Ghosts, especially hungry ones

Ghosts was kind of where it got started, and that's an obvious one, right?

The most obviously belonging one was When the Ghost Screams: True Stories of Victims Who Haunt by Leslie Rule.

Rule covers several haunted places with short accounts. Often there are not many details, and sometimes that seems to motivate some overwriting. The stories are still pretty interesting, they are told with empathy, and I have seen compensating for a lack of details by overwriting done much worse (most recently in J.B. Fisher's Echo of Distant Water). 

Others were part of other reading lists, but hey, there's "ghost" in the title; let's go for it!

Sadly, most of my complaints are here. 

Again, sometimes you think you have some complaints, but then you find something much worse.

In The Ghost Map by Steven Johnson -- from my pathology list -- it is a really great book, but then in the epilogue he starts wandering all over the place, not sticking the landing. 

However, in Ghosts of Vesuvius by Charles Pellegrino -- from my Italy list -- he is wandering around all over the place, finding lots of good information but also bringing in lots of things that seem unrelated and pointless, except maybe you need to know he has been in submarines and knows James Cameron. That did not make the book better.

So I can recommend The Ghost Map, though maybe skipping the epilogue. I cannot recommend Ghosts of Vesuvius.

Now, even if it is not a traditional ghost story, the inclusion of "ghost" in the title probably indicates that there is something about death or haunting. Those two featured massive death from cholera in London and even more massive death from volcanic eruption in Pompeii and Herculaneum.

Sometimes just two deaths is enough. The death of his daughter and then his wife sends Neil Peart on the road by motorcycle in Ghost Rider. 

I am always interested in the subject of grief, but this came from a list of rock memoirs where I decided to read six and have currently gotten through four of them.

As it is, even though grief is the motivation for the trip, the book is really more travelogue, especially with what he ate and drank and what the weather was like, and how much he looks down on the other travelers, which I did not love. 

I know he eventually remarried and had another child before dying; I am glad for the healing he had. I am not sure that there is really insight other than that keeping yourself busy could be good. 

I found more insight with similar loss in Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking, but that could also be personality.

While I was at it, I checked out Ghost Rider Epic Collection: Vol 1 Hell on Wheels I had plans to read other books in the series, but I found it pretty terrible. I know the movie gets razzed a lot, and maybe it was the adaptation, but it could be the material.

Bad choices can drive drama and that's important for ongoing series, but do all of the choices have to be so stupid? 

There was one other comic that came up: Hungry Ghost by Victoria Ying. 

It was already mentioned as part of the graphic novel reading for last Asian American Heritage Month:

https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2024/08/graphic-novels-for-apahm-2024.html

I saw it mentioned in an article and thought it looked interesting. When I looked it up in the library there were some other results that I had to check out. 

The Hungry Ghost of Rue Orleans by Mary Quattlebaum and Patricia Castelao

Bob's Hungry Ghost by Geneviève Côté 

The Hungry Ghost by H.S. Norup

Technically these are all for younger readers, with the first two being children's books and Norup's book being for middle grades.

Bob's Hungry Ghost is the cuter of the two children's books, though both are fine and neither is too scary. Ultimately both are about adjusting to new situations, with initial reactions consisting of either eating everything or sulking (but in a restaurant). 

Emotional regulation is important.

For the older books, the hunger is a little less benign. 

In Ying's work, Valerie has an eating disorder that is tightly bound to her mother, but it doesn't really make the mother a villain either. There is a journey to hard realizations. There is a death -- of Valerie's father -- making some things harder, but all of the haunting comes from the living.

Norup's book has an actual ghost. Fortunately, Freja -- recently arriving in Singapore from Denmark -- finds people who can tell her more about ghosts, including that such a young ghost will more likely be hungry from having missed out on so much in life. As many mysteries as there are about this ghost's life and death, Freja has mysteries of her own, and grief that she still has to face.

Those two were completely different books, but both worked for what they were.

Check in with yourself

I have been thinking about this post for a few reasons.

One is that I keep referring to your intuition or inspiration or what works for you in posts, but that does not always come easily. We are given many reasons to doubt ourselves. 

When you do know yourself -- understanding your weaknesses but also believing in what you do and achieving comfort with your own combination of integrity and imperfection -- that's a beautiful thing.

In addition, I keep getting new thoughts on something I am doing, getting more insight along the way.

Not completely unconnected, I found that I was not doing enough in one of the potential action items I have been blogging and posting.

The "potential" is right there. Even though they were all reasonably small and achievable things, it would still be completely understandable that no one would have to do all of them, including me. Plus, for me, a lot of them were things that I was already pretty good about.

I need to write to more businesses. 

I had thought that notifying Amazon and Google that I would not be using them anymore and a thank you letter to Costco would be enough.

I started feeling that I needed to go back and recheck those lists and write to more businesses. Then I could start learning ASL.

Well, if that's what I should do, then that's what I'm going to do.

Thinking about these, a lot of them circle back. The first one was thinking about what you want; this last one is thinking about what you want to (or feel you should) do.

Thinking about someone you are glad to have in your life and finding something good about a difficult person... those are not completely unrelated, though the differences are important.

Plus, that thinking about someone mentioned maybe taking them soup; that totally goes with the service one.

That's how we do it. We take the information we have, look deeper and choose action, and then we repeat that process as we learn and experience more. 

I am learning constantly. I suspect I could have phrased Tuesday's better by the way some people responded. Even though Julie inspired me yesterday, I discouraged her. I didn't mean to, and I am still participating in the boycott, but what she immediately heard was that nothing works.

No, but most of it doesn't work easily.

In the immediate future, what this seems to mean for me is that tomorrow while I am not buying anything, I will also be writing letters to businesses I will not patronize anymore, or who have disappointed me, or to whom I have something to say.

Beyond that is figuring out what kind of posts are happening in March. The February ones were all fairly simple; is it time to get more complicated?

(Plus start learning ASL.)

If you are still with me, maybe it makes sense to look over the list and see if there is something next there. 

Potential action items:

• Think about what you want.
• Think about someone whom you are glad to have in your life and tell them.
• Get acquainted with your local leadership and bookmark their pages.
• Write to a company you use about their policies.
• Learn sign language.
• Obtain and wear KN95 masks.
• Pick something you find interesting and learn more about it.
• Locate and acknowledge a good quality of someone you find difficult.
• Do something for someone.
• Pause before you post.
• Think about a time when you failed but could live with it.

Finally (at least for February), choose the next action that you will take. 

Related posts:

https://preparedspork.blogspot.com/2025/02/one-story.html

Right action?

If yesterday's post was about thinking before you post, today is about thinking before you act.

It is not what I initially planned on posting, but there was a brief discussion this morning about the proposed buying blackout on Friday. Julie had read a post about it potentially hurting small businesses and questioning whether it really makes a difference.

For me personally, I am sure I will not be buying anything Friday; that's usually a pretty safe bet. 

A lot of the information I have seen about the proposed blackout is focusing on large companies that have supported Trump or rolled back their DEI efforts. I have seen Amazon, Target, and Wal-Mart mentioned, as well as Best Buy and a more general prohibition against fast food and using credit cards.

The post Julie read pointed out that if you do your normal shopping on Thursday or Saturday, not doing it on Friday won't be effective.

If everyone in the United States truly did not shop on Friday, I do believe companies would notice that. I am also sure that's not going to happen.

Some people will intend to, but forget about it or realize they need something or get hungry and only have time for a drive-through. 

There will be people who haven't heard about it, or who did hear but didn't think it would be effective.

Also, there are lots of Trump supporters and DEI haters. Some of them are passionate enough that they might drop extra bucks at the Target just to show whose side they are on.

This is not me encouraging you to buy anything or discouraging you from participating in activism, 

It is a reminder that change isn't particularly easy. 

This current situation was years in the making. 

Increasing concentration of wealth has made it harder to effectively exert economic pressure and white fragility has been weaponized. The roots of that have been in our country for a long time, but if we look at Lee Atwater's Southern strategy and Reagan's tax cuts and firing of air traffic controllers, we have been heading this way for over forty years.

If there is something easy you can do, that's great, but expect more hard things.

Wonderfully, many of these changes may include things that are ultimately better, more rewarding, less expensive, and healthier.

You should still expect a few hiccups along the way.

Personally, part of my ability to maintain a positive attitude has been accepting the inevitability of failure. Not always, but inevitably sometimes. 

Then I keep trying and sometimes succeeding. 

Being realistic and still caring is a key combination... something about serenity, courage, and wisdom.

Potential action item: Think about a time when you failed but could live with it. 

Wrong question, wrong answer

This is in response to a post people are sharing with a plan attributed to Warren Buffett:

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/hometown-buffett/ 

I am not saying that Buffett didn't say it. Context is important.

This was essentially a quip made by Buffett when asked about a debt ceiling conflict and potential government shutdown back in 2011. 

People are angry at many things and Buffett is perceived to be good with money, so I get the impulse to share it. I also found the share really annoying.

The Snopes article mentions an encouragement to share (twenty times in the posts I was seeing) which may be part of why it was getting so much traction. 

Now consider the guilt trip of those "most-people-won't-share-will-you" or "only-true-patriots-will-share" posts... does anyone really miss chain letters where you were promised good or bad luck? Why are we still doing this?

I admit I initially thought it was made up. False pairings of people and quotes is pretty common on the internet. I didn't think it seemed likely because generally the smartest financial people don't worry too much about deficits and debts on the government side.

As a quip it makes sense, especially in the context of a debt ceiling showdown. 

Additional context we should remember is that Republicans harp on debt and deficits because they want an excuse to not help people. Republicans never find it a reason to cut defense spending. W's response to inheriting a balanced budget from Clinton was tax cuts for the rich. Debt ceiling showdowns started after that. So, let's remember our history here.

https://www.factcheck.org/2008/02/the-budget-and-deficit-under-clinton/ 

As it is, theoretically any deficit is being eliminated right now by the cost-cutting measures of the DOGE team. 

Any thinking person knows that the chaos being caused by these thoughtless and destructive cuts will lead to very expensive harm and needs where it is uncertain how they will be met. Regardless, I feel pretty comfortable saying that right now executive overreach is a far more pressing issue than congressional gridlock. I wish there was more opportunity and will for congressional resistance, but that's another story.

Let's just say that congressional gridlock was the issue; there have certainly been times when it was.

Would locking out all the bums be the answer? Regardless of how anyone voted or what legislation they produced? 

Under current circumstances, that will probably get you a lot more Trump supporters. There are so many more of them, and voter enfranchisement has taken so many hits. 

Think about some of the remarkably unqualified people that have been elected in recent cycles; is it really possible to believe that just eliminating every sitting member -- regardless of record or affiliation -- is going to result in a better configuration?

No! It is going to take organization. It is going to take people paying attention to how elections have impact and making choices that will benefit all of us.  

Sharing jokes can be great, but Buffett's quip was not shared as a joke. It was shared as an action item. It's purpose was to tap into a real anger and frustration, but it does so in a counterproductive way.

It may not seem like it matters that much, but I'm going to keep harping on this exhaustion thing. People only have so much energy; don't take up their time with junk.

Republican talking points tend to be things that make you go "Yeah!" not "Hmm. That idea has possibilities."

We don't need more thoughtless reactionaries. I am positive about that.

Potential action item: Pause before you post.

Spooky Season: The Movies

Sometimes -- usually because I think about two books with a connecting word in the titles -- I may base a reading list on that.

That's where the "daughters" reading list comes from. The "trauma" one involved looking up "grief" too, though that list has some related by content but not title words. 

There are various ways books get connected in my mind, but that is one of them.

Last year I started thinking about Halloween, which is pretty normal for me. There were books that related, but also books that had "ghost" or "witch" in the title, whether it was relevant or not. 

Actually, there were some "daughter" books that fit into it too.

I decided reading those books in October was a great idea; next year I would do all the books with "monster" in the title. 

Time happened; I have finally finished the ghost, witch, and monster books and am ready to start writing!

I have written about trying to watch a different Halloween movie each year, so that may be the easiest entry point.

Of course, two years means two movies. 

For 2023 I watched Death Becomes Her (1992), and then The Lost Boys (1987) for 2024.

Well, The Lost Boys was pretty familiar. I had read the novelization many times and seen the play, but there are always things that are different when you are actually watching it. 

The novel didn't make it clear how cowardly the Frog brothers were. I mean, I get that it would be scary, but that plus their eagerness to put down Laddie did not reflect well on them. 

I expected Death Becomes Her to be funnier, but the humor there was quite cynical. I did appreciate Bruce Willis' arc.

This would not be much of a post, except two of the books relate at least partially to movies: 

Monsters in America: Our Historical Obsession with the Hideous and the Haunting by W. Scott Poole

Monster Theory: Reading Culture, edited by Jeffrey Jerome Cohen

I was initially too hard on Poole. I disagreed with how he was referencing Ann Rule, I thought he was missing some relevant points for themes he chose, and the conclusion ended up being very weak.

However, as someone who does not like horror, he made me seriously consider watching at least a couple of horror movies based on what he said about them.

If I do, they will be Candyman (1992) and The People Under the Stairs (1991). No promises. 

I am committed at some point to watching The Host and Parasite, for Bong Joon Ho. That's because I believe they have greater points, the same reason that I watched Get Out and Us for Jordan Peele.

Part of the credit I have to give Poole is that he made those movies seem relevant and meaningful.

The other credit I have to give him is that while there were times when I found his book frustrating, I did not find it boring and irritating, a big problem with the Monster Theory book.

When I was searching for it at the library I saw another "Monster Theory" book. I thought maybe I should check that out too. Maybe it would be interesting.

Maybe it is interesting, but I will have to read a lot more books before I am ready to gamble on that.

I suppose one of the keys would be seeing if there are similar authors. 

There was one pretty interesting article on Icelandic revenants by William Sayers and a very well-written article on "Vampire Culture" by Frank Grady, but it was a really long slog to get there. Both of those were in the last section, though I guess that is better than starting out great and then everything going downhill.

One of the really interesting things about Grady's article was that it made me think that Anne Rice stole from Michael Talbot's The Delicate Dependency. Grady didn't say that; some things just sounded very familiar.

Interview With the Vampire was written before The Delicate Dependency, but it sounds like the familiar parts Grady mentioned were from later novels by Rice that came after Talbot. I think that's interesting, but not interesting enough to read her novels.

At least not this year.

Help someone

I have previously referenced seeing online behavior from Trumpers that is very antisocial.

This includes putting laughing emojis on stories of abuse, swarming over positive stories with contradictions (Portland is completely burned down!), and attacking any statement from a Democrat leader with accusations of lies and corruption.

(The last part is also pretty leftist, if we are still tracking similarities.)

Previously when I have mentioned it, that has been more because of the lack of information that goes into it or the hypocrisy; if you are happy about "King" Trump, you can't have cared about the constitution that much, and not only is Portland not burned to the ground but the people asserting it the most are far from here and wouldn't really know.

The other thing that has occurred to me is that your life has to feel really empty to do that.

When the masking questions and comments came in, I did have to spend some extra time answering and administering and deciding how to handle things that had a surface friendliness. 

I also took pauses in that because I was making dinner or hanging out with my family or reading. I am not always online.

When I am online, of course I get caught up into doom-scrolling or watching videos or playing Solitaire sometimes. For the most part there is intentional use of time for homework or friendship or things that interest me.

There is too much in my life to get solely caught up in cheering on my (corrupt and hateful) team. I really don't have the time. 

Maybe that's reversed; maybe because I don't have the time I can't get too caught up in some things. 

I am frequently dismayed by how quickly time passes and how long some things take to get done, but there appears to be an upside. I can't remember the last time I was bored.

I was thinking of that issue; what can you do if your life seems empty and meaningless? 

What if you don't like yourself enough, so you need to glom onto someone more powerful for satisfaction?

The obvious answer is service to others. Then you have purpose. Then you are doing something.

That isn't just rewarding; it's empowering.

Thinking about that doom-scrolling, it is so easy to feel angry and hopeless, but whom does that serve?

I will be posting about this more in the Sunday blog, but I have a strong desire to fix everything so that everyone is happy and comfortable.

That is completely beyond my power. 

I can make someone's day easier. 

I can do something.

There are so many options.

Lately things I think about more include homelessness and the elderly. Yes, I have been thinking about those as separate issues, but I recently watched a documentary, No Place to Grow Old, and you can combine those concerns too.

https://www.noplacetogrowold.com/ 

If I look at Blanchet House, I can find continuing volunteer opportunities, ways to contribute one-time, and opportunities for different kinds of donations.

https://blanchethouse.org/

If I wanted a similar focus but more religious, I could find opportunities through Union Gospel Mission:

https://ugmportland.org/ 

If I wanted to search in my area, I could enter my zip code into https://www.justserve.org/.

It was through a one-time project found there that I have been exposed to opportunities to help with foster children:

https://everychildoregon.org/ 

There are so many options. With most, not only are you helping and taking action, but you are also finding other people who are committed to helping. 

That can make it easier to feel hopeful.

You don't have to complicate it. Maybe this weekend you will just take someone cookies, or cook a double portion of dinner and take it to someone, or organize a coat drive or become a tutor.

It is possible to help.

Potential action item: Do something for someone.

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