Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Musings: Exhibitionism

The rain came in the night, several times, and drummed on the roof and poured from the eaves, but it was gone — although promising to return — by the time Koko and I went out walking in the light of early dawn.

It was cool enough for a sweatshirt, and a brisk wind came from the north, hard-driving a herd of gray clouds that turned pink as they passed over Makaleha and Waialeale, softening the green slopes.

A thin moon cupped the sky in the east where the sun was struggling to rise, and while I never did see it, I knew it was there from the fiery white light that blazed through a puka in the cloudbank and sent shafts of silver plunging down into the sea.

I was at the sea the last couple days, although not the place I usually go. Yesterday it was Larsen’s Beach, where I went to take some photographs and refresh my mind on the trails before writing another story about the access issue today.

The presence of nude sunbathers is a recurring complaint about that beach, and while I don’t mind if people swim or sun in the buff, there seems to be a fine line between naturism and exhibitionism. I’m thinking in particular of one old tourist, his face smeared with zinc oxide, who was dressed in an unbuttoned short-sleeved shirt, socks and shoes, but no pants.

Come on, buddy. Who are you trying to kid?

I guess what it comes down to is I don’t care if guys want to lie around with their dicks out, but it’s a different story when they seem intent on showing their members to me, which so often seems to be the case at clothing optional beaches.

There’s a different sort of exhibitionism under way up along the coastline of Wainiha and Haena, where folks are intent on displaying their wealth not only to beachgoers, but each other.

Standing on the deck of the house next door to Joe Brescia’s place, and seeing how it was hemmed in by other giant homes that had maxed out their lots, destroying the ocean views of their neighbors in the process, I couldn’t help but think they’d created a high-priced slum.

Brescia’s house is progressing rapidly, yet the Kauai-Niihau Island Burial Council won’t be taking up the issue of his Burial Treatment Plan at its November meeting, either. It’s very curious, this continuing delay.


Meanwhile, looking into his lot, it seemed so bizarre that people will one day be living in a house where they will gaze down onto numerous burials in the yard, which you can see surrounded by orange fencing on the mauka side of the private property sign. It becomes pretty clear, when viewed from the perspective of those who will be occupying the house, that it’s located smack in the middle of a graveyard.

That fact hasn’t been forgotten by Hawaians and others, who came by last weekend and said their pule and left offerings and refreshed the ahu that was built when Kaiulani was camping there on a triangle of public beach that the state is allowing Brescia to claim for his own.


We’re talking about that good-sized chunk of land that lies between the orange fence and Brescia’s black dust fence, and it’s indicative of a situation happening all along the coast, where landowners start treating their shoreline certification line as their property line and plant the vegetation that allows them to encroach and eventually claim it.

Because who is going to rip it out and risk arrest? And once it’s thickly covered with vegetation, it's no longer available for public use.

Shifting gears, it was a little sad to read in The Garden Island of the last sugar ship sailing into the sunset, and to realize yes, it’s pau now, and all we’ve got to replace it is GMO crops.

Veteran’s Day is always a little sad for me, because it makes me think of all the lives that have been screwed up and ruined by war, and for what? The ongoing exhibitionism of America's military might.

The other day I was talking to my friend Kaimi about a friend of his, a Kauai boy, who had enlisted in the Marines and gone to Iraq and come home angry and unsettled and troubled and guilt-ridden, because he’d killed kids, but not before they’d tossed an explosive into a truck that killed and maimed some of his comrades in arms, which he felt he’d allowed to happen because he hadn’t opened fire on them earlier, which he hadn't done because he didn’t want to kill kids.

Now who, really, can recover from something like that?

A lot of soldiers don’t, which is why we're seeing such high rates of PTSD and, as The Wall Street Journal reported, suicides:

Sixteen American soldiers killed themselves in October in the U.S. and on duty overseas, an unusually high monthly toll that is fueling concerns about the mental health of the nation's military personnel after more than eight years of continuous warfare.

The October suicide figures mean that at least 134 active-duty soldiers have taken their own lives so far this year, putting the Army on pace to break last year's record of 140 active-duty suicides. The number of Army suicides has risen 37% since 2006, and last year, the suicide rate surpassed that of the U.S. population for the first time.


And as Democracy Now! reports today, using the sad case of Chance Keesling, who was placed on suicide watch during his first tour of Iraq, then called back to duty again, ultimately taking his own life:

A longstanding US policy denies presidential condolence letters to the families of soldiers who have committed suicide.

Wow. Doesn’t that strike you as just a little bit cold?

33 comments:

Anonymous said...

We need a tougher solder. Not the kind that joins up for the GI benefits, hoping never to have to shoot somebody.

When I was in 'Nam I had no compunction shooting man, woman or child that posed a real threat. No PTSD, no bad dreams.

Every soldier should be ready to shoot anybody posing a real or percieved threat in a war zone.

That's what they should have signed up for.

Anonymous said...

I am sorry and sick that our taxes got to the likes of the prior post.

At Larsenʻs beach, fishermen and young boys are often aggressively approached by white homosexual men lurking in the brush and bouncing along ʻthe long easy sloping pathʻ. From now on if they need to go down there they have to use the steep path. Maybe theyʻll get a different kind of workout.

Good observation Joan, Bresciaʻs place does look a slum, you know, a shanty, like in the Philippines.

Anonymous said...

"We need a tougher solder. Not the kind that joins up for the GI benefits, hoping never to have to shoot somebody."

-- a factually correct, almost universally unwelcome, and ultimately harsh truth


"There’s a different sort of exhibitionism under way up along the coastline of Wainiha and Haena"

--- ohhhh!! nice subject transition thread!! compliments


"It’s very curious, this continuing delay."

-- agreed. it invites speculation


"The ongoing exhibitionism of America's military might."

-- that is not what it is, obviously


"Now who, really, can recover from something like that?"

-- the mentally strong, either by natural disposition and/or sufficient training (in and/or outside the military)


dwps

Anonymous said...

"At Larsenʻs beach, fishermen and young boys are often aggressively approached by white homosexual men lurking in the brush and bouncing along ʻthe long easy sloping pathʻ."

-- wow. can anybody else verify this? man that is creepy


dwps

Anonymous said...

Like the gunner said in "Full Metal Jacket"..."It's easy to shoot women and children. You just don't lead 'em as much!"

hoo rah!

Dawson said...

...and Americans have the monumental hypocrisy to wonder why we are so despised overseas.

Anonymous said...

and if you, Dawson, had been drafted into the Army and couldn't escape to Canada, and were confronted by a 10 yr old girl offering you a "box"...what would you have done?

Maybe the box contained food...maybe explosives...you've just seen and/or heard of similar "kid offerings" causing soldier deaths.

You can't run away...she's walking towards you and your buddies...time to decide...

BANG or BOOM?

Who dies since someone will?

Don't talk shit until you've been there.

I've shot a few 10 yr kids and their "boxes" turned out to have had explosives.

And I'm happy to this day that I did it...no regrets or problems.

A friend of mine from "the old days" with similar experiences had a mugger attempt a robbery. He died after making the mistake of crossing behind my friend's car. My friend backed up and crushed him against a brick wall, retrieved his stuff and drove away.

Good.

Anonymous said...

Ooooh, you soooooo bad. What a man. What a man.
Thatʻs the problem, you wish you were a man.
A REAL man, soldier or otherwise, would NEVER talk like you do.
Hope you can get some help before someone that encounters you needs to.

Anonymous said...

"..and were confronted by a 10 yr old girl offering you a "box"...what would you have done?"

One of the many reasons not to be over there or for the reasons that the U.S. is over there.
And what prompts a 10 year old to carry explosives in a gift box? Could it be that even death is better than encountering a murderous raping gung ho idiot?

Anonymous said...

"And what prompts a 10 year old..."

How about the coercion of the adult troops that captured and brainwashed him/her to do this.

Research the "child soldiers" stories in Asia and Africa.

I'm sure it had nothing to do with death being better than encountering an American soldier.

You douchbag, you.

Anonymous said...

If a soldier from an invading army showed up in my neighborhood, I'd teach my kids to blow his ass up.

Anonymous said...

And if I were that soldier, I'd shoot your kid between his beady little eyes.

Anonymous said...

ps - even if he looked at me funny.

Anonymous said...

I dunno, my kids are pretty good shots. I'd bet they'd put a few into you before you knew what hit you.

Anonymous said...

Besides, my kids aren't the suicide bomber type. They'd plant the bomb in the road or shoot your ass when you weren't looking.

Anonymous said...

WAR ....

.....WHAT IS IT GOOD FOR?


ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!

Anonymous said...

Oh, I don't know. Ironically, some of the greatest advances in medicine occurred during wartime or as a result of war wounded.

Usually, our economy thrives in wartime.

With drones reducing American deaths, it's becoming more of a win-win thing.

Anonymous said...

"With drones reducing American deaths, it's becoming more of a win-win thing."

Unless you're Afghani

Anonymous said...

Who the hell wants to be Afghani anyway? Bunch of camel jockey towel heads.

the win-win is we win/we win. they lose..someone has to.

Dawson said...

Speaking of guys who get their kicks flaunting their ugly privates in public, from the last dozen or so posts it looks like time for Joan to enable comment moderation again...

Joan Conrow said...

You know, there really is a similarity there, Dawson. You are always very astute.

Anonymous said...

"the win-win is we win/we win. they lose..someone has to."

What do we win?

Anonymous said...

"Speaking of guys who get their kicks flaunting their ugly privates in public, from the last dozen or so posts it looks like time for Joan to enable comment moderation again..."

-- not disagreeing

but the comment censorship is pretty gay / weak


dwps

Joan Conrow said...

I don't dig the use of "gay" as either synonomous with weak or as a derogatory term, dwps.

Anonymous said...

Wow. A whole lot of white trash jumped on your blog again, Joan.

They sound really frustrated.

Anonymous said...

"I can lick any guy in this bar!"

- tough, un-weak gay guy

- in leather

- "YMCA" playing on the
jukebox

Anonymous said...

Dawson never did answer the question of "shoot or be blown up".

Given the assumption that he absolutely had to be there in a shooting war and there was no other option than kill or be killed, would he choose to be blown up (with his buddies) or shoot the little girl?

Come on...give us an answer staying within the boundaries of the given.

Only 2 real answers...people would say "I'd shoot" and people who would lie and say "I'd get me and my buddies blown up".

Anonymous said...

"Given the assumption that he absolutely had to be there in a shooting war and there was no other option than kill or be killed, would he choose to be blown up (with his buddies) or shoot the little girl?"

Then there's the little girl's perspective. Should she shoot the soldier or blow him up?

Anonymous said...

She has no gun. Only a box that may or may not contain explosives that require her to get very close to her victims.

The soldier has valid reason to believe the box probably contains explosives based on previous history.

AND...to change the scenario...if the girl had a gun...an obvious weapon...it's a no brainer...bust a cap in her brainpan from as far away as a good shot can be made!

Anonymous said...

killer instinct- shoot'em all and let allah sort'em out!

Anonymous said...

"AND...to change the scenario...if the girl had a gun...an obvious weapon...it's a no brainer"

Assuming that she stood in front of the soldiers saying "Yoohoo, over hear!"

Anonymous said...

Dawson....yoo-hoo...we know you're out there...we can hear you breathing...still contemplating an answer?

Anonymous said...

OK...time's up on Dawson (figuratively and literally in this scenario).

The little girl who was told to give this box of home-made candies to the nice soldiers by her terrorist handlers has been allowed to approach to within 3 feet of Cpl. Dawson and his privates (and the other PFC's in his small group).

Due to Cpl. Dawson's agnst-ridden paralytic inaction, he and his small command (and his privates) and the little girl have been turned into dog food when the terrorist handlers remotely detonated the explosive box from a safe hidden distance.

And that, boys and girls, is why any soldier put in a war zone had better damn well be ready to shoot anyone posing the hint of the possibility of a threat. And then do it again the next day.

Sorry, Dawson. If you weren't already dead, I'd bust you down to private and put you in line for a dishonorable discharge.

If you carry a weapon, be ready to shoot it.

Otherwise, try to get into the military band or something. Office clerk, maybe.