South
"Arab maps still showed the the south top and north below but in the thirteenth century Europe had re-established the natural order of the universe."

"According to the rules of that order, dictated by God, north was up and south down."

"The world was a body. In the north lay the limpid countenance, eyes raised to the heaven. In the south lay the musky nether parts, populated by filth and by dark beings named antipodes, the reserve image of the luminous inhabitants of the north."

"In the south rivers ran backwards, summers were cold, day was night, and devil was God, The sky was black, empty. All the stars had fled north."

from Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone.

Are we looking at the map correctly? We tend to look at and see east-west relationships more so than north-south relationships. We seem to be more obsessed with European countries than countries in the western hemisphere. We tend to favor countries north of the equator over those south of the equator. We have a history treating countries in the western hemisphere--south of Texas, California and Florida poorly in comparison with those across the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. We tend to look at our fellow human beings on the African continent differently than we look at our friends in Australia. 

When Haiti tossed the yoke of slavery off in the 1790s, the United States tried to kill the revolution in it's infancy and at the same time supported France while it overthrew the its monarchy. Why do we treat countries differently based on geography.?


P.S.

I live in San Francisco and the summers--at least June, sometimes July and August--can feel as cold as January February. Does that mean I live in the south?

I didn't know what I was missing. I didn't know what I was missing until I drove north on Highway 99 through central valley of California.  It leads to Yosemite National Park. That was April 2006 and I was in Los Angeles. I promised myself on the way back to San Francisco,  that I would drive through Fresno on Highway 99 and to Highway 41 along the Merced River until I reached the gates of Yosemite. The trip is long enough to inspire fatigue. I had to rest at local hotel south of Yosemite until I had the strength to continue the drive at 6:00 a.m. the next day.

The snow usually doesn't finish its' stay until the middle of May. This past May it stayed around until Memorial Day. I remember the snow stuck to the ground like a thick white coat. Yosemite's white coat was stop sign high. The snow pack  covers the icy roads that twist, turn and hang precariously to the granite cliffs in that place. It thought I was gonna slide down this narrow roads. There are no guard rails and that inspires instant respect.

 I remember river banks that held the fast moving and cold waters rushing down the valley full of lupine outside Yosemite's valley floor. I thought the full weight of the water coming down into the central valley was too much for Merced's banks. That was an amazing trip. I will never forget what Rock chief (El Capitan), Half Dome and the frozen Bridalveil Falls looked like that cold April morning. The sun rose. It was beautiful. It was majestic to see the granite monoliths in the cold morning air. The sheer scale of Yosemite's walls makes the soul settle down. It is a peacefulness that repairs all that has been undone and broken inside. 

The GOP is having a going out of business sale. Can't you see the big bright for sale signs in the window? Can't you hear the sound of fingers sliding down the side of a chalk board? The GOP is desperately trying to hang on by their finger nails. They are trying to pull everyone down with them.

I don't think Schwarzenegger did them any favors in California by trying to fund a death chamber with cuts to social programs.

The GOP are trying to defy their fate. They are showing up in desperation at the health care town hall meetings making sounds that make the ears bleed. In America the times are a changin' but the Republican Party has failed to understand.

Perhaps someone has already posted that Glenn Greenwald  over at Salon pulled back the curtain on what goes on behind the scenes of corporate media but to be sure, I wanted to post it.  What Mr. Greenwald exposes is one of the situations I thought I would never see outside the classroom or outside my Media Analysis Techniques text. I think the author of the Media Analysis Technique text--who happen to be one of my instructors--might classify what Mr. Greenwald  illuminates as a technique where  the media serves either to mask class differences or act as apologists for the ruling class in an effort to avert class conflict and changes in the political order.

The media in question are MSNBC and FOX and their parent companies G.E. and News Corp. Mr. Greenwald bases his work on a piece which appeared in the New York Times business section.

I think it is a teachable moment because we, the audience get a peek at what's behind the curtain, insofar as the ruling business class is protecting itself even though there might be differences on how G.E. and News Corp see themselves politically when it comes to FOX and MSNBC . What Mr. Glenwald's illustrates is that there is something stronger than political difference at work here. G.E. and News Corp have an economic interest at stake and it would be prudent for both of them to stop firing at each--especially in front of an audience.