Internment
YA/adult dystopia
"In the distance I see a funnel of smoke rising into the air.
Most of the town is at the book burning, so I should be safe.
Or, at least, safer."
I've said it before, and I'll say it again. The best dystopias
go just enough real life to create an air of plausibility or, in the
case of Samira Ahmed's Internment, near inevitability. They grab you,
scare the Hell out of you, and, hopefully, leave you motivated to do
whatever it takes to keep the story from happening.
In a chronology that could have been lifted from Hitler's
Germany a census has asked about religion, resulting in a Muslim
registry, exclusion laws have been enacted, books by Muslims have been
burned, and the president has warned Americans about the threat
Muslims pose. He fans the flames of fear and hate with a weekly speech
that bumps all other programming.
Layla's college professor has been fired for his religion.
After Layla was suspended for an innocuous act her parents didn't let
her return to high school to finish out her senior year. The whole
family lives in fear. But her parents cling to the belief that things
have to get better, a belief Layla can't buy into. [It was the kind
of belief that kept many Jews in Hitler's Germany until it was too
late to escape.]
"The thing is, it's not like half this country suddenly became
Islamaphobes because of any single event. But the lies, the rhetoric
calling refugees rapists and criminals, the fake news, the false
statistics, all gave those well-meaning people who say they're not
bigots cover to vote for a man who openly tweeted his hatred on a
nearly daily basis. Through the political dog whistles and hijabis
having their head scarves ripped off and mosques vandalized with
swastikas and the Muslims who went missing--through all this my
parents hoped and believed that things would get better. They seem to
have this eternal flame of hope.
But that's not me."
Their faith and hope are about to be really tested. In the
middle of the night armed officials burst into their home. They are
given ten minutes to gather their most necessary possessions and no
opportunity or means (their cell phones are confiscated) to say
goodbye to loved ones. They're permanently imprinted with ID numbers
that can be read by scanners (like the World War II concentration camp
prisoners had ID numbers tattoed on them).
Camp Mobius is in the middle of nowhere. It's surrounded by an
electric fence. Little contact with the rest of the world is
allowed. People are punished severely for the slightest protest or
misstep. Some disappear, never to be seen again. There is talk of
sites where people are tortured for information. There is constant
surveillance. There are even cameras in the housing units.
Layla's parents want to survive as a family. Their plan is to
keep quiet, do nothing to draw attention to themselves, and try to fly
under the radar. Layla, in contrast, is determined to fight back, no
matter how big the risk.
Ahmed's author's note begins, "When fascism comes to America, it
will come draped in the flag.' She discusses the very disturbing
trends in America that motivated her to write Internment, the brutal
history behind them, and her hope that America can change. She also
challenges us:
"There is no room for moral equivalency--certainly not the kind
that hears the cries of a toddler being ripped away from her parents
and justifies it by quoting the Bible, and definitely not the kind
that looks at Neo-Nazis and declares that some are 'very fine people'.
There are sides.
Make a choice."
On a purrrsonal note, it's the last day of 2019. The year has its ups
and downs for me. The big loss was my best little buddy of 16 years,
Joey cat. The good parts were doing really well in my masters
program, having UMaine send me to an international conference, my job,
my friends, and adopting Tobago. Although I'll always miss Joey and
treasure his memory, it feels good to jump out of bed and feel excited
to come back home because someone precious is waiting for me and to
have my energy back, to not be walking around with half a heart.
Statistics:
Years married: 30
Semesters (part time) accomplished: 3
Months at Job (as of 1/1/20): 19
Volunteer hours (2019): 124 1/2
Blood Donated: (2019): 3 pints
Tobago's (emergency medical) credit union account: $430
Books reviewed on my blog (total for 8 1/2 years): 1619
Tonight I will be seeing the New Year in with a dorkfest of reading
near the tree, ice cream, candy, and cat cuddling. :-). And of
course in 2020 you can expect me to discover and share beaucoups des
livres.
A great big shout out goes out to Joey and Tobago.
jules hathaway
Sent from my iPod
Tuesday, December 31, 2019
Sunday, December 29, 2019
The Read-Aloud Family
The Read-Aloud Family
Parenting
I waited until my Amber was four weeks old before I read her her
first board book. Her Florida Grammie had come to visit. I wanted
Amber's first literary experience to include the person who cultivated
in me my love for the printed word. I chose a volume in which Ruthie
Rabbit visited the seashore because of my mother's love of the ocean.
Mom has since passed. Amber has grown up and moved on to more
sophisticated fare. (They haven't written Ruthie Rabbit Gets Her PhD
In Physics). The memory of that moment in time is crystal clear and
precious.
Read alouds were a big part of my parenting. My kids and I were
extremely lucky. I was doing regular children's book reviews for the
Bangor Daily News. Publishers were constantly sending me big boxes of
books they wanted me to write about. My children were always so eager
to dive into these boxes, looking for hot off the press treasures.
Before bed, on rainy days, and at totally random times I'd get
requests. [Other techniques I used were leaving interesting books in
places where my children could discover them, letting them see me read
for pleasure, randomly sharing facts and passages as I read, and
reading what they recommended. We had very lively book discussions!]
In a neighborhood where this was not the norm the Hathaways were known
as that reading family.
My advisor who was also my professor for assessments and her
wife are expecting a baby. I will take great delight in assigning her
Sarah Mackenzie's The Read-Aloud Family as homework. But you don't
need her PhD to grasp and fall hard for this very valuable volume.
As a first time parent, Mackenzie had visions of the kind of
parent she wanted to be. She just wasn't sure how to get there. [A
common state of affairs. Those beautiful babies sadly don't come with
instruction booklets.] At a friend's house she discovered Jim
Trelease's The Read-Aloud Handbook and found it to be a real eye
opener. Not only did its ideas become guiding principles as she
raised and home schooled six children, but it inspired her to create a
pod cast which led to the writing of the book.
MacKenzie knows that even with the best of intentions reading
aloud can get lost in the turbulence of dailiness. Our days are
fragmented. We think we're no longer needed when the kids can read on
their own. We must compete with the fast action, bright lights, and
instant gratification of the screens. We may fear that we don't know
what books are best. She addresses these and so many other issues,
giving valuable strategies to help parents create and cherish those
magic, memory making moments that happen when families engage
themselves in stories.
In you have kids still to home or frequently visiting grands
you'll find The Read-Aloud Family to be a most excellent investment.
On a purrrsonal note, I have the answers to the 2 concerns my kids
have about my having a new cat. One is that the house isn't clean
enough. I am so on that! A lot of the stuff I thought I need I
really don't. So I am going through everything I own. A friend will
help me with a thrift shop run. I now have a real motive for a clean
house. The second is money. They're afraid that if Tobago needs an
operation like Joey did we'll put it on the card. But if Tobago has a
savings account with $2,000? So how do I do that without involving
Eugene or my day job money? First: gift money. I have $430 in
birthday and Christmas money. Then there's returnables money.
There's change. I have all those little banks full of change I can
kick in. I don't need a bunch of little banks. Finally I'll try to
get some side gigs like babysitting. I bet when I put in the gift
money and all the change I'll be a quarter of the way. There's a good
chance this time next year I'll be at least half way. I am once again
full of energy. I haven't had this kind of energy since Joey was
diagnosed with cancer.
A great big shout out goes out to the sweet little cat in my life who
means so much more to me than anything I can buy in a store.
jules hathaway
Sent from my iPod
Parenting
I waited until my Amber was four weeks old before I read her her
first board book. Her Florida Grammie had come to visit. I wanted
Amber's first literary experience to include the person who cultivated
in me my love for the printed word. I chose a volume in which Ruthie
Rabbit visited the seashore because of my mother's love of the ocean.
Mom has since passed. Amber has grown up and moved on to more
sophisticated fare. (They haven't written Ruthie Rabbit Gets Her PhD
In Physics). The memory of that moment in time is crystal clear and
precious.
Read alouds were a big part of my parenting. My kids and I were
extremely lucky. I was doing regular children's book reviews for the
Bangor Daily News. Publishers were constantly sending me big boxes of
books they wanted me to write about. My children were always so eager
to dive into these boxes, looking for hot off the press treasures.
Before bed, on rainy days, and at totally random times I'd get
requests. [Other techniques I used were leaving interesting books in
places where my children could discover them, letting them see me read
for pleasure, randomly sharing facts and passages as I read, and
reading what they recommended. We had very lively book discussions!]
In a neighborhood where this was not the norm the Hathaways were known
as that reading family.
My advisor who was also my professor for assessments and her
wife are expecting a baby. I will take great delight in assigning her
Sarah Mackenzie's The Read-Aloud Family as homework. But you don't
need her PhD to grasp and fall hard for this very valuable volume.
As a first time parent, Mackenzie had visions of the kind of
parent she wanted to be. She just wasn't sure how to get there. [A
common state of affairs. Those beautiful babies sadly don't come with
instruction booklets.] At a friend's house she discovered Jim
Trelease's The Read-Aloud Handbook and found it to be a real eye
opener. Not only did its ideas become guiding principles as she
raised and home schooled six children, but it inspired her to create a
pod cast which led to the writing of the book.
MacKenzie knows that even with the best of intentions reading
aloud can get lost in the turbulence of dailiness. Our days are
fragmented. We think we're no longer needed when the kids can read on
their own. We must compete with the fast action, bright lights, and
instant gratification of the screens. We may fear that we don't know
what books are best. She addresses these and so many other issues,
giving valuable strategies to help parents create and cherish those
magic, memory making moments that happen when families engage
themselves in stories.
In you have kids still to home or frequently visiting grands
you'll find The Read-Aloud Family to be a most excellent investment.
On a purrrsonal note, I have the answers to the 2 concerns my kids
have about my having a new cat. One is that the house isn't clean
enough. I am so on that! A lot of the stuff I thought I need I
really don't. So I am going through everything I own. A friend will
help me with a thrift shop run. I now have a real motive for a clean
house. The second is money. They're afraid that if Tobago needs an
operation like Joey did we'll put it on the card. But if Tobago has a
savings account with $2,000? So how do I do that without involving
Eugene or my day job money? First: gift money. I have $430 in
birthday and Christmas money. Then there's returnables money.
There's change. I have all those little banks full of change I can
kick in. I don't need a bunch of little banks. Finally I'll try to
get some side gigs like babysitting. I bet when I put in the gift
money and all the change I'll be a quarter of the way. There's a good
chance this time next year I'll be at least half way. I am once again
full of energy. I haven't had this kind of energy since Joey was
diagnosed with cancer.
A great big shout out goes out to the sweet little cat in my life who
means so much more to me than anything I can buy in a store.
jules hathaway
Sent from my iPod
On Strike for Christmas
On Strike for Christmas
Adult holiday fiction
One of my absolute favorite family Christmas movies is On Strike
For Christmas. I was delighted to see that it was the adaptation of a
book when I saw that book on a shelf in my local thrift shop--mine for
a quarter. Yesterday I decided to read and review it on the sofa with
my beautiful tree still gracefully adorning our living room.
Even as guys are doing more of their share of housework and
childcare, doesn't it still seem that women do the lion's share of the
many tasks that make the holiday season spectacular? Not much seems
to have changed since the days when my mother addressed the cards,
baked the cookies, created the Christmas pageant costumes, trimmed
the tree, bought the presents, and got up at some ungodly hour to prep
the turkey for a noon feast. It was taken for granted that she would
and that a lot of women would. But what if women refused to play this
role? That's the delightful premise of On Strike for Christmas.
"'Hey, great time,' said the mooch. 'Thanks for having me.'
'No problem. We'll do it all again at Christmas,' Glen promised.
Behind him, Glen's wife, Laura, suddenly envisioned herself
going after her husband with the electric carving knife he's used
earlier on the turkey. 'In your dreams,' she growled..."
Laura works, cares for their two young children, takes care of
the house, and gets the meals on the table. During holiday season she
also has all the seasonal extra work including cooking for and
cleaning before and after the parties Glen is so fond of. For her the
holiday season is the most exhausting time of the year. So when Joy,
frustrated by her husband's Grinch like reaction to the gatherings she
loves so much, announces right after Thanksgiving at knitting club
that she is going on strike for Christmas Laura is quick to sign on.
And she isn't the only one. The strike even becomes a popular ongoing
story in their small town newspaper.
The husbands of the striking women have to take up the slack if
they want to have any kind of Christmas. At first they're all kinds
of optimistic. How hard can it be? As they learn their many mistakes
make the book quite funny. But there also is emotional depth to it
with emotional and relational insights, particularly when a
nonstriking woman faces a medical crisis.
People always ask me which is better if both book and movie are
available. Usually I say the book paws (Tobago and I are sharing the
sofa near the tree) down. When it comes to On Strike for Christmas
I'd say enjoy both. They complement each other beautifully.
On a purrrsonal note, Eugene and I don't have this problem. For one
thing we're happy holiday minimalists. Our paper Christmas card
giving/sending is highly selective. I have no problem with e cards.
And we don't try to include everyone we possibly know. He cuts down a
tree and I decorate it. We don't try to make the whole house look
like a page put of a Martha Stewart Live magazine. He does most of
the gift buying. We do the actual holiday meals with family. I make
the turkey and ham later in the week. The other thing is that, unlike
Joy and Bob, we accept the fact that Eugene is an introvert and I'm
not. If I want to attend an event that's not strictly family (I.e.
multicultural Thanksgiving, my program's Christmas party) I go solo.
That way we both can be happy rather than Eugene resenting me for
dragging him to events he has no interest in or me seeing Eugene as a
jail warden. Remember, marriage doesn't make a couple Siamese twins.
Actually this year Tobago's and my Christmas was like something out of
a Lifetime movie. Tobago was in the Waterville Humane Society
shelter. She's a beautiful, loving girl. She's sleek and black and
looks like a miniature panther with luminescent gold eyes and a white
chest patch. But anxieties triggered by noises and sudden movement
had her in a solo cage as opposed to a cat room and with serious
restrictions as to who could adopt her. I know how to win over
skittish felines. She needed me. I had lost my beloved Joey cat in
August. Although I managed to perform normally at school and work,
for colleagues, friends, and family, grief was becoming a life style.
Feeling sadness on going home, dreading weekends, and having to drag
myself out of bed was getting old after 130+ days. The counselor I
saw said I was fine--just needing a cat. My manager, Anna, spends
more time with me than anyone other than Eugene. She took me on a
road trip to Waterville. We dropped in at the Humane Society to say
hi to the kitties. There were so many lovely cats I was feeling
overwhelmed. Anna said not to worry. When I saw right one I would
know it. Actually Tobago knew it. Even with five other people in the
room she only had eyes for me. She rubbed against my hand through the
bars. When the cage door was opened she grabbed me with her front
paws and wouldn't let go. At home I put Tobaggo in the studio (which
has a nice under bed cat cave) and lay on the bed reading. Skittish
cats need to have control over the meet and greet. Soon she started
demanding attention and purring when I patted her or scratched her
behind the ears. In a matter of hours she was curled up with me. By
Christmas she was venturing into the larger house and bonding with
Eugene. Now she owns her domain. And doesn't she know it. I am
leaping out of bed in the morning, eager to see my sweet girl, and
really enjoying the vaca I'd dreaded. Tobago is a rescue cat, but I
think she rescued me every bit as much as I rescued her.
Great big shout outs go out to sweet Joey cat who was my purrrfect cat
for 16 years, loving and loyal to the very end, Tobago cat who came
into my life when I really needed her, Anna who brokered that sweet
deal, Eugene who responded to our new arrival by stocking up on cat
food and litter, and Leah, my advisor, a new puppy parent BTW, who
will understand that the research I planned on filling a lot of empty
vaca hours with probably won't happen because I am bonding with my
little panther. Also a shout out to you, my readers, with best wishes
for a safe and happy New Years Eve.
I don't really have a resolution. I don't need to resolve to take
good care of Tobago. She's the other half of my heart. What I will
do is continue to work on a better academics/work
/social life balance.
jules hathaway
Sent from my iPod
Adult holiday fiction
One of my absolute favorite family Christmas movies is On Strike
For Christmas. I was delighted to see that it was the adaptation of a
book when I saw that book on a shelf in my local thrift shop--mine for
a quarter. Yesterday I decided to read and review it on the sofa with
my beautiful tree still gracefully adorning our living room.
Even as guys are doing more of their share of housework and
childcare, doesn't it still seem that women do the lion's share of the
many tasks that make the holiday season spectacular? Not much seems
to have changed since the days when my mother addressed the cards,
baked the cookies, created the Christmas pageant costumes, trimmed
the tree, bought the presents, and got up at some ungodly hour to prep
the turkey for a noon feast. It was taken for granted that she would
and that a lot of women would. But what if women refused to play this
role? That's the delightful premise of On Strike for Christmas.
"'Hey, great time,' said the mooch. 'Thanks for having me.'
'No problem. We'll do it all again at Christmas,' Glen promised.
Behind him, Glen's wife, Laura, suddenly envisioned herself
going after her husband with the electric carving knife he's used
earlier on the turkey. 'In your dreams,' she growled..."
Laura works, cares for their two young children, takes care of
the house, and gets the meals on the table. During holiday season she
also has all the seasonal extra work including cooking for and
cleaning before and after the parties Glen is so fond of. For her the
holiday season is the most exhausting time of the year. So when Joy,
frustrated by her husband's Grinch like reaction to the gatherings she
loves so much, announces right after Thanksgiving at knitting club
that she is going on strike for Christmas Laura is quick to sign on.
And she isn't the only one. The strike even becomes a popular ongoing
story in their small town newspaper.
The husbands of the striking women have to take up the slack if
they want to have any kind of Christmas. At first they're all kinds
of optimistic. How hard can it be? As they learn their many mistakes
make the book quite funny. But there also is emotional depth to it
with emotional and relational insights, particularly when a
nonstriking woman faces a medical crisis.
People always ask me which is better if both book and movie are
available. Usually I say the book paws (Tobago and I are sharing the
sofa near the tree) down. When it comes to On Strike for Christmas
I'd say enjoy both. They complement each other beautifully.
On a purrrsonal note, Eugene and I don't have this problem. For one
thing we're happy holiday minimalists. Our paper Christmas card
giving/sending is highly selective. I have no problem with e cards.
And we don't try to include everyone we possibly know. He cuts down a
tree and I decorate it. We don't try to make the whole house look
like a page put of a Martha Stewart Live magazine. He does most of
the gift buying. We do the actual holiday meals with family. I make
the turkey and ham later in the week. The other thing is that, unlike
Joy and Bob, we accept the fact that Eugene is an introvert and I'm
not. If I want to attend an event that's not strictly family (I.e.
multicultural Thanksgiving, my program's Christmas party) I go solo.
That way we both can be happy rather than Eugene resenting me for
dragging him to events he has no interest in or me seeing Eugene as a
jail warden. Remember, marriage doesn't make a couple Siamese twins.
Actually this year Tobago's and my Christmas was like something out of
a Lifetime movie. Tobago was in the Waterville Humane Society
shelter. She's a beautiful, loving girl. She's sleek and black and
looks like a miniature panther with luminescent gold eyes and a white
chest patch. But anxieties triggered by noises and sudden movement
had her in a solo cage as opposed to a cat room and with serious
restrictions as to who could adopt her. I know how to win over
skittish felines. She needed me. I had lost my beloved Joey cat in
August. Although I managed to perform normally at school and work,
for colleagues, friends, and family, grief was becoming a life style.
Feeling sadness on going home, dreading weekends, and having to drag
myself out of bed was getting old after 130+ days. The counselor I
saw said I was fine--just needing a cat. My manager, Anna, spends
more time with me than anyone other than Eugene. She took me on a
road trip to Waterville. We dropped in at the Humane Society to say
hi to the kitties. There were so many lovely cats I was feeling
overwhelmed. Anna said not to worry. When I saw right one I would
know it. Actually Tobago knew it. Even with five other people in the
room she only had eyes for me. She rubbed against my hand through the
bars. When the cage door was opened she grabbed me with her front
paws and wouldn't let go. At home I put Tobaggo in the studio (which
has a nice under bed cat cave) and lay on the bed reading. Skittish
cats need to have control over the meet and greet. Soon she started
demanding attention and purring when I patted her or scratched her
behind the ears. In a matter of hours she was curled up with me. By
Christmas she was venturing into the larger house and bonding with
Eugene. Now she owns her domain. And doesn't she know it. I am
leaping out of bed in the morning, eager to see my sweet girl, and
really enjoying the vaca I'd dreaded. Tobago is a rescue cat, but I
think she rescued me every bit as much as I rescued her.
Great big shout outs go out to sweet Joey cat who was my purrrfect cat
for 16 years, loving and loyal to the very end, Tobago cat who came
into my life when I really needed her, Anna who brokered that sweet
deal, Eugene who responded to our new arrival by stocking up on cat
food and litter, and Leah, my advisor, a new puppy parent BTW, who
will understand that the research I planned on filling a lot of empty
vaca hours with probably won't happen because I am bonding with my
little panther. Also a shout out to you, my readers, with best wishes
for a safe and happy New Years Eve.
I don't really have a resolution. I don't need to resolve to take
good care of Tobago. She's the other half of my heart. What I will
do is continue to work on a better academics/work
/social life balance.
jules hathaway
Sent from my iPod
Saturday, December 28, 2019
Parkland
Parkland
Adult nonfiction IT
"'I'm going to be the next school shooter of 2018,' he said in
another segment. 'My goal is at least twenty people with an
AR-15...Location is Stoneman Douglas in Parkland, Florida...Here's the
plan: I'm going to take an Uber in the afternoon before 2:40 p.m.
From there, I'll go into the school campus, walk up the stairs, load
my bags and get my AR and shoot people down at...the main courtyard
and people will die.'"
The gunman entered his target Florida high school and opened
fire, killing seventeen people, mostly students. Each of them had
family and friends who would be devastated by the loss. Students hid
for hours wherever they could find shelter, sent what they thought
could be final messages to loved ones, and feared that the rampaging
killer would find them and end their lives. Terrified parents hurried
to the scene.
The Valentines Day Parkland shooting had a lot in common with
the mass shootings that are becoming much too common. A group of
students decided that they were going to fight back so others wouldn't
lose their lives or go through the trauma they had survived. Their
goal became to change this nation's gun laws so that other deranged
individuals wouldn't be able to get their hands on those lethal
weapons. They weren't going to settle for the "thoughts and prayers"
of politicians; they wanted action.
Dave Cullen had written the New York Times bestseller
Columbine. After ten years of researching and writing that book he
vowed never again. However nineteen years later, years during which,
cowed by the NRA, legislators failed to create laws that might have
prevented it, he found himself covering the Parkland shooting.
"Parkland changed everything--for the survivors, for the nation,
and definitely for me. I flew down the first weekend, but not to
depict the carnage or the grief. What drove me was the group of
extraordinary kids. I wanted to cover their response. There are
strains of sadness woven into this story, but this is not an account
of grief. These kids chose a story of hope."
Cullen got to really know the student leaders who created March
For Our Lives and their families. He takes readers behind the scenes
from the first march and walk out through the summer long national bus
tour and the midterm elections. This poignant and perceptive volume
is a must read for anyone who wants the litany of school shootings to
end. A solution is possible and we need to all be part of it.
On a purrrsonal note, I was vice chair on the Veazie School Committee
when we worked on making our school more shooter proof. I recall
looking at the chair who had very young children in the school. His
usually calm face was showing a stunned fear. The discussion was
reminding us all the next tragedy might not be somewhere else. We
need to be a nation where our kids don't have to be afraid to go to
school and we don't have to be afraid to send them.
A great big shout out goes out to all the fine folks working to get us
there.
jules hathaway
Sent from my iPod
Adult nonfiction IT
"'I'm going to be the next school shooter of 2018,' he said in
another segment. 'My goal is at least twenty people with an
AR-15...Location is Stoneman Douglas in Parkland, Florida...Here's the
plan: I'm going to take an Uber in the afternoon before 2:40 p.m.
From there, I'll go into the school campus, walk up the stairs, load
my bags and get my AR and shoot people down at...the main courtyard
and people will die.'"
The gunman entered his target Florida high school and opened
fire, killing seventeen people, mostly students. Each of them had
family and friends who would be devastated by the loss. Students hid
for hours wherever they could find shelter, sent what they thought
could be final messages to loved ones, and feared that the rampaging
killer would find them and end their lives. Terrified parents hurried
to the scene.
The Valentines Day Parkland shooting had a lot in common with
the mass shootings that are becoming much too common. A group of
students decided that they were going to fight back so others wouldn't
lose their lives or go through the trauma they had survived. Their
goal became to change this nation's gun laws so that other deranged
individuals wouldn't be able to get their hands on those lethal
weapons. They weren't going to settle for the "thoughts and prayers"
of politicians; they wanted action.
Dave Cullen had written the New York Times bestseller
Columbine. After ten years of researching and writing that book he
vowed never again. However nineteen years later, years during which,
cowed by the NRA, legislators failed to create laws that might have
prevented it, he found himself covering the Parkland shooting.
"Parkland changed everything--for the survivors, for the nation,
and definitely for me. I flew down the first weekend, but not to
depict the carnage or the grief. What drove me was the group of
extraordinary kids. I wanted to cover their response. There are
strains of sadness woven into this story, but this is not an account
of grief. These kids chose a story of hope."
Cullen got to really know the student leaders who created March
For Our Lives and their families. He takes readers behind the scenes
from the first march and walk out through the summer long national bus
tour and the midterm elections. This poignant and perceptive volume
is a must read for anyone who wants the litany of school shootings to
end. A solution is possible and we need to all be part of it.
On a purrrsonal note, I was vice chair on the Veazie School Committee
when we worked on making our school more shooter proof. I recall
looking at the chair who had very young children in the school. His
usually calm face was showing a stunned fear. The discussion was
reminding us all the next tragedy might not be somewhere else. We
need to be a nation where our kids don't have to be afraid to go to
school and we don't have to be afraid to send them.
A great big shout out goes out to all the fine folks working to get us
there.
jules hathaway
Sent from my iPod
Friday, December 27, 2019
She He They Me
She He They Me
Adult nonfiction
"So how do you get started? In real life, gender has a lot of
rules to follow, but in this book, you're free to make them up as you
go along. Navigate through your gender adventure by making your
choice and then flipping to the corresponding number at the top of the
page."
Some of my favorite parenting memories involve reading aloud to
my children. [BTW, the next book on my to review stack is all about
family read alouds]. Anyway some of my daughters' favorite read
alouds involved Goosebumps books, especially the choose your own
endings ones. You may be familiar with them. Instead of reading the
book from front to back you make a decision on how you want the plot
to go whenever prompted to by the text. Basically you can read the
book a dozen times or so without without encountering the same exact
story twice.
I thought I'd never see this concept applied to anything but
juvenile literature. I'm very glad I was wrong. Robin Ryles' She He
They Me: For the Sisters, Misters, and Binary Resisters (Don't you
just love the subtitle?) brings this format to the far from binary
world of gender. If you get your hands on it you are in for quite the
adventure.
Think your path begins with birth and the doctor's gender
pronouncement? Wrong! You first look at the society you arrive in.
Gender may not exist. If it does there may not just be two options.
Many factors are explored as you go along your path choosing options.
Explore your truth or use your imagination. There are over a hundred
possible stories.
What are you waiting for?
On a purrrsonal note, Tobago had her first visit with her new vet.
She is the picture of feline health. Dr. Julie is smitten with her
new patient and happy for Tobago and me and the life together we now
have. In the family Tobago has charmed Eugene and Amber. I can't
imagine anyone resisting her catly charms. As I write this she is
curled up with me sleeping.
I know Tobago is a rescue cat. I also know we rescued each other. I
brought her into a home where her needs are met and she is treasured.
She is healing my heart. I will always miss Joey and treasure his
precious memory. But I'm not drowning in grief.
A week into vaca I haven't gotten around to research. I may get very
little done. Bonding with Tobago is so delightful I don't feel like
leaving the house unless I have to.
A great big shout out goes out Dr. Julie Keene who will help me keep
Tobago healthy just as she did for Joey and to Anna who took me on a
road trip to Waterville where I met my sweet little girl.
jules hathaway
Sent from my iPod
Adult nonfiction
"So how do you get started? In real life, gender has a lot of
rules to follow, but in this book, you're free to make them up as you
go along. Navigate through your gender adventure by making your
choice and then flipping to the corresponding number at the top of the
page."
Some of my favorite parenting memories involve reading aloud to
my children. [BTW, the next book on my to review stack is all about
family read alouds]. Anyway some of my daughters' favorite read
alouds involved Goosebumps books, especially the choose your own
endings ones. You may be familiar with them. Instead of reading the
book from front to back you make a decision on how you want the plot
to go whenever prompted to by the text. Basically you can read the
book a dozen times or so without without encountering the same exact
story twice.
I thought I'd never see this concept applied to anything but
juvenile literature. I'm very glad I was wrong. Robin Ryles' She He
They Me: For the Sisters, Misters, and Binary Resisters (Don't you
just love the subtitle?) brings this format to the far from binary
world of gender. If you get your hands on it you are in for quite the
adventure.
Think your path begins with birth and the doctor's gender
pronouncement? Wrong! You first look at the society you arrive in.
Gender may not exist. If it does there may not just be two options.
Many factors are explored as you go along your path choosing options.
Explore your truth or use your imagination. There are over a hundred
possible stories.
What are you waiting for?
On a purrrsonal note, Tobago had her first visit with her new vet.
She is the picture of feline health. Dr. Julie is smitten with her
new patient and happy for Tobago and me and the life together we now
have. In the family Tobago has charmed Eugene and Amber. I can't
imagine anyone resisting her catly charms. As I write this she is
curled up with me sleeping.
I know Tobago is a rescue cat. I also know we rescued each other. I
brought her into a home where her needs are met and she is treasured.
She is healing my heart. I will always miss Joey and treasure his
precious memory. But I'm not drowning in grief.
A week into vaca I haven't gotten around to research. I may get very
little done. Bonding with Tobago is so delightful I don't feel like
leaving the house unless I have to.
A great big shout out goes out Dr. Julie Keene who will help me keep
Tobago healthy just as she did for Joey and to Anna who took me on a
road trip to Waterville where I met my sweet little girl.
jules hathaway
Sent from my iPod
Thursday, December 26, 2019
White Rage
White Rage
Adult nonfiction IT
"...White rage is not about visible violence, but rather it
works its way through the courts, the legislatures, and a range of
government bureaucracies. It wreaks havoc subtly, almost
imperceptibly. Too imperceptibly, certainly for a nation consistently
drawn to the spectacular--to what it can see. It's not the Klan.
White rage doesn't have to wear sheets, burn crosses, or take to the
streets. Working the halls of power, it can achieve its ends far more
effectively, far more destructively."
In her White Rage Carol Anderson (quoted above) comprehensively
describes this pernicious emotion and its tragic consequences. Whites
aren't triggered by the mere presence of blacks. We kidnapped them to
do the backbreaking work we didn't want to do, justifying the inhumane
conditions under which we owned them like we'd own horses by othering
them. We were fine with them as long as they stayed "in their place,"
especially if it suited our economic interests. Amazingly, though,
even under the most dire conditions they managed to assert their full
humanity and work toward freedom and equality for themselves and their
beloved children and to reject the subservient molds we tried to keep
them in. It was those "uppity," highly motivated, aspirational Blacks
who triggered our rage. Whenever, amazingly, against all odds, they
made progress toward full and equal citizenship we worked overtime to
return to the status quo.
Anderson supports her theory by delving deeply into five points
in history, some more current than we'd like to think. She starts off
with the period following the Civil War. Abraham Luncoln had blamed
that war on the Blacks, "But for your race among us, there could not
be war," conveniently forgetting that they hadn't come over
voluntarily to stir things up. Emancipation made slave holding whites
outraged over the loss of their "property." Attempts to gain rights
for freedmen added fuel to the flames. White vigilente groups like
the KKK wreaked horrific violence and intimidation. The Black Codes
restored slavery in all but name. And a myopia was started in which
seeing racism as the violent acts of mobs deflected attention from the
far more powerful and insidious systematic repression.
When World War I rolled around, with a lot of White men "over
there," industries in the North, hit by the double whammy of the need
to step up war time production and the dearth of workers, began
actively and very successfully courting Southern Blacks. Decent wages
for work and education for their children, not to mention escape from
a place where lynchings were considered entertainment and raping a
Black woman a White male rite of passage, were very powerful
inventives. But the Whites who had become well off by exploiting
Black sharecroppers were not happy campers.
"White reaction, with its veneer of legality and respectability,
answered, rising up to stop African Americans from controlling their
own destiny. Soon the South was blanketed with ant-enticement
statutes reminiscent of the Black Codes that again leveled exorbitant
licensing fees and chain-gang prison sentences for those 'luring'
blacks away from their employers..."
Here's one from my childhood. Racial and educational inequality
had become so blantant that even the Supreme Court couldn't ignore
it. Their Brown decision angered and frightened the Whites who
envisioned a slippery slope. If Black kids attended school with their
children it would lead to interracial dating, marriage, and sex of the
consensual nature (as opposed to White on Black rape which had been
condoned for centuries) producing mixed race children who would dilute
the "superior" White genetic stock. While enraged White housewives
screaming at little Black children captured public and press
attention, governmental and judicial maneuverings delayed enforcement
of and eventually castrated that ruling. It was not just in the
South, BTW, unless you consider Massachusetts a Southern state.
The hard won Civil Rights of the 60s (my teen years) led
government to pronounce the arrival of a color blind, equal
opportunity society. Whites, angered by politicians' portrayals of
Cadillac driving, steal chomping, Black welfare queens (conveniently
forgetting that the majority of recipients were, hello, Whites) began
to feel that their rights were being trampled on. And then there was
that fear that Black thugs were trying to bust out of their ghettos
and bring their drugs and crime into decent (read White)
neighborhoods. Even though more Whites than Blacks actually abused
substances, presidential wars on drugs, enforced by zero tolerance,
cops in schools, the myth of the remorseless teen super predator, and
manditory minimum sentences, left far too many Blacks serving
draconian prison sentences.
Here's what's very current. A lot of people were enraged when
American voters actually put a Black man in charge of our nation.
There are people working overtime to make sure that doesn't happen
again. Voter ID laws (ostensibly to prevent fraud which is actually
very rare), gerrymandering, the purging of voter lists right before
elections, and the gutting of the Voting Rights Act are eliminating
with surgical precision the people who potentially would vote for
Blacks.
Like a number of other books we looked at recently, White Rage
sends a crucial message to those of us who are White. Racism isn't
all the KKK and that obnoxious relative you have to chow down with on
holidays. Its most potent form is the systems of oppression that
allow us to use laws and governments to oppress and brutalize Blacks
from behind a veneer of civility. We must do all we can to dismantle
it, as I'm trying to do by bringing this fine book to your attention.
Read it, get very angry, and do something.
On a purrrsonal note, I now have Tobago's papers. She's actually 3.
I adopted her on her birthday. She's making incredible progress. She
curls up beside me now. She gives every indication of being happy.
And she even is confident enough to venture outside of her room to
check out more of the house. This afternoon she will have her first
visit to Veazie Vet. We'll see how that goes.
I had a wonderful Christmas. This year Eugene and I met up with all
our kids at Amber and Brian's to open all our gifts together and eat
breakfast. It was so much like the old times except without all those
tiny toy parts (think Legos and Polly Pockets) to pick up. Spending
precious time with the most important people in my life and coming
home to a sweet cat who was overjoyed to see me were what really made
my Christmas this year.
A great big shout out goes out to my family, our new member, and the
best little cat in the world who is sorely missed even in the midst of
celebration.
jules hathaway
Sent from my iPod
Adult nonfiction IT
"...White rage is not about visible violence, but rather it
works its way through the courts, the legislatures, and a range of
government bureaucracies. It wreaks havoc subtly, almost
imperceptibly. Too imperceptibly, certainly for a nation consistently
drawn to the spectacular--to what it can see. It's not the Klan.
White rage doesn't have to wear sheets, burn crosses, or take to the
streets. Working the halls of power, it can achieve its ends far more
effectively, far more destructively."
In her White Rage Carol Anderson (quoted above) comprehensively
describes this pernicious emotion and its tragic consequences. Whites
aren't triggered by the mere presence of blacks. We kidnapped them to
do the backbreaking work we didn't want to do, justifying the inhumane
conditions under which we owned them like we'd own horses by othering
them. We were fine with them as long as they stayed "in their place,"
especially if it suited our economic interests. Amazingly, though,
even under the most dire conditions they managed to assert their full
humanity and work toward freedom and equality for themselves and their
beloved children and to reject the subservient molds we tried to keep
them in. It was those "uppity," highly motivated, aspirational Blacks
who triggered our rage. Whenever, amazingly, against all odds, they
made progress toward full and equal citizenship we worked overtime to
return to the status quo.
Anderson supports her theory by delving deeply into five points
in history, some more current than we'd like to think. She starts off
with the period following the Civil War. Abraham Luncoln had blamed
that war on the Blacks, "But for your race among us, there could not
be war," conveniently forgetting that they hadn't come over
voluntarily to stir things up. Emancipation made slave holding whites
outraged over the loss of their "property." Attempts to gain rights
for freedmen added fuel to the flames. White vigilente groups like
the KKK wreaked horrific violence and intimidation. The Black Codes
restored slavery in all but name. And a myopia was started in which
seeing racism as the violent acts of mobs deflected attention from the
far more powerful and insidious systematic repression.
When World War I rolled around, with a lot of White men "over
there," industries in the North, hit by the double whammy of the need
to step up war time production and the dearth of workers, began
actively and very successfully courting Southern Blacks. Decent wages
for work and education for their children, not to mention escape from
a place where lynchings were considered entertainment and raping a
Black woman a White male rite of passage, were very powerful
inventives. But the Whites who had become well off by exploiting
Black sharecroppers were not happy campers.
"White reaction, with its veneer of legality and respectability,
answered, rising up to stop African Americans from controlling their
own destiny. Soon the South was blanketed with ant-enticement
statutes reminiscent of the Black Codes that again leveled exorbitant
licensing fees and chain-gang prison sentences for those 'luring'
blacks away from their employers..."
Here's one from my childhood. Racial and educational inequality
had become so blantant that even the Supreme Court couldn't ignore
it. Their Brown decision angered and frightened the Whites who
envisioned a slippery slope. If Black kids attended school with their
children it would lead to interracial dating, marriage, and sex of the
consensual nature (as opposed to White on Black rape which had been
condoned for centuries) producing mixed race children who would dilute
the "superior" White genetic stock. While enraged White housewives
screaming at little Black children captured public and press
attention, governmental and judicial maneuverings delayed enforcement
of and eventually castrated that ruling. It was not just in the
South, BTW, unless you consider Massachusetts a Southern state.
The hard won Civil Rights of the 60s (my teen years) led
government to pronounce the arrival of a color blind, equal
opportunity society. Whites, angered by politicians' portrayals of
Cadillac driving, steal chomping, Black welfare queens (conveniently
forgetting that the majority of recipients were, hello, Whites) began
to feel that their rights were being trampled on. And then there was
that fear that Black thugs were trying to bust out of their ghettos
and bring their drugs and crime into decent (read White)
neighborhoods. Even though more Whites than Blacks actually abused
substances, presidential wars on drugs, enforced by zero tolerance,
cops in schools, the myth of the remorseless teen super predator, and
manditory minimum sentences, left far too many Blacks serving
draconian prison sentences.
Here's what's very current. A lot of people were enraged when
American voters actually put a Black man in charge of our nation.
There are people working overtime to make sure that doesn't happen
again. Voter ID laws (ostensibly to prevent fraud which is actually
very rare), gerrymandering, the purging of voter lists right before
elections, and the gutting of the Voting Rights Act are eliminating
with surgical precision the people who potentially would vote for
Blacks.
Like a number of other books we looked at recently, White Rage
sends a crucial message to those of us who are White. Racism isn't
all the KKK and that obnoxious relative you have to chow down with on
holidays. Its most potent form is the systems of oppression that
allow us to use laws and governments to oppress and brutalize Blacks
from behind a veneer of civility. We must do all we can to dismantle
it, as I'm trying to do by bringing this fine book to your attention.
Read it, get very angry, and do something.
On a purrrsonal note, I now have Tobago's papers. She's actually 3.
I adopted her on her birthday. She's making incredible progress. She
curls up beside me now. She gives every indication of being happy.
And she even is confident enough to venture outside of her room to
check out more of the house. This afternoon she will have her first
visit to Veazie Vet. We'll see how that goes.
I had a wonderful Christmas. This year Eugene and I met up with all
our kids at Amber and Brian's to open all our gifts together and eat
breakfast. It was so much like the old times except without all those
tiny toy parts (think Legos and Polly Pockets) to pick up. Spending
precious time with the most important people in my life and coming
home to a sweet cat who was overjoyed to see me were what really made
my Christmas this year.
A great big shout out goes out to my family, our new member, and the
best little cat in the world who is sorely missed even in the midst of
celebration.
jules hathaway
Sent from my iPod
Tuesday, December 24, 2019
On Fire
On Fire
Adult nonfiction IT
As I write this it is the day before Christmas. New Years will
follow close behind. Whatever other resolutions you make (or decide
not to make) there is one I would like each and every one of you to
take on: read something way out of your comfort zone, something
downright scary, something that makes the fantasies of Maine's
horrormeister, Stephen King, seem like Sesame Street fare, something
that will make you as angry as a wet hornet and unwilling to be
sedated...something that reflects the realities of our globe as we
enter the 1920s. In fact please read more than We need to
incorporate these books' inconvenient truths into our thinking and do
something about them. So beginning with this review books that qualify
will have a designation of IT in the genre/audience line beneath the
title.
"It has been over three decades since governments and scientists
started officially meeting to discuss the need to lower greenhouse gas
emissions to avoid the dangers of climate breakdown. In the
intervening years, we have heard countless appeals for action that
involve 'the children,' 'the grandchildren,' and 'generations to
come.' We were told that we owed it to them to move swiftly and
embrace change. We were warned that we were failing in our most
sacred duty to protect them. It was predicted that they would judge
us harshly if we failed to act on their behalf."
So what went wrong? Naomi Klein, quoted above, devotes her On
Fire: The Burning Case for a Green New Deal to answering this
question. Following her introduction fittingly titled "We Are The
Wildfire" the text consists of her powerful essays and speeches penned
and delivered over the past decade. In them she not only tackles the
burning issues of this age, but describes their intersectional
connection.
One chapter that really broke my heart was There's Nothing
Natural About Puerto Rico's Disaster. It opens with these words.
"When you systematically starve and neglect the very bones of a
society, rendering it dysfunctional on a good day, that society has
absolutely no capacity to weather a true crisis." It blows the
"natural disaster" and "act of God" explanations for the death and
disaster out of the water. The stage for devastation was set well
before Hurricane Maria took shape. An externally imposed and enforced
austerity program had shredded all the systems that need to be in
place for effective crisis response: health care, communication,
education, transportation, and even electricity and water.
"This is the deadly cocktail--not just a storm, but a storm
supercharged by climate change slamming headlong into a society
deliberately weakened by a decade of unrelenting austerity layered on
top of centuries of colonial extraction, with relief efforts that make
no attempt to disguise the fact that the lives of the poor exist
within our global system at a sharp discount."
Capitalism vs. The Climate (2011) opens with "There is simply no
way to square a belief system that vilifies collective action and
venerates total market freedom with a problem that demands collective
action on an unprecedented scale and a dramatic reining in of the
market forces that created and are deepening the crisis." Readers get
a revealing look at the Heartland Institute's Sixth International
Conference on Climate Change. Don't let the name fool you. This is a
gang of deniers who believe that claims of the phenomenon are veiled
attempts to steal Americans' freedom. These are people for whom
denial is a core facet of their identity, people who benefit from the
status quo and know that they personally have a lot to lose from the
lowering of global emmisions. These are powerful people who
Republicans champion and Democrats attempt to appease. With
progressives engaged in climate change and economic justice
effectively siloed from one another,
"The right, meanwhile, has a free hand to exploit the global
economic crisis that began in 2008 to cast climate action as a recipe
for economic Armegeddon, a surefire way to spike household costs and
to block new, much-needed jobs drilling for oil and laying new
pipelines. With virtually no loud voices offering a competing vision
of how a new economic paradigm could provide a way out of both the
economic and ecological crises, this fearmongering has had a ready
audience."
It will probably not come as much of a surprise that my favorite
chapters are the ones at the end that describe the Green New Deal, the
work that will be needed to achieve it, and the benefits that will
accrue to the great majority of us if we summon up the will and commit
ourselves to the necessary work to make it happen. And I love the
words with which Klein ends the book:
"But more than thirty years later, as surely as the glaciers are
melting and the ice sheets are breaking apart, that 'free-market'
ideology is dissolving too. In its place, a new vision of what
humanity can be is emerging. It is coming from the streets, from the
schools, from workplaces, and even from inside houses of government.
It's a vision that says that all of us, combined, make up the fabric
of society.
And when the future of life is at stake, there is nothing we
cannot achieve."
Amen to that!
I would give On Fire and all other Klein's finely researched,
truth telling books (recall we checked out No Is Not Enough) a IT!
On a purrrsonal note, I'm getting to know my new fur baby. Tobago is
a gorgeous year old feline. She's almost all black with a white bib
and luminescent golden eyes. She has the slender muscular build of a
panther. I call her my little psnther. She loves me, frequently
approaching me for attention and purring when I pet her. She gets
spooked by stuff like loud noises and fast movement. She spooked me
last night when she got into a small space I couldn't get her out of.
She seems happier now that I've restricted her to one room with safe
spaces under the bed and in the closet to retreat to. I won't be
doing much research this vaca. My main priority will be bonding with
Tobago.
My manager, Anna, is big on animal adoption. When she heard that the
Waterville Humane Society had 92 felines in need of homes she wanted
to help. So she took me on a road trip. When Tobago woke up from a
nap and saw me she did everything in her catly power to get my
attention. Why me? I have no clue. There were other people in the
room.
Great big shout outs go out to Anna, the fine folks at Waterville
Humane Society, and you, my readers who celebrate Christmas.
jules hathaway
Sent from my iPod
Adult nonfiction IT
As I write this it is the day before Christmas. New Years will
follow close behind. Whatever other resolutions you make (or decide
not to make) there is one I would like each and every one of you to
take on: read something way out of your comfort zone, something
downright scary, something that makes the fantasies of Maine's
horrormeister, Stephen King, seem like Sesame Street fare, something
that will make you as angry as a wet hornet and unwilling to be
sedated...something that reflects the realities of our globe as we
enter the 1920s. In fact please read more than We need to
incorporate these books' inconvenient truths into our thinking and do
something about them. So beginning with this review books that qualify
will have a designation of IT in the genre/audience line beneath the
title.
"It has been over three decades since governments and scientists
started officially meeting to discuss the need to lower greenhouse gas
emissions to avoid the dangers of climate breakdown. In the
intervening years, we have heard countless appeals for action that
involve 'the children,' 'the grandchildren,' and 'generations to
come.' We were told that we owed it to them to move swiftly and
embrace change. We were warned that we were failing in our most
sacred duty to protect them. It was predicted that they would judge
us harshly if we failed to act on their behalf."
So what went wrong? Naomi Klein, quoted above, devotes her On
Fire: The Burning Case for a Green New Deal to answering this
question. Following her introduction fittingly titled "We Are The
Wildfire" the text consists of her powerful essays and speeches penned
and delivered over the past decade. In them she not only tackles the
burning issues of this age, but describes their intersectional
connection.
One chapter that really broke my heart was There's Nothing
Natural About Puerto Rico's Disaster. It opens with these words.
"When you systematically starve and neglect the very bones of a
society, rendering it dysfunctional on a good day, that society has
absolutely no capacity to weather a true crisis." It blows the
"natural disaster" and "act of God" explanations for the death and
disaster out of the water. The stage for devastation was set well
before Hurricane Maria took shape. An externally imposed and enforced
austerity program had shredded all the systems that need to be in
place for effective crisis response: health care, communication,
education, transportation, and even electricity and water.
"This is the deadly cocktail--not just a storm, but a storm
supercharged by climate change slamming headlong into a society
deliberately weakened by a decade of unrelenting austerity layered on
top of centuries of colonial extraction, with relief efforts that make
no attempt to disguise the fact that the lives of the poor exist
within our global system at a sharp discount."
Capitalism vs. The Climate (2011) opens with "There is simply no
way to square a belief system that vilifies collective action and
venerates total market freedom with a problem that demands collective
action on an unprecedented scale and a dramatic reining in of the
market forces that created and are deepening the crisis." Readers get
a revealing look at the Heartland Institute's Sixth International
Conference on Climate Change. Don't let the name fool you. This is a
gang of deniers who believe that claims of the phenomenon are veiled
attempts to steal Americans' freedom. These are people for whom
denial is a core facet of their identity, people who benefit from the
status quo and know that they personally have a lot to lose from the
lowering of global emmisions. These are powerful people who
Republicans champion and Democrats attempt to appease. With
progressives engaged in climate change and economic justice
effectively siloed from one another,
"The right, meanwhile, has a free hand to exploit the global
economic crisis that began in 2008 to cast climate action as a recipe
for economic Armegeddon, a surefire way to spike household costs and
to block new, much-needed jobs drilling for oil and laying new
pipelines. With virtually no loud voices offering a competing vision
of how a new economic paradigm could provide a way out of both the
economic and ecological crises, this fearmongering has had a ready
audience."
It will probably not come as much of a surprise that my favorite
chapters are the ones at the end that describe the Green New Deal, the
work that will be needed to achieve it, and the benefits that will
accrue to the great majority of us if we summon up the will and commit
ourselves to the necessary work to make it happen. And I love the
words with which Klein ends the book:
"But more than thirty years later, as surely as the glaciers are
melting and the ice sheets are breaking apart, that 'free-market'
ideology is dissolving too. In its place, a new vision of what
humanity can be is emerging. It is coming from the streets, from the
schools, from workplaces, and even from inside houses of government.
It's a vision that says that all of us, combined, make up the fabric
of society.
And when the future of life is at stake, there is nothing we
cannot achieve."
Amen to that!
I would give On Fire and all other Klein's finely researched,
truth telling books (recall we checked out No Is Not Enough) a IT!
On a purrrsonal note, I'm getting to know my new fur baby. Tobago is
a gorgeous year old feline. She's almost all black with a white bib
and luminescent golden eyes. She has the slender muscular build of a
panther. I call her my little psnther. She loves me, frequently
approaching me for attention and purring when I pet her. She gets
spooked by stuff like loud noises and fast movement. She spooked me
last night when she got into a small space I couldn't get her out of.
She seems happier now that I've restricted her to one room with safe
spaces under the bed and in the closet to retreat to. I won't be
doing much research this vaca. My main priority will be bonding with
Tobago.
My manager, Anna, is big on animal adoption. When she heard that the
Waterville Humane Society had 92 felines in need of homes she wanted
to help. So she took me on a road trip. When Tobago woke up from a
nap and saw me she did everything in her catly power to get my
attention. Why me? I have no clue. There were other people in the
room.
Great big shout outs go out to Anna, the fine folks at Waterville
Humane Society, and you, my readers who celebrate Christmas.
jules hathaway
Sent from my iPod
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