Last year, after the Pennsylvania primary elections, I heard a story on NPR about Brian Sims, who had just won the nomination for State Representative in his district. Because of the make-up of the district (heavily Democratic), it was pretty much a lock that he would also win the general election. Why was this race getting so much attention? Brian Sims was poised to become the first openly gay candidate elected to Pennsylvania's State Legislature.
As I heard more about Sims, I learned that he was a native of Downingtown (where I teach), and that he had been an impressive student-athlete who played football during both high school and college. I started to wonder if he would be interested in returning to his hometown to speak with the community college students here about his story. I contacted him a couple months ago, and he happily agreed. He will be speaking this Thursday at 11:00am in the cafeteria at Delaware County Community College's Downingtown Campus.
In my ENG 100 classes, I typically have my students read about contemporary social, political, economic, or environmental problems, and then write essays in which they take positions about what they think should be done about these problems. My students, in recent semesters, have shown a keen awareness of the problems in their communities and how these problems impact people's lives, but when it comes to generating ideas about how to change things, how to move towards solutions, they too easily give in to a kind of cynicism and defeatism. They feel powerless and overwhelmed by these problems, rather than motivated to make a difference.
My hope is that Brian Sims will show them that people who are not unlike them--people who are from where they are from--do grow up to change the world. Change is not easy, but as citizens, professionals, members of our communities, and even as consumers, we make decisions every day that influence how we all relate to one another.
To any of my ENG 100 students who might be reading this, here is a simple way in which you can begin. Brian Sims is currently pushing for new legislation that would help schools protect young people from the kind of bullying you read about in this week's reading assignment (It Gets Better). This legislation is called the Pennsylvania Safe Schools Act. If you think such a law could help young LGBT kids--or any kids who face physical and emotional abuse at school--then find out who your representatives are in the State Legislature, and tell them to support this Act.
Also, don't forget to come see Representative Brian Sims' talk this Thursday:
Representative Brian Sims
Thursday, January 31st
11:00am
Delaware County Community College's Downingtown Campus
It's a new year and a new semester, and for the first time ever, the Spring Semester began on my birthday. Last Monday, I turned 33, and greeted many new students. My ENG 100 students, this week, will be discussing Kiese Laymon's essay, "How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America," which I'm hoping will give us a good jumpstart to thinking critically about relevant issues (such as gun violence and racial injustice) as well as a good model for how to write provocatively and imaginatively about one's past. In ENG 112, my students are picking apart the lyrics from Brother Ali's record Mourning in America and Dreaming in Color. I'm interested to hear what they think of it--I've never taught it before. Finally, my ENG 231 students are diving into Huck Finn, which I always enjoy re-reading and talking about, despite (or perhaps because of) its many flaws and contradictions.
But what I really want to write about is my trip to Wilmington, Delaware last Thursday to see Lake Street Dive--my new favorite band--play at The World Cafe. My fiance, Yuriko, bought the tickets as a kind of birthday present (although she also bought me a bunch of Red Sox tickets too--amazing!--I'm so spoiled), and we made the long trip from Reading despite it being a school night and all. It was well worth it. We heard of the band because the bass player, Bridget Kearney, was also the bass player of another band we stumbled upon and liked in Delaware--Joy Kills Sorrow. But I have to say, as much as I like Joy Kills Sorrow, I think Lake Street Dive is even better. The lead singer has an amazing voice--textured, flexible, soulful--and great stage presence. The drummer brings a great energy to every song, while supplying good backing vocals. The guitar player effortlessly pulls off nice riffs and can also play a real jazzy trumpet. And the bass player is my favorite of favorites. She can pick and slap that big ole stand-up with virtuosity, improvising and soloing from time to time. She also writes many of the band's best songs.
Here's a good video of one of their original tracks:
And here's a video of a great Jackson Five cover which they recorded for a recent EP release:
President Obama and the Republicans who control the House of Representatives need to cut a deal to avoid running America off the so-called "fiscal cliff." Virtually all mainstream economists predict that if such a deal is not agreed upon, Americans can expect another recession, resulting in many lost jobs and rising unemployment. Clearly, another recession would be devastating, since we have yet to fully recover from the last one in 2008-2009.
The President has argued that any deal must include higher taxes for the wealthiest Americans, along with cuts to government spending. Republicans agree that the government needs to spend less in order to produce a more balanced budget, but they are reluctant to raise tax rates--even on America's millionaires and super-corporations.
Many people accuse the President of being a "socialist" for trying to "redistribute the wealth." They claim that "punishing" the rich for their success is "un-American." I strongly disagree with this view. The tax rates for the wealthy that Obama wants are the same tax rates that were in place in the 1990s, during the Clinton administration. These tax rates are pretty modest, compared to many European nations and even compared to the U.S. in the pre-Reagan years.
There is also convincing evidence that the vast inequality between the richest 1% and everyone else in America is bad for the economy as a whole. My students will be debating the arguments supporting this claim this week, as we discuss Joseph Stiglitz's article, "The 1 Percent's Problem", published earlier this year in Vanity Fair. Here is a video of an interview Stiglitz gave on this topic. And here is a video of Stiglitz on The Daily Show:
During the election, I kept thinking about how long we will still be feeling the effects of George W. Bush's presidency -- long after Obama's second term. The economic crisis that marked the end of Bush's administration is still clearly being felt, as the recovery slowly inches along. Some people blame the current Congress and/or Obama for the slow recovery--and I'm sure part of that blame is warranted--but the collapse of the housing market and everything that went down with it was catastrophic. Economies don't bounce back from a crisis like that over night. Aside from the economy (but related to it), we are still feeling the effects of two long-lasting wars and a decade of abysmal education policy (No Child Left Behind). Many military families have struggled and continue to struggle with lost loved ones. Many veterans, meanwhile, must cope with physical and psychological disabilities acquired from the trauma of combat, and the challenges of re-adjusting to civilian life after long and multiple deployments. Many students have struggled and continue to struggle with college and/or low-wage jobs, as they realize their under-funded schools under-prepared them for the 21st century. Many go into massive amounts of debt, not sure if they have the skills necessary to pass the college classes they need to be competitive in an unfavorable job market.
As I sink into dark thoughts like this, wondering how America will ever recover from the Bush legacy, I am reminded of the ways in which we are still trying to recover from the Reagan legacy. Although Reagan is often nostalgically romanticized as a lovable figure who brought Americans together and ended the Cold War, he is responsible for initiating two horrible policies that have drastically re-shaped American society. The first was the de-regulation of the financial industry. De-regulation enabled Wall Street to operate according to its own rules, consolidate massive amounts of power and wealth, and act in increasingly risky ways that threatened our whole economy (and even the global economy). The other initiative was the War on Drugs, which resulted in an exponential increase in the incarceration rate. The United States now imprisons a higher percentage of its population than any other nation on the planet. The social effects of creating such a prison-state will be with us for generations to come.
To get students thinking about the causes, consequences, and possible solutions to America's mass incarceration problem, I assigned the introduction to Michelle Alexander's book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindess. Alexander argues that the mass-incarceration system is eerily analogous to the legalized discrimination of the Jim Crow era, noting that roughly 80% of America's 2 million plus inmates are minorities. In particular, she claims, vast numbers of African American men have been formed into a permanently subordinated caste, shut out legally from participating in mainstream society by the criminal justice system and associated social stigma. Below is a clip of her from the Colbert Report. (I find it a little weird, since her book is about such a devastatingly serious topic, yet here it is being discussed on a comedy show.)
A week ago today, Yuriko and I were in Fredericksburg, Virginia for a wedding. An old friend of hers, Mark, married his long-time partner, Brian. This was the first same-sex wedding I had been to, and it began just as the rains of Sandy began to fall. The ceremony was beautiful, but unfortunately, because it was a Sunday night with a hurricane on the way, many people seemed to make their exit from the reception a little early. For those, like Yuriko and I, who were staying the night on-site, the party carried on with all the best (and worst) songs to get you moving on the dance floor, like "Livin' on a Prayer" (and "The Electric Slide"...ugh).
Speaking of same-sex weddings, I just saw this video (below) on Facebook this morning, which a college-friend shared. It features a gay Vietnam veteran questioning Mitt Romney about his stance on same-sex marriage. I found it pretty compelling. As beautiful as Mark and Brian's wedding was, there was still a dark shadow cast by the fact that the state in which they live (Virginian)--not to mention their country--refuses to recognize their love and commitment as it does for heterosexual couples.
The day after Mark and Brian's wedding, we drove back home to Reading (with a brief stop in Bowie, Maryland) as the rains of Sandy poured down upon us, and as the winds pushed my little Nissan around in its lane. We took it slow and made it without any trouble, other than the expected fatigue of staring at low-visibility roads for five hours.
After we got home, the storm really picked up as it headed across Delaware and then up toward Harrisburg. A couple trees went down in our backyard, but luckily nothing hit the house. One electrical pole on our neighbor's yard went down, and it took out power for about 11 houses, including ours.
Tuesday morning, I took a flashlight down to the basement to get out the diesel generator, which Yuriko's dad generously gave us earlier this year. After consulting with him over the phone about how to hook it up and get it going, we were able to get enough power for the heat, refrigerator, water, and some lights.
By the time Saturday rolled around, we were still running on generator power, and it was time to go to another wedding. This one was in Morris Arboretum, near Chestnut Hill in Philadelphia. The weather was ultra-brisk and the ceremony was outside, so we bundled up (or at least I did--Yuriko had exposed feet and legs in her fashionable dress and shoes). The reception followed in a semi-heated tent. We kept warm with wine and dancing. At one point, I ate some delicious pie (apple AND pumpkin). There were also FOUR great toasts, and you know how I love a good speech. All in all, it was another beautiful affair.
When we returned home, excited for an extra hour of sleep (so long, Daylight Savings Time), the power was back on! Hooray! We disconnected the generator, switched all the right switches on the circuit breaker, and went to bed, where we dreamed electric dreams.
Tomorrow I am scheduled to chat about climate change with my morning and afternoon ENG 100 sections. There's been some discussion in the news lately about if and in what way Sandy was a product of global warming. That will hopefully give our discussion a sense of urgency--or at least a note of relevance. I've found students reluctant to engage this issue in the past for a variety of reasons (skepticism that global warming is real, cynicism that anything can be done about it). We'll see how it goes. The reading I used to set up the discussion was an excerpt from Merchants of Doubt, by Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway.
I also want to say a couple words about the election, which is in 2 DAYS! First, I'm so glad it will be over. The way presidential campaigns drag on, consume the airwaves, and waste money is enough to make anyone sick. Second, I'm voting for Obama. He's not my ideal candidate--he is not even my favorite Obama (Michelle is #1 for me)--but I do think, despite his flaws, that he's the best president I've seen in my lifetime. I don't like that he escalated the war in Afghanistan; I don't like that he abandoned true universal healthcare in his pursuit of healthcare reform; I don't like that he extended the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy. But he did what he could to save an economy in free fall and get it to start growing again (albeit slowly); he did what he could to regulate Wall Street; he repealed "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"; he's the only president to ever come out in support of same-sex marriage; he supports the Dream Act; he increased Pell Grants and reformed Direct Student Loans; and he got most of our troops out of harm's way in Iraq. His major weakness, I believe, has been trying to work with extremists in the House of Representatives who refused to compromise on any issue because they wanted Obama to fail more than they wanted to do what was right for the country. Is he perfect? No. But he's an intelligent, pragmatic, man with a conscience--and I'm not so sure I can say the same for the other guy.
I'm also voting for Manan Trivedi, who is running for Congress in my district. He's an Iraq War veteran and a physician from a town just a couple miles away from where I live. I got to meet him a couple months ago, and I think he shares President Obama's concern for the well-being of ordinary Americans.
Whether you see things the way I do or not, be sure to VOTE! An apathetic citizenry makes it that much easier for those in power to avoid accountability.
Tomorrow I will be discussing an
excerpt from Michael Pollan's book Food Rules
with two sections of ENG 100 students. I'm considering teaching this
book in its entirety in a future semester, since it is persuasive,
relevant, well-researched, readable, and concise.
While
the main thrust of the book is aimed at establishing guidelines for a
healthier, simpler diet, I also hope to discuss the implications of
our choices as food-consumers on the economy and the environment. I
believe that what we choose to eat is not just a personal decision,
but a social and ethical one.
Recently,
I have been trying to eat less meat of uncertain origins. This means not
ordering meat dishes at restaurants and only purchasing meat from
local farmers. I am lucky, though, that sometimes I get to eat
meat that was not purchased at all, but personally hunted by my
future father-in-law (with a crossbow, though I like to imagine him sneaking up behind a deer with only a Bowie-knife), who regularly appears at our house as if some
kind of superhero. He will drive his 25-year-old Mercedes
diesel-powered station-wagon up from Maryland with a cooler full of
deer steaks, and change leaky pipes in our basement while he's here.
All we have to do is treat him to eggplant parmigiana and some Sam
Adams Octoberfest.
Yuriko
is particularly skilled at seasoning and marinating all sorts of
things, and so last night we had a delicious pre-Presidential-debate
feast of venison rib-steaks and cheesy-spaghetti squash (with a dash
of hot sauce). Yum.
As for
Pollan's rule about eating “mostly plants,” I am working on this.
Most days I try to have some raw vegetables for lunch, and we always
have some cooked vegetables with dinner. We've also been getting the
majority of our produce from a local farm this year: CrawfordOrganics. Even more important to me than the potential health
benefits of eating organic produce regularly, is knowing that we are
supporting local family farmers who are practicing
environmentally-conscious farming techniques.
Tomorrow my ENG 100 students will be discussing the introduction to Edward Humes's book Garbology: Our Dirty Love Affair with Trash. The numbers that Humes throws at the reader in this book are staggering. 102 tons is the figure he comes back to again and again; that is the average amount of trash that an American will produce over his / her lifetime.
The introduction artfully begins with an anecdote about a pair of hoarders who were discovered trapped in piles of their own garbage in a Chicago home in 2010. The book is not about hoarding, so at first this seems like an odd choice. Then Humes makes the connection--hoarders are not really the "freaks" we tend to think of them as. We all produce such gross piles of waste; hoarders do us the favor of making our own national vice visible.
I try to do little things to reduce my own waste, like bringing reusable bags to the grocery store and recycling what I can--we even started getting our milk in refillable glass bottles and our produce in refillable cardboard boxes. But we know that, like all Americans, our wasteful tonnage is still excessive. What can we do to change? I hope my students are up for some critical thinking on this topic tomorrow. Maybe they'll have some ideas for all of us.
