Being out of the loop, I honestly had a very difficult time understanding
the source of the misunderstandings and strong feelings about the Memorial
Day messages. There is perhaps a certain ethnocentrism among us
USAmericans, even on xmca, insofar as I certainly often find myself writing
from or for an imaginary other who shares more of the assumptions of the US
context than I know is really the case on xmca. I remember several times
being thought anti-European, when I only meant to be critical of
European-American dominant cultural perspectives. I tried to learn from
those experiences.
As I read John's messages in retrospect (I think I'd actually lost one of
them), they made the most sense to me if interpreted as addressed to other
USAmericans on xmca -- so easy for us to do, not really imagining how we
might sound to others, and in this case, of course, especially to Naoki
Ueno on whose messages John piggy-backed his comments about the holiday. I
believe that an important fact which is again probably unavailable to
non-USAers, is that in the US today there is really very little seriousness
about our Memorial Day except among those who are veterans or among
families of those who were. Just as few Americans think of Christ on
Christmas or Easter, or of why our Declaration of Independence was signed
on the 4th of July, even much less do most of us think about wars or
casualties on Memorial Day. There is certainly no sense of "victories" or
"glories" of past wars associated with the day now (though there was some
of this for earlier generations). It is simply the first weekend of summer,
and the beginning of the summer movie season ... and so it makes perfect
sense for me that someone with John's background would ask other
USAmericans "DO remember, please!" and take the holiday "reflectively",
rather than totally thoughtlessly and superficially as we mainly do.
Not as he intended, and largely because mediated by Others he forgot he
couldn't not be addressing on xmca, perhaps a lot of us have indeed had a
more reflective Memorial Day week. Remembering that we are all victims of
every war, that many in the world have been especially victims of the USA's
war policies, and that many USAmericans have agonized over their
participation in these wars, as well as been casualties of them. Like so
much else, war is interactional and relational; it is never just about us,
just as it is never not about us. XMCA as always is a great place to become
more reflective.
JAY.
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JAY L. LEMKE
PROFESSOR OF EDUCATION
CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK
JLLBC who-is-at CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU
<http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/education/jlemke/index.htm>
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