Teaching music is not my 

main purpose. I want to make 

good citizens. If children hear fine 

music from the day of their birth 

and learn to play it, they develop 

sensitivity, discipline and endurance. 

They get a beautiful heart.

Shinichi Suzuki

... perhaps it is music that 

will save the world.

Pablo Casals

Summer Institute

The first week of August, my family and I were at the Suzuki Summer Institute in Stevens Point Wisconsin. It was a fantastic experience for me and my son who was the main participant in our family. Although Stevens Point is the original summer institute, there are now many other ones throughout the US (and maybe even the world). It's an immersive week of music for students and the parents and teachers who work with the students. There are classes and recitals every day for the whole week. In fact, there are classes for all, although the majority of the week focuses on the student. I was greatly encouraged to see the progress in playing and enthusiasm made by my son. And I also came away with renewed goals and desire to feed the musical fire in both my children.

More than Music

But you might find the quotes above to be rather curios as they are not just about learning music or about creating great virtuoso players. Although, if you look into it, many of today's finest violinists have had some degree of exposure to the Suzuki method. And the method has and is being adopted and adapted to other instruments (including Classical Guitar). But you can see that Suzuki was interested in something much more substantial and seemed to believe in something much more powerful when it comes to great music. This something appears to be nothing less than the human soul.

Is this too grand of a dream? Is it misguided or a misplaced expectation? I don't think I can really answer these questions very well. Although some of my Christian friends might view this as a distortion or an ignorance of the Gospel, I don't think this has to be the case. For me, music is a gift and a tool. Used in the right way and with the right perspective, it could be a powerful tool. Suzuki's understanding that good music making can positively effect the human soul is, for me at least, an inspiring thought. Even though I am getting older, I am reminded that making music and improving my own ability and understanding of pieces is a good thing. And passing on the skills and knowledge that I have (with the help of the Suzuki Method) to my own children is having an effect for the better, even if it seems rather small and insignificant at this time. If we consider this quote from the Apostle Paul (Philippians 4:8), I think we can at least conclude that good and lovely music is certainly not a drawback but a positive thing for children to engage in:

Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, 

whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is 

any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.

Another benefit to consider is this: I don't have to struggle with my motives. Am I trying to create the next Perlman or Zukerman? Do I have to worry over how good my kids are and how much progress they are making compared to others? No this is all about cultivating the soul and spirit of my children. Of course this is not exclusively the realm of learning music, it is just one of several tools. This also gives me a good motive for spending the resources (time, energy, money) on learning music. It all goes towards making a good and whole (as well as) godly person.

What Motivated Suzuki?

All of these thoughts began to dawn on me as I was watching the documentary movie, "Nurtured by Love" one night at the summer institute. Although there is a book by the same name which was written by Suzuki himself, this movie gives a biography of Suzuki and describes his method of teaching. What I was mostly interested in was trying to understand what motivated Suzuki to start this work. There is a brief description in the movie about the city of Berlin in the 1920's. It tells of how Suzuki lived here for a while and experience almost daily exposure to great music. And it was here that he carefully selected a violin teacher to teach himself.

I was surprised at how quickly life seemed to change for Suzuki. He met and married his wonderful German wife Waltraud. But not too long after this, his teacher, who was Jewish decided he must leave Germany due to the political situation and Suzuki decided he must return home to Japan. And when they arrived in Japan, things went further down hill as the war ramped up. So Suzuki really lost everything in terms of Music. The beauty of a city deeply involved in good music and culture to the austerity and sacrifice of a country in the grips of war.

It struck me that out of this poverty and destruction came a strong desire to create something new and wonderful. Something that could effect a fundamental change in the world that would give hope for a better future. A future filled with wonder and appreciation. What better way to do this than with teaching children from a very young age to appreciate the most beautiful music? Surely this is what Suzuki decided to pour his heart and soul into for the rest of his life. Out of the ashes of the massive destruction of World War II which Suzuki lived through and experienced, came a dream of a future full of hope.

In 1993, Dr. Suzuki was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. The prize was given to Nelson Mandela that year. And although Mandela was certainly a worthy winner, I wonder who's work will have a lasting impact on the promotion of peace in the world and in modern history? Hard to say I suppose but perhaps in terms of an easy way to accomplish it, I would have to say that Suzuki's idea is hard to beat.

Ana Vidavic gave an afternoon performance at the GFA conference. It is the first time I have seen her perform live although I have seen several videos of her performances on You Tube (which are all excellent). I must say first off that Ana is a stunningly beautiful women with a charming smile and a graceful manor. It is hard (at least for this male) not to enjoy a concert performed by such a good specimen of classical guitar player and the fact that she has outstanding technique and as a result makes playing the guitar look easy is just icing on the cake!

Pieces

Now if you want to hear a nearly flawless performance of Leyenda, I don't think you can do any better than Ana's. Near perfect rhythmic precision at a good tempo, that's the big thing about performing it, and this performance at the GFA was flawless from my point of view. It was interesting to consider the difference between this performance and the one Pepe Romero gave in the opening concert. There were certainly aspects of Pepe's version that reflected a very mature and insightful approach, but technically Ana's performance was the best!

Another piece in the program was a new work written for Ana by a guitarist. It was a tremolo piece and afterward Ana said that it reminded her of the seashore near her home in Croatia. The interesting thing about this is that Ana plays the tremolo technique in a somewhat unorthodox way of using only the thumb with i and m fingers. However, in terms of clear and precise tremolo notes, her method was quite excellent.

The last composition on the program was one of my favorites from the Segovia literature. The Sonata by Castilnuvo-Tedesco. This is a piece I have always enjoyed listening to both the Segovia recording and the one by John Williams. Now this piece requires several changes in tuning with both the low E and A strings and due to the length of movements, the strings can go out of tune a little bit before the finish. I thought the sharpening of the low D in the final movement actually added some enjoyable tension to the performance. It sounded great!

Technique

Now here's something I wanted to talk about a bit in this post. Ana's technique is unique because of her a finger which is weak. But all of us have weak a fingers don't we? It's smaller than i and m and the nail is shaped differently as well as the finger moves in a slightly different direction.But Ana has chosen to develop a technique that maximizes the two primary fingers (their strengths) and minimize the weakness of her a finger! I think this is ingenious and there's much for me to learn from it.

One of the things I begin to think about after seeing Ana play is simply, why should I spend a lot of time trying to get the a finger to have the same (or close to the same) facility as the i and m fingers? Let the two primary fingers be good at what they do. Develop them to their full potential. Use the a finger sparingly as a supporting player for the other two fingers.

One very interesting thing about Ana's technique is that she plays tremolo with just i and m. That is, a four note tremolo would be fingered, p, i, m, i. This is an example of maximizing the strengths of these two fingers. She certainly has a tremolo which is reliable and rhythmically precise. And it is also pretty. But although It may be a useful exercise to play a tremolo piece like this, I don't feel compelled to emulate Ana's tremolo at this point. I did notice that there is a difference in the tonal quality of her tremolo. It's not that it was necessarily bad but I think I still prefer the sound of a well developed three finger tremolo. There is something about the variation in tone that I find more appealing.

But this is only a slight criticism. Let me move on to what I am trying to emulate. After I came home from the GFA convention, one of the things I have been doing is re-thinking right hand fingerings on some of my pieces in light of seeing and hearing Ana play. I am trying to use i and m more often and in place of a in general. I am taking for granted that m is stronger than i and so it often is used on down beats or notes with strong emphasis. When I use the a finger I want to be clear about it's function. I ask myself if it is substituting for i or for m? For the most part, I want a to be a substitute for i in it's function. And this means using a more frequently on weaker beats. This seems to work well especially for pieces that are based on divisions of two and four. For groups of three, I think you have to use the a finger more frequently on strong beats. But it is still worth experimenting to find optimum sounds and ease of playing. If nothing else, seeing Ana Vidavic perform has made me rethink how I use the fingers of my right hand. And this is definitely a good thing.

This is Grisha (sorry for the somewhat poor photo) playing in the lobby of the Long Center where the GFA Convention was held. I had asked him to play Panaderos. He played the whole thing but about half way through he looked up at me and said it really wasn't in his fingers. All of us standing there said, "Yeah sure!"

The guitar he is playing is a Flamenca Negra made by Lester DeVoe. Lester's guitars are played by Paco De Lucia. He brought this particular guitar to the convention for Grisha to try. The Flamenca Negra guitar is made out of rosewood back and sides. This is contrary to the traditional Flamenco guitar which uses Cypress wood for the back and sides. The guitar which Grisha is currently using in his concerts (at least at the GFA concert) is a DeVoe Flamenco guitar with cypress back and sides too. However, the back and sides are lacquered with a striking blue dye mixed in!

Grisha's concert was very well attended. It was a striking display of pure virtuosity. Most of the pieces he played were by Paco De Lucia. There is an incredible amount of intensity and emotion in this music. In addition to the complex and incredible strumming (called rasgeado), there are many fills of extremely rapid scale passages. Anyone who thinks you cannot play fast scales with fingers will be amazed if they listen to Grisha play.

Grisha's workshop was quite fascinating. His initial presentation was geared towards those techniques most often used by classical guitarists. Of course rasgeado is the most common thing used. But surprisingly, Grisha pointed out that most CG players have a very sloppy sounding rasgeado. Rhythmic precision is the most important thing to the Flamenco player. Grisha described the rasgeado as a kind of whipping of the strings produced by each finger. It is important that each finger produce it's strum independently and distinctly. Grisha's demonstration of the typical classical guitar sounding rasgeado with his flamenco sound was striking. You could clearly hear each finger when Grisha does it, even when done very quickly.

Another thing (to me at least) about Grisha's technique was the strength of his 4th finger (in his right hand). Grisha held up his right hand and displayed the whipping motion of each finger and you could clearly see how well developed and muscular each finger was, even the little pinky!

As the session moved on, Grisha delved into more specific flamenco techniques. One of these is the Golpe. You have probably heard this drum like sound produced by flamenco guitarists if you have listened closely. I was very much aware of it but I had no idea how it was produced. The thing is that the drum sound occurs right in the middle of strumming. It is done by strumming down with the i (index) finger and simultaneously pushing the a finger down on the face of the guitar. Grisha demonstrated and pointed out the importance of using all flesh and no nail with the a finger as this gives a more drum like tone.

A new technique that he presented (new to me that is) was a triplet rhythm done using just the thumb and index finger. It is done by brushing the thumb up and then index down followed by the thumb going down. Grisha uses this to do a very rapid flourish at the end of a piece some times.

I must also comment on how patient and humble Grisha came across in this session. No question appeared to be out of bounds and he carefully considered each one. If you have a chance to see Grisha perform or even better, go to a class or workshop with him, I highly recommend it!

Update

A reader asked about the blue guitar. I talked with Lester about this before the workshop began and he told me that there is a legend of a green flamenco guitar and he first tried creating a green lacquered one himself but was not satisfied. So he next tried a blue guitar and this is the result. I believe that Paco De Lucia also plays one of Lester's blue guitars.

Update II

See Grisha perform in St. Louis as part of the St. Louis Classical Guitar Society series. Grisha will be in town in late February of 2011.

The great guitar virtuoso Jorge Caballero gave a concert and workshop at the GFA Conference last week. These were two of the events I was most eager to listen to and be a part of as I had never experienced Jorge in a live setting before.

The concert was without a doubt an outstanding performance. But there was one piece on Jorge's program that I think it is safe to say slightly eclipsed the others in interest and that was the Sonata Opus 1 of Alban Berg. Berg is known as one of the 3 composers of the 12 tone serialism school of composing. Although after the concert, Jorge explained to us that this particular piece was not based on a tone row (it is roughly based in b minor), it never the less, was highly chromatic in nature. This is the type of composition that (in my opinion) requires several listenings to really get a true understanding of. But never the less there were many things to appreciate in the performance. There was an ebb and flow of intensity, an extremity of range which seemed to use the whole guitar up and down the neck and many unique sonorities and chords. This was Jorge's transcription and several people I talked with thought that it worked on the guitar extremely well. There was a section with harmonics that was ingeniously integrated and the uniqueness of the chords and finger positions was truly amazing to hear and see. Needless to say, I can't wait to here another performance of this and I hope he is able to record it soon.

Some time after the concert, Jorge showed up in the lobby and several of us went over to speak with him. The talk turned immediately to the Berg piece. I was amazed to hear Jorge say that it was a favorite composition of his and that he had been listening to it since he was about 15 years old! Now how many 15 year olds are listening to this kind of music, this was my thought!

Workshop

The workshop started out with Jorge simply asking if anyone had any technical problems that they would like to discuss. But I believe that Jorge was engaging in a somewhat Socratic attempt to shake up our thinking. Several things were suggested as technical problems. Tension, scale velocity, tone, etc.. but Jorge's answer was that these were not really technical but musical. In other words, almost all technical problems are fundamentally musical in nature!

One of the questions asked was concerning projection. The guitar is generally a soft instrument and playing in large concert halls either alone or with other instruments can be problematic. But Jorge has some very insightful things to say concerning this problem. He pointed out how modern electronic technology had influenced our thinking. That volume and decibel levels are terms derived from technology but are not necessarily the way musicians should think. An analogy was made with photography and reality. A photo does not convey all of the information of an object or scene compared to when we see it in reality. The perception of depth in space is a representation in a photo and not real. Jorge suggested there is something similar with sound. That sound has depth and is more than just making adjustments to volume or decibel level. Jorge suggested that expressiveness and purity of tone are factors in music which provide depth.

Next, Jorge moved on to some discussion of position. He suggested that position is of primary importance when it comes to solving or acquiring certain facilities. Position is a structure and the inter-relatedness of hands and body were emphasized.

At this point, Jorge went into a more detailed discussion of right hand technique. He suggested that the right hand is much more difficult to master than the left in classical guitar because the right hand is constantly moving. Jorge spent some time discussing how the fingers of the hand move and curl as well as how the fingers are when they are at rest. He pointed out that holding a position contrary to this could create tension. Fingers tend to naturally move towards the thumb.

Jorge related right hand strokes to walking. He was critical of the idea of alternation as being moving two fingers in opposite directions. Rather, he described a stroke as a circular motion of tension and release. The finger reaches out to pluck and then relaxes and when it relaxes, it simply returns to it's resting point and is not forced. For rest stroke, Jorge suggested that one should think of resting on the string and not the string which is plucked.

Jorge also brought up the concept of seeing your hand. That is, it is very difficult to learn something without being able to see it clearly with both eyes when you are practicing. He said that he frequently has a student put the guitar on his lap and do a right hand section and that most often, the student could do the section without trouble (because he could clearly see his fingers and his brain could make adjustments easily to coordinate the action) whereas when he played normally the student could not. I thought this was an ingenious approach. It is very common in many athletic activities (like tennis or baseball) to make sure you can see clearly.

In discussing velocity, Jorge suggested using a thin tone and less of the finger. A thick tone would be counter productive and unnecessary since it would be producing larger movements and less clarity.

Anyone who has seen Jorge play I think would agree that he is extremely efficient. His hand motions are economical and slight. One of the more practical things he suggested is to play scales where the right hand fingers only move about half way between the two strings. This will cultivate economy of motion.

The workshop went quickly and many of us there felt that we had only scratched the surface of Jorge's unique ideas and approach to playing the guitar. I asked him if he has ever considered writing down his thoughts and he said he is at a point now when he would be able to do it. I hope he is able to do this soon as I really sensed a very well thought out approach and a stimulating way of communicating it as I listened in the workshop.

These are some pretty rough notes but I hope you have gotten a taste of what Jorge has to offer as a master and teacher of classical guitar. I hope I get a chance to hear him again in the near future!

This is Gary Lee (Lee Guitar Works) standing next to me with one of his guitars. It is a beautiful instrument that I really took to after playing it. And playing it, and then playing it again!

Gary lived in St. Louis for 7 years. He worked at Monsanto as a bio chemist. It is clear from talking with him that he has an approach to guitar building that is careful and rigorous, traits which obviously served him well in the field of science too. I really enjoyed talking with Gary. He is a very patient and inquisitive person. He listened with interest to my desires as a guitarist. But the most important thing is that I really liked this guitar.

On Saturday morning there was a kind of blind fold test where a couple of players played guitars at random. Each guitar was assigned a number which was announced when the guitar was brought out. I recognized Gary's guitar when it was brought and I listened with interest. Hearing a guitar played by someone else can give you a different impression than when you are playing it yourself. This guitar sounded strong and balanced with it's own character. This confirmed my impressions and I was satisfied.

Another thing about this guitar is it's use of new techniques and ideas. A sound port on the top side of the guitar acts as kind of a monitor and allows the player to have a more direct experience of the guitar's sound. The face of the guitar (the most important component influencing the sound) is a sandwich of wood with a layer of nomex in between. Gary explained to me that the idea behind this is to get a material that is light but strong. He told me that his first efforts with this technique were difficult and that it took time to get a satisfactory result. The other guitar which Gary brought did not use this technique and I found that it was not quite as responsive although very similar in sound. Gary also uses a rod of carbon fiber in the neck to prevent warpage and to keep the alignment good over time. I asked him if he had a model of sound that he was striving for and the answer was the guitars of William Friedrich. I have never heard or played a Friedrich but they are a legendary name in the world of classical guitar.

How do you purchase an instrument like this? You get on the waiting list. When the time is up and he's ready to build your guitar, then you can discuss the features and setup you desire. Right now Gary's waiting list is about a year and a half. But in my opinion, one of these guitars is well worth the wait!

Here at the GFA Convention there is a vendor's fair where there are many luthiers displaying their guitars. Here's a list of the ones I have played and liked so far. Not in any particular order.

• Joshia de Jonge: Very nice balanced sound and very playable. She uses a very slight radius on the finger board. It is one of the top guitars in terms of playability.


• Tom Malapanis: I bonded with this guitar. Tom insists that Cocabolo wood is the best and seems to build with it exclusively. It was very well balanced. Good bass, good treble, and good volume. Playability was not as good as a couple of the others.


• Jeremy Cooper: This was a very high tech guitar with the latest technology. Sandwiched double top, sound port on the top side with a sliding door, and Cocabolo sides and back. This guitar was very playable. He also used a slight radius on the finger board. The sound was balanced and the volume moderate.


• Lucio Nunez: I really bonded with this guitar. It had a very nice ceder sound. Some slight distortion (cave sound) but still very nice trebles and bass. E string was sweet all the way up the neck. Playability was very good. Another with Cocabolo sides and back but he also laminates the sides and back for rigidity. The guitar felt hefty but played wonderfully.
  


• Dake Traphagen: A very nice sounding guitar but not very playable for me.

There are still a couple more that I would like to play. And I will probably go back and play the ones listed above to make sure my impressions are accurate.

I am at the Guitar Foundation of America's annual convention in Austin Texas. The opening concert was by the great Pepe Romero. I had never heard Pepe live before. it was a wonderful concert. Pepe is a great soul. Very warm and full of love for the guitar and for people. Needless to say he was very warmly received. Let me get a little focused and jot down some things about the concert.

The first half of the concert was all Albeniz transcriptions. The second half was all Tarrega. Pepe's approach I would describe as being somewhat understated and subtle. The first piece he played was the classic Leyenda. But it was not flamboyant. Hard to imagine Leyenda played in a way that is not flamboyant but he did it. This approach kind of drew me in as I could here right away that he was presenting a more subtle and nuanced approach to it. The other pieces by Albeniz were done in a similar way and I would say this understated approach worked well except Sevilla which I would say lacked intensity and was a little bit boring.

The second half of the program also (in my opinion) featured this understated approach and I thought it was more successful. Many of these pieces were small ones that classical guitarists are introduced to early in their study. But hearing Pepe play them was like drinking a very fine wine. They were so tasteful and beautiful. I liked Capricho Arabe the best. Pepe of course has great scale velocity but again, it is somewhat understated. Not flashy but purely musical. This is something to consider. How do you play with virtuosity which is not flashy? Pepe does this and it is a mark of his genius.

If you play finger style guitar and use your finger nails, this review is for you. For those of us who play Classical Guitar, having good strong finger nails is absolutely vital. When the great guitarist John Williams was asked what the most important attribute of a guitarist is, his answer was not long fingers, dexterity, strength, coordination or anything related to these attributes. Rather, it was simply; good finger nails! This could be a very detailed subject to talk about but I will just say briefly that the sound quality and dynamics of classical guitar is directly related to the use of the finger nails (and flesh of the fingers) to pluck the strings. And so John Williams answer suddenly comes into focus and potential problems become clear.

Factors

If you have talked with any number of guitarists and looked at or noticed their finger nails, even looked at different photos of guitarist, you may have noticed a wide variety of shapes, sizes and other differences between their nails. I have been around enough guitarists to know that just about anyone can get a decent sound out of their nails if they work at and learn how to work with the nails that they have. Yet, any kind of aid that we can find to help maintain or improve the quality of our nails can be useful. Of course, one of the big issues is preventing breakage. There's nothing more frustrating than getting your nails in great condition only to break one of them accidentally during your daily routine. This is where we as guitarists share some of the same concerns as the cosmetic industry and some of that industries products may come in useful.

Oils, Lotions, and Creams

If you have read Rico Stover's excellent book on finger nail care, you will have encountered several good suggestions. One of these recommendations is Onymyrrhe (an ointment). I have read several excellent reports of this substance but have not tried it yet due to the price. And since Rico's book was published, he has discovered another product called Flexnail which apparently he recommends even more highly. But it is even more expensive and, since I am not that desperate, I have not tried it yet.

But I have recently found a product which I find helpful and is a much less expensive choice. That being Burt's Bees Lemon Butter Cuticle Creme (big title). This product contains many of the natural ingredients suggested by Stover in his book. For example: Almond oil, lemon oil, cocoa butter, sunflower oil, beta carotene, to name just a few (there are more). I picked up a container of this product a couple of months ago. I think I paid about six dollars (US) for it. I like to apply it after taking a shower or bath especially. But as I used it and saw that it seems to last quite a while (still haven't used it up in two to three months), I have started applying it both after a shower in the morning and at least once before bed. I don't have any hard statistics on nail growth but it does seem to make my nails healthier and also seems to help avoid breakages. It generally promotes good, healthy nails by keeping them moisturized with seemingly essential natural ingredients.

Conclusion

So the conclusion is that this product might be considered for the award of best bang for the buck nail product for guitarists. Is it a better choice than the two I mentioned above? I guess it all depends on the factors involved. How bad are your nails? How much are you willing to pay in order to make them better? These are valid things to consider of course. But I think I can say that at the very least, and especially in the dry winter months, Burt's Bees Cuticle Creme is a worthy addition to your finger nail tools for promoting and maintaining healthy nails for guitar playing.

Possible Vendors:

• vserver Center (local).


• Netsonic


• Linode

How about a Latin domain name?

• Sonitus Fugo or sonitusfugo.net


• Sonitus Ductor, sonitusductor.net


• Sequtus Sonitus, sequtussonitus.net

What I am thinking of mainly is to move my mail server to a place where it will have more up time. Currently it
is at home and is subject to the inconsistencies of DSL. Another thing I am thinking of doing is offering email service
to friends. So if you are tired of gmail and worried about security, consider my service as an alternative.

de cetero fratres 

quaecumque sunt vera 

quaecumque pudica 

quaecumque iusta 

quaecumque sancta 

quaecumque amabilia 

quaecumque bonae famae si qua virtus 

si qua laus haec cogitate

Here's a hypothetical story. Disclaimer: I did not have any particular person in mind, it is completely made up. Any similarity to any living person is purely coincidental.

• A man kills another man in a violent act of cold blooded murder.


• The murdered man had an affair with the murderers wife.


• The murderer is known to be a guy with a bad temper and tendency towards violence and even being abusive with his wife.


• The murdered man has a history of promiscuous relationships with married women.

Who is guilty of the crime here? The murderer of course. He should be convicted and tried and subject to the highest form of punishment for his act. In deed, there is not much to like about this guy and perhaps even his wife will now be better off if he is put in jail and kept away from her.

Could the murder have been avoided? Most definitely. If the murdered guy had not had an affair with this particular women, he would not have been murdered by the woman's husband. But that's not to say that he wouldn't have encountered another man who might have reacted similarly. The problem is this guy's life style. He needed to stop being promiscuous and that would give him the greatest chance to avoid harmful conflict with another angry man in the future.

By pointing out the moral flaws of the murdered man are we saying that it is his fault that he was murdered? No, not at all. And to suggests that the murderer is not to blame for such a terrible act because the murdered man was the cause would be simply outrageous and totally unacceptable as well as completely un-just.

Application

Now let's apply this story in an analogous way to the 9/11 attacks and US foreign policy.

The terrorist acts of 9/11 were terrible and inhuman acts of violence against civilians. They were despicable deeds which should be punished. All who planned and participated in them should be found and brought to justice. But what was the motive and why did this small group of men do these terrible things?


Osama Bin Laden and the 9/11 attackers have stated the following as the primary reasons for making war on the US:

• US Position against Muslims in Palestine (support for Israel).


• Occupation of the Land of the Two Holy Sanctuaries (Islamic holy land).


• US actions in Iraq. Pre 9/11 this would have been enforcement of no-fly zones where thousands of civilians were killed by aerial bombing.


• US support for tyrannical governments in: Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Pakistan, and the Gulf States.

By taking note of these positions, does it mean that we are saying it is our fault that the 9/11 attacks occurred? Not at all. Like the story I made up, this gives no excuse what so ever for doing such a heinous act against innocent civilians. Analysis of motive has no bearing on the guilty party in the crime. The perpetrators of the attacks and all who helped or planned the attacks should be hunted down and brought to justice.

But it is important to note that our politicians and leaders are unwilling to acknowledge these reasons as being the primary motives. In fact, they are giving misleading motives to the attackers. For example, statements are made such as, "They hate us for our freedom." Why would politicians do this? What would they gain by having these misleading motives accepted by the general public?

The founders of our country were against interventionism. They wanted free and open relations with all. They believed in a military for the purpose of defending our country. By pointing out the motives of the 9/11 attackers and other terrorists acts against this country I hope to ignite a strong reaction against our meddling in the affairs of other countries. Our results in these interventions are extremely poor. We seldom get what we are seeking by doing it. We are better off not being the policeman of the world. We are better off setting a good example for other countries to follow. While I don't excuse the 9/11 attackers for what they did, it is safe to say that if we did not have military bases in the middle east, and if we were not propping up repressive dictatorships, and if we did not give unquestioning support to Israel, we very likely could have avoided 9/11 all together.

Counter argument: it doesn't matter what they say or what their motive was, they are Islamic extremest. Everyone knows that Islam is all about killing infidels and eternal rewards for engaging in Jihad. We should wipe these guys off the face of the earth.

This is basically a statement of a genocidal policy. I personally am not comfortable with it. I have more faith in the Gospel message to change and transform the Islamic world. I don't see a need to be an agent of judgment and I as a Christian am not called to such a mission. I would not vote for any politician who articulated this kind of mission or thought.

Update: related content

Professor Juan Cole provides counter analysis of passages in the Quran for those who characterize Islam and the Quran as violent.

First post of the new year. Well, over the past couple of years I have been getting back to playing my guitar more. It's mostly because of my son who started violin 2 years ago and the inspiration he has given me. This coming year I am planning on playing more and practicing as much as I can with the time available to me (which isn't much). I am playing once in a while at my church, frequently with my friend Tim who is a flute and wind player. It is fun for me and I can't think of a better place to play than during the worship giving glory to God.

Now on to this guy Grisha Goryachev. I mean, he's just raw talent isn't he? But also, he is teaching me about Flamenco guitar. All of the music he plays is a study of other, more prominent guitarists who came before him. In this case, this song was played by Paco De Lucia (video here). He's got it down pretty close to the way Paco plays it and that's not a small thing. But he makes it look so easy. I had a discussion with some friends about a year ago. We were talking about virtuosos and talented athletes. Do they discourage you when you watch them? Not me. I find it inspiring. When I see someone who can play so effortlessly, it makes me think that I can learn to play like this too. Well maybe not quite as good but still, I can learn it and get to a fair level of skill without much effort. It looks so fun that I want to try it.

Now along those lines (learning Flamenco guitar), I recently discovered this book by Dennis Koster. It is a great introduction to Flamenco guitar. It has a forward by Eliot Fisk (which says something right away about the content). It describes very well the basic dances and rhythms of Flamenco and gives a nice little history of the most famous players. I'm going to try and work through this and see if I can play a few Flamenco dances of the guitar. Stay tuned!

Here are what I perceive to be assumptions frequently made by Neocon politicians. Who is a Neocon Politician? Lindsey Graham would be a good example.

Intervention is necessary to guarantee US safety and to stimulate and promote democracy across the globe. False. Is there an example in US history where this proved to be true? Is there any case where the US has intervened either overtly or via secret services where the country is better off after the intervention than before? What about the cost in lives? The recent invasion of Iraq is a good example. Total casualties are estimated to be over 1 million. How many would have died in the same period under Saddam?

In order to stop terrorism we must transform radical countries like Afghanistan into modern democracies. False. By using military force in unstable Muslim regions like AfPak, we encourage more terrorism against this country. This is because military occupation builds resentment and stimulates recruitment of the local population to the cause of radical movements. See the excellent research done by Professor Robert Pape.

The US is the exceptional country in history. Therefor we should police the world. False. The US is not exceptional. Indeed, if the US would have been on the losing side in WWII, it very likely would have been prosecuted for war crimes for some of it's actions. We cannot afford to police the world. We are not an empire. If we have anything to show to other countries, it will be plane to see. It is counterproductive for us to try and coerce or manipulate the world to do things our way. The best way for us to have influence is to be a good example.

There is more to say on this. But this is a start. Stay tuned...

Eight years ago, Americans came to find out that our ambitious foreign policy had reached the point where it was making people in remote places become angry enough that they were willing to plot and scheme a plan which would result in the tragic death of many innocent Americans here in this country. On this day I want to urge all of my friends to educate yourself. The United States is spending an incredible amount of money on "defense" and foreign policy. We currently have about a thousand military bases outside the US. Included in these is a massive complex in Iraq which is about the size of Vatican City. Another massive complex is being built in the region known as AfPak. So the bottom line here is that the events of 9/11, up to this point, have not resulted in a change of approach in US foreign policy but rather an acceleration of the old policy and new plans for nation building in the name of freedom.

Suggestions. If you are reading this, I want to encourage you to set the goal this year of reading the trilogy of books written by Chalmers Johnson, known as the blowback series. Start by reading this article by Johnson written just a couple weeks after the tragedy.

This is an interesting show. Unfortunately I haven't been able to find a full audio archive of the show anywhere on the internet. Locally, the only place to hear it is on KXCV in Maryville Illinois. There is a live audio link so I will try to give it a listen when I can. 7 pm on Wednesdays.