BOOKS: The Way Home by George Pelecanos

The Way Home by George P. Pelecanos

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


I was torn on how to rate this book.   I gave it a 2 for the depressing storyline.  I like books that have an inner sense of hope in them.   But it also deserved a 5 for the thought-provoking ideas.  It was an odd story with an interesting perspective on the juvenile prison system.   It reminded me of some stuff I'd read in Foucault's "Discipline and Punish".  I really should read that again.   Anyway, it really does make one wonder about the effectiveness of our current prison system.  But, while it's easy to think "That seems so cruel---we should make the system better", it's not that easy to come up with a workable solution.  Something needs to be done about it, but what?   It's really quite disturbing to think about. 



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BOOKS: Know Your Power by Nancy Pelosi

Know Your Power: A Message to America's Daughters by Nancy Pelosi

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


Interesting bit of light reading.  While I don't care for her political extremism I do consider her to be a brilliant politician.  I enjoyed this book because it seemed to reveal her witty sense of humor about herself. It humanized her for me. 



I only rated it a "2" because it was a very quick, light read and the contents didn't seem to match up with the title.   It was more of a mini-biography.   I liked it but I wish there would have been more to it.



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BOOKS: No Graves as Yet by Anne Perry

No Graves As Yet by Anne Perry

My rating: 3 of 5 stars





I liked her description of the idealism and innocence that was so prevalent before World War 1. It was such a contrast to the pervasive cynicism and devastation during and after the war.  It just seemed like such an unnecessary war.


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BOOKS: A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf

A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


 



Main Idea:  In order to write fiction, women must have money and rooms of their own.  This will help give them a bit of time and space to think, dream and write.
 
Favorite Quote:  "I find myself saying briefly and prosaically that it is much more important to be oneself than anything else.  Do not dream of influencing other people, I would say, if I knew how to make it sound exalted.  Think of things in themselves."

Thoughts:  This awesome little book was based on some lectures she gave in 1928.  Wouldn't it have been fun to have been able to attend one?   I wonder:   Was she was as good of a speaker as she was a writer? 

There was a small section that really interested me.   She wrote a bit on the differences in the poetry before and after World War I.   She mentioned that the war tore apart the illusions of the romantic view on life and that the underlying music of everyday life changed forever.  

She wrote, "  The very reason why the poetry excites one to such abandonment, such rapture, is that it celebrates some feeling that one used to have (at luncheon parties before the war perhaps), so that one responds easily, familiarly, without troubling to check the feeling, or to compare it with any that one has now.  But the living poets express a feeling that is actually being made and torn out of us at the moment.  One does not recognize it in the first place; often for the reason one fears it;  one watches it with keenness and compares it jealously and suspiciously with the old feeling that one knew."

Doesn't that just resonate with the before and after of any personal traumatic event?   This vivid description applies to both personal and communal traumatic events.   World War I fascinates me because it completely destroyed a way of life and set in motion the events that led to the modern era.   Romanticism died during the war and a cold, depressing realism took over.  

In this book, Virginia Woolf asks "Shall we lay the blame on the war?"  Then, she has a nifty paragraph asking if "blame" was the right word.  She asks, "Why, if it was an illusion, not praise the catastrophe, whatever it was, that destroyed illusion and put truth in its place?"  Isn't that a good question?  Romanticism may be stirring and fun and invoke powerful feelings of pride and glory.  But Truth comes back to remind one that it is all Illusion.   War is not a glorious adventure.  It is a tremendously horrid tragedy that may be necessary at times.   

There are so many lessons to be learned from the two World Wars. One lesson was about war in general.  War is horrid and should not be entered into lightly. World War I taught us to not be so eager to jump into an unnecessary war.   The death and destruction was overwhelmingly immense.   Yet, World War II taught us to not be so eager to avoid a necessary war.  The death and destruction was even more overwhelming and immense. 

However, the greatest lesson was learning how quickly we can shed civilized behavior and descend into chaos and unimagined brutality.  Decent people became nightmarish savages. Civilization keeps us in check but it can be ripped away so easily.   As Anne Perry wrote:  "We must grasp civilization...., pay any price to keep it for ourselves and those who come after us.  Guard the gates of sanity so madness does not return."   




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BOOKS: A Woman In Charge by Carl Bernstein (on Hillary Clinton)

A Woman in Charge: The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton by Carl Bernstein

My rating: 4 of 5 stars





This was a fascinating look at Hillary Clinton.  The book did a great job of showing her intelligence and strength.   It also showed how her arrogance, mistakes and stubbornness hurt her husband's presidency.  It also showed how she changed over time. She learned from her mistakes.  She grew to appreciate the value of having a favorable relationship with the media.  It's too bad she didn't learn that one earlier.  She offended them so badly and they never really forgave her for it.  They were really quite brutal to her for a long time.  She also learned how to play the Washington Game instead trying to succeed as a pushy outsider. Once again, it was another lesson that was learned too late in her husband's presidency.   Her health care plan may have had better success if she'd had more political savvy back then and been willing to work with people outside the White House.  I also admire her for keeping her religious beliefs private.  She met regularly with a prayer group for support and comfort but didn't try to use that for political gain.     

The book spent a lot of time discussing how she dealt with her husband's womanizing.   She was publicly humiliated for years and still stood by him.  Was that good or bad?  Who knows?  It was her business.  I personally didn't care about the whole Monica Lewinsky thing other than being annoyed by all the fuss over it.   Powerful men are in a setting where it's easy to cheat.  It seems fairly common.  It's not that big a deal to me.  While I don't approve of adultery and would have left his cheating arse in Arkansas, it wasn't my marriage.   She was also from a different generation than me.  It's too bad the country didn't hear more about her fairly traditional values at the time.  The public probably wouldn't have been so harsh on her.  Of course, I think a lot of that came from the media's vicious treatment of her.

It's a bit disturbing how powerful our media is in this country.  I'm all for the freedom of the press. But, it's a little frightening how they can exploit some issues to stir up a public frenzy and yet basically ignore other equally ( or even more) important issues.   I don't like the way they turn on some people and do everything they can to ruin and destroy their lives.   They can turn a minor inquiry into a witchhunt and nobody seems to care.  




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BOOKS: Going Rogue by Sarah Palin

Going Rogue: An American Life by Sarah Palin

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



This was a fascinating look at a strong lady who has endured a tremendous amount of undeserved bashing from the media. While I disagree with many of her political ideas, I am disappointed that this country's feminists did not stand up and defend her and her daughters against some very vicious sexist attacks. Her personal stories were engaging and sometimes surprising. It was an enjoyable read and I believe it gave me some perspective on a strong and unfortunately polarizing political figure. She has earned my respect and I hope that she keeps on fighting.

Don't get me wrong. I have no desire to see her run for president. We disagree on too many issues. However, I am appalled at the level of poisonous garbage that she was treated with in an effort to utterly destroy her. Why attack her shoes and clothes? Would a male politician be attacked for the type of suit he was wearing? Why put a picture of her in running shorts on the cover of Newsweek? Would they make a male politician resemble a bimbo cheerleader? Why attack her kids, especially her baby with Down Syndrome? Don't make her out to be stupid. She's not. She's bright, witty and obviously connects well with a lot of American conservative women. The attacks were offensive, base, senseless and wrong.

There are plenty of legitimate issues to attack her on. The media doesn't have to go insane and create false or unnecessarily cruel ones. She has little high-level political experience (none at the national level) and probably destroyed any reasonable chance of running for president when she resigned as Alaska's governor. Sure, she had good reasons on why she quit her only major political office. She and her family have my sympathy. I think it's great that she put her family before her job. That doesn't mean I would support her to run for an office I don't believe she could handle. She doesn't have the experience.  She also doesn't seem to have the willingness to set her families' needs aside to accomplish her political goals (not necessarily a bad thing-----I admire her for doing that). I just don't agree with how the media has treated her or her family.



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MOVIES: Freedom Writers

Average of 1,684,428 ratings:

4 stars 

 

This was an inspiring story and an awesome movie. I loved the part where Mrs. Grewell tells Andre "You're not failing.  I see you!"  That reminded me of some stuff from Martin Buber. She didn't see them as dangerous, troubled losers or as lost causes. She also didn't just see them as a group of students in her class. She saw them individually.   She did more than just try to teach a class. She interacted with them as people she liked and respected.   She engaged herself with them and ended up bringing a little bit of healing to a broken part of the world.  That was an amazing thing.

I do wish the movie had done one thing differently though. I wish they wouldn't have portrayed her fellow teachers as as horrible, selfish, hardened people who didn't care about their students. Maybe they were more calloused from teaching there for so long (who wouldn't be?). Yet, they stayed on teaching there while the heroine of the movie leaves after a few years to follow her students to college. It was awesome that she was able to connect with her students like she did. It just seems that the other teachers, especially the long-term ones, deserved more respect than the movie showed. They have a tough job in an environment that I can't even begin to fathom. Wouldn't you have to have some element of caring to stay on in those positions for so long?

Of course these kids deserve more than what they're getting. Every American child should have adequate educational supplies, proper books and a safe school environment that actively encourages them to succeed. We are failing to provide that. There are too many areas of our country where our children are suffering and are being destroyed by their environment. The level of need is so incredibly great that it seems hopeless. But, is that the fault of the teachers who are working in an almost impossible situation? No, it is more than that. It's also more than the system. The sad truth is that it is us. We should care more. Every one of us should be so outraged that we should be demanding more from our government for our children. But we're not. Maybe we're just as indifferent as the teachers they portrayed in the movie. And in the meantime we are failing our kids miserably.

There is a comic strip by Jim Borgman:
It takes a whole village to raise a child.
But the village is on crack.
The village is ruled by gangs.
The village doesn't know it's a village.
And the children aren't children anymore.

QUOTE: Humankind

Humankind: Be Both

This was an awesome bumper sticker quote! I had to get it for my car.

BOOKS: Dreams from My Father by Barak Obama

Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance by Barack Obama

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a surprisingly good book and one of the best memoirs I've read. The title, "Dreams from my Father" is interesting because his father is remarkably absent from the book. Yet, that absence and his idealized version of his father does seem to have a powerful influence on his life choices. I could be reaching something into it, but i had the sense of someone trying to get a sense on an elusive and distant part of his life. He doesn't discuss his maternal family much. Most of the the book seems centered on his journey to connect with father's family in Kenya. Yet, those of us who have missing or hidden parts of our heritage can relate to the desire to discover that missing part of us.

An underlying theme of anger and bitterness seems to run through the book. It isn't really an acute sense of anger but rather the crippling frustration and bitterness that being powerless can cause. Of course, his experience is about being black in a white-dominated culture. However, he describes so well the mixed feelings of anyone who has had their dignity crushed by the ignorance or mistaken opinions of someone in power.

It is hard enough to be hurt by an individual. It is so much greater when it is the power of the system bringing harm. Along with the hurt, it is agonizing to have your justifiable anger and frustration at the situation being misinterpreted and used against you. It is just another bitter reminder of the overwhelming cruelty of the system. I'm not sure what is worse, the incident itself or the bitter realization that there is nothing you can say or do to help alleviate the situation except to play along with those in power.

There seems to be a deep scarring that never goes away. The pain fades but there is always a sense of unease that remains whenever a reminder of that unjust system is encountered. How can there not be? The trust has been shattered. One can be civil and friendly but never totally relaxed. The littlest thing can trigger a remembrance of the humiliation and frustrating sense of powerlessness. And, I think, the intense depth of this is difficult to understand except for those who have experienced it.









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