Nations Apart (adult nonfiction)

     I'm sure that you've been noticing that on just about any issue of substance Americans have become deeply divided in the past few decades and conversations have become more contentious and hostile. More frustrating. More how can they not see what is so obvious. You may have wondered how these divides can happen between citizens of one nation. 

     Colin Woodard, author of Nations Apart: How Clashing Regional Cultures Shattered America, seriously questions the one nation premise. He reminds us that America was initially colonized by quite diverse groups from a number of nations. The settlers didn't homogenize as the melting pot theory suggests. Rather the differences in beliefs and behaviors widened, entrenching distrust and division between groups. This gets us to the predicament we're in today. In his first chapter Woodard gives a detailed analysis of the groups and the differences between them. Most of the book is concerned with the impact of those cultural divides on today's hot button issues. The final chapter is about potential ways to pull the nation together. 

"THE INDIVIDUALISTIC WORLDVIEW is poorly suited to collective action problems, such as confronting and containing a deadly airborne virus. During the terrifying first year of the Covid-19 pandemic, regional differences--and the abdication of federal leadership by then President Trump--made the United States ground zero for the global crisis, as elected officials and large numbers of citizens across the aggressively libertarian regions mobilized not against the deadly virus but against public health measures meant to contain it."

     One of the differences between the "nations" is that between those with individualistic and communitarian orientations. In chapter three Woodard compares the effects of these orientations on reactions to a crisis we all remember vividly and visceraly. States with communitarian orientations mandated public health measures such as masking and sheltering in place while states with the individualistic orientations went in the opposite direction. 

     Woodard analyzes regional differences concerning our most volatile hot button issues: gun control, health and survival, war, immigration, abortion, climate, and authoritarianism vs democracy. Every one is thoroughly researched and nuanced with plenty of statistics and the visuals that bring them to life.

     I really like Nations Apart. It makes sense. It doesn't demonize one "side" while touting the other as salvation. And Woodard has a lot of good ideas. If, like me, you're concerned about the polarization of today's America you'd do well to check the book out.

     If you like Woodard's writing you're in luck. He has six other books in print. 

On a purrrsonal note, Sunday morning Eugene and I took off for an overnight at camp. We spent a lot of time with the Browns at their camp across the road. Richard Brown and Eugene have been besties like forever. We got together in the morning and then for dinner and a campfire. Eugene who usually sacks out at 9:00 if he doesn't have to plow snow has now, counting the fireworks, stayed up until 10:30 two nights! May wonders never cease!!!

A great big shout out goes out to our good friends, the Browns. 

Jules Hathaway 

     

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Concert

I took this picture right before the concert started. It is my favorite. The communication between the children and musician was so spontaneous and beautiful. 

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Concert

It was definitely a family and community event. 

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Concert

This is the fine group that performed. 

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Concert

This fine trio is most definitely excited about fundraising for the Orono Public Library expansion. As am I. 

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Getting To Reparations (adult nonfiction)

     I believe it's about time for reparations to Blacks in America for all that has been done to them and taken from them by both law and brute force for centuries. I'm told that most of my fellow whites disagree with me for all kinds of reasons. I don't have slaves. My ancestors never had slaves. It's all ancient history. It will make white children feel guilty and shamed. It can't be done...

     I feel that it can and must be done. A bit of self disclosure--my ancestors on my mother's side enslaved people. In fact I have reason to believe that at least one raped enslaved women. So of course I consider reparations to be a most important imperative. 

     I was so glad when I discovered Dorothy A. Brown's Getting To Reparations: How Building a Different America Requires a Reckoning With Our Past. Brown, a law professor at Georgetown University Law Center, constructs an eloquent and convincing case for reparations. Her analysis is broken down into three parts.

     Part One: we've done it before--paid restitution to groups harmed by our actions. Brown discusses four instances. At the turn of the Nineteenth Century Italian families were compensated for the lynching deaths of immigrant family members. Tribal nations have been compensated for land theft. Decades after their forced relocation to horrendous camps during World War II Japanese Americans and their descendants were compensated for their losses. White slave owners were compensated for loss of their "property".

      Isn't it about time to compensate a group that has suffered all those losses and so many more?

     Part Two is absolutely heartbreaking. It's where Brown proves decisively that the evils being done to Blacks didn't end in 1865, but continued into the Twenty-first Century. There was the way chattel slavery shape shifted into share cropping and convict leasing. There was the brutal practice of lynching. Sometimes it was done in front of crowds including families as entertainment. Sometimes pieces of the deceased were sold as souvenirs. Often the "crime" the victim was guilty of was causing white resentment by, against all odds, acquiring land and property. It was "a tool to instill fear, seize property, and reinstate white superiority".

There was economic violence perpetrated by the government as in FHA loans and the GI Bill. There was redlining, gentrification, Urban Renewal...

     In Part Three Brown explains how reparations can be achieved. Her vision is both inspiring and down to earth. And you don't have to be a policy wonk to comprehend it.

     Getting To Reparations is a must read for anyone who wants with liberty and justice for all to be more than empty words we pay lip service to. 

On a purrrsonal note, I'm really enjoying the long weekend. Saturday Eugene and I had our traditional breakfast at Governors. We went to a lunch time cookout at the in-laws. On the way over Eugene bought me a fabulous bomber jacket that will glean me many compliments when the weather gets cool enough for me to wear it. In the evening Eugene and I went to see the Bangor fireworks 🎆 🙃 😀. It was beautifully cool and breezy beside the river. A band entertained us before the main event. The fireworks 🎆 were amazing--beautiful and dramatic, especially the grand finale. Today Eugene and I  are going to camp to spend the night. Maybe we'll find some yard sales on the way there. You never know where they'll spring up. 

I hope you're having a good weekend. I got up early to do my biking and post this review where I could.

A great big shout out goes out to Eugene who didn't really want to go to the fireworks but did it for me. 

Jules Hathaway 

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Acrobatic squirrel

This acrobatic squirrel was raiding my mother-in-law's bird feeder. She's finally out of the hospital. My MIL, not the squirrel. Eugene and I are over for a holiday cookout.

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