By Kit-Bacon Gressitt

A pompous author once proclaimed to his indulgent fans, “Writing isn’t for sissies.” His pronouncement drew a distinct line between those with the chutzpah to put pen to paper and those without, lending to the writing class the superiority of the courageous. And I bought it. Back then.

But over the years, I’ve come to learn he was, well, full of shit. Writing is not a matter of champ versus wuss any more than it’s a matter of artiste versus plebeian. Writing is something humans do, whether in the sand, on a cave wall, under the covers by flashlight, on a laptop amid the clatter of coffee and scones and dreams of bestselling wizardry.

We write to crystallize our thoughts, to pen what we can’t say, to pay the mortgage, to share a lyrical moment, to vent murderous rage sans consummation, to pass on a lesson, a feeling, a vision, a hope, to create a story, to immortalize some part of oneself. And I’ve come to believe we all do it, at one time or another, to one end or another, some of us more often than others — a bit of verse here, a love note there, a novel manuscript, a journal entry that made the pain take one step back, a wistful family history, a wishful page filled with a married name.

And suddenly, as if evidence were required, in the last day or two I’ve been the happy recipient of several proofs that indeed writing isn’t for sissies — because it’s for everyone.

First, a long lost friend found me online and asked if he could send me a poem. Now, this is a guy who looks as though he could snap you in half with one hand, not the one, I now presume, he reserves for writing.

“Hot damn and hell yes, send me a poem!” was my writerly response, and this is what he sent:

One day I was downtown, and I noticed a homeless guy with his shopping cart. I was taken aback by the way people were reacting to him with total disdain — almost hatred. He was standing outside a store, unsure whether his possessions would be safe if he went inside and also a little unsure if he would be allowed in the store at all.

I didn’t stay to see whether he finally went in. Instead, I went home and wrote this:

No Place Called Home

Yes, at one time I called this place home
I’m a stranger now on the streets I roam

The stores I pass daily, they don’t want me near
their signs say welcome, their eyes say fear

Of the shadow I am, of what I used to be
a future so bright, now a faint memory

Who I once was, what could have been me
they’re not here now, they never will be

Three days later, we found the man by himself, under a bridge, dead, still clutching his shopping cart … now empty … like his dreams.

– By Kevin Langley

Don’t you love that he wrote that, that he was willing to share? I think of his tattooed brawn, the remnants of his tough kid street smarts, his tender view of a wretched soul. And I wonder why I was surprised — for this is a man who celebrates the successes of the youthful offenders he teaches to learn.

Then my writing workshop partner and I received a thank you note from a student — not that writing can actually be taught, mind you. Oh, you can teach how to match subject to verb (although not always — check your local paper for plenty of examples of failed instruction on this topic), how to punctuate dialogue (the comma goes inside the closing quotation mark — yes, inside!), how to diagram a story’s arc (yeah, like a rainbow, but it’s usually a bumpier ride than that), how to shift the tone with one little word from chatty to lascivious (picture Theda Bara mouthing that line). Yes, the craft can be taught, but heart and gut cannot; writing is a bit too innate for teaching, per se, and our grateful student gets that.

“I want you to know that I have been profoundly changed by participating in your writing class,” he wrote. “The use of words to create has become a wonderful new pathway for me in this life’s journey. Spending time with you and the other writers has nurtured both my mind and my heart. … The more I write, the more I want to write, to learn about the process, and to express things with words that cause people to experience the ineffable wonder and joy in the world. These first small steps that I took in your class were leaps and bounds for my soul.”

This man does not need our instruction, but he’s a delight to have in the class.

And then my husband sent me a scholarly paper from the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California: “Poetry: Why it Matters to Afghans?” by Professor Thomas H. Johnson. In a country whose abysmal literacy rate reflects its continuing oral tradition, Afghanistan’s poetry is as much a form of communal art and shared wisdom as it is a form of propaganda, a theme the paper promotes, suggesting poetry as a weapon for U.S. forces to wield against Taliban verse:

Liberty

I have seen the color of your blood in the flowers.
I have seen the rock become colorful with your blood.
When the young men began to murmur the melody of freedom.
I have seen the bells ringing in the hearts of the slaves.
Those heads that were sacrificed for freedom.
I have seen beds made with them in the palaces.
Nations are alive with the spirit of liberty.
I have seen every nation in destitution without this spirit.
If there are no wounds, hardships, and funerals in it.
Have you seen a movement of only a few talks?
O! Peroz, liberty is an adornment for the nations.
I have seen this beauty in the clank of the swords.

– By Mawlawi Mohammad Ghafoor Peroz

It has a horrible beauty, this poem, one I get halfway around the world from the poet. That universality of the written word might be lost on us, as we make the daily shuffle from bed to bath to fridge to desk and back again. But upon the first key stroke, the first drop of ink or chalk dust on the board, it is regained, often with passion and a resonance that crosses the boundaries between the courageous and fearful, the landed and the homeless, teachers and students, fanatic and invader.

Words, at least, our stories, we have that in common. And, as another student wrote, “I love this shit!”

Love,
K-B

About Kevin Langley: I was lucky enough to have two teachers for parents, and my early years were spent in the library where my mother worked. The value of the written word always intrigued me. I’ve never been a proponent of my right to remain silent, mainly because I don’t have the ability. I awake every day knowing I am not strong enough to change the world, but also believing I am not weak enough to let it change me.

(Note: Graffiti photograph by Made Underground courtesy of a Creative Commons license.)

By Kit-Bacon Gressitt

Yesterday morning, I sat at my desk, committed to adding 2,000 words to my mediocre American novel manuscript, but I just wanted to clear out my emails before getting started.

The first one asked me to save newborn buffalo, but I didn’t want to think about their wobbly little legs, shattered in a stampeding frenzy.

Then Amazon suggested, based on my previous purchases, that I might like to order John Stossel’s “Politically Incorrect Guide to Politics,” except what Amazon doesn’t know is that Stossel kind of gives me the creeps.

I could have read a joke about $7 sex, and my husband has been traveling a lot lately, so I did, and then I thought maybe I shouldn’t have, but it was too late.

I could also have read an analysis of the poll to which 66 percent of women responded that being a mother is women’s most important role, but it smacked of some sort of confused misogyny.

Facebook sent me a birthday notice for someone I don’t know but whom I mistakenly approved as a friend before I figured out Facebook, but Facebook annoys me, so I deleted it.

I could have looked at what Verizon is charging to my credit card, but the purpose of automatic payments is to avoid acknowledging how much all this great technology costs.

The definition and etymology of “dissimulate” was enticing, and because I love words, I opened it, and now I fully intend to use “dissimulate” in my 2,000 words. I am not dissimulating.

There was another Facebook request, from another stranger who wanted to be my friend, but I’ve learned that lesson well.

Salon.com sent an article about the state politics of stem cell research, but I figure with Barack Obama in the presidency, and my cells in California, I don’t have to worry about it.

Someone forwarded a poem called “Crowning,” published in The New Yorker, and, because it was a poem and in The New Yorker, I read it and it was lovely, and then I was surprised that I was surprised it was by a male poet. I’m a pig.

The Publishers Marketplace wanted to report all the new book deals this week, but I didn’t get a deal, so I didn’t open it, although I’ll try to be pleased for the writers who did. Bastards.

Composer and violinist Mark O’Connor wanted me to buy his Americana Symphony CD but, although I love his work, the economy is “not getting worse as quickly,” so I didn’t.

Message!Products was pitching a sale — 25 percent off — but I just replenished my pro-choice checks, so I didn’t bite, but I did wonder why they always announce a sale just after I’ve received my order.

I didn’t want to plod through a Human Security News report because I didn’t want to know about the dozens killed in Mogadishu, the 700 militants killed in Pakistan, the 106 children who died in shelling in Sri Lanka, the 50 people hospitalized after a girls’ school poisoning in Afghanistan, the 49 killed in Sudanese tribal violence, or the political prisoners suffering ill health in Myanmar (it’s really Burma), presumably including Nobel Peace Prize recipient Aung San Suu Kyi. OK, I peeked, and it was exactly the agonizing news I expected.

I blew my nose and considered activating my life by buying active wear shoes from zappos.com, but I have a pair of sneakers that has lasted seven years because I am not an active person.

The National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL) asked me to contribute to its effort to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Souter with a pro-choice nominee, but President Obama’s head is screwed on straight and NARAL is just trying to keep up with the anti-choice opposition to a pro-choice nominee. Of course the complacency of majority is ill advised, so I reconsidered briefly, until I remembered the economy.

I could have read STRATFOR’s editorial on The Strategic Debate Over Afghanistan, but I’d had enough frustrating news for one day, so I didn’t, although I did feel a little guilty about that one, which resurrected the threat to the baby buffalo and their wobbly little legs, and then I was swamped by a swell of guilt.

So, I rescued the National Resources Defense Council email from death by deletion, clicked to save the newborn bison and read all about their terrible plight, and I wondered if I could work baby bison into my 2,000 pages.

But then I got another email, asking me to ask President Obama to put an end to the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy for gays in the military, a policy akin to sanctioned lying, so I had to respond to that one, and then — oops, another email.

Love,
K-B

©2009 Kit-Bacon Gressitt

(Editor’s Note: This piece is cross-posted with www.ivorytowerz.com.)

(Photo by Jim Bowen via a Creative Commons License.)

Part 3 of 3

By Kit-Bacon Gressitt

Ibrahim directs literacy programs for girls and women in the Ghazni Province of Afghanistan (supported by San Diego-based Rescue Task Force, RFT), despite violent opposition by the Taliban and Al Qaeda insurgents (see Parts 1 and 2 of this series). The following paragraphs are a continuation of Ibrahim’s email (edited for clarity) describing the international intervention and aid he believes is necessary to bring stability to Afghanistan, including protection and support of schools. He is particularly concerned about what he believes is too passive an international military force and calls for a more aggressive U.S.-NATO strategy.

From Ibrahim:

Illiterates are as fuel in the machines of Muslim fundamentalists. Educated people are rarely deceived by wild Taliban to kill themselves to go to heaven. Weakness of Muslim fundamentalists means success of the Afghan government. So a more literate population means more power and ability of the Afghan government.

Afghan widow with her child begs in Kabul

There is a proverb in Persian ‘wearing of the clothes [requires the body fit] the clothes.’ So, suppose if the USA and other friendly countries by their friendly help bring progress and peace and enough work facilities in Afghanistan, illiterates still cannot find work because they do not have the ability to read and write. Learning most jobs needs literacy. Surely a more literate population will improve my government’s ability to succeed.

I believe increasing the U.S. military force in Afghanistan with real actions will have the best effect for my literacy programs, for Hazara communities and all Afghanistan. I believe passive action by U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan gave life to those Taliban who escaped from Afghanistan and were hidden in Pakistan. Yes, the ISI (Pakistan’s Directorate of Inter-Services Intelligence), by its aggressive action, has [helped the insurgents] succeed over about 40 powerful countries that have been more passive in Afghanistan.

I request the new U.S. administration, especially Mr. Barack Obama, give attention to these following points:

– Pashtun areas in Afghanistan and Pakistan are the main network and strong front of terrorists. If there are any bomb explosions in London, Paris, Madrid, undoubtedly the root, planning and one side of that string is in the Pashtun areas, with help and planning from the ISI. So I hope increasing the U.S. force will be with aggressive actions, not passive as there is now.

– About 200 meters from the U.S. military, the Taliban are blocking the roads, burning the trucks and capturing and killing those people who are working for progress in Afghanistan. I hope the U.S. forces will keep peaceful all the highways and the roads that cross from Pashtun areas to the areas of other [ethnic groups] like the Hazara, Tajic and Uzbek.

Hazara villagers meet at a mosque to discuss damage caused by Kuchis (Pashtun nomads) who were supported by Taliban

– The Taliban are annoying and killing the Hazara people during their crossing along the unpaved roads from Pashtun areas to Hazarajat [in central Afghanistan]. The Taliban want the Hazara to stop helping Afghan and U.S. forces. So I propose the new U.S. administration put special forces along all the routes that cross from Pashtun areas to Hazarajat, especially the roads between the Qarabagh and Jaghri districts of the Ghazni Province. Afghanistan is very different from the USA. Success in Afghanistan without force and action is impossible.

– I request from President-elect Barack Obama to give kind attention in the [more peaceful] central and northern parts of Afghanistan by making schools, hospitals, universities, getting electricity from rivers and paving the roads and making factories.

According to my idea, the people and governments of every country are as the bone and meat of a body, all humans from all over the world are as parts of a body. Only with cooperation of the bone and meat will the body be strong and healthy. If there is pain in one part of a body, undoubtedly the other parts will not live in peace.

In summary, I hope the answer to love will be love and the answer to [shooting] will be [shooting].

Long live the USA. Long live the Afghan-U.S. friendship.
Ibrahim

(Photos by Nasim Fekrat ©2009.)

Part 2 of 3

By Kit-Bacon Gressitt

Some years before Al Qaeda’s September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, my attention was drawn to the country by the 1996 revelation of the Taliban regime’s practice of stoning for adultery. A subsequent flow of disturbing news from the Revolutionary Association of Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) led to a faulty attempt to convince the newspaper editorial board on which I served at the time to condemn the Taliban’s treatment of women and girls and begin a campaign to encourage U.S. intervention.

I failed, along with human rights organizations around the world. The Taliban atrocities and denial of women’s human and civil rights — even their right to an education — continued freely and enthusiastically, until the U.S. October 2001 retaliatory invasion of Afghanistan. Al Qaeda dispersed and the Taliban regime fell quickly, despite the extremists’ handy stock of weapons previously supplied by the United States to the mujahideen fight against the Soviets and their Afghan puppet government. It’s a bitter irony, made even more so by the persistence of Taliban and Al Qaeda violence in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

This year, greater U.S. and NATO involvement is expected, Afghanistan’s presidential election will be held, and there is a global interest in preventing the failing state from becoming a failed one, undermined by the Taliban and Al Qaeda insurgency; poverty, illiteracy and lack of basic services; and uncoordinated military and humanitarian operations. With this reinvigorated focus, the landscape for daily living in Afghanistan could improve. Ibrahim, who directs literacy programs for girls and women in the Ghazni Province of Afghanistan (see Part 1 of this series), describes in his email below (edited for clarity) his hope that his country will achieve success through improved education, particularly for the girls and women denied schooling by the Taliban, and with international intervention.

From Ibrahim:

After the Taliban were removed from power, I was happily in hope of having a peaceful life, progress in my country and a bright future. I returned to Afghanistan and hoped that with the United Nations, NATO and especially the great country of democracy (USA) alongside the Afghan oppressed people, my country would not be used any longer as a strong front and main center of Muslim terrorists.

The main problem of Afghanistan was and is illiteracy, and because of illiteracy and ignorance, Afghans are vulnerable to the hope of going to heaven [promoted] by Muslim extremists. So to rescue my people from extremism, and in hope of making a bright future by ending illiteracy, I decided to work in that field — by making literacy schools in remote areas where the government cannot work. With the help of my friends, especially Gary Becks [president and founder of the Rescue Task Force], I can teach the skills of reading and writing to thousands of illiterate women in central Afghanistan.

Students of all ages attend RTF literacy programs in Afghanistan

Unfortunately … my hopes have never been realized [for the rest of the nation]. Still there is not peace, especially in south and southeast parts of Afghanistan where mostly Pashtun tribal [people] are living. After about seven years of NATO forces in Afghanistan, the oppressed people are still slaughtered as sheep by wild Taliban. The Taliban are still pulling out the eyes and cutting the noses and ears of Afghan teachers and students whose only sin is getting an education — as a few days ago the Taliban poured nitrate on the faces of the girl students and teachers.

I can surely say that by [teaching the] illiterates in Afghanistan who are used as donkeys and cows by the Taliban, Muslim extremists will find no more cows and donkeys to use for their aims. … Educated parents will present educated and polite children to society. By literate and educated families, we will have literate and educated villages, and by literate and educated villages, we will have literate districts and by educated districts, we will have literate and educated provinces and country and finally, by educated countries, we will have a peaceful, educated world. So literacy is the foundation of peace and a bright future.

Note: In Part 3, coming 11 January, Ibrahim makes a request of President-elect Barack Obama.

©2009 Kit-Bacon Gressitt

(Photo by Kurt Swann ©2008.)

By Kit-Bacon Gressitt

Most folks in the United States know about Afghanistan only what they have read in “The Kite Runner” and “A Thousand Splendid Suns,” Khaled Hosseini’s beautiful, brutal novels set in the country’s tumultuous years of Soviet invasion, Taliban rule and the aftermath. Our minimal understanding of the distant land seems matched by our disinterest. Prior to the books’ publications, not even our October 2001 invasion of the country in pursuit of the terrorists behind the September 11 attacks and subsequent efforts to achieve stability could hold the public’s interest when enticed by President George W. Bush’s push into Iraq in pursuit of weapons of mass destruction and paternal approval.

With the Iraq War winding down to a success or failure, depending upon whose PR dominates, and a resurgence of Taliban atrocities reaching mainstream media, the United States is now refocusing on Afghanistan, but how do we truly succeed? How do we help stabilize a country ravaged by conflict, poverty, ignorance, neglect and uncoordinated efforts? It’s a question repeated around the globe, from the hallowed halls of government and academia to the classified planning conferences of the military to the dark closets of intelligence agencies, and one of the common answers is to engage the Afghan people. While the answer seems obvious, it’s an approach at which the United States government has often failed; yet the call to engage the Afghan people is popping up all over the place.

– Ashraf Ghani, PhD, Afghan finance minister between 2002 and 2004 and founder and chairman of the Institute for State Effectiveness, wrote in a recent commentary, “[S]tability will only come when Afghanistan can govern itself. To reach that point, three key assets must be harnessed: first, American forces and resources; second, the instruments of national and international power; and third and most crucially, the Afghan people, who are as eager to see the restoration of order and justice.”

– The Atlantic Council of the United States published in its 2008 Afghanistan brief, “On the security side, a stalemate of sorts has taken hold. NATO and Afghan forces cannot be beaten by the insurgency or by the Taliban. Neither can our forces eliminate the Taliban by military means as long as they have sanctuary in Pakistan. Hence, the future of Afghanistan will be determined by progress or failure in the civil sector.”

– Army General Davis Petraeus, commander of the U.S. Central Command, and co-author of a controversial but well-embraced counterinsurgency field manual, said at an event in November, “[T]he terrain that matters most is the human terrain — the people. Clearly, we have to understand the people, their culture, their social structures, their religions, how systems that support them are supposed to work and how they actually work, and so on. And our most important tasks have to be to secure and serve those people, as well as to respect them, to facilitate the provision of basic services: the establishment of local governance, and the revival of local economies.”

– And, an Afghan named Ibrahim wrote, “I think it will be better that Afghanistan and friendly countries put more attention in construction in peaceful areas as an example to those people who still persist in fighting. Poorness, hunger and not having a job are big problems in Afghanistan. Some poor people, to rescue their families from death because of hunger, are hired by the Taliban, so I think if the new administration brings job facilities beside of military action, it will be most effective.”

RTF students greet visitors

Ibrahim directs literacy programs for Afghan girls and women, sponsored by the San Diego County-based nonprofit Rescue Task Force (RTF). Kurt Swann, an RTF volunteer, recently toured the programs in the Ghazni Province of Afghanistan, operated despite Taliban opposition. Swann and Ibrahim reported successes in the small Hazara towns of the province, where the Taliban are not active. But driving there from the capitol Kabul is dangerous, with Taliban-operated roadblocks and the Taliban proclivity for killing anyone who works with foreign agencies and governments.

Clearing the road to Jaghori

According to Ibrahim, “The ways especially in southern parts of Afghanistan are not safe. Hundreds of sinless passengers lost their lives during crossing from those areas. The Taliban are daily blocking the ways to find and kill social workers or those who are working with NATO force or Afghan government.” Indeed, Ibrahim’s identity is protected here because his position with the RTF has made him a target: His brother was killed by the Taliban who mistook him for Ibrahim.

Ibrahim shared via email information about the literacy programs and his country that reveals the ongoing Taliban violence, U.S.-NATO weaknesses and Afghans’ resilient hope for progress, information that can help us better understand what at least one Afghan wants for his country.

Love,
K-B

Note: Visit again Thursday 08 January for Part 2.

©2009 Kit-Bacon Gressitt

(Photos by Kurt Swann ©2008.)