Friday, July 31, 2015

Incarceration: some questions

Prisons, death row, prison revolts. All of these issues were what I never wanted to read about , hear about and think about. Those indefatigable souls who defended and investigated were off in the ether to me. I have had so much on my plate here outside of jails and prisons to think about and contribute to.

Now, however, thinking about this new Obama initiative to allow prisoners to be able to have access to Pell grants and college, and thinking about the Chicago prison warden who is totally addressing the issues of mental illness in prisons, I am drawn to thinking hard about these things.

We have way too many people in prison in this country, and a high proportion of them are people of color. A high proportion of prisoners are there because of drug offenses and other low level crimes. Many others have serious mental illness, not really addressed in prison.

It seems brilliant to me that we should give prisoners a chance at college. Pragmatically, it will give these folks a shot at success in the world and they will not be tied to the safety net when they emerge from incarceration. This will save us taxpayers so  much. And it is the right thing to do.

It troubles me that most of our conservative representatives in Congress have a negative knee jerk response to anything pragmatic and humanly inclusive. Seems mean spirited to me that those folks in congress always vote against anything that could possibly help folks (especially people of color) and the future of our country. It sometimes seems to me that these conservative GOP folks have never had the opportunity to see real poor people, or Black people, or people who are desperate for health insurance and scratching for everything they can. They are short sighted and ignorant.

So, when our Congress, State and National, meet, they mostly have no idea of what matters to the real people. They don't get it that so many of our citizens are incarcerated in prisons across the land.
And they completely dis anyone who is in prison.





Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Summer Vegetable garden gone crazy

In these days of the summer doldrums with heavy rain each day, I go out to inspect the vegetable garden that has fed us throughout the fall and winter and spring.

Summertime when the days are humid and the sun is punishingly hot, no tomatoes will set fruits, and mostly everything else is past. We still have okra and black-eye peas, neither of which we care enough about to pick. Eggplants, sweet potatoes growing everywhere and peppers strive meekly to produce a few fruits among the weeds that now have taken over everything.

The stalwart volunteer army of the zinnias and cosmos and red sage entice the butterflies by the dozens. Soon enough it will be time to clear out the seminole pumpkin vines and the sweet potato vines, and cut back the sprawling tomatoes. But, for now, we can relax, let the stink bugs have their way and enjoy all the insects that are here in this magical garden.

Skunk vines cling tightly to the deer fence and one early morning I will cut them down.

Meanwhile, the lawn is green and vast, the bromeliad garden and the others are doing well. Rainy season is just about my favorite. I have ordered the fall seeds and bulbs and my husband has begun constructing and installing the new raised beds for the vegetable garden.

The garden spiders are busy depositing their egg cases in each place they call their own, frogs are calling every night in joy after the rains, the hummingbirds are frantic to get enough nectar from our feeders.

I picked several pounds of grapes today - determined to get them before the raccoons do- and tomorrow I will make grape jelly.


Friday, July 17, 2015

TKAM, another view

I have read Mockingbird so many times out loud to generations of students, and to four grandchildren. We have watched the film together and noted that the editing was deficient, but, on the whole we loved Gregory Peck and the passel of characters that were so familiar to us. We choked up as Atticus was going out of the courthouse after the trial and Jem, Scout, and Dill watched from the 'colored' balcony as their father was passing by and all the colored folks stood up.

This book was never preachy, and there were so many ideas to conjure with - not just the race issues, but justice in all forms. (And how many kids that I know to whom I have explained 'rape'?)  It was about the tension between Scout and her culture there in Macomb, Alabama. Most of all, kids from ten on up, could think about Boo Radley and his eventual coming into the light as a good and true person.

TKAM has been a touchstone for so many millions of young and old Americans. It was perfect just as it was. Kids got it that when Atticus shot the rabid dog surprising things can happen.

So, when the new book was announced I pre-ordered it, lined up to buy it, made time to read it.

The pundits had gotten there before me and they scorned this newly discovered novel. (Maybe they only read the first ten pages!)  Lots of folks, who, like me, have loved Harper Lee's first book unlike any other, said they would not read "Go Set a Watchman".

There is probably some back story about the discovery and publication of this newly discovered work we will not immediately know. No doubt greed in publishing is a factor.

Today, I finished "Go Set a Watchman".  I choose not to think of this excellent coming-of-age novel as connected to TKAM. Yes, there are references and expansions of some of the prior experiences of Jem and Scout in their Macomb childhood.

This novel can stand on it's own. In the light of recent events in Charleston and elsewhere, we need to think about these thorny issues of race. "Watchman" is sometimes shrill. I think of a young person whose thoughts and ideals just tumble out too fast with too many words. Jean Louise, at twenty-five,  now living in New York as a writer,  is inflated with so many emotions about her culture in both places, and making peace with her father and her origins, stumbles all over herself. The passage of Jean Louise's visit to her uncle Jack probably tells the whole story. It ints true.

This new novel has the signature Harper Lee's  excellent writing - sometimes spare, other times folding into pedantic literature.

This book is not TKAM. Don't expect it to be!

I love that this book has come out at a peak of our national interest in race relations. Something to think about!