Sunday, May 31, 2020
The Poet X
The Poet X
YA novel in verse
"Mira, muchachs
Is Mami's favorite way to start a sentence
and I know I've already done something wrong
when she hits me with 'Look, Girl..."
This time it's, 'Mira, muchacha, Marina from across the street
told me you were on the stoop talking to los vendadores [drug
dealers].'"
Xiomara, protagonist of Elizabeth Acevedo's The Poet X, has a
very devoutly religious mother. Xiomara has heard that she wanted to
be a nun and was forced by her family to migrate to the United
States. Mom works a cleaning job and spends her commuting time
reading Bible verses to get ready for evening mass. She's determined
that her only daughter (Xiomara has a twin brother) follow in her
saintly footsteps.
"You will be forced to go with her
until your knees learn the splinters of pews,
the mustiness of incense,
the way a priest's robe tries to shush silent
all the echoing doubts
ringing in your heart."
Xiomara is attending confirmation classes and having major
league doubts about a God who doesn't seem to care about her and a
Jesus who seems like a friend from the past who comes around and texts
too much. Mom will not let her put off that committment. She doesn't
intend to support a heathen.
Xiomara has a very developed body. No matter what she does or
where she goes she draws unwanted attention from boys and fully grown
men. Her mother feels that she is at fault. When she got her period
for the first time and bought tampons her mother hit her, told her
that tampons were for whores, and asked if she was having sex. In
fact mother seemed to see her having started menstruating so young
(eleven) as evidence of her sinfulness.
From the guys on the street who have no grasp of the need for
consent to her rigidly religious mother, nobody listens to Xiomara.
She writes her thoughts in verse in a special notebook her brother
gave her.
One day Xiomara goes to her first poetry club meeting. When she
shares her work people are really impressed.
"My little words
feel important, for just a moment.
This is a feeling I could get addicted to."
But how is that going to play with Mommy Dearest, especially
with poetry club being held at the same time as confirmation class?
You'll want to read the book to find out.
On a purrrsonal note, ever heard of Thanksgiving in May? Actually
last year I cooked a turkey in June when I knew Joey cat wouldn't live
to see November. But this year my sister-in-law, Cheryl, cooked up a
bird for a much happier reason. My brother-in-law, Tim, had been on a
tour of duty last November. Now he's stateside and able to celebrate
with us. Having him safe was, in itself, cause for celebration. We
had turkey and all the trimmings. Everything was delish. Cheryl had
the meal outside with optimum social distancing. A good time was had
by all. (Jules)
Turkey is good food. Hoomans should serve it more often. And realize
that when it comes to all feathered creatures on the menu cats are the
quality control experts.
If you want a reason for feeling thankful adopt yourself a cat or
goggie. (Tobago)
A great big shout out goes out to Cheryl, our hostess with the mostest.
Tobago and Jules Hathaway
Sent from my iPod
YA novel in verse
"Mira, muchachs
Is Mami's favorite way to start a sentence
and I know I've already done something wrong
when she hits me with 'Look, Girl..."
This time it's, 'Mira, muchacha, Marina from across the street
told me you were on the stoop talking to los vendadores [drug
dealers].'"
Xiomara, protagonist of Elizabeth Acevedo's The Poet X, has a
very devoutly religious mother. Xiomara has heard that she wanted to
be a nun and was forced by her family to migrate to the United
States. Mom works a cleaning job and spends her commuting time
reading Bible verses to get ready for evening mass. She's determined
that her only daughter (Xiomara has a twin brother) follow in her
saintly footsteps.
"You will be forced to go with her
until your knees learn the splinters of pews,
the mustiness of incense,
the way a priest's robe tries to shush silent
all the echoing doubts
ringing in your heart."
Xiomara is attending confirmation classes and having major
league doubts about a God who doesn't seem to care about her and a
Jesus who seems like a friend from the past who comes around and texts
too much. Mom will not let her put off that committment. She doesn't
intend to support a heathen.
Xiomara has a very developed body. No matter what she does or
where she goes she draws unwanted attention from boys and fully grown
men. Her mother feels that she is at fault. When she got her period
for the first time and bought tampons her mother hit her, told her
that tampons were for whores, and asked if she was having sex. In
fact mother seemed to see her having started menstruating so young
(eleven) as evidence of her sinfulness.
From the guys on the street who have no grasp of the need for
consent to her rigidly religious mother, nobody listens to Xiomara.
She writes her thoughts in verse in a special notebook her brother
gave her.
One day Xiomara goes to her first poetry club meeting. When she
shares her work people are really impressed.
"My little words
feel important, for just a moment.
This is a feeling I could get addicted to."
But how is that going to play with Mommy Dearest, especially
with poetry club being held at the same time as confirmation class?
You'll want to read the book to find out.
On a purrrsonal note, ever heard of Thanksgiving in May? Actually
last year I cooked a turkey in June when I knew Joey cat wouldn't live
to see November. But this year my sister-in-law, Cheryl, cooked up a
bird for a much happier reason. My brother-in-law, Tim, had been on a
tour of duty last November. Now he's stateside and able to celebrate
with us. Having him safe was, in itself, cause for celebration. We
had turkey and all the trimmings. Everything was delish. Cheryl had
the meal outside with optimum social distancing. A good time was had
by all. (Jules)
Turkey is good food. Hoomans should serve it more often. And realize
that when it comes to all feathered creatures on the menu cats are the
quality control experts.
If you want a reason for feeling thankful adopt yourself a cat or
goggie. (Tobago)
A great big shout out goes out to Cheryl, our hostess with the mostest.
Tobago and Jules Hathaway
Sent from my iPod
Friday, May 29, 2020
Invisible Americans
Invisible Americans
Adult nonfiction
The new normal of a pandemic world has hurt some kids a lot more
than others. School closures have taken away many children's main or
only access to nutritious food. Online learning leaves children
lacking reliable access to electronics and the Internet very much
behind. These are kids whose parents don't have the relatively safe
work from home jobs. Either their households have lost all work
income or at least one parent goes out into unsafe jobs without
adequate safety equipment.
The pandemic, however, didn't create inequities; it widened
them. As Jeff Madrick tells us in Invisible Americans: The Tragic
Cost of Child Poverty,
"There are roughly 13 million officially poor children in
America, nearly one in five. If properly measured it would be closer
to one in four, and with more homest assumptions, more than one in
three. In France and Germany only around one in ten children are
poor, and by a more stringent test. In the Nordic nations, only one
in thirty children are poor..."
Those numbers are quite alarming. And Madrick takes us way
beyond the statistics to show the myriad ways in which growing up poor
and precarious irremediably harms children. Low food security causes
physical and cognitive damage. Kids in homes with very low food
security miss meals on a regular basis. Poor kids live in inadequate
and substandard housing in crime ridden neighborhoods and often spend
significant periods of time homeless. Lack of preventitive medical
care or early interventions when illness arises also takes a heavy toll.
"Far too many children in America live lives of hunger, stress,
exclusion from play and the normal activities of childhood, physical
and psychological damage, and inescapable pessimism..."
Why is this going on in the greatest nation in the world?
Madrick also goes there. He covers the history of poverty and
reactions to it in our nation's history, the intersectionality of
poverty and racism, and the myths, such as the welfare queen and the
culture of poverty that lead conservatives to cut even the meager
benefits poor people have access to or tie work requirements to their
availability. He shows how poverty is much more due to long standing
systemic inequities than to any kind of personal choices and behavior.
Does the man have a solution? You'd better believe it. And
it's a lot less complicated than you'd imagine.
Madrick is a rock star. He's one of the very few economists who
can come down from his ivory tower, ditch the jargon, and speak
cogently to those of us who aren't in his field. Invisible Americans
should be in every public and college and university library. It can
be a valuable instructional tool for social work students and addition
to professional development for teachers and guidance counselors.
Basically anyone who cares about the many children who our
country is leaving way behind will find the book to be a must read.
I plan to get my hands on Madrick's earlier volumes. I want to
know as much as I can about why this country is as inequitable as it
was back in the 1920s. You'd think that in a century we'd have made
more progress.
On a purrrsonal note, I'm going to let Lady Tobago take over. She has
a lot to say today.
I haz an admirer. He is a grey boi cat with a white bib and big
ears. He is a cute boi. When I am in my cat patio he comes over and
gazes adoringly up at me. He's just like Romeo in that old school
play by Mr. Shakespeare. So that makes me Juliet. How romantic!
(Tobago)
I didn't see that coming. (Jules)
A great big shout out goes out to the animal companions who do so much
to brighten up these new normal pandemic days.
Tobago and Jules Hathaway
Sent from my iPod
Adult nonfiction
The new normal of a pandemic world has hurt some kids a lot more
than others. School closures have taken away many children's main or
only access to nutritious food. Online learning leaves children
lacking reliable access to electronics and the Internet very much
behind. These are kids whose parents don't have the relatively safe
work from home jobs. Either their households have lost all work
income or at least one parent goes out into unsafe jobs without
adequate safety equipment.
The pandemic, however, didn't create inequities; it widened
them. As Jeff Madrick tells us in Invisible Americans: The Tragic
Cost of Child Poverty,
"There are roughly 13 million officially poor children in
America, nearly one in five. If properly measured it would be closer
to one in four, and with more homest assumptions, more than one in
three. In France and Germany only around one in ten children are
poor, and by a more stringent test. In the Nordic nations, only one
in thirty children are poor..."
Those numbers are quite alarming. And Madrick takes us way
beyond the statistics to show the myriad ways in which growing up poor
and precarious irremediably harms children. Low food security causes
physical and cognitive damage. Kids in homes with very low food
security miss meals on a regular basis. Poor kids live in inadequate
and substandard housing in crime ridden neighborhoods and often spend
significant periods of time homeless. Lack of preventitive medical
care or early interventions when illness arises also takes a heavy toll.
"Far too many children in America live lives of hunger, stress,
exclusion from play and the normal activities of childhood, physical
and psychological damage, and inescapable pessimism..."
Why is this going on in the greatest nation in the world?
Madrick also goes there. He covers the history of poverty and
reactions to it in our nation's history, the intersectionality of
poverty and racism, and the myths, such as the welfare queen and the
culture of poverty that lead conservatives to cut even the meager
benefits poor people have access to or tie work requirements to their
availability. He shows how poverty is much more due to long standing
systemic inequities than to any kind of personal choices and behavior.
Does the man have a solution? You'd better believe it. And
it's a lot less complicated than you'd imagine.
Madrick is a rock star. He's one of the very few economists who
can come down from his ivory tower, ditch the jargon, and speak
cogently to those of us who aren't in his field. Invisible Americans
should be in every public and college and university library. It can
be a valuable instructional tool for social work students and addition
to professional development for teachers and guidance counselors.
Basically anyone who cares about the many children who our
country is leaving way behind will find the book to be a must read.
I plan to get my hands on Madrick's earlier volumes. I want to
know as much as I can about why this country is as inequitable as it
was back in the 1920s. You'd think that in a century we'd have made
more progress.
On a purrrsonal note, I'm going to let Lady Tobago take over. She has
a lot to say today.
I haz an admirer. He is a grey boi cat with a white bib and big
ears. He is a cute boi. When I am in my cat patio he comes over and
gazes adoringly up at me. He's just like Romeo in that old school
play by Mr. Shakespeare. So that makes me Juliet. How romantic!
(Tobago)
I didn't see that coming. (Jules)
A great big shout out goes out to the animal companions who do so much
to brighten up these new normal pandemic days.
Tobago and Jules Hathaway
Sent from my iPod
Gods In Alabama
Gods In Alabama
Adult fiction
"I made a deal with God two years before I left there
[Alabama]. At the time, I thought He made out pretty well. I offered
him a three-for-one deal: all He had to do was perform a miracle. He
fulfilled his end of the bargain, so I kept my three promises
faithfully, no matter what the cost. I held our deal as sacred for
twelve solid years. But that was before God let Rose Mae Lolley show
up on my doorstep, dragging my ghosts and her considerable baggage
with her."
The deal that Arlene, protagonist of Joshilyn Jackson's Gods In
Alabama, has made with God is sort of unusual. The miracle she needs
the Almighty to perform is making sure nobody discovers the corpse of
the guy she killed her sophomore year in high school. In return she
promises to quit fornicating and lying and to stay away from her
Alabama home town.
She's kept her end of the bargain. She's been meticulously
truthful. She keeps boyfriend, Burr, very thwarted in his attempts at
intimacy. And in the nine years since high school graduation she's
never been home--not even for a weekend.
But her promises are about to be sorely tested. Her Aunt
Florence is nagging her to make an appearance at her Uncle Bruster's
retirement party. Burr decides he wants to accompany her, not really
such a good idea since he's Black. Then high school acquaintance Rose
appears on Arlene's door step in search of Jim Beverly, the guy Arlene
killed in a fit of anger. It turns out Rose is planning to drop in on
Arlene's cousin, Clarice, in her quest to solve the mystery of Jim's
disappearance. Arlene knows she has to somehow deter her.
Join Arlene and Burr on their road trip. As Arlene and her
kinfolkd wrestle with her changed identity, she learns a lot about the
people with whom she spent her growing up years. There are a lot of
surprises...
...including the possibility that she may not have been the one
who killed Jim Beverley.
On a purrrsonal note, this is a very special day for me. My beautiful
and super smart daughter (who just got her PhD and married her
undergrad sweetheart) turns 30. I hope it will be a good day for her
despite the less than ideal pandemic circumstances. Having this
wonderful, unique, amazing person in my life for three decades has
been such a blessing. Our daily phone calls in this time of so much
isolation really help keep my spirits up. (Jules)
Happy birthday to my hooman big sister! I hope I will someday see her
again in purrrson, not just on zoom. Zoom is confusing. Hoomans are
there but they aren't there. Where are they? (Tobago)
A great big shout out, with best wishes for a wonderful birthday, goes
out to our one and only Amber!!!
Tobago and Jules Hathaway
Sent from my iPod
Adult fiction
"I made a deal with God two years before I left there
[Alabama]. At the time, I thought He made out pretty well. I offered
him a three-for-one deal: all He had to do was perform a miracle. He
fulfilled his end of the bargain, so I kept my three promises
faithfully, no matter what the cost. I held our deal as sacred for
twelve solid years. But that was before God let Rose Mae Lolley show
up on my doorstep, dragging my ghosts and her considerable baggage
with her."
The deal that Arlene, protagonist of Joshilyn Jackson's Gods In
Alabama, has made with God is sort of unusual. The miracle she needs
the Almighty to perform is making sure nobody discovers the corpse of
the guy she killed her sophomore year in high school. In return she
promises to quit fornicating and lying and to stay away from her
Alabama home town.
She's kept her end of the bargain. She's been meticulously
truthful. She keeps boyfriend, Burr, very thwarted in his attempts at
intimacy. And in the nine years since high school graduation she's
never been home--not even for a weekend.
But her promises are about to be sorely tested. Her Aunt
Florence is nagging her to make an appearance at her Uncle Bruster's
retirement party. Burr decides he wants to accompany her, not really
such a good idea since he's Black. Then high school acquaintance Rose
appears on Arlene's door step in search of Jim Beverly, the guy Arlene
killed in a fit of anger. It turns out Rose is planning to drop in on
Arlene's cousin, Clarice, in her quest to solve the mystery of Jim's
disappearance. Arlene knows she has to somehow deter her.
Join Arlene and Burr on their road trip. As Arlene and her
kinfolkd wrestle with her changed identity, she learns a lot about the
people with whom she spent her growing up years. There are a lot of
surprises...
...including the possibility that she may not have been the one
who killed Jim Beverley.
On a purrrsonal note, this is a very special day for me. My beautiful
and super smart daughter (who just got her PhD and married her
undergrad sweetheart) turns 30. I hope it will be a good day for her
despite the less than ideal pandemic circumstances. Having this
wonderful, unique, amazing person in my life for three decades has
been such a blessing. Our daily phone calls in this time of so much
isolation really help keep my spirits up. (Jules)
Happy birthday to my hooman big sister! I hope I will someday see her
again in purrrson, not just on zoom. Zoom is confusing. Hoomans are
there but they aren't there. Where are they? (Tobago)
A great big shout out, with best wishes for a wonderful birthday, goes
out to our one and only Amber!!!
Tobago and Jules Hathaway
Sent from my iPod
re: re: improve serps
Hi again
here is the service I was telling you about
https://www.monkeydigital.tk/product/serp-booster/
thanks and regards
Jolene Carlson
Fri, 29 May 2020 21:27:55 +0600 tr, 19:37 beaniebabylover.fireworks
<beaniebabylover.fireworks@blogger.com> ra�e:
Ok, send me the link, ^I need the ranks to be fixed urg#antly.
here is the service I was telling you about
https://www.monkeydigital.tk/product/serp-booster/
thanks and regards
Jolene Carlson
Fri, 29 May 2020 21:27:55 +0600 tr, 19:37 beaniebabylover.fireworks
<beaniebabylover.fireworks@blogger.com> ra�e:
Ok, send me the link, ^I need the ranks to be fixed urg#antly.
Thursday, May 28, 2020
Visionary Women
Visionary Women
Adult herstory
"Looking hard, trusting one's senses, letting the ingredients
speak for themselves; paying attention to how elements combine and
interact; allowing the meal in some senses to self assemble--all
notions strikingly similar to the ways Carson, Jacobs, and Goodall
approached their work. All were drawing upon deep reserves of
empirical knowledge, intuition, and an unerring sense of the natural
harmonies they uncovered through close observation. Gone were the
loyalties to received knowledge and preconceived attitudes. In their
place was a fresh respect for seeing the world anew and entering the
dance in which the physical and the firsthand were allowed to lead."
The early sixties were not the wonderful times a lot of people
remember or imagine them as. People who weren't redlined out of doing
so were self segregating into the new suburbs. While company men in
their grey flannel suits commuted to patriarchal, hierarchical
companies, their wives mostly served as support crew. Working if they
absolutely didn't have to was considered dereliction of duty. Food
was going the fast food and industrial agriculture route. Humankind
was poised to gain control over all of nature through chemical
"miracles" like DDT. Powerful nations had bombs expotentially
stronger than those that devastated Hiroshima. We kids practiced
hiding under our desks to shield ourselves from nuclear anhialation.
And life was a lot worse for people of color and other
marginalized groups.
Luckily not all adults were clueless then. Some dared to take
stands against the lock step thinking of the time. Andrea Barnet's
Visionary Women gives us potraits of four firebrands who were ahead of
their time. They bucked prevalent opinions and very powerful people
and organizations. They persevered in the face of strong opposition.
They saw larger pictures in an increasingly fragmented world.
After World War II chemical companies turned to peacetime
markets for insecticides such as DDT which they touted as perfectly
safe. Children followed spraying trucks on their bicycles. Only
Rachel Carson noticed that insects weren't the only beings dying. Her
Silent Spring cued the public in on the devastation those chemicals
unleashed.
Urban renewal was in full swing. Parts of cities with vibrant
communities were designated blighted slums, razed (displacing legions
of families and small businesses), and replaced with multi lane
highways or soulless high rises. In addition to organizing to save
endangered neighborhoods (including her own) from the wrecking ball,
Jane Jacobs wrote the paradigm changing The Life and Death of Great
American Cities.
Much was unknown about wild animals outside of the dreary
captivity of zoos. The sparse research on great apes in their natural
habitat involved questionable methods and was restricted to
quantitative data, often obtained by killing the subjects. Jane
Goodall was able to show that chimpanzees were distinct individuals
living in dynamic communities who had a lot more in common with humans
than the scientific community was willing to acknowledge.
Meals made from scratch were giving way to tv dinners and boxed
mixes. Small farms were giving way to huge agribusiness corporations
with all the alarming costs to ecosystems and human health
unrecognized. Quirky individual restaurants were giving way to the
bland standardization of fast food places. Through ventures ranging
from a restaurant sourcing local food to school gardens, Alice Waters
reminded people that you are what you eat.
Although these four women blazed paths in totally different
fields, their methodologies emphasized a holistic approach, research
based on observation rather than solely driven by ivory tower
theories, and respect for interconnectedness of beings and systems.
"Rachel Carson, Jane Jacobs, Jane Goodall, and Alice Waters
appeared at a watershed moment in the culture, presenting us with a
road map to the future that grows more relevant, if not more urgent,
with time. Their work continues to move, to inspire, and to stir us
to action, reminding us that the power of one voice can be
transformative; that change can and does begin with the local, the
particular, and the passionately observed; that the best ideas can and
often do from the bottom up. That one individual can make a
difference."
If we ever needed to be reminded of this it is now. I found the
book to be truly inspiring. I think you will too.
On a purrrsonal note, I chose to read the book now for a reason. The
governor of Maine has convened a group to work on restoring the state
economy. Needless to say it consists of the privileged and the elite.
There are so many voices missing from their dialogue--particularly
those of the marginalized. Its goal is to restore the economy to a
pre COVID-19 state of affairs. A grassroots alternate group, of which
I am a member, has risen up. We realize that things weren't peachy
keen before the pandemic, that COVID-19 exacerbated rather than caused
problems, and that the voices of those most harmfully impacted by
policies and practices need to be listened to. These premises are
very in line with the values of our sheroes from the book.
Otherwise Eugene got back. And we're having some of that muggy heat
that makes sleeping challenging. (Jules)
My daddy hooman is back. I love my daddy hooman. (Tobago)
A great big shout goes out to the awesome members of the new group.
Tobago and Jules Hathaway
Sent from my iPod
Adult herstory
"Looking hard, trusting one's senses, letting the ingredients
speak for themselves; paying attention to how elements combine and
interact; allowing the meal in some senses to self assemble--all
notions strikingly similar to the ways Carson, Jacobs, and Goodall
approached their work. All were drawing upon deep reserves of
empirical knowledge, intuition, and an unerring sense of the natural
harmonies they uncovered through close observation. Gone were the
loyalties to received knowledge and preconceived attitudes. In their
place was a fresh respect for seeing the world anew and entering the
dance in which the physical and the firsthand were allowed to lead."
The early sixties were not the wonderful times a lot of people
remember or imagine them as. People who weren't redlined out of doing
so were self segregating into the new suburbs. While company men in
their grey flannel suits commuted to patriarchal, hierarchical
companies, their wives mostly served as support crew. Working if they
absolutely didn't have to was considered dereliction of duty. Food
was going the fast food and industrial agriculture route. Humankind
was poised to gain control over all of nature through chemical
"miracles" like DDT. Powerful nations had bombs expotentially
stronger than those that devastated Hiroshima. We kids practiced
hiding under our desks to shield ourselves from nuclear anhialation.
And life was a lot worse for people of color and other
marginalized groups.
Luckily not all adults were clueless then. Some dared to take
stands against the lock step thinking of the time. Andrea Barnet's
Visionary Women gives us potraits of four firebrands who were ahead of
their time. They bucked prevalent opinions and very powerful people
and organizations. They persevered in the face of strong opposition.
They saw larger pictures in an increasingly fragmented world.
After World War II chemical companies turned to peacetime
markets for insecticides such as DDT which they touted as perfectly
safe. Children followed spraying trucks on their bicycles. Only
Rachel Carson noticed that insects weren't the only beings dying. Her
Silent Spring cued the public in on the devastation those chemicals
unleashed.
Urban renewal was in full swing. Parts of cities with vibrant
communities were designated blighted slums, razed (displacing legions
of families and small businesses), and replaced with multi lane
highways or soulless high rises. In addition to organizing to save
endangered neighborhoods (including her own) from the wrecking ball,
Jane Jacobs wrote the paradigm changing The Life and Death of Great
American Cities.
Much was unknown about wild animals outside of the dreary
captivity of zoos. The sparse research on great apes in their natural
habitat involved questionable methods and was restricted to
quantitative data, often obtained by killing the subjects. Jane
Goodall was able to show that chimpanzees were distinct individuals
living in dynamic communities who had a lot more in common with humans
than the scientific community was willing to acknowledge.
Meals made from scratch were giving way to tv dinners and boxed
mixes. Small farms were giving way to huge agribusiness corporations
with all the alarming costs to ecosystems and human health
unrecognized. Quirky individual restaurants were giving way to the
bland standardization of fast food places. Through ventures ranging
from a restaurant sourcing local food to school gardens, Alice Waters
reminded people that you are what you eat.
Although these four women blazed paths in totally different
fields, their methodologies emphasized a holistic approach, research
based on observation rather than solely driven by ivory tower
theories, and respect for interconnectedness of beings and systems.
"Rachel Carson, Jane Jacobs, Jane Goodall, and Alice Waters
appeared at a watershed moment in the culture, presenting us with a
road map to the future that grows more relevant, if not more urgent,
with time. Their work continues to move, to inspire, and to stir us
to action, reminding us that the power of one voice can be
transformative; that change can and does begin with the local, the
particular, and the passionately observed; that the best ideas can and
often do from the bottom up. That one individual can make a
difference."
If we ever needed to be reminded of this it is now. I found the
book to be truly inspiring. I think you will too.
On a purrrsonal note, I chose to read the book now for a reason. The
governor of Maine has convened a group to work on restoring the state
economy. Needless to say it consists of the privileged and the elite.
There are so many voices missing from their dialogue--particularly
those of the marginalized. Its goal is to restore the economy to a
pre COVID-19 state of affairs. A grassroots alternate group, of which
I am a member, has risen up. We realize that things weren't peachy
keen before the pandemic, that COVID-19 exacerbated rather than caused
problems, and that the voices of those most harmfully impacted by
policies and practices need to be listened to. These premises are
very in line with the values of our sheroes from the book.
Otherwise Eugene got back. And we're having some of that muggy heat
that makes sleeping challenging. (Jules)
My daddy hooman is back. I love my daddy hooman. (Tobago)
A great big shout goes out to the awesome members of the new group.
Tobago and Jules Hathaway
Sent from my iPod
Saturday, May 23, 2020
I Still Dream About You
I Still Dream About You
Adult fiction
My advisor believes that it's a good thing that I balance my
academic reading with novels. It's a good thing she has a tolerance
for fiction. I can't imagine passing up a gem by Fannie Flagg. Of
all her books so far I Still Dream About You has to be the most
amazing. It sort of a Southern belle version of It's A Wonderful Life.
"Today was the day Maggie had been thinking about, obsessing
about really, for the past five years.
But now that it was actually here, she was surprised at how calm
she felt: not at all as she had imagined; certainly not as it would
have been portrayed in a novel or in a movie. No heightened
emotions. No swelling of background music...Just the normal end of a
normal workday, if any one ever could consider the real estate
business normal."
Maggie's life hasn't turned out anything like she'd envisioned
it in her earlier Miss Alabama days. She's alone. The attentive
husband and beautiful children never materialized. Her profession has
been getting uglier and more cut throat. The mentor and boss who
fueled her former optimism has been dead for years. Why not get out
before the trials and tribulations of getting older add to her misery?
Maggie has everything planned from her very unusual plan for
exiting the world to her carefully written ("...She wanted to strike
just the proper tone: not too formal, yet not too casual.
Businesslike, but casual...) farewell note. But every time she nears
her date with destiny a snag that reveals her decency results in her
postponing it. Before you've read far into the book, if you're
anything like me, you'll hope that one of the glitches results in a
permanent change of plans.
On a purrrsonal note, today is a very special day in the Hathaway
household. I adopted Lady Tobago exactly five months ago. She has
made the house her domain and has enchanted the whole family. Eugene
is at camp. But Tobago and I will have a nice happy hour featuring
albacore tuna for us both and beer and cheezits for me (Jules).
My hooman can have the beer. It smells like wet goggie. But nothing
says party on like albacore tuna. Too bad we can't score some nip.
(Tobago)
A great big shout out goes out to Anna who brought us together.
Tobago and Jules Hathaway
Sent from my iPod
Adult fiction
My advisor believes that it's a good thing that I balance my
academic reading with novels. It's a good thing she has a tolerance
for fiction. I can't imagine passing up a gem by Fannie Flagg. Of
all her books so far I Still Dream About You has to be the most
amazing. It sort of a Southern belle version of It's A Wonderful Life.
"Today was the day Maggie had been thinking about, obsessing
about really, for the past five years.
But now that it was actually here, she was surprised at how calm
she felt: not at all as she had imagined; certainly not as it would
have been portrayed in a novel or in a movie. No heightened
emotions. No swelling of background music...Just the normal end of a
normal workday, if any one ever could consider the real estate
business normal."
Maggie's life hasn't turned out anything like she'd envisioned
it in her earlier Miss Alabama days. She's alone. The attentive
husband and beautiful children never materialized. Her profession has
been getting uglier and more cut throat. The mentor and boss who
fueled her former optimism has been dead for years. Why not get out
before the trials and tribulations of getting older add to her misery?
Maggie has everything planned from her very unusual plan for
exiting the world to her carefully written ("...She wanted to strike
just the proper tone: not too formal, yet not too casual.
Businesslike, but casual...) farewell note. But every time she nears
her date with destiny a snag that reveals her decency results in her
postponing it. Before you've read far into the book, if you're
anything like me, you'll hope that one of the glitches results in a
permanent change of plans.
On a purrrsonal note, today is a very special day in the Hathaway
household. I adopted Lady Tobago exactly five months ago. She has
made the house her domain and has enchanted the whole family. Eugene
is at camp. But Tobago and I will have a nice happy hour featuring
albacore tuna for us both and beer and cheezits for me (Jules).
My hooman can have the beer. It smells like wet goggie. But nothing
says party on like albacore tuna. Too bad we can't score some nip.
(Tobago)
A great big shout out goes out to Anna who brought us together.
Tobago and Jules Hathaway
Sent from my iPod
That Takes Ovaries!
That Takes Ovaries!
Adult nonfiction
"That Takes Ovaries! is a collection of women's and girls' real
life stories written in their own words. From courageous and smart to
outrageous and foolhardy, these accounts capture the breadth of gutsy
acts. It is a collection that embraces diversity with the voices of
everyday females of many ages and cultural backgrounds, and also
includes stories from a few better-known individuals and activists."
Rivka Solomon had been at a party. Hearing somebody talking about
a woman who did something really gutsy, she exclaimed, "Well, that
took ovaries!" When other attendees liked that phrase she saw how
powerful it could be. Before she'd gone to bed she'd decided it would
be a great title for a book--a collection of such tales.
"I envisioned a book that would excite women and men of all ages
who want to see their sisters, mothers, grandmothers, aunts, and
friends leading empowered lives; mothers and fathers who care about
their daughters growing up self assured and confident; and girls eager
to be a part of the growing girl power movement. That Takes Ovaries!
would be for everyone interested in challenging a culture still
wrought with inequity and double standards--everyone hungry for
unabashedly powerful females."
The day after the party Solomon sent out an invitation about the
most "gutsy or audicious" things women had done. She received
hundreds. The dozens of stories she selected include those of:
*Wilma Mankiller who, as a single indigenous mom, returned to the
impoverished place of her birth to work for the betterment of her
people;
*Tess Dehoag, a fat girl who wore a tank top;
*Amanda Rivera who attended a gay pride march with her mother when she
was eight;
*Julia Acevedo who told off a group of men behaving very badly;
*Ruchira Gupta who defied gangs, politicians, and corrupt cops to
document the abuse of girls in brothels;
and *so many more. There's sure to be at least one who will resonate
with you.
The story that most touched my heart was that of Eva. She was
faced with a heart breaking choice: stay in El Salvador and not be
able to provide for her beloved six children or take the perilous
journey to the United States and send the money they needed to survive
and thrive, not knowing if she'd ever see them again.
"...My kids need me, and instead they have to grow up without
me. My little one, only 2 when I left, doesn't know me. At least
they have money to live on, and have a future. Before, I could not
say that. I don't feel it was the right choice to come to the United
States, but I don't feel there was a right choice--either way my kids
suffered."
Read this fine book and think on your own life. What have you
done that was gutsy or audicious? How can owning your courage
motivate future bravery?
On a purrrsonal note, yesterday was my most wonderful day of the
pandemic. My older daughter, Amber, got married to her fiancée,
Brian, in a socially distanced but lovely wedding. It was held in
UMaine's Ornamental Garden. The flowering trees and bushes and spring
flowers were lovely. The weather was warm and sunny with a breeze.
Bride and groom wrote their own vows. All my kids and their
significant others were there. After we had a reception in Amber and
Brian's back yard. It was so precious for us all to be together. I
now have lovely memories and pictures to take back into this seemingly
endless isolation.
Eugene has gone to camp for Memorial Day weekend. I'm happy he will
have a chance to unwind in his favorite place. I'm happy that I have
Tobago to keep me company so I won't be home alone. (Jules)
Well I am glad I am here. A home sure beats a cage in a shelter.
Maybe you can give a deserving cat or goggie the home she or he is
yearning for. You can't buy love, but you can rescue it. (Tobago)
A great big shout out to Amber and Brian with best wishes for a long,
happy life together.
Tobago and Jules Hathaway
Sent from my iPod
Adult nonfiction
"That Takes Ovaries! is a collection of women's and girls' real
life stories written in their own words. From courageous and smart to
outrageous and foolhardy, these accounts capture the breadth of gutsy
acts. It is a collection that embraces diversity with the voices of
everyday females of many ages and cultural backgrounds, and also
includes stories from a few better-known individuals and activists."
Rivka Solomon had been at a party. Hearing somebody talking about
a woman who did something really gutsy, she exclaimed, "Well, that
took ovaries!" When other attendees liked that phrase she saw how
powerful it could be. Before she'd gone to bed she'd decided it would
be a great title for a book--a collection of such tales.
"I envisioned a book that would excite women and men of all ages
who want to see their sisters, mothers, grandmothers, aunts, and
friends leading empowered lives; mothers and fathers who care about
their daughters growing up self assured and confident; and girls eager
to be a part of the growing girl power movement. That Takes Ovaries!
would be for everyone interested in challenging a culture still
wrought with inequity and double standards--everyone hungry for
unabashedly powerful females."
The day after the party Solomon sent out an invitation about the
most "gutsy or audicious" things women had done. She received
hundreds. The dozens of stories she selected include those of:
*Wilma Mankiller who, as a single indigenous mom, returned to the
impoverished place of her birth to work for the betterment of her
people;
*Tess Dehoag, a fat girl who wore a tank top;
*Amanda Rivera who attended a gay pride march with her mother when she
was eight;
*Julia Acevedo who told off a group of men behaving very badly;
*Ruchira Gupta who defied gangs, politicians, and corrupt cops to
document the abuse of girls in brothels;
and *so many more. There's sure to be at least one who will resonate
with you.
The story that most touched my heart was that of Eva. She was
faced with a heart breaking choice: stay in El Salvador and not be
able to provide for her beloved six children or take the perilous
journey to the United States and send the money they needed to survive
and thrive, not knowing if she'd ever see them again.
"...My kids need me, and instead they have to grow up without
me. My little one, only 2 when I left, doesn't know me. At least
they have money to live on, and have a future. Before, I could not
say that. I don't feel it was the right choice to come to the United
States, but I don't feel there was a right choice--either way my kids
suffered."
Read this fine book and think on your own life. What have you
done that was gutsy or audicious? How can owning your courage
motivate future bravery?
On a purrrsonal note, yesterday was my most wonderful day of the
pandemic. My older daughter, Amber, got married to her fiancée,
Brian, in a socially distanced but lovely wedding. It was held in
UMaine's Ornamental Garden. The flowering trees and bushes and spring
flowers were lovely. The weather was warm and sunny with a breeze.
Bride and groom wrote their own vows. All my kids and their
significant others were there. After we had a reception in Amber and
Brian's back yard. It was so precious for us all to be together. I
now have lovely memories and pictures to take back into this seemingly
endless isolation.
Eugene has gone to camp for Memorial Day weekend. I'm happy he will
have a chance to unwind in his favorite place. I'm happy that I have
Tobago to keep me company so I won't be home alone. (Jules)
Well I am glad I am here. A home sure beats a cage in a shelter.
Maybe you can give a deserving cat or goggie the home she or he is
yearning for. You can't buy love, but you can rescue it. (Tobago)
A great big shout out to Amber and Brian with best wishes for a long,
happy life together.
Tobago and Jules Hathaway
Sent from my iPod
Wednesday, May 20, 2020
The Second Shift
The Second Shift
Adult nonfiction
Once long ago, in a conversation with a traditional housewife, I
said if I got a job that paid enough I'd think about hiring someone to
come in and clean once a week. She was horrified. Even if she had
worked she would have done her own housework. For the wife not to
would have been dereliction of duty. I imagine if we'd elected Mrs.
Clinton president back in '16 she would have thought her deficient if
she didn't, between stabilizing the economy and preventing war, scrub
"her" toilets and make "her" marital bed.
Most people today aren't as vehement about voicing this
opinion. But still far too many believe that, even in a home where
both spouses work full time, the housework and child care are somehow
"hers." That's why we have the second shift. It's the expectation
that she will get the meal on the table, put the kids to bed, and
somehow find time for the laundry while he recuperates with his hobby
or tv shows.
Things are changing some. People are keeping track of male
contributions in terms of hours or percentages. But there's much more
to roles than percentages. No one magic factor will explain anything
as complicated as marital roles and relations. In the now classic The
Second Shift Arlie Russell Hochschild and Anne Machung attest to the
complexity of the issue.
Hochschild chose the issue when it became relevant in her own
life. She was an assistant professor at UCal Berkeley and nursing her
first baby. She experienced ambivolence: relief that she was seen as
a professional and envy of her male parenting colleagues who had the
home bases covered. Careers in her field were designed for the
traditional male with a partner at home to deal with all the messiness
children created. Other professional women quipped that they needed
wives.
"...But maybe they don't need 'wives,' maybe they need careers
basically designed to suit workers who also care for families. This
redesign would be nothing short of a revolution, first in the home,
and then at places of work--universities, banks, banks, and factories."
Hochschild envisioned America as being in the middle of a
stalled revolution. Women in large numbers had left the home to
participate in the workplace. For the most part neither families nor
jobs had made accomodations. (In fact the media, through ads
featuring an energetic woman with a toddler holding one hand and a
briefcase in the other, had set having it all as the normal.) She
wanted to know why. She also wanted to know how husbands and wives in
two career families experienced and interpreted their situations.
The Second Shift is the result of an extensive ethnographic
study involving in depth interviews and observations. Although it was
written two decades ago, it is sadly too relevant today.
On a purrrsonal note, today is officially bee day. If you get to go
outside say thanks to these powerful pollinators.
I've started to run low on books. But not to worry! I shall continue
to provide content for this blog. I have learned how to get books
shipped by mail from Fogler Library. And I'm working on acquiring
ebooks through the cloud. I mean my mind without reading matter would
be like flowers without pollinating bees. (Jules)
Bees, schmees! When is International Cat Day? That's what I'd like
to know. If you have yet to learn how a feline makes a house a home,
you're in luck. It's kitten season. Your local shelter is full of
fluffy, friendly, fantastic furever friends. You can't buy love but
you can rescue it. (Tobago)
A great big shout out goes out to the bees and other pollinators who
are responsible for most of the food we enjoy.
Tobago and Jules Hathaway
Sent from my iPod
Adult nonfiction
Once long ago, in a conversation with a traditional housewife, I
said if I got a job that paid enough I'd think about hiring someone to
come in and clean once a week. She was horrified. Even if she had
worked she would have done her own housework. For the wife not to
would have been dereliction of duty. I imagine if we'd elected Mrs.
Clinton president back in '16 she would have thought her deficient if
she didn't, between stabilizing the economy and preventing war, scrub
"her" toilets and make "her" marital bed.
Most people today aren't as vehement about voicing this
opinion. But still far too many believe that, even in a home where
both spouses work full time, the housework and child care are somehow
"hers." That's why we have the second shift. It's the expectation
that she will get the meal on the table, put the kids to bed, and
somehow find time for the laundry while he recuperates with his hobby
or tv shows.
Things are changing some. People are keeping track of male
contributions in terms of hours or percentages. But there's much more
to roles than percentages. No one magic factor will explain anything
as complicated as marital roles and relations. In the now classic The
Second Shift Arlie Russell Hochschild and Anne Machung attest to the
complexity of the issue.
Hochschild chose the issue when it became relevant in her own
life. She was an assistant professor at UCal Berkeley and nursing her
first baby. She experienced ambivolence: relief that she was seen as
a professional and envy of her male parenting colleagues who had the
home bases covered. Careers in her field were designed for the
traditional male with a partner at home to deal with all the messiness
children created. Other professional women quipped that they needed
wives.
"...But maybe they don't need 'wives,' maybe they need careers
basically designed to suit workers who also care for families. This
redesign would be nothing short of a revolution, first in the home,
and then at places of work--universities, banks, banks, and factories."
Hochschild envisioned America as being in the middle of a
stalled revolution. Women in large numbers had left the home to
participate in the workplace. For the most part neither families nor
jobs had made accomodations. (In fact the media, through ads
featuring an energetic woman with a toddler holding one hand and a
briefcase in the other, had set having it all as the normal.) She
wanted to know why. She also wanted to know how husbands and wives in
two career families experienced and interpreted their situations.
The Second Shift is the result of an extensive ethnographic
study involving in depth interviews and observations. Although it was
written two decades ago, it is sadly too relevant today.
On a purrrsonal note, today is officially bee day. If you get to go
outside say thanks to these powerful pollinators.
I've started to run low on books. But not to worry! I shall continue
to provide content for this blog. I have learned how to get books
shipped by mail from Fogler Library. And I'm working on acquiring
ebooks through the cloud. I mean my mind without reading matter would
be like flowers without pollinating bees. (Jules)
Bees, schmees! When is International Cat Day? That's what I'd like
to know. If you have yet to learn how a feline makes a house a home,
you're in luck. It's kitten season. Your local shelter is full of
fluffy, friendly, fantastic furever friends. You can't buy love but
you can rescue it. (Tobago)
A great big shout out goes out to the bees and other pollinators who
are responsible for most of the food we enjoy.
Tobago and Jules Hathaway
Sent from my iPod
Saturday, May 16, 2020
Dumplin'
Dumplin'
YA fiction
"...But the one thing that puts our little town on the map is
that we're home of the oldest beauty pageant in Texas. The Miss Teen
Blue Bonnet Pageant started back in the 1930s and had only gotten
bigger and more ridiculous with every passing year. I should know
since my mom has led the planning committee for the last fifteen years."
Willowdean, protagonist of Julie Murphy's Dumplin', has a mother
who lives for the annual beauty pageant season. Her crowning
achievement was winning the title back in the day. Now, single
parenting and working as an orderly in a nursing home, she lives for
the time each year when she can recapture her glory days. She still
fits into her gown.
What's unusual for someone who basically centers her life around
pageants is that she never invited her only child to follow in her
stiletto steps. Willowdean feels that she's the fat girl let down.
After a lifetime of diets and girls getting skinny movies she's
convinced that her mother won't accept her as she is.
Willowdean's understanding Aunt Lucy felt more like a mother to
her. Aunt Lucy has recently died. Her mother has started getting rid
of Lucy's possessions to turn her room into a pageant crafting room, a
move Willowdean strongly resents.
One day in a box of Lucy's possessions Willowdean finds a 1994
pageant application and makes a big decision. She is going to do what
her beloved aunt was too body shamed to do. She's joined by three
other girls who have been bullied for their appearance.
If you like rooting for underdogs or are one, you'll find this
poignant and perceptive book to be a must read.
On a purrrsonal note, some people have graduated during the pandemic.
Some people's wedding plans have had to be adjusted due to the
pandemic. For my lovely daughter, Amber, it's both. This Friday she
will be married in a ceremony unlike anything she or I could have
imagined. It will be outside and social distanced and many guests
will attend via zoom. (There will be a bigger celebration when it's
safe to do so). (Jules)
I got outside yesterday. Houdini's got nothing on me. I didn't get
beyond the yard because my hooman took me inside. Someday... (Tobago)
In your dreams, Tobago! (Jules)
Bwa ha ha (Tobago)
A great big shout out goes out to Amber and Brian with best wishes for
a long, healthy, happy life together.
Tobago and Jules Hathaway
Sent from my iPod
YA fiction
"...But the one thing that puts our little town on the map is
that we're home of the oldest beauty pageant in Texas. The Miss Teen
Blue Bonnet Pageant started back in the 1930s and had only gotten
bigger and more ridiculous with every passing year. I should know
since my mom has led the planning committee for the last fifteen years."
Willowdean, protagonist of Julie Murphy's Dumplin', has a mother
who lives for the annual beauty pageant season. Her crowning
achievement was winning the title back in the day. Now, single
parenting and working as an orderly in a nursing home, she lives for
the time each year when she can recapture her glory days. She still
fits into her gown.
What's unusual for someone who basically centers her life around
pageants is that she never invited her only child to follow in her
stiletto steps. Willowdean feels that she's the fat girl let down.
After a lifetime of diets and girls getting skinny movies she's
convinced that her mother won't accept her as she is.
Willowdean's understanding Aunt Lucy felt more like a mother to
her. Aunt Lucy has recently died. Her mother has started getting rid
of Lucy's possessions to turn her room into a pageant crafting room, a
move Willowdean strongly resents.
One day in a box of Lucy's possessions Willowdean finds a 1994
pageant application and makes a big decision. She is going to do what
her beloved aunt was too body shamed to do. She's joined by three
other girls who have been bullied for their appearance.
If you like rooting for underdogs or are one, you'll find this
poignant and perceptive book to be a must read.
On a purrrsonal note, some people have graduated during the pandemic.
Some people's wedding plans have had to be adjusted due to the
pandemic. For my lovely daughter, Amber, it's both. This Friday she
will be married in a ceremony unlike anything she or I could have
imagined. It will be outside and social distanced and many guests
will attend via zoom. (There will be a bigger celebration when it's
safe to do so). (Jules)
I got outside yesterday. Houdini's got nothing on me. I didn't get
beyond the yard because my hooman took me inside. Someday... (Tobago)
In your dreams, Tobago! (Jules)
Bwa ha ha (Tobago)
A great big shout out goes out to Amber and Brian with best wishes for
a long, healthy, happy life together.
Tobago and Jules Hathaway
Sent from my iPod
Wednesday, May 13, 2020
My beautiful pie
disappears. My pie after one meal. Just two people. If I live long
enough to have favorite pandemic memories this surely will be one of
my favorites!
We Fed An Island
We Fed An Island
Adult nonfiction
"Now imagine a different kind of waiting and not knowing.
Waiting without power. Waiting for food. Waiting for running water.
Not knowing if your family one town over is alive...Not knowing if
anyone from the mainland is on their way with relief or if they even
have a strategy in place to help you. Not knowing if your entire
island has been forgotten."
Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico. Electricity and
communications were taken out. Bridges collapsed and roads became
unnavigable. Sea water and torrential rains flooded homes and
hospitals. Government and nonprofit organizations were caught off
guard, not having protocol or plans to handle such unprecedented chaos
and disaster.
Chef Jose Andres flew down to do what he believed should be the
number one recovery priority. His We Fed An Island is the inspiring
story of how he overcame not only the hurricane's effects, but lack of
help and even opposition from powerful government agencies and
nonprofit organizations that were supposed to be handling the
situation. The book is like a Little Engine Who Could for adults. As
people in high administrative places kept telling Andres what he could
not do, he went ahead and did it, outperforming the big guys, not for
the sake of showing them up, but because of his passion for providing
hungry people with good food created from ingredients at hand. The
high stakes challenge his team took on would in itself make We Fed An
Island an unforgettable read.
There is, however, a second layer of narrative: a scathing
critique of government agencies and nonprofit organizations tackling a
21st Century catastrophe with 20th Century methods. For example, they
take the top down approach which assumes they are the experts and
things must be done their way. Andres, in contrast, realized that the
Puerto Ricans were the ones who knew what was needed, where it was
needed, and what human and material assets were on hand to facilitate
his mission.
"A military meal that is 'ready-to-eat is something no human
being is ever ready to eat. Stuck on a battlefield, far from home or
any kind of kitchen, an MRE (meal, ready to eat) may be a lifesaver.
But it is not a meal as anybody would understand it. The contents of
a brown plastic MRE bag are so heavily processed and preserved that
they have only a distant relationship with food."
One of Andres' pet peeves was that most relief agencies were
distributing MREs as food. In contrast, he was serving up foods
Puerto Ricans knew and loved in communal settings. He considers a hot
meal to be a plate of hope. The people he served were able to put him
in contact with more people in need. By buying ingredients locally,
he was able to help kick start the island economy.
Whether you're in need of a heart warming story or want to know
why responses to disasters are so often inadequate, you'll find We Fed
An Island to be a must read.
On a purrrsonal note, I had a really exciting experience last night.
I've never been a good pie maker. My problem was the crust. Mine
tended to have the texture of work boot leather. Try as I might I
could not concoct a crust suitable for human (or even canine)
consumption. So that became a pandemic quest. Lucky for me Amber and
her fiancée, Brian, have started a recipe blog:
https://amberandbriansrecipe.blogspot.com
(which I highly reccommend, BTW. You can add a touch of variety to
your recipe repetoire and maybe even discover a new family favorite).
Anyway I tried an apple pie recipe Brian got from his grandmother and
their crust recipe, which I found easy to follow. Last night I was
able to serve up a seriously good pie with an edible crust. From the
joy I experienced you'd have thought I'd won a Pulitzer. Eugene was
unable to get why I was so excited. But he ate a big piece.
Poor Tobago cat had a scare. The big machines went around the trailer
park to repair winter road ravages. Between the noise, their
appearance (an excavator could have made a good T Rex), and the way
the trailor shook a little she was terrified. (Jules)
Oh the hoomanity of it all! How could I tell they were not apex
preditors? I hope they do not come back! (Tobago)
A great big shout out goes out to Amber and Brian with best wishes for
success for their very much in good taste new Internet adventure!
Tobago and Jules Hathaway
Sent from my iPod
Adult nonfiction
"Now imagine a different kind of waiting and not knowing.
Waiting without power. Waiting for food. Waiting for running water.
Not knowing if your family one town over is alive...Not knowing if
anyone from the mainland is on their way with relief or if they even
have a strategy in place to help you. Not knowing if your entire
island has been forgotten."
Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico. Electricity and
communications were taken out. Bridges collapsed and roads became
unnavigable. Sea water and torrential rains flooded homes and
hospitals. Government and nonprofit organizations were caught off
guard, not having protocol or plans to handle such unprecedented chaos
and disaster.
Chef Jose Andres flew down to do what he believed should be the
number one recovery priority. His We Fed An Island is the inspiring
story of how he overcame not only the hurricane's effects, but lack of
help and even opposition from powerful government agencies and
nonprofit organizations that were supposed to be handling the
situation. The book is like a Little Engine Who Could for adults. As
people in high administrative places kept telling Andres what he could
not do, he went ahead and did it, outperforming the big guys, not for
the sake of showing them up, but because of his passion for providing
hungry people with good food created from ingredients at hand. The
high stakes challenge his team took on would in itself make We Fed An
Island an unforgettable read.
There is, however, a second layer of narrative: a scathing
critique of government agencies and nonprofit organizations tackling a
21st Century catastrophe with 20th Century methods. For example, they
take the top down approach which assumes they are the experts and
things must be done their way. Andres, in contrast, realized that the
Puerto Ricans were the ones who knew what was needed, where it was
needed, and what human and material assets were on hand to facilitate
his mission.
"A military meal that is 'ready-to-eat is something no human
being is ever ready to eat. Stuck on a battlefield, far from home or
any kind of kitchen, an MRE (meal, ready to eat) may be a lifesaver.
But it is not a meal as anybody would understand it. The contents of
a brown plastic MRE bag are so heavily processed and preserved that
they have only a distant relationship with food."
One of Andres' pet peeves was that most relief agencies were
distributing MREs as food. In contrast, he was serving up foods
Puerto Ricans knew and loved in communal settings. He considers a hot
meal to be a plate of hope. The people he served were able to put him
in contact with more people in need. By buying ingredients locally,
he was able to help kick start the island economy.
Whether you're in need of a heart warming story or want to know
why responses to disasters are so often inadequate, you'll find We Fed
An Island to be a must read.
On a purrrsonal note, I had a really exciting experience last night.
I've never been a good pie maker. My problem was the crust. Mine
tended to have the texture of work boot leather. Try as I might I
could not concoct a crust suitable for human (or even canine)
consumption. So that became a pandemic quest. Lucky for me Amber and
her fiancée, Brian, have started a recipe blog:
https://amberandbriansrecipe.blogspot.com
(which I highly reccommend, BTW. You can add a touch of variety to
your recipe repetoire and maybe even discover a new family favorite).
Anyway I tried an apple pie recipe Brian got from his grandmother and
their crust recipe, which I found easy to follow. Last night I was
able to serve up a seriously good pie with an edible crust. From the
joy I experienced you'd have thought I'd won a Pulitzer. Eugene was
unable to get why I was so excited. But he ate a big piece.
Poor Tobago cat had a scare. The big machines went around the trailer
park to repair winter road ravages. Between the noise, their
appearance (an excavator could have made a good T Rex), and the way
the trailor shook a little she was terrified. (Jules)
Oh the hoomanity of it all! How could I tell they were not apex
preditors? I hope they do not come back! (Tobago)
A great big shout out goes out to Amber and Brian with best wishes for
success for their very much in good taste new Internet adventure!
Tobago and Jules Hathaway
Sent from my iPod
Sunday, May 10, 2020
A Terrible Thing To Waste
A Terrible Thing To Waste
Adult nonfiction IT
"For more than a century, we've been assured that nothing can be
done to restore the intelligence of groups who manifest evidence--such
as lower IQ scores--that they are unprepared to compete in our fast-
paced Western world, where the mastery of specialized skills such as
reading and mathematical analysis has come to determine who will be a
success and who will be resented as a burden on society."
It should come as no surprise that those beyond redemption
groups consist of non whites. American history is rife with evidence
of belief in the genetic, unchangeable cognitive inferiority of People
of Color This myth allowed slave owners to act abominably without
experiencing guilt. According up their logic, Blacks were too
degraded to even survive without White supervision. In the 1920's,
when eugenics were all the rage, Whites used this reasoning as
justification for restrictive immigration and involuntary
sterilization laws. This belief is sadly still being recycled in the
21st Century.
In A Terrible Thing To Waste Harriet Washington shows how IQ,
rather than being innate and hereditory, is very environmentally
susceptible. In 1924 the United States actually closed an IQ gap of
fifteen points. Intending to cut down on deficiency diseases such as
goiter, the government had iodine added to salt. People from low
iodine areas suddenly did much better in intelligence tests.
But environmental effects can be toxic and devastatingly
damaging, which brings us to environmental racism.
"...De facto racial segregation, mortgage redlining, and, as I
shall describe, the withholding of basic environmental services are
used to force racial groups into environmental 'sacrifice zones,'
where exposure to high levels of IQ lowering heavy metals, chemicals,
and pathogens impede normal brain development..."
In chapter after chapter Washington describes the witch's brew
of toxins and pathogens that disproportionately impact communities of
color through the air they breathe, the water they drink, the foods
they eat, the places their children play, and the dust and chipping
paint in their rental apartments. She also describes the ways in
which America is failing to remediate the devastation the wreak as we
would if the sufferers were upper class whites. Read the book and
imagine how you'd feel if the afflicted were friends and family. Get
angry--maybe even angry enough to do something.
On a purrrsonal note, I had an unusual Mothers' Day. My husband had
given me a beautiful bouquet of flowers yesterday. Today I got very
special phone calls from my three children. Being able to talk to
them and learn that they and their significant others and cats are
healthy and managing really made my day. I so look forward to being
able to see them again. Of course sweet Tobago gave me the so many
gestures of love. Even though it was a mostly work day it was a good
day. (Jules).
I love my mommy hooman. (Tobago)
Tobago and Jules Hathaway.
Sent from my iPod
Adult nonfiction IT
"For more than a century, we've been assured that nothing can be
done to restore the intelligence of groups who manifest evidence--such
as lower IQ scores--that they are unprepared to compete in our fast-
paced Western world, where the mastery of specialized skills such as
reading and mathematical analysis has come to determine who will be a
success and who will be resented as a burden on society."
It should come as no surprise that those beyond redemption
groups consist of non whites. American history is rife with evidence
of belief in the genetic, unchangeable cognitive inferiority of People
of Color This myth allowed slave owners to act abominably without
experiencing guilt. According up their logic, Blacks were too
degraded to even survive without White supervision. In the 1920's,
when eugenics were all the rage, Whites used this reasoning as
justification for restrictive immigration and involuntary
sterilization laws. This belief is sadly still being recycled in the
21st Century.
In A Terrible Thing To Waste Harriet Washington shows how IQ,
rather than being innate and hereditory, is very environmentally
susceptible. In 1924 the United States actually closed an IQ gap of
fifteen points. Intending to cut down on deficiency diseases such as
goiter, the government had iodine added to salt. People from low
iodine areas suddenly did much better in intelligence tests.
But environmental effects can be toxic and devastatingly
damaging, which brings us to environmental racism.
"...De facto racial segregation, mortgage redlining, and, as I
shall describe, the withholding of basic environmental services are
used to force racial groups into environmental 'sacrifice zones,'
where exposure to high levels of IQ lowering heavy metals, chemicals,
and pathogens impede normal brain development..."
In chapter after chapter Washington describes the witch's brew
of toxins and pathogens that disproportionately impact communities of
color through the air they breathe, the water they drink, the foods
they eat, the places their children play, and the dust and chipping
paint in their rental apartments. She also describes the ways in
which America is failing to remediate the devastation the wreak as we
would if the sufferers were upper class whites. Read the book and
imagine how you'd feel if the afflicted were friends and family. Get
angry--maybe even angry enough to do something.
On a purrrsonal note, I had an unusual Mothers' Day. My husband had
given me a beautiful bouquet of flowers yesterday. Today I got very
special phone calls from my three children. Being able to talk to
them and learn that they and their significant others and cats are
healthy and managing really made my day. I so look forward to being
able to see them again. Of course sweet Tobago gave me the so many
gestures of love. Even though it was a mostly work day it was a good
day. (Jules).
I love my mommy hooman. (Tobago)
Tobago and Jules Hathaway.
Sent from my iPod
Saturday, May 9, 2020
anniversary present. Not being able to shop I had to get creative.
I am using a binder from one of my kids' public school days, pictures
that are special to Eugene, and paper my daughter, Amber, gave me
awhile back. I'm sorting pictures by color and theme. I used this
red, white, and blue paper for 4th of July parade (a favorite family
tradition) pictures. Since Eugene knows I can't shop, he isn't
expecting anything. He sure will be surprised!
Don't despair if gift occassions arise. Something you create may be
valued far more than the offerings of stores.
Stony The Road
Stony The Road
Adult nonfiction
"In the broadest terms, Reconstruction was a revolutionary time
in American life--a time of national renewal extended out from Civil
War, death, and destruction that narrowed the gap between the
country's ideals and laws and advanced racial progress. Yet it was
also a turbulent and brutally violent period, one marked by rapid
economic change and new forms of white resistance that included
everything from organized para military assaults and political
assassinations to night rides and domestic terror."
When I took American History back in high school, Reconstruction
got very little textbook ink. I guess things haven't gotten better in
the intervening decades. Reknowned Black history scholar Henry Louis
Gates, Jr., quoted above, wrote Stony The Road to increase people's
knowledge and understanding of the tumultuous years between the 1860's
and 1920's.
Reconstruction had two goals. One was reuniting two parts of a
nation that had just spent four years engaged in bloody combat. Under
what conditions could the vanquished South be readmitted to the
Union? The other was equipping people who had been kept in ignorance
and involuntary servitude and treated as objects rather than humans
to handle the more complex lives of freedmen and freedwomen. The
Freedmen's Bureau was created to reunite black families and help them
gain educations and ways of earning a living.
Even as Black people were making progress on all fronts, angry
Whites in the defeated South were scheming to put them back "in their
place." These former Confederates saw the war as a war of aggression
on the part of the Union. The creation of the Freedmen's Bureau and
other programs and mandates originating in Washington were seen as
egregious government over reach. The "Lost Cause" was portrayed as a
valient attempt to save a gracious way of life. And how would the
South's agrarian economy function without the forced labor of blacks?
We're probably all familiar with the KKK and their night
riding. But the battle to keep Blacks "in their place" wasn't fought
only with nooses and burning crosses. It also involved pseudo
science, appeals to the fears of Whites, and images. Stony The Road
includes a treasure trove of posters, trading cards, photographs,
cartoons, and other visual representations which nicely complement
Gates' scholarship and really make the book come to life.
Stony The Road is a must read for all who want to understand how
the bright promise of Reconstruction was so brutally slain. Some of
the racist ideas the reader will encounter are sadly being revived in
Trump's America.
On a purrrsonal note, it snowed all day. In May. This is pretty
incredible--even for Maine. Eugene was sweet enough to buy a frozen
pizza (to make supper really easy prep) and a beautiful bouquet of
flowers for me. That surprise really perked me up. I started a list
of my pandemic sheltering in place achievements. Much to my surprise
it's pretty impressive. (Jules)
It is not time for snow!!! It keeps the birdies away and makes the
hoomans sad. Mother Nature, get with the program! (Tobago)
Tobago and Jules Hathaway
Sent from my iPod
Adult nonfiction
"In the broadest terms, Reconstruction was a revolutionary time
in American life--a time of national renewal extended out from Civil
War, death, and destruction that narrowed the gap between the
country's ideals and laws and advanced racial progress. Yet it was
also a turbulent and brutally violent period, one marked by rapid
economic change and new forms of white resistance that included
everything from organized para military assaults and political
assassinations to night rides and domestic terror."
When I took American History back in high school, Reconstruction
got very little textbook ink. I guess things haven't gotten better in
the intervening decades. Reknowned Black history scholar Henry Louis
Gates, Jr., quoted above, wrote Stony The Road to increase people's
knowledge and understanding of the tumultuous years between the 1860's
and 1920's.
Reconstruction had two goals. One was reuniting two parts of a
nation that had just spent four years engaged in bloody combat. Under
what conditions could the vanquished South be readmitted to the
Union? The other was equipping people who had been kept in ignorance
and involuntary servitude and treated as objects rather than humans
to handle the more complex lives of freedmen and freedwomen. The
Freedmen's Bureau was created to reunite black families and help them
gain educations and ways of earning a living.
Even as Black people were making progress on all fronts, angry
Whites in the defeated South were scheming to put them back "in their
place." These former Confederates saw the war as a war of aggression
on the part of the Union. The creation of the Freedmen's Bureau and
other programs and mandates originating in Washington were seen as
egregious government over reach. The "Lost Cause" was portrayed as a
valient attempt to save a gracious way of life. And how would the
South's agrarian economy function without the forced labor of blacks?
We're probably all familiar with the KKK and their night
riding. But the battle to keep Blacks "in their place" wasn't fought
only with nooses and burning crosses. It also involved pseudo
science, appeals to the fears of Whites, and images. Stony The Road
includes a treasure trove of posters, trading cards, photographs,
cartoons, and other visual representations which nicely complement
Gates' scholarship and really make the book come to life.
Stony The Road is a must read for all who want to understand how
the bright promise of Reconstruction was so brutally slain. Some of
the racist ideas the reader will encounter are sadly being revived in
Trump's America.
On a purrrsonal note, it snowed all day. In May. This is pretty
incredible--even for Maine. Eugene was sweet enough to buy a frozen
pizza (to make supper really easy prep) and a beautiful bouquet of
flowers for me. That surprise really perked me up. I started a list
of my pandemic sheltering in place achievements. Much to my surprise
it's pretty impressive. (Jules)
It is not time for snow!!! It keeps the birdies away and makes the
hoomans sad. Mother Nature, get with the program! (Tobago)
Tobago and Jules Hathaway
Sent from my iPod
Thursday, May 7, 2020
Why You Should Be A Socialist
Why You Should Be A Socialist
Adult nonfiction
"In this book, I want to convince you that everyone should join
the political left and identify themselves as a democratic socialist.
I want to show you, as thoroughly and persuasively as I can, that
leftist politics are not just consistent and reasonable, but that
elementary moral principles compel us all to be leftists and
socialists. I intend to define, as clearly as possible, what I mean
by words like leftism, socialism, and principles, and show you how
left ideas work, why they're practical, and why the usual criticisms
of them are false and/or frivolous..."
OK, readers, I think I'm in love. Nope, Eugene has nothing to
worry about out there at camp where he's hopefully enjoying his
vacation week. The object of my adoration is a book, Nathan
Robinson's Why You Should Be A Socialist. If you read only one book
this decade, or this century that matter, make it this one. In fact I
had to save it for when Eugene was off in the wilderness so the only
one who was startled every time I exclaimed "Yes!" would be Tobago cat.
Robinson's road to socialism, began with the unease many life
observations caused him. Although we say wealth stems from hard
work, a lot of people were born rich enough not to have to work. In a
city where tens of thousands of luxury condos stand empty as
investment properties tens of thousands of people live on the
streets. Some children go to posh private schools while others attend
schools without the basics. Warehouse workers slave under abusive
conditions for a boss who has more money than he knows what to do with.
"The leftist orientention I begin with, then, is one of deep
appreciation of spectacular things and deep loathing for unjust and
cruel things. It's easily dismissed as 'bleeding heart'-ism, and,
well, that's exactly what it is. People's hearts should bleed more.
If your heart doesn't bleed, what the hell kind of person are you?..."
What the hell kind indeed?
After delineating the serious evils and perils in this world the
status quo has led us to, for example, climate change and nuclear
weapons, and brilliantly shredding capitalism in a chapter perfectly
titled "The Army of Psychopathic Androids", Robinson comes to my
favorite part of the book: what exactly is socialism and how we can
embrace and live by it to create a better world.
I love the chapter where Robinson talks about how socialists, in
addition to fighting evils with concrete plans to help hurting,
endangered people, must embrace utopia. We have to know not only what
we want, but what we want to replace it with. He illustrates that
idea with one of my personal favorite institutions.
"If you think utopian thinking is unrealistic or pointless, let
me ask you to consider libraries. Everyone knows that libraries are
incredible places...But we often don't consider just how redical
public libraries are. A library is a place where anyone can go and--
for free--explore a mountain of human knowledge. It has meeting
spaces, computers, and research assistance. It's there for everyone,
regardless of their means."
Librarians, BTW, also are pretty radical defenders of the rights
of we the people. Nationwide they stood up to the federal government
when they were demanded under the Patriot Act to surrender patrons'
book borrowing histories. And when Occupy set up on the Bangor Public
Library grounds then head librarian Barbara McDade went up against a
lot of pressure to defend our right to be there.
Robinson would love the story of the trailer park my family
lives in. It involved a combining of concrete steps and utopia.
During out first two decades there Greystone was owned by a series of
slumlords who were capitalists, maximizing profit while minimizing
responsibility. We didn't even have drinking water free of fecal
contamination. Ten years ago the owner put it on the market. If
someone had bought it for another use we would have been booted out,
many with no place to go. Then some of us had the idea to go coop
instead of giving up. We worked with an organization to take care of
the paperwork. We went door to door explaining why people should vote
yes. Today we collectively own the land we live on under rules we
voted on with a board we elected. You'd better believe service is a
whole lot better!
Two very important chapters discuss the meanness of
conservativism and the wishy washiness of liberalism. The latter is
more insidious. Liberals are not firebrands. They're too bought and
owned by Wall Street to challenge their wealthy campain contributors.
And they go bipartisan for some pretty bad decisions such as Clinton's
welfare deform (spelling intentional) and the Patriot Act.
There is only one thing I don't like about the book. Despite
his respect for Bernie Sanders, I feel like Robinson is writing off
all the rest of us who are older than millenials. Some of us who have
been organizing and protesting and speaking out for decades are still
firebrands. We still are capable of dreaming and taking steps to
achieve dreams. We care intensely about the world our children are
inheriting. I feel that it will take people of vision across all
spectrums of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and, yes,
age to achieve a socialist world.
Anyway if you have a heart capable of bleeding, if you don't
want to shut your eyes to the evils going on in the world, put the
book at the top of the list. Buy rather than borrowing. You're going
to refer to it frequently.
On a purrrsonal note, I'm guessing Eugene is having a fine time at his
camp. He's had some decent fishing weather. But the evenings are
chilly enough for him to fire up the wood stove. While he's away I've
been working on his 31st anniversary gift which is a scrapbook of
photos of special times and people in his life. Even though it's a
coronavirus concession (the not shopping) he'll probably like it
better than anything I could have bought in a store
Wow! Just who just got back. A few days early. Guess he really must
miss that cat of ours! (Jules)
Sun is out.
Grass is ris.
Wonder where
The birdies is.
My daddy hooman is back! I love my daddy hooman. (Tobago)
Tobago and Jules Hathaway
Sent from my iPod
Adult nonfiction
"In this book, I want to convince you that everyone should join
the political left and identify themselves as a democratic socialist.
I want to show you, as thoroughly and persuasively as I can, that
leftist politics are not just consistent and reasonable, but that
elementary moral principles compel us all to be leftists and
socialists. I intend to define, as clearly as possible, what I mean
by words like leftism, socialism, and principles, and show you how
left ideas work, why they're practical, and why the usual criticisms
of them are false and/or frivolous..."
OK, readers, I think I'm in love. Nope, Eugene has nothing to
worry about out there at camp where he's hopefully enjoying his
vacation week. The object of my adoration is a book, Nathan
Robinson's Why You Should Be A Socialist. If you read only one book
this decade, or this century that matter, make it this one. In fact I
had to save it for when Eugene was off in the wilderness so the only
one who was startled every time I exclaimed "Yes!" would be Tobago cat.
Robinson's road to socialism, began with the unease many life
observations caused him. Although we say wealth stems from hard
work, a lot of people were born rich enough not to have to work. In a
city where tens of thousands of luxury condos stand empty as
investment properties tens of thousands of people live on the
streets. Some children go to posh private schools while others attend
schools without the basics. Warehouse workers slave under abusive
conditions for a boss who has more money than he knows what to do with.
"The leftist orientention I begin with, then, is one of deep
appreciation of spectacular things and deep loathing for unjust and
cruel things. It's easily dismissed as 'bleeding heart'-ism, and,
well, that's exactly what it is. People's hearts should bleed more.
If your heart doesn't bleed, what the hell kind of person are you?..."
What the hell kind indeed?
After delineating the serious evils and perils in this world the
status quo has led us to, for example, climate change and nuclear
weapons, and brilliantly shredding capitalism in a chapter perfectly
titled "The Army of Psychopathic Androids", Robinson comes to my
favorite part of the book: what exactly is socialism and how we can
embrace and live by it to create a better world.
I love the chapter where Robinson talks about how socialists, in
addition to fighting evils with concrete plans to help hurting,
endangered people, must embrace utopia. We have to know not only what
we want, but what we want to replace it with. He illustrates that
idea with one of my personal favorite institutions.
"If you think utopian thinking is unrealistic or pointless, let
me ask you to consider libraries. Everyone knows that libraries are
incredible places...But we often don't consider just how redical
public libraries are. A library is a place where anyone can go and--
for free--explore a mountain of human knowledge. It has meeting
spaces, computers, and research assistance. It's there for everyone,
regardless of their means."
Librarians, BTW, also are pretty radical defenders of the rights
of we the people. Nationwide they stood up to the federal government
when they were demanded under the Patriot Act to surrender patrons'
book borrowing histories. And when Occupy set up on the Bangor Public
Library grounds then head librarian Barbara McDade went up against a
lot of pressure to defend our right to be there.
Robinson would love the story of the trailer park my family
lives in. It involved a combining of concrete steps and utopia.
During out first two decades there Greystone was owned by a series of
slumlords who were capitalists, maximizing profit while minimizing
responsibility. We didn't even have drinking water free of fecal
contamination. Ten years ago the owner put it on the market. If
someone had bought it for another use we would have been booted out,
many with no place to go. Then some of us had the idea to go coop
instead of giving up. We worked with an organization to take care of
the paperwork. We went door to door explaining why people should vote
yes. Today we collectively own the land we live on under rules we
voted on with a board we elected. You'd better believe service is a
whole lot better!
Two very important chapters discuss the meanness of
conservativism and the wishy washiness of liberalism. The latter is
more insidious. Liberals are not firebrands. They're too bought and
owned by Wall Street to challenge their wealthy campain contributors.
And they go bipartisan for some pretty bad decisions such as Clinton's
welfare deform (spelling intentional) and the Patriot Act.
There is only one thing I don't like about the book. Despite
his respect for Bernie Sanders, I feel like Robinson is writing off
all the rest of us who are older than millenials. Some of us who have
been organizing and protesting and speaking out for decades are still
firebrands. We still are capable of dreaming and taking steps to
achieve dreams. We care intensely about the world our children are
inheriting. I feel that it will take people of vision across all
spectrums of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and, yes,
age to achieve a socialist world.
Anyway if you have a heart capable of bleeding, if you don't
want to shut your eyes to the evils going on in the world, put the
book at the top of the list. Buy rather than borrowing. You're going
to refer to it frequently.
On a purrrsonal note, I'm guessing Eugene is having a fine time at his
camp. He's had some decent fishing weather. But the evenings are
chilly enough for him to fire up the wood stove. While he's away I've
been working on his 31st anniversary gift which is a scrapbook of
photos of special times and people in his life. Even though it's a
coronavirus concession (the not shopping) he'll probably like it
better than anything I could have bought in a store
Wow! Just who just got back. A few days early. Guess he really must
miss that cat of ours! (Jules)
Sun is out.
Grass is ris.
Wonder where
The birdies is.
My daddy hooman is back! I love my daddy hooman. (Tobago)
Tobago and Jules Hathaway
Sent from my iPod
Tuesday, May 5, 2020
Monday, May 4, 2020
Me and White Supremacy
Me and White Supremacy
Adult nonfiction
"I'm Layla, and for (at least!) the next twenty-eight day's, I'm
going to be guiding you on a journey to help you explore and unpack
your relationship with white supremacy. This book is a one-of-a-kind
personal antiracism tool structured to help people with white
privilege understand and take ownership of their participation in the
oppressive system of white supremacy. It is designed to help them take
responsibility for dismantling the way that this system manifests,
both within themselves and within their communities."
Normally the chances that I'd give a book like this the one
chapter a day approach it deserves are slim to nonexistent. I'd read
it right through and review it because of time constraints. But, hey,
there are no library late fees during a pandemic. And without a job
or school work I've got nothing but time. So I'm going to give the
book due dilligence. I'm starting this review on day one. You'll get
to read it a month later.
This book began as a twenty-eight-day Instagram challenge which
morphed into a digital PDF before taking its present form. It shreds
the notion that there are bad racist people who could be epitomized by
the "fine people" lionized by a certain White president or Archie
Bunker, lead character in a now defunct tv series, and good nonracist
people who "don't see color, just people" and maybe call relatives on
racist remarks over Thanksgiving turkey. Ever since Whites started
buying Blacks kidnapped from Africa to do the heavy lifting (and any
other sweat inducing or minion level work) White supremacy has been,
as Critical Race Theory tells us, systemic, ubiquitous, and invisible
to the people who benefit from it. To cure it by being a "good
person" and converting others is about as useful as curing breast
cancer by placing a bandage over the lump. All of us who were born
White participate in and benefit from White supremacy not because we
are "bad" but because we were born and indoctrinated into a society
where it is as fundamental as the Constitution.
Let me give you an example. A White police officer shoots an
unarmed black man. A lot of people will describe him as one bad apple
in an otherwise pristine barrel. When he had a split second to make a
life or death decision he erred. However, he works within a system
and a community that largely perceives Blacks as more dangerous and
thuggish than Whites. Why did he stop this person in the first
place? Maybe there was a call from a White person. Recall internet
infamous Becky who reported a family group barbequing while Black?
Maybe he did his own racial profiling. In stores security guards are
much more likely to follow Black customers around. And drivers of
color are pulled over by cops in numbers way out of proportion to
their percentage in the population. As for his fear that his life was
in danger, would he have felt the same way if the person he shot was
White?
The book is divided into twenty-eight chapters. Each is
focussed on a facet of White supremacy. To do it right you read one a
day and response to the prompts at the end.
The first chapter is all about white privilege. It starts off
with a quote by Peggy McIntosh: "I was taught to see racism only in
individual acts of meanness, not in invisible systems conferring
dominance on my group." It goes on to examine the systemic nature of
this privilege, the ways in which it shows up, and why it needs to be
examined.
One of the writing prompts encourages white readers to think of
the ways in which we hold white privilege in our personal lives. I
had many to list. My husband and son drive all over the state without
being pulled over by the police because of racial profiling. I didn't
have to give my children the talk about how to survive being pulled
over by the police. When I was accepted to graduate school nobody
felt that it was due to quotas or that my being accepted kept someone
more qualified out. However I do, I'm not representing my whole
race. My girls were not expected to be less intelligent and innocent
than their peers in their growing up peers....
Get the idea?
This is not an easy book to read and reflect on. But it is an
important one for anyone who wants to make the difficult transition to
true allyship and commitment.
On a purrrsonal note, Eugene has left to spend his week's vacation at
camp. I'm glad he has the chance to spend some time at the place he
loves best. And he'll fine on the social distancing thing even if
they expand it from six feet to six miles. So it's Tobago and me
holding down the home fort.
As you can see from the picture I posted yesterday, my daffodils are
blossoming. Every year I so look forward to them--this year (When
there is so much less to look forward to) more than ever.
A great big shout out goes out to my hard working husband and all
others who are considered essential personnel and can't work from home
with special appreciation for first responders like my son.
Tobago and Jules Hathaway
Sent from my iPod
Adult nonfiction
"I'm Layla, and for (at least!) the next twenty-eight day's, I'm
going to be guiding you on a journey to help you explore and unpack
your relationship with white supremacy. This book is a one-of-a-kind
personal antiracism tool structured to help people with white
privilege understand and take ownership of their participation in the
oppressive system of white supremacy. It is designed to help them take
responsibility for dismantling the way that this system manifests,
both within themselves and within their communities."
Normally the chances that I'd give a book like this the one
chapter a day approach it deserves are slim to nonexistent. I'd read
it right through and review it because of time constraints. But, hey,
there are no library late fees during a pandemic. And without a job
or school work I've got nothing but time. So I'm going to give the
book due dilligence. I'm starting this review on day one. You'll get
to read it a month later.
This book began as a twenty-eight-day Instagram challenge which
morphed into a digital PDF before taking its present form. It shreds
the notion that there are bad racist people who could be epitomized by
the "fine people" lionized by a certain White president or Archie
Bunker, lead character in a now defunct tv series, and good nonracist
people who "don't see color, just people" and maybe call relatives on
racist remarks over Thanksgiving turkey. Ever since Whites started
buying Blacks kidnapped from Africa to do the heavy lifting (and any
other sweat inducing or minion level work) White supremacy has been,
as Critical Race Theory tells us, systemic, ubiquitous, and invisible
to the people who benefit from it. To cure it by being a "good
person" and converting others is about as useful as curing breast
cancer by placing a bandage over the lump. All of us who were born
White participate in and benefit from White supremacy not because we
are "bad" but because we were born and indoctrinated into a society
where it is as fundamental as the Constitution.
Let me give you an example. A White police officer shoots an
unarmed black man. A lot of people will describe him as one bad apple
in an otherwise pristine barrel. When he had a split second to make a
life or death decision he erred. However, he works within a system
and a community that largely perceives Blacks as more dangerous and
thuggish than Whites. Why did he stop this person in the first
place? Maybe there was a call from a White person. Recall internet
infamous Becky who reported a family group barbequing while Black?
Maybe he did his own racial profiling. In stores security guards are
much more likely to follow Black customers around. And drivers of
color are pulled over by cops in numbers way out of proportion to
their percentage in the population. As for his fear that his life was
in danger, would he have felt the same way if the person he shot was
White?
The book is divided into twenty-eight chapters. Each is
focussed on a facet of White supremacy. To do it right you read one a
day and response to the prompts at the end.
The first chapter is all about white privilege. It starts off
with a quote by Peggy McIntosh: "I was taught to see racism only in
individual acts of meanness, not in invisible systems conferring
dominance on my group." It goes on to examine the systemic nature of
this privilege, the ways in which it shows up, and why it needs to be
examined.
One of the writing prompts encourages white readers to think of
the ways in which we hold white privilege in our personal lives. I
had many to list. My husband and son drive all over the state without
being pulled over by the police because of racial profiling. I didn't
have to give my children the talk about how to survive being pulled
over by the police. When I was accepted to graduate school nobody
felt that it was due to quotas or that my being accepted kept someone
more qualified out. However I do, I'm not representing my whole
race. My girls were not expected to be less intelligent and innocent
than their peers in their growing up peers....
Get the idea?
This is not an easy book to read and reflect on. But it is an
important one for anyone who wants to make the difficult transition to
true allyship and commitment.
On a purrrsonal note, Eugene has left to spend his week's vacation at
camp. I'm glad he has the chance to spend some time at the place he
loves best. And he'll fine on the social distancing thing even if
they expand it from six feet to six miles. So it's Tobago and me
holding down the home fort.
As you can see from the picture I posted yesterday, my daffodils are
blossoming. Every year I so look forward to them--this year (When
there is so much less to look forward to) more than ever.
A great big shout out goes out to my hard working husband and all
others who are considered essential personnel and can't work from home
with special appreciation for first responders like my son.
Tobago and Jules Hathaway
Sent from my iPod
Sunday, May 3, 2020
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