Short Story

The notice, pinned timidly to the billboard outside of the auditorium, informed them of their fate. The phrase Final Cuts had been printed in bold oppressive letters across the top of the notice in a pseudo-sadistic attempt to emphasize the finality of this thing, this little thing. Adam scanned the names. A...no. A...no. A...yes...no. ADAM! His name, emblazoned in fantastically uninteresting and uneventful lettering on the second to last line. A feeling stirred deem in his gullet that could only be described as fantastically overinteresting and overeventful. Across the pileup she stared at the board, those bold oppressive letters hurt her eyes; she could feel the ever so inevitable tears building up behind her eyes. She could feel the deluge of her soul pushing viciously up against the back of her eyes, a madman slamming at the bars of his cage, a baby pressing up against the glass. Andrea scanned the names. A...no. A...no. A...yes...no. nothing. On the second to last line lay, in fantastically uneventful and uninteresting lettering, someone else's name. She could not help, but feel that he probably did not deserve it as much as her, but than again...nobody ever did. She was the center of the universe after-all, one of 6 billion centers of the universe.

Their eyes met across the pileup, stunning blue and subtle hazel; shock of blonde and unshock of black; and, other forms of completely incompatible compatibility. The connection began and ended in a moment, the masses obscured them from each other and life moved on...as do all things.

The spotlights, boldly protruding from the ceiling from the ceiling of the auditorium, provided appropriate, damn near perfect, lighting for his damn near perfect failure. The lyrics slipped out of his grasp and off into the audience. The ushers probably forced them to be seating near the back. Adam froze. I...no. You and I...no. Everybody...no....chirp...chirp. His name, once illuminated in bright neon cliches, fell too fast into the volumes of lost souls, failed actors. A feeling stirred deep in his soul that could only be described as terribly uncontrollable and debilitating. In the audience she stared at the perfect failure, the bright lights hurt her eyes. The tears had dried a long time ago, a couple-of broken dreams ago. The mad man had died of starvation, or sleep deprivation, or strangulation; the coroner had stopped caring a long time ago. The lyrics sat right next to her. In fact, they had come to the performance together and, although she'd never admit it for fearing of being labeled promiscuous, she'd been planning on putting out for them that night. no...no...no...The three of us, thats me, myself, and I! Everything that should have been lay right in-front of her. He had never deserved it, nobody but her ever did. Remember, she was the center of the universe after-all, one of 6 billion centers of the universe.

Their eyes met across the third wall, dull blue and seething hazel; pallid pallet of blonde and a shock of raven black; and every form of completely incompatible compatibility. The connection began and ended in a moment, but God that moment lasted forever.

A Foot Race

He stumbles across the finish line, a haggard semblance of his former self. The summer sun fiercely beats against his skin, his perspiration covered back glimmers and vibrates. Glimmers and vibrates, alive and beautiful in that life, reminiscent of the sea on a crisp June day along the Carolina coast. A beach chair and an umbrella planted resolutely in the sand, daring the ever-changing sea to consume them. A boy and a girl strolling along the beach, planted resolutely in the moment, daring their ever-changing lives to consume them. to consume Them and everything that They could be in that instant and every instant thereafter. A couple-of friends confiding in each other as the sun sets, reveling in the glory of the impermanence of it all. Sometimes the beauty of a thing is its impermanence.

Engorged June Bugs hover inches above the grass, as if to tease things that could never fully perceive them, could never understand them. But they land and marinate in the hot summer sun, as the grass glistens and hums. The grass dances as a gentle summer breeze, a refreshing puff from the coast, meanders through the moment. Touching the grass gently. Gently as a tender kiss. A kiss from one to another, a boy to a girl, a girl to a boy, a lover to a lover, immediately succeeded by an incredible absence and an irreconcilable desire for more. The breeze passes as does every other kiss. But he could not help but hope for more. such is life. such is the human condition.

He thinks back on the race. He could not temper his pace or lose sight of the finish line, had he done so he may never have reached the finish. He may never have felt the breeze and every breeze thereafter. But in finishing the race so quickly, in running for the fastest finish, he may have missed something infinitely more meaningful than a breeze from the coast. Thousands of June bugs, thousands upon thousands of lives and experiences never touched upon, yet he remains inextricably attached and affectionate to everything missed. The race, he steadily came to realize, is never truly finished. The race had never been and will never be a race. to think so is a tremendous mistake.

The Modern Conservative

James Madison once claimed that American government is based upon the principles "compromise, compromise, compromise" to ensure the continued existence of the American people. The modern conservative has aligned himself in diametric opposition to the modern liberal, undercutting reforms that had once been passionately supported by the conservative base. For example: 20 years ago Ronald Reagan suggested similar regulation of insurance companies in the interest of economic expansion. He suggested that gross mismanagement of health care premiums limited the spending capacity of middle class americans. Today conservatives appose a program of the same nature, aimed at economic development, underneath the auspices that such a program is socialist and therefor anti-democratic. Beyond that modern congressional Republicans have outlined provisions that they feel are necessary for a healthy american future; these provisions include: premium decreases over the long-term, insurance coverage for high risk patients, cross-state operation and regulatory commissions, TORT reform, and malpractice reform. These provisions and more, verbally supported by congressional Republicans are provided for in the house healthcare legislation. Attached is a comprehensive outline of conservative demands and legislative compliance thereafter...

1. REPUBLICANS ASKED FOR – DEFICIT NEUTRAL BILL: “Do the American people believe that this almost 2,000 page bill won’t add to the deficit?” [Rep. Eric Cantor, 10/29/2009]

HOUSE BILL – DEFICIT NEUTRAL BILL: According to the Congressional Budget Office, the House bill costs $894 billion over 10 years and actually reduces the deficit by $30 billion and continues to reduce the deficit over the second 10 years.

2. REPUBLICANS ASKED FOR – REDUCE COSTS OVER LONG TERM: “Nevertheless, House Republicans recognize the need to lower health care costs.” [Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN), 9/9/09]

HOUSE BILL – REDUCES COSTS OVER LONG TERM: Encourages payment reforms that can help lower costs. Requires the Department of Health and Human Services to establish specific benchmarks for expansion of the Accountable Care Organization, Payment Bundling, and Medical Home pilot programs. The bill will also slow the rate of growth of the Medicare program from 6.6% annually to 5.3%.

3. REPUBLICANS ASKED FOR – POLICIES ACROSS STATE LINES: “Interstate competition allowing people to buy insurance across state lines.” [Sen. John Thune (R-SD), 9/8/2009]

HOUSE BILL – POLICIES ACROSS STATE LINES: Allows for the creation of State Health Insurance Compacts – permits states to enter into agreements to allow for the sale of insurance across state lines.

4. REPUBLICANS ASKED FOR – MEDICAL MALPRACTICE REFORM: “Why not bring about reasonable restrictions and limits on medical malpractice claims to end the era of defensive medicine?” [Rep. Mike Pence (R-IA), 9/9/2009]

HOUSE BILL – ENCOURAGES MALPRACTICE REFORM: The bill establishes a voluntary state incentives grant program to encourage states to implement “certificate of merit” and “early offer” alternatives to traditional medical malpractice litigation.

5. REPUBLICANS ASKED FOR – HIGH RISK POOLS: “Senator McCain has a proposal sometimes called high-risk pools at the state level…These are efforts I think we can have bipartisan agreement on and deal with the question of pre-existing conditions.” [Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA), 9/10/2009]

HOUSE BILL – HIGH RISK POOLS: To fill the gap before the Exchange becomes available in 2013, the bill creates an insurance program with financial assistance for those uninsured for several months or denied policy due to preexisting conditions.

6. REPUBLICANS ASKED FOR – ALLOW YOUNG PEOPLE TO STAY ON PARENTS’ POLICIES:“Recognizes that not all high school and college graduates are able to find a job that offers health care coverage after graduation. By allowing dependents to remain on their parents’ health policies up to the age of 25, the number of uninsured Americans could be reduced by up to 7 million.” [Republican Health Solutions Group]

HOUSE BILL – ALLOW YOUNG PEOPLE TO STAY ON PARENTS’ POLICIES: The bill requires health plans to allow young people to remain on their parents’ insurance policy until they turn 27.

7. REPUBLICANS ASKED FOR – NO PUBLIC MONEY FOR ABORTION: “The American people will not stand for government-run insurance that uses taxpayer money to fund abortions in this country.” [Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN), 10/16/2009]

HOUSE BILL – NO PUBLIC MONEY FOR ABORTION: The bill prohibits abortion services from being made part of essential benefits package and prohibits federal funds from being used to pay for abortion (except in cases of rape, incest, and to save life of the woman).

8. REPUBLICANS ASKED FOR – PROTECT SMALL BUSINESSES: “Helps employers offer health care coverage to their workers by reducing their administrative costs through a new small business tax credit.” [Republican Health Solutions Group]

HOUSE BILL – PROTECTS SMALL BUSINESSES: The bill exempts 86% of businesses from the requirement to provide coverage. Businesses with payrolls below $500,000 are exempt while firms with payrolls between $500,000 and $750,000 would pay a graduated penalty. Small businesses would also receive a tax credit that helps cover 50% of their health care expenses.

9. REPUBLICANS ASKED FOR – PROMOTE JOB WELLNESS PROGRAMS: “Promotes prevention and wellness by giving employers and insurers greater flexibility to financially reward employees who seek to achieve or maintain a healthy weight, quit smoking, and manage chronic illnesses like diabetes.” [Republican Health Solutions Group]

HOUSE BILL – PROMOTE JOB WELLNESS PROGRAMS: The bill establishes a grant program to help small employers create or strengthen workplace wellness programs.

10. REPUBLICANS ASKED FOR – DELIVERY SYSTEM REFORM: “Uses new and innovative treatment programs to better coordinate care between health
care providers, ensuring that those with chronic disease receive the care they need and do not continue to fall through the cracks.” [Republican Health Solutions Group]

The modern conservative coalition has adopted a paradigm of opposition, opposition to change and progressive thought, that undermines the effectiveness of the American government. This unreasonable party polarization is a political ploy to undermine the current administration and decrease the democratic majority in the legislature, but politics and the pursuit of superficial authority should never come at the cost of American prosperity. Our future and the future of democratic government relies on congressional cooperation and administrative effectiveness in confronting the "big picture" issues. A recent study by Freedom House, an organization dedicated to the proliferation of democracy and freedom throughout developing society, indicates that the number of transitional democracies has dramatically decreased over the last year. Expert analysts contribute this decrease in the proliferation of democracy to the multidimensional failure of the American system of government. Not only has our government failed to resolve domestic tribulations, but because of dramatic cleavages amongst government officials has also failed to effectively engage the international community on the issues of the day. Despite an impressive demonstration of diplomatic skill and social attentiveness at the Copenhagen conference late last year, President Obama failed to make exemplary commitments due to the legislatures failure to take comprehensive action on Alternative energy incentives in the United States. Instead developing nations had a close-minded, but diplomatically efficacious China to look up to. As the United States has struggled to remain afloat during the last year, China has excelled, spurring other countries to adopt authoritarian systems of government, governments not encumbered by due process.

It is time for the modern conservatives to stop screaming liberal as if its some venomous insult, and get to the business of compromise. Compromise on both sides of the aisle is the only sure fire means of achieving success not only here, but abroad. If America truly is the global hegemony, it is time to catalyze positive progressive change through that position.

The Journey-Episode 2

(coming soon)

Mongolia

There are experiences in life that could never be explained to someone that did not share that, or some derivative therein, of that experience. At the beginning of the month, each-and-every HKIS student began an epic journey. For some, this journey led to an increased understanding of not only those around them (the interim group as it stands) but a deeper understanding of themselves and the role they could play in the HKIS community. For several people, their journey spurred the development of cross clique friendship, or the consolidation of an old connection. For a couple-of lucky dogs, it provided the opportunity for romance and seduction. Unfortunately, for several close-minded people, the experience rendered little more than a break from the endless march that is school. For me, interim meant a complete rediscovery of all those things that once defined me, all those things that I had lost sight of amidst the hell of culture shock and depression.

I miss so many elements of the interim experience, but I miss most the openness that our group elected to embrace from the first five minutes in Hong Kong Airports to the potential end of our closeness. The pervasive close-minded troubles of a high school so consumed by gossip and bullshit, melted on the freezing mongolian tundra as the group huddled together for heat. That togetherness transcended every clique, from the "drama geeks" to the popular jocks, as everyone realized that any difference amongst us could never over come the mutual experience of being human. The human condition is such that unity is inevitable in the absence of negative, pervasive, social influences. Our shared humanity brought us closer-and-closer as the days moved into infinity.

I ran into someone from my interim today. In fact, I have spent the last 2 saturdays hanging around my interim and have planned to spend the coming Saturday maintaining that trend, but I cannot help but perceive even the slightest of changes in our dynamic. Underneath the judgmental eyes of a student body that did not share those moments amongst the orphans of the VCC, that did not come to the same realization of mutual experience and understanding that Mongolia 2010 did, I can feel society pulling us apart as the behemoth that is social acceptance pulls us back to our predesignated social groups. A group that, honestly, I could not feel much less comfortable as a part of. I cling onto those cold moments, hoping to huddle for some protection from the ice-cold social scene.

Sometimes I cannot help but feel a little hopeless.

Stupid Baby

The door of the old blue house creaked open-and-closed as I strolled outside. I stared around me, taking in my surroundings, appreciating the beauty of a hot Connecticut summer day. A breeze descended upon the trees, ruffling the branches and tossing about the dead leaves that formed a distinct barrier around the green, healthy, grass of our backyard. I found myself trapped in the eye of the storm, trapped in that summer day. Excitement coursed through every tiny vein in my body as I anticipated the arrival of my best friend Michael. *vroom, vroom*

My small, damn-near emaciated, form exploded into activity and I sprinted to the gate, hoping to catch a glimpse of Jane (his older sister) before she drove-off, but instead I met crippling disappointment. “Just the mail lady” I thought. I smiled and took the mail. “Thank you see you soon”. Politeness and etiquette run deep in my family.

I collapsed in the middle-of the yard and looked up at the clouds, counting them, shaping them, remaking them, for a moment the sky became my canvas to paint upon. My eyes fell from the endless blue and landed upon a single clover, nothing special, no extra leaf to base my hopes and dreams upon, but, suddenly, the thought ran through my curious little head. “Do clovers smell? I should smell it and see.” I jumped up and balanced myself on the balls of my feet. The unimaginably green grass poked through the gaps in my toes. They tickled. I reached deep into the grass and violently yanked at the clover, ripping it from its base and roots and lifting it to eye level. Suddenly, I felt something smash into the side of my head. Hard and fast, my baby brother had come screaming and tumbling out of the house, emboldened by the driver clasped firmly in his pudgy fists, and smacked me right in the head. I tumbled to the ground and gasped for air, tears came cascading from my eyes as I began to scream. “Mommy! Mommy! Peter hit me with the antique golf club! Mommy!” I screamed, as I bolted up the stairs and into the house. I could feel a bruise already forming as my eyes continued to sting. Stars floated in front of my eyes, floated just beyond my reach, elusive and beautiful, but I ignored them in my quest for justice. Peter had to be punished, justice had to be served. I could not find my mom on the main level, so I continued my search upstairs, but I could not find her. She had disappeared completely! I needed my mommy badly and she had disappeared! “Mooooooom!!!” I screamed. No response. “Mooooooooooooooooom!!!” My high pitched 7 year-old squeal reverberated throughout the old house. “Yes Jack!?!” came the muffled reply. I ran to find her sitting in the sunroom relaxed and sipping her daily Sauvignon. “Mom! Peter took that driver from the umbrella stand and hit me right in the head!” I moaned. “I’m sure Peter did not mean to hit you in the head honey. Michael is going to be here soon for you sleepover. Go outside and play.” She replied smiling calmly.

I could not stand this incredible injustice. That stupid, pudgy, baby had beat me and I intended to receive reparations for my suffering, but my mom could not easily be convinced that Peter had meant to hit me, I accepted that truth and resolved to punish him myself. I marched outside and tackled Peter, forcing him to the ground and pushing leaves and dirt into his pudgy little face. I made sure he cried. I did not feel bad, because I perceived it as justice, due punishment for suffering imposed on others. Suddenly, I heard a car-door slam behind me and felt the strong hands of my dad pulling me off of Peter, kicking and screaming. He sat Peter and I in the sunroom, in front of omnipotent mommy, and made us talk through the incident. The result angers me to this very moment.

Peter had seen me pulling out the clover and moving it up to my face. He had, allegedly, immediately assumed that I planned on eating the clover, something he simply could not let happen. “If he eated the clover he could have dieded mommy” he claimed. He believed me to be in immediate and mortal danger so he acted, bravely, to save me from my theoretical incompetence. Thus, as is true in many criminal trials, the accused escaped from justice because of a technicality, a shoddy defence bred in the fires of stupidity.

Kids do the darndest things!

The Ocean of Diarrhea

What assumptions can be made about existence? This question, the question regarding the essence of life, the veritable meaning of life, has been the center of philosophy since the advent of complex logical thought. For if a man could understand the essence of existence than he could, theoretically, better understand all components of that mentioned existence. There have been a plethora of theories. Aristotle once proposed that the essence of existence is intellectual discussion. The theory is simple enough, and is based in his struggles to categorize forms. He claimed that forms can never be properly perceived by humans, that the actual form of an object can only be observed by supernatural entities, but that one can begin to understand that form through discussion and thought. Therefor, he claimed, that the essence of existence is thought.

Even through defining it, attempting to perceive its existence, a human, let alone a teenager, could never truly understand existence. Beyond that a human could never truly apply a fundamental understanding of existence to all its components. The idea that a micro-understanding of life could be accomplished through a macro-understanding of existence, is fundamentally untenable, as even that understanding could not aid the human in progressing through everyone of life's infinite experience. Furthermore, the aforementioned theory fails to acknowledge the distinction between life and existence. Life refers to the metaphorical ocean of experiences, each rooted in one moment amongst millions, that each of us must face. Existence refers to the meta-paradigm for life as an explanation of our role in the universe. This distinction brings to light the logical failures of a theory that proposes that an understanding of either could foster a complete, applicable and functioning understanding of its counterpart.

Beyond these heavy questions, exists the individual. The person that each of us perceives as "me". Each "me" independently orienting itself to move along a mentally prescribed path through life, strives to connect to a number of other me's. Each of these connections changes both of the involved me's in a manner that cannot truly be understood by either me. The effects of these connections are often based in the nature of the connection, each sub-catergory of connections having a list of potential intangible effects on the me's involved. Furthermore, each moment of the meta-connection is subject to hundreds of potential connections, coalescing to form the entire. The question than becomes: Are these effects positive or negative? An optimist could claim that every connection, even if its immediate effect is perceived as negative can be categorized as a positive experience for both me's. A pessimist could claim that every connection is negative due to it insubstantiality and impermanence. I believe that it is impossible for anyone to understand the effects of any connection. Therein, connections simply become an abstract manifestation of the human potential and the possibility of all things, a means of effecting, being effected and understanding your surroundings. My grand-da once said "A man can never truly understand the value of his life, until he can perceive the ripples that his existence has caused in the lives of those he knows and those that he shall never meet". Those ripples give meaning, value, and purpose to every life.