Here we go again -- Iraq War Symposium, Part II

Don't ask me how I got roped into this again, but I'm working on another Iraq War Symposium. This one will likely take place by the end of August, and is mainly intended to be used as a tool to garner media attention to how godawful this whole thing is going.

We're also thinking of holding a screening of The War Tapes, which I haven't seen (it just opened on June 30). Simple concept: Give soldiers video cameras. Tell them to shoot their everyday life. Even if it's boring. Capture life and death and everything in between. We think we can get one or two of the 'filmmakers' to have a panel discussion afterwards, because one of the producers is friends with Paul Rieckhoff, the head of IAVA/OpTruth. Rieckhoff pretty much said he would come and participate in our symposium again this year, which is fab news. He was easily the best thing about last year's event. Love him! (Even though when I was talking to him, all I could think about was how frickin huge his fingers were! I know, weird. It reminded me of my EMT days when I had to cut rings off of people's grostequely swollen/broken fingers. But his fingers weren't broken. That was their normal size.)

I was at the library today and I saw his book prominently featured among all the "cool summer reads"! And this was at the Severna Park library! I hope it's not there the next time I go, because people in SP really need to read it... It's called Chasing Ghosts (http://paulrieckhoff.com/home/index.asp) and I'd better read it before the end of August so that I don't embarrass myself. It's basically Paul's "gritty" account of serving in Iraq and then returning to the U.S. to fight THE MAN! Right on! [Cue Rage Against the Machine music.]

So -- completely unrelated here -- I had this idea to write a two-sided book -- Why Does The World Hate America? on the front cover and Why Does the World Love America? on the back cover, and the two 'books' would meet in the middle. It would loosely be based on media reports from all over the world, all related to a love or hate of the USA. I initially thought it would be great to do interviews of people across the globe, but...logistical nightmare.

Yeah. Needs work.