Credit someone

This week is really about avoiding becoming a Trumper. (Or possibly a disgruntled Leftist. There are similarities.)

You have probably noticed the ignorance and malice. There are some other, less obvious factors, like the refusal to acknowledge that someone on the other side might have a conscience or be right about something.

You can love someone and know when they are wrong. You can find someone really annoying but know that they are right (that could be part of what made them so annoying).

In times like these, the other side is so cartoonishly awful that it becomes harder to see their full humanity. It is still very important.

In what I believe will be the only good thing that I will ever have the ability to say about Trump, I think eliminating pennies and even nickels can be fine.

https://www.thenewstribune.com/money/get-rid-of-pennies/

I want to add all of these caveats, like that idea came from someone else, but it is actually practical; credit where credit is due.

I don't think that one is going to come up much, but there are others that are more important.

One thing that is painful about my father is that when I try and find good memories, I keep finding things that happened because of him, but for which he wasn't present, or where he didn't play a strong role, or where it was something that wasn't even that bad but there were hints of problems that would come.

It is frustrating for someone that I love and who played such a large role in my life.

Perhaps it is more helpful that I can also see reasons why it was easy for him to be that way. I can find compassion for him.

There is a lot of emotion involved for family, and there is a lot of everything with this administration; it may be easier to start with smaller issues.

Maybe there was a coworker whom you didn't really like, but they were a good worker. 

Maybe there was a teacher who gave you a hard time, but they also showed you what you could do.

Maybe there was a really grumpy basketball coach who also really cared.

Maybe there was a governor who did not govern well, but the prior work he did previously on health plans was really valuable.

Maybe a president who was terrible nonetheless met a crisis with soberness and dignity, which you would think is the least anyone could do, but we have seen someone do less now.

This is not in any way suggesting a tolerance for abuse; you can love someone and distance yourself too.

The point is that when you are looking at a policy or idea or conversation, your analysis is not determined by your feelings for the person.

• I like you, but this is a terrible plan.
• I do not like you, but you are right.  
• Many points between and betwixt and scattered all over the map.

The point of it is to not be hopelessly stuck in a partisan battle, but there are other advantages too.

Love that requires not admitting the other person's weakness is a fragile love. When you know a person's flaws and still love them, it is stronger.

Plus, you will of course have your own flaws and times when you are wrong.

Potential action item: Locate and acknowledge a good quality of someone you find difficult.

Learn something

I have been posting the potential action items on Facebook and Twitter, separately from the blog. Not everyone reads that blog, but they might still like ideas for things to do.

Most of them haven't drawn a lot of attention, but I did get a few negative commenters on the suggestion to get and wear KN95 masks.

https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2025/02/im-not-swearing-at-you-this-time-but.html

There was positive feedback too, but there were some anti-maskers. They started out asking questions that could have seemed reasonable, but it wasn't long before there were things that were clearly MAGA talking points, that I am also pretty sure they sincerely believed.

I know there is a lot of misinformation out there, and I can't recommend any one news source as consistently fair and reliable. 

There are a few things that do seem to help.

Specialized knowledge helps. 

If you know things like how various institutions function or how radios wave or diseases transmit or how hot jet fuel burns... any of those could be the thing that makes you say, "That's not how that works. That's not how any of that works."

I wish everyone had a good understanding of civics and hygiene and disease prevention,  but there are all sorts of things that are interesting and good to know, and there are lots of ways to get to know them.

My opening browser page pulls from Pocket:

https://getpocket.com/home

That means that there is a frequently updated mix of articles from magazines like Smithsonian, Psychology Today, Shape, Popular Science, and many others.

Some of them are ads; if it's something about the best meal kit or what the best investors know, I am probably not interested. Regardless, I find interesting things from a variety of areas and I appreciate that.

One great thing about Wikipedia is that the articles have sources listed. If you are not sure about something, you can find the article or book or interview that the claim comes from.

There are libraries full of books.

Currently I am going through some music books in the for Dummies series. It may not be the greatest title, but I am going in without a lot of background knowledge and with this series I do not need it.

Learning things will often lead to more learning; that is a beautiful progression.

It really is an interesting and amazing world, even though humans have set a lot of it on fire.

Potential action item: Pick something you find interesting and learn more about it.  

 

Movies about journalism

Last week I wrote about the movie Spotlight.

https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2025/02/the-movie-spotlight.html 

Watching it came from a desire to see examples of journalistic courage; so much of what we have seen lately in journalism seems more related to cowardice and greed. 

The list started with thinking about Spotlight (2015) and The Post (2017), then quickly grew to add Frost/Nixon (2008) and All the President's Men (1976). 

I then decided to add Network (1976), though I expected it to be about cynicism, not courage.

Without it being intentional, I believe I watched them in reverse release order. 

Spotlight was the one that affected me the most, which is a big part of why I wrote about it separately.

Coincidentally, all of the others were tied to Nixon. He was not the only president who was relevant to the story of the Pentagon Papers, but he was the one in office when the story broke. 

He was also the scariest one, as Bruce Greenwood as Robert McNamara makes clear in The Post.

Even in Network, the jaded cynicism, the fascination with terrorists, and the reported assassination attempts on Ford all feel like something that is the natural result of Nixon's presidency and the revelations that led to his resignation.

Of the movies, I really only recommend Spotlight and Frost/Nixon. 

The Post is not bad, but it doesn't feel as real and urgent as the other two modern ones. The concerns about going public, and the need for that, and how it might tie their hands should feel relevant now, but we seem to be more at the point where it's just quaint that they did care.

For the two films from 1976, I know they are both regarded as classics, but I can't say I enjoyed them. 

Of course, I was not actually watching for enjoyment, but I am not sure that I would recommend them either.

For Network, I have read some things about it, but maybe I read the wrong things. I was not prepared for how frail and vulnerable Peter Finch's Howard Beale was. I was expecting him to be angry and bitter, but what I saw was someone who had a breakdown and was ruthlessly exploited by people whose ambition and greed made them fine with murder. It hit much harder than I was expecting.

My more immediate frustration with the All the President's Men was the abrupt ending. They find out that Haldeman was not implicated during the Grand Jury proceedings because no questions were asked about him, which seems like a big deal, but then they just keep working on it and you know that various people get sentenced or resign through the end titles.

That indicates either that while the reporters were right, it was not their work that brought about the results, or that their work from that point on wasn't very interesting. It's kind of a letdown.

Maybe for people watching in 1976 it was easier to fill in the blanks.

The other thing that bothered me was the pushiness of the reporters, especially Bernstein, pushing and pushing on scared people who were saying "no". 

I understood that it was an important story. I also suspected that my feelings about Hoffman as an abusive person were probably coloring the performance. However, I had also seen examples of very caring, empathetic reporters on a very difficult story in Spotlight, so that also had an impact.

Maybe the issue with recent journalism hasn't been so much their lack of courage but their lack of caring and integrity.

Maybe it's the press we deserve if we keep accepting their shoddy, sensationalism that enables evil in the name of balance.

It was important that the Spotlight staff saw the humanity in the victims, and even at times in the abusers.

It is valuable to me that Frost saw Nixon's humanity, even though it was Nixon, and he also still nailed him.

It didn't give me any optimism about the state of journalism, but I saw two really good movies.

I'm not swearing at you this time, but...

This is a really great time to start masking if you haven't been already.

Yesterday's post led me to writing this, with the part about learning sign language, so thinking about inclusion and accessibility.

We have been failing people with compromised immune systems and the elderly by so completely rejecting COVID prevention.

Making it all more timely, I post this on the day that RFK Jr. is confirmed as Health and Human Services Secretary.

If only it were all a sick joke.

In truth, masking is not sufficient, because we are not just talking about COVID anymore.

We have flu spreading, with flu deaths rising over various age groups, including children.

We have Avian flu spreading, which is getting more attention for its effect on egg prices, but does not only matter for that.

We have Norovirus outbreaks. Measles cases are rising in the US and Canada. Polio is showing up here and there, with cases in Pakistan, Singapore, and Europe, but air travel can get things anywhere.

We have tuberculosis in Kansas City.

In addition, different diseases spread in different ways.

You may have heard references to aerosols, droplets, and fomites. There is some explanation here:

https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2020/07/06/887919633/aerosols-droplets-fomites-what-we-know-about-transmission-of-covid-19 

You may notice that they don't sound that different. It essentially comes down to whether you are more likely to breathe it in or pick it up from a surface and how long it will be a threat that way (will it linger in the air or do you have to have heard and felt the sneeze?).

While all of this is happening, this administration is actively fighting-- in multiple ways -- against a healthy and informed public.

Resist that.

That does not only mean masking, but also vaccines, washing hands, cleaning surfaces, social distancing and isolation, especially in case of illness.

Masking is the most visible, and the most unpopular, but what does it say?

It says that you accept science.

It says that you reject Trump.

It says that you care about allowing cancer patients and people with immune-system problems and many other health conditions to participate in the world.

It says you care about Black and brown people.

It says you will not spread disease. You have made a choice to care about others.

We need you now. Right away.

My travel blog updates have been including COVID and accessibility information for a while. I think they show that there are a lot of things that you can do pretty safely. 

It does take that extra step.

At work. In the store. On public transportation. In museums. In lines that are outdoors but where people are close together.

Potential action item: Obtain and wear KN95 masks. 

Related posts:

https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2024/12/wear-damn-mask.html

Disobey as quickly as possible

In writing to Google, I suppose the most disappointing thing is how much their quality sunk after they tossed not being evil as a value. 

I mean, it sounds like a bad thing anyway, but in an early job I was constantly checking out new search engines and comparing how they did. Different engines worked best in different situations, requiring some search repetition at times. 

Google was so vastly superior that it did away with all of that. Now you get ads and AI and "the Gulf of America". 

There is so much more information out there now that having a good means of searching it would be really valuable. It is a huge loss, even without them changing a name that has been standard usage for over two hundred years on the bluster of that petty, vicious buffoon.

I will still always call it the Gulf of Mexico. We do not have to obey.

We have been seeing too much of that obeying in advance.

The push back is that they just did not have the specifics of what compliance meant:

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/national-cryptologic-museum-covers-nsa-displays-dei_n_67a36924e4b0eeea940d825f?10e 

https://apnews.com/article/air-force-dei-tuskegee-women-wwii-pilots-ecdeac68dc7696535d093c7690ab73bc 

Look, if you work for the government in any way, your opportunity here is to drag your feet, obstruct, leak... anything you can to get in the way.

If you don't work for them, that's all the more reason to not comply.

I am posting a lot of Black history stories this month. I am also finding a lot of other people's posts to share, so I know I am not the only one.

Good! I will do the same thing for Women's History Month next month.

Is that major resistance? Not really. Me finding stories from history is kind of my thing.

However, the guiding force of this party is white supremacy and oppression of others. 

Whether they have called their enemy "political correctness", "multiculturalism", "critical race theory", "woke", or "DEI", what they really mean is that they will not respect or give credit to anyone not approved by them, regardless of truth or morality or anything else that is good.

Some little things strike at the heart of that, and keep our own hearts in the right place.

I know I keep saying how easy it is to go from despising them to becoming them, but I guess I don't feel believed.

Our resistance needs to be grounded in love and caring or it won't actually help.

It is also certain that any oppression this regime wants to try out will start against more marginalized people as a test. It will always spread.

For example, you might see something about ID needing to match your birth certificate, otherwise there will be issues with passports and voting. Transphobes will think "Ha!", but then married women who took their husband's name may find that it affects them. They might then find a lot of men going "Ha!"

Hate will keep spreading, but love can do that too. 

Make a good choice.

Apparently there is not clarity about whether sign language interpreters have been eliminated or not, but it certainly seems like something that fascists would do.

Potential action item: Learn sign language.

Related posts:

https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2017/11/affect-access-and-acceptance.html 

Corporate communications

As important as expressing your feelings to elected officials can be, businesses can be even more important. They hate losing money.

They also need to know why they are losing money.

I believe that the avid Trumpers are not the majority. Voter suppression and the determination of progressives to be spiteful played a role in the election results. He has too many fans but I still don't think they actually outnumber us.

They are obnoxiously loud, and could easily make a majority of the noise, giving businesses a distorted view.

We need to speak up to.

I found some good advice at Americans of Conscience:

https://americansofconscience.com/how-to-boycott/

Political organizations say that phone contact is the most noticed with elected officials; that is not necessarily the case for companies. It might work with a smaller company, but for a large corporation the most effective thing may be a letter to the corporate office.

Tell them you will not be patronizing them anymore and tell them why.

See, I stopped buying from Amazon after Bezos prevented The Washington Post from endorsing Harris. What I haven't done is announce it.

The page gives information on what kind of information to include, like where you will be shopping instead, and how much you tend to spend. That would be to make it hurt more.

The other thing they recommend is notes of gratitude if there is a change made. I agree with that, but also, if there are companies you appreciate, tell them now.

I am writing breakup letters to Amazon and Google, but also a note of thanks to Costco.

How do you decide? 

There are a few things to look at. I will never frequent Chik-fil-A or Hobby Lobby, but since I haven't been, that's not really a threat. I could lie, but dishonesty is a big part of how we got into this mess.

I have never been a big Target shopper, but one of my sisters has loved them, and she has stopped going. 

She should write to them.

(Also Target is now dealing with a shareholder lawsuit and that is beautiful: https://www.forbes.com/sites/pamdanziger/2025/02/04/target-hit-with-shareholder-lawsuit-claiming-investors-were-defrauded-about-dei-risks/)

If you have shares or are a VIP customer of some kind, or if you just spend a lot, that might be a company that will pay more attention to you.

All of my previously mentioned companies are ones I was aware of anyway. To see if I was missing anything, subjects I have searched under include "Trump supporters", "donors to inauguration", and "abandoning DEI". That gives us...

https://www.newsweek.com/american-businesses-supporting-donating-donald-trump-list-2027957

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/trumps-inauguration-donors-big-oil-big-pharma-big-tech-crypto-and-more/ar-AA1ybzl5?ocid=BingNewsSerp

https://www.forbes.com/sites/conormurray/2025/02/08/gm-pepsi-amazon-appear-to-remove-some-references-to-dei-from-annual-reports-here-are-all-the-companies-rolling-back-dei/

I am not giving up everyone in the results.

To be fair, I have always known Wal-Mart is evil, but was directed there for cheap insulin when I had no health coverage, and I have a great pharmacist there. I am currently insured through Medicaid, so I don't know how long I will have insurance. Maybe it's just fear, but I am sticking with them.

I have remained on Twitter and Facebook, even though I despise their owners. 

Musk has said protesting users will be banned, so I could end up gone anyway. For now, there are people I stay for. 

You can express disappointment even without declaring a boycott.

There are some that are mixed. I think the NFL was cowardly to remove "End Racism" from the end zones when the racist-in-chief was going to be there, but they have expressed commitment to DEI.

You could write a letter expressing what you support.

There will be posts coming up that will be more about stepping back from capitalism, so some of these may matter less anyway.

For now, you have a voice and you can use it.

Potential action item: Write to a company you use about their policies. 

Related posts:

https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2024/11/boycotting.html 

The movie Spotlight

"If it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a village to abuse one." -- Mitchell Garabedian in Spotlight

I don't think I have blogged about it, but I had mentioned on Facebook my intent to watch some movies about courage in journalism, hoping to remember a time when the press did not so badly let us down.

I will write about the others, but the movie that blew me away the most was Spotlight. 

The 2015 film is about the Boston Globe's coverage of the Catholic sex abuse scandal.

If you haven't seen it, I recommend it. It is really well-done, from the performance of the actors in what is very much an ensemble cast to the way it lays out and makes a logical order of something fairly complex.

I recommend it, knowing that there are people for whom the issue will hit very close.

What has stayed with me is the process of overcoming resistance.

A new editor, Marty Baron (Liev Schreiber), arrives at a time when there is a sex abuse case against one priest. He encourages the Spotlight team -- a team that does in-depth reporting over longer time periods -- to look into that. Assistant Managing Editor Ben Bradlee Jr. (John Slattery) attempts to discourage it, apparently concerned that the public won't appreciate the coverage.

Boston's deep Catholicism is a major influence, with most of the staff and readers being Catholic, even if not especially devout.

Various characters face various levels of reluctance, but what changes that is the ever-increasing scope as they talk to more people. First they think there might be 4 or 5 abusive priests, then 11. Talking to a psychiatrist who has worked on the issue, with 1500 priests in Boston and a 6% average, they calculate that it should be about 90.

As they figure out a new method for using the church directories to identify priests who were reassigned or undergoing therapy, they come up with 87 or 88.

(I did not take notes. I would like to read more about it.)

At that point Bradlee is fully on board, and shocked to find out that investigator Walter "Robby" Robinson (Michael Keaton) buried a story in Metro a few years back. Robby didn't even remember it, but had it thrown in his face when he got mad at lawyer Eric Macleish (Billy Crudup) for going with the quiet settlements and being so successful with that. 

Macleish had seemed to be the stark contrast to Mitchell Garabedian (Stanley Tucci), quoted above, but there was a time when he was trying harder, and differently, but not getting any traction.

It took a village.

People were horrified by the scope, and wanted to do something then, but they could have known the scope if they had been willing to face it openly, even if it had only been one priest and one child. One child would be worth the effort.

I had read recently that the only reason that the massive rape ring led by Dominque Pelicot was discovered was that he had also been taking upskirt photos in stores. One man noticed and let one of the women know, and she filed a complaint. Once they started looking, they found footage showing much worse things.

https://news.sky.com/story/victim-of-dominique-pelicot-on-how-her-report-led-to-france-mass-rape-trial-13218243

However, the context in which I found that out was someone saying that usually upskirting in France is not pursued. 

I don't know a lot about French law, but I am very familiar with the American tendency to decide it's not that big a deal, and certainly not worth ruining someone's life over this one thing. 

There are two problems with that:

1. One person's life has already been affected -- one can hope not ruined, but it can be very hard -- and that is worth something, even if it is only one person.
2. It never seems to be just one once you start looking.

Of course, the real issue may be who gets to be a person worthy of protection. 

Does this woman matter as much as this man?

Is this child as important as this priest?

Related posts:

https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2024/11/boycotting.html 

https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2024/11/the-frustrating-consistency-of-new-york.html   

Know your local slate

Yesterday's post was mainly about supportive communication, but did not rule out that there might be criticism or cutting people off.

It would be easy to assume that when we are communicating with elected officials and governing bodies that we are going to be more hostile. Don't assume that; there may be times for support.

For example, I was pleased with some of the questions that Oregon Senator Ron Wyden posed to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., regarding RFK's not being fit for the office to which he has been appointed. 

I also saw several posts calling Wyden a liar and a shill of Big Pharma. 

I am inclined to write something nice to Wyden about that, rather than yelling at him (really his office staff) over the phone. 

As it is, he has a town hall next week in my county (he holds town halls in each Oregon county annually), so I am going to attend that before deciding on any communication. 

I am not against calling your senators. There are a lot of tools out there to help. One I was introduced to years ago was 5 Calls. They are still out there and up-to-date:

https://5calls.org/getting-started/

Remember that exhaustion thing? One of the potential calls 5 Calls has is Fight Against Elon Musk's government takeover. 

From February 4th: "Merkley, Wyden join effort raising alarm over Trump administration chaos..."

That specific release is about national security issues, which is not the only area of concern. 5 Calls has seventeen topics. Depending on how specific you want to get, there could be many more. I remain unsure that calling my senators is the best use of my time, since they are already active in areas I care about.

The conundrum there is that it would also be easy to decide that there is no point in calling your senators if they are Republicans, because there is no reason to believe they would listen. In that case, I think I would still tend to call, but these are personal decisions.

If I saw my senators were being great on five out of six areas, but neglecting the sixth, maybe that's a reason to call, but acknowledging the good.

I want to get away from a trend on one side where no credit can be given for anything good, only tantrums for things not being exactly as you think they should be, now.

Regardless, I think it is a good idea to check on your representatives. How are they voting? Are they showing up? Are they introducing legislation that is valuable? 

Are they supporting utter destruction? Pretending to have concerns but still always voting as if they never really cared?

To the best of my knowledge, most of my readers are in Oregon and Washington; we don't really have anyone like Collins or Johnson. I am grateful for that.

It doesn't mean that there aren't important things to watch. I am going to give three specifically. All of these are important. They are more important because the people most bent on destruction organize really aggressively.

I will post local links, but these should be easily found. For now.

Secretary of State:

The last time Trump got into office, there was also a concerted effort to elect Republican secretaries of state. It was really all about voter disenfranchisement. It worked in Oregon -- at least on the election level -- but then he got cancer and died before he could do any harm. It's a terrible way to think about someone, but the designs were clear. Maybe he could have been stopped in other ways, but I feel like the tumor saved us.

Who oversees an election is important, not just for your state, but for all of the states. There have been serious attempts at voter suppression, especially since the Voting Rights Act was overturned. There is no reason to expect them to stop. Stacey Abrams did amazing work in Georgia for 2020, and we should be looking at that for every state for midterms and beyond.

Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Reed
https://sos.oregon.gov/Pages/index.aspx

School Boards:

I post a lot about school board elections when they come around, but again, this is an area where conservatives organize hard to make schools less healthy (a lot of the early organization was against COVID prevention), more bigoted, and more ignorant. (Those last two reinforce each other.) 

Beaverton School District
https://www.beaverton.k12.or.us/

Library Boards:

Of course schools have libraries too, but attacks on them -- generally related to censorship -- tend to happen at the school level. (Watch out for people talking about how much better switching to all electronic would be. That increases the ability to control and takes away the human guidance that students can get in a physical library.)

Community libraries extend that opportunity for knowledge to everyone, provide resources for those who don't have access to technology or shelter, and are one of the last, best bastions of democracy. Protect them.

Depending on the setup, individual libraries may function fairly independently of the other libraries in the county, but be aware. See what they need.

We need to cling to knowledge now more than ever.

Washington County Cooperative Library Services
https://www.wccls.org/

I am sure I will write more about this, especially for the more federal level.

For now, here is my slate. Don't neglect your state legislature either. States seen as hopelessly blue on the federal level do not get so lucky on the state level.

Oregon senators:
Ron Wyden: https://www.wyden.senate.gov/
Jeff Merkley: https://www.merkley.senate.gov/

House Representative for Oregon:
Suzanne Bonamici: https://bonamici.house.gov/ 

Oregon State Legislature:
Senate District 18, Wlnsvey Campos: https://www.oregonlegislature.gov/campos

House District 36, Hai Pham: https://www.oregonlegislature.gov/phamh

Living outside of an organized city, I don't have a mayor, but I have heard that if you want to address comments to the Portland mayor (like maybe about how aggressive plans to combat homelessness are avoiding the advice of people with more experience and burning out staff so ultimately making things worse), it doesn't require you to enter your address.

Just saying.

Potential action item: Get acquainted with your local leadership and bookmark their pages. 

 

Related posts:

https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2017/02/eyes-on-dennis-richardson.html

https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2020/10/love-to-watch-you-go.html 

https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2023/05/spotting-school-board-fascists.html

https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2023/05/school-board-elections-dont-let.html 

https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2021/05/some-people-behind-campaigns.html

(Really, there are so many school board posts, but they tend to go in clusters, maybe about every two years, and we are due again.) 

 

Embrace others

If you are feeling a strain from the chaos and instruction, it is reasonable to assume that others are too.

Sure, we know some are gloating. There have been other posts about how putting some distance between yourself and people like that can be necessary, but you know there are people who care.

You may notice that they are posting a lot of news, or a lot of frustration, because some people are pretty open.

Some people might not know what to say. Some people may have been shouted down enough by others (from whom distancing might be useful) that they are holding back, which may mean more internal churning.

We can support each other. That feeling of connection is important; we want to be in community.

It is also important because it is doing something, even if it is small. 

We don't want to lose sight of individuals.

It may be helpful to take some of this contact outside of social media, but there are things to be gained from social media as well.

We frequently see people who put laughing emojis on stories of suffering, and are quick to add negative comments on anything good. 

I can only assume that their lives aren't very meaningful to them. Maybe they have offline things that they like, but if it were that satisfying I don't think coming on to bully others, screech about Portland being burned down, and mock people in need would seem like a good use of time.

Be the opposite of that. 

Sure, on social media, when you see good things like them, share them, and comment on them. Express care. 

Take that offline too.

Texting is relatively convenient. Calls and visits can take more coordination, but can also be more personal.

Tell people what you appreciate about them.

Last year I sent a friend a fairly meaningful note for Christmas. This year, I had less to give, and pretty much only said "Merry Christmas". 

That can be okay. Cards can be great for short messages.

We recently did a round of thank you notes in relation to our father's death. We will have some more to do.

Valentine's Day is coming up, and we will send cards for that. 

(Sometimes you do need to remind people to check their mail when you go so old school.)

Take someone soup. 

(If you post about that, it may draw criticism from horrible people. Don't care about that.

https://www.fox5ny.com/news/chili-controversy-neighbors-good-deed-draws-online-outrage)

Even if there is someone you need to admonish, that can be done privately and with care; calling in as opposed to calling out. 

There is a lot of evil in this world, but there is good too. It is important that we do not lose sight of the good. Sharing that may be a small source of light, but it is one that still matters. 

Potential action item:  Think about someone whom you are glad to have in your life, and tell them.

Related posts:

https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2024/11/setting-boundaries-before-thanksgiving.html  

Pace yourself

As previously mentioned, I have been thinking about action items.

These mostly relate to political pressure, economic pressure, and ways to be prepared. 

There was always the intent that there would be items for self-care too, but I am feeling like I need to start there.

The roller coaster of the past two weeks can grind you down. Just the stress of dealing with so much anger so quickly can make it harder to have energy left to do anything else. 

I would understand wanting to just hide.

It reminded me of Tina Fey's sheet-caking segment on Saturday Night Live, after the 2016 election.

There are many things that feel similar, but where it got to the point where I was writing about that specific issue last time, it was August. 

Anyone who was paying attention knew that there were tools in position to be much worse and much faster, but this is still worse than anticipated.

The one comfort is that some of the push back does seem to be effective. That's a good reason to keep pushing.

Nothing but pushing reactively will drive you to a breakdown. 

That means you need to choose wisely.

Thursday's post should have some ideas that can help with that choosing, in a more specific manner than Wednesday's post will. 

I have my post about sheet-caking down below.

You can probably find the sketch, but the issue was that with all of the stress and bad news, Fey was just going to shovel cake in her mouth, which she was considering a valid choice.

A big part of the problem was that as a white woman of some fame and wealth, her privilege enabled her to do that. There were many people being targeted who could not just ignore it.

It is wrong to ignore your privilege anyway, but the way things are going this time, it's affecting more people sooner, and it is going to include you.

Don't wait to be involved. Then don't run yourself down.

How helpful is that advice? Well, I hope that with other posts, it will take shape into something helpful. 

First of all, remember that you can't do it all. You are going to have to pick and choose your focus, probably using a combination of your strengths and where you feel more urgency. Other people will focus on other areas, and that is necessary, and we can still support each other in that.

Setting boundaries is important. That may mean that there are news sources that you avoid, or that you limit the times when you check, or that you leave social media (there will be more on that, but probably not until next week).

It also means that you don't only try and keep bad things out, but that you keep good things in. What are your sources of joy and satisfaction? Make sure to make time for those.

From the bottom of my heart, I know that this is frustrating. I share that frustration and feel for you. I want you to be safe and happy, and so I want you to take care of yourself.

Also from the bottom of my heart, that cannot be an excuse to isolate and shut out, especially if you have the privilege to make that possible.

Somehow we are going to have to balance all of that out. 

There is a potential action item today, and it sounds simple but that can be deceptively so:

Think about what you want.

That can be for the change you want to see in the world, the type of resources that will help you keep going, or what you want for dinner.

You will want some things that seem impossible, but that doesn't mean they are not valid. And if you want something that merely requires a reasonable change, or if you want something easy but you tend to ignore that, it's good to realize that.

Related posts:

https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2017/08/the-problem-with-sheet-caking.html

 

Daily songs for January: 1969 - 1967

I went back another three years.

Sometimes I would notice things about years that I wasn't expecting. I would say this time around was pretty standard. 

Having read about the Wrecking Crew and some other books about the recording industry at the time, I do know more about the artists and songs as I work my way through. That was most true with "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In", having read about it from two different perspectives. (Maybe three, because I think it was featured in a movie too.)

These are songs from before my birth. Some of them still got radio play when I was young, and some become meaningful in different ways.

"You're All I Need to Get By" is more interesting to me after seeing CODA. 

There were three songs that I knew from completely different contexts due to television. 

"Yummy Yummy Yummy" by Ohio Express was familiar from a Monty Python's Flying Circus sketch, I believe ending "How to Avoid Being Seen."

"Easy to Be Hard" I had only heard once, but that was in a musical episode of One Life to Live, set in a women's prison. It made sense in context, and had some good numbers, but most of them were songs I already knew. I had no idea it was Three Dog Night.

Then -- from another soap opera -- I have a strong memory of Don Stewart as Mike Bauer on Guiding Light singing "My Cup Runneth Over" at somebody's wedding. 

(When my mother watched soaps, they tended to be CBS. I a phase watching ABC soaps, but when I had roommates, they were always into NBC. The heart wants what the heart wants.)

I had not known that "My Cup Runneth Over" was from a musical. Looking up I Do, I Do, it does not sound great, but the song moved me. A lot of my earliest memories are of different songs that made me feel things. Since my early memories are in the early/mid '70s, they tend to be Bob McGrath from Sesame Street, Shaun Cassidy from The Hardy Boys, and yes, The Guiding Light. 

Otherwise, I thought it turned out well that my birthday fell in the 1968 segment, making "Born to Be Wild" the best and only option. "Carrie Anne" went with another friend's birthday, and “Say It Loud – I’m Black and I’m Proud” went with Martin Luther King Jr. Day and against the abomination that was inaugurated that day.

It stops on the 30th because I am pulling one day from January and one from March to keep the numbers right for upcoming song segments.

1969

1/1 “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In” by The 5th Dimension
1/2 “Build Me Up Buttercup” by The Foundations
1/3 “Love Theme from Romeo and Juliet” by Henry Mancini
1/4 “Honky Tonk Women” by The Rolling Stones
1/5 “Crimson and Clover” by Tommy James and the Shondells
1/6 “Touch Me” by The Doors
1/7 “Traces” by Classics IV
1/8 “Baby It’s You” by Smith
1/9 “Easy To Be Hard” by Three Dog Night
1/10 “This Magic Moment” by Jay and the Americans    

1968

1/11 “MacArthur Park” by Richard Harris
1/12 “Love Is All Around” by The Troggs
1/13 “Baby, Now That I’ve Found You” by The Foundations
1/14 “People Got to Be Free” by The Rascals
1/15 “If You Can Want” by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles
1/16 “Bend Me, Shape Me” by The American Breed
1/17 “Born to Be Wild” by Steppenwolf
1/18 “Yummy Yummy Yummy” by Ohio Express
1/19 “You’re All I Need to Get By” by Marvin Gaye and Tami Terrell
1/20 “Say It Loud – I’m Black and I’m Proud” by James Brown

1967

1/21 “Brown Eyed Girl” by Van Morrison
1/22 “A Whiter Shade of Pale” by Procol Harum
1/23 “Reflections” by The Supremes
1/24 “98.6” Keith
1/25 “Carrie Anne” by The Hollies
1/26 “There’s A Kind of Hush” by Herman’s Hermits
1/27 “Tell It Like It Is” by Aaron Neville
1/28 “My Cup Runneth Over” by Ed Ames
1/29 “(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher” by Jackie Wilson
1/30 “Everlasting Love” by Robert Knight

Whatever happened to those Christmas songs?

Recently I wrote about committing to posting some Christmas songs I had written, then backtracked on it:

https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2024/12/a-gift-of-song.html

https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2024/12/the-gift-of-vulnerability.html

I was bogged down by technical difficulties and not sure where to start. It seemed like trying and failing had the most immediate importance, but that it was still something I should do, with a less certain time frame.

A few years ago, I bought a bunch of comics through Humble Bundle.

Humble Bundle does a lot of fundraising things where you can name your price for several books or programs.

At that time, it was a group of comics that had main characters of color raising funds to fight racism. That was the Be the Change bundle, created from an idea Gail Simone had.

In general, the bundles relate more to gaming or software development, so it's rare for it to be something that I would purchase. I am on the mailing list. Recently this came through:

https://www.humblebundle.com/books/piano-and-more-for-dummies-wiley-books

Home Recording for Dummies, eh? And composition and singing. That sounds relevant.

No, I am not buying it. I have switched to pretty much all checking out from the library now, but the library has the relevant books. 

Anyway, I am going to do some reading and figure out some of the more insurmountable-seeming obstacles.

The other thing that may be pertinent is that I have recently started going through the hymnbook as part of my scripture study. 

For our hymnal, things you have on a page include the lyrics and music, of course, but also the writer and composer, maybe the copyright date, and a couple of pertinent scripture verses. Studying for me means that I will look up the scriptures, sing the hymn if I know it, or listen first if it doesn't sound familiar.

I will also try -- well, it doesn't sound right to say "leading" or "conducting" if I am the only one there -- but you know the movements the chorister makes showing the meter and tempo? I do that for at least one verse.

I had this other short term project that I was finishing, and it occurred to me to do this next. It felt right, so here I am.

I am on hymn 21 of 341, so I am going to be at this for a while. The point is that I am thinking about music in different ways. It may be something that serves the original goal, and it may lead in other directions as well.

Anyway, it couldn't be healthy to only think about this administration.

Black History Month 2025

No, this is not about my Black History Month reading for the year (I'll be lucky if I start that by May).

This is about that brief period of time where information on the Tuskegee Airmen and the WASPS was going to be removed from the Air Force boot camp curriculum.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/air-force-tuskegee-airmen-dei-compliance-trump-rcna189365 

The brevity of the removal seems to be due to an immediate outcry. It's good that can happen, but frustrating how much it is likely to need to happen. 

Some of the details are unclear, but I don't think that Trump specifically ordered the removal of the material; he's not that kind of a details man.

I think it is more that now that we have an administration that says DEI is bad that someone was eager to remove it.

People have been saying "Don't obey in advance" (one of the lessons from Timothy Snyder's On Tyranny), and there have certainly been issues with people giving in when persistence would at least have a chance of doing some good. 

It is important to know that there are also people rushing to exert their own authority in ways petty and cruel.

We don't have to go along with it.

We should be working specifically against it.

So, for this Black History Month, I will be posting about Black history daily. 

Since February is only 28 days, I am starting today. That will be 31 posts, equaling the number of posts I am going to do for Women's History Month in March.

I understand that this is -- at best -- a very minor form of resistance.

Something else I understand is that white supremacy is the most affirmative of actions, not only pushing down others but leaving even the beneficiaries rather unhappy and insecure, not to mention mediocre.

(I could spend a lot of time on this topic, but that isn't the point today.)

There have been contributions from everyone else all along. Trying to hide that history damages everyone. 

This is one small contribution. 

Another will be this petty reminder that the Aunt Jemima story that political correctness is burying the story of a successful Black woman is a lie, trying to vilify attempts to be less awful.

Let's not fall for that. 

Please don't stand by

It sure is getting hard to keep up.

I have noticed that the contents of my Sunday blog -- which started with a focus on emergency preparedness -- and this blog have been overlapping more.

Sunday, I referenced a book I had recently read; that has been more of a thing for the Friday posts. Today is going to reference some reading too.

Everything is topsy-turvy now, isn't it?

In this case it is from the preface of Let the Record Show: A Political History of Act Up New York, 1987 – 1993 by Sarah Schulman, which had been featured as part of my Pride Month reading:

https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2024/12/in-conclusion-pride-2024.html

I kept it for the maximum time from the library. I learned so much from it that I kind of hated to let it go. Doing so required typing out some quotes so I could keep them for reference.

For some context, Schulman was working on a documentary that ended up involving hundreds of interviews.  

She specifically was trying to find an answer for how change happens and if there was a common factor in the people on the front lines.

Here is the part from the preface, which is dense and references two other people's thoughts:

My perception is that the fate of society is determined by very small groups of people. Only tiny vanguards actually take the actions necessary, and even fewer do this with a commitment to being effective. The purpose of that combination is to open up new possibilities and set new paths for the larger community. I heard the second-wave feminist philosopher Ti-Grace Atkinson speak on the subject at the fortieth anniversary of the 1968 Columbia University student strikes, and she observed that women in society can only progress when men progress. If men do not move, women are suppressed. She suggested that these great leaps happen every forty years or so. Unfortunately, they cannot be forced; they depend on the zeitgeist. But in the interim periods, there are small groups of people practicing what the writer Gary Indiana called “the politics of repetition,” trying to stop the rate of giveback and regression. Yet when the zeitgeist moment hits – and AIDS activism was one of those moments – there is a mass surge forward as a movement forces the creation of social space where persistent voices can finally be heard.

I hope that is not true. I hope it doesn't take us forty years to be ready for change. I hope it doesn't depend on men. I especially hope that they aren't basing that on the Civil Rights Movement when I look back at how much has been undone and is still being attacked.

If it is true, I know which side I want to be on.

In addition, there was something else from the introduction.

After talking to many people who seemingly had very little in common, there was a click.

These were people who were unable to sit out a historic cataclysm. They were driven by nature, by practice, or by some combination thereof, to defend people in trouble through standing with them. What ACT UPers had in common was that, regardless of demographics, they were a very specific type of person, necessary to historical paradigm shifts. In case of emergency, they were not bystanders.

Whether that meant working with a hot line or organizing nursing or coming up with and carrying out creative political protests, they couldn't just watch it happen.

These are scary times. If you want to look for the helpers, do it for inspiration but then become a helper yourself. 

That may mean using talents and skills you already have or finding new ones. There are going to be a lot of things that need doing. 

For this blog space, Fridays are still going to be media, whether those works show up on other posts or not. (Some of them surely will.)

Otherwise, February is going to be a series of posts on loving forms of resistance (include self-care) and they will include potential action items.

I use the term "potential" because no one is going to be able to do them all. I do believe that everyone is capable of contributing.  

(I am not completely clear on whether that means just Tuesdays or will involve Wednesdays, Thursdays, and maybe even Mondays yet. Some of this will have to be made up as it goes along.)