RonVitale.com

Peace Takes Courage

Ava Lowrey is 15 years old and she puts me to shame.  She has created a website named   Peace Takes Courage  that she started when she was 14.  She’s home schooled and she wanted to put together flash animations in which she is able to express her opinion about the war in Iraq.  She’s a peace activist at 15 years of age.  I took some time out today to review two of her animations “WWJD” (What Would Jesus Do?” for those who aren’t Christian) and “No More Broken Promises.”  The visual imagery that Ava uses is emotionally disturbing.  Unless you are inhuman or devoid of all feeling can you watch the pictures of wounded Iraqi children and not reflect on what America has done to the people of Iraq.  Bombs will fall in the wrong places, bullets stray, and in the aftermath the wound will need to pick up their broken bodies and move onward.  I am a proponent of peace and in America ending the war.  The catch-22 of the situation is that the people in Iraq will be worse off if American troops leave their country.  The stability of the country is obviously not secure.  Insurgents are still attacking with bombs and safety is still an issue.  If America were to pull troops out, can the Iraqi army handle the job?  Or would the enemies of the new Iraqi government step forward and overthrow democracy?  Honestly, the situation in Iraq is a mess.

With that said, children are dying, American troops are being wounded and killed, and it’s a mess in Iraq.  Ava Lowrey is a 15 year old voice of reason.  She sees the problems in both our country and in Iraq and has put together images to grab at your heart strings.  Yes, it’s manipulative, but for those who have blocked out and forgotten that we still are at war, Ava’s message is profound and courageous. 

Why am I ashamed that Ava has done so much and I so little?  I’ve written to my Senators and Congressmen about the war, but little has come of my actions.  Instead I’m using my free time to create Magic: The Gathering video podcasts or I worry about a story I’ve sent out in the mail.  My last story 20,170 and 1 is a piece that most closely reflects my personal beliefs about America’s depravity and its obsession with violence and the media.  In all that I have written in the last few years, I am extremely proud of this piece.  It’s been called “heavy handed” by one critic and has been rejected at many of the major sci-fi magazines.  I currently have the story out to   Escape Pod  (a podcast site that creates audio versions of stories).

I have tried in the past to not overtly write about political issues, but more personal ones, yet I’ve found that in the last five years my writing has taken a religious doctrine/political turn.  I’ve begun to write about issues that are bigger than my own personal feelings.  I’ve tried to reflect on issues of personal loss that are sorely ignored by society.  As a rhetorical question to myself: I wonder if I should write more on this? What matters most to me these days are my role as being a father/husband and the strains of every day responsibilities and my understanding that the current rulers of America are so far from the country that I love that I am sickened. 

Where are the writers, musicians, and the artists to rise up?  We have been mostly silent.  Yet I have heard comedians more openly lampoon the Bush administration, Pink’s new album contains the scathing   Dear Mr. President  and I can only pray that more people stand up to be heard.

I am not shamed to express my free speech in saying that I am not a supporter of Bush’s administration.  But I am ashamed that I have not used my voice to be more active in spreading the word.  Do yourself a favor: Watch a few of Ava Lowrey’s videos and share them with your friends.  If you’re uncomfortable from seeing the images in them, good, it means that you’re human like the rest of us and there’s still hope.  We can change the world.  One person at a time.

Writing workshop

I’ve been busy. But I always say that so there’s nothing new there. I was working this morning at 6:20 a.m. on sending out a story of mine to a magazine. I submitted the story after having written the cover letter and wish the story luck. We shall see what happens. I’m hoping something good comes of my story. I really like the one I sent out. It’s the most recent story I’ve written and although it’s not long, I like the feel of it. For those new to my blog, I don’t write about my stories that I have out in the mail. I’m a bit superstitious that way: I just like to send the pieces out in the mail and see what happens. After they’ve been accepted and published, then I’ll talk about them. I know that makes me a bit of a private man when it comes to my writing, but I just don’t like talking about pieces that are out. If I’m in a writer’s group, I’ll share the story or even share it in an online forum for writers, but I would rather just keep quiet about it. I like to wish the stories luck and then just let them go. In other news, I’m seriously thinking about joining a writing workshop that takes place from the middle of May until June. I think it might be a good experience to meet up with other writers in the area and get a chance to get some work done. The price is right and I received some good feedback from the teacher of the workshop as to how the class will be run. My only concern is that it’s from 6 p.m. until 9 p.m. They’re going to be some long days for me. Although it’s only once a week, still having been up since 5 a.m. and then working from 7:30 p.m. until near 9 p.m. is going to be extremely taxing. I also won’t have a chance to see my son on those days. I’m not too happy about that, but I don’t know what else I can do to try and advance my writing skills. Well, I’m starving and haven’t eaten and it’s getting late. Got to dash. Take care.

Episode 13: Dissension Prerelease

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Show Notes:

--Introduction to episode 13: Dissension Prerelease --Talk of my attending the Dissension prelease. --Review of some of the Dissension cards I played with (or had played against me) at the tournament on April 22nd.

Total running time: 13 minutes and 1 second.

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Dissension or Bust

I intend to go to the Magic: The Gathering Dissension Pre-release tomorrow.  I had had some ideas of bringing my camcorder and taking so video, but I think I'm going to bag that idea and simply do an audio only podcast once I return from the pre-release.  The goal--hopefully this will all work out--is to have the sealed deck that I played with in the tournament and I can go through all my card choices in an audio only podcast.  Then I could put the podcast together and release it out over the Internet by Monday.

At this point, this is the goal.  As to whether I'll be able to pull this all off, we'll have to see.  I can tell you that I am more excited with the cards I've seen so far with Dissension than I did for the Guildpact set.

I'm looking forward to relaxing and having some fun.

Have a good weekend and hopefully I'll be able to post the episode by late Sunday night as an mp3.

Working

It's now 10:30 p.m.  I just finished working on two query letters for two article ideas I have.  I also did a good bit of research tonight. Before going to bed, I'm going to read a bit of "Memoirs of a Geisha."  I'm nearly finished.  I'm trying to finish the book because the movie just came into the mail via Netflix.  Hopefully, my wife and I will have a chance to see it this weekend.

I'm a bit tired right now but I know that I won't have any time to write tomorrow morning so I thought I'd do it now.

I'm happy that I was able to get my queries out (well, one of them is out.  I have an e-mail out to the 2nd magazine to see if I could contact their support staff and obtain correct contact information).  What's so frustrating is how late I started working on all of this.  My son wasn't being very cooperative tonight in going to bed.  Though I do want to tell this funny story.

I took him out of the bath, wrapped some towels around him and I said, "Do you know what time it is?"

"No..." He looked up at me inquisitively.

"It's time to brush your teeth!"

He laughed, which I thought was at my delivery of the brushing your teeth comment, but instead he said, clear as a bell: "Or I can pick my nose!"

He didn't go to pick his nose but just said it so directly and matter of factly that I laughed.  I couldn't help it.  I had no idea where he had come up with that.  That was pure inspiration on his behalf and I have to say that it made my day.  It was a perfectly timed comedic comment to make.

After I struggled with him about going to bed (he's been fighting us putting him down to bed, trying to put it off as long as it can), I sat in the chair for the agreed upon "5 minutes" (in which I sit in his chair and just calm him down as he starts talking about the dark and being afraid.  Well, tonight I had become frustrated with him because he didn't want to go to bed so I got up, while he was still on his book reading seat and shut the light off in his room.  The night light was on, but he started crying because I was pushing him to bed.  I carried him to bed and I sat on the chair and he asked me in his toddler language to not turn the light off before he had left his reading seat.  I thought it was a fair request so I apologize to him and told him that next time I would wait to turn the light off after he had been tucked into his bed.

He started to cry but I managed to calm him down, saying that there were no monsters in his room and that I was only going to be across the hall anyway working on my computer.

At this point it was 8:30 p.m.  I did my research on the two markets that I had wanted to check out.  I wrote the query letters and sent the one out.  I also went to the store to get gas (heck, it's $2.93 a gallon here!) and to the store to get milk and some salad stuff.  While out, I listened to the latest issue of "I Should Be Writing" (Podcast) and was a bit sad.  An author talked about how he's teaching full time and he's had one novel published and another to come out soon (by Del Rey no less).  But he still works several jobs and that he finds that the summer time (when he's off from school) is his favorite time to write.

I don't have the ability to have 3 months off in which I can work on my writing.  I get frustrated with my lack of time, but I still do all of my work.  It's just extremely tiring at times.  Like now.  And with that said, I have a long day at work tomorrow so I need to go get some rest.  I just can't believe how fast today went and when I look back and see how much I accomplished, it just makes me want to scream in frustration. 

The longer I stay up, the more tired I'll be, and the less productive I'll be.  When I was younger, I used to fight my tiredness and keep working.  But then I realized that my writing suffered at times like this and that the best thing to do is to ease up on myself and relax.  Rome wasn't built in a day.  And with that, I'm off.  Nite.