The Last Minbari Monday: Some Reflections on Babylon 5, and Hope

“Pause, and consider.” (a quote from the previous B5…)

 As I quoted last week, and continue to do.  This series has indeed given us much food for thought, and maybe also a ray of hope for our world.  People do, sometimes, nurture the angels of their better natures, and we do sometimes “do the right thing because it is the right thing to do,” as our Naval Leadership instructor taught at USNA.  But doing the right thing sometimes carries with it, as when refusing to follow an unlawful order, 

 

“Negative, Fleet Command. The Vesta will not engage in support of illegal orders.”

or, 

when standing up for a wrongly accused person,     

tremendous, even mortal, risk.

   There is also the importance of community, both of building community, as Delenn shows us, and of knowing when to sacrifice for the good of community, as G’Kar agrees to do, in accepting Londo’s demands to satisfy his torturers,  (and enduring long enough    to help accomplish) the freeing of Narn     by the Centauri under Londo, and later finds that he must do (ok, I think that happens in season 5, which I am not reviewing, but you could see it coming after the death of Emperor Catargia, which G’Kar is credited with near godhood for negotiating), when he leaves the station for everyone’s own good.

 

This series reminds us that even under the worst tyrant, while enduring the worst suffering, hope must still live, and that we are each obligated to use every gift and resource at our disposal to help keep that hope alive, and to help create tools that can contribute to the building of a better world.    

…

This series is about making the difficult decisions to do the right thing, and following through with those decisions, in spite of the cost.    That is what makes it such an important and inspiring series.

   This is what Project Do Better works to help accomplish.

 

  …

Nih sakh sh’lekk, sleem wa.

I come in peace, I am your friend.

 

May we Do Better…

Action Prompts:

1.)  Share your thoughts on how we Human Beings might start to build a more fully inclusive society for all of us, and how Babylon 5 could help that process.

2.) Write a book, story, post or tweet that uses these thoughts.

3.)  Back to The Beginning of this Letter from Minbar…

***************** 

Click here to read, if you like:

B5, Hakan:Muhafiz/The Protector, Sihirli Annem, Lupin, or La Casa De Papel/Money Heist Reviews,

Holistic College Algebra & GED/HiSET Night School Lesson Plans,

           or My Nonfiction  & Historical Fiction Serial Writing

Thoughtful Readers, please consider reading about #ProjectDoBetter.

Shira

Shira Destinie Jones’ work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Minbari Mondays (B5:s4e18): “Intersections in Real Time” and Human Rights

This episode was made in consultation with Amnesty International (yes, just as the famous Captain Picard episode of Star Trek: TNG).

In this case I can understand how Delenn would be the vision that his mind brings up for strength and comfort through the ordeal.

Neatnik’s review of this episode is excellent.

 

Last Monday’s review was s4e17: Minbari Mondays (B5:s4e17) “The Face of The Enemy”: Trust vs. Differences ,

and

Next Minbari Monday will review: s4e19: Minbari Mondays (B5:s4e19) “Between the Darkness and the Light” and Serving Humanity …

  …

Nih sakh sh’lekk, sleem wa.

I come in peace, I am your friend.

 

Action Prompts:

1.)  Share your thoughts on how we Human Beings might start to build a more fully inclusive society for all of us, and how this episode of Babylon 5 could help that process.

2.) Write a book, story, post or tweet that uses these thoughts.

***************** 

Click here to read, if you like:

B5, Hakan:Muhafiz/The Protector, Sihirli Annem, Lupin, or La Casa De Papel/Money Heist Reviews,

Holistic College Algebra & GED/HiSET Night School Lesson Plans,

           or My Nonfiction  & Historical Fiction Serial Writing

Thoughtful Readers, please consider reading about #ProjectDoBetter.

Shira

Shira Destinie Jones’ work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Minbari Mondays (B5:s4e15) “No Surrender, No Retreat” and Another Lesson in Practical Empathy

Empathy has very practical real life applications, like making it possible to understand the motivations of the captains on the opposing side, and adjust strategy accordingly.

The result? Keep reading!   🙂

On the 2^nd of September, 2261, the drums beat for war, and the time has finally come to rescue Earth from a dictator. While Captain Sheridan plays steal-a-car prep, Londo hopes for forgiveness. Too soon. As G’Kar himself said about acknowledging change and redemption in another, and Brother Theo put in different words:

 “Forgiveness is a hard thing.”

Meanwhile, at Proxima 3, the fate of the war hangs on a man’s decision not to be a hypocrite, when it may well cost him his life:

“What does your conscience tell you?”

The result?

“Negative, Fleet Command. The Vesta will not engage in support of illegal orders.”

And, in tears of joy and wonder, mingled with not a little bit of fear, “here ends the lesson.”

Outstanding!!  

Last Monday’s review was s4e14: Minbari Mondays (B5:s4e14) “Moments of Transition” On Following Illegal Orders?  ,

and 

then 

Next Minbari Monday will review: s4e16: Minbari Mondays (B5:s4e16) “Exercise of Vital Powers” Against The “Other” …

  …

Nih sakh sh’lekk, sleem wa.

I come in peace, I am your friend.

 

Action Prompts:

1.)  Share your thoughts on how we Human Beings might start to build a more fully inclusive society for all of us, and how this episode of Babylon 5 could help that process.

2.) Write a book, story, post or tweet that uses these thoughts.

***************** 

Click here to read, if you like:

B5, Hakan:Muhafiz/The Protector, Sihirli Annem, Lupin, or La Casa De Papel/Money Heist Reviews,

Holistic College Algebra & GED/HiSET Night School Lesson Plans,

           or My Nonfiction  & Historical Fiction Serial Writing

Thoughtful Readers, please consider reading about #ProjectDoBetter.

Shira

Shira Destinie Jones’ work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Minbari Mondays (B5:s4e14) “Moments of Transition” On Following Illegal Orders?

“You don’t.”

That is the short answer to Sheridan’s question to his old Academy professor. This is also, imho, the brightest shining moment of this series: a service member is required to refuse to obey illegal orders. That will never be easy, nor popular, but it remains correct.

This is also the amazing conclusion to the Minbari civil war, as Delenn steps into the Circle of Fire to retain her caste’s right to be part of a governing coalition that she now re-balances as a new Grey Council, still “The 9,” but not 3×3 anymore.

The worker caste:

“They built the temples we pray in, the ships you fight in. … But prayers are fleeting, and wars forgotten. What is built endures. … Religion and war must act in the service of the people, not the other way around.”

So now, the Grey Council is 2, 2, and 5. And at last, understanding is required, rather than blind obedience, no?

 

Excellent.

    Except for poor Lyta, literally. She’s interviewing for jobs, and failing miserably due to the system, which Bester, of course, exploits to full advantage. This part had me in tears for her misery, and how isolated she becomes, through no fault of her own.

And then more bitter tears are shed for the “Ten thousand civilians” murdered in cold blood.

“Any crew that executes an order like that is guilty of war crimes.”

And at last, there will finally be consequences.

Side SciFi note: Delenn’s reform of The Grey Council (this episode could easily have made three separate episodes, if JMS hadn’t been forced to squeeze two seasons into season 4…) and later creation of the InterStellar Alliance in this series is, apart from the end of the dystopian Brazilian series The 3%, the only show that actually presents system change, like what Project Do Better is working toward.

Are there others??

Last Monday’s review was s4e13: Minbari Mondays: (B5:s4e13) “Rumors, Bargains, and Lies” Shows How A Little Knowledge is Very Dangerous ,

and

Next Minbari Monday will review: s4e15: Minbari Mondays (B5:s4e15) “No Surrender, No Retreat” and Another Lesson in Practical Empathy …

  …

Nih sakh sh’lekk, sleem wa.

I come in peace, I am your friend.

 

Action Prompts:

1.)  Share your thoughts on how we Human Beings might start to build a more fully inclusive society for all of us, and how this episode of Babylon 5 could help that process.

2.) Write a book, story, post or tweet that uses these thoughts.

***************** 

Click here to read, if you like:

B5, Hakan:Muhafiz/The Protector, Sihirli Annem, Lupin, or La Casa De Papel/Money Heist Reviews,

Holistic College Algebra & GED/HiSET Night School Lesson Plans,

           or My Nonfiction  & Historical Fiction Serial Writing

Thoughtful Readers, please consider reading about #ProjectDoBetter.

Shira

Shira Destinie Jones’ work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Some Tours are Worth Marching, Part II

      …  Results of an UnSat Plebe’s Cost Benefit Analysis…

—

     I was  asked about the follow-on effects of last week’s post, and whether I decided to leave Annapolis.   I did not.

   This expedited my decision to fight harder, not bilge out. I never resigned, much to the disappointment of several: I did make some bad decisions about what to study, choosing those menus and extra briefings over my calc and chem, resulting in non-passing grades in those courses (my A’s in English and History were not enough to pull up the rest of my GPA), and the Academic Board, where the Superintendent informed me that I would be involuntarily separated due to issues that included my continuing weight loss, and my Company Officer’s report fearing for my health (who, having threatened to send me to Bethesda Navy Medical, I admitted that I had a history of weight loss, anemia, and amenorea under extreme stress, insisting that I could deal with it).

     But, not resigning, not even looking for the CIR brick (I wonder if that old joke is still part of the Tradition), made a difference.

     On the day I was leaving my company area for the last time, on the stairwell, an upperclassman, the only one I liked or respected, as I recall, stopped me, commented that he respected the hell of a fight I’d put up, asked me if I was part Native American (he was from one of the SWern states), and when I said that I wasn’t sure, but the family legend said yes, he said yes, too, held out his hand to shake mine, and when I said ‘Thank you, Sir, he said, not Sir, and thank you for fighting.’

     That handshake and comment taught me:

“Sometimes you gotta fight, when you’re a man.”

     And he respected me as if I were a man -the first time in my life that I had won such respect.

That mattered.

     I hope that that upperclassman who shook my hand has remained in service, because we need more officers in the Admiralty with fair-minded integrity, if we are to survive these crises we face now.

Shira

—

I look forward to your thoughts.

Shira

(P.S.:   the handshake and ‘brain-dumping’ C-PTSD symptoms I arrived with, were questions after posting this, and so this post is thanks to comments from part I…

S.)

Action Prompts:

1.) Share your thoughts on how this anecdote may encourage out of the box thinking about our military, and might also help, or hinder, inclusive thinking.

2.) Write a story, post or tweet that uses those thoughts.

Dear Readers, ideas on learning, especially multiple #LanguageLearning, on-going education and empathy-building, to #EndPoverty, #EndHomelessness,  #EndMoneyBail & achieve freedom for All HumanKind? 

Support our key #PublicDomainInfrastructure  & #StopSmoking at least for CCOVID-19:
1. #PublicLibraries,
2. #ProBono legal aid and Education,
3. #UniversalHealthCare, and
4. good #publictransport
Read, Write

-we can learn from the past Stayed on Freedom’s Call for free,

        by Teaching and Learning (Lesson Plans offline) in the present, to

                     We can  Do Better: a Vision of a Better World to create a kinder future

 

Peace    

Shira Destinie A. Jones, MPhil, MAT, BSCS

the year, 2021 CE = year 12021 HE

( 5 month GED lesson 19 of 67 plans…),

  Ranger M.’s Babylon 5 review posts, because story inspires learning.  There is also my historical fiction series  Ann&Anna.  I  hope that these stories will move you to learn more ways to help use our history to build new tools….

Stayed on Freedom’s Call
(free: https://archive.org/details/StayedOnF…)
includes two ‘imagination-rich’ walking tours, with songs, of Washington, DC. New interviews and research are woven into stories of old struggles shared by both the Jewish and African-American communities in the capital city.

Shared histories are explored from a new perspective of cultural parallels and parallel institution-building which brought the two communities together culturally and historically.

Please leave a review, if you can, on the GoodReads page.

Shira 

Shira Destinie Jones is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

short narrative nonfiction: Some Tours are Worth Marching

      …  Memories of an UnSat Plebe’s Cost Benefit Analysis…

—

     I was chopping down the hall after breakfast, almost to my room.  No upperclassmen around.

 

“Miss Jones!”

     Him.  And of course, I’d not had time to memorize that damned menu for tomorrow’s evening meal.

 

“Yes, Sir!”

“Hit a bulkhead!

“Ay, ay, Sir!

     Before I had even gotten to the side of the hall, he was standing there, waiting.  What did this guy do, camp out in his classmate’s room by my door?  F***’in-A!

 

“Miss Jones, did you try to hip-check Mr. O?”

     That fat Firstie I ran into on the way to Morning Meal Formation?  Seriously?  He’s twice my weight!  Actually, almost every upperclassman was twice my weight.  This one probably weighed three of me.  Why on earth would I ever try to hip-check the guy?

 

“No, Sir!”

“He says you tried to hip check him this morning!  What the hell, Miss Jones!”

     Mr. Dizane stared at me with open contempt.  He was Marine Corps option, with muscles on his eyeballs.  I was 105 soaking wet, which was 5 pounds and several weeks below my “allowed” weight.  The day he’d jumped up on the scale with me to shout that I was “screwing up, Miss Jones, you’re not eating, Miss Jones!” was a study in stupidity.  How on earth was 10 minutes in the Wardroom, while hefting tables and singing Anchors, Away, followed immediately, of course, by the Marine Corps anthem, supposed to be enough to eat anything?  Being the only plebe in my company not getting chow packages was a serious problem.

 

“I didn’t see him, Sir.”

“Bullshit, Miss Jones!  Give me a Form 2!”

“But Sir -”

“Are you being a Sea Lawyer, Miss Jones?!  You are not getting Liberty until you graduate from this place!”

     That was it.  I knew he wanted me gone, but this took the cake.  My fist curled around the edge of the demerit form as I pulled it from the lining of my cover, placing it back on my head just so, before handing over the form.

 

“Permission to speak freely, Sir.”

     He’d looked me up and down, taking his own sweet time, my frickin’ study time, to answer.

 

“I bet you want to hit me, don’t you, Miss Jones.  Don’t you?”

     He stepped closer to me, his nose nearly touching my forehead as he looked down at me.  I gritted my teeth harder as I stared straight ahead, forcing myself to un-clench my fists.

 

“Go ahead, Miss Jones, let’s hear this one.”

     By the time he’d stepped back, I was shaking with anger, my jaw nearly locked closed.  I looked him in the eye, imagining him swallowed up by the Atlantic.  I could even smell the salty air beyond the Severn.

 

“Sir, I suggest we take our rifles, and both run the sea wall.  Let’s see who drops in first.”

     Had I just said that?  Oops.

     Cost of “correctly” insulting an upperclassman:

          1. yet another 15 minute full military briefing on the Pheonix II missile system,

           2. blowing yet another calc or chemistry exam, and

            3. likely going to the Ax Boards, if my GPA fell enough.

 

Benefit: the look on his face was priceless.

—

I look forward to your thoughts.

Shira

(P.S.:  too bad I didn’t think of the new title, or the handshake and ‘brain-dumping’ C-PTSD symptoms I arrived with, until after posting this, and partly thanks to commentors…

S.)

 

Action Prompts:

1.) Share your thoughts on how this anecdote may encourage out of the box thinking about our military, and might also help, or hinder, inclusive thinking.

2.) Write a story, post or tweet that uses those thoughts.  Writing is my personal contribution to Project Do Better.

Dear Readers, ideas on learning, especially multiple #LanguageLearning, on-going education and empathy-building, to #EndPoverty, #EndHomelessness,  #EndMoneyBail & achieve freedom for All HumanKind? 

   This, btw, was the first time I’d been given the respect that men generally only give to other men.  The second time was when I lived and worked in Izmir, in 2005, and the third time was when I was a PhD student in Bath.

Support our key #PublicDomainInfrastructure  & #StopSmoking at least for CCOVID-19:
1. #PublicLibraries,
2. #ProBono legal aid and Education,
3. #UniversalHealthCare, and
4. good #publictransport
Read, Write

-we can learn from the past via Stayed on Freedom’s Call,

        by Teaching and Learning (Lesson Plan list) in the present, to

                     We can  Do Better: a Vision of a Better World to create a kinder future

 

Peace    

Shira Destinie A. Jones, MPhil, MAT, BSCS

the year, 2021 CE = year 12021 HE

( 5 month GED lesson 17 of 67 plans…),

  Ranger M.’s Babylon 5 review posts, because story inspires learning.  There is also my historical fiction series  Ann&Anna.  I  hope that these stories will move you to learn more ways to help use our history to build new tools….

Stayed on Freedom’s Call
(free: https://archive.org/details/StayedOnF…)
includes two ‘imagination-rich’ walking tours, with songs, of Washington, DC. New interviews and research are woven into stories of old struggles shared by both the Jewish and African-American communities in the capital city.

Shared histories are explored from a new perspective of cultural parallels and parallel institution-building which brought the two communities together culturally and historically.

Please leave a review, if you can.

Shira 

Shira Destinie Jones is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Minbari Mondays, And Now For A Word: Defend

      This  week reports an incident from Saturday, September 16th, of our year 2259 CE, sent to us from our future by Ranger Mayann, stationed on  Minbar:

—

      Greetings, from Tuzanor:

      This day was recorded in the anals of the Anla’Shok as one of great anguish for all of us.  Even down the years, my order recalls the pain of humiliation of Ambassador Delenn, and the pain of seeing so many lives wasted so brutally.  She spoke for the innocents, even after being played for an innocent by a brutal Human.  Your reporter, like her later counterpart, deliberately made our ambassador look badly.  Yet, she arose and defended the Narn innocents being slaughtered with courage, and with honor.  And with the astuteness we see when she goes on to lead my order.  The Centauri were indeed on the path to committing war crimes, with their mass drivers, that day.  Yet, the voice of G’Kar went unheard.

To our shame.

      At the end of this terrible day, Delenn recovered, and reminded us all that you Humans have the great gift of building communities, and are responsible to use that gift.  Keep building your communities. 

We are all in need of you. 

 

 

Writing from Tuzanor, on Minbar

Earth year 2278,

Anla’Shok Mayann

–

     Shira’s addendum to Ranger Mayann’s report: 

     A word, or or a phrase, can bind us down the centuries.  Words like “Never Again.”   And also words like “a long line…”   That would be the line of our spiritual ancestors reminding us that duty comes in more than one form.  I think of this as “The Long Gray Line” episode.  That speech moves me to tears every time I read it. 

     Even if I now feel differently about much of Gen. Macarthur’s intent in that speech, it still never fails to stir awe at a man facing the twilight of his life, and looking forward to becoming part of that long line of those who admonish us to “make my life have meaning” in ways that do not involve the indiscriminate shedding of blood.  There is honor in defending the truth, defending those who, like this day’s Narn refugees, cannot defend themselves, and in defending peace.

     I still mourn the loss of those ideals in our society.  Already, in 1988 when I entered the US Naval Academy as a Midshipman 4th Class, it was clear that my classmates, upon commissioning in 1992, would hold very values different from those cadets of West Points addressed back in 1962, and not for the better.  That a soldier prays for peace, not a word in our time, when cadences were called glorifying brutality against “kids” and a plebe refusing to call those cadences could be punished, rather than complimented.  Nearly 40 years later, we see the shape of our new values, and I wonder how we can remember to defend the innocent, and to pray for peace, as the soldier described by the General does.

 

 Neatnik  gives a more traditional plot and character perspective of this episode. 

 

Last week’s review was of the season 2, episode 14: There All the Honor Lies,

Next week’s review will be (in Lurker’s Guide order) Knives…

-Shira Destinie Jones

Shira

 

Nih sakh sh’lekk, sleem wa.

I come in peace, I am your friend.

 

There are earlier episodes, as part of a letter on the history of the Babylon Project.  

Action Prompts:

1.)  Share your thoughts on how we Human Beings might start to build a more fully inclusive society for all of us, and how this episode of Babylon 5 could help that process.

2.) Write a book, story, post or tweet that uses these thoughts.

Nih sakh sh’lekk, sleem wa.

Shira Destinie A. Jones, MPhil, MAT, BSCS

 

***************** 

Click here to read, if you like:

Babylon 5,  Hakan:Muhafiz/The Protector, Sihirli Annem,   Lupin,  or  La Casa De Papel/Money Heist Reviews,

Holistic College Algebra & GED/HiSET Night School Lesson Plans,

           or My Nonfiction  & Historical Fiction Serial Writing

Thoughtful Readers, please consider reading about #ProjectDoBetter.

Shira Destinie A. Jones, MPhil, MAT, BsCs

Shira Destinie Jones’ work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

French Fridays becomes contemplating honor in the modern day as part of Adulthood

I used to say that we ought to bring back dueling, with every single person trained and armed for both foil and sabre. Then I changed my mind. Now, well, let me show you how I came back upon this line of thinking today:

—

Here is a comment on honor from an earlier lifetime:

–

 

Originally posted 06/28/2008 17:26:00
on my old LJ:
thoughts about honor as part of becoming an Adult…

I was just thinking back on how Joe suggested to me a few years ago that I should write a book on my personal ideas on honor, since they’re not based on religion and many people are seeking a non-theistic moral framework. I’m still not sure that i am the best person to write such a book, but I did write up some ideas and a whimsical set of my own ‘10 commandments‘ a while ago. I’ll have to find the link to that post sometime.

Anyway, I was reflecting on one book I read back when I was at the Naval Academy (I think all the plebes in 2nd co. were ordered to read it, certainly our youngsters talked about it with us, but I think the 2nd classmen, class of ’90, were the ones who were really big on the book for some reason. I think that the book was published in ’86, which is when they would have started plebe summer…). I told my manager at BBN (lady named C. I think -had some cool coworkers at BBN, products of the 60’s like B. I think, too…) that there was nothing for me to learn from the USNA experience and she told me to think about it some more. Well, I see that she was right. But it’s only just coming into being, this lesson. It needs to finish germinating but I can already see the seed of an idea, the lessons to be learned. Amazing that it can take 20 years almost to learn these lessons. My own sense of honor back at that time demanded that I stand up to upperclassmen telling me to be gung-ho about unneccessry killing and singing cadences about napalm sticking to kids. The upperclassman decided that I was too squeamish to be in ‘his’ navy.
Sorry for this ramble.
anyway, thinking on this book I read back then, “A Sense of Honor” brought me to some comments about honor, and this one was particularly interesting. He feels honor is a ‘better’ man’s morality, but I see that as a bit snobbish personally. I prefer to see honor as a way of living that upholds the dignity of all.

Anyway, my flatmate is back, and I’ve bought us donuts to eat before Dr. Who comes on.
with love to all good people,
Peace,
Shir.

–

 

So, it turns out that all those psych tests we took on Induction Day should indeed have been turned over to us, at some point. I suppose I could do a FOIA request, but you’d think that I’d have been sent the results of my own testing, when I got my DD214, perhaps?  And as for having a sense of honor, when we were expected to glorify death and destruction merely for its own sake, yet not consider the legality of the orders we would be passing on to our subordinates, I think that having a personal sense of honor is crucial.  The lessons of Nuremberg seem to have been ignored or forgotten, and now, even the lessons of the Holocaust seem to be undone, as I watch many of my fellow Americans demand that our most sacred right, that of having our votes counted, be denied. I feel more disappointed now than I did at the Naval Academy. I’d thought that we were better than this, but from Hurricane Katrina to now, I see that we still have much more work to do, to see each other as human beings, and to build a collective sense of honor, based on the dignity of each person having been formed in the image of our possibly non-existent but still very much needed creator. To, in short, actually be adults.

More on my continuing striving with adulthood next time, friends:

Yassas,   γεια σας!    Salût !  Nos vemos!  Görüşürüz!     ! שָׁלוֹם

Action Items in support of hope for Honor that you can take right now:

1.) Search for two different ways to explain how you define the word Honor.

2.) Share them with us in the comments, here, please.

3.) Write a blog post or tweet that uses the word Honor.

***************** 

Click here to read, if you like:

Babylon 5, Hakan: Muhafiz/The Protector, Lupin, or La Casa de Papel (aka Money Heist) Reviews

Holistic High School Lessons,

           or Long Term Nonfiction & Historical Fiction Writing

 

 

Shira Destinie Jones, MPhil

 licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.