DoHaeng Michael Kitchen

50th Anniversary of Gideon’s 6th Amendment Victory

dohaeng

March 17, 2013

You are driving in your vehicle when a police officer pulls you over. You resign the fact that you were driving above the speed limit, but didn’t think it was a big deal. You notice the officer looking in the windows of your car as he approaches. The officer asks for your drivers license and proof of insurance and you give them to him. He again looks in your back seat window as he returns to his vehicle. When he returns, he instructs you to step out of the car and asks you if you have anything illegal on your possession that he should know about. You tell him that you don’t, to which he asks if you mind if he searches the car. You don’t have anything to hide and allow him. He finds a small plastic bag of marijuana in the back seat. You loaned the car to your son or daughter when they went out with friends the past weekend, and assume it belongs to one of their friends. But that doesn’t matter because you’re sitting in the back of the squad car, on your way to the police station to be booked and fingerprinted. You’re now facing a charge of possession of a controlled substance, which is punishable by four years in prison. You’re given an arraignment date. When you appear before the judge, you enter a not-guilty plea. Being financially strapped as you are between jobs or lost one of your part-time jobs, you ask the judge for your Sixth Amendment right to counsel. The judge declines and you’re forced to take your case to trial all on your own.

That’s what would have happened fifty years ago.

The landmark case of Gideon vs Wainwright was decided by the United States Supreme Court on March 18, 1963. In 1961, Clarence Earl Gideon, father of six, was charged with breaking and entering with intent to commit a misdemeanor, which was a felony under Florida law. He asked the court to appoint counsel, which the Florida judge denied. The judge stated that “Under the laws of the State of Florida, the only time the Court can appoint Counsel to represent a Defendant is when that person is charged with a capital offense.” Gideon was forced to defend himself. He conducted his own trial and the jury returned with a guilty verdict. Sentenced to five years in prison, Gideon petitioned the Florida Supreme Court, appealing his conviction based on the lower court’s failure to provide him counsel arguing it was guaranteed under the United States Constitution and Bill of Rights. The Supreme Court of Florida denied relief.

Gideon didn’t stop there. He petitioned the United States Supreme Court, which granted him a hearing. The Court also appointed counsel to represent him. Oral arguments before the Court were held on January 15, 1963.

AMENDMENT 6
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defense.

Before 1938, courts would appoint counsel for indigent defendants, however it was sporadic in execution. In Johnson v. Zerbst, the US Supreme Court held that the 6th Amendment right to counsel was valid in federal court unless the defendant waived the right. The 6th Amendment Rights – minus the right to counsel – was made obligatory on the States by the Fourteenth Amendment in the 1942 US Supreme Court decision of Betts v. Brady. In Betts, the court had concluded that because the defendant was a 43-year-old man of ordinary intelligence and ability to take care of his own interests, he was not at a serious disadvantage at trial.

It took only two months for the Court to render its unanimous decision in favor of Gideon. The Court held that the Betts decision was wrong. Justice Hugo Black, writing for the Court, stated:

The right of one charged with crime to counsel may not be deemed fundamental and essential to fair trials in some countries, but it is in ours. From the very beginning, our state and national constitutions and laws have laid great emphasis on procedural and substantive safeguards designed to assure fair trials before impartial tribunals in which every defendant stands equal before the law. This noble ideal cannot be realized if the poor man charged with crime has to face his accusers without a lawyer to assist him.

Gideon’s case was referred back to the Florida court, where a new trial was held. The court appointed counsel and after only an hour of jury deliberation, Clarence Gideon was found not guilty. After losing two years of his life in prison, Clarence Gideon was released as an innocent man.

Justice Black wrote in the Gideon opinion that, “government hires lawyers to prosecute and defendants who have money hire lawyers to defend are the strongest indications of the wide-spread belief that lawyers in criminal courts are necessities, not luxuries.” That doesn’t mean that the states have a public defense budget equal to its prosecutorial budget. When it comes to per capita spending, according to a 2008 study, Michigan ranks 44^th in per capita spending on indigent defense ($7.35 per capita), and is dispensed on a county by county basis, meaning an unbalanced approach to delivery and payment of public defense.

Fifty years ago, it would have been you (or your son or daughter) versus a well-funded, government prosecutor in your case of marijuana possession. Clarence Gideon’s two-year fight from his prison cell insures that if you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you.

SOURCES:

Books:
American Criminal Procedure: Cases and Commentary, Stephen A. Saltzburg & Daniel J. Capra (West Group, 6th Edition 2000)

May It Please The Court…Transcripts of 23 Live Recordings of Landmark Cases as Argued Before the Supreme Court, Edited by Peter Irons and Stephanie Guitton (The New Press, 1993)

Websites:
National Legal Aid and Defender Association, “Michigan Ranks 44th in the Nation for Public Defense Spending; So-called “McJustice” System Puts Communities at Risk.”

Cases:
Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U.S. 335 (1963)
Betts v. Brady, 316 U.S. 455 (1942)
Powell v. Alabama, 287 U.S. 45 (1932)
Johnson v. Zerbst, 304 U.S. 458 (1938)

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Where do enemies come from?

dohaeng

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March 10, 2013

Where do enemies come from?

The American Heritage Dictionary defines enemy as “one who feels hatred toward, intends injury to, or opposes the interests of another.”

In our personal life, an enemy can be obvious. In elementary school, a kid who conspired with two of my friends to steal baseball cards from me became someone I considered an enemy. In middle school, a kid who introduced me to comic book collecting made physical threats via telephone when in high school became someone I considered an enemy. I felt hatred towards those two people as a result of their actions towards me.

An enemy can expand into a broader group. For example, sports rivalries can create enemies. University of Michigan football fans hate Ohio State University and its football fans and visa-verse. The rivalry arises from opposing interests seeking the same goal that only one can achieve – a victory over the other on the field of play. As an Arsenal fan, I hate Manchester United. I’m also supposed to hate Tottenham Hotspur, because they are the main geographic rival to the Gunners; their stadiums just a few miles apart. But not having grown up in north London, the battle for the top of the league against Manchester United formed my hatred of the Red Devils and my ambivalence towards Tottenham.

Enemies emerge out of competing ideologies; religion and politics, for example. Others are based on cultural identities, like nationalities or regions within a country. There are some people in the southern states of the US that still despise “Yankees.”

These latter group enemies I believe are not genuinely made, but rather learned. When one identifies with a certain group, the person becomes indoctrinated into making an enemy of another group. Being a Michigan resident, and not having any ties or familial history with the University of Michigan, I don’t think twice about driving to Columbus, Ohio and calling the Columbus Crew my favorite Major League Soccer team. I had a conversation with a friend about soccer and going to Crew home games. He being a University of Michigan fan stated that he could never see himself rooting for a team from Columbus.

I pondered this question of where enemies come from as a result of the recent death of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez. To listen to American media and elected officials, one might have been indoctrinated to believe the Venezuelan president was our enemy. I reject that notion.

United States media has portrayed Chavez as an enemy. Democratic strategist Doug Schoen on CNN in January, 2009, said of Chavez that “He’s given Al-Qaeda and Hamas an open invitation to come to Caracas.” Newsweek compared Chavez to Mussolini, Hitler and Stalin. ABC labeled him as a “fierce enemy of the United States.” The Washington Post declared Chavez an “autocratic demagogue.” And of course, Fox News said that Chavez’s government was “really communism.”

A closer examination reveals that Hugo Chavez was nothing close to what the US media painted him to be.

In 1998, Hugo Chavez won the election for President with 56% of the vote, and was inaugurated in 1999. Speaking out forcefully against globalization, he introduced a hydrocarbons law that doubled royalties charged to foreign oil companies and replaced Petroleos de Venezuela, the state-owned oil company’s top executives with people loyal to him. (Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, John Perkins, pg 196). Prior to his election, austerity measures imposed by the IMF in 1989, saw Venezuela’s per capita income plummet 40% between 1978 and 2003. (Perkins, page 197).

Chavez kept his commitments to the poor – urban and rural. Instead of re-injecting profits into the oil industry, he invested them in projects aimed at combating illiteracy, malnutrition, diseases, and other social ills. Rather than declaring huge dividends for investors, he helped Argentina’s embattled President Kirchner buy down that nation’s IMF debts of more than $10 billion and he sold discounted oil to those who could not afford to pay the going price – including communities in the United States. He earmarked a portion of his oil revenues for Cuba so it could send medical doctors to impoverished areas around the continent. He forged laws that consolidated the rights of indigenous people – including language and land ownership rights – and fought for the establishment of Afro-Venezuelan curricula in public schools. (The Secret History of the American Empire by John Perkins, pg 111).

The Bush administration was complicit with a coup attempt in Venezuela in April, 2002, removing Chavez from power. However, they underestimated the Venezuelan people’s support of Chavez, who ran out the insurgents and returned Chavez to power 48 hours later.

During Chavez’ 14 year presidency, poverty fell from 55% in 1995 to 26.4% in 2009. Unemployment was 15% in 1999, which has fallen to 7.8% in June, 2009. “Over the last fourteen years, Chávez has submitted himself and his agenda to fourteen national votes, winning thirteen of them by large margins, in polling deemed by Jimmy Carter to be “best in the world” out of the ninety-two elections that he has monitored.” Over 30,000 communal councils, direct participatory democratic structures were formed over Chavez’s presidency, making the country more democratic than prior to Chavez’s first election victory in 1998. Cooperatives and self-managed workplaces also grew.

Perhaps you’ll recall Hugo Chavez’s speech on September 20, 2006 before the United Nations. Popularized in the news was his referral to George W. Bush as “the devil” who, having spoken there the day before, Chavez said he could smell sulfur. A New York Times reporter said that Chavez received “loud applause that lasted so long that the organization’s officials had to tell the cheering group to cut it out.” (Helene Cooper, “Iran Who? Venezuela Takes the Lead in a Battle of Anti-U.S. Sound Bites,” New York Times, 21 September 2006, cited in What We Say Goes by Noam Chomsky, pg 45). Did they cheer about Chavez’s name calling? The NY Times reporter did not address that question. “It was because he (Chavez) was expressing a point of view that happens to be very widely accepted in the world. In fact it’s the overwhelmingly dominant position. Chavez’s views are called “controversial.” It’s quite the opposite. It’s the views of the U.S media and commentators that are controversial.” (Chomsky, pg 45)

Where do enemies come from? There are those who harm you personally, the ones you know and can identify. But then there are others who try to convince you that “they” are your enemy, because you are one of “us.” The corporatocracy tried to sell to me that Hugo Chavez was an enemy. He was an enemy to their tyranny only. Not to the people of Venezuela or, for that matter, people around the world, including Americans.

Sources:

“Hugo Chavez Kept His Promise to the People of Venezuela” by Oscar Guardiola-Rivera http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/03/05-8#.UTfKPckDdXs.facebook

“Chavez Democratized Venezuela Making it the Most Equal Country in Latin America” By Gregory Wilpert http://venezuelanalysis.com/video/8073

“In Death as in Life, Chavez Target of Media Scorn” by Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting. http://fair.org/take-action/media-advisories/in-death-as-in-life-chavez-target-of-media-scorn/

“The CIA Was Involved in the Coup Against Venezuela’s Chavez” by Eva Golinger http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/800

“On the Legacy of Hugo Chavez” by Greg Grandin http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/03/06-2

“Hugo Chavez Dead: Transformed Venezuela & Survived U.S.-Backed Coup, Now Leaves Uncertainty Behind” – Democracy Now! http://www.democracynow.org/2013/3/6/hugo_chvez_dead_venezuelan_leader_leaves

Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins (Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc. 2004).

The Secret History of the American Empire by John Perkins (Dutton, 2007)

What We Say Goes by Noam Chomsky (Metropolitan Books, 2007)

The comfortable were afflicted

dohaeng

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February 24, 2013

Humorist Finley Peter Dunne once wrote about the powerful influence of newspapers; that, among other things, they comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. “Mother” Mary Jones applied its usage to social activism, and others have applied it to religion.

My first introduction to the phrase came through my involvement in social activism as well, but I’ve felt that it was also a hallmark of good writing. Both fiction and nonfiction can deliver the punch of awareness to injustice and force us to face our fears and failings. Fiction has the power to make a reader reflect, reconsider, sympathize, understand, or even heal from one’s own situation. Fiction is even more powerful at changing our views than nonfiction, because when we read nonfiction, we guard our views. Reading fiction our guard drops as we become emotionally involved in the story.

I recently attended the book launch for an anthology in which three of my pieces were published. The event included readings by authors published within the book. The second writer introduced by the book’s publisher was Talyn Marie, who had two short stories included in the anthology.

Before Talyn began reading her story, “Norton,” she prefaced the piece as something that she wrote following the “write what you fear” advice writers receive. For example, Natalie Goldberg advises authors to “(w)rite what disturbs you, what you fear, what you have not been willing to speak about. Be willing to be split open.” Undertaking the new role of mother was the seed of the Talyn’s story. Becoming a parent is both exciting and also fraught with fears.

It was a soft warning. The story, “Norton” is about a child molester as he pursues his prey. Deliberate writing set the scene as Norton executed his plan. As the story progressed, it became clear what Norton was about and where it was going. And it got deeper. The suspense grew as Norton closed in on a particular child he targeted. My wife sitting next to me, reading along with Talyn, closed the book. I heard a guy behind me say that he didn’t have to listen to this and left. He wasn’t alone. Even the publisher moved from his sitting position at the front of the room to the side, nervously wondering what he unleashed.

I, on the other hand, was riveted. Not just to the story, but to the reaction. It wasn’t that I sympathized with Norton (he does confront and is defeated by his own demon in the end), but by the power of the story. Talyn afflicted fear upon the audience seated within the comfortable confines of a yacht club. It moved people…some of them right out of the room!

Whether this story should have been read is no fault of Talyn’s. The publisher clearly had no knowledge of the content of the book he published, and failed to plan and vet the readers for its launch. Though there were five other authors reading their fine work, everyone present will remember the blizzard we drove through to attend the event, and Talyn’s story.

Good writing provokes. Julian Barnes wrote that “(w)hen you read a great book (or story), you don’t escape from life, you plunge deeper into it. There may be a superficial escape…but what you are essentially doing is furthering your understanding of life’s subtleties, paradoxes, joys, pains, and truths.” Good writing can push us to think, to sympathize, to feel. It can take the reader to those uncomfortable places that are frightening to face, and places us before demons we refuse to admit exist.

Upgraded

dohaeng

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February 19, 2013

I’ve been upgraded to the Author Program on Goodreads! If you’re on Goodreads, come on by!

Michael Kitchen on Goodreads

“Written in the Mitten” on Amazon

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February 18, 2013

Did you miss the launch party for Written in the Mitten 2013: A Celebration of Michigan Writers? It’s available now on Amazon.

WRITTEN IN THE MITTEN

I have three pieces published within.

“With Prejudice” (short story)

“Walking Together” (personal essay)

“The Word of the Day is ‘Trust'” (short story).

February 15, 2003…The story’s not over.

dohaeng

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February 16, 2013

It was mid-February, 2003, when I was in Fort Lauderdale, Florida for a conference. The weather was pleasant enough – 70’s and 80’s during the day, 60’s in the evening. But there I was, in my hotel room, with the heater kicked on high, wearing sweats under the blankets. I must have had it up over 80 degrees in the room, but I was still chilled to the bone.

The reason I recall this is because Common Dreams published Phyllis Bennis’ article reflecting on the tenth anniversary of the worldwide protest against the United States’ push for invading Iraq.

Saturday, February 15, 2003, I was one of among twelve to fourteen million people around the world, and between 1,350-1,650 people in Detroit, participating.

I remember it being a very very cold day. A group of us met at the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law, and together we walked to Grand Circus Park. I had my photo-journalist vest over my winter gear, to carry both my zoom and normal lenses and plenty of film. We arrived after the speeches had begun, the crowd surrounding the Hazen S. Pingree statue. Then, we walked. The group holding signs, chanting, and walking in step with the cadence of drummers, proceeded down Washington Boulevard toward Cobo Hall. I snapped off photo after photo, while chanting with the crowd. The cold seemed less severe for a while.

February 15, 2003. Metro-Detroiters march with the world in protesting the United States planned invasion of Iraq. Photo by Michael Kitchen.

As the march concluded at Cobo Hall, many sought warmth within. The annual Boat Show was taking place, yet anti-war protesters occupied the vast lobby. My wife, not comfortable in confined spaces, backed away towards the windows as I moved in to stand with a circle of drummers. The drumming echoed within the great lobby of the hall, drawing protesters and curious Boat Show visitors. I noticed a ring of Detroit Police Officers begin to circle the drummers, but I maintained my position, snapping photos in rhythm. The officers were rather close, standing mere steps behind each drummer, but no action was taken.

After several minutes, I decided to turn around, locate my wife, and decide what we were going to do next. I was surprised to find her standing within steps of me. We maneuvered our way out of the crowd and she informed me that something almost happened. She told me that as the police officers were converging, one held a radio communicating to the others. An officer next to her tapped her shoulder and pointed directly at me (I did not see this happen), and called the troops off from breaking up the drum circle. I can only assume that they thought I was the press and photographs of officers breaking up the drummers wouldn’t reflect well on the Department.

February 15, 2003. Metro-Detroiters in Cobo Hall as part of the world’s protest against a US invasion of Iraq. Photo by Michael Kitchen

Upon reflection ten years, we didn’t stop President Bush from engaging in an illegal, immoral invasion of Iraq. We didn’t prevent the deaths of 110,000-120,000 (and counting) Iraqi citizens. But as Bennis said in the soon-to-be released “We Are Many” documentary, the February 15, 2003 protest “set the stage for movements to come;” movements like the Arab Spring and Occupy.

Frederick Douglass said, “The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.” Well, at the 2-15-2003 protest and all marches I’ve attended up to Occupy, one of the echoing chants is “Ain’t no power like the power of the people cuz the power of the people don’t quit.”

I needed the heat within that Fort Lauderdale hotel room in 2003 to restore my physical body to full strength from the flu I contacted that cold Saturday. Little did I conceive the long-term impact of our participation. Thinking that the chapter of the history book had closed with Bush’s invasion a little over a month later, it was just the first page of a story that is still being written.

Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consultion with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph…

A noted one, who kept a tavern at Amboy, was standing at his door, with as pretty a child in his hand, about eight or nine years old, as most I ever saw, and after speaking his mind as freely as he thought was prudent, finished with this unfatherly expression, “Well! give me peace in my day.” [A] generous parent would have said, “If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace.

Thomas Paine, from an address written in 1776, and read aloud by order of George Washington to the encampment at Valley Forge. (Source: Occupy: Scenes from Occupied Amercia Verso Books, 2011)

Understanding your sports fanatic friend.

dohaeng

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February 9, 2013

According to the countdown clock on the Columbus Crew website, there are 35 days and change until the league’s opening match to the 2013 season. And closer to home, Detroit City FC’s season is to begin a couple months later. The excitement of the coming season has risen to a fever pitch with me. Last year, I attended more live soccer matches than in previous years. Even taking out DCFC’s full eight match season, and the handful of games I saw the Michigan Bucks play, my trips to Columbus tripled to see the Crew in action.

This entry is for friends, family and loved ones of the person known as a sports fanatic. The person you know who schedules their life around games; who bleeds the colors of their team and goes to extremes to follow their team; who seems to care little about the mundane things in life, or even the important things. I hope that by the end of this writing, you will understand your friend, family member, or loved one better.

I recently finished reading Nick Hornby’s classic, Fever Pitch. It is a no-apologies memoir of sports fanaticism. Hornby is a rabid Arsenal fan, and his journal of matches and how they relate to his life reveals the mindset of a team loyalist, while also addressing issues within the sport of soccer, (racism, stadium tragedies, etc). His life is marked and connected to the Arsenal.

There is one passage in Hornby’s book that really sinks in. He described his greatest moment ever.

On May 26, 1989, Arsenal’s last match of the season was at Liverpool. In order for Arsenal to win the championship, they would have to beat Liverpool by two goals. The Gunners scored early in the second half, but Hornby had resigned to defeat as the game went into stoppage time. Then Michael Thomas burst through the Liverpool defense and scored, giving Arsenal the league championship and Hornby a moment of delirium.

In seeking a metaphor to describe the feeling, Hornby declined the orgasm analogy, and stated why:

Even though there is no question that sex is a nicer activity than watching football (no nil-nil draws, no offsidetrap, no cup upsets, and you’re warm), in the normal run of things, the feelings it engenders are simply not as intense as those brought about by a once-in-a-lifetime last-minute Championship winner.

None of the moments that people describe as the best in their lives seem analogous to me. Childbirth must be extraordinarily moving, but it doesn’t really have the crucial surprise element, and in any case lasts too long; the fulfillment of personal ambition – promotions, awards, what have you – doesn’t have the last-minute time factor, nor the element of powerlessness that I felt that night. And what else is there that can possibly provide suddenness? A huge pools win, maybe, but the gaining of large sums of money affects a different part of the psyche altogether, and has none of the communal ecstasy of football.

There is then, literally, nothing to describe it. I have exhausted all the available options. I can recall nothing else that I have coveted for two decades (what else is there that can reasonably be coveted for that long?), nor can I recall anything else that I have desired as both man and boy. So please, be tolerant of those who describe a sporting moment as their best ever. We do not lack imagination, nor have we had sad and barren lives; it is just that real life is paler, duller, and contains less potential for unexpected delirium. (Nick Hornby, Fever Pitch, [Riverhead Books, 1998], 222-23).

Hornby reminded me a lot of myself back in my hockey fan days. It became an obsession applied when I was the president of the Ontario Hockey League team, Detroit Jr. Red Wings (currently known as the Plymouth Whalers) for two seasons. Then, the Detroit Vipers claimed the Palace of Auburn Hills home, and my passion settled in a permanent location.

In 1997, I was fortunate to be photographing Detroit Vipers games for my friend’s hockey publication. The Vipers ended the season with the best record, and marched through the Turner Cup playoffs. Where games were proximately close (like Kalamazoo and Cleveland) I would make the trip for at least one of the road games. Their opponent in the Turner Cup Finals was the equally tough Long Beach Ice Dogs who had an ungodly undefeated streak at home.

The format was two games at the Palace, three in Long Beach, then back home for two games, if necessary, in Detroit. The teams split the games at the Palace, and it seemed unlikely that the series would end in Long Beach. But the Vipers pulled the surprise, winning the next two games in California, taking a 3-1 lead in the series and the potential of winning the Cup in Long Beach on a Friday night.

So damn close to being with the winners, I decided I had to make the flight to LAX and get to that game. However, the Ice Dogs would not go down at home, and I had to get back to Detroit for the Father’s Day, Sunday evening Game Six of the series. The Vipers won, 2-0, the on-ice festivities and locker room partying will never be forgotten.

Patrice Tardif hoists the Turner Cup. Photo by Michael Kitchen

It was one of those moments that Hornby described. Following hockey for so long, this was unlike anything I ever experienced. Not being an athlete myself, I never thought I’d ever come this close to this sensation. It remains the greatest moment in my life. Even though I wasn’t on the ice, delivering a check or setting up a goal that made a difference in the game, I was a part of it. All I was doing was shooting film. Having been situated between the players’ benches all season, I was there in the trenches. When I was in the Long Beach Ice Dogs’ building ninety minutes prior to Game Five, Phil von Stefenelli – one of the Vipers’ defensemen – was going through his pre-game ritual outside the locker room, and gave me the nod of recognition and camaraderie.

I get the Hudson Street Hooligans of the Columbus Crew. I get the Northern Guard Supporters and Motor City Supporters as they cheer and chant in the filled to capacity visitor’s bleachers at Cass Tech High School for the Detroit City FC games.

Hopefully, this helps you understand your sports fanatical loved one. He or she has developed a deep emotional connection to their team performing on its athletic stage. I can’t speak for all fanatics, but after that once-in-a-lifetime moment comes true, it opens one up to new avenues. But the connection never dies. The Detroit Vipers became defunct in 2002, but it will always be my favorite hockey team. And though Columbus Crew and Detroit City FC have arteries running into my ventricles, I don’t feel a need to have my life consumed by them. I still will attend every DCFC home game, and will make one or more trips to Columbus, my vacation soccer home, and make sure I can see as many of their matches on the tellie.

Detroit soccer fanatics celebrate a Detroit City FC goal at Cass Tech High School, Detroit, 2012. Photo by Michael Kitchen

Huffington Post photo credit

dohaeng

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February 5, 2013

The Huffington Post graciously contacted me today about using a photo of mine for their story, Louisiana Hines Dead: World’s Oldest African American Dies at 113.

The photo was taken at the 90th Birthday Celebration of Erma Henderson, on August 31, 2007 at Cobo Hall in Detroit. Erma is featured in the second photo holding Ms. Hines’ hand as she spoke about Erma.

DoHaeng’s Ideal Bookshelf

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February 2, 2013

What’s on your bookshelf?

In November, 2012, Little Brown published a collection of essays titled My Ideal Bookshelf. It was edited by Thessaly La Force, who collected one-page essays from more than one hundred leading cultural figures on the books that mattered to them the most. As the inside flap reads, “books that define their dreams and ambitions and in many cases helped them find their way in the world.”

Each essay was accompanied by a picture of the bookshelf, painted by Jane Mount. Not only is it interesting to learn what other cultural icons have read that inspired them, but that you can commission Ms. Mount put to canvass a painting of your own ideal bookshelf.

Not to begrudge Ms. Mount her art, but wall space is scarce in my abode. So instead, I took to two of my favorite endeavors – book shelf arranging and photography – and created a photo of my ideal book shelf. Fortunately, the former Borders bookshelf was tall and deep.

An ideal book shelf, in my view, would reflect the influences on one’s life and the many dimensions to the person’s being. Thus, my ideal book shelf covers a range of topics.

The comic book period represents the emergence to adulthood. The comic book collections I’ve chosen are those that came at that edge of time where childhood immaturity traversed into more mature themes and characters. And to this day, American Flagg!, Nexus, The Question, and Watchmen can be appreciated by the adult.

Then, there are the books that started me on the path of writing. It was of course the encouragement of people in writing classes and friends that caused me to begin putting pen to paper the makings of my imagination. Early guidance through books introduced freeing lessons which released me from inhibitions. I was never told by a professor that I was free to write the worst junk in the world. But Natalie Goldberg blew open that door, freeing me from the rigid cold hand of immediate perfection.

There are the books that guided me to the Zen Buddhist path, both early on in my young adult life, and to more recently upon finding a Zen temple to experience Zen practice; something that you cannot honestly achieve through reading a book.

There are the nonfiction books that provide the uncompromising hard facts about the world that those in the mainstream media force us to ignore. Such powerful journalism and activism –whether it be political issues or exposure of the cultish positive thinking gurus – confirmed the guttural feelings of illusion that profit-first seekers cast over us. And of course, sport. Space limited me to choose from hockey of the past to soccer of the present, so I selected three soccer books that I have found as compelling and entertaining as the sport itself.

Down Through the Years: The Memoirs of Detroit City Council President Emeritus Erma Henderson is also there. It is not only because I co-wrote the book with her, but the influence she had on my life as well as my family’s. To me, it was more than the writing of my first (and currently only) book-length publication, but a period of growth intellectually and a leap of the maturation process.

Finally, there is the fiction that has inspired me to write; the authors and novels and short fiction whose writing I enjoy and hope to emulate. Topping that list is my favorite novel, The Razor’s Edge by W. Somerset Maugham. It is the story – depicted in Maugham’s print, and by films in 1946 starring Tyrone Power and 1984 starring Bill Murray – that is the source inspiration of my writer’s soul.

At the back of My Ideal Bookshelf, there are ten blank book covers to fill in with your own top ten. The photo of my shelf far exceeds that. Which of them would make the top ten?

1. The Razor’s Edge by W. Somerset Maugham.

2. The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can’t Stand Positive Thinking by Oliver Burkeman.

3. The Autobiography of My Body by David Guy.

4. The Still Point Dhammapada by Geri Larkin

5. Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons

6. Enough Rope: Collected Short Stories by Lawrence Block

7. American Flagg! Volume One by Howard Chaykin

8. The Question by Dennis O’Neil and Denys Cowan (all six volumes).

9. A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn

10. The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova.

Awe-inspired living.

dohaeng

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January 23, 2013

In Oliver Burkeman’s book, The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can’t Stand Positive Thinking, I resonated with a statement he feels is the best description of a true happiness that is worthy of experiencing.

Paul Pearsall writes “Awe is like trying to assemble a complex jigsaw puzzle with pieces missing. There’s never any closure in an awe-inspired life. We’re never allowed to know when this fantastic voyage might end…but that’s part of the life-disorienting chaos that makes this choice so thrillingly difficult.” (Burkeman, pg 211, quoting Pearsall in Awe: The Delights and Dangers of Our Eleventh Emotion (Deerfield Beach Florida: Health Communications, 2007).

Ponder that for a moment.

Awe leaves nothing out. It is happiness, joy, love, anger, sorrow, fear, amazement, boredom, achievement, failure, all wrapped into one experience – life. Embracing only the “positive” emotions and thoughts – as those preached by the cult of optimism – actually limits one’s experience of an awesome life. But it is a deeper, difficult, and authentic experience compared to the superficial “grinning insistence of optimism at all costs, or the demand that success be guaranteed.” (Burkeman, pg. 211).

There is no “30-day plan” to happiness or success. Now matters; not what might happen a month from now. And it’s the realization and acceptance that some experiences and situations cannot be explained. It is okay to rest in uncertainty.

Awe, to me, is a balance of these positive and negative emotions. It is not wearing rose-colored contact lenses trained on the future, nor being a prophet of doom based on the events and writings of the past. The awe-inspired life happens right now. Because that’s all we really have.

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