In response to your call for materials for the website, I wanted to share with you the list of materials I will be using with my students this semester in ENG102:

 
I'll also be using unpublished lyrics from a personal friend, Vietnam vet, singer/songwriter/artist, and longtime community college employee, Roger Chacon.  He is very much anti-war (but pro-soldier), and wants to get his message out to students. He has granted his permission for his works to be used in classes. Another important classroom resource will be one of my students from this summer, Andrew Choe, a vet of the current conflict in Iraq, who has agreed to be an electronic "penpal" to my students this semester and is willing to discuss his experiences as a soldier. 

Also interesting, though not necessarily on my reading list:
Back to Iraq - Christopher Allbritton

Tim O'Brien and 'Ethics' at the U.S. Naval Academy - Gerald L. Atkinson (an intriguing, if flawed, response to "How to Tell a True War Story")



Finally, I wanted to share with you this statement that I've included in my ENG102 syllabus.  In light of the rather heated discussion provoked by the CBC, I thought this statement a necessary one.  I think it's fair to say that our faculty members are a pretty diverse bunch of people, but our students are even moreso.  I anticipate a strong response from my students given my choice of reading materials, and I think it's only fair that I give students the chance to "opt out" at the beginning of the class should they feel the need.  I don't believe in surprises:


Addendum:  Instructor statement about course themes
 
This class is one of many throughout CCBC involved with this year’s Community Book Connection.  This year’s book selection is Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, the centerpiece text for our class.  We will be using this text as a springboard for discussion about many issues: the nature of art, truth, war, ethics, and humanity.  The book is a novel about one soldier’s experiences during the Vietnam War.  The imagery and the language can be, at times, quite graphic.  All materials that we examine this semester-- the novel, poetry, film, and nonfiction--will be based on a soldier’s eye view of war.  As a result, some students may find the themes we will explore unsettling.
 
The film we will view in class contains profanity, nudity, and sexual situations.  The literature and new media we are reading and listening to contain profanity, violence, racial slurs, and sexist language.  The texts are geared to give rise to lively discussion, some of which may be of a socio-political nature. In short, Emily Dickinson, this ain’t.  Should you review the materials I have linked to in the syllabus and find them objectionable, I would hope that you would exercise your right to choose and drop this course during the first week. There are many instructors who have opted not to use the O’Brien text in their ENG102 classes.
 
Should you remain in the class, please know that I encourage the open and free exchange of ideas, especially as we hold in-class and online discussions about the readings. Even so, I must insist that students maintain civil discourse with one another at all times.  Remember, whether we engage one another face-to-face or electronically, this is a classroom, and as such, we must remember to maintain a certain level of decorum if we are to continue to move the discussion forward.
 
If you have any questions or concerns about the course content or themes, I will be happy to address them during the first class meeting.  Thereafter, your presence in this class implies your acceptance of course materials and policies as presented by the instructor.

Mary Jo Garcia, Assistant Professor  Date: August 29, 2006