The Bennett Clan

While I don't often agree with their politics, I generally enjoy reading the sub-/counter-culture weekly Riverfront Times. It usually has well-written articles of local interest, like this one, which ConservativeDialysis found and wrote about. (Ditto the caveat: RFT doesn't fall under "family-friendly" in the language department.)

Some choice nuggets:

Samir says a soldier fired several blank rounds into the bunker's exposed opening, and a man's voice cried out from the spider hole, pleading for his life.


"He said, 'Don't shoot. Don't kill me,'" recounts Samir.

Later, when the world's most wanted man was whisked onto an awaiting helicopter, Samir remembers Saddam muttering to himself in English, asking the same question again and again: "America, why? America, why?"

Samir was a twenty-year-old college student living in the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah when he joined a civilian uprising against Saddam. It was 1991, and U.S. and coalition fighters had just declared a ceasefire after liberating Kuwait.


Encouraged by the Republican Guard's swift defeat, Samir grabbed the family AK-47 and joined thousands of southern Shiites organizing a massive rebellion. In hindsight, Samir says, the revolution was doomed from the start.


The ceasefire allowed Saddam to regroup and launch a counterattack against his own people. It soon became clear that the United States never planned to assist the Shiites with any tactical support. The failure of the U.S. government to provide military assistance during the uprising still strikes a sour chord with Samir and countless other Shiites.


"We were defenseless," fumes Samir. "Saddam began a retaliation campaign with tanks and helicopters. Our guns were useless."

The next morning Samir hopped on a Humvee for the half-hour drive to his parents' home. The entire neighborhood, some 700 residents, poured into the streets to greet him."It was an awesome feeling," he says. "I felt like I was coming with the U.S. forces to free my family. It was the best feeling of my life."

Samir is quick to anger when people dismiss the necessity of the U.S. invasion of Iraq -- or, even worse, when they question the validity of Saddam's capture.

Late last month Samir returned to Iraq for the third time since the fall of Saddam's regime. This time he's working not as a interpreter but as a political and cultural consultant in the U.S. government's rebuilding efforts. The job can earn Samir in excess of $100,000 a year, though he says he'd do it for half as much.


As to the risks of arbitrary suicide bombings, Samir says he'd rather die in Iraq than here in a car accident or from a heart attack.


"Everyone dies one day," he muses. "Dying with honor is better than dying with nothing. At least you're going to be remembered."

I just changed the settings for the Bennett Clan group blog, so that it will send an email to the Bennett Clan group email.

On a related note, if you have any questions regarding the group blog invitation, or how to participate, please let me know. I would love to see everyone posting! I want to know what's going on with everyone, and what y'all are thinking about, well, whatever...

I'm going to the 500 this year... and the sweetest part is, the whole thing is free - gratis, comp, cuffo - courtesy of Rose-Hulman.

In case you've not heard, RHIT has a new president this year. I stopped by his office open house at Homecoming last September to say hello, and ended up talking with his wife for about half an hour. Apparently, we hit it off, and, saying that she thought I'd be a "lot of fun" to have at the race, invited me as one of their "personal guests". (Now, don't get too excited; the group of "personal guests" is large enough to fill a charter bus...)

At any rate, I saw them again in February at the St. Louis alumni meet-and-greet I organized for Dr. Midgley this past February, and his wife again confirmed I was going. Well, last week I got in the mail my invitation from the alumni office, so it's now official. I will probably be staying on the northwest side with my fraternity big brother, Matt, who will likely be my "and guest" seeing as how there hasn't been a viable candidate for And Guest for about a year and a half now...

Each year the staff at Beloit College in Wisconsin puts together a list to try to give the Faculty a sense of the mindset of the year's incoming freshman. Here is the list for the Class of 2005:

• The people who are starting college this fall across the nation were born in 1983. They have no meaningful recollection of the Reagan Era and probably did not know he had ever been shot.
• They were prepubescent when the Persian Gulf War was waged. There has been only one Pope in their lifetime. They were 10 when the Soviet Union broke apart and do not remember the Cold War.
• They are too young to remember the space shuttle blowing up. Tianamen Square means nothing to them. Bottle caps have always been screw off and plastic and there have always been ball point pens.
• Atari predates them, as do vinyl albums. The expression "You sound like a broken record" means nothing to them. They have never owned a record player.
• They have likely never played Pac Man and have never heard of Pong. They may have never heard of an 8 track. The Compact Disc was introduced when they were one year old.
• They have always had an answering machine. Most have never seen a TV set with only 13 channels, nor have they seen a black and white TV. They have always had cable.
• There have always been VCRs, but they have no idea what BETA was. They cannot fathom not having a remote control. They don't know what a cloth baby diaper is, or know about the "Help me, I've fallen and I can't get up" commercial.

• They were born the year that Walkmen were introduced by Sony. Roller skating has always meant inline for them. Jay Leno has always been on the Tonight Show. They have no idea when or why Jordache jeans were cool.
• Popcorn has always been cooked in the microwave. They have never seen Larry Bird play. They never took a swim and thought about Jaws.
• The Vietnam War is as ancient history to them as WWI, WWII and the Civil War. They have no idea that Americans were ever held hostage in Iran. They can't imagine what hard contact lenses are.
• They don't know who Mork was or where he was from.(The correct answer, by the way, is Ork) They never heard: "Where's the beef?", "I'd walk a mile for a Camel," or "De plane, de plane!"
• They do not care who shot J.R. and have no idea who J.R. was. Michael Jackson has always been white. Kansas, Chicago, Boston, America, and Alabama are places, not bands...
• There has always been MTV. They don't have a clue how to use a typewriter.