Comments on: The Other Brother: Hybrid Vigor and Reconciliation http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/02/the-other-brother-hybrid-vigor-and-reconciliation/ a radical newsletter in the struggle for peace and social justice Sun, 22 Nov 2009 17:51:44 -0800 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Phyllis Rutigliano http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/02/the-other-brother-hybrid-vigor-and-reconciliation/#comment-38596 Phyllis Rutigliano Thu, 12 Feb 2009 22:59:49 +0000 http://www.dissidentvoice.org/?p=6587#comment-38596 Mr. Corseri has cast a lovely intimate light on this masterful piece by first sharing his personal life and ending with the embrace of the brothers Esau and Jacob. It is the heartfelt human thing needed when delving into the history of these events and our responsibility to the moment. This was a great one, thank you. Mr. Corseri has cast a lovely intimate light on this masterful piece by first sharing his personal life and ending with the embrace of the brothers Esau and Jacob. It is the heartfelt human thing needed when delving into the history of these events and our responsibility to the moment. This was a great one, thank you.

]]> By: mary http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/02/the-other-brother-hybrid-vigor-and-reconciliation/#comment-38197 mary Sun, 08 Feb 2009 19:12:32 +0000 http://www.dissidentvoice.org/?p=6587#comment-38197 Gary Corseri takes us on many journeys - this time to a personal one that reveals much of what made him and of what he has made of himself and his life. Much appreciated. He took us on a different one - to the Far East - last Friday which I listened to at 2am huddled up under the duvet! (It has been extremely cold and snowy in the UK this winter and there is no sign of a change yet.) He read some of the poems which he wrote during his visit to Thailand and Japan thirty odd years ago. One in particular conjured up some of the horrific news images from theVietnam war and left me thinking I would like to follow suit and visit the Far East. I also liked the oriental sounding music that alternated with the poetry which added to the surreal nature of the experience - listening in the dark via the internet to an American author who was 3,500 miles away reading his poems. Was one of the instruments a bamboo flute? You can listen again on this link which is rather slow to load. http://annecammon.com/radio_shows "Journeys" - GC follows Liza Wolsky. Columbia University Radio - Art Waves Gary Corseri takes us on many journeys – this time to a personal one that reveals much of what made him and of what he has made of himself and his life. Much appreciated.

He took us on a different one – to the Far East – last Friday which I listened to at 2am huddled up under the duvet! (It has been extremely cold and snowy in the UK this winter and there is no sign of a change yet.) He read some of the poems which he wrote during his visit to Thailand and Japan thirty odd years ago. One in particular conjured up some of the horrific news images from theVietnam war and left me thinking I would like to follow suit and visit the Far East.

I also liked the oriental sounding music that alternated with the poetry which added to the surreal nature of the experience – listening in the dark via the internet to an American author who was 3,500 miles away reading his poems.

Was one of the instruments a bamboo flute? You can listen again on this link which is rather slow to load.
http://annecammon.com/radio_shows
“Journeys” – GC follows Liza Wolsky.
Columbia University Radio – Art Waves

]]> By: Gary Corseri http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/02/the-other-brother-hybrid-vigor-and-reconciliation/#comment-38146 Gary Corseri Sun, 08 Feb 2009 01:37:55 +0000 http://www.dissidentvoice.org/?p=6587#comment-38146 All--Thanks for your comments! David--I, too, am a fan of A.E. Housman. Jan--You'll note that the concept of "hybrid vigor" was introduced to me in my teen years. It was an idea for a youngster to play around with. This article is about growth and exploration. At the end, I write that "in a sense, we are all hybrids" (in terms of racial, ethnic, and cultural streams). That feels pretty inclusive. That's a conclusion worth struggling for and worth pondering. Best-- All–Thanks for your comments!
David–I, too, am a fan of A.E. Housman.
Jan–You’ll note that the concept of “hybrid vigor” was introduced to me in my teen years. It was an idea for a youngster to play around with. This article is about growth and exploration. At the end, I write that “in a sense, we are all hybrids” (in terms of racial, ethnic, and cultural streams). That feels pretty inclusive. That’s a conclusion worth struggling for and worth pondering.
Best–

]]> By: Jan http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/02/the-other-brother-hybrid-vigor-and-reconciliation/#comment-38144 Jan Sun, 08 Feb 2009 00:57:09 +0000 http://www.dissidentvoice.org/?p=6587#comment-38144 I'm not sure I like the concept of "hybrid vigor". It implies inferior qualities in others. hybrid vigor n. Increased vigor or other superior qualities arising from the crossbreeding of genetically different plants or animals. I’m not sure I like the concept of “hybrid vigor”. It implies inferior qualities in others.
hybrid vigor n. Increased vigor or other superior qualities arising from the crossbreeding of genetically different plants or animals.

]]> By: Josie Michel-Brüning http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/02/the-other-brother-hybrid-vigor-and-reconciliation/#comment-38102 Josie Michel-Brüning Sat, 07 Feb 2009 17:43:39 +0000 http://www.dissidentvoice.org/?p=6587#comment-38102 Oh, I made a mistake, sorry, everbody! Gary had just reminded me. Cuba, of course it is 90 miles away from your coast. I certainly had the five Cubans in mind when I got mixed it up. Oh, I made a mistake, sorry, everbody! Gary had just reminded me. Cuba, of course it is 90 miles away from your coast.
I certainly had the five Cubans in mind when I got mixed it up.

]]> By: David http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/02/the-other-brother-hybrid-vigor-and-reconciliation/#comment-38094 David Sat, 07 Feb 2009 16:51:37 +0000 http://www.dissidentvoice.org/?p=6587#comment-38094 Mr. Corseri, Thanks, again, for a finely crafted piece that helps us to better define the human condition. Your personal journey is warmly received and I appreciate the risks taken in your offering. As Reverend Tirado has pointed out, you have brought forth the more considered of responders on this site, one that recently is, sadly, becoming like the Rants and Raves section found on Craig’s List. Giving up those worldviews latched on to in eighth grade and never revisited may be the real killer in our society. And how am I to face the odds Of man’s bedevilment and God’s? I, a stranger and afraid In a world I never made. E. Housman Mr. Corseri,

Thanks, again, for a finely crafted piece that helps us to better define the human condition. Your personal journey is warmly received and I appreciate the risks taken in your offering.

As Reverend Tirado has pointed out, you have brought forth the more considered of responders on this site, one that recently is, sadly, becoming like the Rants and Raves section found on Craig’s List. Giving up those worldviews latched on to in eighth grade and never revisited may be the real killer in our society.

And how am I to face the odds
Of man’s bedevilment and God’s?
I, a stranger and afraid
In a world I never made.

E. Housman

]]> By: Josie Michel-Brüning http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/02/the-other-brother-hybrid-vigor-and-reconciliation/#comment-38093 Josie Michel-Brüning Sat, 07 Feb 2009 16:41:38 +0000 http://www.dissidentvoice.org/?p=6587#comment-38093 Dear Gary, I want to add something yet: There is an island only five miles away from your coast: Cuba. Its people are struggling for a just and peaceful society. Their priorities are human beings, their health and improving their education as highly as possible. They are not satisfied with their system, but they don't give up despite of the U.S. blockade and terrorist acts by exile Cubans being supported by the U.S. government, which were amounting during the 90s to 3,478 deady and 2,099 invalid people. And there is the case of the Cuban Five being imprisoned since more than 10 years in the U.S. for having tried to prevent those terrorist acts. The case is going to the Supreme Court by now. For more information, see: www.freethefive.org . Being in personal correspondence with them since nearly 7 years, I know they share your thoughts and your attitude. Please, everybody try to help them! Dear Gary, I want to add something yet:
There is an island only five miles away from your coast: Cuba.
Its people are struggling for a just and peaceful society. Their priorities are human beings, their health and improving their education as highly as possible. They are not satisfied with their system, but they don’t give up despite of the U.S. blockade and terrorist acts by exile Cubans being supported by the U.S. government, which were amounting during the 90s to 3,478 deady and 2,099 invalid people.
And there is the case of the Cuban Five being imprisoned since more than 10 years in the U.S. for having tried to prevent those terrorist acts. The case is going to the Supreme Court by now. For more information, see: http://www.freethefive.org .
Being in personal correspondence with them since nearly 7 years, I know they share your thoughts and your attitude.
Please, everybody try to help them!

]]> By: Josie Michel-Brüning http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/02/the-other-brother-hybrid-vigor-and-reconciliation/#comment-38092 Josie Michel-Brüning Sat, 07 Feb 2009 16:08:47 +0000 http://www.dissidentvoice.org/?p=6587#comment-38092 As a voice from Germany I want to join the chorus of appreciation for your wonderful contribution to this website. We should spread it. Being educated in a strict catholic way and having spent 2 1/2 years of my youth in a convent with nuns where the bible had been the most important literature and the history of our religion, I learned once the first Christians had been communists and their contemporaries once would have said to each other: "Look, how they love each other!" However, later on Constantin the Great began to prevail in the signe of the cross. Well, in consequence to my opposition during my adult life, I am excommunicated, not only by the Catholic Church, but also by the mainstream it seems to me. There seems to be another handicap of humans in relationship to drive for surviving: the opportunism. Thank you very much again! Josie As a voice from Germany I want to join the chorus of appreciation for your wonderful contribution to this website. We should spread it.
Being educated in a strict catholic way and having spent 2 1/2 years of my youth in a convent with nuns where the bible had been the most important literature and the history of our religion, I learned once the first Christians had been communists and their contemporaries once would have said to each other: “Look, how they love each other!”
However, later on Constantin the Great began to prevail in the signe of the cross.
Well, in consequence to my opposition during my adult life, I am excommunicated, not only by the Catholic Church, but also by the mainstream it seems to me. There seems to be another handicap of humans in relationship to drive for surviving: the opportunism. Thank you very much again!
Josie

]]> By: jan http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/02/the-other-brother-hybrid-vigor-and-reconciliation/#comment-38081 jan Sat, 07 Feb 2009 12:57:57 +0000 http://www.dissidentvoice.org/?p=6587#comment-38081 Why not just drop the false identities you were burdened with? I would no more call myself christian or muslim (which I could lay claim to by birth if i chose to) than to call myself a martian. Why not just drop the false identities you were burdened with? I would no more call myself christian or muslim (which I could lay claim to by birth if i chose to) than to call myself a martian.

]]> By: Rev. José M. Tirado http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/02/the-other-brother-hybrid-vigor-and-reconciliation/#comment-38075 Rev. José M. Tirado Sat, 07 Feb 2009 09:44:39 +0000 http://www.dissidentvoice.org/?p=6587#comment-38075 Gary, Gracias....I´m so glad your article brought out a bit of the sentimental in responders here. Would that such humanistic brotherliness extend outward when discussing all the other pawns of perversity: the police, the paupered production-line workers in coffee stores or factories, the indentured students whose debt rises with the tides, union workers, and the remaining restless unattached to theory or formal processes. I´d bet that on most days most readers here would celebrate their humanity while raising banners and voices over abstract nouns. Well, I have given up on the abstract and believe that our answers begin away from "ideas" as such and with each other. Would that more here agreed. In any case, good to hear your story: I too spent much of my youth in Miami after leaving Queens and spent enough time on the streets to know our challenges are rarely in the ether. And David is an old war veteran I spoke with in January who understands how easily we get distracted, away from our more common humanness. (I´d recommend his wife´s books, The Real Wealth of Nations and The Chalice and the Blade to all readers here.) As you so nicely said: "There are many stories of violence, ignorance and betrayal. We can cling to them, cling to that vision of what we have been. Or, we can acknowledge, evolve, reconcile, and move forward." Or, as E. E. Cummings once said, "listen, there´s a helluva universe out there/let´s go." Blessings, José Gary,
Gracias….I´m so glad your article brought out a bit of the sentimental in responders here. Would that such humanistic brotherliness extend outward when discussing all the other pawns of perversity: the police, the paupered production-line workers in coffee stores or factories, the indentured students whose debt rises with the tides, union workers, and the remaining restless unattached to theory or formal processes.

I´d bet that on most days most readers here would celebrate their humanity while raising banners and voices over abstract nouns. Well, I have given up on the abstract and believe that our answers begin away from “ideas” as such and with each other. Would that more here agreed. In any case, good to hear your story: I too spent much of my youth in Miami after leaving Queens and spent enough time on the streets to know our challenges are rarely in the ether. And David is an old war veteran I spoke with in January who understands how easily we get distracted, away from our more common humanness. (I´d recommend his wife´s books, The Real Wealth of Nations and The Chalice and the Blade to all readers here.)

As you so nicely said:

“There are many stories of violence, ignorance and betrayal. We can cling to them, cling to that vision of what we have been.

Or, we can acknowledge, evolve, reconcile, and move forward.”

Or, as E. E. Cummings once said,
“listen, there´s a helluva universe out there/let´s go.”
Blessings,
José

]]> By: bozh http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/02/the-other-brother-hybrid-vigor-and-reconciliation/#comment-38053 bozh Sat, 07 Feb 2009 00:49:58 +0000 http://www.dissidentvoice.org/?p=6587#comment-38053 giorgio, yes, we are, as i say, OK! we are what nature or god made us. we got to stop listening to miseducators like clergy, politicos, media people. clero-educational-political people invent categories which can be proved not to be existing in nature; we humans are also a part of it. they have invented craziness, sinfulness, laziness, stupidity, ignorance, stubborness, disobedience, etc. and enserfing us by our evaluation that such categories exist; thus we need priestly fathering, political guidance or else we wld all turn to canibalism; burning villages, crops, trees, people, etc. i wld go as high as ninety percent of people desperately wanting interdependence; i.e, cooperating instead of turning against one another, while gangs without pangs do all kinds of mayhem in name of protecting us, us the 'vile', 'stupid', 'blood thirsty' idiots. but a gang, much larger gang than a mafioso one, controls education. so, that wdl be the first step to take (to educate) and we at DV are doing just that. let's face it, lies are mighty but truth is mightier. thncs giorgio,
yes, we are, as i say, OK! we are what nature or god made us. we got to stop listening to miseducators like clergy, politicos, media people.

clero-educational-political people invent categories which can be proved not to be existing in nature; we humans are also a part of it.
they have invented craziness, sinfulness, laziness, stupidity, ignorance, stubborness, disobedience, etc.

and enserfing us by our evaluation that such categories exist; thus we need priestly fathering, political guidance or else we wld all turn to canibalism; burning villages, crops, trees, people, etc.
i wld go as high as ninety percent of people desperately wanting interdependence; i.e, cooperating instead of turning against one another, while gangs without pangs do all kinds of mayhem in name of protecting us, us the ‘vile’, ’stupid’, ‘blood thirsty’ idiots.
but a gang, much larger gang than a mafioso one, controls education.
so, that wdl be the first step to take (to educate) and we at DV are doing just that.
let’s face it, lies are mighty but truth is mightier. thncs

]]> By: joed http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/02/the-other-brother-hybrid-vigor-and-reconciliation/#comment-38052 joed Sat, 07 Feb 2009 00:19:37 +0000 http://www.dissidentvoice.org/?p=6587#comment-38052 giorgio, thanks for reminding me of that psycho article, i had forgotten about it and it does apply when looking at the "mass of men" and their leaders. i am rereading "grapes of wrath" and it is timely and portrays the mass of men as decent and concerned and willing to actually help strangers. traits so hard to decipher today. giorgio,
thanks for reminding me of that psycho article, i had forgotten about it and it does apply when looking at the “mass of men” and their leaders. i am rereading “grapes of wrath” and it is timely and portrays the mass of men as decent and concerned and willing to actually help strangers. traits so hard to decipher today.

]]> By: joed http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/02/the-other-brother-hybrid-vigor-and-reconciliation/#comment-38050 joed Sat, 07 Feb 2009 00:09:42 +0000 http://www.dissidentvoice.org/?p=6587#comment-38050 god damn corseri you did it again. you are the jean shepard of the 21st century. thanks for the wonderful article on dissident voice. what a pleasure to read this article. your rendition of the jacob/esau story is so human and so personal--i just have to smile. "The handwriting is on the wall, and we are at a defining crossroads." anyway, thanks again for the fine article. god damn corseri you did it again. you are the jean shepard of the 21st century. thanks for the wonderful article on dissident voice. what a pleasure to read this article. your rendition of the jacob/esau story is so human and so personal–i just have to smile.
“The handwriting is on the wall, and we are at a defining crossroads.”
anyway, thanks again for the fine article.

]]> By: giorgio http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/02/the-other-brother-hybrid-vigor-and-reconciliation/#comment-38047 giorgio Fri, 06 Feb 2009 23:42:21 +0000 http://www.dissidentvoice.org/?p=6587#comment-38047 One of the remarkable lessons I learnt from this article was the realization that the large majority of humankind are people of goodwill and yearn for peace and reconciliation in this world.... Is it that a very small minority of pushy psychopaths work themselves into positions of political and religious leadership and poison the minds of the people they lead? I asked myself. Instinctively, I went back to an old article appearing in DV, dated May 12th, 2008, by Clinton Callahan titled, "Beware the Psychopath, My Son" And there I read the answer to Mankind's problems: " Only when the 75% of humanity with a healthy conscience come to understand that we have a natural predator, a group of people who live amongst us, viewing us as powerless victims to be freely fed upon for achieving their inhuman ends, only then will we take the fierce and immediate actions needed to defend what is preciously human. Psychological deviants have to be removed from any position of power over people of conscience, period. " One of the remarkable lessons I learnt from this article was the realization that the large majority of humankind are people of goodwill and yearn for peace and reconciliation in this world….

Is it that a very small minority of pushy psychopaths work themselves into positions of political and religious leadership and poison the minds of the people they lead? I asked myself.

Instinctively, I went back to an old article appearing in DV, dated May 12th, 2008, by Clinton Callahan titled, “Beware the Psychopath, My Son”

And there I read the answer to Mankind’s problems:

” Only when the 75% of humanity with a healthy conscience come to understand that we have a natural predator, a group of people who live amongst us, viewing us as powerless victims to be freely fed upon for achieving their inhuman ends, only then will we take the fierce and immediate actions needed to defend what is preciously human. Psychological deviants have to be removed from any position of power over people of conscience, period. “

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