Tolerance for Perspectives

by Ken Brown

Springfield, MO 65809
IF you had the power to sort of wave a magic wand and make one change in America, what would it be?  Would it relate to one of the mainstream issues that dominate our current news (e.g., immigration, religion, environment, war or taxation)?  No offense intended, but hopefully you won't wish that "The American People" (a terribly fractured group) think and act just like you think and act.
Tolerance for Different Perspectives
FOR the Ozark Uncle, his one wave of the wand would cause each American to become more tolerant of the different perspectives of other Americans.   The word perspective is generally defined as a "point of view based on one's opinions, beliefs and experiences." [Wikipedia.com] From his own perspective, the Ozark Uncle feels that is the nation's biggest problem.  Everyone seems to "anchor" onto a position and becomes stubborn and obstinate. 

THE drawing at left of a railroad track represents a perspective--a vanishing point perspective in that the tracks merge in the distance to one point.  We all have different perspectives even of this drawing, and that is the central point of the posts on the Ozark Uncle's blog.  Please fellow Americans, can we all try to respect and tolerate all points of view?
THE Ozark Uncle knows his wish would take a magic wand or some other kind of miracle.  We Americans are seemingly clustered into groups according to a certain perspective, and we stop trying to understand other views.  Additionally, we choose one or two daily information sources (i.e., a certain "news" channel, newspaper or maybe even a specific TV evangelist) that cement our perspectives to where our view can't be changed.  In the Ozark Uncle's opinion, being unable to engage in  continued evaluation of a person's perspectives is neither mentally nor spiritually healthy.
Palestinian-Israeli Perspectives--the Ozark Uncle is perplexed.
NOT just in America, it's worldwide--intolerance of different perspectives in virtually every country. A case in point is the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.  Joy and I have learned so much about this from our dear friend, Mareen.  
MAREEN is a well-educated woman of the Jewish faith, and she keeps well abreast of the Palestinian-Israeli situation using a series of international news outlets that range from Al Jazerra to Singapore's Strait Times.  She's the first to acknowledge that her perspective is bias toward the belief that the Jews are God's chosen people and heirs to the Holy Land.  Still, Mareen is unique--she's constantly evaluating her perspective regarding the Palestinian question.  Through Mareen, I've learned that even the citizens of Israel have different perspectives on the issue--essentially two groups that are either hawks or doves.

ON June 24, Mareen sent me a news item from the Israeli news service, Haaretz.com.  The news item reported that a YouTube video of a Palestinian children's choir was getting a lot of views, and the singing group has become very popular among Arabs.  Apparently the video was produced by a Jordanian group called "Birds of Paradise."  Not knowing how long the video entitled "When We Die as Martyrs" will stay on line, I've transcribed the lyrics as follows:

{Young girl sings}
When we die as martyrs, we will go to heaven
No, don't say we are too young, this life has turned us into grownups

Without Palestine, what meaning is there in childhood?
Even if they give us the whole World it won't make us forget her, no, no
My country and my blood are for her sake
 {Adult sings}
Children, you have fulfilled your religious obligation
There is no God by Allah and the martyr is Allah's favorite
You have taught us the meaning of manhood
 {Young girl prays}
O Allah, with your mercy I shall be assisted
O vital and enduring God 
O merciful of mercifuls O noble of nobles
O Allah, Protect Islam and the Muslims
O Allah, Save the Children of Palestine
O Allah, take revenge for us
O Allah, answer our prayers.  Amen.
YOU may have to view the video more than once to catch it but there is one scene where children with Jewish skullcaps (Kippahs) are in the background with toy assault rifles.

THE Haareetz.com article included this quote: "Journalist Fawzia Nasir al-Naeem wrote in the Saudi Arabian newspaper Al-Jazirah that [Birds of Paradise] is one of the most widely distributed children's song groups in the Arab world, and it seems to have crossed the ocean to Canada and Britain." She added that the group represents a new wave in Jihadist youth indoctrination, as it is child-friendly, as opposed to previous Jihadist programs.
What Is a Martyr Anyway?

BECAUSE of the Sept. 11, 2001, suicide bombings and subsequent suicide bombings in Iraq.  the word martyr has deviated far from its original meaning of  "...somebody who suffers persecution and death for the people, a country or an organization, or refusing to renounce a belief, usually religious, political or rights." [Wikipedia.org].  Until the 1990s, the only martyrs I had heard of were early Christians and Joan of Arc.  Tending to be a little on the naïve side, the Ozark Uncle even viewed the Palestinian video as simply suggesting the children's willingness to die at the hands of Israeli aggression--not through suicide-terrorist acts.  

Ozark Uncle's Perspective?  Uh Well, You See....Hell, I don't know.

THE Ozark Uncle is struggling with a comfortable perspective about (1) the video, (2) its possible exploitation of children and (3) even the whole concept of what is a martyr.  The Ozark Uncle cannot readily share his friend Mareen's view because he honestly doesn't know who, if anyone, should possess a given parcel of land on this earth (including his own).  From a distant and uninformed point of view, he senses that the Palestinian-Israeli issue is all about land possession and governance over it.  An old and recurring story in recorded history. 
THE Ozark Uncle's and Mareen's eastern Springfield homes each sit on land less than a mile from the James River.  This river's banks were enjoyed by little Osage Indian children and their families for a couple thousand of years before the white man's land ownership system took over.  While it would take another miracle for the Osage tribe, I have to imagine how I'd feel if somehow they were able to regain power and come take back their lands including my house and Mareen's.  
Is the Gaza Strip Another Indian Reservation?

AS outlined in earlier posts, the Ozark Uncle's perspectives have been fluctuating both during and after his 2010 Lonesome Road Trip through Arkansas and Oklahoma in May.  Right after his trip, the Ozark Uncle took the advice of a friend and read Dennis McAuliffe's Bloodland about the 1920s murders of wealthy Osage Indians in Oklahoma by greedy white men. 
Actually, McAuliffe only re-awakened the Ozark Uncle's to native American mistreatment--he was already sensitized in the 1970s when he read Dee Brown's Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.
DID the native Americans come to hate white Americans as much as Palestinians hate Israelis?  Well probably even more so if that's possible.  I'm sure the proud Osage Indians would love to have made that Jordanian video 150 years ago. 
DID McAuliffe's book give me any new perspectives?  Actually two: one regarding the family of Laura Ingalls Wilder (hang on Cathie, this is the post that any Alsup would love to read or write), and the other about the Indian Reservation system.  
WELL, in his book, McAuliffe talks about the American government's use of Indian Reservations as a way to control and effectively wipe out an unwanted race of people.  Then, according to McAuliffe, in the 1950s, the white South African government was researching how to corral its unwanted race of black people.  Their research led them to the United States, not to study how black Americans had been treated, but how the reservation system effectively eradicated most Indian tribes by the end of the 1800s.
Non-Christian, Non-Jewish, Non-Muslim--How Does One Form a Perspective?

THE 2007 Palestinian map at left shows those areas under Palestinian authority in green and the rest under Israeli control.  From this map, one can see why Palestinians get alarmed when new Jewish settlements are set up in the West Bank.  It's eerily similar to the encroachments of white settlers onto the Osage Reservation in southeastern Kansas in the 1830s.  
AMERICA is reported to be a Christian nation, and my old Nazarene friends, Guy and Doris Gettys, God rest their souls, preached to me often the need to support Israel because of, as I recall, an interpretation of the Book of Revelations in the Christian Bible.  Once Israel is defeated, the end is near--or something like that.   That Revelations book was hard for the Ozark Uncle to read in his Christian years and even harder to interpret.  Martin Luther, the father of the Protestant movement back in the 15th Century, reportedly felt so unsure about that Book of Revelations that he felt it should have been left on the cutting room floor as the chapter selection committee did its work. 
End This Damn Thing, Brown.
THIS post is going nowhere--it's not settling anything.  All of recorded history confirms that land goes to the one with the biggest stick.  Without a magic wand or some divine intervention, this Palestinian issue will not be solved except in the same way as recorded history--through armed conflict aided by the Indian Reservation concept.  
BUT the Ozark Uncle has made a resolution--inform himself about the history of how we got to this point.  That's something Christians, Jews and Muslims should all do--and if possible try to be tolerant of all perspectives.  Still, if this earth is turning one-hundred years from now, it wouldn't surprise me if historians will be talking about the similarities between the Palestinians and the Osage Indian tribe.

Leaving Cimarron -- Edna Ferber Style

by Ken Brown
Springfield, MO

Yesterday (make that three days ago--a time warp occurred at the Brown house), I finished Edna Ferber's book, Cimarron, an epic story that began with the 1890s land run into present-day northern Oklahoma and ended with the area's oil boom in the 1920s.  The Ozark Uncle became aware of the book during his 2010 Lonesome Road Trip that took him across northern Oklahoma--the same as the setting for Ms. Ferber's book.  While total immersion into the history of this area would be rewarding, the Ozark Uncle shall let the Ferber book reading and this blog post bring an end to the topic so he can pursue his many other writing projects.

Accompanying photos

Edna Ferber -- One can find several biographies of Edna Ferber online.  All of them will say that she was a great writing talent and also suggest that she walked to the "beat of a different drummer."  Her well-known works include Giant, Ice Palace, and Show Boat.

Temple Lea Houston -- A fascinating pioneer lawyer who was the son of Sam Houston of Texas fame.  He is the person on whom Ferber based her Cimarron fast-drawing lawyer and publisher, Yancey Cravat.  Unlike, Houston, whose roots and life can be traced, Ferber left Yancey's past only to speculation.  Her Yancey was almost mystical and more of a spirit than a person.  (Note: Houston is also the basis for Jeffrey Hunter's 1963-64 TV series, Temple Houston).

Glenn Ford and Maria Schell -- The Ozark Uncle had almost finished Ferber's book when he looked to see who had been cast as Yancey in the 1960 film Cimarron.  Understandably Glenn Ford brought people to the movie theatre but he didn't fit my vision for the part--perhaps in a perfect casting world, a Tom Selleck body with a Charles Bronson personality.




Summary Thoughts

1. Ferber's main characters, Yancey and Sabra Cravat, were incredibly unique both individually and as a married couple.  I simply have to put my perceptions of them in writing.
2. Through Ferber's book, the Ozark Uncle learned about the use of conflict in fiction writing--something necessary in writing if one is to keep a reading audience.
3. The Oklahoma chaotic oil boom and Ferber's description of the strife and ironies included has caused the Ozark Uncle to wonder about the new-found mineral wealth in Afghanistan.  No doubt, as I write, individuals are gearing up a plot, scheme, and steal their way to that wealth.  

Ah, Google Earth (a God-like view)

For the last couple of years, Google Earth has provided the Ozark Uncle with a visual aid for his book reading.  Try this if you haven't--as you read a book, go to Google Earth and find the locations mentioned in the book.  One can get a geography lesson while at the same time enjoying a good book.

Identifying the Caribbean isles and related hide-a-way bays helped me overcome boredom with Jimmy Buffett's A Salty Piece of Land.  Jimmy's book often mentioned and led me to read Rudyard Kipling's short story, A Man Who Would be King--one that became a 1975 film starring Sean Connery and Michael Caine.  The story takes the reader through 19th Century India and Afghanistan.  The main character in Kipling's story was Daniel "Danny" Dravot.  In a different way, he was ever bit as unique a character as Ferber's Yancey Cravat.

Google Earth wasn't needed for Ferber's Cimarron because the territory was still etched in the Ozark Uncle's mind from his 2010 Lonesome Road Trip in late May and early June.  Ferber states that her fictional town "Osage" could have been one of five existing cities.  I'm guessing that I traveled through some of them with possible candidates being Enid, Ponca City, Pawhuska and Bartlesville.

Fact Stranger Than Fiction

In her preface, Ferber states that her characters (like the town of Osage) are fictional but the events, although sensational, are none the less true.  Her model for the almost mystical Yancey Cravat was Woodward Oklahoma's gun-toting lawyer, Temple Lea Houston.  Temple was the son of Texas's Sam Houston, and he came  to the newly sprouted village of Woodward in northwest Oklahoma right after the land run.

Yancey Cravat's courtroom adventures were actual occurrences from Houston's past.  One that Ferber didn't use but gives you an idea of the pair's eccentricity is the following::

Once a judge persuaded Houston to represent a penniless horse thief and Houston promised, "I'll provide the unfortunate gentleman the best defense I can." Houston asked the judge for a private office in which he could confer with his client. Sometime later, a court official decided to check on Houston and the horsethief. He found Houston sitting alone in the room with the window wide open. Houston smiled and remarked, "I gave him the best advice I could." From http://www.texasescapes.com 

Main Character?  Yancey or His Wife?

On the Ozark Uncle's "Must Watch" list is the 1960 movie version of Ferber's book with Glenn Ford as Yancey--although probably already seen, it was really not on my radar when I watched it years ago.  Without even seeing the movie (again?), I'll wager that Glenn Ford is definitely "the star" lest his agent would never have signed the contract.  Yet, when I think about the book version and even Edna Ferber's own life, her 1929 novel really had Yancey's wife Sabra as the main character.  She was the person who not only held Yancey's life together but all the glue that held the book together.

Edna, with a journalist background, wrote the entire book from Sabra's point of view.  She didn't write in first person but almost like Sabra's shadow.  There is no scene in the book where Sabra wasn't present.  We learned Sabra's thoughts and views.  On the other hand, Yancey was but a story book character described to us. Sabra kept couple's newspaper, the Osage Wigwam, alive and eventually quite successful.

In the book, Yancey would be gone for years only to resurface at an opportune moment when some area crisis or event was occurring.  In just a few moments after his arrival, Sabra would melt in his arms and forget all the hurt caused by his absences.  He would take over the editorial page and unlike current media, he would espouse a point of view that could be quite divisive and unpopular particularly with the white settlers.  Yet, it never really hurt the newspaper--if anything, subscriptions would surge after one of these episodes.

Edna Ferber never married and some suggested she wasn't the "marryin' kind."  The book would not have worked had the Cravats divorced, but probably the most incredible of all the incredibles in the book was that the couple's love for each other never wavered.  What is most credible, however, was the accomplishments attained by Sabra entirely on her own.  To me, she was the real story.

Well, the Ozark Uncle is hooked on Edna Ferber for the time being.  The Springfield-Greene County MO library will have to find him a couple of Ferber's Giant.  Oh, I've seen the movie version with Rock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor, and James Dean more than once.  But how did Ferber tell the story originally -- that's the question.