A different kind of break: 7 books to know me

In terms of topics that I am interested in, I am seeing so much ignorance and malfeasance that I am having a hard time stringing thoughts together. I can get a sentence here and there, but paragraphs may be asking too much.

To some extent, I do question the value of this blog, and what my audience is and if I am saying anything that is valuable to anyone that will read it. Previously, it felt like enough that I was getting my own thoughts straight, but I am questioning that now.

Maybe I am not getting my own thoughts straight.

Anyway, back on World Book Day (March 3rd) I responded to a thread for introducing yourself in seven books. I responded to that, but I have seen other, similar threads asking for seven movies or shows or albums.

(I have written about albums before, but it was ten: https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2020/05/ten-albums-that-influenced-me-and-how.html) 

Anyway, for the next few weeks, this is just going to be about getting to know me through pieces of media that are important to me.

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
A Christmas Carol is my favorite book. Yes, I enjoy holidays, but I feel most passionately about its message of caring for others as what we most need to do.

And the Walls Came Tumbling Down by Ralph Abernathy
I loved Abernathy's voice, and I valued the perspective that came with his telling years later, and with all the grief that comes with reading about King, it was good to read someone who got to live and age, even if that came with disappointments. Also, reading it was so vivid for me that at night I dreamed about marching. That's how deeply it got to me.

A House of My Own by Sandra Cisneros
I was already very fond of Cisneros here, so the insight that came with this was precious, and it gives me other authors to read, but the biggest things was some of what she wrote about death.

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
I feel a little bad that this list does not have Jane Austen or L.M. Montgomery (and Anne Bronte is really good), but if we take all of those novels, this is probably my favorite of that set, and it was the first of them that I read, which probably plays a role.

Heidi by Johanna Spyri
This is my comfort reading. I read it when I was about Heidi's age, and sometimes just going back and reading about the mountain or the kittens or the goats is what I need. Similar feelings for Jane of Lantern Hill, though I found that much later. Cozy housekeeping I guess.

Dracula by Bram Stoker
Getting bitten was an early phobia of mine, so vampires came in bad dreams (then emotional vampires as I got older), but I get the appeal. Also, the way the book is written and the way the action moves... I love it. Wilkie Collins has a similar vibe.

Gaia's Garden by Toby Hemenway
I read so much more nonfiction now, but I am reading for information and may not fall in love the same way. This is beautifully written with a beautiful concept of balance and healing, and yet is also pretty practical. My favorite permaculture book.

I would also like to give an honorable mention to The Samurai's Garden by Gail Tsukiyama.
This was read in a book club and it had been a while since I had read any fiction. It felt like a vacation. I do read a lot more non-fiction now, but sometimes it is just good to read a story.

Children's books for hard times

In August I just happened to come across multiple children's books that were really about processing grief. I was very touched by them. I had thought about writing about them, but it did not come up previously. 

I recently read one more, but it fills a different niche.

The truth is, the three from August are almost too sad, except there are lessons there that might be needed. 

In the Shadow of an Elephant by Georgie Donaghey

First a young elephant loses its parents and herd, and father and son humans come to take care of it. Eventually the human father dies, but the elephant is there for the human, as the human was for the elephant. 

Thursday by Ann Bonwill

Thursday was her favorite day, and then it became the day when her parents told her they were getting divorced, not only ruining Thursday, but upending her life and changing the things that had made Thursdays good.

For children who have not even had to consider those possibilities, those books may be more than they need. Because of that, The Shadow Elephant by Nadine Robert may be the most helpful.

We don't know why the elephant is so sad, though we do learn what is upsetting the mouse. Regardless, we see the value of empathy and compassion and how helping someone else can help us too.

While Everything Will Be Okay by Anna Dewdney is not anywhere near as devastating, the simple rhymes about things going wrong but not staying terrible may be more to the point. It provides a pattern for building resilience.

But then, when there is death or divorce, those other books can be really needed.

There need to be lots of different kinds of books available. There need to be books about different topics and treated in different ways, showing different characters, and aimed at different audiences.

I am going through a lot of different books for young readers now, some of which I will be writing about soon, and some of which will happen a little later, but I feel pretty comfortable saying this now:

Children do not need to be protected from books. 

The people who pretend that is a need are a much worse danger.

News you might be able to use

This week I learned of someone's car being stolen from the a dealer's lot after having been dropped off for service. 

(I do not know the victim, but I know the victim's roommate.) 

It is common practice for there to be a drop box for keys so you don't have to drop the car off during service hours. Not having your car is inconvenient, and that is a way of making things more convenient.

This drop box was emptied of all of the keys overnight.

This is apparently a new thing: drop boxes are being emptied or raided or removed, and lots of cars are being taken this way.

This does of course lead to an even greater inconvenience, which can be exacerbated by risks of home robbery if you left your garage door opener in the car, or identity theft if you left your registration.

We were appalled and upset on behalf of one person that got their car stolen, but the conversation with the police made it sound like a trend. They also made it sound like because it is property crime that the city (Beaverton) would probably not be pursuing it, but that Washington County might.

The reason I am writing about it is because then there was this comment in the conversation, "And you don't hear anything about it on the news."

That seems like good information to have. If nothing else, businesses should be notified and maybe post signs advising that people shouldn't drop their keys off, or so they secure the drop boxes better, or hire night security.

It could make a good news story for consumer protection: don't leave your registration in the glove box! Don't leave your garage door opener in the car. Maybe don't leave the door between your garage and your house unlocked. Maybe -- no matter how inconvenient it is -- find a way to drop off your car during business hours.

I have not watched much local news for a while, so I was not sure if it wasn't being mentioned. 

Searches weren't too encouraging. There was nothing on that method.

The top results were a story about a car thief who found a child in the back seat, so came back and lectured the mother. Seriously, it's like that's the only car theft story that anyone cares about.

I did also find a story through KGW about Portland mayor Ted Wheeler creating a task force, and the cops were going to work with cancer doctors at OHSU to understand tracking. (Frankly, I am not sure that knowledge will correspond, but okay.) I also did find some articles about dealer thefts, but those were all about forcing locks. There was one about key thefts, but that was about the keys for the cars for sale being stolen, and not the cars. (That sounds more like a really annoying, expensive prank.)

Now, there is always the possibility that the issue was misrepresented by the police, in terms of how common it is, or how likely to be pursued; they will tend to spin things in a way that facilitates budget increases.

That is all the more reason that you need a press that questions and reports. It does not feel like we have one.

I had been thinking about that more for national issues, but your backyard matters too.

Anyway, if you are getting your car worked on, careful with that drop off.

May Daily Songs: Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month

I usually wait to post about the songs until after I have played them all, but I don't know that it's really necessary. It may very well feel weird enough that I never do it again, but I thought I'd at least try it.

Therefore, there are only dates by the songs already posted. There are 31 total, taking us through the end of May. I currently have no intentions of changing the order, though there is not any special pattern to the order. Well, I did start with James Iha because he is probably the most famous of these Asian-Americans, by which I mean United States residents of Asian descent.

That was one change this year. Previously I have not paid a lot of attention to country of origin. That means I did not use anyone based in Japan or Korea (last year I did) and I even left out those Asian-Canadians that I had really liked last year.

I also did not use any Pacific Islanders from islands that are not US, so no New Zealand bands.

There are a lot of ways of viewing how to organize these heritage months. They can all have merits in different ways, so it can be good to change it up from year to year.

But yes, it means I am sorting people based on race and country of origin.

Another thing I did differently this year was focusing on individuals rather than bands. That left open the possibility of using Smashing Pumpkins and Linkin Park. As it is, James Iha and Mike Shinoda both have a fair amount of solo work.

It also means I have a Jonas brother in here -- which makes me cringe a little -- but DNCE is not included for him; it's for JinJoo Lee.

There continue to be recurring favorites, but I think my favorite new discovery is Thao & The Get Down Stay Down. Having some previous familiarity, I am starting to really enjoy Kishi Bashi. 

I also wish I had known about Only Won's "12 Days of Dim Sum" for Non-White Christmas.

I don't know what I will do for December this year, but I enjoy seeing how things develop.

UPDATE: I am never doing this again. 

I did a check and noticed that I had "Dreaming Awake" by Low Leaf listed twice. That must have meant I counted wrong and needed another song! Who got left out? Okay, I will use that Mountain Brothers song. Problem solved? Nope.

I think the extra listing of Low Leaf was when I was rearranging some songs, but had not affected the number. I thought I had counted again and only gotten 30, so that adding an extra song was appropriate. Since I moved Mountain Brothers in to fill the Low Leaf duplicate, that means that the list goes into June, or that I am removing one. Listening to the remaining songs, I am taking out "Faded" by Zhu. I am okay with that, but I wish I had not posted until the month was over.

Minor, but still annoying.

Daily Songs:

5/1 “Beauty” by James Iha
5/2 “Rush” by Ravenna
5/3 “Are We There Yet” by DUMBFOUNDED
5/4 “Ordinary Pleasure” by Toro y Moi
5/5 “Tenderness” by Jay Som
5/6 “When We Swam” by Thao & The Get Down Stay Down
5/7 “Sutures” by The Slants
5/8 “Rest Before We Go To War” by Ogikubo Station
5/9 “Cake By The Ocean” by DNCE
5/10 “Carry On Phenomenon” by Kishi Bashi
5/11 “Ray” by Clones of the Queen
5/12 “Magic” by The Linda Lindas
5/13 “Hummingbird” by Run River North
5/14 “Kawika” by Jake Shimabukuro
5/15 “50 Thousand Deep” by Blue Scholars
5/16 “Ready” by MILCK
5/17 “Passionfruit” by Yaeji
5/18 “Dreaming Awake” by Low Leaf
5/19 “Always Need You” by Melissa Polinar
5/20“Galaxies: The Next Level” by Mountain Brothers
5/21 “Strings” by Asobi Seksu
5/22 “Shivers” by Katherine Ho
5/23 “Kitty Party” by Awaaz Do
5/24 “Nobody” by Mitski
5/25 “Boyish” by Japanese Breakfast
5/26 “A Thousand Cuts” by Ruby Ibarra
5/27 “Butterfly” by UMI
5/28 “Promises I Can't Keep” by Mike Shinoda
5/29 “Hard Glance” by Bodysync
5/30 “Turn This World Around” by Only Won & Larissa Lam
5/31 “No Turning Back” by CHOPS

Don't Forget to Vote!

I know, I thought I was done.

I keep seeing reminders about the election, though, even though my ballot was turned in two weeks ago.

I guess it is also a reminder that we are connected to each other, and need to care about each other and be aware of each other.

It sounds so simple and obvious, and yet there is evidence that it isn't.

Don't let the fascists win.

Movies: The Woman King and Till

I am not putting these two movies in opposition to each other. I will do some comparison on the roles they fill.

I mentioned last week that I was delaying this post because I wanted to watch one more movie first. If anyone was wondering, that was Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. The Dahomey Agojie had some influence on the Dora Milaje, and I didn't want to watch the movie and find all of these meaningful connections that would have made sense to mention.

That was not really an issue. I also finished The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, with its own Dora Milaje cameo. For all three movies and the series, what I thought of most of was grief. That is never too far from my surface. I might write more about that later, but for now I am going to finish being mad at "The Actor".

One thing all three movies share is that they would be good for the actor to see. His inability to imagine a Black woman dressing elegantly and speaking with sophistication may indicate he has not watched enough films that were centered on anything other than white men.

The majority of the films that would have been available for his viewing -- especially as it pertains to his Oscar voting -- would center on white men. Some of his comments indicate an aversion to watching anything that doesn't center him, but I think that is a big part of how he became an ass. It's worth addressing.

The Woman King barely has any white men in it, even for villains. In Till there are friend groups and family and even a whole little town that are all Black. That is real life; Till is based on a true story, while The Woman King has a historical background, even if the story lines for the main characters are fictional. It is good to see that there is more to life than our own experience. It makes for a terribly small world if you won't.

Having watched them, I can see justification for at least nominating Gina Prince-Bythewood for Best Director, regardless of whether she would have won or not. (Honestly, I think having twice as many Best Picture nominees as Best Director nominees makes for some weird mixes.)

The case for a Best Picture nomination would be exciting action with clear cinematography, where everything could be tracked and comprehended. That includes some things that could have easily been too gratuitous if they were shot differently. One aspect of that -- which I only know from seeing a blurb -- is they did not really have a stunt pool at the filming location. Part of the preparation for the film included finding and training a stunt crew (which comprises most of the cast) from scratch. That is an accomplishment. Meanwhile, for as much sense as it makes to focus on the action, the film never loses its place emotionally.

I know there can be many arguments made for many movies, but there is a tendency to default toward the established white guys, and the 2023 nominations showed that. The overwhelming success of Everything, Everywhere, All At Once can belie that, but no, there hasn't really been that much done to counteract #OscarsSoWhite.

Of the two, The Woman King is a more enjoyable movie than Till, feeling more rousing and appealing to some unlikely audiences.

Till is probably more needed.

That's not a contest; we can see more than one movie per year. There are ways in which The Woman King is more fun, and everyone with any advance knowledge of Till can foresee that there will be emotional pain in the viewing. I want to take some time to make the case for Till.

Maybe the biggest argument is that Carolynn Bryant just died on April 25th. When I posted about "The Actor", she may not have been buried yet. This is our history, and fairly recent history at that. There are real people depicted in that movie that are still alive.

There is good directing here too. The cinematography is beautiful, and there is a mix of the subtle and the not. For example, Emmitt Till had a slight stutter. There is a scene where you can kind of hear it; it's not distracting, no one makes a big deal out of it, but you know.

When his mother first sees the body, there is no holding back. She had fainted earlier, learning that his body was found. As they arrive to view the body, a wheelchair is on hand, just in case. It is needed, not because she is unconscious, but because her wailing and sobbing is overpowering.

As uncomfortable as her grief is, that is our past, and there are too many examples that also make it our present.

Add Jordan Neely to that list.

Maybe what we most need to hear is something said by Mamie Till-Mobley at the end.

"One month ago I had a nice life in Chicago. I had a son. When something happened to the Negroes in the South, I said, 'That's their business; not mine.' Now I know what happens to any of us, anywhere in the world, had better be the business of us all."

We need to know to not be complacent just because it isn't us this time.

I remember when the movie first came out, a white woman approached a Black woman telling her that she had to see this movie. The Black woman tweeted about seeing those pictures in Ebony, with them being regularly re-published. 

I think the other woman's motive was showing herself to be a good ally: "I saw that Black film! I got it!"

It's good that she saw it, because we are the ones that need to see it. And maybe it goes down easier hearing a Black woman warn against the complacency. There's a lot of room for improvement.

Till is a movie that can remind us. 

It does hurt.

Spotting school board fascists

My sister recently saw a Facebook post about how you can recognize the more fascist candidates by how many signs they have. For that, the clear winner is Jeff Myer, running for Beaverton School District.

We laughed, but there is an element of truth. The original comment was about being more likely to get corporate sponsorship. That is true, but also, volunteer efforts are more coordinated on that side. They often have a sense of mission against those live-and-let-live heathens, and know they are surrounded by wickedness, so they work hard at it.

When you actually do believe in living and letting live, it is easy to think that the rest of the world is that way. Well, maybe a lot are, but they often get apathetic about school boards and things like that. If you really want people to be able to live well, apathy won't do it.

As it is, having read about Jeff Myers', I see those signs (all over!) and get irritated. Someone who hasn't read might think, Well, a lot of people like him; he's probably pretty good. Then, if they do vote, and they see the other candidate's name is Justice Rajee, all of that might render a subconscious influence when what we really need is consciousness.

There are a few other commonalities that I think are worth pointing out.

Transparency

That is the current key word that the fascists keep throwing around. The repeated use helps give the impression that we have been lied to, and they will fix that. The most obvious contradiction is when they keep saying "You can check the site," because so much information is up there. That belies a transparency issue.

The other problem with that -- which may require a little more digging -- is that when you do check on the candidates' statements, there are some pretty clear lies shrouded in vagueness. I spent some time checking claims for candidate Bart Rask at https://preparedspork.blogspot.com/2023/05/do-they-know-or-care-that-they-are-lying.html. 

Vague lies are the opposite of transparency.

One friend suggested "transparency" was a replacement for "all kids", remembering that last time around there was more of a focus on the danger of CRT to the self-esteem of white kids. 

It may be instructive that after Newberg voted in several fascists, an unvaccinated teacher showed up to school in blackface as a "Rosa Parks" style stand against the way she was marginalized by not being vaccinated. She spoke about "all kids" being marginalized in some way. (Though you could argue that the white kids texting about a slave auction, speculating on bids for their classmates of color, and calling for another Holocaust were not acting like they felt marginalized.)

I did see comments worrying about the self-esteem of white kids, but what we saw was that was not really a problem. Students learning about a racist past did not make them feel evil, but increased their awareness of the past and present.

This year the focus seems to be more on what a poor state the schools are in, having missed two years of learning. 

I think most people will know that their children have not missed two years worth of school as we enter into the fourth year of the pandemic. However, the candidates have two goals here.

One is their belief that any attempts to prevent contagion are a wasted effort, which goes along with their general conservative bent (even though that is not exactly how conservatism used to operate, and one reason why I use "fascist" so much).

The other reason that is important is that calling it "2 years of learning loss" is that it does not give credit for the efforts that were made and the learning that was accomplished. It is an insult to the work of the staff and the students, but fascists need to put others down; no one else has any good points. (We will explore this more later.)

You will also see many references to involving parents. That sounds good, except they don't mean that there should be information online and meetings and volunteer opportunities; that already exists. 

They mean that parents have to explicitly say "yes" to sex education. This would make sense if the schools were truly teaching 10-years olds sexual positions, which they are not. The majority of what they are teaching is how to set boundaries and recognize and seek help for abuse, and how to respect other people. I don't deny the importance of knowing how to navigate puberty, but those other parts are essentially anti-fascist, so that's what they really hate.

The most blatant lies are about the comprehensive sex education, and that's not a coincidence.

They make their platform sound good, but you don't have to look that hard to see the problems. You do need to look at least a little.

Public schools are so important, and so many of the people campaigning for the fascists are not even sending their children their, opting for home schooling or the Heritage Academy. They care, but in ways that are ultimately destructive.

So we need to care for good.

Related:

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

April Daily Songs: Top Songs 1991 - 1994

I know I said I was going to write more about the movie from last week today, but I realized there is one more movie I have been meaning to watch that could be relevant. I will watch it this weekend, and the movie post will go up next week. 

For now, some music.

After going through each year of the 80s, I started thinking about the 90s.

Decade transitions don't happen neatly on the zeroes anyway -- that is part of why I included both 1980 and 1990 in that round -- but I thought that at least for the first few years, I would like to explore.

My not particularly scientific method has been typing "top songs" paired with whatever year I am working on, and then listening to any I don't recognize, as well as noting the ones I like. Part of what makes it less scientific is that there is usually at least one song listed twice, and sometimes different songs pop in and out on different searches, but you do get an overview.

I'm not saying there weren't any 80s songs that I didn't recognize, but the number spiked as we got further into the 90s.

That was partly expected. I had mainly gotten my music knowledge from music videos, not listening to the radio much. I would have been watching less as I went off to college anyway, followed by not watching at all during my mission, but there was another change happening with the 1992 introduction of The Real World. 

Advertisers did not love the unpredictability of music channel programming. Sure, people tune in a lot, but might easily channel surf if they catch a video they don't like, or that has been overplayed. There were attempts to resolve this with programming blocks like Club MTV, Yo! MTV Raps and Pop-Up Video, but just being able to sit and watch videos was going away. 

After my mission, I ended up pretty disconnected from contemporary music. I would sometimes find bands I liked through other people, but even then I was often wrong about where they fit into the timeline. New to me did not mean new to everyone else.

For 1991, most titles were familiar. For a few that weren't, once I listened to them, the memory came back.

Some of my selections for 1992 are songs I remember hearing around Fresno, but that was later. Their popularity transcended years (especially "Jump" and "Rump Shaker").

I was not listening to contemporary music (except for those streets) from February 1993 to August 1994, so you would think that 1993 songs would have been less familiar.

I recognized nine 1994 titles and only liked four of them. Some that I listened to did sound familiar later, and some were not terrible, but it was mainly not fun. It was also the first year where I needed to repeat a band for that year. (That was Green Day, as is only right.)

Part of what helped me fill out 1994 was two covers of older songs for movie soundtracks. That was Wet Wet Wet covering The Troggs' "Love Is All Around" for Four Weddings and a Funeral and General Public covering The Staple Singers' "I'll Take You There" for Threesome. I did not know those covers existed, but I haven't seen either of those movies.

And Elton John and Kiki Dee did a version of Cole Porter's "True Love" in 1993; who knew?

In retrospect, I missed a lot of 1993, but I also remember writing home and asking my family to please grab two songs for me because I realized I would want to hear them again. They got me Snap's "Rhythm Is A Dancer", but they could not find me Culture Beat's "Mr. Vain" because I got the name wrong. If I'd seen a video for it, I could have read it off. 

(It took me years to find that one.)

The best find was Digable Planets, charting in 1993 with “Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat)”. 

The weirdest discovery was "Stay" by Shakespears Sister. That was from 1992, so I don't know how I missed it.

Most irritating was Tim McGraw charting twice in 1994 with hopelessly saccharine "Don't Take the Girl" and offensively racist appropriation on "Indian Outlaw"; that's what's crossing over?!?

The runner-up for most irritating was Lisa Loeb. That Geico commercial really nailed her, but at least it is shorter than the song.

I should probably listen to more Toad the Wet Sprocket (having previously only known "All I Want") and Meat Puppets.

1991

3/22 “The Motown Song” by Rod Stewart with The Temptations
3/23 “Real Real Real” by Jesus Jones
3/24 “Romantic” by Karyn White
3/25 “Rush Rush” by Paula Abdul
3/26 “Every Heartbeat” by Amy Grant
3/27 “Set Adrift On Memory Bliss” by PM Dawn
3/28 “I've Been Thinking About You” by Londonbeat
3/29 “Fading Like A Flower (Every Time You Leave)” by Roxette
3/30 “Now That We Found Love” by Heavy D
3/31 “I'll Be There” by Escape Club

1992

4/1 “Jump” by Kriss Kross
4/2 “Tennessee” by Arrested Development
4/3 “Rhythm Is A Dancer” by Snap
4/4 “Jump Around” by House of Pain
4/5 “Rump Shaker” by Wreckx-n-Effect
4/6 “Just Another Day” by Jon Secada
4/7 “Friday I'm In Love” by The Cure
4/8 “Please Don't Go” by KWS
4/9 “Sometimes Love Just Ain't Enough” by Patty Smyth feat. Don Henley
4/10 “Ain't 2 Proud 2 Beg” by TLC

1993

4/11 “What Is Love” by Haddaway
4/12 “I Don't Wanna Fight” by Tina Turner
4/13 “Insane In The Brain” by Cypress Hill
4/14 “If I Had No Loot” by Tony! Toni! Toné!
4/15 “Boom! Shake the Room” by DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince
4/16 “Linger” by The Cranberries
4/17 “Regret” by New Order
4/18 “Mr. Vain” by Culture Beat
4/19 “Whoomp! (There it is)” by Tag Team
4/20 “Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat)” by Digable Planets

1994

4/21 “When I Come Around” by Green Day
4/22 “Another Night” by Real McCoy
4/23 “I'll Stand By You” The Pretenders
4/24 “I'll Take You There” by General Public
4/25 “Love Is All Around” by Wet Wet Wet
4/26 “Fall Down” by Toad the Wet Sprocket
4/27 “Sour Times” by Portishead
4/28 “Backwater” by Meat Puppets
4/29 “No Excuses” by Alice in Chains
4/30 “Basket Case” by Green Day

School Board Elections: Don't let the fascists win!

My Sunday blog and this blog seem to be colliding more lately. Sunday I posted about being caught off guard by school board elections.

https://preparedspork.blogspot.com/2023/04/maintaining-hope-and-motivation-in-dark.html

Last time they were happening, I wrote ten posts on this blog and at least two on the other. I was alarmed to find strong organizing efforts in multiple (I think 27) Oregon school districts. They were running candidates who were against COVID mitigation efforts (this was in 2021, before there was even a vaccine). They were also strongly against any teaching of Critical Race Theory, meaning -- of course -- not the legal field of thought but any social or historical teaching acknowledging that there has been racism and that it is wrong.

Also, they were against supporting queer kids, before "Don't say 'gay'" was a thing.

(Although they do not self-identify as fascists yet, I will use that term for convenience.)

They're back.

They don't seem quite as strong as last time, which is nice, but they can still do a lot of damage.

I am most familiar with Beaverton and Hillsboro school districts. Between the two, only one of seven candidates won, fortunately. Newberg did a lot worse. Shortly after the election, they had several racist incidents (including a teacher showing up to school in blackface to protest vaccine requirements) and responded by banning the Pride and Black Lives Matter flags.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/newberg-oregon-school-district-sinks-to-new-low-after-blackface-mock-slave-trade-scandals

There are residents commiserating on a message board over there about voting them out this time. Good, but keeping them out in the first place is better.

I appreciate that the Hillsboro fascists have a web site that makes identifying their candidates easy:

https://communitiesforsensibleschools.org/  

Since their candidates are Terri Kam, Shawnna Arns, and Bart Rask, then the candidates who are least likely to create an environment hostile to poor students, students of color, and queer students (plus teachers, scientists, and non-Trump voters) are See Eun Kim, Ivetta Pantoja, and Patrick Maguire.

I hate doing it that way -- voting against candidates more than for them -- but when you have candidates passing off hate as morality and transparency, there is good reason for it.

It is also inspiring some excellent candidates. As many people as there are who seem like they don't know or care, others are responding and volunteering and organizing.

For Beaverton School District I am excited to support Justice Rajee for Zone 6.

The difference does not seem as extreme for the Zone 3 candidates (I ended up choosing Maham Ahmed) and Zone 7 is uncontested. 

That is part of what I mean about the fascists not seeming quite so strong this time. 

With the other Zone 6 candidate, the difference is very clear, but I think I want to address that Sunday (preparedspork.blogspot.com). That will focus on spotting the fascists.

For now, I want to address one other thing that I find interesting but am not sure what it implies.

I had heard third-hand that the water board was getting politicized. I am not sure that is true. 

Both Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue District and Tualatin Valley Water District have some atypical candidates running alongside the more conventional candidates. Yes, that does mean brown men running alongside white men, but it is not merely that. It is that you have an electrical engineer running against a someone who has been a paramedic and volunteer and on the budget committee for the fire district in that race.

I tried comparing other races, like Banks Fire District. Even with at least one candidate who does not seem to have any relevant experience, there is nothing really striking. The position for the Forest Grove Rural Fire District seems to be uncontested.

It makes me wonder what is going on in Tualatin Valley?

Those four candidates do seem to have ties to Intel and to the refugee community. They mention concerns about diversity and poverty, which I like. 

However, the similarity spread out over different positions in unconnected races does not seem likely to be a coincidence. I don't mind that, but I would like to know more about what is happening. If someone is organizing, that can be fine, but who is behind it, and what are the larger goals?

Please tell me it's not Scott Presler. He seems to be focusing on voter registration now, but there are always more.

I hope for more clarity on that to come. For now there is plenty of clarity on schools, and I implore you to actively vote against fascism. Study the candidates. Talk to your friends. Vote.

What happens in our schools is vitally important. What happens on the national stage matters, but it's not all that matters.

Election day is May 16th, and ballots and voter guides are already out.

www.washcovotes.org