Black Lives Matter Book List
Some stuff to read while thinking about this:
Uncle Tom's Cabin, Harriett Beecher Stowe. The first popular attempt to depict life under slavery. It's rife with stereotypes and a little preachy, but it is the book that started it all and surprisingly readable.
Reconstruction, Eric Foner. 600 pages of hard work and real history.
Contempt of Court, Mark Curriten and LeRoy Phillips Jr., Saga of the first Supreme Court case to defend the rights of a black citizen... sort of. The real issue was whether a Tennessee sheriff was under the jurisdiction of the federal courts and could be held in contempt for failing to abide by a federal court order. The order involved a directive to protect a black man from lynching in 1901.
Trouble in Mind, Leon Litwack. More than you want to know but everything you should know about lynchings in the USA.
Lost Battalions, Richard Slotkin. Chronicles two regiments that valiantly fought in WWI. One comprised mostly of Jewish immigrants known as the 77th "Statue of Liberty" Division; and the 369th Infantry Division, known as the Harlem Hell Fighters. One came home to some recognition, the other to lynchings and ethnic cleansing.
The Children, David Halberstam. The front line troops of the civil rights movement were children. Their leaders were college kids, their shock troops were as young as 10 years old. They stood up to fire hoses and police dogs and the worst the crackers could bring.
Simple Justice, Richard Kluger. The complete story of Brown v. Topeka BOE.
Blood at the Root, Patrick Phillips. The story of ethnic cleansing in one Georgia County.
Wednesday, June 24, 2020
Monday, June 22, 2020
In Which I Prove Once
Again to be a Nudge
When I was in 10th grade the history teacher, who was also
our football coach, often sent me to the library for some research during
class. That's because he was about to give a lecture and he got
tired of me correcting his version of the record. Nothing much has
changed.
On June 4, I got a nice note from Lauren Katzenburg,
editor of the NYT's At War newsletter, promising a correction. She
had written that the Bonus Army had been protesting to get paid money that was
due to veterans. Au contraire, I noted: "The Bonus
Army "bonus" was in no way due and payable in 1932.
The Great War Compensation Act of 1924 issued veterans certificates that could
be redeemed for cash value in 1948. The veterans were trying to persuade
the government to redeem the certificates at a discount. " And I added,
"Thus, the government did not repeatedly decline to pay a bonus
due. Of course, if Hoover had any sense or compassion, he would have paid
up. Putting the money in the hands of spenders would have boosted the
economy. It would also have saved Hoover from his greatest
embarrassment."
But there is more! On
June 20, I was informed by the NYT that my comment on an article
about the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, an all-black WAC unit, was
accepted. Again, I was just clarifying the record. The
article correctly noted that Harry Truman had desegregated the military in
1948. I added: "The
order ending segregation in the military was issued by Truman in 1948. It was
not fully implemented until the Eisenhower administration, 1953 to 1961."
(Two days later) And speaking of the NYT, this morning I picked up a copy of the Times Sunday Review from June 23, 2019 that I had put aside to read later (and never read). Happened t glance at an article called Stonewall and the Myth of Self-Deliverance by Kwame Anthony Appiah. The article cites a famous SCOTUS decision that placed consensual behavior by adults out of the jurisdiction of the government as Lawrence v. Kansas. Well that caught my eye. The correct cite is Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S. 558 (2003). Kansas is, of course, the whipping boy of choice for East Coast pundits citing outrageous Bible Belt regulation.
(Two days later) And speaking of the NYT, this morning I picked up a copy of the Times Sunday Review from June 23, 2019 that I had put aside to read later (and never read). Happened t glance at an article called Stonewall and the Myth of Self-Deliverance by Kwame Anthony Appiah. The article cites a famous SCOTUS decision that placed consensual behavior by adults out of the jurisdiction of the government as Lawrence v. Kansas. Well that caught my eye. The correct cite is Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S. 558 (2003). Kansas is, of course, the whipping boy of choice for East Coast pundits citing outrageous Bible Belt regulation.
Tuesday, June 16, 2020
Nice Vacation
A week ago I was fairly convinced I had COVID 19. I even wrote a blog post headlined, Life With
Covid 19. That's because I had been tracking
my fever hourly for about four days. It
had a high of 103.9. and ranged from
104.5 to 97.6 since May 30, when it first
clocked in at over 102. Otherwise no symptoms and I had Covid test that came out
negative.
Still, my doctor was convinced, as I was, that I had Covid
19, albeit a mild dose. So I had another
test. When they take the test, they take
a long q-tip and shove it up your nose.
The first time I took it they used a special kit with its own carrying case and device that
looked like a digital thermometer and packed away in its own special plastic
case. The test was administered by a very gentle, soft spoken doctor who apologized for any
pain. I felt nothing. For the second test I had a battle-weary nurse who used a
very long wooden stick, shoved it way back
into my head and rooted around awhile.
"Wanna make sure we get a good sample," she said.
I was definitely aware that
someone had shoved a q-tip up my nose, but I
also wanted to be sure she got a
good sample. She put the q-tip into a
plastic sandwich bag.
Two days later, negative.
So what's caused the fever? It's
a mystery. I am back and functional and
a little disappointed that I did not have a mild case of Covid. The average recovery is about two weeks, and
by the time the test result came back I was nearly two weeks in
quarantine. A few days more and I would
have been cleared and potentially carry antibodies that would last for a while.
So I watched a lot of good movies and
read a couple of good books. Nice
vacation.
Monday, June 8, 2020
Life in Quarantine
June 8, 2020
Today my temperature was 97.7. Normal for the first time since May 30. That's when I discovered I had a temperature over 102 and got a test for
Covid 19. I didn't get the test back
until Thursday, June 4, and it came back negative. A false negative we think.
I have had no other
symptoms. I still have a fever. 100.9 as I write this. It's been as high as 104.5 and never lower than 100 until yesterday when I woke up to
99.5. The morning readings are lower
because I take aspirin or ibuprofen at bed time. I'm stuck here, more or less, until I get
three days of normal temperature.
It's not that bad although I'm getting tired of the routine
and cannot lose the feeling that I'm a burden to the rest of the
household. They are not complaining, and
keep me comfortably fed and watered (sometimes beer).
The good news is no one else in the house is
showing symptoms. Hickory, whose health issues (severe asthma) make her the most vulnerable is, normal for her,
driving herself to physical exhaustion. That has a lot less to do with me than
her volunteer job at Keeping Our Promises, an organization she created which
has resettled over 100 Afghan and Iraqi
families here in Rochester. She
has found a new place to store and manage the donated household goods that for
the last three years have taken up all the spare space in our house and garage.
She is getting it all out of here (HURRAH) and organizing it downtown at Greenovation.
Yesterday she pulled a muscle moving stuff she should not have been moving and had to go to the emergency room. (I have
told her to slow down many times, but when has she listened to me?)
Hickory has also done her share of cooking and delivering
meals to the shut-in. Will, who started his internship last week with a local
custom amplifier maker, fills in shopping and delivering meals. The family shut-in appreciates the delicious
meals. Hickory has done some lunch sandwiches, soups. Will and Swillar have cooked some excellent spicy
stir fries, BLTs, breakfast quesadillas and peanut butter and jelly banana wraps. The family is also keeping an eye on Harry and Shirley, which has normally been my job.
I can imagine what hell this would be for my wife the extrovert,
but for me it's the Life Of Riley. I have a room full of books and have finished
four light novels in the last week, will
probably finish another today. I am plowing my way through Barbara Tuchman's A Distant Mirror (minimum 25 pages/day)
and decided, after 50 pages, I don't want
to read Advise and Consent or Lord Jim... at least not now. I organized all the books in my bedroom (and
the one shelf in the hall just outside my door) and culled out about 20 volumes for the library sale. I read the NYT, WAPO, DnC and Guardian daily
and spend entirely too much time on the Facedbook. I subscribed to Curiosity Stream and binged
an excellent documentary on WWI (Apocalypse).
I binged Fargo on Hulu. I
have watched many movies: yesterday
alone Clueless and Groundhog Day (I had forgotten how much I love that
movie.) There is this blog to maintain and... I actually got some
work done for one of my clients.
There must be an end game here. My doctor (who calls periodically) is convinced that this is Covid or maybe Lyme
Disease. I'm going to get another COVID
test and if it's negative we'll test for Lyme and run a Covid antibody test. In the meantime I'm looking for at least four
more days of this RnR here in quarantine.
Friday, June 5, 2020
White Privilege Saves My Ass (again)
I had a cop draw down on me once. It was a strange situation n a strange day. I had
been in Canandaigua attending, of all things, a rally for George The Moron
Busch. He was selling his Medicare Part
D gift to the Big Pharma and since I was for better or worse the political officer for my company, I had gotten an invitation from
the local GOOP mob. How could I refuse?
So after the rally I stopped by my house, which is on the way back to the office, and had lunch. Our road runs directly under Interstate 90
which is the route Busch would
be taking to the airport. So I am driving
back to the office, and I notice a cop
car stopped about 20 yards on the other side of
the I-90 overpass blocking the road. He has his flashers on. I slow down and stop between the overpass and the cop car.
Next thing I know the cop has jumped out of his car and is
pointing his gun at me and shouting. I
distinctly remember shouting back, "What the fuck is wrong with you?" a statement which, had I not been surrounded by my puffy cloud of white privilege, would have gotten me killed. But he just shouted a lot more, still pointing his
gun.
Eventually I got the idea that
Busch was coming this way and this cop was assigned to keep terrorists from blowing up the overpass. There should have been two cops, one on each side, or he should have parked his car on one side and stood on the other, but there apparently had not been a lot of advance planning about this. Which I said, "how the hell was I supposed to know that?"
and he said well his car was there, and I said, but it wasn't on the
other side of the overpass and how the hell was I supposed to know what he was doing? Anyway he didn't kill me and put his gun away but he glowered a lot and let me
pass.
Wednesday, June 3, 2020
Is there a punch line here somewhere?
George "The Moron" Busch was great for
comedy. It was his only positive aspect.
When he left I thought those joyous moments ... an irate Iraqi throwing a shoe at the
President of the USA... would never pass this way again. Then we got the presnut. Is it now the best of times?
The Onion tells us that Iraq is preparing to send
peacekeepers to the USA. Andy Borowitz, behind
a picture of the presnut's all-white cabinet meeting, tells us it's a task
force on racism. And the memes created
from the photo of the presnut in front of the Episcopal Church holding a bible
have been priceless. Borowitz tells us, "Trump Struggles to Identify Unfamiliar Object."
There is one with his famous "pussy grabbing" quote shopped
onto the church bulletin board; one with Matthew 7:15 (beware of false
prophets) shopped in; and my personal favorite, one captioned "take a
prostitute to a hotel and get a free
book." (The later has been taken
down by Facedbook, which has no sense
of humor.)
It's irony, of course. The lower we sink, the funnier things
get. At some point you have to ask how much disrespect can a leader handle? "The
President is a Liar" is a good measure. Not Nixon, not even The Moron Busch who lied to
us to justify a war that cost trillions
and killed thousands of Americans, was consistently called a liar in the main
stream media. Politicians might call
each other liars... notably that asshole Joe Wilson... but the media has long
been reluctant to do so.
To be called a liar by the NYT or Forbes requires a
special relationship with the
truth. The presnut, who was given a pass
on this issue during the 2016 campaign,
(what a shock he must have had when they finally began calling him on
his bullshit!) was finally challenged on Inauguration Day. Remember how he insisted he had the biggest
inaugural in history and Kelly Ann Conway postulated the existence of
"alternative facts?"
By early spring 2017, the "fact checker" lists had
began... every major news outlet has one. Last month,
Forbes noted, in reliance on the WAPO's list, that the presnut has told 18,000
lies since taking office and, "As of early April, Trump has told 23.3
lies per day in 2020, a 0.5-lie increase since 2019. What’s more, Trump has
averaged 23.8 lies per day since the first case of COVID-19 was reported in the
US — another 0.5-lie increase." Hysterical, but true.
Have we hit rock bottom? Apparently
not. Today, GOOP senators are defending the presnut's bible
photo op. "Obamagate," a fraudulent claim that President
Obama conspired against the good name of the President-elect back in 2016, is
still a top priority in the Senate. With the presnut threatening a
military take-over of state policing powers while inciting his well-armed
supporters to riot, have we not had enough? Can we trust that there
will be full and fair elections in November? Can we survive with
this lack of a leader until January 20, 2021?
The 25th Amendment allows for the removal of the President when
the Vice President, in conjunction with the majority of the cabinet or a
majority of either house of Congress, is unable to "discharge the powers
and duties of his office." This can't happen without a
serious conspiracy of the top GOOP leadership, but it is a kindness to state
that the GOOP leadership is a confederacy of dunces. The people who
brought us Sarah Palin and Reince Priebus and the presnut himself are not
going to save the nation. We are all still in free fall. The
bottom is down there somewhere. We should brace for the crash, or try to laugh it off.
Monday, June 1, 2020
I Lost a Friend to Covid 19
I recently posted The Village Voice obit for my friend Ward
Harkavy who died of Covid 19 on May 17.
I had tried to write about this twice but could not get it
right. I kept seeing Ward looking over
my shoulder saying, "God, Pryor, that's Bullshit."
Ward and I
worked at the same newspaper (Lawrence (KS) Journal World), but not at
the same time. That was probably a good
thing. Ward was an exacting copy editor. I was a fair to middling reporter and knew nothing of style books or spelling or commas.
He was a great and admirable companion. Acerbic, witty, fearless and funny. (Among the first people to be banned from the presnut's twitter feed). We smoked a lot of dope together... one reason
the law school faculty named me most likely to flunk the bar. (I did
not.) With a small group of wits, ran a
fake candidate (Martin L. Roberts, The Man From Kansas) for Lawrence City Council. With another select group, watched a lot of
baseball. During an especially long
meeting on the pitcher's mound one beautiful evening at Royals' Stadium, Ward
informed me they would never allow those meetings in the Jewish Baseball
League. Why? I asked. "Time is money," he said.
The last time I saw him was in 1986. I was in Tucson for the NCAA Regionals. We toured the Saguaro National
Forest and stayed out late smoking dope under the desert sky. He talked about the man who shot
up an ancient saguaro cactus, which promptly fell over and killed him. Karma,
Ward noted.
Before there was Google there was Ward. He was an authority on almost everything, and always available any time of the day or night to answer trivia questions. His answers were widely respected and settled many a debate. So for a while he never knew when he would
get a call from me.
Still, I lost track
of him. Shortly after I moved to Rochester (where for a very, very, very brief
time many years before, Ward had a job as the media reporter) I was looking for some information about Amadou Diallo, and Google took me right
to an article Ward had written for The
Voice.
I called him up and thereafter we faced booked and Plonskied
and once in a while discussed getting
together in the city. We never did. Just goes to show. You never know.
Life in Quarantine
When we started this Covid shut down I made a practice of taking my temperature
regularly, and after a couple of weeks with
no issues, I stopped. So
Saturday, I got to thinking about that and took my temperature.
I didn't feel sick, just tired from having missed my nap three days in a row,
but otherwise fine. I was a little
shocked to discover it was at 102.3.
What to do? This can
be a serious matter, given that I am a caretaker for a fragile 87-year old.
I called the Covid hotline and they sent me to the clinic... where they
found my temperature was normal. Defective
thermometer? They
administered THE TEST, and told me I
should get the results in four days (Wednesday at the latest.) In the
meantime, the prescription is
quarantine.
I have no symptoms,
other than a fever. (Today its right at 101)
There are things to like about this. I spent all day Sunday reading. Havn't had an excuse to do that for years. Finished The Closers, Michael Connelly; started 1453, Bernard
Cornwell; and started A Distant Mirror, Barbara Tuchman. (The
last two I have read before. Tuchman's history of the middle ages starts at about 1453, with the 100 years war.) Also read the NYT and WAPO. Today
I cleaned my room, something needed for a long time.
Things I don't like about it... I have stuff to get done that I can't do in my room. Hickory (who is also more or less
quarantining) has plenty of stuff to do besides bring me stuff I could get for
myself. And I feel fine.
Do I worry about having Covid 19? Sure.
But I don't really think I have it. This is just an excess of caution
and I expect to be back to normal Wednesday.
If not? Will keep you posted.
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