Cooper.

Hi. I'm Cooper.

My ancestors were from all over the British Isles. I've Irish, English, Scottish, Welsh, and Manx forbears. I'm also 1/32nd Cherokee.

I live in San Antonio, Texas, USA.

I'm into writing. Big into writing. I write poetry, classical chamber music, fiction, drama, jazz, rock, and whatever else pops into my head. I'm in the North East School of the Arts Creative Writing Program, one of only two four-year creative writing programs for high-schoolers in the USA. I'm the Assistant Editor of WAVE! Magazine and have been Poetry Editor and Non-Fiction Editor of FareForward, the NESA literary magazine.

I'm into music. I play bassoon, woodflutes of any type, harmonica, guitar (sort of), electric bass, and sax, as well as the aforementioned music composition. I sing. I'm a member of the h2g2 Musicians Guild (http://h2g2.com/h2g2/guide/U150368" >http://h2g2.com/h2g2/guide/U150368). I'm the founder/principal of Silver Chicken Music.

I also enjoy backpacking (desert or mountains), camping, bicycling, making rock sculptures, and some other stuff.

I've never made a barrel in my life, but someday I hope to make one.

My website is so horribly out-of-date that I won't even post a link. You can contact me at [email protected].

--Cooper



Given the events of 11 September:

Turning the Other Cheek
The Case against Retributive Militarism

We, the citizens of the United States, have received a major strike against our homes and our stability. Our lives and our government have been attacked. Our economy has been brought to a standstill. We live in terror.
But it is not by virtue of the fact that we are Americans that we are afraid.
Our fear comes because we are human. We are fragile, and we seek a protector.
We, as citizens of the world, abhor the events of 11 September. We abhor them because they are madness, malice, and evil. Every true man and woman mourns the depravity that could drive any human to commit these despicable acts. We are all brothers and sisters through our shared experiences of violence.
We must realise that this madness has been thrust upon us.
It is unique in its scale of human suffering and terror. These horrible images and thoughts are difficult, indeed impossible, to grasp fully. We must deal with this madness. We must fight it.
It has been said, and it will be said, that the United States must retaliate, must root out the evil, must destroy it utterly. A military attack, regardless of on whom it falls, will not solve this problem. We will only martyr the guilty and murder the innocent. We will be destroying our brothers and sisters.
In short, we will have succumbed to the madness, the malice, the evil. Any virtues that America stood for will have been destroyed.
In some ways, the madness has begun to show. Many Arabs and Muslims around the world have been intimidated, many attacked. We must realise that by striking militarily against any organisation, any nation, we are acknowledging and condoning a state of religious war. George W. Bush has invoked God to support the United States.
All military attacks involve civilian casualties. Killing an armed combatant is bad enough; it is hypocritical to kill civilians in retribution for an attack on civilians. Doing so only proclaims that United States civilians are more valuable and more important than other civilians are. We cannot make this statement.
We cannot afford, ethically and morally, to allow this cycle of violence to continue. We must destroy and control the madness within ourselves.
Let us not become factionalised on the basis of religion, ethnicity, or any other factor. “We” can have only one meaning: the human race.
Let us not, in our terror, see the world through the distortion that only terror can produce. Let us not seek retributive military attacks to ease our pain. Violence has the power only to harm.

Andrew Cooper, 12 September 2001

--Cooper

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