woman to woman

I often wonder about the women of the Middle East.  I wonder if they truly realize the disparity in the lives they lead with the lives women in developed countries lead.   I wonder if repression and oppression become so instilled they just become content?  And if they aren't content, could they ever be truly happy?  I read the book, Infidel, in the past year or so.  It is an amazing and insightful book that portrays the intricacies of living as a woman in a muslim society.  The woman who wrote it literally took her own life in her hands to publish this unfiltered truth of a life and religious culture she claims can hold literally no hope or promise for women. 

I am blessed because of so many things, but largely, because i can choose.  I can say "I will".  I have ownership over that pronoun.  ....how much of the world does not. I can't stress enough the freedom that is found in my faith, either.  Because of a conscientious choice I made to surrender to a Saviour who knows me intimately; to give him everything; to give him that "choice" i clung to so desperately,  I am now know the greatest freedom i've ever experienced.  The paradox is strangely quieting.    I feel for those women...my heart breaks for the life they have had to endure and the future they know awaits.   I want to help them, but i'm not sure how.

not all roses

So compared to fifty years ago, communication with deployed family members in the military is much more advanced.  Satellite phones, skype, internet, and emails all transmit messages instantly over half the circumference of the globe to enable a stream of thought that in previous wars was unheard of.   

All that is true.  But still. It doesn't feel like enough.  I miss my husband. 

 Because i've had to finish school four hours away from where we are stationed, coupled with the amount of time Bo is gone for different training schools, we have dealt with being long distance for the majority of our relationship.   It's not fun, but you grit your teeth and push through because you know its for a greater good and its not going to last forever.   Those days felt easier though with the constant communication that was at our disposal.   Going from that to just a couple times a week (and we can't skype) feels like deprivation.

I was reading again about the situation in southern Afghanistan and now the Swat region of Pakistan.  The Taliban is gaining more control in the countryside and has taken a sizeable bite out of Afghanistan's bordering country.  Although Obama is promising to send more troops to help keep the country from slipping back into the Taliban's control, many don't think the numbered 30,000 troops will even begin to be enough.  Afghani locals are apathetic at best towards their government and even the NATO troops that have promised to bring reform to their country but are now finding their hands tied as they try to back that promise up.   For the troops i can't imagine how frustrating it must be as they spend all their resources to shore up control of the main cities only to see the country side and the very people they are risking their lives for wind up in Taliban hands.    Unless Obama and the rest of NATO steps up with more troops and more resolve to see this thing out, we are fighting a losing battle.

I am incredibly proud of my husband and the job he is doing in southern Afghanistan as a PJ. Not only is he one of the highest trained operators out there, he is ready and willing to do whatever necessary to get the job done. He believes in defending the freedoms we hold so dear and enabling the oppressed to have the opportunity for those same freedoms.  The sacrifices every single man and woman who is deployed, has been deployed, or has a loved one deployed cannot be just for wishful thinking.  Lets do the job.  If we truly do "hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal," we can't do this thing half-way.   

What is our sacrifice worth, if, in the end, it accomplishes nothing?

The faces of defiant hope

Books like "Kite Runner" and "A Thousand Splendid Suns" steadily evolve into faces that become more real and stories that make you cringe, but demand to be heard. Those books might have been written from a time decades past, but the experiences within are not long gone. Its hard to not think Afghanistan is in the same miry, sand pit its struggled in for so long. Haven't the last eight years made any difference?  The New York Times op/ed page sheds light on an ongoing struggle that threatens our very confidence that life is indeed better in what is referred to as "the sandbox."  Here is an excerpt from that editorial,   www.nytimes.com/2009/01/17/opinion/17sat3.html

"Ms. Husseini is a student at the Mirwais School for Girls outside Kandahar. Two months ago, as she was walking to school with her sister, a man on a motorcycle sprayed her with acid, burning her face and eyelids. Fourteen other students and teachers were attacked that day in an attempt to shut down the school. It failed. 

As Ms. Husseini told our colleague Dexter Filkins, 'The people who did this to me don't want women to be educated. They want us to be stupid things.' Ms. Husseini's parents told her 'to keep coming to school even if I am killed.'

The Taliban denied responsibility for the assaults at the Mirwais school. But one of the group's signature and most shameful repressions during the years it ran Afghanistan was its ban on educating girls. As it has regained power and territory, it has been attacking schools and female students."

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American soldiers, along with Nato allies, are spread thin across Afghanistan and especially in the south--the birthplace of the Taliban. A PJ like those in my husband's unit, are tasked with the job of rescuing, defending, and extracting those injured or downed soldiers and Afghani civilians no matter the terrain, weather, or threat of hostile fire.  What life, however, do we rescue those Afghani civilians for? If the life they lead in our presence and after we leave is not better than the life they had under the Taliban, our job is not done.

 

A New Chapter

John Stuart Mill once said, "War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important that his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."

That was over a 150 years ago, but time has yet to erase its strong ringing truth.

Welcome to this blog. As an Air Force wife, whose Special Forces husband is deep in Afghanistan, these are my thoughts, fears, and frustrations with the military, the war, the life back home and the many faceless persons so far away in whom i see a beautiful, desperate hope.

This blog is the Eye of The Storm.

My summer internship at ABC in Las Vegas

So although this isn't my first day "on the job", this will be my first internship blog post and i think its as good a day as any to start. My husband and i learned we'd be in Las Vegas (he is stationed at Nellis AFB) just a few months before our arrival date the beginning of April. I had spent a lot of time searching out and interviewing for prospective summer internships here and was so excited to have one come through at the ABC affiliate - KTNV Channel 13 Action News. Three days after we got to town I started and already now have high expectations for an exciting summer in the news biz.

I am interning under Katie Bencze, the community affairs director here at KTNV and love her hands-on, throw-me-in-the-thick-of-it approach. She is heavily involved with the PR and community programs of KTNV and hasn't hesitated to let me be her constant and watchful shadow. Two of our main projects are the Jefferson Awards and "Las Vegas' favorite charity," Opportunity Village.

The Jefferson Awards is a program where KTNV partners with Wells Fargo to highlight and thank local people who are making an impact in their community. Winners are chosen from dozens of nominations sent to the station every month and awarded prizes and air time for their stories on the nightly news. All 12 months' winners are brought together once a year for a luncheon where a national winner is announced who will travel to Washington D.C. to represent the Jefferson Award winner for Southern Nevada. That annual luncheon, held in the Palm Restaurant of Caesar's Palace (on the strip) was my first day on the job. Nothing like starting strong!

Opportunity Village is an exciting project to be working on as well. OV was started in 1954 and today is Nevada's largest private not-for-profit community rehabilitation organization for intellectually and physically disabled persons. Offering vocational assessment and training, employment, therapeutic respite, advocacy, art enrichment and social programs and services, Opportunity Village provides people with disabilities the opportunity to live, work and play in the community. It serves over 3000 individuals and has a waiting list so large, a third campus is now under construction. KTNV is hosting a telethon in June which will help to raise the much needed funds for this project.

The station is in a brand new building and only the second one in the city to have switched to HD. The people here are awesome and its an exciting place to see what i've studied come to life.

VUSN.net feature story

“The Network” Launches the Communications Department and Vanguard University into the Future

By Nicole K. White

It’s innovative, bold, and refreshingly optimistic.

VUSN.net is a brand new online broadcast featuring the hard work of communications’ students in both the communication studies and cinema/digital media concentrations. Different from last year’s Sports Network, this year’s Vanguard University Student Network is taking traditional network programming to a whole new level. By creating a broadcast for students by students, The Network has created an idea of what an internet entertainment channel could look like, tying in everything from local and national news to VU sport highlights to links for popular sites to spotlights on Vanguard students and campus events.

Vanguard has never seen anything like The Network, and according to Professor Ann Cleveland, for most of the students involved, the idea of this online broadcast has been their first foray into a new media marketplace. The Network class has “been able to give students unprecedented exposure and opportunity for future employers,” Cleveland said. “The students have created their own shows, marketed strategies and understood the grassroots side of media.”
For Professor Cleveland, who worked at Sony Entertainment and whose foundation is in the birth of that new media marketplace, it has been an eye-opening and exciting experience to combine what she knows about making it and the class’s vision of creating it. The class has been a way for students to up their game. Instead of just making a project to simply fulfill an assignment, The Network is a medium of communication to show their work to friends, family, and most importantly future employers.

Most other schools are still teaching an “old-school” style of journalism. A real world workplace, however, dictates a much more rounded, all-encompassing and innovative approach. Those students equipped with the knowledge and experiences gained in a class such as The Network are far more ready for a job in the media world. Ideas started and birthed in classes like The Network are what will eventually become the products and media of the future.
With VUSN.net, students are taking those ideas and seeing, first hand, what they are able to achieve. The end result becomes much more than the fulfillment of a simple assignment. For Senior Carolyn Templin, creator and producer of a Network show highlighting different community events, this class has given her a unique opportunity. “It’s very hands on and allows us to take responsibility for the outcome of the project,” Templin said. “I think we all care more about this class than we would just writing papers.”

“Seeing what they are able to bring to the table,” Cleveland said, “makes each student the owner of their content. They are proud of their achievements and can take that knowledge and run with it.”

So far in this first semester, the The Network class has created a website, http://www.vusn.net/, and produced over 16 shows with each shows final episode due the first week in December. On November 1st the release party for The Network and VUSN.net was held in the cove and was a huge success for the class. Many members were added and in between rousing games of DDR and guitar hero, clips of the different shows were publicized. There are still big plans for The Network and next semester will see the increased growth of the website. Members are being added all the time and anyone can join by going to VUSN.net.

A Thought

Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, "Do not go where the path my lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail."

As producer of "In Focus" this past semester, the stories of students that have caught my eye have indeed been those who have sought out their own paths, students who chose the road less traveled by. They are students with a passion to do the seemingly impossible, students dedicated to providing hope when before none existed, and most of all, students who never gave up forging their way into the unknown.

The students spotlighted this semester in my show have all been inspired to go the extra mile. They created paths where there were none, and now, the way has been opened for those who would follow. Some of these students have already been met with rousing success, while others' quiet faith is ever hopeful for the success of those they are serving. Krochet Kids, Shaun Blaylock and the Jeremiah Project, and Tom Riggs' 305 hit are just a few of the many examples out there. Their dedication and heart for their work is an inspiration.