The Precariat

"...Falling into the precariat could happen to most of us, if
accidents occurred or a shock wiped out the trappings of security many
have come to rely on..."
I was finishing a chapter of The Precariat: The New Dangerous
Class by Guy Standing, author of the above quote. I checked my
email. I saw a petition requesting Target to scale back its black
Friday opening from midnight to 5:00 a.m. Doesn't this capture it in
a nutshell? Despite lip service to the sanctity of Thanksgiving,
retailers deprive their workers of the chance to celebrate it in their
unbridled pursuit of wealth. And they can. Anyone who objects can be
so easily replaced...
I never before have been stumped on how to how to review a
book. I read The Precariat cover to cover. It puts all my worst
fears (and many of yours, I'm sure) into black and white, portrays an
inferno that gives Dante pretty stiff competition.
We all know intuitively, from the laid off Maine paper mill
worker to the Florida retiree surviving on Social Security, that our
neo-liberal global economy has its dark side. Increasingly the vast
majority of us (excluding the elite who benefit from the system) live
more precariously. This book delineates the many ways.
Commodification is at the heart of this transformation. All
entities become commodities to further enrich the wealthy. Human
beings become easily replaceable cogs. Families and communities hold
no value since they fail to produce income. Education at all levels
goes from growth of the mind to training for wage labor. Companies
are subjected to hostile takeovers. Nonprofits become more like
firms. Entitlements morph into help given only to the "deserving".
This shouldn't make sense. The people being sacrificed and
endangered vastly outnumber those profiting from their losses. But
the elite are great at divide and conquer games. The young are set
against their grandparents. Native born are told that immigrants will
take their jobs. Workers bagging groceries and flipping burgers are
given descriptions of welfare queens living lives of comparative luxury.
Maine's governor, Paul LePage, notorious for playing hide and
seek with a labor mural and telling the president to go to Hell, gave
us a relevant example recently. Because of lost revenue, he
instructed that deep cuts be made in welfare. Otherwise he'd have to
take it out of education.
It's enough to fill a progressive with despair. Giving up,
however, is not an option. Fortunately, after a chapter aptly titled
"A Politics Of Inferno" Standing devotes the rest of his book to
delineating a new progressive vision. We need to achieve it. The
precariat is a class-in-making, a rapidly growing potential class.
And if they suffer too much for too long they could fall for the siren
song of a neofascist, demogogue, or maverick. Sarah Palin anyone?
Although The Precariat was very tough to read, I'm really glad I
did not give up. I recommend this book to anyone with the courage to
face reality.
On a personal note: I have discovered that attending a four hour
contract negotiations meeting right after donating blood is not a good
idea.
A big shout out goes out to all my comrades around the world in the
occupy movement. We are the 99%! We must persevere so our children
will inherit a fairer world.
Julia Emily Hathaway

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Lockdown High

Caveat: Although I am a member of RSU 26's board of directors, the
thoughts expressed in this review are purely mine as a private citizen
and do not speak for any bigger entity.
Quite frankly, as a parent, the reactions in the educational
world to Columbine and similar events scared me a lot more than the
initial acts of violence. I read accounts of kids being diverted into
the juvenile justice system for saying and doing things that would
have earned them detention when I was in school. Heck, I hear mature
adults say things that wouldn't pass the zero tolerance test.
At some point I went from scared to angry. I felt that many
schools were allowing or pressuring their administrators to abnegate
their in loco parentis responsibility. And innocent kids were paying
for this...with their futures.
When I connected zero tolerance to No Child Left Behind and Race
To The Top I went from angry to over-the-top irate. Schools are
pressured to reach increasingly unrealistic standardized test scores.
A lot of kids being expelled and/or shunted into the juvenile justice
system are students whose scores might depress their schools'
averages. The expression "low hanging fruit" came to mind.
Then I read Lockdown High: When The Schoolhouse Becomes A
Jailhouse by Annette Fuentes. I learned that I wasn't paranoid. In
fact I had only glimpsed the tip of the iceburg.
Fientes claims that violence in schools is falling. In fact,
for most of our kids, school is one of the safer places to be. So why
do many people feel that our children are in constant danger of being
gunned down in algebra?
Not surprisingly, the very rare events like the Columbine
shootings are given extensive media coverage. "If it bleeds, it
leads" is rule number one in journalism. But it's not just the
media. A wide range of sources influence people's fears. If a police
department offers free live shooter training, for example, it can lead
teachers and parents to see this rare event as imminent. And when
elected officials react to perceived fear with draconian measures, the
measures are seemingly vindicated.
Things happen for reasons. As Fuentes points out, many people
keeping the climate of fear alive are in it for the money. There is a
lot of money to be made in the selling of products ranging from high
tech security devices to drug testing kits. And these goods are
pushed with evangelic fervor to school boards and administrators.
Ironically all the purchases in the name of safety do not make
students more secure. In heavily policed schools arrests rise.
Minority students and students with disabilities are especially at
risk for being funneled into a school-to-prison pipeline.
Some of what is described in the book is truly horrific.
Commando style raids with police throwing, pushing, and handcuffing
students take place. School security officers are advised to walk
around "...in complete tactical equipment, with semi-automatic weapons
and five rounds of ammo.". It's enough to make a parent despair.
Fortunately Fuentes offers a glimmer of hope in a chapter entitled,
"Busting Out Of Lockdown High: Alternative Paths To Safe Schools."
On a more personal note: I had a fantastic Halloween, handing out
candy dressed as a witch with Joey cat playing the role of my familiar
and eating candy and watching X Files episodes with my son.
A big shout goes out to all the school administrators and school
boards who are resisting the pressure to turn their schools into
lockdown highs.

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The Healing of America

If you're a parent you've been there. Your child is ill or
injured. Bandaids and TLC won't cut it. You have to find someone who
can cure your little one. Assuaging pain and relieving fear are also
high priorities.
Some of us have fears of our own. Can I afford this? Will my
child be treated if I don't have insurance or cash up front? Will
accumulating medical bills force us to lose our home? We're the
statistics you read about--the people who lack health insurance. I've
been a member of this very inclusive club for twenty-one years.
Only in America! The United States is the sole industrialized
nation to not provide some form of universal health care in the
world. This leaves us in a nasty little crisis. We spend more money
on health care than any other first world country. But when it comes
to results we're not doing much better than desperately poor third
world nations.
How can we do better? That's the question posed by T. R. Reid
in The Healing of America: A Global Quest For Better, Cheaper, and
Fairer Health Care. He visited industrialized nations around the
world, analyzing their health care financing and delivery systems.
His findings dispel the specters invoked by those with a stake in
maintaining the status quo.
The stereotype of socialized medicine does not hold true for all
nations. Health care in many countries has strong private sector
componants in finance and delivery. America's Medicare fits the
socialized medicine picture a lot better.
It's not all about rationing. Although some countries have
waiting lists for elective surgery and nonemergency care, their
citizens in general have quicker access and more choice than we do.
And we have our own economic rationing system. Every year twenty two
thousand of us die of treatable diseases!
The administrations of these nations are not wasteful
bureaucracies. Our for profit health insurance companies spend twenty
percent of every dollar on non medical costs. In contrast, France
spends five percent and Canada six percent.
Reid believes the United States should begin the discussion of
health care reform by posing these basic moral questions:
"Does a wealthy country have an ethical obligation to provide access
to health care for everyone?
Do we want to live in a society that lets tens of thousands of our
neighbors die each year, and hundreds of thousands face financial
ruin, because they can't afford medical care when they're
Sick?"
What do you think?
If you have any interest in health care fairness The Healing Of
America is a must read. It's a thoughtful analysis and comparison of
many nations' medical care and finance systems. Unlike many dry,
jargon laden tomes, it is highly readable and engaging.
On a more personal note: I'm trying to get ready for winter before it
arrives and looking forward to my first Maine School Management
Association conference.
Coming attractions: a YA dystopia novel. I'm striving for a better
fiction/ nonfiction balance.
A big shout out goes out to Shelly Gilman, our awesome school nurse at
Veazie Community School, and her dedicated peers. They are some of
the most accessible workers in our health care system.
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exposed

YA. Fiction. Realism.
Imagine that you're 16. You've had the same best friend just
about all your life. Then suddenly she becomes evasive, distant,
seemingly reluctant to be in the same room with you. The reason is a
horrifying accusation that pits your loyalty to your friend against
that to your family.
Liz, protagonist of exposed, and her best friend, Kate, have an
argument at a sleepover. When Liz wakes up the next morning Kate is
gone. People are sure the girls will work things out. But Kate has
no intention to. She avoids Liz, saying she needs some space. It
turns out she's accusing Liz's brother, Mike, of raping her the night
of the sleepover.
It's not long before Mike is arrested. Liz doesn't know who to
believe. Her own brother can't be a rapist. But why would Kate make
up such a terrible lie? As her despair grows, even photography--her
passion and career choice--becomes difficult.
Author Kimberly Marcus tells Liz's story hauntingly in poetry.
Every phrase, every word is perfectly chosen. For instance, Liz sees
Kate's mom in CVS when she's shopping for shampoo. She wonders,
"What does she think of me, this woman
Who taught me how to bake cookies from scratch?
Does she hate me, blame me?
Does any part of her miss me?"
Liz is a beautifully nuanced, believable character it's
impossible not to care about. Not surprisingly, Marcus is a clinical
social worker who specializes in adolescent and childhood trauma.
Exposed is her first novel. This humble reviewer sincerely hopes more
will be forthcoming.
On a personal note: I'm enjoying the perfect late summer Maine
weather but missing the kids when they're in school, looking forward
to celebrating my birthday September 21 (also world peace day), and
totally craving a Dairy Queen tropical blizzard.
Coming attractions: we'll look at a book that disputes the idea that
our dysfunctional American health care system is too big to change.
A big shout goes out Geoffrey Wingard as he goes back to the
classroom. My Katie says he is an excellent teacher. He's also a
great board member and really good friend.
Julia Emily Hathaway

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Memento Nora

YA; fiction; dystopia.
These are the times that would be great for inspiring good
dystopias. There is so much to raise disquietude in every facet of
life: politics, education, the environment... At the same time
there's so much pressure from the government and their BFFs in big
business to not rock the boat. So I knew if I went hunting for this
genre I wouldn't be disappointed.
The strength of a dystopia lies in its author's ability to tie
together troubling trends and take them just a bit further. There has
to be enough continuity to create plausibility. At the sane time the
future world must hang together with its own internal coherence. This
is not an easy task. Angie Smibert pulls it off brilliantly with her
YA novel, Memento Nora.
Nora, the heroine, a student at Homeland High #17, lives in a
time when traumatic memories can be erased quickly and painlessly.
All you must do is go to a Therapeutic Forgetting Clinic. After
describing the event you wish to forget to a doctor you take a pill
and go on with your life, unaware that it had ever happened.
A bomb goes off in a store. A dead man falls at Nora's feet.
Not surprisingly, she has a nightmare and is taken to her mother's
favorite clinic. She ends up just pretending to take the pill. She's
seen a boy spit his out secretively. And she's heard her mother
describe an aspect of her home life she had never imagined.
The boy, Micah, is not in Nora's crowd. But she's strangely
drawn to him. They meet and decide that the stories being chemically
erased need to be recorded. When they create and distribute a comic
book the establishment goes all out to shut them down. As the
conflict escalates it becomes impossible to put the book down.
In addition to being a place where memories are erased and
dissent is crushed, Nora's world is heartbreakingly consumerist and
superficial. Ads stream through every aspect of life. Citizens are
taught that consumption is one of their freedoms. Everyone and
everything experienced positively is described as glossy. 'Nough said.
Dystopia fans and affecianados of a good suspense story will
find Memento Nora to be a must read. Teachers will applaud this book
and the thought provoking questions that arise from reading it.
On a more personal note: Hate to see the summer ending and the kids
going back to school. :P
Coming attractions: we're sticking with YA fiction.
A big shout out goes to Kathryn Olmstead. She was my journalistic
ethics professor when I was great with child 21 years ago. I still
remember the issues we discussed and the excitement of exploring them
under her expert guidance. When I lost her as a teacher I gained her
as a friend. A good and trusted friend. And hugs to her darling
canine companion, Lucy!

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Let's Go Clean Green

My Joey cat is practically purrfect in every way. When I get up
in the morning he greets me with the ardor of a pre teen at a Justin
Bieber concert. At night he sits on my lap while I knit. And any
moment in between he's there for me.
Sometimes,though, Joey takes it into his head to destroy a piece
of furniture by clawing. Once when a sofa was under siege the hubby
brought home an aerosol can of something designed to keep pets off
stuff. I tried it once. Joey responded with the full bodied growl/
hiss usually reserved for hypodermic wielding vets. From then on just
the sight of the can elicited this response.
I was puzzled. The can shows a healthy looking cat and dog.
But when I read the cautions more carefully...you can't even throw the
can away if it contains some product...and I was using it in my home!
I kept the cat, banned the can.
If you've had a similar dilemma or are just concerned about your
home environment you'll find The Complete Guide to Eco-Friendly House
Cleaning by Anne B. Kocsis to be a truly valuable reference book.
Kocsis had me from hello, starting her book with my favorite Erma
Bombeck quote: "Housework, if you do it right, will kill you.".
Sadly, there's more than a grain of truth in that. A lot of products
that unclog our drains, remove Fido's fleas, and get rid of that pesky
static cling contain carcinogens and other nasty stuff and can do harm
to us and our animal companions.
Ironically, even those of us who are aware of environmental
dangers of corporate practices in the big world can vary in our
enlightenment when it comes to products we use in our homes. Drain
cleaner and toilet bowl drop ins scared me out of my wits. But I
still put fabric softener sheets on the shopping list. And companies
can make creating a safe home environment really confusing. Sensing
our desire for green products, some have engaged in deceptive
practices--making products that are anything but appear to be
environmentally friendly.
Fortunately some firms are coming out with truly green
products. And there are basic substances and objects in your home
that can save money as well as being safer. But there are so many
things we use daily to clean our homes, clothes, and pets--locating
and replacing the bad stuff can seem overwhelming.
Now this is where the book comes in. Kocsis began her research
because her family got sick too often. The information she gleaned
made marked improvements in their health. And she dispenses it in
highly readable, well-organized sections.
Chapters one and two give the low down on some pretty nasty chemicals
that may be lurking in your home.
Chapters three to five give you safer options.
Chapters six and seven give manageable starting points for changing
your home cleaning system.
Chapters eight through twelve, my favorites, give you room by room
strategies.
And the rest of the book covers special situations like pet care and
laundry stain removal.
If you want your home to be a less hazardous place buy the
book. Even if you don't decide to follow the program, it's an
invaluable resource for those inevitable household predicaments...
like keeping a cat from shredding a piece of furniture.
On a personal note: Joey is a radiantly healthy eight-year-old
cat who will celebrate his adoption day next month.
Coming attractions: Fiction. I promise.
A big shout out goes to Joey and all the other wonderful animal
companions who do so much to enrich our lives. I think it is totally
cool that a portion of the proceeds of this book will be donated to
the Humane Society. :-)
Julia Emily Hathaway

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Two for the kitchen

Watching the struggles of several friends who have diabetes
served as a scary reminder of my own genetic predisposition. True I'm
a vegetarian and not a couch potato. Still I thought there must be
something else I should be doing.
My good friend, Jann, who is a nurse, suggested that I cut down
on carbs. That rang a bell. I gave in too much to my sweet tooth.
To my fellow RSU 26 board members my lollipops were iconic.
I decided to give up sugar, high fructose corn syrup, and all
the other stuff that isn't good for people. I felt that I had to
choose between food for health and food that tastes good. Fortunately
Eat Naked by Margaret Floyd put this false dichotomy to rest. If you
want to feel better or lose weight or you simply are concerned about
what you're eating, this reader friendly book is a great place to start.
Eating naked has nothing to do with your clothes (or lack
thereof). It has everything to do with the purity of the food you
eat. As a society, we increasingly consume processed substances with
some pretty scary ingredients. And the (factory farmed) chickens have
come home to roost. Record numbers of us are overweight or obese and
on track for diabetes and heart disease.
Floyd's solution: start giving your body what it needs, not
what Madison Avenue says you want. There are five basic principles:
--Eat food that is whole and unrefined.
--Eat food that has been grown or raised naturally.
--Eat food when it's fresh and in season.
--Eat food that has been raised or grown as locally as possible.
--Eat food that has been processed as minimally as possible.
Eating naked fleshes out these basics. Floyd teaches us how to
navigate the complexities of shopping, dining out, and cooking. She
does not demand going cold turkey. In fact, she encourages gradual
transition. You don't have to totally cut out comfort foods. And
there are some pretty awesome recipes.
Eating locally year round can seem like a daunting challenge to
those of us who live close to the Canadian border. Lisa Turner's The
Eat Local Cookbook is a truly wonderful asset. It's written by a
Maine farmer and organized by season and dish type (appetizers,
salads, side dishes, entrees, and desserts). The recipes are quite
varied and tasty. All you foodies and locavores out there will be in
cooking paradise. So don't waste a minute. Get out to your library
or book store and find something good for dinner. There are even
ideas for our ubiquitous zucchini. :-)
On a more personal note: those two books have been my
salvation. It's been over two weeks since I embarked on my quest to
eat more sanely and prevent diabetes. All I can say is smooth
sailing. And I feel great!
Coming attractions: next we are going to do some eco friendly
house cleaning. Following that we'll kick back and relax with a bunch
of fiction.
A big shout out goes to my good friend, Jann. It's truly a
blessing to have someone who can console me when things go badly,
celebrate with me when they perk up, and know when to practice tough
love. The words, thank you, could never be adequate...but I guess
they'll have to do.
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