, indeed, could he have grasped the weight of his native city — which is what Yulia, in her native country, has come to represent? If in Jerusalem, Yulia is an abandoned corpse, in her native land she carries both the weight of her death and the full metaphorical burden of the place where it occurred. The resource manager, in his turn, is changed by his epic journey, which includes a turn through an underworld, a subterranean hospital where he recovers from food poisoning. Suddenly an emissary as well as a manager, he transforms from a faceless type into a morally engaged individual, and finally, into a peculiar sort of hero.

“A Woman in Jerusalem” is a novel peopled by ciphers. In his insistence on the namelessness of these characters, Yehoshua explores the significance of each person’s humanity, the ways in which seemingly banal details distinguish one anonymous life from another. At the book’s outset, the human resource manager is so detached that he registers surprise that Yulia was thought a beauty: “He switched on his desk lamp and slowly studied the computer image. Was she beautiful? It was hard to tell.” This inability to recognize what is immediately clear to others preoccupies him. It is ultimately what spurs him — surely not unwittingly — into a pilgrimage at once Kafka- and Faulkner-esque, as freighted with symbolism as it is with unlikely, vivid detail. In the end, he has traveled an immeasurable distance, not only physically, but psychically; and with Yehoshua as our careful, philosophical guide, we, too, have made the journey.

“A Woman in Jerusalem” cleaves solely to the resource manager’s experience, with the exception of a series of brief italicized passages in which various groups observe the manager in his peregrinations, like a Greek chorus. These interludes are remarkably effective and affecting, and serve both to grant us outside perspective on this story, and to integrate it into the daily worlds of other characters. Spoken by bakery employees, pubgoers, a clutch of young Orthodox sisters, airport workers or market vendors, these testaments bestow meaning on the resource manager’s story, just as he bestows meaning on Yulia Ragayev’s. In one, Yehoshua even gives voice to “the agents of the imagination, brokers of phantasms ... here to produce a dread and marvelous dream. ... Microscopic and transparently elusive, we pass, tiny dream nematodes, compactions of dissimulation, through the tough outer membranes of the soul.”

Embedded in this simple story are fundamental questions about identity, selfhood, belonging. Yehoshua, long a master of gentle, almost Chekhovian comedy, takes in this instance a deeply bleak premise — Yulia Ragayev’s brutal death — and creates from it a work of art by turns absurd, strange and moving. In the novel’s unexpected but also, surely, inevitable conclusion, Yehoshua claims Jerusalem as “everyone’s” city. While this is the only moment of metaphorical heavy-handedness in an otherwise perfectly calibrated novel, it is the logical conclusion of a story about a nameless Everyman from a symbolic place, one he believes “exists for me as a bitter reality alone.” Ultimately, unlike “Mr. Mani,” this book suggests that while the city’s weight may be universally shared, it grows, for each individual, no lighter; and yet, perhaps perversely, it leaves us with a measure of hope

Nursing student reflects on Physics and Nursing

2011-05-06T18:31:00.000-04:00

Physics and Nursing

October 9th, 2007 · 3 Comments

In what now feels like another life, but really was only a few years ago, Physics was a big big part of my life. The decision to make a career switch was neither easy nor simple. Some of my friends who knew me back then and a lot of my friends now have asked me why and how I made the shift between such different fields, and surely, since I came from a field as “difficult” as Physics, Nursing must be a breeze for me. Most relevantly, I have been asked, and have asked myself, if the Physics I learned and taught has in any way translated itself to Nursing.

I found myself thinking about these questions these last few days, and Mary and I have had several conversations about this. Since I am rapidly (!) approaching the end of my program and about to enter the world of Health care as a professional, I think this is as good as time as any to put my answer down in writing. I won’t answer the why or the how I switched from the one to the other in this post, but I will try to answer the other two questions.

Is Nursing easy since Physics is hard? No it’s not. If anything, Nursing is harder. Physics was always to me a way of thinking, a way of looking at the world. Physics is about concepts and principles. Once you understand the principles and concepts, say of mechanics, or of gravitation, or relativity, or of matter, then the rest falls into place. You have to juggle some math, but if you stick true to the principles and the fundamental laws, it always works out. This worked for me as an undergrad and as an instructor, and I hope that I taught my students well enough that they stopped thinking of Physics as a mere subject and realized it was a way of looking at the world around them. Even when I started my doctoral program and was doing some really complex stuff, it always came down to the concepts, the principles, the laws of Physics. If you had that foundation down, then you were in good shape.

Nursing, I am finding, is more a way of being. Yes there are concepts, like maintaining sterility or asepsis, or the progression of the inflammatory process, or sepsis to shock. There is science, pathophysiology, disease processes, pharmacology. Then there are skills and techniques, like dressing a wound, applying a splint, inserting a peripheral line, reading and understanding vent settings, inserting a foley. And then there’s the human part of it, dealing with a person at their most vulnerable point in life, dealing with families in crisis, maintaining the human touch and the human connection while dealing with the basest of bodily functions, allowing people to be vulnerable to you as they deal with the indignities of disease and hospitalization and still feel dignified and respected. Keeping all these things at the forefront of your mind at the bedside, with the patient looking in your eyes. When I stand at the patients bedside I must assess, evaluate, analyze, think through the disease process to identify what is happening, and what could potentially happen, always asking myself “am I missing something, what med should I hold, what do I need to check, are the meds working, what are the side effects I need to look out for with the meds I’m giving, are there any red flags, is my patient getting better, what do I need to talk to the doctor about, is my patient getting the best care possible, what are all these monitors around my patient saying about her health, what is the patient saying to me… ad nauseum ad infinitum.” And as all these thoughts are running through my mind I must remain always in contact with my patient, maintaining the connection, maintaining that link that says I care, I’m here, I’m listening, because that link is my lifeline. Do I do this all the time? No. Sometimes I get so caught up making sure that I don’t make a med error or break sterile technique that I forget to assess everything. Sometimes I am so busy doing a physical assessment that I am not listening to my patient. But I am learning, and I hope getting better every day.

So the answer is NO, Nursing School is not a breeze for me. It’s the most intense thing I have ever done in my life, the most challenging, and so far, the most rewarding. And when I actually start making some money, it will be even more rewarding, just in an additional and very welcome way…

The second question is, has the Physics I learned and taught in any way translated itself to Nursing? The short answer is yes, in a lot of different ways. Like I mentioned, Physics, to me, is a way of looking at and thinking about the world, and that way of thinking, and the analytical skills I developed along the way, have popped up in unexpected ways to hold my hand and help me through Nursing School and patient care. But this post is getting long and I need to do some schoolwork, so I’ll come back to this subject later.

To answer some more direct questions:

Yes, I miss Physics, and the world of academia and research.

Yes, I miss the kind of mental stimulation that comes from grappling with a Physics or Math concept or problem and finally mastering it.

Yes, I regret not being able to finish what I started, to complete my doctoral program and be a physicist.

Yes, I miss Physics.

Yes, it still is and always will be a part of my life.

No, I don’t regret having invested such a big part of my life to Physics.

No, I don’t regret making the switch to Nursing.

If I knew then what I know now, would I have bypassed the whole Physics thing and gone straight to Nursing? Maybe. Maybe not. It would have saved me loads of time. But then I probably wouldn’t be the person I am now. Everything happens for a reason.

Tags: My Life

3 responses so far ↓

1 Marjorie M. Pamintuan // Oct 4, 2009 at 10:22 pm

hi, im a nursing student and i really like ur article regarding physics.Even though its one of my hatest subject coz its very ardous for me to analyze problem…

2 jennelyn gascon // Nov 5, 2009 at 11:16 pm

hi!! just want to ask..

what is the relation of physics to nursing?/

how can it help???

3 Mary // Nov 7, 2009 at 12:03 pm

Hi

I don’t think there’s any direct relationship between the two per se. Like I said in my post, it’s more about the skills that you pick up in one translating to the other.

As in all fields of study you do have some cross over sometimes, like when studying the formation and dynamics of an aneurysm you will run into Laplace’s law, which will make more sense if you have some background in Physics or Math. Again, it may be easier to understand and visualize some aspects of hemodynamics with a solid knowledge of Fluid Mechanics. Many years of modeling data, looking at and translating graphical respresentations, and discussing electrical currents help my brain when I am looking at and translating EKGs, even though it’s a completely different principle.

Everything in life is interrelated and things you learn in one field will pop up and help you in unexpected ways when working in other fields. Hope this makes sense.

mary

Man unknowingly liveblogs bin Laden operation

2011-05-03T01:05:00.000-04:00

OK...no one cares anymore about the birth certificate thing because...Osama bin Laden was finally killed and captured, and at the bottom of the ocean. On the lighter side, the erstwhile Twitterer @virtualreality was tweeting about the stir in his Pakistani neighborhood. Click and enjoy.

Man unknowingly liveblogs bin Laden operation

Medical Interpreters as part of multidisciplinary team?

2011-05-02T09:09:00.000-04:00

The Oncologist, Vol. 13, No. 5, 586-592, May 2008; doi:10.1634/theoncologist.2008-0042

© 2008 AlphaMed Press

Medical Ethics: Schwartz Center Rounds

Lost in Translation: Integrating Medical Interpreters into the Multidisciplinary Team

Lidia Schapiraa, Erika Vargasb, Renzo Hidalgob, Marilyn Brierc, Lourdes Sanchezb, Karin Hobreckerb, Thomas Lyncha, Bruce Chabnera

Departments of aMedical Oncology, bInterpreter Services, and cSocial Services, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston Massachusetts, USA

Key Words. Language • Interpreters • Communication • Cancer

Correspondence: Lidia Schapira, M.D., Department of Medical Oncology, Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Gillette Center for Breast Cancer, 55 Fruit Street, YAW 9, Boston, Massachusetts 02114, USA. Telephone: 617-726-6500; Fax: 617-724-6898; e-mail: lschapira@partners.org

Received February 21, 2008; accepted for publication March 24, 2008.

Disclosure: T. L. has consulting relationships with AstraZeneca, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and Sanofi-Aventis; all are regarding drug development for lung cancer drugs. No potential conflicts of interest were reported by the authors, planners, reviewers, or staff managers of this article.

Learning Objectives

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After completing this course, the reader will be able to:

Carry out three communication tasks that improve the accuracy of interpretation and increase patient understanding.

Provide recommendations for working collaboratively with medical interpreters.

Overcome common sources of misunderstanding that result from language and cultural barriers.

This article is available for continuing medical education credit at CME.TheOncologist.com

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Shortly before his death in 1995, Kenneth B. Schwartz, a cancer patient at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), founded The Kenneth B. Schwartz Center at MGH. The Schwartz Center is a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting and advancing compassionate health care delivery that provides hope to the patient, support to caregivers, and encourages the healing process. The Center sponsors the Schwartz Center Rounds, a monthly multidisciplinary forum where caregivers reflect on important psychosocial issues faced by patients, their families, and their caregivers, and gain insight and support from fellow staff members.

Professional medical interpreters play a crucial role in mediating language-discordant encounters between cancer patients and oncologists. Trained interpreters allow for timely information exchange that is both accurate and culturally sensitive. Rising numbers of immigrants will increase the demand for interpreters. Medical oncologists need to respond by establishing collaborative practices with interpreters or using remote interpretation services. The article provides specific recommendations for working with medical interpreters and reviews common areas of concern for patients and healthcare professionals facing language and cultural barriers.

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Physician Moderator: I want to start off by sharing an anecdote. A patient traveled from the Middle East for a consultation regarding treatment of his advanced lung cancer. I had to tell a family member that treatment really was going to be difficult, so I recommended that they return to their country of origin and focus on comfort and end-of-life care. Because of language barriers I had an Arabic interpreter, although not one of our staff interpreters.

As it turns out, one of the house officers, who is Yemeni, accompanied me during this meeting. Now I did not know that he was Yemeni or that he was a fluent Arabic speaker. I described what we found on tests and thought the interpretation was going very well, because I would say two sentences and the interpreter would then appear to say two sentences. And yet when I looked for any emotional reactions on the part of the family, they seemed a bit more muted than I would expect for the nature of what I was telling them. They certainly showed concern, and we left the room after I offered to help arrange a transfer of care to a local oncologist. As soon as we left the room, the Yemeni resident turned to me and said: "Tom, I hope you understand that the interpreter did not tell them that he had cancer. Instead he told them he had an infection and that he was going to get antibiotics and everything was going to be fine back home." He then told me that, because the interpreter was of a lower social class than the patient, it was inconceivable for him to deliver the kind of news I had just discussed in the patient's room.

This anecdote helps set the stage for today's conversation on language and culture and the crucial role of staff interpreters as brokers of language and culture.

Staff Interpreter: I have been working as a Spanish medical interpreter for 2 years, and at this hospital for one and half years. It is not easy to interpret for a provider who gives bad or sad news to a patient and it is especially hard when we have known the patient for a period of time. Commonly, we meet patients when they go to the emergency room the first time and we have the opportunity to interpret for them through all the painful process of being diagnosed with a life-threatening condition. Generally, during an encounter, we have a couple of seconds to process all the information before it is transmitted to the patient and in our minds, during those seconds, we try to find the correct and accurate balance of words; but it is difficult because even though we are just going to interpret what the provider says, the patient is going to know about this through our voice. This is why it is very important for interpreters to have a brief interview with the clinician prior to meeting with the patient, in order to be ready for the information that is going to be transmitted.

Second Staff Interpreter: I have been here for 2 months and this period has been an emotional seesaw. At one point we may be giving good news such as discharging a mother who just had her first baby. The next request for an interpreter may be an hour later and it has us delivering bad news. It is very traumatic for us: sad and difficult. Many times we become attached to patients and all of a sudden we have to tell them that something is not going well. It is very difficult and it does affect us. We have to disappoint them and tell them, unfortunately, everything that the doctors have done has not worked out. We have a good support group and share our experiences. We do talk and this helps us deal and cope with all of this.

Senior Oncologist: I grew up in a multilingual household in South America where it was normal for someone to begin a sentence in one language and finish in another. As an adolescent, I had fantasies of being a simultaneous interpreter at the United Nations and through my tone and words I imagined having a dramatic influence on world affairs.

I left my country of origin when I was in University and finished my medical studies in the U.S. As a senior medical student in 1981, I interviewed at this hospital for a residency position. A respected and well-known physician conducted the interview and immediately asked why I spoke so many languages. When I replied with excitement that it allowed me to communicate directly, without intermediaries, and to experience the richness of diverse cultures, he responded abruptly and coldly that scientific medicine had little to do with communication. I trained at another prestigious hospital in this city.

Many years later, I found a venue for integrating my interest in language and culture with the study of medicine in collaboration with a medical anthropologist. I am relieved and encouraged to find the biomedical culture has evolved over the past 25 years, both here and across the country, and is now much more open to acknowledging the importance of sensitive communication and more respectful of personal and cultural diversity.

Physician Moderator: One question I have relates to the contribution of culture and language: which is more important in real-time conversations? As I think about that experience I had with my patient, I think culture was probably a greater factor in establishing good communication.

Interpreter: Culture and language go hand in hand. If the clinician has good communication skills, the professional interpreters just need to abide by the standards of professional practice.

Physician Moderator: Can you give us some insight into how individual communication styles and practices impact on your job as interpreters?

Interpreter: We need to interpret exactly what the clinician says and yet we know that sometimes it can be understood in a different way. There are even different dialects within a language and so things could have different meanings. We have to clarify in order to get the message across.

Clinical Social Worker: I am a clinical social worker in the Francis H. Burr Proton Therapy Center and the Claire and John Bertucci Center for Genitourinary Cancers. Patients come from all over the world to get treated in the proton center. I recently worked with a Spanish-speaking patient who, when I asked, was interested in participating in the weekly drop-in prostate cancer support group for men treated with proton beam radiation. I informed the patient I would need to prepare the group and explain that there would be a Spanish-speaking participant with an interpreter. Members of the group were very receptive and my experience has been that the men are open to new members and welcome them. The men really want to help make it easier, share their knowledge and their experience. I called the interpreters' office to make the necessary arrangements and explained that I would prefer a male interpreter and that the same interpreter be able to attend each meeting. I found they were very responsive to my request and arranged to have the same interpreter every week. Thanks to him, this gentleman was able to participate in the group and he really enjoyed the experience. It was also a learning experience for the group members.

Cancer Center Director: I am very proud of the interpreters we have here. At the Massachusetts General Hospital, we recognized the need for interpreters to have specific training in order to assist cancer patients seeking treatment and information. We also noticed there were special challenges associated with interpreting for cancer patients. Some of the more difficult topics include discussing side effects from treatments and clinical trials. We developed a series of workshops designed specifically for interpreters covering basic principles of cancer treatment and clinical research. Our goal was to enhance the effectiveness of interpreters in the clinical setting by providing disease-specific knowledge and a general overview of the vocabulary used in conversations between oncologists and their patients.

Senior Interpreter: We believe in the value of establishing a partnership between the clinician, the interpreter, and the patient. As Dr. Chabner points out, in order to prepare the staff interpreters for their work in the Cancer Center, we developed a curriculum that provides more in-depth information about cancer types and available treatments as well as the terminology commonly employed in clinical research. We focused mainly on expressions frequently used in obtaining consent for treatment and terms that are quite specific to the work of oncologists. We invited interpreters from hospitals in Boston and then hosted a national meeting, which was very well received.

Senior Oncologist: Medical schools now include courses in cross-cultural communication as well as training in proper use of medical interpreters. I am hopeful that we are moving away from cultural insensitivity and stereotyping, as we begin to understand how these attitudes adversely impact clinical practice.

COMMENTARY

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Abstract

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References

Our case vignette highlights the important role played by professional medical interpreters. Equipped with a unique and highly specialized skill set, interpreters allow patients and physicians to understand and exchange vital information about the experience of illness, characteristics of the disease, and personal beliefs and values. Armed with an accurate understanding of facts as well as preferences, a doctor can formulate a diagnosis, provide a prognosis, and, after deliberating with the patient, propose an appropriate plan for treatment. In order for this to work smoothly, physicians need to be able to trust that the interpreter will deliver a precise rendition of the physician's assessment and plan for treatment, clarify possible misunderstandings, and facilitate rapport among all participants in a meeting or conference. This case illustrates how easily things can go wrong: a thoughtful recommendation was lost in translation and ultimately distorted beyond recognition.

Current estimates indicate that there are 6,900 languages in the world today [1]. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that for >46 million Americans, English is not their first language, and at least 21 million of those speak English poorly or not at all [2]. This language divide makes their interaction with the medical establishment more challenging and often interferes with access to quality services [3]. Recognizing the importance of clear communication in health care, federal law, under title VI, requires all health care organizations receiving federal funds to provide appropriate interpretation services by bilingual staff or professional interpreters free of charge for patients with limited English proficiency [4]. However, the Office of Civil Rights allows patients the option of using family or friends in lieu of a professional [5]. In these situations, it is recommended that a waiver of interpreter be signed by the patient to ensure informed consent, because most patients do not understand the dangers of miscommunication resulting from faulty interpretation. Choosing an untrained interpreter may have important consequences on the final outcome. Studies have clearly documented that, in medical settings, untrained interpreters—such as relatives, friends, secretaries, and janitors who have bilingual skills and happen to be available—are unreliable and may contribute to errors and miscommunication [6, 7]. The contribution of language barriers to the higher cancer mortality rates among underserved and minority populations is unknown at this time, but deserves to be noted as one of the barriers to access to quality cancer care.

Medical interpreting refers to the process of facilitating real-time communication, while medical translation deals with the written word and allows for reflection and revision in the preparation of texts. Several interpreting methods are available, which vary in cost, availability, and possibly in accuracy. Simultaneous interpreting is a near verbatim running rendition performed within milliseconds of the original speech, similar to a voiceover. This can be accomplished with or without the interpreter in the room; the latter is known as remote simultaneous interpretation and is often employed at the United Nations and at major international conferences [8]. This type of service requires the use of a headset for each party and a mechanism that allows each party to hear only the language he or she understands. In consecutive interpreting, the interpreter listens as the speaker speaks and then interprets once the speaker indicates she or he has paused or finished. Here too, the interpreter can be located in the same room or may be available via phone service. Finally, ad hoc interpretation refers to the use of untrained interpreters. One study compared these methods and found that remote simultaneous medical interpreting was both quicker and more accurate [8].

There are wide gaps in the availability of interpreter services, in part because of the lack of uniformity regarding government requirements and public and private reimbursement strategies and policies. Under Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Plan (SCHIP), states may pay for interpretation services and state expenditures are eligible for federal matching payments of 50% or more [9]. It is estimated that 10 states pay for interpreter services under Medicaid and SCHIP. Some states authorize reimbursement for interpreter services, while others contract with specific organizations to provide such interpretation. In some areas, hospitals may include interpretation costs as allowable costs used to establish overall payment rates. Medicare does not pay for interpretation, although it is estimated that over two million seniors have limited English proficiency [9]. This important omission is worth noting because Medicare policies influence coverage by private insurance companies. Although data are scarce, private insurers for the most part do not cover interpreting costs. Some managed care companies actually demand the provision of interpreters without providing any funds for these services! The American Medical Association and others have raised concerns about physicians having to bear the costs of interpretation [10, 11]. A thoughtful analysis of possible payment models published by Ku and Flores [9] reviews four different options that include insurance payment directly to interpreters, insurance contracting with telephone interpretation firms, funding community organizations to form language banks that recruit and train interpreters and serve as preferred contractors for insurers, and finally a modification of existing reimbursement schemas for physicians such that an additional payment is required for every encounter codified as involving a patient with limited English proficiency. The extra dollars could be used either to hire bilingual clinicians or to pay for interpreters, at the discretion of each practice or hospital [10, 11].

There are currently no national standards for the training and licensure of medical interpreters, with the consequence being that hiring practices vary considerably, and there are no data on the quality of services rendered. There are, however, standards of practice, which are not enforced in all hospitals. In the past two decades, in response to the growing demand for interpreters, more individuals have been hired without clearly delineated training requirements, expectations, job descriptions, or ethical mandates. Some have only a few hours of "training." Several advocacy and professional groups, such as the International Medical Interpreter Association and the California Health Interpreters Association, have published standards of practice that delineate competencies [12]. The National Council on Interpreting in Healthcare has published a code that outlines appropriate behavior in nine areas of practice [13]. These are: confidentiality, accuracy, completeness, impartiality, professional boundaries, professional development, cultural competence, respect for all parties, and professional integrity. Ethical practice dictates that the interpreter cannot give advice and must respect the physician's message without additions, omissions, or distortions. The emphasis on impartiality may, in certain emotional or controversial situations, place the interpreter in an ethically difficult position. Some have argued that real neutrality is a myth [14], although it remains the "standard" model championed by interpreter societies and the medical profession. In fact, this debate led to an expansion of the role of the medical interpreter to include that of a clarifier, culture broker, and patient advocate. The problem remains that there is no standard training for these new roles and there are no measurable parameters to assess performance [15]. However, at least two professional societies in the U.S. (the American Translators Association [16] and the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf [17]) have successfully developed certification procedures.

Rising numbers of immigrants will only increase the demand for interpreters. The unfunded mandate to provide such services will need to be addressed at state and federal levels and will likely result in more uniform and possibly stricter criteria for accreditation of hospital-based interpreters. Current training programs range from several hours to comprehensive curricula on language proficiency, interpreting skills, medical terminology, and ethical conduct. Biomedical research regarding the use and effectiveness of interpreters has focused mostly on the medical errors associated with language-discordant encounters and interpretation practices. Errors made by untrained bilingual staff or family serving as interpreters can have serious consequences and have been broken down into five major types: errors of omission, false fluency, substitution, editorialization, or addition [18]. This research has disclosed that, even with intensive training and professional expertise, interpreting accuracy drops off in situations where clinicians use long sentences, medical jargon, or terms that are unfamiliar to the interpreter. One particular setting in which interpretation errors have been documented is in conversations regarding consent for treatment in a clinical trial. A study by Simon and colleagues identified frequent and consistent errors during these discussions that reflect knowledge gaps on the part of the interpreters [19]. Explanations of randomization were typically poorly phrased and misinterpreted. In general, this is not an easy concept to explain or understand by the public at large and therefore a likely "trap" for interpreters who lack specialized training in the terminology commonly employed in clinical research. It is worth emphasizing that interpreters typically perform best when the source message is short, simple, and clear and when proper introductions are made at the onset of the interview that set up a collaborative relationship among the clinician, the patient and family, and the interpreter.

Interventions directed at improving communication by training physicians to work with interpreters have been reported in the U.S. as well as in other countries with large numbers of immigrants. Bischoff and colleagues described a series of interactive workshops for physicians working in Geneva, Switzerland, designed specifically to train physicians in working with interpreters [20]. Training resulted in greater ease in working in partnership with interpreters, in the handling of the three-way relationship, and in patient centeredness. Interestingly, this approach also led to increased cultural awareness and sensitivity among physicians. This successful example of training leading to practice change is in sharp contrast with more disturbing results in the U.S. A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association reported on a national survey of resident physicians in 2004 that evaluated their education and practices related to the use of interpreters [21, 22]. The residents were asked if they received any type of instruction in hospital policies and procedures related to the use of interpreters. About one third reported receiving no instruction in working with interpreters. When facing language barriers, 77% of residents said they sometimes or often used professional interpreters, 84% used ad hoc interpreters, 77% used hospital employees, and 22% used children. More than half said they faced moderate or major problems in delivering cross-cultural care because of a lack of access to interpreters, lack of time, and lack of access to written materials in other languages. The authors concluded that residents need further training in patients' legal rights and in procedures and techniques to work with interpreters and reduce misinterpretation and errors. More importantly, physicians in training need role models and reminders by seasoned clinicians. Many excellent teaching cases on the wards of our hospitals could provide teaching opportunities for a faculty prepared to devote the time needed to address these important aspects of humane care.

Simple recommendations for working effectively with interpreters include the need to warn the interpreter prior to the meeting if sensitive information will be discussed and a proper introduction of the interpreter to the patient that promotes collegiality and delineates roles and expectations. All parties should be positioned so that the clinician and patient can maintain proper eye contact throughout the interview, and, finally, both the physician and interpreter should use short phrases devoid of jargon. Asking the patient to repeat what he or she has understood, and having the interpreter "back translate" the content, provides an additional tool to check the accuracy of translation as well as the patient's understanding (B. Lubrano, R. Brown, C. Bylund et al., personal communication).

The interpreters' perspective was explored in one study of nine professional interpreters in Switzerland. Interpreters were reluctant to provide specific advice or criticism and instead recommended more training for physicians to increase their patient centeredness, understanding of the difficulties involved in medical interpretation, and knowledge of the patient's country of origin and customs [23]. Another study conducted in Canada analyzed videotaped encounters using professional or family interpreters in order to gain a deeper understanding of the interpreter's experience and role [24]. The tasks identified by professional interpreters were the transmission of information, the creation of a safe environment for the patient, cultural mediation, and maintaining professional boundaries. The study commented on evidence of a lack of proper respect and recognition for interpreters' capacities and status as a member of the medical team, and the absence of a place to wait within the institution. In the latter regard, interpreters expressed disappointment that they were often relegated to a seat in the patient waiting room. Family interpreters acted mostly as participants, often speaking as themselves rather than providing accurate renditions of both the doctor's and patient's comments, and often felt more comfortable in proactive caregiving roles. A U.S. study recently explored the expanded role of professional medical interpreters working for two midwestern interpreting agencies [25]. A majority of the interpreters (17 of 26 recruited for this study) had participated in a 40-hour course viewed as industry-recognized training. Those who had not attended the course had participated in other training or were recognized as trainers of interpreters. Analysis of practices showed that the interpreters assumed some of the clinicians' communicative goals by initiating information-seeking behaviors, editorializing information for emphasis, and volunteering medical information to patients. These communicative strategies may also pose risks to patients' privacy, have unintended clinical consequences, and interfere with the clinician–patient relationship [23].

Insights shared by staff interpreters at this forum highlight the deeply personal and emotional nature of the work and the opportunity to improve care for patients with limited English proficiency by integrating interpreters into the multidisciplinary team. Specialized training in the concepts behind the medical terminology commonly employed in oncology and clinical research can raise the level of proficiency and competence. Providing a dedicated office and a reliable mechanism for booking appointments is essential in order to maintain a professional status within the institution. Opportunities for professional support and advancement are sorely needed to retain talented professionals and raise the standards or performance at local and regional levels. Senior interpreters could expand their role and participate in multidisciplinary team meetings in order to help coordinate care for patients with special language and cultural needs.

Good communication between a clinician and patient is challenging even if both share cultural heritage and common values, and speak the same language. A recent monograph from the Institute of Medicine released in 2007 identifies six core functions for patient-centered communication in cancer care: fostering healing relationships, exchanging information, responding to emotions, managing uncertainty, making decisions, and enabling patient self-management [26]. Successfully performing these tasks requires much more than specific knowledge of disease and treatment, and, in the event of language barriers between the clinician and the patient, depends largely upon interpreters. Little is known about the experience of cancer patients unable to communicate directly with their treating physicians and clinical staff either because of deafness or language barriers. One U.S. study explored the perspectives of a sample of pediatric oncologists, interpreters, and Spanish-speaking parents of children with newly diagnosed leukemia and found that all parties expressed concern about the accuracy and completeness of the interpretation [27].

Language, culture, life experiences, and beliefs shape an individual's perspective and relationship with the world. Serious illness inevitably affects all aspects of personhood and threatens the integrity of relationships on many levels. Responding compassionately requires an acknowledgment of that individual's uniqueness and respect for his or her life. Without language, we lose our most effective tool for establishing a meaningful relationship with patients and the opportunity to address individual worries and fears. Ultimately, professional medical interpreters have the unique ability to assist clinicians in establishing the healing connections that form the foundation of ethical and culturally sensitive care.

AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS

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Learning Objectives

Abstract

Presentation

Commentary

Author Contributions

References

Conception/design: Lidia Schapira

Collection/assembly of data: Lidia Schapira

Data analysis and interpretation: Lidia Schapira, Karin Hobrecker, Bruce Chabner

Manuscript writing: Lidia Schapira

Final approval of manuscript: Lidia Schapira, Erika Vargas, Renzo Hidalgo, Marilyn Brier, Lourdes Sanchez, Thomas Lynch

A Call for Medical Interpreters

2011-05-02T09:06:00.002-04:00

Health Affairs, 25, no. 3 (2006): 808-813

doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.25.3.808

© 2006 by Project HOPE

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Narrative Matters

Doctoring Across The Language Divide

Alice Chen

PREFACE: It’s fortuitous that "patients" and "patience" are pronounced the same. Their link as homophones continually reminds us that physicians’ communicating with their patients—and the patience it involves—is essential to good doctoring. When one factors in different languages and different cultures, communicating becomes an even more layered process requiring additional patience—and perseverance. California physician Alice Chen speaks three languages; nonetheless, she found herself one language short with a patient who spoke only Arabic. As Chen details in her essay, the only communication with her patient that she could trust was provided by a trained medical interpreter; she finds it inexplicable that despite the growing need for this important specialized service and its proven effectiveness, the need for trained medical interpreters is often swept under the carpet by policymakers. Then, too, although people from two different cultures ostensibly speak the same language, it doesn’t mean that they truly understand one another. In his essay, physician-professor Jack Coulehan looks back on a summer almost forty years ago when he and his wife worked on a public health project in Jamaica—and realizes that with time and patience, he has finally understood what was said to him.

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THE FIRST TIME I MET Mrs. Haddad, I was running late. She was sitting on the exam room’s metal folding chair, covered head to toe in the black hijab worn by some Muslim women. Her face was exposed but expressionless and didn’t change when I walked into the room. A man seated beside her stood up immediately.

Because most of my patients don’t speak much English, my usual routine is to walk into the room, introduce myself, and ask what language the patient speaks. In addition to English, I speak Mandarin and Spanish, but as often as not, I leave to find an interpreter. Fortunately, this community health center has professional interpreters who speak Cantonese, Korean, Toisanese, and Vietnamese, as well as bilingual staff members who have been trained to serve as medical interpreters for Cambodian, Lao, Mien, and Tagalog.

"Hi, I’m Dr. Chen. I’m sorry to have kept you waiting. What language do you speak?" Mrs. Haddad said nothing. The man—her husband, as it turned out—answered instead, "She speaks Arabic. But I speak English." Mr. Haddad was slender with an open, animated face, wearing a dark blue T-shirt and dark pants and holding a cell phone.

I looked at Mrs. Haddad. She looked at me, silent. I looked back at her husband. He launched into the reasons his wife was here to see me: "She has leg pains and stomach problems. She recently had breast surgery." She was still looking at me, without expectation. None of the clinic staff spoke Arabic. With no other interpreter available, I sat down reluctantly, pen in hand.

"How long have you had these symptoms?" I glanced at Mrs. Haddad. She looked down, and Mr. Haddad began to describe his wife’s aches and pains. I tried to multitask: noting her birth date (she was forty-nine); listening to her husband and nodding; thumbing through her chart for something that could anchor the litany of problems swirling around me; and, out of the corner of my eye, keeping an eye on my patient. She watched us stoically. This went on for a few minutes. I began to feel inundated as I registered lab results (normal blood counts, normal chemistries, normal thyroid) and x-ray reports (all normal) while trying to focus on what Mr. Haddad was saying.

Then I stopped. I didn’t have any sense of who Mrs. Haddad was; I wasn’t able to hear her intonation, watch her facial expressions, or read her body language. All I had so far was a long list of symptoms filtered through her husband.

I turned to him and asked, "Can we start over?" He looked surprised. I took a deep breath. "Because I can’t speak Arabic, I need you to be my voice and my ears. I need you to say everything I say, exactly the way I say it. I need you to tell me exactly what your wife says, exactly as she says it. If you want to add something, or have an opinion, that’s great, but I need you to let me know that it’s your opinion, not your wife’s. OK?" He looked dubious. "Sure."

Mr. Haddad proved to be a fair interpreter. I spoke in short, simple sentences, and, generally, he interpreted rather than answered for his wife. I was able to begin focusing more on my patient, and I soon realized she seemed unhappy. We discussed her symptoms, when they started, what made them better, what made them worse, and what treatments she had received before. We talked about her surgeries and her medications. I commented, "You seem sad." Her husband responded, "She has a lot of stress." I asked him to interpret my words to her. Mrs. Haddad nodded slightly, then tears started rolling down her face. Her husband explained tersely that their whole family was under a lot of stress because their son was being harassed by U.S. authorities. I handed her a tissue.

She wiped away her tears, and we moved on to other subjects. I recommended some changes in her diet and sent her for some blood tests. After she left, I felt uneasy, wondering if I had missed something important because I wasn’t comfortable asking sensitive questions with her husband serving as our interpreter. What if she was crying because her husband or someone else was abusing her, or what if she was feeling suicidal?

A month later, when Mrs. Haddad came for follow-up, her husband again served as our interpreter. With some prompting and occasional redirecting, we again fell into a rhythm: talk, pause, interpret, pause. He stopped me once to ask, "What does ‘irritated’ mean?" I had thought I was doing a good job by avoiding specialized medical terminology but had forgotten that English was his second language. "It means upset, feels bad."

While examining her, I looked carefully for signs of bruises, asked casually about any episodes of trauma. I found out that she was from Yemen; had been in the United States for about six years; spoke and understood almost no English; had four children and five grandchildren; lived in a household of fourteen people; and spent her days cooking, cleaning, and looking after her extended family. With these facts I felt I had a quick sketch of Mrs. Haddad, but no real understanding of her as a person or how her neck, shoulder, back, hip, and knee pain related to her activities or stressors or her expectations of medical care. Her interaction with her husband seemed reasonable, and her labs were reassuring except for a mild anemia, but I still felt troubled. I sent her for more blood tests and some x-rays.

I also looked into how we could get a trained medical interpreter for our visits. Mrs. Haddad was insured through a Medicaid health plan that has a simple process to request and obtain an in-person interpreter for medical visits. This was, indeed, fortunate. Although all Medicaid managed care plans across the country are required by federal regulation to provide language-assistance services for enrollees who speak limited English, many have not yet developed this service. Some have created daunting administrative hurdles to accessing interpreters, while others provide only telephone interpreters, which requires a clinician to have a telephone—and, ideally, a high-quality speakerphone—in the exam room.

Suddenly, Seamless Communication

AT MRS. HADDAD'S NEXT APPOINTMENT we had a professional female interpreter with us. One of Mrs. Haddad’s sons had brought her to the appointment, but once he found out we had an interpreter, he was happy to stay in the waiting room. I started off by reviewing Mrs. Haddad’s symptoms, then gingerly edged toward asking about the source of her stress and about her relationship with her husband. Thanks to our interpreter, our exchanges were quick and seamless. Her spontaneous smile—the first I had seen—and immediate shake of her head when asked about problems with her husband were all the answer I needed. Although I still had all her aches and pains to deal with, I didn’t have to worry about domestic violence, too.

From there I developed a fuller understanding of my patient. She made a face as she related why she hadn’t gotten the hip x-ray I had ordered to assess for arthritis: The x-ray technician was a man, and he had wanted to lift up her hijab so that he could properly position the equipment. (I referred her to a different facility with a notation that she needed a female technician.) In discussing her anemia and recommendations for further evaluation, I discovered that she was still having heavy monthly periods. Although she didn’t know her exact age, working backward from the age of her oldest child, we calculated that she was roughly thirty-nine years old, not forty-nine as her official birth date suggested. I relaxed a bit; at her age, a mild iron-deficiency anemia was likely due to heavy periods and less likely due to colon cancer.

She told me about how several months before, the police had broken down her door. One of them had thrown her to the ground and held her down with his foot on her back; she had experienced nagging back pain ever since. She said that a policeman had put a gun to her son’s head and that the family van had been impounded. She cried about how her son had been accused of financing terrorism because he owned a currency exchange, a common business practice in immigrant communities. Her exam unremarkable, I was able to reassure her that she didn’t have any permanent physical damage from her encounter with the police.

At the end of that visit, along with a prescription for iron supplements, I gave her the telephone number of a legal advocacy organization. She clasped my hands in thanks. I, in turn, thanked our interpreter, who had helped us connect, at least for now, across the no-man’s land between English and Arabic. And I silently thanked Mrs. Haddad’s health plan.

Needed: Trained Medical Interpreters

ACCORDING TO THE MOST RECENT U.S. CENSUS, the number of limited-English speakers in the country increased by 50 percent during the past decade, with one in five residents in my home state of California considered limited-English speakers. This burgeoning linguistic diversity has been accompanied by a number of policy initiatives addressing language barriers in health care settings. For example, in 2001 the federal government issued national standards for Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services in health care (CLAS standards), which served as a catalyst for many organizations to develop or refine their interpreter services. Unfortunately, for the most part, these national standards have been treated as voluntary guidelines without the force of law.

Depending on a facility’s number of limited-English-speaking patients and organizational resources, it might not be feasible—or necessary—to hire trained medical interpreters for a given language. At the same time, too many hospitals, clinics, and health plans leave it to the individual clinician and patient to muddle through with an untrained interpreter or to try to make do with English. Neither of these options should be acceptable to clinicians or their patients.

Communication between a clinician and a patient is always a delicate transaction. Even in the best of circumstances, with both being native English speakers and with a well-educated, well-informed patient, the opportunities for miscommunication are plentiful—and the consequences potentially profound. Add in differences in language and culture, lack of acculturation, and sometimes low literacy, and it’s a wonder that we connect at all.

In the ideal world, we would have bilingual, bicultural clinicians who could communicate with their patients directly without the assistance of a third party. But truly bilingual clinicians who understand the nuances of more than one culture are few and far between. No one can speak all the languages needed in our increasingly polyglot society; my clinic, for instance, had professional interpreters and bilingual staff members for ten languages—not one of which was the right one for Mrs. Haddad. Even if we began to require second-language fluency as a prerequisite to medical school admission, it would take years for this to affect clinical care, and we would still be lacking numerous languages. So we are left with relying on a third person to help us communicate: an interpreter.

Trying to communicate through an untrained interpreter is like playing the children’s game of telephone: Start with a sentence, pass it along a chain of people, and laugh when it emerges altered and garbled at the end of the chain. Except in a clinic situation with an untrained interpreter, you are left wondering whether what you asked was what the patient heard. And that’s not funny.

Study after study has shown that untrained interpreters in medical settings—such as husbands, friends, secretaries, and janitors who have some bilingual skills and happen to be available—are reliably unreliable. They typically lack fluency in English, the linguistic skills to convert from one language into the other, and knowledge of the medical terminology that’s needed to provide an accurate and complete interpretation. They might have their own agendas or opinions and, in the worst cases, might intentionally cover up their own abuse of the patient.

Children used as interpreters are a special problem. Although their English might be accentless, their command of their parents’ native language is often shaky, their vocabulary is usually sparse, and their understanding of medical concepts tends to be simplistic at best. They often feel a tremendous burden of responsibility, even guilt, for the information they convey, and just as often parents can be embarrassed or reluctant to disclose important symptoms and details to their child. And there can be far-reaching consequences. One of my patients never finished high school because, as a child, when her baby sister was chronically ill, her parents routinely pulled her out of school to interpret for them.

Bilingual medical staff members, such as medical assistants, are a better alternative; however, few organizations actually test their staff members’ bilingual fluency in medical terminology, let alone their interpreting skills. Anyone who can speak a second language knows that it is one thing to be able to speak in the second language, another to be able to interpret into that language, and yet still another to be able to interpret from that language into English. In addition to quality assurance, asking bilingual staff members to serve as interpreters requires that organizations explicitly acknowledge and structure this responsibility. Otherwise, such staff members are likely to resent and avoid interpreting as a burden that distracts from their primary obligations.

Clearly there are many challenges. There are an estimated 311 languages spoken in the United States. The health care workforce is diversifying, but at a glacial pace. Few clinicians have training or experience working with trained medical interpreters. Telephone interpreter services, such as the prototypical AT&T Language Line, are increasing, but they can be prohibitively costly depending on how often they are used and the languages involved, and they are frustratingly inadequate when difficult cultural or interpersonal issues arise.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights has the authority to enforce federal requirements mandating medical interpreter services. However, it suffers from chronic underfunding and understaffing and, in recent years, has been additionally tasked with the enormous responsibility of enforcing the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996.

On the policy front, there have been legislative attempts to ban the use of children as medical interpreters, as well as laws passed in New Jersey and California mandating that cultural competency (including issues of language access) be part of continuing medical education for physicians. Although important, these efforts sidestep the central question: Who pays for trained medical interpreters? The federal government has indicated that medical interpreters are an allowable covered service under fee-for-service Medicaid, but each state has to decide whether to pay for this service; so far, only eight states exercise this option. Outside the Medicaid arena, the issue has been a hot potato, with insurers, health plans, hospitals, and physicians each looking to the others to devise a solution.

We need increased support for using trained medical interpreters, through either centralized, direct reimbursement for medical interpretation (similar to how our federal judiciary pays for qualified courtroom interpreters) or increased payment to providers that care for patients with language barriers. Another model would be to establish a national system of telephone interpreters, similar to the one operated by the Australian government, which provides interpreting services for medical practitioners throughout the country—twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, in one hundred languages—for the cost of a local phone call.

For Mrs. Haddad, just as the legal advocacy organization’s telephone number might have been more therapeutic than all the various antidepressants and pain medications we had tried, our professional interpreter was arguably a better diagnostic test than all the labs and x-rays I had ordered during the preceding months. Caring for patients who speak limited English can be a challenge for both linguistic and cultural reasons; using a trained medical interpreter is the right medicine.

Editor's Notes

Alice Chen (Achen@medsfgh.ucsf.edu) is the medical director of the General Medical Clinic at San Francisco General Hospital in San Francisco, California, and an assistant clinical professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. She was at Asian Health Services, a community health center in Oakland, California, when these events took place. The names of the patient and her husband have been changed, as have some details.

A portion of this essay was written with support from the Medicine as a Profession initiative at the Open Society Institute.

Obama vs. Trump: Which one's certifiable? - NYPOST.com

2011-05-01T12:17:00.000-04:00

Obama vs. Trump: Which one's certifiable? - NYPOST.com

Hawaiian Long-Form Birth Certificate of Barack Obama released

2011-04-27T10:15:00.000-04:00

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/27/obamas-long-form-birth-certificate-released/

Birthers Gone Wild!

2011-04-23T11:23:00.000-04:00

But note: I wouldn't post this stuff to my blog unless I felt that these concerns were not totally unfounded. Birth certificates are a birthright.

http://obamareleaseyourrecords.blogspot.com/2011/04/trump-takes-on-foxs-greta-just-show-us.html

Video: Donald Trump Takes On Fox's Greta Van Susteren: JUST SHOW US THE PROOF! Maya Soetoro Defends Brother Obama's Birth Story Birther Report: Obama Release Your Records

Cordell Epps | Too Blessed To Be Stressed | CD Baby

2011-04-19T16:30:00.000-04:00

Cordell Epps Too Blessed To Be Stressed CD Baby

Twitter, Facebook, and social activism: newyorker.com

2011-04-13T16:38:00.000-04:00

So, THIS was Malcolm Gladwell's The New Yorker article. Twitter, Facebook, and social activism: newyorker.com

Civil War "contract" surgeons

2011-04-12T21:10:00.000-04:00

Civil War Contract Surgeons

by: antiquemedical( 377)

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Civil War 'contract' Surgeons: their role and surgery sets during the War

By Dr. Michael Echols, American Civil War Surgical Antiques

(The following are the personal edited research notes of Michael Echols, the source of which may or may not be completely documented)

Part I of II. For Part II, see: Form 18 and contract surgeons

One of the biggest problems I confront on a regular basis in collecting Civil War surgical antiques, is dealers or individuals saying they own a surgical set of someone who served as a surgeon during the Civil War. Okay, but there were basically two kinds of 'surgeons' during the War: Army surgeons and Civilian 'contract' surgeons on both sides. We need to define who and what these two groups did during the War. To be fair, there were medical school teaching surgeons and private surgeons who volunteered during the War who were among the most competent surgeons on record. Many of those surgeons also served on both sides during the War as army officers. There were also surgeons in the various state volunteer armies, who were mustered into regular regiments of the Union Army.

There is an excellent reference (quoted or paraphrased below) by Dr. Jay Bollet, Civil War Medicine: Challenges and Triumphs, which is a well documented book where he makes the point that contract surgeons were relegated to working in the rear area hospitals changing dressings and attending to the general health of patients, not doing complicated, amputations, or field surgery. The qualified surgeons were admitted to the Union and Confederate Armies and reviewed for their competence or lack there of, and eliminated from doing surgery if they did not pass muster. The point here is contract surgeons were not in the field or rear hospitals using their surgery kits to amputate limbs or resect fragments from bullet fractured bones. It just didn't happen often if at all. The real surgeons were in the regular Army on both sides, were supplied by the Army with Army owned and purchased surgical sets, not the sets found in some closet one hundred plus years after the fact, no matter how much some collectors or families would like to romance that idea.

Contract surgeons are a major source of provenance problems in relating any existing or pre-existing surgical set to the Civil War. Everyone wants to think their surgery set was a part of the Civil War. But the 'surgery' performed during the Civil War is greatly misunderstood or exaggerated. A part of those misconceptions is the misunderstood role of the 'contract' surgeons.

During the early days of the War, there were only 200 medical officers in the Union Army and some of those left to join the Confederate Army and form the medical service for the Confederacy. Of those remaining only a very few had any experience doing actual major surgery necessary for treating battle wounds. Until the Union could recruit and verify the abilities of new surgeons, they used 'contract' surgeons who may never have actually done any surgery other than minor procedures. These 'contract' surgeons were paid by the day, they came and went as needed in areas where battles took place. They would have been the local doctors who came to help. (Yes, they would have brought and used their own surgery sets) During this time (pre-1861) it was rare for any kind of major surgery to be performed unless it was thought to be the absolutely last resort.

There were a few teaching centers at medical hospitals where major surgery was done, but it was not even part of the teaching experience for most medical students. (That said, there are many medical textbooks which show and teach extensive invasive surgery as practiced in teaching hospitals in both America and Europe in 1850 and earlier.) Most American medical students only went to medical school for two years and then generally worked as an apprentice afterwards. Physician/surgeons in major cities like New York, Boston, or Philadelphia, would have had extensive surgical experience, but not by the type of doctor found across much of rural America at the time of the Civil War. If you wish to read more on this area of medical surgical history, there is a fine book about medical schools prior to the Civil War: "Medical Education Before the Civil War", by Wm. F. Norwood.

Below: Taken from 'A History of the Army Medical Department: Civil War Medicine 1861-1865' by Mary C. Gilletty

"The quality of the Army's contract physicians was important, since during the course of the war more than 5,500 civilian doctors assisted the Medical Department. Many routinely staffed general hospitals while others provided help only in emergencies when it was necessary to locate more physicians quickly. In the last group were some of the nation's most prominent doctors. When a battle resulted in overwhelming numbers of casualties, those who flocked to the scene might include quacks, cultists, and practitioners of questionable ethics, men who were not under military discipline and who could, therefore, come and go as they liked, taking assignments that pleased them and rejecting all others. They often performed unnecessary operations or wrought havoc as they dug about for bullets.

As a result of the problems experienced with doctors so casually assembled, the Union Army Medical Department decided to call only upon members of a reserve surgeons corps formed by the governors of various states. These gentlemen were paid the salary of contract surgeons and came in if called. They served under Medical Department orders and were required to remain at their assigned posts at least fifteen days, unless officially released sooner."

Civil War Surgery: The truth about what surgeons did and did not do during the War

(Source of the following: "The Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion. (1861-65.) Part III, Volume II, Chapter XIV.--The Medical Staff and Materia Chirugica")

"Beside the medical officers of the regular and volunteer staff, and the medical officers of regiments, there was a class designated as Acting Assistant Surgeons, who were private physicians, uncommissioned, serving under contract to do duty with the forces in the field or in general hospitals. This class was very large and embraced in its number some of the most eminent surgeons and physicians of the country. The Medical Cadets were generally young men, students of medicine, who were assigned to duty in general hospitals as dressers and assistants. The Medical Department was still further increased by a number of Hospital Stewards, who were enlisted as needed, and who performed the duties of druggists, clerks, and storekeepers."

"During the years of the war the organization of the Regular Staff had been increased so as to number one Surgeon General, one Assistant Surgeon General, one Medical Inspector General, sixteen Medical Inspectors, and one hundred and seventy Surgeons and Assistant Surgeons; there had been appointed five hundred and forty-seven (547) Surgeons and Assistant Surgeons of Volunteers; there were mustered into service between April, 1861, and the close of the war, two thousand one hundred and nine (2,109) regimental Surgeons, three thousand eight hundred and eighty-two (3,882) regimental Assistant Surgeons. During the same period there were employed eighty-five (85) Acting Staff Surgeons and five thousand five hundred and thirty-two Acting Assistant Surgeons."

As the War progressed, it quickly became apparent many of the doctors were not competent to do any kind of surgery, so the Surgeon General's Office developed testing procedures and 'boards' for admitting surgeons to the Army Medical Department and further qualified those who had varying degrees of skill to actually do the day to day surgery on the troops. As the more qualified doctors were recruited and processed the less qualified doctors and especially the 'contract' doctors were relegated to the rear areas to tend to the troops in ways that we would expect skilled nurses to do today.

It is essential for you to understand how little major surgical experience existed prior to the War pre-1860. Surgery we take for granted today just did not exist other than in major teaching hospitals if at all. Medicine was primitive at best by today's standards in most areas of the country. For all the amputation sets made, it was a rare surgery and often done by inexperienced doctors who had never done one before. Not all doctors were trained the same as there were no national standards.

As the War progressed, the more skilled surgeons and assistant surgeons were moved forward into the field. Assistant surgeons may have triaged in the forward areas and the full surgeons operated behind the lines on the more seriously wounded. As soon as possible the post surgical and seriously wounded would be transported to field hospitals for continued care and this would have been where 'contract' doctors would have been employed. It would not have been in the field with a saw or knife in hand as some would like to believe. Only the most experienced surgeons were doing amputations or complicated surgery.

So,the odds of a given surgery set belonging to a 'contract' surgeon being used during the War is pretty slim. Contract surgeons were not in the Army, they were hired hands to help in the rear areas and they were not hired to do major surgery. And anything where cutting was involved was 'major'. Most likely a pocket roll-up surgical kit was the most any doctor ever needed given the minor nature of the 'surgery' they did. Certainly only the most experienced doctors/surgeons drew an amputation knife or bone saw.

See more on Civil War Form 18 and Contract Surgeons .

All this said, there is a directive in the 1863 SGO Army Surgeon's Manual which specifically states that 'contract' surgeons who are issued instruments shall have their pay debited for the cost of the instruments, which would lead one to assume the contract surgeon's would then own the instruments they drew from medical stores, but that does not mean they were issued full capital operating sets or even full amputation sets. Those sets are government issue and so marked with "U.S.Army Hosp. or Medical Dept."

The surgery sets used by the regular uniformed Union surgeons were bought and paid for by the Union Army. They were not the personal property of the surgeon (thus no name on the brass plate) and were maintained by assistants, not the surgeons. Surgeon's didn't walk around with large and heavy sets. These were transported by wagon and set up by assistants in field or rear area hospitals, which were merely tents in more protected areas behind the lines. Some well meaning local doctor may have given a hand or observed at times, but more than likely the uniformed Army surgeons ruled the scene and kept total control of the situation. Being a military surgeon was serious business and not to be taken lightly by allowing some unknown visiting doctor to take over or do a major operation with a limited use surgery set he brought along for the day.

There may have been European and English sets used by northern doctors who served in the early days of the War as 'contract' surgeons after local battles. The Union and certainly the Confederate contract surgeon's may have (and the emphasis is on 'May have") brought their existing sets or pocket kits with them. The source of these sets would have been both European, English, and American in origin. The trick is proving they were actually owned by the doctor and the set existed before or during the War. This is extremely difficult, but not impossible.

A few more thoughts about 'provenance' supported sets. Just because someone shows up with a lot of written information about a great set, you have to prove the set belonged to the owner/surgeon. The set has to be from the right time frame, and to be something the owner 'could' have owned. This boils down to documenting the dates of manufacture, the source of the set, then connecting the set to the owner during the Civil War.

One of the big problems with European sets is dating the set to a specific time frame because there is almost no information available about specific European or English sets, with which you can date the sets to five or ten year time frames. There are a couple of books on European and English topics (Bennion, Kickup), but nothing to match Edmonson's work on American sets.

There is extensive information on the website, American Civil War Surgical Antiques, and you can access that information by searching for:

Dr. Michael Echols, American Civil War Surgical Antiques

Dr. Echols is strictly a collector/researcher and is not a dealer.

U.S. Military Medicine in the Philippines

2011-04-12T19:07:00.000-04:00

Chapter 8

CAMPAIGNS OF THE NEW EMPIRE

The "splendid little war" was over almost as soon as it began, and in the United States even disease was defeated within a few months. But for U.S. forces in the Far East, the surrender of the Spanish was only the start of a long struggle. Beginning in the spring of 1900 and continuing for years thereafter, soldiers in the Philippines would be involved in guerrilla warfare, and the medical officers with them would face challenges rendered more demanding than those of the Indian wars both by the complexities of the campaigns and by the tropical climate and its diseases. American soldiers and marines would also be called upon to join troops from other major powers to end violence engendered in China by members of a secret organization, the Boxers, who, with the tacit approval of the Dowager Empress, sought to end foreign exploitation of their nation. The physicians with them would be required to deal with the consequences of generations of abysmally poor sanitation and of the diseases that inevitably resulted.

The Philippine Insurrection

The defeat of the Spanish brought in mid-August 1898 only a short respite for General Merritt's VIII Corps. During this period, beginning shortly after the surrender, a flurry of changes took place at the highest level of command in the Philippines. On 25 August the 1st Division of the VIII Corps was organized under the command of General Anderson, who was recently promoted to major general in the volunteers. On the twenty-eighth Anderson was relieved as commander of the 2d Division by Arthur MacArthur, now too a new major general in the volunteers, and General Merritt as commanding general of the VIII Corps by Elwell S. Otis, also a major general in the volunteers. On the twenty-ninth Otis also relieved Merritt as military governor and commanding officer of the Department of the Pacific.1

Thus General Otis was in command of U.S. forces in the Philippines when, in February 1899, the Filipinos, suspicious about the motives of their liberators, turned to violence, initially in the form of warfare as orthodox as it could be among the narrow jungle trails and waterways that surrounded Manila. U.S. units, and the medical officers accompanying them, gained their first taste of what was to come when they attempted to defeat their new enemy and found themselves struggling to penetrate the mountains northwest of Manila-essentially impassable for vehicles-and, once beyond the mountains, to progress along bad roads and across "insecure" bridges. These early efforts were success-

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ful, but U.S. troops were not yet ready to seize and retain control of any extensive area, because all the volunteers and a third of the regulars in the VIII Corps were entitled to return home in the spring of 1899. When the volunteers of 1898 were mustered out, they were replaced by 35,000 men of new United States Volunteer regiments. By the autumn of 1899, with the arrival of new troops, U.S. forces in the Philippines numbered 66,000, more than 30,000 of them volunteers.2

The Americans now moved to take control of the islands, beginning with Luzon and a three-pronged push north of Manila (Map 4). In this campaign too, as Secretary of War Elihu Root noted in his report for 1899, "all . . . movements were accomplished under great difficulties owing to the almost impassable condition of the country." By the end of November the resistance was abandoning its attempts to conduct conventional warfare, and U.S. troops in northern Luzon were "actively pursuing the flying and scattered bands of insurgents, further dispersing them. . . . " American forces soon extended the drive to take complete control of the Philippines to the east and south of Manila as well, into another area of difficult terrain. So successful were these efforts that by the spring of 1900 General Otis concluded that the insurrection had been defeated and in May asked to be relieved. Nevertheless, troops under General MacArthur, who replaced Otis as commanding general in the Philippines, still faced guerrilla attacks and had to remain in the field and establish what would eventually be more than 500 posts to hold what they had taken.3

During the earliest and most conventional stage of the Philippine Insurrection, a single military department formed the basis for the government of the islands. The organization of VIII Corps medical personnel still reflected that of the corps itself. A chief surgeon headed the medical service of the entire corps, and a chief surgeon was assigned to each division and brigade of the corps. The regimental staff, which normally consisted of three physicians, increased significantly after the change from more conventional warfare to a guerrilla conflict in early 1900 and the increase in the number of posts that resulted. Eventually, although as many as seven medical officers sometimes served on a regimental staff, their numbers could still be too small to provide a physician for each garrison in its district. As a result, hospital corpsmen might be assigned to assume the physician's role for the smallest detachments and subposts.4

At the end of March 1900 the complexities involved in dealing with the guerrillas and governing the islands led to the transformation of what had been the Department of the Pacific into the Division of the Philippines with four geographical departments, each of which was, in turn, divided into military districts. This step brought an end to the VIII Corps.5 The corps chief surgeon become the chief surgeon of the Division of the Philippines. The position of the chief surgeon of a military division was transformed into that of the chief surgeon of a department and that of the chief surgeon of a brigade into that of the chief surgeon of a district. The district form of organization was dropped late in 1901 and replaced by an organization by brigade.6

The government of the Philippines changed again in the spring of 1901, after U.S. forces captured the chief guerrilla leader, Emilio Aguinaldo. Although minor guerrilla activity would continue for many years thereafter, a successful effort to reduce expenses by concentrating resources

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MAP 4

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was initiated, and the four departments were consolidated into two. President McKinley confidently appointed a civilian government for the islands in the form of a commission with legislative and limited executive power and a civilian governor. By November fewer than 45,000 U.S. soldiers remained of the 100,000 who at one point were serving in the Philippines.7

Although the organization and size of the medical service in the Philippines was adjusted to conform with the organization of the Army and the needs of forces spread out over an increasingly large area, the basic nature of the challenge facing medical personnel in the field changed only gradually. In this primitive land, the terrain controlled medical evacuation, while the number of sick and wounded and the difficulties experienced in moving them dictated the nature of the hospital system. The change of the conflict from conventional to guerrilla warfare in the space of a few months had less direct influence on the demands placed on the Medical Department than did the gradual isolation in well-nigh inaccessible locations of the small units that were sent to fight the guerrillas.

Hospitals and Evacuation

Initially, the Medical Department's chief responsibility was establishing a system of base hospitals in the Manila area to care for the sick, for those recovering from wounds sustained in the brief hostilities with the Spanish, and for convalescents. The department then expanded the size of this system and extended it geographically to care for those disabled during the insurrection that followed. In a former Spanish military hospital, Major Crosby set up the first division hospital to be established in Manila. Before the first patients arrived on 17 August 1898, the building of the newly created First Reserve Hospital was thoroughly cleaned and the necessary repairs were made. To avoid crowding, Crosby erected tents to handle the overflow. The unsatisfactory state of the hospital's plumbing and the poor drainage of the land nearby initially caused the Medical Department to be uneasy about using this structure, despite its electric lights and excellent ventilation. In time, the sewer system was replaced, water closets were installed, and each ward was given its own bathroom with showers. The city water works provided ample supplies, from which drinking water was distilled.8

The First Reserve soon became the keystone of the Army's hospital network in the Philippines.9 Its surgical facilities, which included three operating rooms, were the most important in Manila. A two-ward smallpox unit was established 1,200 yards from the main building; another ward, consisting of two tents erected over raised platforms, was added later for those suspected of having smallpox; and a third tent was set up to isolate patients suffering from bubonic plague, if that disease ever afflicted the Army. All patients arriving in Manila by boat came through a First Reserve unit established near the docks, where the victims of accidents on the city streets or on the railroad also received emergency treatment. The hospital laboratory, set up by Captain McVay, was well equipped to handle all pathological examinations for the Manila area. This entire division hospital, including the smallpox facility, eventually held 400 beds. Sixteen mules drew four ambulance wagons around the Manila area to pick up patients in response to telegraphed requests for their services.10

Two more hospitals were established not long after the fall of Manila. The Sec-

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SECOND RESERVE HOSPITAL, MANILA, PHILIPPINES

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ond Reserve Hospital opened in September 1898 in a modern and attractive building that had been built to serve as a young women's school. With its eight porcelain bathtubs and its acres of walled gardens, complete with fountains and flowering trees, this facility was "a really fine establishment." Initially most of its 300 beds were assigned to convalescents who were transferred from the First Reserve Hospital or from regimental hospitals; but, as time went by and the disease rate rose, the seriously ill were also sent there. Convalescents did not have to share yet another facility, which was set up on Corregidor Island, a site only thirty miles from Manila that was chosen in November because of the city's poor health record. The climate was more pleasant than that of the city, the natural drainage of the soil was good, the sea air was mild, and many trees tempted those whose health was still fragile to rest in their shade. This hospital initially occupied tents and a few old buildings, where 250 beds were placed. In September 1899, with activity against the Filipinos intensifying, the first of a series of new structures was completed to replace the old ones, and by June 1900 the facility held 220 beds. As described by the surgeon in charge of the Corregidor facility, "The first dental office ever fitted out officially by the United States government" was also set up, to be managed by a hospital corpsman who in private life had been a professional dentist. Plans to expand this hospital had to be suspended because of high construction costs that resulted in part from a conspiracy among lumber dealers.11

In May 1899 another hospital, known simply as Hospital No. 3 or the supplementary hospital, was opened just outside the city walls in barracks once belonging to the Spanish infantry. An enormous amount of work was necessary to make it fit for use. One medical officer noted that "only one who has seen the filth can appreciate what that labor was." Among its 285 patients were those scheduled for disability discharges. No civilian nurses served on its staff, since the surgeon in charge regarded them as neither necessary nor desirable.12

In November 1899, in response to the mounting disease rate and growing activity against guerrillas, the Medical Department increased the number of available beds by taking over a former barracks at Santa Mesa, a suburb of Manila, for a new 1,000-bed unit. The staff of this new facility, eventually the largest in the Philippines, included 10 physicians, 25 female nurses, 4 hospital stewards, 2 acting hospital stewards, and 122 Hospital Corps privates. As late as June 1900, however, the laboratory of Santa Mesa was regarded as completely inadequate, and earth closets had not been replaced by more modern equipment. By 15 August the hospitals in Manila, together with that on Corregidor, held a total of more than 2,200 beds. Space was also available at a 600-bed Navy hospital in Yokohama, Japan, and in Hong Kong.13

The Medical Department used the hospital ships Scandia, Missouri, and Relief both to supplement its hospitals on land and to move patients by water to and from locations within the Philippine Islands. The Scandia, a transport fitted out to serve as a hospital ship and carrying with her 5 medical officers and 139 hospital corpsmen, was dispatched from California on 27 August 1900. Although in the fall of 1899 the Missouri briefly joined the transports in taking invalids back to the United States, the Relief, which had arrived in the Philippines on 8 April, rarely took patients all the way to San Francisco because of her light construction and the limited amount

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WARD ON HOSPITAL SHIP RELIEF

of coal she could carry. Except for service during the China Relief Expedition and trips to Hong Kong for repairs, she remained for the most part in Philippine waters. As she cruised up and down the coast of the Philippines, rendezvousing with units on the march, leaving off supplies, and picking up the seriously ill or wounded from regimental surgeons or post hospitals, the Relief provided her passengers with a "sea trip and good food." The restorative effect of such a journey upon the debilitated caused the Medical Department in March 1901 to put 140 patients on board the Relief merely to enjoy the trip from Manila up the coast. More than half her invalid passengers, including the 51 she picked up on the way, improved markedly because of their sea voyage, and she was assigned to make several more such journeys. Because the Relief's deep draft prevented her from entering shallow waters and because a transport that picked up patients from south of Manila was equally handicapped, the Medical Department also employed shallow-draft vessels to move patients, including a hospital launch that took patients from Manila on three- to four-hour sea jaunts.14

The need for hospital beds dropped significantly following the capture of Aguinaldo in March, although some resistance, especially in the form of terrorism, continued for several months, and disease remained an enemy even after much of the countryside had been pacified. A one-third reduction in the number of hospital beds was planned early in 1901, but the mass evacuation of patients to the United States upon which the reduction depended progressed more slowly than had been anticipated because of a shortage of transports. Only in July, when the effort to concentrate the Army's resources in the Philippines was

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under way, could one of Manila's facilities, the Second Reserve Hospital, be closed. The remaining patients and staff were sent to the Santa Mesa hospital, which, in turn, was closed before the end of the year. A 125-bed hospital was established on Nozaleda Street in Manila on 18 December to shelter patients still hospitalized at Santa Mesa when it was closed. On its attractive grounds a 20-bed isolation facility was set up in six tents for the victims of tuberculosis.15

Although from the outset the Medical Department relied heavily on the major hospitals of Manila and Corregidor, supplemented by those on hospital ships, much smaller facilities on the transports returning patients to the United States were also available. The Army Transport Service, established in November 1898, was responsible for seeing that each ship had the proper facilities for its passengers, whether they were en route to the Philippines or on their way home. The larger vessels of the Transport Service carried hospitals complete with isolation wards and diet kitchens, and even smaller ships carried medical personnel to care for the sick. Two Regular Army surgeons served as medical superintendents for the Transport Service, one in New York and the other in San Francisco. Their duties included advising the service's general superintendent in each city, supervising the work of the contract surgeons on service ships, and inspecting each vessel. A contract surgeon who was chosen by examination from among applicants who were graduates of "regular reputable" medical schools accompanied each transport, as did a hospital steward or acting hospital steward and one to three Hospital Corps privates. Thus, by relying on transports equipped with hospital facilities, the Army could return the sick and wounded to the United States without using hospital ships.16

Establishing the system of base hospitals, hospital ships, and transports was not as great a challenge as caring for the sick and wounded when troops were pushing through the jungle, far from good roads and intact portions of the rail line. Initially, medical officers did not anticipate the difficulties they would soon be encountering in the struggle with the Filipinos. As chief surgeon of the VIII Corps, Colonel Lippincott had planned a system of field hospitals in which he had great confidence. In the winter of 1899 he rejoiced that the medical service in the Philippines had been "in fine condition at the moment of first fire" and had "continued to improve from day to day, so that there was never a delay in securing excellent attention for the wounded."17

In the early spring of 1899, when troops began pushing as much as thirty miles beyond Manila, they encountered terrain that made evacuation very difficult, regardless of the size of the units involved or the nature of the operation. When the Army began working in smaller units to deal with the guerrillas and the number of posts more than tripled during the first six months of 1900 to "embrac[e] the furthermost limits of the islands," the lightly equipped field hospitals that accompanied the men had to become both smaller and more numerous. The nature of the problems involved in moving the disabled first to such small facilities and then from them to the rail line or to a major hospital did not change.18

To carry litters for these units in the field, natives of the area, and sometimes even prisoners, were hired or impressed into service, but for a time the most successful bearer was the Chinese coolie. If assured of his pay and rations, the coolie proved to be, according to some authorities, "patient, tireless, and brave" and better able to bear great heat than American

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hospital corpsmen. Others were considerably less enthusiastic about this practice. General Schwan, who commanded forces involved in the campaign in southern Luzon in late 1899 and early 1900, considered "the use of coolies, either for company or hospital use on a campaign, . . . injurious to discipline and of no value to the service." He regarded them as "great looters," noting that "about all they do after a few days' march is to carry their own food and what they have stolen out of houses and churches." Early in 1900, when the end of the conflict seemed near and an awareness of the threat that cheap Chinese labor posed to local workers was growing, the Army forbad the hiring of Chinese for this type of work in the Philippines.19

Evacuation demanded much from those responsible for moving the wounded, especially from the many areas that were inaccessible to wheeled vehicles. The poorest lines of communications were in the Camarines area of southeastern Luzon. An officer leading two of the four companies involved in an operation in late February and early March 1900 reported:

The trails on either side . . . are something that language can not describe. In all my experience in the mountains of Colorado, in the Bad Lands of Montana, in Cuba, and other parts of the world where I have traveled, I have never seen worse. They are single-file trails the greater part of the way, closely hedged in by a dense jungle of trees and undergrowth, with mud and mire on the sides. Then every few hundred yards a mountain stream must be forded, the banks of these streams being precipitous, with a drop of 40 to 70 feet. The cut down these banks resembles a tunnel, except that it is open at the top. . . . Nor is it possible to flank these positions, on account of the dense growth, nor can anything be seen except directly to the front, and then only for a short distance.

Because units fighting in the countryside could not take large amounts of equipment with them, corpsmen sometimes had to improvise litters from bark, bamboo, or items of clothing just as surgeons had done in the Indian wars. Some trails were too narrow and twisting to permit the use of travois, and each litter had to be carried by four men.20

Even in areas from which wheeled vehicles could carry the disabled directly to a hospital or to a train or vessel that would take them the remaining distance to a hospital, difficulties arose. Native carts, including one described as "distantly related to the one-horse buggy," sometimes had to be substituted for the few available ambulances, which tended to be both old and fragile. The animals that pulled these wagons were usually either mules or native ponies so small that they had to be unhitched to swim across deep streams, leaving the larger mules to make several trips back and forth with the carts. Major Cardwell, now chief surgeon of the 1st Division, noted while with an expedition to the north of Manila in the spring of 1899 that ponies that were often "balky and vicious" forced "the hardest kind of physical labor" upon all the men with an ambulance train. In April of that year, another kind of problem arose when a bridge north of Manila proved too badly damaged for use. The chief surgeon of the 2d Division, Maj. Henry F. Hoyt of the U.S. Volunteers, reported that ambulances had to disgorge four dead and twenty-six wounded on one side of a river. A small canoe then picked them up, going back and forth until all had been deposited in a second set of vehicles on the far shore. Patients brought to the coast near Manila might be spared further land travel if they could reach a hospital launch to take them to one of the city's facilities. But reaching the launch from the shore was complicated

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when the water was so shallow that only "a fair size flat boat" could move supine patients out to the larger vessel.21

Advancing along the rail line was also difficult when roads were lacking and the track was in poor condition. Initially, only portions of the rail line that ran north of Manila were open for use, and patients were sometimes evacuated in handcars operated by Filipino prisoners or, at best, in boxcars equipped with cots. The ability to use the railroad greatly eased the problems involved in evacuation. By mid-1900 cars specifically equipped to move patients were part of a train sent along the complete length of the line each day.22

The hospitals that lay along the line of evacuation varied greatly in size and number, according to the distance from the major facilities of the Manila area, the difficulties involved in evacuation, and the nature of the campaign under way. For men who were only slightly injured, the application in the field of an initial dressing taken from the first aid packet often eliminated entirely the need for hospitalization. From the beginning of the insurrection, dressing stations, sometimes referred to as light field hospitals, accompanied troops in the field to care for the sick and wounded until a more permanent facility could be found or set up for them. When units were serving in the jungle far from roads and navigable waterways, dressing stations sheltered those who might have to accompany their units for several days before evacuation became possible.23

Since small hospitals lightened the load of larger institutions and patients could be returned to duty more expeditiously if they remained nearer the front, regimental facilities were occasionally utilized in the field. As Colonel Greenleaf, who became chief surgeon for the troops in the Philippines in January 1900,24 noted in his report of 15 August, they were "for emergency purposes only." Here, as many as 14 percent of the sick and wounded in the Philippines might be receiving care at any one time. Surgeons with troops on the move also set up camp hospitals, where those who were only slightly ill could rest for a brief period before returning to duty. These small hospitals were often housed in native dwellings, and native beds were used if the five to ten cots issued for this purpose proved insufficient. In areas where the troops could be cut off from large facilities by the weather and deteriorating roads, camp hospitals were organized before the rainy season. The Medical Department preferred to avoid relying on small hospitals, however, because they represented an inefficient use of personnel and caused administrative confusion. Thus, as the campaign progressed, larger ones were established in the field, sometimes in abandoned Spanish facilities of major towns, for the care of those with more than trivial injuries.25

As U.S. forces advanced, the network of larger hospitals set up in the countryside was extended to spare patients the ordeal of evacuation. Although the journey south to Manila by rail from San Fernando, captured in the spring of 1900, was less than fifty miles, it might take twelve hours. Before hospital cars became available, the move could be particularly trying for the sick and wounded. Thus 2d Division surgeons at San Fernando, which was directly on the railroad line, set aside five buildings for a 200-bed field hospital. In October 1899, when the campaign to take northern Luzon was just getting under way, this facility was moved further north to a church in Angeles, also on the rail line, where by mid-August it still held more than 100 beds. By then

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CONVERTED HOSPITAL FACILITIES AT ANGELES (top) AND DAGUPAN (bottom)

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the largest base hospital on northern Luzon was the approximately 350-bed facility established in December 1899 at Dagupan, ideally located at the northern end of the rail line from Manila and on the coast as well. Patients from advanced units were brought to Dagupan for care or for evacuation back to Manila or to the United States. A wood and masonry building once belonging to a Dominican college housed this hospital. By the spring of 1900 fifteen trained nurses there had earned the praise of the surgeon in charge, who reported that he found it "a satisfaction to have in immediate charge of the sick persons trained to do the work" and that he was unhappy that the only lodging he could offer these women was native houses.26

The establishment of many small post hospitals reminiscent of those once scattered about the American West, some merely dispensaries, or subpost hospitals, precipitated many of the same problems that Surgeon General Sternberg's predecessors had come to know so well during the Indian wars in the United States. The shortage of medical officers was chronic as long as these small posts were required, and keeping each facility adequately supplied with medicines and equipment was difficult. As the area under U.S. control expanded, however, smaller hospitals could be consolidated, and the need for a multitude of extremely mobile or very short-lived hospitals also diminished. The Medical Department continued to establish larger and more permanent institutions, variously classified as field, brigade, and base hospitals, usually of 50 or more beds, where men with typhoid, malaria, chronic dysentery, or wounds requiring skilled surgery could be cared for without being evacuated back to the Manila area. Such facilities were located where they could be easily supplied, along the rail line or the coast. When necessary, patients could be easily evacuated from them, either to Manila or to transports that would take them home.27

Representative of Medical Department field organization as it had developed by the spring of 1900, six months after the initiation of the drive to control Luzon, was the hospital system in the most northern district of the island. It consisted of a fifty- to sixty-bed unit on the northern coast at Aparri and five post and camp hospitals, all housed in buildings considered comfortable. The ten medical officers who accompanied the one regular regiment and two battalions of a volunteer regiment stationed in the district had to be divided among the hospitals, and their supplies and equipment also had to be parceled out among six institutions. Forty-one hospital corpsmen, including a graduate dentist, were required to care for the patients at Aparri and to handle the clerical work. Because the facility was likely to be needed for some time to come, the surgeon in charge also requested contract nurses, obtained permission to acquire an ice plant, and sought to obtain a small steam laundry and iron bedsteads.28

The hospital network serving 1st Division forces fighting in southern Luzon resembled that of the 2d Division north of Manila, but on a smaller scale. By mid-August 1900 the largest hospital was the base facility at Calamba, on Laguna de Bay, which was rivaled for size by the brigade hospital at Bacoor, on the coast south of Manila, each of which held more than 100 beds. A 60-bed hospital stood at Santa Cruz, on the eastern side of the Laguna, while two smaller base hospitals were also located along the seacoast south of Manila. Since almost every town in this area had a substantial church building that could be

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taken over to serve as a hospital, here, too, even the smallest facilities were well housed. In the absence of a rail line, ambulance wagons had to be used to move patients from mobile and temporary facilities to base hospitals, from which water transportation could be used, if necessary, to reach Manila.29

The Bacoor facility, established in July 1899, before the beginning of the guerrilla phase of the insurrection, was for some time the largest in southern Luzon. Since it was only twelve miles from Manila by sea and fourteen by land, it was a good point through which to deliver supplies and evacuate patients. Although in the spring of 1900 tents at Bacoor held 85 of a total of 125 patients, surgeons were pleased with the situation because the tents were cool. The Calamba hospital, set up in a former Spanish convent in February, was initially smaller than that at Bacoor. Located in an area swarming with mosquitoes carrying dengue or malaria, it eventually grew to shelter more than 150 patients, with hospital corpsmen assisting the eight female nurses who were responsible for patient care.30

Hospitals were also established where needed on the various smaller islands of the Philippines, with a particularly large facility set up as a brigade hospital in February 1899 at Iloilo, on Panay in the Visayan Islands. Originally located in a private home, one of the few buildings that had not been burned by the insurgents, the hospital grew by taking over other private homes until by February 1900 it had 300 beds. The use of several separate buildings, however, made for an inefficient use of staff, since more hospital corpsmen were required to care for patients than would have been necessary in one structure. The shortage of medical personnel was also demonstrated in the spring, when twenty-five posts in these islands, which included those of Samar, Leyte, Cebu, and Bohol as well as Panay, lacked a medical officer. The surgeons circulating between inland substations often encountered almost impassable roads and guerrilla attacks, while those visiting coastal positions required the services of a hard-to-find steamer or sailboat.31

Medical Personnel

The shortage of physicians and hospital corpsmen was one of the greatest challenges to those responsible for the care and evacuation of the sick and wounded of occupation troops in the Philippines. The Washington Barracks program for training hospital corpsmen had been for a time suspended because of the demands of the war, but it was resumed shortly thereafter. A similar school for corpsmen was opened at Angel Island, California, so that men could be taught while they awaited embarkation for the Philippines. In the twelve-month period ending in June 1900, 692 trained at Angel Island and 726 at Washington Barracks, with most of both groups sent to the Pacific. The first class from a fourteen- to eighteen-week course for future acting hospital stewards taught at Manila's Hospital No. 3 graduated in June. In spite of the establishment of these schools, many corpsmen in the Philippines had little experience or formal training, although they seem to have been wisely selected. One surgeon reported that "he never knew of a hospital corps man who failed in his duty in any way under fire." Another later commented that the Hospital Corps had much improved since the Spanish-American War, many stewards and even some privates being "capable of rendering very valuable assistance

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to the surgeons." Keeping the proportion of corpsmen to the number of wounded high so as to guarantee casualties adequate attention on the field caused the demand for attendants to remain greater than the supply. Nevertheless, by August the Army was preparing to cut back the number of hospital corpsmen in the Philippines from 2,356 to 2,000, as required by Congress. The Medical Department warned that many problems could be anticipated as a result unless a greater number of Filipinos could be found to replace them.32

With some hesitation, Secretary of War Alger allowed female nurses to be sent in from the United States to supplement the work of hospital corpsmen. According to Colonel Greenleaf, they became known in the Pacific for their "good work," which was "much appreciated by all." By mid-August 1900, 140 of these women had served in hospitals in the Philippines and 120 were still on duty there, along with 7 male contract nurses. Improving conditions in the interior of the Philippines eventually made it feasible to send American women to some of the facilities located further out into the countryside.33

The need to provide medical coverage for a multitude of posts increased the demand for physicians and caused a shortage of medical officers so severe that Surgeon General Sternberg had to send in doctors who were unfamiliar with military medicine and who created confusion as a result. He again used the latest edition of the Manual for the Medical Department in his attempt to indoctrinate the new physicians. Ironically, many of them were contract surgeons whose contracts would run out just at that point when they were becoming most effective and who might leave even earlier, as soon as the novelty of the situation began to pale. Because of the shortage, at various times a contract doctor from the Relief was brought ashore, Navy physicians were pressed into Army service, or hospital corpsmen were left to assume responsibilities usually managed by physicians. Corpsmen often had to be responsible for reports and administrative duties when camp surgeons had no time for such things, but in one instance two corpsmen had to perform an amputation. Unfortunately, because more hospital corpsmen were also needed-when General MacArthur requested the "immediate dispatch" of 100 more medical officers in July 1900, he also asked for 300 more corpsmen-having them fill in for physicians merely exacerbated one problem in the attempt to ease another.34

The need for physicians increased so rapidly that Colonel Greenleaf could not keep up with the demand. On 31 December 1899, when 257 physicians were serving in the Philippines, the chief surgeon concluded that he should have 360. By 31 May 1900, when he reported that 364 were serving under him, medical officers were lacking for 20 new posts that had been recently established and 5 to 10 more were needed to accompany two transports returning to the United States from the Philippines. As a result, in June Greenleaf called for 75 more surgeons and for 20 more to be sent each month thereafter. Although as many physicians as could be spared were sent in, by the end of the fiscal year 1900, 120 posts out of the almost 400 then in the Philippines still had no surgeons, leaving 10,000 men without a source of adequate care. Concerned that the situation in the Philippines might be misunderstood, General MacArthur emphasized to the adjutant general that as long as the number of posts in the Philippines remained constant, the number of medical officers required would

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MEDICAL OFFICER CARING FOR A WOUNDED FILIPINO INSURGENT

also remain constant, regardless of the number of troops serving there. By 31 May 1901, although the situation had improved, 479 posts lacked medical attendance and only 423 surgeons were available for assignment. Greenleaf maintained that because of the need to have a reserve against the possibility of epidemic, the figure should be at least 500.35

In the 2d Division, difficulties engendered by the shortage of physicians were exacerbated by confusion over the responsibility for the assignment of surgeons and the granting of their leave in 1899. Communications between the headquarters and the units strung out from Manila to the Gulf of Lingayen were poor. Orders given to medical officers at many levels were rarely reported back to Colonel Greenleaf at corps headquarters. Local commanding officers granted leave to surgeons and then requested the assignment of another surgeon when no replacements were available. Early in 1900 orders were issued requiring that the division chief surgeons be informed whenever leave was granted to a medical officer and that each brigade surgeon keep a current roster of the medical officers and hospital corpsmen in his unit. Changes of assignment were to be reported to the brigade surgeon as soon as they were made.36

Medical officers assigned to the Philippines experienced their share of danger because of the guerrilla war, still further reducing the number available to care for the sick and wounded. A surgeon was one of the thirty-six men killed and horribly mutilated by bolo knife-wielding guerrillas in September 1901 in a surprise attack upon the garrison at Balangiga, on Samar. Yet another surgeon barely escaped death when he was ambushed during his attempt to bring ambulances to the aid of wounded insurgents. The shortage forced many physi-

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cians to spend much time riding through the hostile countryside from post to post, each five to fifteen miles from the other.37

In spite of the difficulty medical officers experienced in providing adequate care for American soldiers, some had the time to care for Filipinos. Unfortunately, in at least some instances they may have been involved in extracting information from captured Filipinos, who were considered to be waging "irregular warfare against the only constituted authority" and therefore were, in theory, "merely bandits, . . . and as such . . . not entitled to treatment as prisoners of war." Americans serving in the Philippines evidently did not always regard torture as reprehensible; but, to prevent serious or permanent injury to the victim, a medical officer was apparently often present when torture was being used. Army surgeons did not take their scorn for the guerrillas as far as to neglect Filipino casualties, though they were more difficult to care for than American soldiers because they tended to remove dressings and touch their wounds. Even with the best of intentions, medical officers were unable to achieve as good results with Filipino wounded as with their own men, although their attempts nevertheless contributed to pacification efforts.38

Health of the Troops

For troops fighting in the Philippines, as it was for those in the Caribbean, disease was the cause of most disability and death. Combat injuries took only 10.6 percent of the command out of action in the first half of 1900, for example, and rarely caused difficulties for American surgeons treating their own men, even when wounds were caused by bolo knives, daggers, knives, bamboo spears, and clubs. The surgical operations performed on U.S. soldiers in the Philippines more often involved hernias, appendicitis, liver abscesses, malignancies, and other problems unrelated to war wounds.39

The real challenge resulted from the cumulative and debilitating effect of physical exhaustion, inadequate diet, temperatures of well over 100 degrees, and malaria and the various forms of dysentery upon men already working under great stress. Medical officers became the victims of diarrhea, dysentery, typhoid, malaria, and sheer exhaustion; Lippincott himself was among those felled by disease. Soldiers at the front suffered the highest disease rates, as much as three times those experienced by the garrisons of even the most unsanitary towns, where rates were usually under 10 percent. Attention to personal hygiene and the use of screens and nettings to prevent mosquito bites were almost impossible for soldiers fighting guerrillas in the jungle. "The terrible nervous exhaustion which results from long continued exposure to great heat and moisture," as one Army surgeon put it, severely undermined effectiveness, although with time many men became better able to tolerate the heat. For the 1900-1901 fiscal year period the disease rate among the volunteers, who were for the most part new in the country, rose by almost 50 percent, while among acclimated regulars it fell by 10 percent. The gradual end of active campaigning contributed to a drop in the disease rate, but physicians concluded after months of experience that many patients would never entirely recover if they remained in the Philippines.40

Although typhoid was endemic and the troops arriving in 1898 came from camps where typhoid had been a problem, careful attention to sanitation reduced its inroads

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markedly. Despite its high death rate, this disease was never the serious threat to the Army's effectiveness in the Philippines that it had been both in the United States and in the Caribbean in the summer of 1898. New volunteer units coming in from the United States to replace state volunteer units returning home continued to bring typhoid with them, and from time to time medical officers feared an epidemic. Occasional cases were acquired at local restaurants or from streams so "clear and sparkling" that the troops drank directly from them until the appearance of typhoid made them realize the error of their ways. Heat exhaustion, an ever-present threat, added to the typhoid danger. In moments of desperation when extreme heat led to the rapid emptying of canteens, soldiers were willing to drink "from ditches and holes when the water looked green and tasted very badly," though they knew that it was hazardous to do so. Renewed attention to sanitation and to the accuracy of diagnoses, however, limited the spread of this disease.41

Return to the United States was believed particularly necessary to the complete recovery of the victim of dysentery, which, together with diarrhea, caused much havoc to the health of those serving in the Philippines. Dysentery and diarrhea rates climbed until they were four or more times higher than the rate characteristic of the peacetime Army in the United States, and, as time went by, dysentery seemed to become more virulent. The death rate rose from 2.52 per 1,000 troops in 1898 to 4.58 per 1,000 in 1899, perhaps because the stress of active campaigning lowered resistance. A few cases were identified as amebic, but at some hospitals the most commonly seen cases were those in which malaria was accompanied by dysentery. In these instances, good results in the treatment of dysentery were often achieved with quinine, and many physicians concluded that blood tests for malaria should be administered to all dysentery sufferers. An increase in diarrhea cases in the spring of 1899 was blamed in part on the indiscriminate consumption of the locally available fruits. Surgeons also noted that many of the men with diarrhea were also among the many serving in the tropics who had very bad teeth, and they blamed this apparent and unexplained coincidence on the climate.42

Although dysentery tended to peak in the summer, the rainy season in the Philippines, malaria caused much ineffectiveness from October through December, the coolest months of the year, and was more common inland than along the coast or in the area around Manila. The form of malaria seen in the Far East tended to recur but constituted no appreciable direct threat to life, even though, because of its chronic nature, it tended to wear out its victims. The time the malaria victim spent in the hospital was often lengthened because of the accompanying diarrhea, for which one gram of quinine twice a day proved to be a very successful treatment. Discretion was necessary in prescribing quinine, however. Attempts to give quinine by injection to increase the speed with which it acted tended to produce local abscesses. Too prolonged a course of quinine, moreover, was believed to lead to mental and nervous complications and even anemia.43

Among other threats to health, venereal diseases apparently posed the greatest challenge to physicians. Major Cardwell, then the 2d Division chief surgeon, reported in September 1898 that as the men became "habituated to the repulsiveness of the native women, sexual immorality [became] more common," as did syphilis and gonorrhea. In 1902 a medical officer noted

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in an article in a professional journal that the rate of venereal disease in the Philippines was not unusual and that this fact was "a tribute to the Filipino women who, as a class, I do not hesitate to say, are fully as virtuous as their American sisters." An attempt to register and inspect prostitutes, hospitalizing those found to be diseased, was strongly opposed by a visiting missionary, who wrote the secretary of war that such a program was tantamount to licensing prostitution. The paucity of healthful amusements lowered morale, although the amount of drunkenness and alcoholism, so often associated with high venereal disease rates, seemed no greater than that usually found in the United States. Canteens where cool beer could be bought, together with hard work and hard play, were seen as minimizing the temptation to associate "with natives, of the lowest class" and as relieving any "craving for immoral pursuit." Authorities attempted to set up a resort for troops in the mountains of north Luzon, but the lack of roads held up the project. An order issued in 1901 requiring all men to be inspected weekly for signs of such diseases was, to some degree at least, successful in lowering the incidence.44

Among lesser threats to health and effectiveness were smallpox and bubonic plague epidemics that developed in the Filipino population of Manila. Although plague never became a problem for U.S. troops, the first case of smallpox was diagnosed early in September 1898. By 31 March 1899, when the danger was considered to be over, 236 American soldiers had contracted the disease and 77 had died of it. Fresh smallpox vaccine had proved difficult to obtain. The effectiveness of matter sent from San Francisco did not survive the long voyage, and new supplies obtained from Japan deteriorated in the heat. When a former Spanish vaccine farm was reactivated, it became possible to revaccinate the entire command-along with all 13,000 Spanish prisoners of war who had surrendered at Manila the previous summer-with matter fresh, not from the cow, but from the water buffalo.45

Skin problems were also often seen, since soldiers fighting in the Philippines were sometimes constantly wet for days. Ringworm, a fungal infection that usually responded to treatment with sulfur, was common. Sometimes, however, it was mistakenly diagnosed as the "doby itch," a form of contact dermatitis that could cause legs to swell "and large knots and tumors [to] cover them until walking [became] extremely painful." The most effective remedy against this condition proved to be having all clothes boiled during laundering. Doctors also encountered contagious pemphigus in a potentially fatal form most often found in the Philippines and characterized by blisters in the groin and armpits. It was apparently first encountered in troops en route to the Philippines when their ship stopped at Guam. When sodium hyposulfite became available, doctors were successful in curing most of these patients.46

Mental illness was also encountered in the Philippines, but the rate of psychoses was not high. Most often seen were cases diagnosed as "nostalgia," or homesickness, an understandable and predictable problem for young men far from home in a strange country with a difficult climate and a hostile population. This problem disappeared with arrival back in the United States, but it was considered by some to be "undoubtedly the most severe affection in the command, affecting officers as well as enlisted men. Some regimental medical officers are badly infected with this com-

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plaint, and such naturally sympathize with the men. The result is a sick list wholly out of proportion to the real disease present." Some soldiers also apparently took up smoking opium while in the Philippines, although reports that many became addicted were disputed.47

Improved hygiene and sanitation were high among the measures favored in the effort to prevent many ills that afflicted men in the tropics. The debate over the virtues of woolen versus cotton underclothing in hot climates continued, and, in particular, the value of the woolen abdominal bandage in preventing diarrhea caused much argument. There was no disagreement over the need for lightweight uniforms. Such clothing was not available to the first arrivals in the Philippines, and the khaki cloth that was being issued by the Quartermaster's Department by the spring of 1900 was regarded as too heavy. Lippincott also urged in his 31 March 1899 report that the Army issue a "light, broadbrimmed, khaki-covered helmet," in addition to the campaign hat, which was highly regarded for wear in the rainy season. Even the troops' shoes failed them in the Philippines, where "the extremely plastic, adhesive mud" ripped soles apart, making both marching and resupply difficult. On one occasion 230 of 240 men in a battalion were without shoes. By July 1901 the official uniform for those serving in the Philippines was the khaki blouse and trousers, with the choice of underwear being left up to the individual.48

While medical officers debated the nature of the most appropriate clothing, they were agreed on the management of sanitation. Failures to maintain standards usually resulted either from overconfidence that led to neglect or from battlefield necessity, since local water sources often proved to be polluted. Much emphasis was placed upon the need to boil all water, even when it had been filtered. For the most part, earth closets continued to be the usual means of dealing with excreta, great care being taken in maintaining latrines and in disposing of their contents in a sanitary manner.49

Supply and Diet

In general, most supply shortages were temporary, and Army hospitals located on navigable waters or along the rail line rarely experienced problems, although the insurgents sometimes destroyed sections of track. Quinine was hard to find for a few weeks in early 1900, possibly because doctors were also treating sick Filipinos in the communities near their posts. Some temporary local shortages inevitably resulted from the inability of physicians to anticipate their needs well in advance, especially at the front. Investigation in one instance revealed that while hospitals were complaining of shortages, large supplies of many needed items had accumulated in Manila warehouses, presumably because of transportation problems. Delivering supplies became impossible when water levels fell and supply boats could no longer get through to troops serving along many rivers. When heavy rains washed out bridges, moving supplies by land became particularly difficult. In the rainy season in those areas where wheeled vehicles could not go, surgeons learned to accumulate supplies as much as six months ahead of the time they were needed to avoid shortages. At least one surgeon found himself for a time forced to rely upon "native leaves and roots for medicines," and soldiers fighting in the jungle occasionally had to exist on half rations.50

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For a time in the summer of 1900, a misunderstanding developed concerning orders for supplies from the Philippines. The desire to respond to pleas for help from indigent Filipinos may have been behind what both the Medical and War Departments regarded as excessive demands. Surgeon General Sternberg threatened to halve Colonel Greenleaf's quarterly requisition for medical supplies and hospital stores, but General MacArthur strongly supported his chief surgeon's insistence upon the reasonableness of his orders, thereby apparently preventing any severe cutbacks.51

Problems with diet often resulted from difficulties with supply, although surgeons continued to debate the ideal amount of meat and fat in the tropical diet. Many authorities believed that a higher proportion of sugar would be advisable because of the energy it provided and that the usual allowance of meat and fat, basically intended for men serving in cold climates, was larger than was necessary in the tropics. Some concluded that to maintain health in the tropics the soldier must eat much less than he would in a cooler climate to avoid producing too much heat. Others disagreed strongly, saying that the U.S. soldier was a meat eater, that in the tropics he needed to eat more than ever, and that the problem of heat should be managed by increasing the ability to lose heat through wearing lighter clothing.52

Time made it apparent that the ration found acceptable in the United States would be satisfactory in the Philippines, but delivering meat, vegetables, and fruits unspoiled to the soldier in the field was at times "totally out of the question," according to one surgeon. Meat and even hard bread deteriorated rapidly in the climate of the tropics. Canned meat went "soft and disgusting" in the heat, and canned vegetables weighed too much to be carried far, although frozen beef could be sent fifty miles inland before it thawed out. Troops at the front, unable to carry adequate supplies with them without the use of wheeled vehicles, suffered from a shortage of food.53

The China Relief Expedition

In late June 1900, despite misgivings about weakening his force in the Philippines, General MacArthur ordered the 9th Infantry to prepare to embark for China as the first Army contingent of the China Relief Expedition, which sought to protect U.S. interests and citizens threatened by the Boxer Rebellion. With the later addition of the 14th Infantry and an artillery battalion from the Philippines, as well as still more units coming directly from the United States, the China Relief Expedition would eventually number 2,500 and include 800 marines with their Navy doctors. Adna R. Chaffee, who received his promotion to major general in the volunteers on 19 July, assumed command of the China Relief Expedition when he arrived in China on the thirtieth, three weeks after the landing of the first U.S. troops there. The expedition became part of an international force composed of troops from several major powers, including Great Britain, France, Russia, Germany, and Japan, that were seeking to subdue the Boxers, to intimidate the Dowager Empress, and to make China again safe for foreigners. Because most of the U.S. soldiers who eventually served in China were sent from the Philippines, the responsibility for the medical care of the expedition fell upon the shoulders of Army Medical Department leaders there.54

U.S. Volunteer surgeon Maj. William B. Banister, assigned to the 9th Infantry, served

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WILLIAM B. BANISTER

as chief surgeon of the China Relief Expedition from the date of its formation until 25 September 1900 and assumed the ultimate responsibility for the medical care of U.S. troops going to China, although Navy surgeons serving under him did not submit reports to the Army Medical Department. Two contract surgeons were detailed to assist Banister in his preparations, but one did not report until 25 June, the day before embarkation, and the second never materialized. Thus the chief surgeon had to prepare for the expedition with little assistance, and only four medical officers, including regimental surgeons, initially accompanied the first 1,300 men to sail for China. Under these physicians served a hospital steward, three acting hospital stewards, and sixteen Hospital Corps privates, but the steward and four of the privates also arrived only the day before embarkation.55

The men of the 9th Infantry were already worn down by eighteen months of service in the Philippines. Since many were suffering from malaria and chronic dysentery, Major Banister concluded that the regiment was "in extremely bad condition for field service." Nevertheless, some were so eager for service in China that they did their best to conceal any ailment that might prevent their going.56

Although U.S. troops in China did not encounter humid and tangled jungles, they did face hot summers and familiar diseases presenting familiar threats. Hoping to reduce the incidence of malaria to a minimum, Major Banister prepared for the landing by dosing each man with a daily gram of quinine for three days before he set foot for the first time on Chinese soil. The traditional filth-borne diseases, too, again threatened U.S. troops. In Chinese communities, instead of a sewage system, "the pail system [was] generally in vogue," but because night soil was highly regarded as fertilizer for crops, it was piled up at selected sites outside the city, awaiting "its ultimate transportation to the country." The towns were in an "indescribably filthy condition" because of poor drainage and the tendency of the poorer male members of the population to relieve themselves wherever they were. Despite efforts to have soldiers drink only water known to be safe, dysentery took a high toll, and typhoid rates were higher than they had been in the Philippines.57

After arriving near Tientsin on 10 and 11 July, Army and Navy physicians worked together to unload their equipment and set up an operating room in the building they shared outside the city. Major Banister assigned an acting hospital steward and four privates to each of the two battalions that landed in time to take part in the first battle of the Boxer Rebellion, the Battle of Tientsin on 13 July. The multinational

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force was rapidly successful in taking the city. Of the wounded, 77 were U.S. soldiers, some of whom received their initial care in ditches, where the polluted water soaked their injuries and caused a particularly high rate of infection among those with shrapnel wounds. Since none of the Army's ambulance wagons had yet arrived before the city, the casualties were evacuated by litter-bearers who were forced from time to time to put down their burdens to return fire. Banister himself went into the city with the most advanced units, and the two hospital corpsmen with him never left his side. Supplies were brought up to him after he had set up an aid station behind the city's inner wall. As soon as the enemy left the city, Banister and his Navy colleagues entered to set up their facilities. Some Army patients shared the Marine hospital, and Banister took over a hotel for the remainder. By midnight every wounded man had received care and been moved into a bed within the newly surrendered city.58

The interservice cooperation among U.S. units continued long after the battle had been won. With his sick and wounded divided among three locations, the regiment, the Marine hospital, and the hotel, Banister's hospital attendants were spread so thin that he was forced to supplement them with details from the line. He was soon able to concentrate his resources by moving all his patients from the Marine hospital, although the Army facility continued to receive occasional Marine casualties. After a few days Banister began to evacuate patients to the Navy hospital ship Solace; by 24 July she was sheltering 64 Army patients. She then departed for the United States via Japan, where the Japanese had made hospital space available at several cities, including 500 beds at Nagasaki.59

Not surprisingly, given the condition of the troops when they were sent to China, the number of ill among them grew as the summer continued. By 26 July 215 men were sick with their units and another 61 were ill on board a transport, most of them with diarrhea and dysentery. Major Banister decided to establish a base hospital in a private home surrounded by enough land to permit pitching tents. Here the wounded could also recuperate until the expected arrival of the Relief, then on her way to China, and supplies could be accumulated for the advance on Peking. By this point, more supplies, equipment, and personnel were coming in to Tientsin. Four acting hospital stewards and thirty-two Hospital Corps privates were sent to the Tientsin hotel. The arrival of six more physicians made it possible to assign three to the base hospital. The eleven female nurses who had volunteered for China service while en route to Manila arrived in early August. Five more and a professional male nurse, plus more contract surgeons, disembarked a short while later.60

A few days after General Chaffee took command of the China Relief Expedition, 2,500 U.S. soldiers joined British and French troops to march on Peking. The U.S. contingent now included the 14th Infantry with its four regular medical officers, two contract surgeons, twenty-one hospital corpsmen, and equipment. Each regiment had "Chino" litter-bearers, but they were trusted so little that they were kept "under guard to prevent their running away." A Regular Army assistant surgeon also accompanied the artillery battalion that was a part of the expedition. Marching with the soldiers were U.S. Marines with their three physicians, attendants, and litter-bearers. Although supply wagons were available for the Medical Department, Major Banister,

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who continued in the position of chief surgeon, had his medical chests carried in his ambulances so that they would be immediately available.61

Shortly after leaving for Tientsin, the expedition encountered the enemy at Yangtsun, suffering an estimated 61 casualties in the engagement that followed. The ambulances moved forward just behind the troops, out of the line of fire, and picked up the wounded, taking them to the dressing station and then moving them forward to the campsite chosen for the night. Except for a surgeon who remained with the ambulances, all physicians stayed with the troops. A junk took 11 of the wounded back to the Tientsin base hospital that evening, with the rest of the wounded and several sick men making the same trip the next day. When the troops resumed their march, the heat took a heavy toll. Heatstroke and even convulsions were common, and ambulances were filled to overflowing. Fortunately, since it was impossible to keep all the disabled with the expedition as it moved forward, the number of surgeons with the troops was large enough to permit one to be left behind with the sick at each campsite.62

The pattern set at Tientsin was generally followed at Peking. A multinational force handled the attack, which began with an unsuccessful Russian assault on 13 August. On the fourteenth U.S. troops scaled the wall around the Outer City and provided cover for the British soldiers who followed them. The next day U.S. artillery destroyed the gates in the wall around the Inner City, opening the way to the occupation of the entire city. American doctors with the attacking force provided medical care at Peking as they had in Tientsin, setting up a 150-bed field hospital as soon as the city fell. Here the sick and the 30 wounded received excellent care until they were evacuated by water back to the Tientsin base hospital. Whenever possible, the wounded and the seriously ill were then placed on the Relief for evacuation to Nagasaki, which became a second-level base for the expedition. On 29 September a second Army hospital ship, the Maine, was assigned the responsibility for taking patients to Nagasaki, where the Relief was to pick them up for the trip to Manila, which remained the primary base for American forces fighting in China.63

The Peking hospital initially lacked an adequate supply of standard hospital bedding and furniture, but surgeons found Chinese bedding satisfactory on a temporary basis. In the fall a permanent hospital of 85 beds was established for the brigade to be garrisoned at Peking; existing Chinese buildings were used because the arrival of cold weather allowed no time for new construction. Some modifications were deemed necessary in these buildings, including lowering high ceilings and replacing many paper-covered lattice-work windows and doors with glass. For a few months a second and smaller hospital was set up at Peking, together with a residence for the female nurses who worked at the larger hospital.64

By the end of September 1900 almost 4,000 soldiers were serving in China. A second brigade was stationed at Tientsin, where, like the garrison at Peking, it was served by a large hospital in the city. Many detachments were serving at other locations, and two of them had their own small hospitals. Since the railroad from Peking to Tientsin was still not operative, supplies had to be moved by river, and because junks covered no more than twenty miles a day, garrisons also had to be stationed along the waterway until December, when the railroad was at last reopened. For troops thus scat-

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tered about a land of almost nonexistent sanitation, typhoid remained a particular danger, even when the greatest of care was taken, since flies could carry the disease to food and water supplies that were otherwise safe. Fortunately for their health, many of the U.S. troops occupying China left in the spring of 1901, and many of the remaining men left the following autumn. By 1904 the only Army troops in China were the men of the company guarding the embassy at Peking, and the rates of typhoid, malaria, tuberculosis, venereal disease, and alcoholism among them were higher than those among men stationed in the United States.65

Service with the multinational force enabled medical officers to compare their work and equipment with that of the world's major military powers. Major Ives, who succeeded Major Banister in September 1900, commented unfavorably upon the transportation available to U.S. medical officers, blaming the situation largely upon the Medical Department's dependence on the Quartermaster's Department and the slow response time that resulted. He admired the Japanese litter as particularly well suited to battlefield use, though by no means as sturdy and comfortable as the American model. He was particularly enthusiastic about the disinfecting plants and laboratories of the German hospitals, but his observations led him to conclude that "the medical department of the United States Army is the best and most intelligently equipped of any service there represented."66

Although U.S. forces encountered astoundingly unsanitary conditions both in China and in the Philippines, the two campaigns were otherwise a study in contrasts. The refusal of the Filipinos to accept American occupation resulted in a prolonged guerrilla war that challenged medical officers to adjust to the demands of innumerable small-unit operations, most of which were conducted in a hostile environment, and at times to work in comparative isolation. The Boxer Rebellion, on the other hand, involved conventional warfare and required U.S. physicians to work in proximity with medical officers of other nations in a situation where they could observe firsthand the way in which the medical services of other nations functioned. The campaigns over, physicians with both occupation forces were swept up in the effort to prevent the destruction of U.S. garrisons by disease.

Like the Spanish-American War, the Philippine Insurrection and the Boxer Rebellion reacquainted the U.S. Army with the potentially devastating effects of disease upon the effectiveness of armed forces and also placed U.S. troops in the midst of disease-ridden civilian populations living under conditions of incredibly poor sanitation. Unlike the Filipinos and the Chinese, who, U.S. observers believed, had accepted widespread disease and the deaths that resulted as inevitable, Army physicians were convinced by what they already knew that high morbidity and mortality rates were preventable. This conviction gave added strength to their struggles to guarantee the benefits of modern medicine to American soldiers and also to the people of the lands they occupied.67

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NOTES

1. War Department, [Annual] Report of the Secretary of War, 1899, 1(pt.4):ix (hereafter cited as WD, ARofSW, date).

2. Ibid., l(pt.5):115 (quotation); War Department, Five Years of the War Department Following the War With Spain . . . , pp. 8-11; Brian McA. Linn, "The War in Luzon," Ph.D. diss., pp. 30-31.

3. WD, Five Years, pp. 11-14 (quotations), 79-85, 172-75, 207-08, 256; Linn, "War in Luzon," Ph.D. diss., pp. 33-34. MacArthur had been commanding officer of the 1st Brigade of the 2d Division.

4. War Department, [Annual] Report of the Surgeon General, U.S. Army, to the Secretary of War, 1900, pp. 94, 118-19 (hereafter cited as WD, ARofSG, date).

5. The departments were the Department of Northern Luzon (six districts), the Department of Southern Luzon (four districts), the Department of the Visayas (four districts), and the Department of Mindanao and Jolo (four districts). In December 1901 the Departments of Northern and Southern Luzon were consolidated as the Department of North Philippines and the remaining departments as the Department of South Philippines. See WD, ARofSW, 1900, 1(pt.3):26, 45-50; idem, ARofSG, 1902, p. 45; AGO GO 38, 29 Mar 1900, and GO 49, 13 Apr 1900.

6. WD, ARofSG, 1900, p. 117, and 1902, p. 45; WD, Five Years, p. 79.

7. WD, Five Years, pp. 173-75, 177, 207-08; Frederica M. Bunge, ed., Philippines, p. 27; Linn, "War in Luzon," Ph.D. diss., pp. 33-34.

8. WD, ARofSG, 1898, p. 264, 1899, pp. 99-100, and 1900, p. 109; "Medical and Sanitary History of the Troops in the Philippines," p. 828.

9. In addition to a network of division, base, brigade, field, post, and camp hospitals, five general hospitals were serving troops in the Philippines by February 1900: the First Reserve, the Second Reserve, Hospital No. 3, Santa Mesa, and the facility for convalescents on Corregidor Island. See WD, ARofSG, 1900, pp. 97-98.

10. Ibid., pp. 104, 109-10, and 1901, p. 128; idem, ARofSW, 1900, l(pt.3):125; Henry Lippincott, "Reminiscences of the Expedition to the Philippine Islands," p. 172; Simon Flexner and L. F. Barker, "The Prevalent Diseases in the Philippines," p. 523.

11. WD, ARofSG, 1899, pp. 99-100 (first quotation), 110, and 1900, pp. 105, 111, 115-16; idem, ARofSW, 1900, l(pt.3):124-25; William O. Owen, "Some of the Trials and Tribulations of a Medical Officer of the United States Army," pp. 388-89, 392 (second quotation); War Department, Correspondence Relating to the War With Spain . . . , 2:847, 1014; Flexner and Barker, "Prevalent Diseases," p. 523; "Medical and Sanitary History," p. 828.

12. Rpt, John Kulp, in United States, Army, 3d Reserve Hospital, "Manila Report," pp. 3 (quotation), 8, National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, Md.; WD, ARofSG, 1900, p. 112.

13. WD, ARofSG, 1900, pp. 97-98, 113-14; idem, ARofSW, 1900, 1(pt.3):125; idem, Correspondence, 2:756; United States, Congress, Senate, Report of the (Dodge) Commission To Investigate the Conduct of the War Department in the War With Spain, 2:1318, 1320 (hereafter cited as Dodge Commission Report); N. N. Freeman, A Soldier in the Philippines, p. 32; William T. Sexton, Soldiers in the Sun, p. 148.

14. WD, ARofSG, 1899, pp. 110, 116, 195, 201-02, 1900, pp. 71-73 (quotation), 97, 106, and 1901, pp. 126-27; idem, Correspondence, 2:884, 1022, 1221; Dodge Commission Report, 2:1308-09, 1322; Ltr, H. O. Perley to Ch Surg, Div of Philippines, 30 Jun 1900, in Ms 4889, Entry 52, Record Group (RG) 112, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Washington, D.C.; William J. L. Lyster, "The Army Surgeon in the Philippines," p. 32; Flexner and Barker, "Prevalent Diseases," p. 523.

15. WD, ARofSG, 1901, pp. 78, 135, and 1902, p. 145; John M. Gates, Schoolbooks and Krags, pp. 112, 128, 233-36; WD, Correspondence, 1:442, 455, and 2:1245, 1253; idem, Five Years, p. 177.

16. WD, ARofSG, 1899, pp. 193 (quotation), 194, and 1901, pp. 78, 136; idem, Correspondence, 2:766; Henry S. Kilbourne, "The Medical Department of the United States Army Transport Service," pp. 4-5, 8; Louis M. Maus, "Military Sanitary Problems in the Philippine Islands," p. 28.

17. WD, ARofSG, 1899, p. 109.

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18. WD, ARofSW, 1899, 1(pt. 5):26, 68, 78-79, and 1900, 1(pt.3):117 (quotation); "Medical and Sanitary History," p. 826; Gates, Schoolbooks, pp. 40, 76; Sexton, Soldiers in the Sun, p. 221.

19. WD, ARofSG, 1900, pp. 90 (first quotation), 149, 159; idem, ARofSW, 1899, l(pt.5):114-16, 1900, 1(pt.3):509 (remaining quotations), and 1901, l(pt.4):292-94; William F. Strobridge, "Chinese in the Spanish-American War and Beyond," in The Chinese American Experience: Papers From the Second National Conference on Chinese American Studies 1980, ed. Genny Lim (San Francisco: Chinese Historical Society of America and Chinese Culture Center, n.d.), pp. 14-15; Questionnaire, Richard Johnson, in Spanish-American War, Philippine Insurrection, and Boxer Rebellion Veterans Research Project, Military History Research Collection, U.S. Army Military History Institute, Carlisle Barracks, Pa.

20. WD, ARofSW, 1900, 1(pt.4):679 (quotation); idem, ARofSG, 1900, pp. 90, 142, 147; Frederick Funston, Memories of Two Wars, pp. 329-30; Franklin M. Kemp, "Field Work in the Philippines," p. 77.

21. Funston, Memories, pp. 194 (first quotation), 329-30; WD, ARofSW, 1899, 1(pt.4):527-28 and 1(pt.5):115 (second and third quotations), 116, 565-69, and 1900, l(pt.3):130 and l(pt.4):522; idem, ARofSG, 1899, pp. 110, 112-13, and 1900, pp. 90-92, 107, 123; Ltr, H. E. Wetherill to Ch Surg, Div of Pacific, 13 Apr 1900, in Ms 4888, Entry 52, RG 112, NARA; "Medical and Sanitary History," p. 830.

22. WD, ARofSG, 1899, pp. 110, 112-13, and 1900, pp. 90-92, 107; idem, ARofSW, 1899, 1(pt.5): 566-68.

23. WD, ARofSW, 1899, 1(pt.4):385, 395; idem, ARofSG, 1900, pp. 90-91, 93.

24. Lippincott was replaced as chief surgeon in April 1899 by Colonel Woodhull, who was, in turn, replaced by Colonel Greenleaf in January 1900. See WD, ARofSG, 1900, p. 95.

25. WD, ARofSW, 1899, 1(pt.5):116, and 1900, l(pt.3):124 (quotation); idem, ARofSG, 1900, pp. 97-98, 121-22, 138, 142, 163; Lippincott, "Reminiscences," p. 172; "Medical and Sanitary History," p. 826; Martha L. Sternberg, George Miller Sternberg, p. 232.

26. WD, ARofSG, 1900, pp. 97-98, 122, 132-33 (quotation), 138; idem, ARofSW, 1900, 1(pt.3):125; Sexton, Soldiers in the Sun, p. 198; Joseph I. Markey, From Iowa to the Philippines, pp. 241-42.

27. WD, ARofSG, 1900, pp. 97, 121; idem, ARofSW, 1900, l(pt.3):124; Lyster, "Army Surgeon," p. 30.

28. WD, ARofSG, 1900, pp. 97-98, 133, 135-37; idem, ARofSW, 1900, 1(pt.3):125.

29. WD, ARofSG, 1900, pp. 97-98, 150; idem, ARofSW, 1900, 1(pt.3):125.

30. Glenn A. May, Battle for Batangas, p. 83; WD, ARofSG, 1900, pp. 150, 155-56; idem, ARofSW, 1900, l(pt.3):125.

31. WD, ARofSG, 1900, pp.98, 158-59, 161-62, 164-65.

32. Ibid., pp. 23 (first quotation), 24, 90, 105, 110, 134; idem, ARofSW, 1900, 1(pt.3):128-29; Gilbert E. Seamen, "Some Observations of a Medical Officer in the Philippines," p. 181 (second quotation); Lyster, "Army Surgeon," pp. 30-31; "A New Course of Instruction for the Army Hospital Corps," p. 375.

33. WD, ARofSG, 1899, pp. 21-23, 111 (quotations), and 1900, pp. 25, 106, 109-10; idem, ARofSW, 1900, l(pt.3):129-30; idem, Correspondence, 2:837.

34. WD, ARofSG, 1899, pp. 111-12, and 1900, pp.24, 95-96, 105, 120-21, 127-28, 134, 142, 151; idem, Correspondence, 2:1192 (quotation), 1261; idem, ARofSW, 1899, l(pt.5):114-15, and 1900, 1(pt.3):117, 128.

35. John C. Brown, Diary of a Soldier in the Philippines, pp. 197, 210; Lyster, "Army Surgeon," p. 31; WD, ARofSW, 1900, 1(pt.3):117, 127-28; idem, ARofSG, 1899, p. 112, 1900, pp. 94-97, 105, 120, 129, 138, 144, and 1901, pp. 141-42.

36. WD, ARofSG, 1900, pp. 118-20.

37. Ibid., p. 95; Sexton, Soldiers in the Sun, pp. 268-72; Ltr, Clarence R. Edwards to George H. Penrose, 6 Nov 1899, in Ms 4888, Entry 52, RG 112, NARA.

38. Funston, Memories, p. 373 (quotations); Freeman, Soldier in the Philippines, p. 51; United States, Congress, Senate, Charges of Cruelty, Etc., to the Natives of the Philippines, pp. 3, 6, 19; WD, ARofSG, 1899, pp. 110-11, 1900, pp. 91, 93, 108, and 1901, p. 142; idem, ARofSW, 1899, l(pt.4):512, and 1900, 1(pt.4):542; Sexton, Soldiers in the Sun, pp. 79-80, 81-83, 240-42; Thomas McD. Fairfull, "General Nelson A. Miles and His Charges of Army Brutality in the Philippine Insurrection, 1902," M.A. thesis, pp. 27, 53-54; Gates, Schoolbooks, p. 86; Lippincott, "Reminiscences," p. 173; Kenton J. Clymer, "Not So Benevolent Assimilation," p. 550; James H. Blount, The American Occupation of the Philippines, 1898-1912, pp. 202-05; Leon Wolf, Little Brown Brother, pp. 306-07; Linn, "War in Luzon," Ph.D. diss., p. 208.

39. WD, ARofSG, 1900, p. 102; Sexton, Soldiers in the Sun, p. 238; John M. Banister, "Surgical Observations in the Philippines," pp. 1118-19.

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40. Charles E. Woodruff, "The Soldier in the Tropics," pp. 772 (quotation), 779; WD, ARofSG, 1898, pp. 114-15, 1899, pp. 100, 110-11, 114-15, 1900, pp. 89-90, 92, 102-04, 126, 141, and 1902, pp. 105, 107; idem, ARofSW, 1900, 1(pt. 3):119; Sexton, Soldiers in the Sun, pp. 58-59, 140, 152-54; Maus, "Military Sanitary Problems," pp. 22-23; "Medical and Sanitary History," pp. 826-27, 830; Dodge Commission Report, 2:1247; Flexner and Barker, "Prevalent Diseases," p. 525. See also in Entry 561, RG 94, NARA: Ltr, Edward T. Comegys to Mil Sec, U.S. Army, 23 Oct 1904; Telg, Elwell S. Otis to AG, 5 Jan 1899, and Statement, Edward J. Wagnitz, 11 Jun 1907, Henry Lippincott Papers; Med Certificate, H. O. Perley, 21 Dec 1899, William D. Crosby Papers; and Div of Philippines SO 322 (copy), 18 Nov 1900, Henry F. Hoyt Papers.

41. WD, ARofSG, 1899, p. 173, and 1900, pp. 151-52 (first quotation), 163; Freeman, Soldier in the Philippines, p. 52 (second quotation); Maus, "Military Sanitary Problems," p. 6; Sexton, Soldiers in the Sun, pp. 152-54, 162; in Entry 52, RG 112, NARA: Ltrs, Greenleaf to All Divs and Dists in Dept, 26 Mar 1900, and W. F. Lewis to SG, 17 May 1900, Ms 4888, and Ltr, D. Glennan to Ch Surg, Div of Philippines, 21 May 1900.

42. WD, ARofSG, 1899, p. 113, and 1900, pp. 87, 89, 114, 148, 163; R. W. Andrews, "Tropical Diseases as Observed in the Philippines," pp. 86-87.

43. Sexton, Soldiers in the Sun, p. 58; WD, ARofSG, 1900, pp. 92, 131, 143; Andrews, "Tropical Diseases," p. 21; United States, Bureau of the Census, Census of the Philippine Islands . . . , 1:371-73.

44. WD, ARofSG, 1899, p. 136 (first quotation), 1900, p. 141 (fourth quotation), and 1902, pp. 48-49 (third quotation), 94-96; Seamen, "Some Observations," p. 188 (second quotation); Louis M. Maus, "Venereal Diseases in the United States Army," pp. 131-32.

45. WD, ARofSG, 1899, pp. 106, 136, 141-42, 244, 249-50, and 1900, pp. 89, 125, 134; idem, Correspondence, 2:1247; Maus, "Military Sanitary Problems," pp. 16-18, 25, 28-29; William T. Sexton, Soldiers in the Philippines, pp. 34, 56-57; "Medical and Sanitary History," p. 827; Gates, Schoolbooks, p. 58; Lyster, "Army Surgeon," p. 33; Brief Summary of the Military and Civil Services of Colonel L. M. Maus, Medical Corps, United States Army, Retired, p. 5, Louis M. Maus Papers, Entry 561, RG 94, NARA.

46. Freeman, Soldier in the Philippines, p. 73 (quotations); Lippincott, "Reminiscences," p. 171; "Medical and Sanitary History," p. 829; WD, ARofSG, p. 131.

47. WD, ARofSG, 1899, pp. 100, 102-03 (quotations); "Insanity in the Army," p. 586; "Medical and Sanitary History," pp. 826-27; Maus, "Military Sanitary Problems," p. 19; Sexton, Soldiers in the Sun, pp. 184-85; Woodruff, "Soldier in the Tropics," p. 779; L. G. Anderson, "Notes of an Army Surgeon in the Recent War," p. 477; P. J. H. Farrell, "Our Sick and Wounded in the Philippines," pp. 334-35; David T. Courtwright, Dark Paradise, pp. 96n, 100-101, 202-03.

48. WD, ARofSG, 1899, pp. 111 (first quotation), 134-36, 229, and 1900, pp. 127, 134-35, 140; idem, ARofSW, 1900, 1(pt.4):523 (second quotation); Div of Philippines GO 1, 22 Jul 1901, file 6355/45, Entry 22, RG 159, NARA; Woodruff, "Soldier in the Tropics," p. 776; G. W. Richardson, "Intestinal Fever, Causes and Prevention," p. 817; Sexton, Soldiers in the Sun, p. 230.

49. WD, ARofSW, 1900, 1(pt.3):122; idem, ARofSG, 1898, p. 262, and 1900, pp. 89, 92, 103, 133-34, 136, 139, 152, 155-56.

50. Ltr, IG to SG, 10 May 1902, file 6355/106, and Newspaper Clipping, 1 May 1902, file 6355/107, both Entry 22, RG 159, NARA; WD, ARofSG, 1900, pp. 98, 107, 128 (quotation), 138, 164; Lyster, "Army Surgeon," p. 31; Sexton, Soldiers in the Sun, pp. 119, 180.

51. WD, ARofSG, 1900, p. 107; idem, Correspondence, 2:1180, 1198.

52. Louis L. Seaman, "The U.S. Army Ration, and Its Adaptability for Use in Tropical Climates," pp. 381, 389; Edward L. Munson, "The Ideal Ration for an Army in the Tropics," p. 343; Sexton, Soldiers in the Sun, pp. 85, 183; Woodruff, "Soldier in the Tropics," pp. 770-72, 775; Maus, "Military Sanitary Problems," p. 9; WD, ARofSG, 1900, pp. 140-41, and 1902, p. 50; United States, Philippine Commission, 1899-1900, Report of the Philippine Commission to the President, 2:238; "Medical and Sanitary History," p. 827.

53. Quotations from Woodruff, "Soldier in the Tropics," pp. 770-71; ibid., pp. 772, 775; WD, ARofSG, 1899, pp. 226, 228, and 1900, p. 127; Seaman, "U.S. Army Ration," pp. 387-88.

54. WD, ARofSG, 1901, pp. 150-51; idem, Correspondence, 1:421, 426; idem, ARofSW, 1901, 1(pt.6):434, 508; Percy M. Ashburn, A History of the Medical Department of the United States Army, p. 228.

55. WD, ARofSG, 1901, pp. 150, 152, 155; idem, Correspondence, 1:412, 418-19; William B. Banister, "Succinct Account of Services," n.d., William B. Banister Papers, Entry 561, RG 94, NARA; Fred R. Brown, History of the Ninth U.S. Infantry, 1799-1909, pp.473-74.

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56. WD, ARofSG, 1901, p. 152 (quotation); Banister, "Succinct Account of Services," Banister Papers, Entry 561, RG 94, NARA.

57. First quotation from Frederick M. Hartsock, "Military Medical Conditions Relating to the American Legation Guard in Pekin, China," p. 252; ibid., p. 253; remaining quotations from WD, ARofSG, 1901, pp. 158-59; ibid., p. 160.

58. William B. Banister, "The Medical Reserve Corps," pp. 34-35; WD, ARofSG, 1901, pp. 150-52; idem, Correspondence, 1:429; Rpt Extract, Charles A. Coolidge, 13 Jul 1900, Banister Papers, Entry 561, RG 94, NARA.

59. WD, ARofSG, 1901, pp. 151-52; idem, Correspondence, 1:427, 435, 442, 456; "Hospital Ship in Service at Taku," p. 276.

60. WD, ARofSG, 1901, pp. 152-55; idem, Correspondence, 1:444; Ltr, SGO [unsigned] to Miss Brennan, 4 Oct 1900, Entry 103, RG 112, NARA.

61. WD, ARofSG, 1901, p. 153 (quotations); idem, Correspondence, 1:426, 442; James A. Huston, The Sinews of War, p. 303.

62. Banister, "The Medical Reserve Corps," pp. 34-35; WD, ARofSG, 1901, pp. 153, 155; idem, Correspondence, 1:449.

63. William G. H. Carter, The Life of Lieutenant General Chaffee, p. 180; WD, ARofSG, 1901, p. 154; idem, Correspondence, 1:452, 455, 459-60; idem, ARofSW, 1901, l(pt.6):518.

64. WD, ARofSG, 1901, pp. 157-58; idem, ARofSW, 1901, l(pt.6):521, 539.

65. WD, ARofSG, 1901, pp. 155, 158, 161, 168, 1903, p.113, 1904, p.113, 1905, pp.99-102, and 1917, p. 218; idem, Correspondence, 1:464, 480; Huston, Sinews, p. 303.

66. WD, ARofSG, 1901, pp. 161 (quotation), 162-65.

67. Ibid., pp. 150, 152; idem, Correspondence, 1:438.

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NAACP Fights for Civil Liberties !!

2011-04-04T23:00:00.000-04:00

Legal DocketThe NAACP Legal Department maintains an active docket of Civil Rights cases, frequently in conjunction with a team of cooperating lawyers around the nation who work daily in the courts alongside the Legal Department to address Civil Rights violations and forge the way in the fight to prevent the erosion of Civil Rights law in this country.

While the NAACP does seek monetary relief in these cases, the primary focus of the NAACP's Legal Program is to obtain injunctive relief in these cases to halt the perpetuation of the harm. The NAACP may become involved in civil rights litigation in one of two ways:

The NAACP may file a lawsuit against a person or entity as an organizational Plaintiff to redress a civil rights violation; or

The NAACP Legal Department may represent a individual or class of individual Plaintiffs in a civil rights lawsuit seeking redress for the Plaintiff or class of Plaintiffs who suffered a civil rights violation

Below is a list of selected NAACP Civil Rights cases for the last two years:

NAACP v. City of Kyle, Texas (2009)

United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, Case Nos. 09-50352 and 09-50505 (Dowload the .pdf of the brief).

NAACP v. City of Kyle (Zoning Restrictions case): The NAACP and its Texas State Conference challenged discriminatory zoning regulations in the City of Kyle, Texas. The plaintiffs have filed their appellate brief in this matter.

Kelvis Rhodes v. Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Inc; NAACP v. Cracker Barrel Old County Store, Inc; McDermott and Gentry v. Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Inc.

Case against Cracker Barrel on behalf of individual plaintiffs.

NAACP v. Waffle House, Inc

Allegations of public accommodation discrimination against African American restaurant guests by Waffle House in Alabama, Georgia and North Carolina.

NAACP v. A.A. Arms and NAACP v. Accusport

Challenging gun manufacturers and distributors, for their negligent production, distribution, and marketing of handguns.

NAACP, by its Omaha Branch, and on behalf of its individual members v. Heineman

Challenging action by the State of Nebraska that will serve to create three racially distinct school districts in Omaha.

Avila v. Berkeley Unified School District

Challenging the School District's use of race as a factor in making school assignments.

State of Connecticut v. Spellings, Secretary of Department of Education

The State of Connecticut sued the U.S. Department of Education on grounds that the "No Child Left Behind Law" (NCLB) is an unfunded mandate.

Metts v. Irons

Challenging a state redistricting plan had the effect of denying black voters equal opportunity.

Fair Housing in Huntington Comm. v. Huntington

Allegations that Huntington's continued conduct violates the Equal Protection clause of the Constitution and several civil rights statutes.

Prairie View Chapter of NAACP v. Kitzman; Prairie View Chapter of NAACP v. Waller County, Texas

Ruling to continue early voting time at Prairie View A&M University in Waller County, Texas.

NAACP by its Omaha Branch, and on behalf of its individual members v. HEINEMAN

Challenge action by the State of Nebraska that will serve to create three racially distinct school districts in Omaha.

Hollman v. Cisneros

Allegations of the perpetuation of de jure racial segregation in low-income housing.

NAACP v. City of Kyle, Texas

Challenging certain municipal zoning ordinances enacted by the City of Kyle.

Cleveland Branch of the NAACP v. Parma

Challenging discriminatory hiring practices in the City of Parma.

NAACP v. City of Thomasville

Seeking to keep in place a 1987 consent judgment requiring the use of some single-member districts.

Thomas County Branch of the NAACP v. City of Thomasville School District

Action was brought in an attempt to end alleged racial segregation on behalf of all similarly situated students of African-American descent.

Florida State Conference of Branches, NAACP v. State of Florida Department of Corrections

Four separate and consolidated cases against the Florida Department of Corrections

Springfield Branch, NAACP v. City of Springfield Illinois

Attempt to resolve differences about the validity of the physical ability examination for fire fighters

NAACP v. St. Landry Parish

Challenging the redistricting plans of the St. Landry Parish School Board and Council because they violated Section 2 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act by diluting the voting strength of black voters in St. Landry Parrish.

Common Cause v. Billups

Challenging Act 53 on the ground that it imposes an unauthorized and undue burden on the right to vote of Georgia voters.

Goodwine v. Taft

A school desegregation lawsuit was filed by the Dayton NAACP and individual plaintiffs against the Dayton, Ohio school district and the State of Ohio

Aziz v. City of Ft. Myers

A group of Ft. Myers' citizens called the Citizens for a Better Fort Myers Pac have proposed to modify the City Charter.

NAACP v. Florida Board of Regents

NAACP's appeal of the governor's unilateral mandate to exclude racial considerations in the college admissions process.

Bush v Holmes

Challenging the constitutionality of statute establishing opportunity scholarship program (OSP).

Metts v. Irons

Voting Rights Act violations in a redistricting plan that eliminated long-standing cross-racial alliances.

Owens v. Colo. Cong. of Parents

Challenging that the Colorado Opportunity Contract Pilot Program is unconstitutional.

Operation Bike Week Justice

In March 2006, the NAACP concluded a series of settlements of discrimination lawsuits that grew out of complaints by African American tourists who attended Black Bike Week festivities between 1999 and 2003.

NAACP v. City of Reading (2006)

Charging the Reading, Pennsylvania Fire Department with implementing discriminatory recruitment and hiring practices against African Americans and other minorities.

Amos v. GEICO (2006)

Alleging GEICO discriminates against African Americans through its process of establishing auto insurance premiums for its customers.

Connecticut v. Spellings, Secretary, United States Department of Education (2006)

Challenging certain provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act.

Poster Presentation Activity for Teachers and Students

2011-04-03T10:12:00.000-04:00

The Internet TESL Journal

Teaching Graded Reader Poster Presentations to ESL/EFL Students

Andy Maggs

andy5maggs }at{ gmail.com

Chuo University (Tokyo, Japan)

Technique: helping teachers set up and conduct poster presentations on Graded Readers for ESL/EFL students

Student Level: All levels

Materials: Graded Readers; A3 paper

Class time: 30 minutes to explain how to make the poster (one week before the presentation day). From one hour to an hour and a half to make the poster presentations and to discuss the books and posters (on presentation day).

Why Use Graded Readers on ESL/EFL Courses?

It is widely accepted among leading linguists that extensive reading can be very useful in improving ESL/EFL students’ general English level. Graded Readers are one way of introducing reading to students at a level appropriate to their stage of development in English.

Why Use Poster Presentations for Graded Readers?

This is a fun and enjoyable way for students to practise presentations in small groups on interesting stories. With drawings, maps and photographs, the visual appeal of posters make presentations more interactive. In fact, teachers may be amazed at how much effort some students put into the design of their posters.

The Week Before: Setting Up the Poster Presentations

Step 1 : Give an Overview of the Tasks

In class, explain briefly the tasks to students: to select a Graded Reader; to read it at home; to design a poster on the book; and to make a short presentation for about 3 minutes on the book in class to a small group of classmates.

Have the students select a Graded Reader and give them one week to read it. (This might seem too short. However, if you give them 2 weeks or more, many students think they have a lot of time and often won’t start reading the book until a few days before the presentation).

As a general guide, beginner and low intermediate students should select from level 2 or 3 Graded Readers; intermediate and high intermediate students from level 4 or 5; advanced students from level 6.

Step 2 : Write Up the Poster Headings

On the blackboard, write up the headings below and have students copy them into their notebook:

Book Title

Author & Nationality

Genre (comedy, horror, adventure etc.)

Main characters (name, job, basic personality)

Example: Joe / doctor / intelligent & funny

Story: __________________________________

__________________________________

__________________________________

__________________________________

__________________________________

Star Rating (1 star = bad ~ 5 stars = fantastic)

Conclusion: 1. Why I selected this book

2. Do I recommend this book? Yes or No. Why?

Why are there 5 lines for the story section?

The reason for this is to encourage students to make a minimum volume of notes from which to retell the story. This is to avoid the pitfall of students just writing one sentence for the story, and in the following week finishing their presentation prematurely. Since the plot is the most important and most challenging part of the presentation, the 5 line technique is essential to ensure the story is summarized to an acceptable level. It will also ensure that the students' English ability is "pushed".

Step 3 : Model How to Complete the Headings Using Note Style

While students are copying this information down, it's best that next to this on the blackboard, the teacher completes the headings in note style for an imaginary book. This modeling stage is very important for the story section in particular. Teachers can encourage students to abbreviate the main characters' names to just one letter per character, and to circle it. This will encourage note making, and allow the students to make the poster a little more quickly.

Step 4 : Give Students Final Instructions on Poster Making

These instructions are:

One week to read the book and make a poster

For the poster, use 2 pages of A3 paper (the teacher should provide this, ideally)

Only English can be used on the poster

Use all the headings for the poster; do not skip any information

All information on the poster should be in note form (key words, signs, abbreviations only ). Make it very clear that no sentences are allowed on the poster.

Students should write their names on the back of the poster only ( so the all-class poster viewing activity -explained later- focuses on the poster, not the student).

Step 5 : Set Up a Student Discussion on 'What Makes a Good Poster?'

If this is the first time for students to design posters, put students into groups of three. Bring in different quality posters from another class and spread them out on some empty desks (the students’ names will be hidden since they are written on the back of the poster). Have students walk around, discussing which ones they like best and why.

If students have done poster presentations before, for a few minutes have them discuss what makes a good poster. Then have them sit with new partners, still in groups of three, and exchange their ideas. Finally, the teacher can elicit ideas from the groups and write them on the blackboard.

These are some ideas on good posters: big size, coloured pens and pencils, drawings, pictures, maps (to show the author’s country and hometown perhaps or a journey from an adventure story), clear handwriting, key words under headings.

On Presentation Day: Managing the Poster Presentation Activities

Step 1: Warm Up Discussion

Put students in groups of three but not with their usual class friends and not with their posters

(If they have the posters ready, they will want to show them, and inevitably get distracted from the discussion). Write these questions on the blackboard and have the groups discuss them:

What book did you select and why?

What level Graded Reader was it? Was it easy or difficult to read? Why?

How long did your book take to read ?

When did you read it?

How long did your poster take to make?

When did you make it (honestly!)?

Did you enjoy making the poster? Why or why not?

Step 2: All Class Poster Viewing Activity

Have students sit back in their original seats. Next, have them take out their posters and space them out on empty desks around the room. Tell students to stand, and have a relaxing walk around the room, looking at all the posters. They can discuss the posters they like with friends if they keep everything in English.

Another variation of this is for the teacher to put small numbered slips of paper on the desks. Students place their poster on any available number. They then walk around for a while, checking the posters. As they are doing this, the teacher writes the numbers (spaced out) on the blackboard. Finally, when the students have finished walking round, they select the top three posters by putting a mark under the appropriate numbers on the blackboard.

Step 3: The Teacher Models the Start to a Presentation (optional)

Note: If the class is beginner or lower intermediate level, this modeling stage is recommended. If the class is any higher, this stage is probably unnecessary.

Before the presentations start, the teacher should model briefly what he/she is expecting. One idea is for the teacher to model a bad start to a presentation, then a good way using one student poster from a different class. If this is not possible, a student’s poster from the current class may have to be used. The teacher might hold up the poster and say something like:

'Book Title, Treasure Island. Author’s name, Robert Louis Stevenson. Nationality Scottish'. This is a bad style of presenting. (Pause…..) This is a good style of presenting: 'My book presentation is on Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson. He was from Scotland. The book's genre is….'

This short model should be enough for students to understand that sentences are obviously required. The students should now be ready to make their presentations.

Step 4 : Setting Up the Presentations

Follow these guidelines so that students know what’s expected of them:

Set a time limit of about three minutes per speaker, but tell students they can speak longer if they like.

To focus the group’s attention throughout, have the first speaker open up the poster, and have the other two students close up theirs.

The first speaker begins, and talks through the headings until he/she is finished.

When finished, the speaker should ask his/her partners these two reaction questions:

Are you interested in reading this book? Why or why not?

(If applicable) Have you seen the movie of this book?

When these questions have been answered, the next speaker can begin.

Step 5 : Making the Presentations in Small Groups of Three

Place students in new groups of three but away from their usual friends (they are more likely to stay on task this way). This time, they should bring the poster and the book with them.

Give them two minutes to silently look over their poster notes. This is to refresh their memory of the story, and to make sure they can understand their own notes (remember – these notes may have been done up to a week before this class).

Next, have students do 'scissors, paper, stone' to decide the presentation speaking order.

For example, the loser goes first etc.

Step 6: Repeating the Presentations in New Groups of Three

When all the groups have finished, re-arrange the students into new groups of three, with books they have not heard. Repeat the presentation process once again. When the presentations have been completed twice, have students sit back in their original seats.

Doing the presentation twice is always a good idea. First, students usually put a lot of time and effort into their posters. As a result, it is fair that a lot of class time is devoted to it. In addition, students don’t mind presenting it twice: they gain more confidence with the material and they can improve their fluency. This is particularly important for beginner and intermediate level students.

Step 7: Giving Positive Feedback

Since making posters and presenting books is a challenging and time-consuming set of activities for students, it is very important that the teacher now gives a lot of very positive feedback to the class. Comments on the following areas are recommended: their hard work, the cool designs, the good note style (hold up a few poster examples perhaps), their good explanations of the story etc. This last point is particularly important to boost confidence and encourage motivation for any future poster presentations.

Step 8: Wrap Up Discussion

As a closing activity, have students discuss these questions in pairs (it's best that students discuss these with their class friends) :

From all the book presentations you heard today, which book are you most interested in reading next? Why?

Did any poster designs today give you any good ideas for your next poster?

Do you think you can read a higher level Graded Reader next time?

Finally, ask students to write their name on the back of the poster if they have not done so already, and collect them in. Teachers may use them as a form of assessment or to use the better ones for future classes as examples of how to make good posters.

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The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. XIII, No. 11, November 2007

http://iteslj.org/

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http://iteslj.org/Lessons/Maggs-GradedReaderPosters