A Community of Tree People

When I was little and would draw pictures in crayons of trees or hillsides or general outdoor scenery, my mom would always say, "Steffie, not all the trees are the same color. Use some different colors when you draw. It will look prettier and more realistic." My art career didn't advance much beyond that, but it reminded me this week about the diversity in nature that exists, and how it is pretty universally seen as beautiful.

No one looks at a hillside of spring or autumn trees, all different colors and heights, with no shade of green exactly the same, and says, "it would be way better if these were all the same color." The same can be said about almost anything alive in nature. Entire hobbies are devoted to discovering different bird types, flower species, whale songs, and even insect variations. Diversity, in nature, is not only beautiful, it is beneficial. There are volumes of sciency things that could be said about that statement, but to keep it pretty simple: the ultimate goal of living things in nature is to remain alive and produce offspring that remain alive. If it were true that all organisms of a certain species lived longest and produced the most offspring when they were all the same, then all those organisms would, in fact, look the same. Clearly this is not the case. And if it were the case that it didn't matter whether or not diversity existed within a species, then we would see some species look all alike, and some have diversity. This is also not the case. The remaining option, is that it is indeed a positive and beneficial living environment for all species when diversity exists amongst their own kind.

"the over three hundred thousand known varieties of beetles led biologist J.B.S. Haldane to consider that ‘God has an inordinate fondness for beetles.’ Why, one must ask, did God make creation so diverse? One can assume only that the wealth of life on earth is due to God’s extravagance. He created the squirrel not because of any real need for squirrels but because he liked the idea of squirrels. Looking upon the natural world, it is easy to sense God’s sheer joy in creation- you can imagine the delight he felt when he came up with the ridiculous idea of giraffes.

The diversity of creation is simply a reflection of who God is. God is diverse. God is triune- three in one. It is often said that the most profound theological statement in the whole Bible is that ‘God is love.’ The truth is that were God a single person, if he were one rather than three and one, we could not know him as love. As theologican Stanely Grenz put it, ‘Self-love cannot be true charity, supreme love requires another, equal to the lover, who is the recipient of that love, and because supreme love is received as well as given, it must be a shared love, in which each person loves and is loved by the other.’ It is only because the Father, Son, and Spirit respond to each other in constantly loving relationships that we can say that the very nature of God is love. The doctrine of the Trinity tells us that God is a community. God is in the constant eternal relationship."
-Intelligent Church by Steve Chalk and Anthony Watkins

Diversity generates stronger and more creative ideas and so produces more imaginative solutions to problems than are likely to result from the best efforts of a single mind. The result of being surrounded by others who will always agree with you is mediocrity. Personal growth and community creativity are born out of the tension of differing opinions, approaches, and insights.

But back to the original discussion of trees. Why is it that it is so easy for us to look out into nature and to see both the beauty and the benefits of diversity, and o difficult for us to do that with humans? Is it because we are less pretty to look at? Is it because we don't step back and look at society in the same way we look at a hillside? Is it that we have not felt the benefits of our differences? Is it that we think we are all the same?

Created things, whether books, paintings, or buildings, tell us about who created it and why. Biologists would call this relating structure with function. All basic biology books talk about how the structure of the natural world, from cells to planets, relates to their function. One does not come before the other, but rather structure and function are inexorably linked and shift together. God, as the ultimate creator, tells us about Himself through His creation. He has told us what our function is- to love God and love neighbor- and He gives us His Word to teach us how to do that, His Son to do it perfectly for us, and His Spirit to move us to do it.

So that takes care of function. What about structure? We can talk about structure in terms of our physical bodies and mental/emotional abilities. I'm interested more in structure as a society, since it communally that we make up the fullness of the image of God. If we see that differences between living things are beautiful and beneficial and tell us something about what God values, how do we structure our society so that it fits the function it has been given? God's Word says a good deal about cities, city structures, and living communally. What strikes me again and again is how He can look at individuals and communities and see the pure beauty He originally created, though fragmented, and ask us to see it too, so that we would understand Him, as our creator, more.

1 The Mighty One, God the LORD,
speaks and summons the earth
from the rising of the sun to its setting.
2Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty,
God shines forth.
-Psalm 50

networking

Starting the fund development process has been a cool way of seeing how different people, places, and organizations have become connected to one another, and have each given me different tid-bits of knowledge, experience, and concern, that have shaped the things that I care about now. If find it hard sometimes to really take to heart the often tossed-out verses of Jer. 29:11" For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." And Philippians 1:6 "that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." Ironically, hope in the future can be firmly founded in God's faithfulness in the past, and the "plan" and "good work" has really always been taken care of and grown. At the most basic level, raising support in San Diego [which has really just barely started], is like connecting the past with the present. The fact that I am even in contact with this many people form pre-Penn life is a testament to the hope/future/plan for completion. It is fun to look back [and forward] and see how the people and places here in San Diego have changed me and to return to those people and places a very different person, and show them concretely what has changed and even how they've had a part in that.

A few examples...

In high school I worked for San Diego Youth and Community Services. Next week I'm meeting with their CEO, who was just a board member like me 5 years ago, to talk about IV and them maybe supporting me. Turns out that Dr. Ross, the CEO of the California Endowment and my general hero [look down a few posts], is the biggest financial supporter of SDYCS, and so he's going to join Walter, the SDYCS guy, and I for that meeting. I only met Dr. Ross because of being an RA in Ware, and because of being on Helen Davies floor. Dr. Ross went to Penn and worked for Helen as a freshmen. It is also Helen that gave me a TA job next year for her Infectious Diseases class, and an academic job like that is one of Howard's requirements for letting me defer. So anyway, in high school when I was on the SDYCS board, one of the board members introduced me to the president of San Diego's Soroptimists chapter. They gave me a scholarship for Penn, and are actually based in Philly, and are also potential donors. SDYCS showed me the incredible brokenness of the inner city for the first time, but I wouldn't have applied for their student spot on the board if I hadn't already been interested in social justice type stuff. That part of life was influenced largely by Girl Scouts and Sue. Girl Scouts taught me about leadership and Sue, along with a few others, taught me about the importance and joy of living out the Gospel. She also gave me the application for SDYCS. The Meinert family, who are good friends with Sue and took me to church, gave me a picture of Christ-centered family and community. That community became the image of what I wanted to find in college, and that landed me looking for Christian fellowships, which brings me full circle to IV. So now, I return to San Diego, with new connections like Dr. Ross, and old ones like SDYCS and Sue, but they're all connected. And really, I could keep going with the connections.

So while the Jer 29:11 words are very true, I actually have been connecting most with a different part of Jer. 29. Before promising the exiles hope and a future, God says this: 5 "Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. 6 Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. 7 Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper."

All of these people and organizations are seeking the peace and prosperity of the city, and they have taught me to do the same. They all address different facets of city peace, and so looking at them as a whole [though they don't all know each other], is beautiful. And these people HAVE prospered, oh so much, because of what they are doing. They have fought for peace, and lived out Micah 6:8 and placed their hope in Isaiah 65; they have sought God and lived because of it.

The network is intricate. More intricate than I could have ever planned out, or than even the best career services seminar on networking could imagine. It emerges from an economy of grace.

16For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. 17He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. ~ Colossians 1

God could have chosen other people and places to teach me about Him [and being infinitely good, I'm sure those other paths would have been fine :)], but I am oh so glad that He gave me the people and places that He did. Many of these people had no idea that they were moving me towards God, and while my initial reason for meeting up with them in the next three weeks is to talk about them supporting me on IV staff, pretty solidly connected to that is the chance to tell them how they've been important in my journey of faith for the last several years. 11 Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O LORD, and you are exalted as head above all. 12 Both riches and honor come from you, and you rule over all. In your hand are power and might, and in your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all. 13And now we thank you, our God, and praise your glorious name. ~1 Chronicles 29

graduating...right about now

To whom much is given, much is expected.

Dear RAs and GAs,

in an email from our house dean

...I wanted to alert you to two very important things. First, please be alert and aware in these last days of the semester. This is a time when students sometimes blow off steam in inappropriate ways. Just last night a student was written up for getting drunk and lighting a chair on fire in the quad. Obviously, this is the kind of thinking that can be very, very dangerous to the student and all of us. In other words, don't sleep--it may be near the end, but we have to stay committed as this is in fact a peak time for certain kinds of problems....

you got to admit...lighting a chair on fire is at least more fun to write up than just general drunkenness...oh man.

Spreading the Safety Net- Obstacles to the Expansion of Community Health Centers

During the presidency of Bush, his administration's agenda of "compassionate conservatism" with its emphasis on market-based, rather than government-sponsered, approaches to health care services and income support, has been rejected by Democrats innumerable times. This philosophical conflict has resulted in stalemates on many health care issues, and the administration's proposed 2009 budget, which calls for reductions of 200.9$ billion in Medicare and Medicaid spending over the next 5 years, only deepens the political divide. Bush has remained resolute, though, in fulfilling one early campaign pledge that most Democrats enthusiastically embrace: doubling the number of community health centers (CHCs) over a 5 year period so that millions more people who lack insurance or have limited access to private medical care can be treated as publicaly funded facilities. Bush's commitmement persuaded more Republicans to support CHCs, and the result has been a politically effective bipartisanship on this front.

The CHC initiative was launched by Lyndon B. Johnson duirng the administration's War on Poverty and got its inspiration from a South African movement that had offstarted the creation of facilities where poor workers could receive both public healht services and medical care. The primary goals were combining these disparate models and removing financial barriers to access. These goals, along with an emphasis on empowering the community to participate in decision making for CHCs by requiring that the majority of their board members be patients, were build into the centers' operating principles.

Reflecting this "power to the people" philosophy, the funding mechanism for CHCs consists of federal grants that bypass state governments and flow directly to these nonprofit, community-based organiztions. CHCs now number 1200 nationally and operate in some 6000 urban and rural sites in every state and territory and served an estimated 16.3 million people this year. 40% of the patients are uninsured and 35% are covered through Medicaid, with the remainder on Medicare or private insurance. Patients who are uninsured pay according to a sliding scale based on their ability to pay [like Esperanza in North Philly].

2/3 of CHC patients are memebers of racial or ethnic minority groups and many lack proficiency in English. More than 2/3 live on incomes at or below the federal poverty level and more than 92% have incomes below 200% of this threshold. Because their population is relatively young and disproportianly made up of young women and children, there is a high demand for primary care services.

Still, the mix of private and public activities that make up the health care system presents the centers with major challenges. As more people have lost their employer-sponsored or Medicaid coverage and become uninsured, greater demands have been placed on CHCs. Other challenges include recruiting and retaining physicians, nurses, and allied professionals who can provide primary care; securing specialty referrals for uninsured and Medicaid patients; and functioning in the face of budget cutbacks in Medicaid and SCHIP.

The number of doctors providing charity care has dropped significantly over the past decade, increasing the burden on CHCs and ERs. Meanwhile, it is difficult to attract physicians to staff positions at CHCs because hospital medical groups can offer them higher salaries. It is difficult to find specialists willig to treat uninsured patients who have no source of payment.

CHC,s which participate in policy activities largely through the National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC), are striving to attract more physicians through natoinal, state, and local levels. CHCs meet the definition of a 'medical home' as developed by primary care medical organizations, but we will not be able to reach expansionary goals if we cannot attract a greater number of clinicians to these centers and more federal support from Washington. Despite good intentions on both sides, it remains uncertain whether Congress or the new administration will see the continued expansion of CHCs as a vital step toward reforming the health care system. Clearly, I think it's a vital step.

healthcare, community, poverty, and policy

I just spent the last three hours listening to and talking with my new hero. Dr. Robert K. Ross, the president of the CA Endowment, whose goal is to expand access to affordable, quality health care for underserved individuals and communities, and to promote fundamental imporvements in the health status of all. I was so jittery and excited and at one point almost started crying because he seriously outlined exactly what I want to do with my life and gave me tons of crazy cool new ideas, and it is so strange and yet wonderful to be affirmed in those ideas by someone much older, well-known, and generally brilliant. Here is my response to some of what he said:

Health revolution #1: The late 70s/early 80s made communicable and infectious diseases the most importand health care issue. If you want to hear about the history of AIDS watch the movie "And the Band Played On."

Health revolution #2: In 1985/86 crack cocaine became the new street drug of choice. It went from 100$ per hit to 5$. It is highly addictive, causes pain to go away, releases people from depression, and only lasts about an hour. The effects of cocaine are so much greater in a community oriented framework. Since the advent of cheap crack cocaine, life expectancy in inner cities has decreased. In 1990 in Philadelphia, the average life expectancy was 48. In 1980 it was 60. The statistics are similar for Southern California. Women get addicted and how do they get their money? Prostitution. Men get addicted and how do they get their money? Stealing and dangerous street trade. The prostitution breeds STDs and unwanted pregnancy. Cocaine induces muscle contractions, so babies are born too early. Stealing and street violence produces gangs. All of the above produces unsafe streets and home environments, and there is an entire generation of young people who grew up in houses and neighborhoods where these effects were very present. What is society doing for these youths now? What is society doing for the 1980s coke addicts now? One might ask, can we really extrapolate all of these effects from one cause: cocaine? Mostly yes, but fully no. But we shouldn't be ignoring the fact that the answer really is 'mostly yes.' LA and San Diego were hit the first and the hardest with cocaine trafficking, but it clearly has become a national problem. Economics is key here. The fact that cocaine became more abundent and cheaper effected the drug market in huge ways, which in turn effected every other systemic structure of society these cocaine addicts came into contact with, from neighborhood housing, to education, to healthcare. 1 in 3 men of minority status is destined to be a part of the criminal justice system at some point in his life as of 1990. Clearly, no part of society is left untouched by these statistics...who, after all, is paying for the incarceration of these men?

The second healthcare revolution comes to a close in the early 21st century with chronic, rather than communicable, diseases being the most talked about issue. This is largely because health care organiztions and individuals gave up on trying to deal with the problems of drug dealer and prostitutes and changed their focus to the poor. The shift in healthcare brought a focus on the chronic problems of the poor: diabetes, obesity, malnutrition, hypertension, bad eyesite, some STDs, and even cancers [not an issue of the poor as much, but definitely chronic].

Heathcare revolution #3: The closer look at chronic conditions has caused healthcare organiztions and individuals to look more closely at the healthcare system at large. Chronic conditions, after all, don't go away and require long term care, so the issue becomes a systemic one rather than a 'fix-it-once' solution. If you look up the word system in the dictionary, in no way does it describe what we have in terms of healthcare. People are starting to realize that the US spends more on health care than any other country in the world, and by no means has the best health. This third revolution is focused, therefore, around bringing health. That should be a 'duh' isn't that what heathcare is for. But if you look throughout the history of healthcare in America, it really isn't. Healthcare has been structured around reaction to problems rather than action and prevention. Reactionary care is absolutely important, but it will always be incomplete. Preventative healthcare economics is predicted to be the new and revolutionary field in the 21st century.

Take a guess: how much of your life expectancy right now is determined by the quality of healthcare you receive? Between 10 and 25% depending upon your healthcare plan. That is ridiculous!! So, what else is determining your life expectancy? Race, class, social status, gender, genes, and the way these things affect the social structures you interact with. [this is all from a legit study nationally recognized].

So when I say that the new healthcare revolution is focused on health, I really mean that it is focused on extending life expectancy. This will require tackling these other seeminly non-health related issues.

How to act: it is all about neighborhoods and community. And really, it's not just because that's what I'm passioante about. This is what all studies in the last 4 years have shown. Healthcare workers who are fed up with trying to work within the confines of the system are opting out and creating neighborhood and community organiztions [some of which have grown state-wide and nationally!]. There's a guy in Harlem who picked 20 square blocks to dedicate himself to. He has fully reformed the way the kids in that neighborhood get healthcare, education, and housing/supervision at home. On his wall he has a map of his 20 blocks of Harlem, and another map of the US with pins in the different cities where these once-street kids are now going to college. This stuff works! [and it's making me cry to think about it working :)].

What about the argument: this is too small-scale? That is a valid argument [though let's not discout the fact that the small-scale efforts are working!]. Here is where the policy makers and economists come in. So far, the benefits of small scale community health care have yet to be scaled up to fit a larger national context. There are two options: Find a way to unite and scale up the several small community focused healthcare groups, or encourage lots more of them to form in as many communities as possible. I would argue that both need to happen at the same time and that they will strengthen each other. How do we create a national healthcare structure that has all of the intimacies of neighborhood healthcare? Our problem isn't that we don't know what a good healthcare structure looks like. We do know. The last 10 years have given us success story after success story of non profits, independent hospitals, and clinics which have drastically influence the health of a community. We have the structure, now we need to find a way to fit it to a larger model.

Behold, I will bring to it health and healing, and I will heal them and reveal to them abundance of prosperity and security...And this city shall be to me a name of joy, a priase and a glory before all the nations of the earth who shall hear of all the good that I do for them. -Jer 33:6,9

Fling, Flung, Flang...Fun?

I got a fortune cookie once that said: "you need more fun in your life." Yeah. I know. What kind of fortune is that? I thought a lot about fun this weekend. One of my med school interview questions was: "what do you do for fun?" After a little internal chuckle, I replied: "Run, be active outside, read, play piano, talk with friends, hang out with my residents.." The guy gave me a look like "are you serious, wow, you have no life." I don't know...those seem like legit fun things to me.

It's hard to be an RA in the quad during fling and not switch into "high judgment" mode. After writing up dozens of people, coordinating medical transports, calling for barf clean-ups, and watching your relatively normal and responsible residents go totally nuts, and still having it be a part of my job to "punish" these kids, it's hard to remain judgement-free. Here I am being all good and clean and responsible and what do I get for it? hallways of barf. Not exactly the easiest moment to remmeber I've got my own internal hallways of barf...I just have the priviledge of being able to keep them relatively hidden. In that sense, there is an element of freedom, or at least honesty, in outward debachaury.

But back to the theme of fun. The lines between work and fun are not as defined for me as they are for some. There isn't much that I do that I would say is wholly devoid of fun [except pchem]. But on the flip side, I also don't do much that is wholly devoid of some kind of work. [hmm, this probably requires a definition for what exactly 'work' is] For example, I am having a great time writing my final research paper on Faulkner's representations of American cycles of poverty. That's a more nerdy example of what I mean by blending work and fun. But it does make me question: do I know how to have fun? really? Do I shirk away from fully non-work and all-fun situations because maybe I don't know how to interact in them? Do I not know how to let loose and have fun? What do these fun flingers have that I don't, in that respect? Where should the balance rest between interacting with the world around me, and drawing back to do my own thing? Is the "doing my own thing" a result of judgement/pride and even resentment that other people are having fun, and even though it's not the kind of fun I want to have, they're still having fun and I'm not? or am I really content with just having my kind of fun be a little different?

I find it somewhat problematic that at the mention of Spring Fling, my initial reaction is...ok, whose house can I go hang out at to get away from it. I can name tons of reasons for why I would more readily flee from Fling than from other situations of brokenness [and yeah, i think i can say Fling has got some brokennes to it when I find couples having sex in the public trash room...]. But at their cores, what makes one broken situation different from another? Why is it so much easier for me to love the homeless guy who refuses to accept food from me but will take my money to, theoretically, buy alcohol with? than to love drunk penn kids at fling? I mean, I do have some answers to that questions, but are they legit answers? Not really. These kids are my neighbors in the most literal sense of the word, and yet this weekend I would rather think of some obscure poverty-ridden country than about some of the more tangible problems that exist on campus. And that left me somewhat in a state of apathy this fling. I saw tons of stuff I could have written up, but didn't. I just didn't feel like putting the effort in to argue with another group of drunk people to get their Penncards and write them up and internally know that nothing was actually going to happen to them. So in that respect I'm kind of diappointed in myself that I wasn't consistent with the rules. Consistency is important when it comes to inforcing protocol. I guess it's just hard for me to see students who really do have opportunities that others will never have, simply by being here or by having grown up in the family/culture environment that they did, and then not using it. But then, I guess on the tiniest scale, that's what God feels. He gives us life and we still find ways of breaking it up. And at the end of the day, that's really why I'm not allowed any judgement on the residents I write up. Without mercy and grace, God would have written me up so many times the 'house dean' definitely would have kicked me out of the 'quad.'

pchem = antishalom

sample test question [ok, obvioulsy this is not an actual question...but they sound like this when you're reading them during your hour of testing]

1) a) i) Prove mathematically the meaning of life and the existence of the universe using concepts from quantum mechanics, thermodynamics, and statistical mechanics. Complement your answer with a diagram, and label and explain the various significant points within it.

1) a) ii) Explain how the above proof physically relates to the color of the sky and the average atmospheric pressure on Neptune.

1) b) i) Using a SINGLE mathematical statement, state how a liter of high-speed fermions in South Dakota will influence the average daily rainfall in Argentina.

1) b) ii) BRIEFLY explain the above equation in your own words. Feel free to complement your answer with equations. And diagrams. With labels. And equations to explain those labels which themselves are complemented by diagrams. Feel free to continue your answer into another blue book.

Suggested time: 3 minutes

little sis' revelation on maturity

an email from her:
neeeawwwwwwwwwww how cute....my little girl is alll...........big! i guess i'm the real little one though

i think the smarter you get, the more potential you have to be extremely immature. it's like climbing the stairs of immaturity. you start at the bottom and ur like, a baby. then you get smarter and take a step, and you also get a cookie and eat it, signifying smartness (now in the stomach). an so on and so forth. but if the right thing comes along to push you over, you fall down. you don't lose your cookies (aka your smarts) because you ate them....but you're back down on the immaturity. and the higher the stairs you go....the more potential to fall.....muahahaha physics. keep your cookies. but fall down the stairs every now and then (i'll make sure that happens)

love,
me

The Art of War

No, I'm not actually talking about or reading the famous book, "The Art of War," but the title is still appropriate. The last week in Germany was good for many reasons. Some questions that arose during the trip, which included a good amount of WWI/II/Cold War sights: How are we to remember the victims of a war who were on the "bad guy" side? For how many generations should a nation actively remember/repent/ask forgiveness for wrongs done in the past? Is it necessary and proper to remember/repent/ask forgiveness for wrongs done by your culture/nation in which you yourself played no active role? If these steps are not taken, will the conflict always live on, however well masked it may be? What would international politics look like if world leaders acted as Daniel did when he asked forgiveness not only for his own wrongs but for those of his whole nation? And finally, what role should art play in remembering the past? They are not new questions, but newly surfaced.

Berlin is a city full of the histories of different wars. Wars though, I believe, are never fully history- they live on into the lives of future generations, the way cities are constructed, the demgraphics of cities and countries, and the art that is produced decades and centuries later. War changes people, places, and things. War changed me when I was called "nazi girl" in 6th grade, and this week, when I was reminded of my Oma's time spent in a Russian concentration camp. Where there is war, there is art. I've become pretty sure of that. War brings battle songs, propaganda drawings, victorious murals and scuptures of battle heros, carefully designed memorials, new clothing styles, and new literary genres. It transcends all types of art and no theme is left untouched, from religion to fashion to sports.

It was not until recently that Berlin [and Germany in general] began to think more intently about how to remember the Holocaust in art and education. The Berlin Holocaust memorial was constructed only this year, and the Jewish museum remembering WWII is also new to the last decade. In addition to two other main sights, the Topographies of Terror and Checkpoint Charlie, these are the main Holocuast sites of rememberance. Both of them are considered modern art and the artists intentionally left their message open to interpretation. It would take too long to describe the memorial and museum in this post [maybe the next], but the theme of using modern art that is intentionally open to interpretation to remember/memorialize the Holocaust is pretty provocative, I think.

I don't know tons about the theory and and philosophy of modern art. Wikipedia says: Modern art refers to the new approach to art which placed emphasis on representing emotions, themes, and various abstractions. Artists experimented with new ways of seeing, with fresh ideas about the nature of materials and functions of art, often moving further toward abstraction. More generally, I've always though of modern art, particularly in the late 20th and 21st centuries, to be focused on the the viewers interpretation and experience. WWII is different than other wars in that it's hard to argue about who the "bad guys" were. In some wars its hard to tell...one side started something, another responded, and it was back and forth until someone won. But wars that have more clear "good guy/bad guy" sides are, ironically, harder to memorialize, I think, because no matter what, for the rest of history you are remembering one side as bad. So I find it interesting that Germany has chosen pretty abstract art forms to commemorate the Holocaust. It's not true for all the museums/monuments there, but for many. What reponsibility do artists have to remember the past through their work when the past is pretty clear cut on who the "bad guy" was. Is it responsible to use abstract art forms to memorialize something that maybe shouldn't be left open to interpretation? Is there a danger that the viewer won't the the right message? or won't get a powerful enough message to accurately reflect the Holocaust? Is using art that is highly inteprative [as opposed to strictly factual pictures/stories...etc] a way of avoiding a more blunt picture of the past...a picture that is still really really hard for Germany to face? Is that why the Holocaust is more frequently depicted in modern art in Germany as opposed to other cities/countires that have Holocaust museums? Or will this art give a greater and more intense response?

I think in many ways that this abstract art is more for the current German people than it is for the past or to remember those who were victims. You can't force someone to feel a certain way about an event, especially if they weren't even alive during that time. But you can create ways of helping them to think about it and arive at some personal emotional response through the process. Do we run the risk though of never arriving at an emotional response if the art is "too abstract?" Why is it important for later generations to have a resopnse? I'm not totally sure, but I'm pretty sure it's important. War changes everything.

a snipit from my Great Depression Lit seminar:
"This friend of mine, Karl, is a writer. He is always hungry. You cannot stuff yourself on a dollar a week. It is not his fault he is always hungry. It is that nobody buys the stuff he writes. He writes of starving babies, and men who tramp the streets in search of work. People do not like such things. For in Karl's stories you can hear the starved cries of babies. You can see the hungry look in men's eyes. Karl will always be hungry. He will always describe things so that you can see them when you read...Werner is an artist. He paints pictures of people he sees in the park. People will not buy them though. I think it is because of the hungry look. I think if Werner would take the hungry look out of the eyes of the people in his pictures, he could buy more hamburgers and take the hungry look out of his own eyes. Karl and Werner say this would be sacrilege to art."
-Waiting for Nothing, Thomas Kromer