Postmodern Renaissance Culture Revolutionary

In my previous post, I talked about how great it is to be a comic book fan right now. Part of the reasons was that comic book characters and stories have gone mainstream in media. That means we don't have to read 4 color, paper copy anymore (that is just frosting!). Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice is one example of how mainstream comic characters have become. And it is a testimony to what culture has done to comics. For those uninterested in my long analysis of the movie, allow me to summarize my feelings about it. Dislikes - 1. It is too dark. I am not talking about tone. I am talking about cinematography.  2. I don't care how much Zack Snyder defends the "manslaughter over murder" deaths in the movie, I didn't care for it 3. This is not like a Marvel movie. 4. This is not a DC movie. 5. Not another Batman origin. PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!! 6. Perry White. Likes - 1. This movie did not hold my hand as a comic book fan. This was not a, "Hey, lets make...

I have loved comic books for most of my life. Andrew and I were talking about how long I have read comic books. I started trying to put a date to when I started reading and collecting. My best guess puts me starting to fall into love with comic books somewhere around 1977 or 78. That means that I started with comic books when I was 6 or 7 years old. I would have been barely able to read them at that point. Some of my earliest comic book memories includes a mix of DC and Marvel. I remember reading Superboy really early. I also remember the treasury edition of Star Wars that was released with the movie by Marvel and Whitman. I still have a beat up copy of The Defenders #28 (featuring the ORIGINAL Guardians of the Galaxy, Dr. Strange, and the Hulk) and a slightly less destroyed copy of Daredevil #142. I have remnants of other comics from around that time period. I also have memory of my first subscriptions: Dazzler and Star Wars. Those were around 1981. I have loved comic books for a lo...

Historical information is here. Part 1 is here. I wish I knew why this was so powerful for me. I can't explain it. I am not Japanese. As far as I know, none of my ancestors was Japanese. But I have always had a deep appreciation of the history, culture, and people of Japan. It is one of the few places I want to visit before I am unable to travel anymore. Hearing about the Executive Order 9066, the displacement of people just because of their ancestry, and the experiences of their lives in the camps, it all hits me very hard. Visiting the Amache Museum in Granada was deeply interesting. I have to say a huge, "Thank you" to Mr. John Hopper. He is a social studies teacher at the high school and oversees the Amache Preservation Society. He drove down and opened the museum for us. He also took time to speak with us about the history of the camp and some of the artifacts in the museum. He risked being late for a meeting to share with us. The museum doesn't look like...

You can find some historical background at this here. Amache is a Cheyenne name. It was the name of the daughter of One-Eye, a Cheyenne chief. One-Eye, Ochinee or Lone Bear, was killed at the Sand Creek Massacre. Amache married a local rancher and raised a family in the region around Granada. The camp was officially called the Granada Relocation Center. Amache became the unofficial name to differentiate the camp from the town that lies just outside the boundaries of the camp.   When you research the history of the Amache Camp, you learn some fascinating details. At the time, it was the tenth largest city in Colorado. It housed almost 7,400 people at its most populated. They had a fire and police department. It had its own "day-care", elementary, and high school. It was the only one of 10 internment camps for the Japanese in America that experienced no riots or large scale disturbances. It had the highest percentage of volunteers who joined the military and most of ...

In our household, we have a set of rules. These rules have been learned through experience. They have been proven through testing and trials. They stand as timeless and proven. They apply at every age level and in every circumstance. Rule #1 - Don't be stupid. Rule #2 - People are stupid. Rule #3 - I will defend your honor but I won't defend your stupidity. Today I have found an addition that meets the previous qualities: Rule #4 - The will to be stupid is a very powerful force. Rule #5 - The ability to overcome Rule #1 is to conquer Rule #4. (Thanks go out to Lois McMaster Bujold for Rule #4 and #5.)

You can read the historical background here. The history of this event was virtually ignored among public attention. It took over 100 years for attention to develop. Initial interests were to establish a historical marker. In 1998 there was action taken to establish a historical site at the location. Eventually a National Park Service Historical Site was established. Even the United Methodist Church began to address the connection it had to the events.  In 2012, the General Conference of the United Methodist Church adopted an Act of Repentance Toward Healing Relationships with Indigenous Peoples. It recognized that there are times in our history as the UMC when our forefathers and mothers were complicit in perpetrating or condoning acts that were not examples of Christian charity. But even these efforts have not increased public awareness of the events of that tragedy. My trip to Sand Creek was made with a friend and colleague in ministry. We set out to visit Sand Creek...

The Sand Creek Experience I have always had a deep fascination with “The Old West”. As a history geek, I read about it all through my childhood. As a young man, I participated with a gunslinger group doing cowboy cinematic style shootouts across Oklahoma. I still enjoy reading and discovering new places in the Old West. One aspect of the Old West experience that I have found most interesting, and powerful, is the Plains Indian Wars. During the Civil War, western expansion encountered the people and tribes of Plains. These included the Cheyenne, Arapaho, Souix, and many other cultures. They traveled from what would be the Dakotas and Montana in the North to Texas and Oklahoma in the South. As more people moved from the East into the Plains, they began to settle on lands that the tribes who traveled across those lands used for hunting and seasonal habitations. This led to conflict that was sometimes violent. Territorial and elected governors, expressing concern over “...