tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-65332443741757394132024-02-19T11:14:48.929-06:00Your Brain on BooksBrainy commentary on randomly selected books by a retired college English prof.Judy C. Fosterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09260240756709001428noreply@blogger.comBlogger162125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6533244374175739413.post-11453676457196141842021-07-02T14:20:00.000-05:002021-07-02T14:20:19.401-05:00My Grandmother's Hands<p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><i>My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway
to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies</i> by Resmaa Menakem (MSW, LICSW) was
published in 2017.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i>Psychology Today </i>describes
Menakem as “<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">a healer, therapist, trainer, and speaker.”</span> (<a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/contributors/resmaa-menakem-msw-licsw"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/contributors/resmaa-menakem-msw-licsw</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Unlike most writings on racism, his work focuses on the
embodiment of trauma experienced both historically and in the present by both
blacks and whites in a white supremacist world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Instead of seeking understanding of systemic racism as a social
phenomenon (though he does that) he addresses the way our bodies have retained
racial trauma from the past and continue to suffer from such bodily
trauma.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead of leaving us in a dark
place, however, he offers practical therapeutic aids for healing ourselves as a
way of contributing to healthier bodies, hearts, and minds, and, ultimately, to
a healthier society. Even more unusual, he includes traumatized police bodies
as part of the psychological and social mix that we often see manifested in
racialized violence. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">It was not surprising to see attention paid to the traumatic
effects of racism on black bodies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What
was new to me was the idea that white bodies, like mine, also have been and are
traumatized by white supremacy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How can
this be? Part of it has to do with our encultured and socialized fear of black
bodies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Are they going to rob us, attack
us, rape us?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Are they going to take
their own racialized trauma out on us?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Another
dimension is our own history. Menakem points out that in the U.S. whites
learned how to oppress those of other races from white people. In Europe,
before the mass migration to the Americas, whites were victims of each
other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Whites brutalized whites through
class and gender oppression. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“The 1500s and 1600s in England were anything but gentle
times. People were routinely burned at the stake for heresy, a practice that
began in the twelfth century and continued through 1612. Torture was an
official instrument of the English government until 1640. The famous Tower of
London was, in part, a huge torture chamber…the rack was used stretch human
bodies and pull them apart.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Menakem cites Barbara Tuchman’s <i>A Distant Mirror</i>:
“The tortures and punishments of civil justice customarily cut off hands and
ears, racked, burned, flayed, and pulled apart people’s bodies. In everyday
life, passers-by saw some criminal flogged with a knotted rope or chained
upright in an iron collar. They passed corpses hanging on the gibbet and decapitated
heads and quartered bodies impaled on stakes on the city’s walls.” Even if one
were not a direct victim, the experience of being exposed to these horrors on a
daily basis had to be traumatizing. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">No wonder so many sought escape to the colonies.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">When I read these descriptions of white brutalization of
other whites, I wondered, “How did we manage to survive?” But Manaken reminds
us of our resilience, our ability, not only to survive, but to overcome the
effects of our inherited and continuing experience of trauma.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Unfortunately, however, white colonists brought their trauma
with them, turning around and using similar brutality against each other, as
well as against indigenous populations, slaves, and non-white immigrants.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Such methods of dealing with trauma simply
inflict that trauma onto others and can hardly be justified.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just as European whites managed to survive,
at the expense of others, those oppressed “others” have also managed to
survive, but at what a price. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">As we know, whiteness was invented and used to establish
dominance over non-whites. White supremacy became the ruling ideology and
practice from our earliest history. To what extent was such oppression a
manifestation of traumatized white bodies venting their own pain onto others?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">It is obvious that racialized oppression would traumatize
the oppressed, but less obvious how the oppressors (including police) might be
suffering from their own trauma.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is
also obvious that, insofar as this is true, it is no excuse for mistreating, harming,
and dominating others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is no excuse
for creating a system of white supremacy by which one group can perpetuate such
injustice. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">How do we break out of this continuing cycle of injustice
toward a world of diversity, equity, and inclusion?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Social action is necessary and important, but
Menakem says the healing starts with our bodies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are so often unconscious of our bodily
sensations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We may recognize when we are
scared, angry, or otherwise upset, but in order to prevent those feelings from
leading to harmful words or actions, we need to learn to back up and settle our
bodies before we react.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He offers
embodied practices to help with this, not in lieu of social action but in
conjunction with it. We have resilience, yes, but we need to learn how to
direct that resilience toward ourselves, learning to address our own trauma in
a healthy way. White people have a responsibility to heal themselves so they
can contribute to dismantling white supremacy. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">As a white person I have addressed the parts of Menakem’s
book that focuses on my history and my body.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Black, indigenous, brown people and police will identify with the parts
that address their bodily trauma and healing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In any case, such embodied experience is a dimension of white supremacy
culture that was revelatory to me, and I highly recommend both Menakem’s diagnosis
of racialized trauma and his healing practices. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Judy C. Fosterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09260240756709001428noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6533244374175739413.post-4430497433876682592020-12-31T10:29:00.000-06:002020-12-31T10:29:27.458-06:00Ebola, Salem Witchcraft, COVID, "Young Goodman Brown," and "Spectral Evidence" <p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16.0pt;">Some
six years ago I compared the Ebola scare of the time to the Salem witchcraft
trials, as chronicled by Marian Starkey in <i>The Devil in Massachusetts</i> (See
blog post Nov. 24, 2014). I highlighted the scapegoat theme and the racism
underlying much of the “mass hysteria” in both Salem in 1692 and the U.S. in
2014. I barely mentioned the way misguided fears overshadowed scientific,
medical, and public health expertise in the Ebola episode.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was struck that as a nation, maybe we
hadn’t evolved as much as we might like to expect between 1692 and 2014.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16.0pt;">Lately,
looking back on 2020, I see similar parallels.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>COVID-19 was referred to as the “Chinese virus” and people of Asian
descent were targeted for threats and harassment. This virus, along with what
might be considered election “mass hysteria,” put me in mind of Hawthorne’s
story reflecting on Salem witchcraft, “Young Goodman Brown,” published in 1835.
</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16.0pt;">Young
“good man” Brown presumably thinks he is one of the Puritan “elect,” who by
God’s special “election” can do no evil.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Yet his curiosity leads him into the forest one night to observe a
witches’ meeting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He is shocked to see
some of his well-respected neighbors at the scene, including the deacon, the
minister, and his own supposedly innocent wife, Faith. In the end, as the devil
calls on his followers to pledge their allegiance to him, Young Goodman Brown
calls out to “resist the Wicked One!” and suddenly finds himself alone in the
forest with a drop of dew on his face. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16.0pt;">“Had
Goodman Brown fallen asleep in the forest and only dreamed a wild dream of a
witch-meeting?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Be it so, if you will.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But, alas, it was a dream of evil omen…” </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16.0pt;">Here
Hawthorne alludes to what was referred to as “spectral evidence” in the
historical Salem witchcraft trials, the court accepted the testimony of
“witnesses” that they had been “visited” in the night by the accused and caused harm. Had the witnesses only dreamed of this “visitation” by a witch? “Be
it so, if you will,” but the accused “witches” were hung on the basis of such
“evidence.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16.0pt;">In
our own age of conspiracy theories, it seems spectral evidence has reappeared
and overtaken a significant segment of our population. On the basis of no
empirical, documented evidence whatsoever, but only of wild fantasies and over-active
imaginations, we have the pandemic being dismissed as a hoax, while masks and
social distancing are accused of being a government plot. QAnon believers and
other conspiracy theorists commit violence in the mistaken conviction that
Hillary Clinton and the deep state are engaging in sex trafficking or the 5G
cellular network is spying on us or spreading the virus or who knows what? We
now have lawyers and elected officials, who should know better, introducing
“spectral evidence” into election fraud cases on the basis of nothing more than
wishful thinking, outlandish fears, or imaginary beliefs. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16.0pt;">As
a result, unnecessary deaths, violence, threats (including death threats), and the
undermining of democracy, as well as of public confidence in elections, have
occurred. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16.0pt;">Young
Goodman Brown becomes “a stern, a sad, a darkly meditative, a distrustful if
not desperate man…from the night of that fearful dream.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He believes that everyone he imagined seeing
at the witch meeting, including his wife, Faith, are hopelessly evil
hypocrites, everyone, that is, except himself. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16.0pt;">Fortunately,
he commits no violence and makes no threats (though he may well have applauded
at the witch hangings), but his community relationships, even his marriage, are
destroyed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He has lost his faith in
others, and “his dying hour was gloom.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16.0pt;">Conspiracy
theorists of today have lost their faith in science, medicine, evidence, reason,
and in democratic institutions. They end up either dying of COVID or spreading
it to others who die, harassing those who wear masks, committing crimes in the
name of their wild fantasies, and supporting the corruption of our courts, our
democracy, and our very Constitution. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16.0pt;">Some
years after the Salem witchcraft trials, church leaders and trial jurors
apologized, convictions were reversed, and compensation rendered to the families
of those wrongfully accused and convicted. Let’s hope that, similarly, starting
in 2021, we come to our senses. Meanwhile, Happy New Year! </span></p>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style> <br /></p>Judy C. Fosterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09260240756709001428noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6533244374175739413.post-59374873597343234212020-10-03T11:59:00.000-05:002020-10-03T11:59:46.308-05:00Can Fiction Be True?<p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">We all
know that “Fiction” is a factually-false, made-up, imaginary story and
“Non-fiction” is a fact-based narrative or exposition,
personal/social/political expression, or opinion/persuasion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sometimes the boundaries get blurred,
especially in the age of social media, as fictional “conspiracy theories” or
other false reports get passed off as non-fiction fact, and, as in the case of
autobiography, all parts may not be verifiable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And, of course opinion/persuasion can be based on false belief or wishful
thinking as much as, even more than, fact. And, of course, fiction can be based
on actual history, geography, or lived experience.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Regardless,
we generally associate fiction with that which is factually false and
non-fiction with that which is factually true.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Yet, we
take fiction seriously, as art in the form of novels, short stories,
screenplays, etc.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why is this?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is it just that we admire the imaginative play
that goes into them, the ingenuity, the creativity, the compelling
language?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s part of it, but my
experience as a teacher of literature at all levels from high school to
graduate studies and as a participant in various “book discussions” is that the
primary focus of most people is on the content: the plot, characters, setting,
and the overall message that different readers find.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And the value they typically find in these
elements is that they are “true-to-life” and expressive of a meaningful message
that strike readers as “true.” </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Well,
“true” in what sense?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not factually
true, but true in, what I would call, a symbolic sense.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even what we call a fantasy fiction, that is,
a story that is unrealistic, maybe even impossible in real life, can strike us
as “true” if understood as allegorical, metaphorical, or symbolic of a general
truth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The film <i>Star Wars</i> (and
all its sequels and prequels) is powerful because it depicts political/military
conflict, good vs. evil, heroes and villains, family relationships, friendship,
romance, and human experience in general in ways that strike us, not only as
entertaining, but as “true” to human experience, if not factual, or even
realistic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">All this
might seem obvious, and non-controversial, but, again in my experience, if the
term “fiction” merges into “myth” and then into “religious myth,” it can
suddenly raise hackles. It raises hackles among those who believe certain
religious stories, even those that contradict the known laws of nature, are
factually true.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And it raises hackles
among religious non-believers who prefer to dismiss religious stories as false
belief.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">A
fundamentalist Christian who takes the Bible literally might object to having
its contents referred to as “myth” because that implies “false belief.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On the other hand, an atheist who also tends
to take things literally might object to Biblical, or any religious, myth
referred to as symbolically “true.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">At the
risk of offending both extremes, I will suggest how the Christ story can be
considered symbolically true, even if factually false.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Most Christians probably consider
it to be a unique story, but actually it follows the familiar pattern of a
hero/quest myth found in almost all, if not all, cultures: (1) mysterious or
miraculous origin, (2) hiding, (3) initiation and divine signs or special
powers, (4) preparation, meditation, withdrawal, refusal, (5) trial and quest,
(6) death and the scapegoat, (7) descent to underworld, (8) resurrection and
rebirth, (9) ascension, apotheosis, atonement. Not all hero myths contain
every element, but all roughly follow the same outline. (See David Leeming's <i>Mythology:
The Voyage of the Hero,</i> 2nd ed.)*</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">In the case of Jesus Christ, (1)
he is born of a virgin, (2) he is born in a kind of “hidden” place, a manger,
(3) he shows a maturity beyond his years during his conversation with religious
teachers, (4) he spends forty days and forty nights in the wilderness
resisting the temptations of Satan and preparing for his “quest,” (5) he calls
his disciples and undertakes his ministry performing miracles and spreading his
message, (6) he is crucified and dies as a scapegoat for human sin, (7) he is
buried in a tomb, (8) he rises from the dead, and (9) he ascends into heaven
and is deified.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">So, if we dismiss the story as
factually and literally false, on what basis can we affirm its truth
value? For one thing, we can affirm that, regardless of time and place,
some individuals seem to acquire special status. These individuals
perform outstanding acts or make noteworthy contributions to their communities.
In turn, their communities elevate them and attribute unusual qualities to them
in recognition of their accomplishments. Hero myths thus represent the
enduring human truth that some individuals rise above the rest of us and that
the rest of us confer upon them a distinctive standing. Likewise, these
myths embody the truth that, as humans, we seek role models, mentors, and
heroes, who inspire and lead us toward our own higher life.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">From a psychological perspective,
we can also view these myths as representing the universal story of each
individual’s life journey. As we grow, we become conscious of ourselves
as having a distinct identity. We often think of ourselves as having a
special calling or mission in life. We may face threats to our survival;
we look for signs of our “destiny” or our unique goals in life; we seek success
in one form or another and we prepare ourselves to achieve it; we encounter
obstacles and trials that must be overcome in our life’s “quest.” Not all
“heroes” are successful, and we may experience a failed quest, perhaps more
than one. Regardless of success or failure, we must face death, but we
take comfort that we will live on after death, even if it is only in the form
of the memories of the living or the legacy we leave behind. Psychologically,
our apotheosis is the mark we leave on the world.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Thus, the literally false myth
embodies the symbolic truth of our sense of unique identity, our individual
life journey, and our shared human experience of trial and quest, success or
failure, suffering, death, and the hope, if not the conviction, that our life
was significant.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Stripped of its religious
meaning, the story of Jesus Christ is the same story that we each live, and
that is perhaps one reason the story can resonate powerfully even for an
atheist, assuming the atheist has not rejected imagination along with religion.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Thus, w</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">hile myths and legends, religious
and otherwise, may be factually false, they persist in popular imagination and
in literary tradition because they embody enduring “truth” about human
experience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Does this
mean that conspiracy theories, rumors, superstition, and “fake news” can embody
symbolic truth?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Well, they may well tell
us something about the psychology of those who embrace them as factually true,
whether it be our human desire to believe what we want to be true rather than
what can be verified as true, our need to reinforce a particular world view
that we have become emotionally invested in, our fear of being wrong, our anger
at being challenged, wishful-thinking, or just our human tendency to follow the
path of least resistance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It takes
effort to verify, to research, to evaluate the credibility of sources, to seek
facts and evidence, to rely on logic and reason.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Why would
anyone believe that our government is secretly controlled by Satanists who deal
in sex-trafficking?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is it a form of
socio/political paranoia?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Does it
satisfy some need to explain the mysterious inner workings of a seemingly
all-powerful government beyond our control?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Just as
there are atheists and other literal-minded materialists who reject imaginative
truth, there are those with over-active imaginations who are easy prey for
scams, superstition, hoaxes, fake news, and conspiracy theories. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">There can
be a dark side to the excess of imagination, as well as to the lack of
imagination. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In each case the seeker of
“truth” is missing something. The literal-minded materialist, by focusing on
facts alone, is missing a much larger dimension of truth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Those with over-active imaginations who can’t
distinguish between fact and fiction are missing a sense of reality, both
factual reality and that which symbolically represents reality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">In any
case, assuming one has one’s wits about them, yes, fiction can be true. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">*Based on Joseph Campbell's <i>The Hero of a Thousand Faces </i><br /></span></p>
<p><style>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Judy C. Fosterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09260240756709001428noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6533244374175739413.post-56168467490509490362019-11-26T11:32:00.000-06:002019-11-26T11:32:47.641-06:00"Reluctance"
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 1;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">Reluctance </span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">By </span><a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/robert-frost"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Robert Frost</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: -12.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: -12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Out through the fields and the woods</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: -12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> And over the walls I
have wended;</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: -12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I have climbed the hills of view</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: -12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> And looked at the
world, and descended;</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: -12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I have come by the highway home,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: -12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> And lo, it is ended.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: -12.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: -12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The leaves are all dead on the
ground,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: -12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> Save those that the oak
is keeping</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: -12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">To ravel them one by one</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: -12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> And let them go
scraping and creeping</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: -12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Out over the crusted snow,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: -12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> When others are
sleeping.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: -12.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: -12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And the dead leaves lie huddled and
still,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: -12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> No longer blown hither
and thither;</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: -12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The last lone aster is gone;</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: -12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> The flowers of the
witch hazel wither;</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: -12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The heart is still aching to seek,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: -12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> But the feet question
‘Whither?’</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: -12.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: -12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Ah, when to the heart of man</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: -12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> Was it ever less than a
treason</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: -12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">To go with the drift of things,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: -12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> To yield with a grace
to reason,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: -12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And bow and accept the end</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: -12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> Of a love or a season?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: -12.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Here in Central Minnesota we have already had a taste of
winter; some of our leaves were frozen to the ground when they were picked
up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We know how this ends: fall gives
way to winter just as summer gave way to fall.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>“And lo, it is ended.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But we are
reluctant to accept it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“The heart is
still aching to seek, /But the feet question ‘Whither?’”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>…when to
the heart of man</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>Was
it ever less than a treason</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>To go with
the drift of things…</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>And
bow and accept the end…”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Frost explicitly references the end “Of a love or a season,”
but we know he also means we are reluctant to accept death, the ultimate end,
as well as the loss of a love or the coming of winter.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What is striking is the way that reluctance, in this case,
goes against, not only nature (at the end of a season), but also reason:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Ah, when to
the heart of man</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>Was
it ever a treason</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>To go with
the drift of things,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>To
yield a grace to reason,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And bow and
accept the end…</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Endings are, not only natural, but also inevitable, and
resistance goes against reason.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However,
it would be treasonous to expect “the heart of man” to “accept the end.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Human “nature,” it seems goes against the
external nature of the seasons, as well as its own power of reason. Head and
heart are in conflict as we struggle to accept the inevitable.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Who among us has not experienced that struggle? Who among us
cannot identify with that reluctance to accept the inevitable end?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
At this time of Thanksgiving, as we celebrate all that we
have to be grateful for, let us forgive ourselves our reluctance to accept the
inevitable endings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And may our
gratitude for new beginnings never cease! </div>
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</style>Judy C. Fosterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09260240756709001428noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6533244374175739413.post-26568221528873757962019-11-02T16:58:00.000-05:002019-11-02T16:58:23.996-05:00Nineteen Eighty-Four
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
This dystopian novel by George Orwell was first published in
1949. I read it in the 1960s and taught it to first-year college students in
1984. Last night I saw a dramatic performance adapted for the stage by Michael
Gene Sullivan.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In the 60s, those of us who were active in the Vietnam War
protests battled the barrage of government propaganda, disinformation, and
misinformation regarding the origin of the war, the need for the war, and the
progress of the war.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Orwell’s concepts
of Newspeak, Doublethink, and even Thoughtcrime (Vietnam
protesters were labeled unpatriotic and subversive for opposing the War) seemed to apply. FBI
surveillance of Vietnam protesters seemed to mirror the watchful eye of Big Brother
through the widespread use of government cameras to keep citizens in line with
the Party. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When I taught the book in 1984, it seemed far-fetched.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And since then, we’ve grown accustomed to the
prolific use of surveillance cameras by law enforcement and private citizens
alike to deter crime.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
With the Trump presidency, <i>Nineteen Eighty-Four</i> has
become relevant again. And the stage play was frankly terrifying, as the
comparisons were unmistakable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead
of Newspeak and Doublethink, we have “fake news” and conspiracy theories,
bolstered by doctored photos/videos and the deliberate spread of propaganda,
not only by elected leaders and their staffs, but also by private citizens on
social media, not to mention other countries.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As in the original novel we now have blatant disregard for
facts, science, rational thought, and the direct experience of our eyes and
ears.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Trump and others publicly deny
they said something that is right there on unedited video or audio transcript
for all to see and read.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In <i>Nineteen Eighty-Four</i> the Thought Police enforce
conformity to the Party line with the use of torture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the stage version Winston Smith is
subjected to increasing levels of electric shock until he finally agrees that
two-plus-two is five and that he loves Big Brother.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is scary enough.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What is particularly scary today is how many
of our fellow citizens are willing participants in the campaigns of propaganda,
misinformation, and disinformation to which we are all subjected.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Too many of us are uncritically willing to
believe what we want to hear or think we know rather than to take the time and
exercise the discipline it takes to at least come close to the truth. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Today the government and the Party do not need Thought
Police and electric shock because they have partisan loyalists and sycophants
whose eyes and ears are closed as they open their mouths to readily ingest
toxic, false messages and then turn around and spew those messages out to their
own followers on social media. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
George Orwell envisioned a citizenry of helpless victims
subjected to Big Brother’s totalitarian power; he did not envision a citizenry
of willing participants fully cooperating in their own manipulation and
delusion. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What I am grateful for in the scary times we live in is (1)
an educational system that is hopefully teaching critical thinking and
evaluation of sources for reliability, (2) freedom of the press that allows for
competing points of view, even as some media outlets toe the Party line and
help spread false information, and (3) freedom of speech that allows those who
value facts, evidence, and reason to counter the propaganda, misinformation,
and disinformation, even as it also enables the false narratives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unlike the fictional world of <i>Nineteen
Eighty-Four</i>, we have the right and the power of dissent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So let us use that right and that power to educate others,
as best we can, in reliable methods of research and responsible methods of
determining truth; to analyze our own sources of information for reliability
and discipline our own thinking to rely on facts, evidence, and reason; and to
raise our voices to counter those who would misinform, mislead, and manipulate. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgetfv6ijRhHc7wPXYLK60Z68zng05Dl4Hm37MbZb_fv0YKMLZ-zUIPDBS1Yjtj0uXLvDwiLaAYNTxDn5vfaCq-HhgNsSIWJH1yMMNtFZWysO__5IZNzJiKw2sdKCLZWv0-EA5bSDnmW0U/s1600/1984+Program.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1430" data-original-width="695" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgetfv6ijRhHc7wPXYLK60Z68zng05Dl4Hm37MbZb_fv0YKMLZ-zUIPDBS1Yjtj0uXLvDwiLaAYNTxDn5vfaCq-HhgNsSIWJH1yMMNtFZWysO__5IZNzJiKw2sdKCLZWv0-EA5bSDnmW0U/s320/1984+Program.jpg" width="155" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAZ0fiGDQuaNMXyZrWe2kkHFqI1Yqx8Lizg330N7KQWzfZJsWzHd5YeuS4IfJyG5WzTtgqN_ZA897EsZzjiepnbzbcozIj4pt1VdWAp8Gdak9VZDY2xzrQyQN9n0yyd_YTJsu-TJS6t1A/s1600/1984+Stage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="778" data-original-width="1600" height="155" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAZ0fiGDQuaNMXyZrWe2kkHFqI1Yqx8Lizg330N7KQWzfZJsWzHd5YeuS4IfJyG5WzTtgqN_ZA897EsZzjiepnbzbcozIj4pt1VdWAp8Gdak9VZDY2xzrQyQN9n0yyd_YTJsu-TJS6t1A/s320/1984+Stage.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> The stage for the play was a hall of mirrors. You can see the reflection of the audience. Look in the mirror, America!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
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</style>Judy C. Fosterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09260240756709001428noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6533244374175739413.post-47835962679794004662019-07-08T12:16:00.000-05:002019-07-08T12:50:52.295-05:00Mueller Report<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
The much-touted Mueller Report (<i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Report on
the Investigation into Russian Interference in the 2016 Presidential Election)</span></i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
was publicly released on April 18.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One
of my friends read it and blogged on it right away (</span><a href="https://linnposts.com/2019/04/25/the-mueller-report-and-the-fate-of-the-nation/"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">https://linnposts.com/2019/04/25/the-mueller-report-and-the-fate-of-the-nation/</span></a><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He probably read it a lot more carefully than
I did.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It took me longer to get to the
report and it took me longer to get through it; I skipped the footnotes and skimmed some sections.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, I read enough to have formed some
conclusions.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">First, note the title refers to the “Russian Interference in
the 2016 Presidential Election,” and that is the main focus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, Mueller was charged with pursuing
other criminal activity that arose in the course of the investigation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thus, the entire second volume is devoted to possible
obstruction of justice by President Trump. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Volume One amounts to 199 pages; Volume II, 182 pages.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are lots of redactions, so the actual
number of pages to read is somewhat less.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The redactions often leave one guessing as to what we don’t know yet,
but there is enough information to substantiate the main claims in the Report.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As has been widely
reported Mueller found multiple attempts by Russian officials to interfere in
the election (1) by a social media campaign designed to sow division in the
electorate and favor the Trump candidacy, and (2) by contacting Trump campaign
workers to offer negative information, or “dirt,” on Hillary Clinton.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some of those Russian officials were
indicted.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As we know, Mueller did not
find (enough) evidence of criminal conspiracy by the Trump campaign and Russia
to issue an indictment on those grounds.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">The Office of Special counsel “</span><span style="color: #232323; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">d</span><span style="color: #424242; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">e</span><span style="color: #232323; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">t</span><span style="color: #424242; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">er</span><span style="color: #232323; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">mined that the </span><span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">contacts </span><span style="color: #232323; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">between </span><span style="color: #424242; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">Ca</span><span style="color: #232323; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">mpai</span><span style="color: #424242; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">g</span><span style="color: #232323; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">n </span><span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">officials </span><span style="color: #424242; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">a</span><span style="color: #232323; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">nd </span><span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">Russia-linked </span><span style="color: #232323; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">indi</span><span style="color: #424242; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">v</span><span style="color: #232323; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">idu</span><span style="color: #424242; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">a</span><span style="color: #232323; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">l</span><span style="color: #424242; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">s </span><span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">either </span><span style="color: #232323; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">did n</span><span style="color: #424242; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">o</span><span style="color: #232323; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">t involve the </span><span style="color: #424242; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">co</span><span style="color: #232323; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">mmi</span><span style="color: #424242; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">ssion </span><span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">of a federal crime or, </span><span style="color: #424242; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">in </span><span style="color: #232323; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">th</span><span style="color: #424242; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">e case of </span><span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">campaign-finance </span><span style="color: #232323; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">offen</span><span style="color: #424242; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">ses, </span><span style="color: #232323; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">that </span><span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">our </span><span style="color: #232323; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">evidence wa</span><span style="color: #424242; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">s </span><span style="color: #232323; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">not </span><span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">sufficient </span><span style="color: #232323; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">t</span><span style="color: #424242; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">o </span><span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">obtain and </span><span style="color: #232323; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">sustain </span><span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">a criminal </span><span style="color: #424242; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">co</span><span style="color: #232323; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">nvicti</span><span style="color: #424242; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">o</span><span style="color: #232323; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">n</span><span style="color: #424242; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">. </span><span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">At the same </span><span style="color: #232323; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">time</span><span style="color: #545454; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">, </span><span style="color: #232323; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">the </span><span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">Office concluded that </span><span style="color: #232323; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">the Principle</span><span style="color: #424242; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">s </span><span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">of Federal Prosecution </span><span style="color: #424242; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">s</span><span style="color: #232323; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">upp</span><span style="color: #424242; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">o</span><span style="color: #232323; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">rted </span><span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">charging </span><span style="color: #232323; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">certain </span><span style="color: #424242; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">ind</span><span style="color: #232323; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">i</span><span style="color: #424242; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">v</span><span style="color: #232323; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">iduals </span><span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">connected to </span><span style="color: #232323; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">the </span><span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">Campaign with </span><span style="color: #232323; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">making </span><span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">fal</span><span style="color: #545454; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">se </span><span style="color: #424242; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">stateme</span><span style="color: #232323; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">nt</span><span style="color: #424242; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">s or othe</span><span style="color: #232323; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">r</span><span style="color: #424242; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">wise </span><span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">obstructing </span><span style="color: #424242; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">t</span><span style="color: #232323; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">hi</span><span style="color: #424242; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">s </span><span style="color: #232323; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">investigation </span><span style="color: #424242; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">or </span><span style="color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">parallel congressional </span><span style="color: #232323; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">in</span><span style="color: #424242; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">vest</span><span style="color: #232323; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">i</span><span style="color: #424242; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">gat</span><span style="color: #232323; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">i</span><span style="color: #424242; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">o</span><span style="color: #232323; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">n</span><span style="color: #424242; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">s.” (V.I, p. 174) </span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #424242; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">The Report makes clear that they could not conclude that no
conspiracy occurred but rather that, while evidence of conspiracy existed, it
did not rise to a strict enough legal level or it was not sufficient to charge
anyone in court.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #424242; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">At one point the report states that because certain campaign
officials made false statements (lied), or took the Fifth Amendment, or deleted
records, the Office was unable to paint a complete picture of campaign contacts
with Russian officials:</span><br />
<br />
<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">“<span style="color: #212121;">Accordingly, while this report embodies factual and legal
determinations that the Office believes to be accurate and complete to the
greatest extent possible, given these identified gaps, the Office cannot rule
out the possibility that the unavailable information would shed additional
light on (or cast in a new light) the events described in the report</span><span style="color: #5e5e5e;">.” (V.I, p. 10)</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #5e5e5e; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">My biggest take-away from Volume I is, if there was no criminal
conspiracy, coordination, or “collusion,” why did so many Trump campaign
officials lie, take the Fifth, or delete records?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What were they covering up? Even Trump has suggested
that when someone takes the Fifth, they must be guilty:</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;"> </span><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-immunity-pleading-fifth-amendment-michael-flynn-2017-5"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-immunity-pleading-fifth-amendment-michael-flynn-2017-5</span></a><span style="color: #5e5e5e; font-family: "times"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Though the Office was unable to charge anyone with
conspiracy or violations of federal campaign laws, it did charge certain Trump
campaign officials with lying and obstructing justice: </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">“</span><span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">The Office determined </span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">that </span><span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">certain
individuals associated with the </span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">Campaign </span><span style="color: #191919; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">li</span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">ed </span><span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">to investigators about Campaign contacts with Russia
and </span><span style="color: #191919; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">have </span><span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">taken </span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">ot</span><span style="color: #191919; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">her </span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">actions </span><span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">to interfere with </span><span style="color: #191919; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">the </span><span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">investigation…the
Office therefore charged some </span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">U.S</span><span style="color: #191919; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">. </span><span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">persons </span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">connected </span><span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">to the Campaign with false </span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">state</span><span style="color: #191919; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">m</span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">ents
</span><span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">and </span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">obstruct</span><span style="color: #191919; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">i</span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">on </span><span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">offenses. “ (V. I, p. 191)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">Also, given the wealth of documented evidence of Russian interference, why is our government not doing more to prevent it from happening in future elections? It is astounding that we seem to be accepting this practice as the status quo. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #2d2d2d; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">Volume II of the Report, as has been widely reported, did not
conclude that Trump was guilty of obstruction of justice, but it also did not
exonerate him: </span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #2d2d2d; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">“Because we determined </span><span style="color: #1e1e1e; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">n</span><span style="color: #3f3f3f; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">ot </span><span style="color: #1e1e1e; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">t</span><span style="color: #3f3f3f; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">o </span><span style="color: #1e1e1e; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">m</span><span style="color: #3f3f3f; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">ake a tra</span><span style="color: #1e1e1e; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">diti</span><span style="color: #3f3f3f; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">ona</span><span style="color: #1e1e1e; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">l prose</span><span style="color: #3f3f3f; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">cuto</span><span style="color: #1e1e1e; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">r</span><span style="color: #3f3f3f; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">ia</span><span style="color: #1e1e1e; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">l ju</span><span style="color: #3f3f3f; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">dgment, we </span><span style="color: #2d2d2d; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">did not </span><span style="color: #3f3f3f; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">draw </span><span style="color: #1e1e1e; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">ultim</span><span style="color: #3f3f3f; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">ate conclus</span><span style="color: #1e1e1e; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">ions </span><span style="color: #2d2d2d; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">about the President's </span><span style="color: #3f3f3f; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">conduct. T</span><span style="color: #1e1e1e; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">h</span><span style="color: #3f3f3f; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">e evidence we obta</span><span style="color: #1e1e1e; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">in</span><span style="color: #3f3f3f; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">ed about </span><span style="color: #2d2d2d; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">the </span><span style="color: #3f3f3f; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">P</span><span style="color: #1e1e1e; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">r</span><span style="color: #3f3f3f; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">es</span><span style="color: #1e1e1e; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">id</span><span style="color: #3f3f3f; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">ent's </span><span style="color: #2d2d2d; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">actions and intent presents difficult issues that would need </span><span style="color: #3f3f3f; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">to </span><span style="color: #2d2d2d; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">be re</span><span style="color: #515151; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">solve</span><span style="color: #2d2d2d; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">d if </span><span style="color: #3f3f3f; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">we were </span><span style="color: #1e1e1e; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">m</span><span style="color: #3f3f3f; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">aking </span><span style="color: #2d2d2d; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">a </span><span style="color: #1e1e1e; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">t</span><span style="color: #3f3f3f; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">rad</span><span style="color: #1e1e1e; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">iti</span><span style="color: #3f3f3f; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">ona</span><span style="color: #1e1e1e; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">l </span><span style="color: #2d2d2d; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">prosecutorial judgment. </span><span style="color: #3f3f3f; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">A</span><span style="color: #1e1e1e; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">t </span><span style="color: #2d2d2d; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">the </span><span style="color: #3f3f3f; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">same </span><span style="color: #2d2d2d; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">time</span><span style="color: #515151; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">, </span><span style="color: #1e1e1e; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">i</span><span style="color: #3f3f3f; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">f we </span><span style="color: #2d2d2d; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">had </span><span style="color: #3f3f3f; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">confidence </span><span style="color: #2d2d2d; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">after </span><span style="color: #3f3f3f; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">a </span><span style="color: #2d2d2d; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">thorough </span><span style="color: #1e1e1e; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">in</span><span style="color: #3f3f3f; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">vestigat</span><span style="color: #1e1e1e; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">i</span><span style="color: #3f3f3f; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">o</span><span style="color: #1e1e1e; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">n </span><span style="color: #3f3f3f; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">of </span><span style="color: #2d2d2d; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">the </span><span style="color: #3f3f3f; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">facts </span><span style="color: #2d2d2d; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">that the </span><span style="color: #3f3f3f; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">President </span><span style="color: #2d2d2d; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">clearl</span><span style="color: #515151; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">y </span><span style="color: #1e1e1e; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">did n</span><span style="color: #3f3f3f; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">ot commit obstruct</span><span style="color: #1e1e1e; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">i</span><span style="color: #3f3f3f; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">on of justice, we wo</span><span style="color: #1e1e1e; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">uld </span><span style="color: #3f3f3f; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">so s</span><span style="color: #1e1e1e; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">t</span><span style="color: #3f3f3f; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">ate. </span><span style="color: #1e1e1e; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">Ba</span><span style="color: #3f3f3f; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">se</span><span style="color: #1e1e1e; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">d </span><span style="color: #3f3f3f; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">on </span><span style="color: #2d2d2d; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">the </span><span style="color: #3f3f3f; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">facts a</span><span style="color: #1e1e1e; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">nd </span><span style="color: #3f3f3f; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">t</span><span style="color: #1e1e1e; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">h</span><span style="color: #3f3f3f; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">e a</span><span style="color: #1e1e1e; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">ppli</span><span style="color: #3f3f3f; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">cab</span><span style="color: #1e1e1e; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">l</span><span style="color: #3f3f3f; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">e </span><span style="color: #1e1e1e; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">le</span><span style="color: #3f3f3f; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">ga</span><span style="color: #1e1e1e; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">l </span><span style="color: #3f3f3f; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">stan</span><span style="color: #1e1e1e; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">d</span><span style="color: #3f3f3f; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">ards, we are </span><span style="color: #1e1e1e; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">un</span><span style="color: #3f3f3f; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">ab</span><span style="color: #1e1e1e; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">l</span><span style="color: #3f3f3f; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">e </span><span style="color: #515151; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">to </span><span style="color: #3f3f3f; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">reac</span><span style="color: #1e1e1e; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">h th</span><span style="color: #3f3f3f; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">a</span><span style="color: #1e1e1e; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">t </span><span style="color: #2d2d2d; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">jud</span><span style="color: #515151; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">g</span><span style="color: #2d2d2d; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">ment. </span><span style="color: #3f3f3f; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">Acco</span><span style="color: #1e1e1e; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">rdin</span><span style="color: #515151; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">g</span><span style="color: #1e1e1e; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">l</span><span style="color: #3f3f3f; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">y, </span><span style="color: #2d2d2d; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">while this </span><span style="color: #1e1e1e; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">r</span><span style="color: #3f3f3f; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">e</span><span style="color: #1e1e1e; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">p</span><span style="color: #3f3f3f; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">ort </span><span style="color: #2d2d2d; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">does </span><span style="color: #1e1e1e; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">n</span><span style="color: #3f3f3f; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">ot con</span><span style="color: #1e1e1e; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">clude </span><span style="color: #2d2d2d; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">that the </span><span style="color: #3f3f3f; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">Pres</span><span style="color: #1e1e1e; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">id</span><span style="color: #3f3f3f; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">e</span><span style="color: #1e1e1e; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">nt </span><span style="color: #3f3f3f; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">co</span><span style="color: #1e1e1e; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">mmitt</span><span style="color: #3f3f3f; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">ed a c</span><span style="color: #1e1e1e; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">r</span><span style="color: #3f3f3f; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">ime, </span><span style="color: #1e1e1e; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">it </span><span style="color: #3f3f3f; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">a</span><span style="color: #1e1e1e; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">l</span><span style="color: #515151; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">so </span><span style="color: #2d2d2d; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">does not </span><span style="color: #3f3f3f; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">exo</span><span style="color: #1e1e1e; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">n</span><span style="color: #3f3f3f; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">erate </span><span style="color: #1e1e1e; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">him.” (V. II, p. 8) </span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #1e1e1e; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">Furthermore, “The President</span><span style="color: #4c4c4c; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">' </span><span style="color: #1e1e1e; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">s efforts to influence the
investigation were mostly unsuccessful, but that is largely because the persons
who surrounded the President declined to carry out orders or accede to his
requests. Com</span><span style="color: #3a3a3a; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">e</span><span style="color: #1e1e1e; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">y did not end the investigation
of Flynn</span><span style="color: #3a3a3a; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">, </span><span style="color: #1e1e1e; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">which ultimately resulted in
Flynn</span><span style="color: #3a3a3a; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">'</span><span style="color: #1e1e1e; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">s prosecution and conviction for
lying to the FBI. McGahn did not tell th</span><span style="color: #3a3a3a; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">e </span><span style="color: #1e1e1e; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">Acting Attorney General that the Special
Counsel must be removed</span><span style="color: #3a3a3a; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;"> but</span><span style="color: #1e1e1e; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;"> was instead prepared to resign over the President's order.
Lewandowski and Dearborn did not deliver the President's message to Sessions
that he should confin</span><span style="color: #3a3a3a; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">e </span><span style="color: #1e1e1e; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">the Rus</span><span style="color: #3a3a3a; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">s</span><span style="color: #1e1e1e; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">ia investigation to future
election meddling only. And McGahn refused to recede from his recollections
about events surrounding the President's direction to have the Special Coun</span><span style="color: #3a3a3a; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">s</span><span style="color: #1e1e1e; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">el removed</span><span style="color: #3a3a3a; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">, </span><span style="color: #1e1e1e; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">despite the President's multiple
demands that he do so.” (V. II, p. 158) </span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #1e1e1e; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">My main take-away from Volume II is that there are grounds for
impeachment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Whether that is a
politically expedient course for the Democrats to pursue is questionable,
but there is little doubt in my mind, based on the multiple, documented cases
in the Report of Presidential attempts to impede or obstruct the investigation
of his campaign that impeachment would be the Constitutionally appropriate
action to take. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #1e1e1e; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">Those who know me know that I identify as a progressive and vote
Democratic (in most cases).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you
question my reading of the Mueller report as politically biased, I refer you
to, perhaps, a more neutral summary: </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mueller_Report"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mueller_Report</span></a><br />
<br />
<span class="MsoHyperlink"><span style="color: windowtext; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Or</span></span><span style="color: #1e1e1e; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">, read the full report here:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="https://www.justice.gov/storage/report.pdf?fbclid=IwAR2C51tCRpU0u7Bq3AJ6reyjl7tSO8JLhtRSST9EcW_olAc-9ArlZ5Adb7I">https://www.justice.gov/storage/report.pdf?fbclid=IwAR2C51tCRpU0u7Bq3AJ6reyjl7tSO8JLhtRSST9EcW_olAc-9ArlZ5Adb7I</a></span><br />
<span style="color: #1e1e1e; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">
</span><u><span style="color: #0563c1; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-themecolor: hyperlink;"></span></u><br />
<span style="color: #1e1e1e; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">Finally, I was surprised when I told people that I was reading
the Mueller Report, how often I was met with silence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Was it that people did not want to get into a
political conversation?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Did my
conservative friends (I have a few) fear we would get into an argument? Or were
they aware of how damaging the report is to their conservative hero, Donald
Trump?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Did my liberal friends feel like
they’d heard enough about it, and were possibly sick of the whole thing?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Are they just exhausted and disgusted by the
lack of outrage and action in response to the findings?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t know, but I found it striking how
little interest folks took in discussing it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Perhaps they felt they had already heard enough about it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #1e1e1e; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">Regardless, it is troubling how dismissive, even “ho, hum,” some
folks seem to be about what, to my mind, are shocking revelations about our
current administration that are well documented and well established in the
Report.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In addition to my deep concern
about the corruption, incompetence, deception, dysfunction, and outright ignorance of our
current administration, I am deeply worried that, as an electorate, we may have
become inured to the lowest standards of ethics, intelligence, and general
quality of performance. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #1e1e1e; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">Perhaps a lot of folks are just holding their fire until the
next election.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We can only hope. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;"></span><br />
<br />
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-->Judy C. Fosterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09260240756709001428noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6533244374175739413.post-10314329613730573842019-01-11T14:08:00.000-06:002019-01-11T14:08:22.211-06:00Edinburgh Twilight
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
On New Year’s Eve we watched the movie <i>Wind River </i>(2017)<i>,
</i>which takes place on the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming (<span class="MsoHyperlink"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_River_(film)">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_River_(film)</a></span>).
It’s a far cry from <i>Edinburgh Twilight </i>(2017),<i> </i>set in the<i> </i>cobblestone
streets of Old Town in the Scottish city, but they both raise a question about
whether there’s more good than evil in the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I suppose any murder mystery raises that
question indirectly, if not directly, but this unlikely pair do so in
intriguing ways, one somewhat subtly, the other more explicitly. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In <i>Wind River,</i> desolate, windswept mountains provide
the backdrop to an investigation into the death of a young woman found frozen
in the snow by a Fish and Wildlife Service tracker who hunts predatory
animals.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It turns out the young woman
herself is the victim of human predators, who had raped her, left her to die,
and killed her boyfriend, whose body is found a couple of days later. The
stark, natural setting with images of dead animal prey and growling mountain
lions, and the Indian reservation with images of neglect and deteriorated
conditions serve to suggest in an understated way that rape, violence, and
murder are outgrowths of nature “red in tooth and claw” and a society in which
the strong have license to overpower the weak. As in most murder mysteries, the
rapists and murderers are eventually overpowered by the forces of justice, and,
in this case, the forces of nature, but we are left with the sense that nature
and society are as cruel and heartless in the end as they were in the
beginning.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In <i>Edinburgh Twilight</i> by Carole Lawrence, a serial
killer stalks his prey in the back alleys, the pubs, and the open markets of
the city, leaving a calling card on his victims with the image of a
skeleton.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The streets reek of human
waste, drunkards, prostitutes, pickpockets, scam artists, etc. As in most
murder mysteries, the detective uses rational methods of investigation, as well
as intuition, to collect the evidence, follow the clues, and track down the
killer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As in most murder mysteries, the
reader is left with a sense of satisfaction that the crime is solved, and the
perpetrator gets his just deserts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Good
conquers evil.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But, again, we are left
with the sense that the struggle for survival goes on in the streets, leaving corruption
and depravity in its wake.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What is different in <i>Edinburgh Twilight</i> is that this
question of whether there is more good than evil in the world is openly
discussed in the novel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The omniscient
point of view allows us into the mind of the killer, whose recurring mantra is,
“Oh, there is so much evil in a man, one hardly knows where to begin.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Detective Ian Hamilton often says that, as a
policeman, he has to believe that anyone is capable of anything.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His brother Donald opines that “…the forces
of light and dark exist in a relationship of delicate balance, and that
murderers appease the blood lust of humanity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They perform a double duty: first, by expressing mankind’s desire to
kill, and second, as appropriate victims of slaughter when they are brought to
justice.” Ian asks, “Do you believe the thirst for blood runs in all our
veins?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And Donald replies, “When you
look into your own soul, do you not find a shadowed corner that takes secret
delight in the suffering of others?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
Germans even have a word for it—Schadenfraude.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Later, Ian wonders, “What if Donald was right? Did evil
really exist in equal measure in every man’s heart? Ian had spent his career
convinced there were good men and bad, and it was his job to protect the former
from the latter. Was it just a matter of circumstances then—and under the right
conditions, even a good man could become corrupted, like the monster he pursued
so doggedly? ...The idea was unthinkable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>If his brother was right, fate toyed with people like a cat tormenting a
mouse, and mankind was at the mercy of a cruel and indifferent universe.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He even begins to wonder if his own brother
might be the perpetrator!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When Ian
finally does trap the killer, he confronts him, “Why? …What made you do it? …I
need to know.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The killer replies, “You
may as well ask a river why it flows, or a rooster why it crows. It’s my
nature.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Are some people naturally evil? Do we all have a shadow of blood lust? Is the only difference among us that some of us are capable of
controlling our evil impulses more than others? Do murder mysteries appeal to
us because they allow us to act out our own sublimated murderous fantasies? </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In <i>Wind River, </i>there are good people and bad, but the
background of nature and social environment are such, we are left wondering if
good is the exception to the rule of evil in nature, including human nature. And
in <i>Edinburgh Twilight </i>we are led to question the goodness of even the
“good people” who somehow seem to rise above the squalor of the streets. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
At the end of the novel, though, Lawrence leaves us with
some images of redemption: </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“…it was March already. February had slipped quietly away,
giving way to the promise of spring and rebirth…”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“As he swung out onto George IV bridge, the sight of
Edinburgh spread out beneath him took his breath away.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He stopped the admire the glistening of a
thousand lamps, touched by the Promethean hand of the city’s leeries
[lamplighters], bringers of light amidst the northern Scottish darkness.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Is it just a matter of perspective, such that from the
inside of evil it is impossible to see the good, whereas the wider view puts
evil in its place and allows the light of goodness to shine through?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A friend and I were commiserating recently that when we
read/watch the news, it does sometimes seem there is more evil than good in the
world, but as we go through our daily lives, interacting with family, friends,
neighbors, colleagues, fellow citizens, even strangers, it seems there is more
good than evil.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe it <i>is</i> all a
matter of perspective.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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</style>Judy C. Fosterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09260240756709001428noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6533244374175739413.post-57020746212203613202018-12-13T13:49:00.000-06:002018-12-13T13:49:19.426-06:00White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk about Racism
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Back when I was a college professor of English, we were
undertaking curriculum review, seeking to revise our course offerings in order
to affirm more “multicultural” and “ethnic” literature.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some of us revised our syllabi to include
more non-white writers and voices.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
think our efforts were noteworthy, but there is little doubt the Western,
European, white literary tradition remained fully intact and fully dominant in
our curriculum. Perhaps, this cannot entirely be avoided in an “English”
department, which focuses on reading/writing the English language and
literature written in English, not to mention the dearth of non-white writers
and voices in English given their history of oppression in a white-dominant
culture.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
At best the changes we made led to more conversations among
faculty and students regarding race relations, colonization, white supremacy,
and systemic, historically-based racism reflected in our English language and
literature.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At worst these changes
merely cosmeticized and therefore reinforced what remained an essentially white
supremacist curriculum.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I remember an occasion when I was discussing our Ethnic
Literature course with an indigenous faculty member. He pointed out to me that
the effect of relegating non-white literature to a separate, “ethnic” category
implied that white literature did not have ethnicity, that white literature was
the norm, whereas non-white literature was some kind of aberration. That was a
moment of revelation I have never forgotten.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Of course, I had routinely checked the box for white or
Caucasian when asked for my race on an informational form, but somehow it had
not quite sunk in that my whiteness is just as much a race or ethnicity as all
the other categories.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Furthermore,
multiculturalism includes whiteness as a separate culture distinct from
non-white cultures.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was more likely to
think of white culture regionally—Southern, Southwestern, Irish, German, etc.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Such is the power of white supremacy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As whites we are socially conditioned to
think of ourselves as the norm, and the entitled norm at that, and to think of
non-whites as deviations from that norm.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In other words, whites are more color-blind when it comes to themselves
than when it comes to non-whites.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This book by Robin DiAngelo (2018) not only analyzes white
supremacy as a system of both conscious and unconscious patterns of racism, it
also documents and demonstrates in example after example how white people
resist acknowledging their participation in this system, much less accepting it
and taking responsibility for changing both themselves and the larger system.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Until white people, including, and perhaps especially, white
liberals, move beyond this resistance and open themselves to learning how to be
authentic allies of those fighting for their liberation from oppression, we
will continue to be part of the problem, benefiting from and reinforcing the
system of oppression, instead of part of the solution.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Good intentions won’t cut it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Genuine humility, consciousness-raising, and
transformation are called for.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This book can be the beginning of a long journey during
which white people learn how they can contribute to the work of dismantling
white supremacy and achieving racial equity.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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</style>Judy C. Fosterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09260240756709001428noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6533244374175739413.post-25183827028454014472018-10-24T10:39:00.000-05:002018-10-24T10:39:25.499-05:00Leave No Trace
<div class="MsoNormal">
The motto of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA) is “Leave
no trace.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A permit is required to camp
and canoe there and guidelines are provided for minimizing the human impact on
this wilderness area in northern Minnesota close to the Canadian border.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Outdoor enthusiasts, as well as
environmentalists, are fiercely protective of this natural preserve, <span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">“</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">the largest remaining area of uncut forest in
the eastern portion of the United States” (<span class="MsoHyperlink"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boundary_Waters_Canoe_Area_Wilderness">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boundary_Waters_Canoe_Area_Wilderness</a></span>).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Most recently
“Renewed proposals for copper and nickel mining in northern Minnesota has…been
a source of tension. Mines would be situated south and west of the BWCAW upstream
of the wilderness and within its watershed, leading to concerns among
conservation groups that surface runoff could cause damage to the area. In
December 2016 the federal government proposed banning mining for 20 years while
the subject was studied. The <u><span style="color: blue;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trump_Administration" title="Trump Administration">new administration</a></span></u> cancelled the
study in September 2018, clearing the way for mining leases in the national
forest.<sup>”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></sup><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Mindy Mejia’s
recent novel, <i>Leave No Trace</i>, does not directly address the land use
disputes of the BWCA, but it does make an understated plea for the preservation
of wilderness areas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The wilderness
theme has a long history in American literature, dating back to William
Bradford’s <i>Of Plimoth Plantation</i>: “What could they see but a hideous and
desolate wilderness, full of wild beasts and wild men?” These early colonial
narratives morphed into the nineteenth century frontier novels by James
Fenimore Cooper and Catharine Maria Sedgwick, who borrowed from earlier
American “captivity narratives” (<span class="MsoHyperlink"><a href="https://yourbrainonbooks.blogspot.com/2010/02/narrative-of-captivity-and-restoration.html">https://yourbrainonbooks.blogspot.com/2010/02/narrative-of-captivity-and-restoration.html</a></span>).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Not only does
Mejia’s novel harken back to the wilderness theme, with its contrast between
nature and civilization, but also to the captivity narrative, in which European
settlers recount their experiences being captured by Indians. In <i>Leave No
Trace</i>, however, civilization is the enemy, nature is the source of
restoration, and the systems of law enforcement and mental health treatment are
the captors, who prevent the narrator, Maya Stark, Assistant Speech Therapist
at the Congdon mental health facility in Duluth, MN (those in the know will
find the name of this facility hilarious), and her patient, Lucas, from
tracking down Lucas’ father, Josiah, who has disappeared deep in the BWCA.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Which brings us
to the theme of disappearance, not by captivity, but by choice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Josiah and Lucas Blackthorn had escaped into
the BWCA wilderness ten years earlier, after Josiah had been arrested for obstruction
of justice in Ely, MN, a gateway to the BWCA. Mejia underscores this theme by
drawing parallels among the fictional Josiah and historical instances of
voluntary disappearance, such as that of Agafia Lykov ( <span class="MsoHyperlink"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agafia_Lykova">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agafia_Lykova</a></span>)
and Ho Van Thanh (<span class="MsoHyperlink"><a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2013/08/09/210477419/father-and-son-coaxed-from-jungle-40-years-after-vietnam-war">https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2013/08/09/210477419/father-and-son-coaxed-from-jungle-40-years-after-vietnam-war</a></span>).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In addition, Maya’s father, operator of a
salvage tugboat on Lake Superior, has received a grant to search for the lost
“ghost ship,” the SS Bannockburn, a Canadian freighter, that (involuntarily) disappeared
on Lake Superior in 1902 (<span class="MsoHyperlink"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Bannockburn">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Bannockburn</a></span>).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In another parallel, one of the orderlies at
Congdon refers to Lucas as “Tarzan.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Other forms of
“disappearance” occur in the novel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Lucas’ mother had disappeared from his life when she died suddenly of an
aneurysm; Maya’s mother had abandoned her and her father when Maya was a
child.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These parallels, as well as a
budding romantic attraction, bond Lucas and Maya, as together they scheme to
escape the mental facility to go in search of Josiah.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Having lived in
the BWCA with his father for ten years, Lucas, now nineteen-years-old, had
suddenly reappeared, caught breaking and entering into a camping outfitter
store in Ely. Violent and uncommunicative he is committed to Congdon. Though he
is violent toward her at first, Lucas eventually connects with Maya and she
with him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maya learns that Josiah is sick;
Lucas had left to get help but is arrested and confined at Congdon before he
could get back to his father.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Finding
Josiah and getting him help is Lucas’ mission; with Maya’s help he is able to
succeed, though, in the end, Josiah finds another way to disappear.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Maya’s journey
into Lucas’ past takes her on a journey into her own past.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It turns out they share, not only the loss of
their mothers, a history of law-breaking, and of mental health treatment, but
also a history that neither of them knows about.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The tangle of
coincidences in their pasts is barely believable, but despite an unlikely plot,
the themes of disappearance, of being lost and found (or in the case of the
Bannockburn, not found), of captivity and restoration, of recovery and
redemption resonate powerfully.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And the BWCA
wilderness is not the only one in the novel where people can disappear; there
is the wilderness of personal history, of social alienation, of mental instability,
in which one can get lost, but from which one can also find truth, human connection,
and mental health.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Maya’s mother had
been a geologist, and the rocks of the BWCA become part of the setting and the
story. Agates, a type of volcanic rock, become a dominant symbol in the
novel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maya’s mother had taught her: “The
Earth took violence and decay and made agates…Agates can only form when
something in you is destroyed, when the hollows of grief or depression can
never find the light, and the sediment that accumulates inside them is dense.
Their power changes you.” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">However “hideous
and desolate,” however “full of wild beasts and wild men,” however violent, however
capable of destruction, the wilderness has the power to create beauty,
strength, and preservation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As Henry
David Thoreau wrote, “In Wildness is the preservation of the World…From the
forest and wilderness come the tonics and barks which brace mankind.” And such
is the underlying message of <i>Leave No Trace</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is healing value in exploring both the
wilderness without and the wilderness within. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And such is the
value of preserving the wildness of the BWCA and other wilderness areas. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In the end Maya
and Lucas seem to make peace with civilization and find some semblance of
balance between it and the wilderness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The fate of our planet may depend on the ability of all of us to find
such balance.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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</style><br />Judy C. Fosterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09260240756709001428noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6533244374175739413.post-32658248105331407962018-09-25T15:21:00.000-05:002018-09-25T15:21:59.885-05:00Mislaid
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
A friend recommended this book because it takes place in my
home state of Virginia, but, as I’ve discovered previously, just because I’m
familiar with the setting doesn’t necessarily make it a great read. (See <span class="MsoHyperlink"><a href="https://yourbrainonbooks.blogspot.com/2016/09/commonwealth.html">https://yourbrainonbooks.blogspot.com/2016/09/commonwealth.html</a></span>)
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Published in 2015, <i>Mislaid</i> by Nell Zink, who grew up
in rural Virginia, may be one of the most bizarre novels I’ve ever read. The
plot itself is bizarre enough, as a lesbian student at a women’s college marries
the resident gay male poet and bears two children by him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She finally leaves him, taking their daughter
with her, and hides out in rural Virginia changing their names and passing
themselves off as black, not for the same reason as Rachel Dolezal (<span class="MsoHyperlink"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachel_Dolezal">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachel_Dolezal</a></span>),
but because she doesn’t want her husband to find her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This unfolds in just the first three
chapters, and so it continues with one bizarre episode after another.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Set during the 1960’s, serious issues, such as gender,
sexuality, race, class, power and privilege, are addressed, but they are somewhat
overshadowed by the bizarre plot and outlandish humor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are laugh-out-loud lines on almost
every page, which makes for great entertainment but distracts from the social
commentary.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Here’s a small sample of some of those LOL lines:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Around age fourteen, it got more complicated. She informed
her best friend, Debbie, that she intended to join the army out of high school.
She knew Debbie from Girl Scout camp. Debbie was from Richmond, a large and
diverse city. ‘You’re a thespian,’ Peggy heard her say. ‘Get away from me.’
Debbie picked up her blanket and moved to the other side of the room…Betrayal.
Debbie never spoke to her again. Peggy told her mother.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>‘A
thespian,” her mother said, bemused. ‘Well, darling, everybody gets crushes.’
Her mother was from the generation that thought a girl’s first love is always a
tomboyish older girl…Her mother suspected her of having a girlfriend, already
and sent off for brochures to Radcliffe. She didn’t believe in coeducation, but
her daughter’s plight called for desperate measures.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“To look at him, Temple was about as black as a person could
get, as though the school were hoping to pack as much blackness as possible
into each ‘token black’ seat in each of his successive integrated
classrooms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Initially he was chosen his
mannerly comportment and tidy clothes and resented only for making it
impossible for his classmates to win at Eraser Walk.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The eraser nestled in his hair like an egg in
a nest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He could have hopped to the
blackboard on one foot.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The class voted
never to play Eraser Walk again. One by one, his superior achievements were
acknowledged with surrender. He called it, raising the white flag’.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“The ghost-like, flaxen-haired black child was almost a
matter of civic pride. They hoped she would stay in the county and marry a
light-skinned, blue-eyed man to found one of those conversation-piece
dynasties.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“He was the democratically elected head prosecutor of the
city of Charlottesville.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Since victims
outnumber criminals, he favored victims. He knew there is no such thing as a
victimless crime. Whatever casual drug users might say. A person whose harmless
actions are criminalized becomes a victim of the law. That paradox helped him
out every day by showing him the unreality of his job.” </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Still, she insisted on living with Temple, explaining to Lee
that with him around she could always be assured of finding leftover pizza in
the refrigerator. She would never have to cook. Lee admitted it was a strong
argument.” </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Humor can sometimes mask offensive stereotypes, and such is
the case with this novel, despite its ostensibly liberal treatment of social
issues.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I grew up in Virginia during the
1960’s and never experienced anything approximating the world of this novel,
though the depiction of class rang true.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>So, read it if you will, but don’t take it as a realistic representation
of Virginia or the South in general.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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</style>Judy C. Fosterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09260240756709001428noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6533244374175739413.post-52152339516161225222018-04-20T11:07:00.000-05:002018-04-20T11:07:03.404-05:00The Golden Crucifix: A Matthew Cordwainer Medieval Mystery
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
I can’t compete with my writer friends’ achievements, but I
can support them by reading and promoting their books.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This 2018 medieval mystery was written by my graduate school
classmate at the University of Denver Joyce Tally Lionarons. Retired as a medieval
professor and scholar at Ursinus College in Pennsylvania, she now applies her
talents to the detective genre.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s
clear from reading this book that she has not only done extensive research in
medieval literature and language, but has also done her homework when it comes
to the geography; the social, political, religious, and law enforcement
structure; even the medical practices of thirteenth century York, where <i>The
Golden Crucifix</i> is set.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In addition,
she brings to life a tangible sense of the street life at the time; the reader
is immersed in the sights, smells, sounds, and the very tastes of the time and
place.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Most literary scholars date the origin of the detective
genre to Edgar Allan Poe’s “Murders in the Rue Morgue” (1841), but, of course,
some find earlier examples of stories with similar characteristics. (See <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detective_fiction">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detective_fiction</a>)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The eighteenth century is sometimes referred to as the
Enlightenment period in Western history because of the rise of science and
rationality as sources of knowledge, as opposed to folk traditions,
superstition, religion, and anecdotal evidence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>However, in the second half of that century the Gothic genre of
literature, or tale of terror, rose in popularity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Poe, of course, is probably best known for
his horror stories.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So, why the post-Enlightenment popularity of both Gothic and
detective fiction?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One theory is that it
relates to the debate over human nature.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Are we rational creatures for the most part, in a world subject to
natural law, able to exercise reasonable control over ourselves and our
environment, as Enlightenment thinkers would have it, or are we largely
irrational creatures in a world governed by mysterious, supernatural forces
beyond our control?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Gothic plot usually begins with a protagonist in
ordinary reality who encounters some kind of irrational phenomenon or
experience that results in either death or madness or escape.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even if the protagonist escapes the
irrational forces, however, they are not defeated and are just lying in wait
for their next victim.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Keep in mind that the irrational forces can also be within
the psyche of the protagonist him or herself, whether in the form of madness,
uncontrollable impulses, or deliberate malice. This genre could be said to
provide an outlet for our human fears of the unknown (including ourselves) or a
reinforcement of those fears, or both.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Thus the term “tale of terror”. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The detective story plot also usually begins with some kind
of rational order that is disrupted by a crime, usually a murder, often
violent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In this case, however, the
detective comes to the rescue by applying close observation, physical evidence,
witness testimony, logical analysis, and other investigative (similar to
scientific) techniques of arriving at truth, solving the mystery, and restoring
order.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In this genre rationality
triumphs, thus reassuring its readers that our rational nature can overcome the
irrational forces in the world. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In the medieval world the rational and the irrational were
understood in terms of a supernatural conflict between God’s ideal of a
virtuous and orderly world, on the one hand, and Satan’s mission to destroy
that world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Disorder and death come
about because of evil represented by Satan and because of human sin. Redemption
and salvation from evil come from adherence to the teachings of the Bible, the
Church, and religious authorities, not from secular rationality.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>The Golden Crucifix </i>takes place in a world of filth
in York, where the river Ouse is “a damp reek made up of decaying fish and the
accumulated waste of the city.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
opening scenes introduce us to a world of lust and greed, in which traffickers
in stolen goods are juxtaposed in the next scene with the wealth of the Church
on display in a Twelfth Night procession. The treasures of the secular, in this
case, criminal wealthy and those of the Church are surrounded by the filth of
the streets, where prostitutes, pick-pockets, panhandlers and scrabbling poor
freely range in a daily struggle for survival.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Such is the ordinary reality of that world, but there is
some semblance of law enforcement, and when a prostitute is found murdered and
the Golden Crucifix, a valuable article in the Church treasury goes missing,
the local Coroner Matthew Cordwainer takes responsibility for solving both
crimes along with other local authorities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Cordwainer is sixtyish, troubled by an arthritic hip, aided by a walking
stick, and helped both at home and through the streets by a young
manservant.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He shows respect to both
secular and religious leaders and gives lip service, at least, to religious
observances.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, despite their
sinful ways, he values the humanity of the prostitutes and is determined to
bring the murderer to justice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Later another prostitute, and then a local “madam” are found
murdered. The Prioress of the nunnery is stalked and attacked, though she
survives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Cordwainer navigates the world
of the victims, the streets, the criminal traffickers, law enforcement, and the
Church as he unravels the knots that tie the thefts, the murders, and the
attack on the Prioress all together. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He
relies not only on observations, interrogations, and rational analysis, as in
the typical detective story, but also on his knowledge and experience as
long-time resident and Coroner in the city. As one comes to expect in detective
stories, there are multiple suspects with means, motive and opportunity and it
is Cordwainer’s dogged, persistent, methodical investigation that eventually
untangles the knots and restores order, such as it is.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Full justice is another story as the Church has one
jurisdiction, secular authorities another, and the methods of both
interrogation and punishment in secular law enforcement fall far short of
humane treatment. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The medieval mystery plays focused on Biblical stories and
religious miracles, the mysteries of God’s world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While this supernatural world view provides
the backdrop to <i>The Golden Crucifix</i>, the novel unfolds in an all too natural
and mortal world, leaving us, as in the conventional detective story, with a
reassuring sense of rationality overcoming crime. It also suggests, however, that
in a world of human weakness, hostility, aggression, and lust for both power
and pleasure, social disorder will endure. Thus, we are additionally left, as
in the Gothic tale of terror, with a sense that malignant forces still lie in
wait, though they may be more human than supernatural. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That is not to say there are no model citizens, and Cordwainer
is one, but he seems to forever be hobbling through town with his bad hip
trying to stay upright as he traverses the mud, the ice, animal droppings, and
human filth that fill the streets.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Joyce Lionarons has published two additional Matthew
Cordwainer medieval mysteries:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i>Blood
Libel</i> and <i>The White Rose</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Enjoy!</div>
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</style>Judy C. Fosterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09260240756709001428noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6533244374175739413.post-71132849549066841442018-03-21T09:54:00.000-05:002018-03-21T09:54:16.611-05:00Evangelicalism and the Decline of American Politics
<div class="MsoNormal">
This 2017 study by Jan G. Linn offers a history of
evangelicalism in American politics since Jerry Falwell founded the Moral
Majority in 1979 and a theory of why the influence of evangelicalism has been
so destructive to our political process.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It could be fairly stated that Jerry Falwell is the man who
put Lynchburg, Virginia, where Jan and I were both born, on the national
map.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jan grew up in Falwell’s
neighborhood.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At one point I lived in
the same neighborhood as Falwell’s Thomas Road Baptist Church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, as Jan says in the prologue to his book,
“This is Personal.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Jan Linn graduated from E. C. Glass High School in Lynchburg
in 1963, the year before I did.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I knew
who he was because he was a well-known football player for the E. C. Glass
Hilltoppers (Lynchburg is known as the “City of Seven Hills” or the “Hill
City”).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I did not know him personally,
but in my junior year I sat diagonally behind him in Mr. Racer’s Economics
class.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mr. Racer was a Republican who
often railed against President John F. Kennedy in class.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jan would raise his hand and argue with Mr.
Racer. I can’t remember now the substance of those arguments, but I was struck
that he would speak up and challenge the teacher.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Though I never personally said anything, as
the daughter of a staunch Democratic father, I secretly admired and sympathized
with Jan, even though I didn’t necessarily understand the issues being
debated.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As Jan recounts in the book, he was raised as an evangelical
himself, and he went on to become a Disciples of Christ minister.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I also was raised as an evangelical (though I
went to a different church) and went on to become a college English professor
and a Unitarian Universalist.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Somehow
Jan and I both ended up in Minnesota.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He
founded a ministry near the Twin Cities and I taught at St. Cloud State
University (about an hour or so away from Minneapolis) for almost 30
years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It wasn’t until we were both
retired that a fellow E. C. Glass classmate put us in touch with each other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Since then we’ve met a couple of times with
our spouses and enjoyed some good conversations about growing up in Lynchburg,
religion, politics, and, of course, Jerry Falwell.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This is the second of his books I’ve read.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is well-researched and documented,
well-argued, and well-written with clarity, sharp intellect, and passion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>See his publication record here: <a href="https://www.thriftbooks.com/a/jan-g-linn/583872/">https://www.thriftbooks.com/a/jan-g-linn/583872/</a>
Jan also regularly comments on religion and politics in his blog: <a href="https://linnposts.com/">https://linnposts.com/</a> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Evangelicalism and the Decline of American Politics</i>, not only
provides a history of the evangelical movement that Jerry Falwell started, but
also an overview of different definitions of evangelicalism, an analysis of our
current political dysfunction, and a theory of how evangelicalism, or what Jan
calls “partisan evangelicalism,” has contributed to that dysfunction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In short, conservative evangelicals hold fast to a rigid
Bible-based, authoritarian world-view, based on divine command, which cannot be
questioned or compromised without falling into iniquity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Bible is their supreme source of
knowledge; any other source of knowledge, such as science or rational thought,
is flawed by human imperfection.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Whenever
any other source of knowledge, no matter how fact-based, empirically supported,
or logical, contradicts the Bible, it is dismissed as misguided.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There simply is no room for compromise or
critical thinking.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Bible-based beliefs
are absolute.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When this kind of
absolutism finds its way into politics, then all hope of conclusions and
solutions democratically arrived at by a diverse populace of different
religions, philosophies, and world-views is completely lost.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For partisan, conservative evangelicals, a
deal with a non-evangelical is a deal with the devil.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thus, we have obstructionism, stalemate, and
a break-down of democratic civic processes of decision-making and
problem-solving.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Ironically, this kind of narrow, rigid evangelicalism is not
shared by the majority of Americans.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>There are liberal Christian evangelicals such as the followers of Jim
Wallis of <i>Sojourners </i>magazine, non-evangelical Christians, believers in
other religions, believers in no religion, all of whom are American citizens
with voting rights.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, the
conservative evangelicals, who don’t necessarily believe in separation of
church and state and who place the Bible above the Constitution, have
strategically taken over some of our political institutions, both locally,
statewide, and nationally.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
Republican party can hardly make a move without approval from its evangelical
base.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Jan calls for a return of evangelicalism to the tradition of
Christian scholarship, the message of the Bible (as opposed to literal
absolutism), the Christian contemplative tradition, spiritual humility, and the
words of Jesus Christ to love our neighbors and even our enemies.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As one sees today the twisted ways in which evangelical
voters defend the likes of Donald Trump, there seems little room for hope that
such a return can happen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps the
evangelical mind-set will have to be out-numbered and out-voted by the reasonable
Moderate Majority as opposed to the absolutist Moral Majority. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Meanwhile, it is gratifying to know that Lynchburg,
Virginia, produced an intelligent, sensible, humane Christian, who believes in
the Constitution and separation of church and state as well as the Bible and
the Christian message.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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</style><br />Judy C. Fosterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09260240756709001428noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6533244374175739413.post-49316468485021397782017-11-19T12:12:00.000-06:002017-11-19T12:12:18.600-06:00From Somalia To Snow: How Central Minnesota Became Home to Somalis
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">“On a Sunday morning in
December 1990, I ran outside to play with my close friends. Before I finished
drawing the lines of my hopscotch on the ground, I saw rebels hiding behind the
walls. Some men began digging trenches…As I completed the last line of my
hopscotch, my mom grabbed me by the neck with all her strength, her eyes wide
and full of fierce determination and a mother’s instinct to protect her
child…Within minutes, the city streets filled with the sound of artillery. The
men who had dug trenches fired heavy rounds that rocked our house, rattling the
ceiling and sending loose plaster upon our heads…My family huddled together
like panic-stricken sheep.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Hudda Ibrahim’s family was
among the lucky ones who were able to survive being caught in the crossfire
between Somali rebels and government forces in Mogadishu.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After a two-day ordeal, the family was able
to escape to their car and drive away. “The bullets striking the back of the
car were thunderous.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">After many years, during five
of which Hudda was separated from her family, they were resettled in St. Cloud,
Minnesota.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Since then Ibrahim has become
a leader in the St. Cloud, Minnesota, Somali community, teaching English at St. Cloud
Technical and Community College and writing this book (2017) to educate non-Somalis
about Somali history, their refugee and resettlement experiences, their culture,
customs, and religion; their struggles in an alien world of American culture
(including their adjustment to Minnesota winters!); their local business
ventures; and their health challenges. Recently she has initiated a series of
“Meet Your Muslim Neighbor” dialogues between refugees and traditional U.S.
citizens in St. Cloud.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">The book is a straightforward,
matter-of-fact account that addresses many of the myths, stereotypes, and
questions that non-Somalis have about their new neighbors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One of Ibrahim’s achievements is her ability
to take on sensitive and controversial issues directly, without apology,
confrontation, or ill-will.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She is
neither overly defensive of her people nor resentful of the barriers and at
times hostile reception they have received.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>A hallmark of her work is the mutual understanding she displays on both
sides of the cultural divide.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">It is a book that educates
without alienating anyone.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">In addition to the standard
techniques of chronological narrative and factual exposition, the book uses
excerpts from interviews Ibrahim has conducted among Somali refugees in St.
Cloud.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These first-hand reports lend
credence to her accounts and allow us to hear a range of voices, from the
authoritative Imam to the college student who recalled asking on her first day
in the U.S., “Where is the snow?” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">The interviews for the book
were completed before the infamous mall stabbing in September 2016, when a
young Somali American man attacked several people in the local St. Cloud
Crossroads Shopping Center. (<a href="http://www.sctimes.com/story/news/local/2016/10/06/falconer-cleared-mall-shooting/91660404/">http://www.sctimes.com/story/news/local/2016/10/06/falconer-cleared-mall-shooting/91660404/</a>)
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As Ibrahim recounts in her Postscript
the community came together--Somalis, traditional St. Cloud residents, college
students, city officials, other leaders, and faith communities—to mourn
together, bind our collective wounds, and begin the work of both healing and
recommitting ourselves to build stronger relationships across our differences
of history, religion, and culture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">A march was organized to
demonstrate our unity, using a banner with the word “United” in English,
Spanish, and Somali.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A local group
distributed “Love Your Neighbor” signs which sill dot our cityscape on the
property of homes and churches.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">We still have a vocal minority
of “nativists,” who are hostile to immigrants and refugees (<a href="http://www.sctimes.com/story/opinion/2017/11/18/stop-hate-falsehoods-being-spread-against-somalis/862449001/">http://www.sctimes.com/story/opinion/2017/11/18/stop-hate-falsehoods-being-spread-against-somalis/862449001/</a>),
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>but Ibrahim’s book makes an important
contribution to cross-cultural understanding both in St. Cloud and in the
nation.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFDhwCG0LPLxjrKWiSCIeOSNYmQc8J7jmRUkTr_irVRw5jQE375_BQumoOSO0eWUNVD9aamMHeTLpzpi_k-yJrAslKktl6h9jhbN9iuzRJE3A3f8eVeHNlf-B8pbQoyfRGGiGnSj9uu-o/s1600/DSCN2669.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFDhwCG0LPLxjrKWiSCIeOSNYmQc8J7jmRUkTr_irVRw5jQE375_BQumoOSO0eWUNVD9aamMHeTLpzpi_k-yJrAslKktl6h9jhbN9iuzRJE3A3f8eVeHNlf-B8pbQoyfRGGiGnSj9uu-o/s320/DSCN2669.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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Judy C. Fosterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09260240756709001428noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6533244374175739413.post-64981934329761698232017-10-05T14:14:00.000-05:002017-10-14T14:10:36.437-05:00"The name--of it--is 'Autumn'--"<style>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">The name—of it—is
"Autumn"—<br />
The hue—of it—is Blood—<br />
An Artery—upon the Hill—<br />
A Vein—along the Road—<br />
<br />
Great Globules—in the Alleys—<br />
And Oh, the Shower of Stain—<br />
When Winds—upset the Basin—<br />
And spill the Scarlet Rain—<br />
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It sprinkles Bonnets—far below—<br />
It gathers ruddy Pools—<br />
Then—eddies like a Rose—away—<br />
Upon Vermilion Wheels—</span></div>
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--Emily Dickinson</div>
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How many people do you know who would associate the
spectacular red displays of fall color with blood?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The conventional view would be of nature in
red apparel putting on a vivid show of beauty.</div>
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But Emily Dickinson did not see the world
conventionally.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her poems are more
likely to disrupt and challenge our conventional views of reality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(See blog posts September 2009)</div>
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“The hue of" Autumn “is Blood”; the tree line upon the hill
is “an Artery”; and “along the Road” it is “a Vein.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Fallen leaves “in the Alleys” are “Great
Globules,” while falling leaves are a “shower of Stain” and “Scarlet Rain”
(which, like blood, is spilled).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is it
the blood of violence and death?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Menstrual blood that sheds potential life? Is it the “stain” of human
sin and guilt?</div>
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In the third stanza the imagery becomes more innocent, as
leaf fall “sprinkles” ladies’ “Bonnets”; it “eddies like a Rose and whirls away
“Upon Vermilion Wheels.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But even here “It
gathers ruddy Pools.”</div>
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Is this representation of fall an image of that ancient “fall”
from innocence that recurs in nature and in every human life?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is it a harbinger of the death of nature in
winter yet to come?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Written in 1862, is
it an image of bloody civil war?</div>
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Regardless, even the more playful images of leaves
sprinkling bonnets and wheeling away on the wind, cannot save this poem from
suggestions of the dark side of human experience—violence, death, evil.</div>
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Even if we interpret references to arteries and veins as
images of life coursing through our bodies, this life leaves a stain when it is
spilled in falling leaves.</div>
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What are we to make of this virtual riot of red?</div>
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It certainly seems to suggest that, just as Dickinson
explored psychological pain as no other poet before her had done (see Sept. 19, 2009, blog
post), she also explored the dark underbelly of nature’s beauty—nature red in
tooth and claw, violence, death, the “fallen” side of creation (including human nature).</div>
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Another poem about Autumn, “These are the days when Birds
come back,” treats Autumn as a “fraud” that can sometimes fool us into thinking
summer is still with us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She compares
the reprise of summer warmth in Autumn to a “Sacrament of summer days” and a “Last
Communion,” a remembrance of summer’s death, just as holy communion
commemorates Christ’s sacrifice.</div>
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While Dickinson has many poems that celebrate nature, it
seems the dark side was never far from her mind.</div>
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However spectacular the displays of fall color, she seems to
have been ever cognizant of the coming winter.</div>
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Judy C. Fosterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09260240756709001428noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6533244374175739413.post-55360955511398950392017-07-09T12:58:00.000-05:002017-07-14T10:19:52.192-05:00Dream Eater<style>
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Recently I saw the film <i>Wonder Woman</i>, which draws on
ancient Greek mythology to depict an intersection of mortal and immortal
dimensions in a World War I setting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Like Wonder Woman, Koi, the main character of this 2017 novel by my
daughter’s friend, K. Bird Lincoln, brings super-human powers into the human
realm.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And they both pit female power
against the male deities that would control them and the rest of humanity.</div>
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Unlike Wonder Woman, Koi, a Japanese American, has grown up
in the human world of contemporary Portland, Oregon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She is only partly aware of her
paranormal/supernatural/mythological ancestry and lives in fear of human touch,
which triggers her power to read people’s dreams. Also, while <i>Wonder Woman</i>
invokes Western myth, <i>Dream Eater</i> draws on non-Western
sources--Japanese, Middle Eastern and Native American.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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Because of her fear of human touch, Koi has isolated herself,
even from her family.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In an effort to build
a normal life, despite the continual flashes of other people’s dreams, she begins
working toward an accounting degree at Portland Community College.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One day she crosses paths with a Japanese
Kitsune (fox) shape-shifter, who, she later learns is on a mission from the
mythic “Council” to retrieve her father.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>At about the same time, Koi bumps into a professor and reads his dreams
of murder.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Later, the professor enlists
Koi’s help in translating her family’s obscure Japanese dialect.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Meanwhile, Koi’s sister, Marlin, who has a
real job, calls on Koi to take over temporary care of their father, who
apparently suffers from Alzheimer’s, so she can get some work done.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It seems the Kitsune, Ken, has experience
with elder care, so he offers to help, not revealing his ulterior motive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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From this point on the narrative resembles an action
adventure, which is played out as much in Koi’s body as in external
reality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her proximity to Ken stirs
erotic sensations while the professor arouses fear and horror.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When the professor kidnaps Marlin, Koi and
Ken, with Dad in tow, are off on an adventure involving rescue, encounters with
such mythological powers as the Middle Eastern Ullikemi and Native American Thunderbird,
deception, multiple battles, and eventually Koi’s discovery of her own
superhuman powers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Throughout it all, we
vicariously experience Koi’s psychic drama, as well as the physical
action.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is constant turmoil, made
all the more chaotic by the ambiguity of just who is good and who is evil, who
is the ultimate power and who is the surrogate. </div>
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Allegorically speaking, this urban fantasy can be read as a
coming of age narrative, in which Koi, innocent of her full power, encounters
the evil in the world, discovers her true identity and learns that she can not
only read dreams but eat them, that is, take their power into herself, and, if
the dreams are evil, she can use that power to fight evil.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In other words, she discovers, not only the
evil in the world, but also her own capacity for evil.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The moral allegory is thus no simple tale of
good vs. evil, but a complicated interrogation of power, in which good must
know evil in order to defeat it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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The novel is also a budding love story, as, parallel to the
action adventure, Koi also battles her increasing attraction to and attachment to Ken.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her journey of self-discovery
becomes a sexual awakening, as well as a lesson in the power of relationships
and interdependence, thus overcoming her initial isolation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And it is not only the relationship with Ken
that ultimately breaks through Koi’s isolation, for her primary motive in the
action adventure is to rescue her sister and protect her father.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thus, as her relationship with Ken develops,
her family relationships are restored.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She
is able to honor both her Japanese Baku (dream eater) father and her human
Hawaiian mother, and thus her own hybrid nature.</div>
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What is most striking about the novel, besides the blending
of non-Western mythological traditions, is, as noted earlier, the way in which
so much of the action takes place in Koi’s body and psyche.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her sensations, including physical cravings
for coffee and dark chocolate; distinctive smells, especially spices; powerful
images and sounds; erotic attraction; emotional turmoil; and the non-human
sensations of dream fragments, dream-eating, and ultimately the wielding of
dream power.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Dream-eating is paralleled by human hunger for pizza, burritos, and her father's Bi Bim Bap. All this is conveyed in a
language that juxtaposes contemporary vernacular with ancient traditions, just
as Koi’s human self is juxtaposed with her mythic self.</div>
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At one point Ken makes specific reference to Joseph Campbell
and his book <i>The Power of Myth</i>, based on the PBS documentary with Bill
Moyers, and its theory of universal patterns that cross the boundaries of
culture and society.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thus, Japanese Baku
are paralleled by Morpheus in Western myth, Ojibwe dream catchers, Slavic
Nocnitsa, and medieval succubi.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Campbell
would argue that universal cross-cultural images and narratives reflect shared
human experience and a common human nature.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></div>
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With the rise of postmodernism in the later 20<sup>th</sup>
century, Campbell’s theories fell out of favor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Postmodernists highlighted difference in human experience, culture, and
society, even going so far in some cases as to deny human nature.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Human belief and behavior is individual,
arising out of culturally specific influences, distinct social environments,
and unique individual experience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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Rather than reducing this debate to an either-or choice, I
prefer a both-and approach.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While
cultural, social, and individual differences are significant, they are not
necessarily definitive, and it is our shared humanity that enables
cross-cultural communication and understanding.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>While we are always mired, to some extent, in our own history,
experience, and culture, we are capable of transcending, to some extent, those
limitations in order, not only to co-exist, but also to participate in a shared
human community. </div>
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Whatever cultural limitations define Wonder Woman and Dream
Eater, they both serve as images, not only of female power, but also of the
intersection between the human realm and that of imagination, of history and
myth, of time and infinity, society and vision.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They both participate in Joseph Campbell’s universal hero myth of trial
and quest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And they both interrogate,
not only female power, but all power, using power-from-within and power-with to
defeat power-over. </div>
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Dreams, like myth, exist in a borderland between human
reality and mysteries beyond human comprehension.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In <i>Dream Eater</i> dreams are the gateway
to self-discovery, empowerment, connectedness, and higher consciousness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Eating becomes a trope for fully participating in both worlds. As Koi says in the end, "That's what people did, wasn't it? Eat evil, battle dragons, and then go home and make sushi." So, as K. Bird says, “Dream without fear…”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And, when back in reality, “…drink coffee without
limit."</div>
Judy C. Fosterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09260240756709001428noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6533244374175739413.post-62469888199908573602017-02-12T20:35:00.000-06:002017-02-12T20:35:13.010-06:00Faith Bass Darling's Last Garage Sale
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Last April we moved my 93-year-old Mom to a retirement
community and put her house up for sale.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We spent all of last September cleaning it out for the buyers, going
through drawers and closets, giving things away to relatives and neighbors,
donating to Good Will, selling some things, filling up a large refuse
container, and claiming a few items for ourselves. Back home, when I reported
on this experience, a Buddhist friend recommended this 2012 novel by Lynda
Rutledge.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“I learned a lot about
attachment and detachment from reading this novel,” my friend said.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Faith Bass Darling is a wealthy widow in Bass, Texas, who is
suffering early symptoms of Alzheimer’s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>At midnight on December 31, 1999, she awakes to a what she thinks is the
voice of God telling her to sell all the accumulated possessions in the mansion
she has lived in all her life, the valuable antiques and art works, precious
heirlooms, and family memorabilia.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
next morning she begins pulling as much as she can out onto the lawn and selling
her “goods” for whatever few dollars and cents anyone who stopped by would
offer her.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The local antique dealer is appalled, tries to salvage what
she can and calls Faith’s daughter to come immediately from where she lives a
hundred miles away.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The local sheriff’s
deputy and the local Episcopal priest also get involved.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All of these folks have a history with the
Darling family, and just as Faith battles her memories, so do they.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
My Mom has the usual garden-variety age-related memory
issues, but no dementia.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We spent hours
going through her possessions, trying to be patient with her reminiscing as
each newly discovered item triggered a chain of memories.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She struggled with detachment, as she had
limited room in her one-bedroom apartment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Children and grandchildren, likewise, had limited space.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She had to learn how to let go, to detach.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Faith Bass Darling’s memories come and go.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sometimes she remembers her family’s past,
her husband’s abuse, her son’s death, her daughter’s estrangement, and her husband’s
death.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sometimes not.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sometimes she associates certain memories
with her possessions, sometimes not.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She
seems to always know she is on a mission to cleanse her home, her past, her
very self from the burdens they carry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Similarly, the daughter, Claudia, who at one time considered
herself a Buddhist, must cleanse herself of her unhappy family memories: the
resentments, the grief, the pain and suffering of absence and loss, not to
mention the burden of her own life failures and mistakes.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
John Jasper, the deputy sheriff, had been the best friend of
Claudia’s brother, Mike, and bears responsibility for his untimely death.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not only is John Jasper burdened by that
guilty memory, but also by the memory of Mike’s father, Claude, verbally
abusing both his son and John Jasper himself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Bobbie, the antique dealer, Claudia’s best friend growing
up, had admired the treasures in the Darling house from childhood.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She knows the full material value of Faith’s
possessions, but may not fully appreciate the emotional and psychological cost
of those “goods,” the extent to which one can be “possessed” by possessions and
the memories associated with them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Bobbie is focused on resale value, and, like the calls that come in on
her lost cell phone, she misses Faith’s need to exorcise her painful memories.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Father George A. Fallow is struggling with his faith at a
time when Faith most needs him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She
needs him to affirm her mission from God and to actually perform an exorcism on
her house.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Like the rich young man who asks
Jesus how he can get to heaven and is told to go and sell all he owns, Faith
wants to know that she too is following a divine command that will save her
soul. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
At a crucial moment Father George finds the right words for Faith:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“The problem isn’t ‘things.” It’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">the</i> thing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Everybody has one big, blinding thing that’s
in the way.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For Faith it is the memory
of her husband, Claude, and the role she had played in his death.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When she returns to the scene of that memory,
both in physical space and in her mind, she is able to free herself. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For Claudia it is the family heirloom ring, which her mother
thinks she has stolen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When Claudia
recovers the lost ring, she redeems herself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>For John Jasper, of course it is the memory of his role in Mike’s
death.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When he finally brings himself to
revisit the scene of that tragedy, he is finally able to unburden himself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For Bobbie it is her lifetime envy of the
Darling wealth and the memory of having broken a valuable item while visiting
in the home, all of which has contributed to her own career in antiques.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her role in salvaging some of the Darling
“goods,” and especially the elephant clock, is her redemption.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Father George has lost his faith, not only in
religion, but also in the power of words, including the Word of God, by which
he has made his living.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When he finds
the right words for Faith, his faith in himself and the power of words is
restored.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Alzheimer’s could be considered a form of exorcism, a
purging of all the memories we might want to erase, but it also purges the good
memories, not to mention one’s identity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>A quote by Milan Kundera serves as a headnote to the novel: “What is
this self? It is the sum of everything we remember.” </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As Faith loses her memory, her possessions, and herself, she
seems to find a new freedom.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At the same
time, she becomes the catalyst by which the other characters transcend the past
and renew themselves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Fittingly, the
action of the novel takes place on December 31, 1999, the end of one century
and the beginning of the next, Y2K, the new millennium.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At the stroke of midnight, 2000, an explosion
occurs, a destructive force that is also a cleansing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One life ends and others begin anew.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As my Mom struggled with the process of detachment, I found
myself, not only reliving family memories with her, but also reflecting on my
own accumulation of possessions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Back
home at our house, we made a pact to throw away at least one item a week from
the basement, the garage, a closet, or other storage area.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This cleansing, this stripping away of that
which weighs us down has become a weekly ritual.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As these material traces of the past
disappear, I am reminded of the need to revisit the past, especially the dark
times that have been hidden away in the closets and drawers of the mind, to
clear them out in order to make room for new life.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
At another level, the novel speaks, not only to memory, but
also to history.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The American South, and
the American nation, also have that “one big, blinding thing that’s in the
way.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And that thing is race.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>John Jasper is an African American whose
friendship with Mike Darling has been forged on the high school football
field.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They have transcended, at least
on the personal level, the racist divide.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Mike’s father, however, cannot even let John Jasper sit in the front
seat of his truck, and when the abuse he inflicts on both boys boils over into
racist epithets, an explosion occurs, an explosion that kills Mike and nearly
cripples John Jasper, an explosion that destroys the budding attraction between
John Jasper and Claudia, as well as the Darling family ties. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The new millennium occurs as Claudia has
reconciled with her mother and renewed her relationship with John Jasper,
offering hope of healing, not only in their personal lives, but in the future
of the South and the nation.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is said that “elephants never forget”; thus it is fitting
that an antique elephant clock dating back to the eighteenth century, one of
the most valuable pieces of property in the Darling mansion plays its own role
in the novel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That clock has marked time
in Claudia’s bedroom as long as she can remember.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The clock becomes a symbol of memory, as
Faith loses hers, and the other characters revisit theirs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Bobbie salvages the clock before it is sold in
the garage sale and sends it to an appraiser in Houston.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As she and Claudia and John Jasper are
finally released from the past, they travel together to reclaim that clock, a
possession worth keeping for the memories it represents as much, perhaps more,
than its material value.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And that is the other side of cleansing and detaching, for
as we cleaned out my mother’s house, she and I had to decide what we could let
go and what we could keep, not for any material value, but for the meaning and
memories worth keeping.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Judy C. Fosterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09260240756709001428noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6533244374175739413.post-86596379127186633922016-12-18T10:19:00.000-06:002016-12-18T10:19:08.857-06:00"Orion"
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
This short story by Jeanette Winterson was first published
in 1988.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It dramatizes contemporary
gender wars by retelling one version of the myth of Orion, a mighty hunter, in
which Orion meets Artemis, a mythic female hunter, rapes her, and is killed by
her with a scorpion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Sounds like a feminist revenge fantasy, or at least a
representation of an ancient, and ongoing, gender power struggle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it’s more than that.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Winterson knows the mythological literature in which heroes
are typically male, often hunters or warriors, on a quest for an object or
place in the world, or, in the case of religious heroes, for eternal life in
another world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Women in mythology,
though they might be goddesses, are typically objects of desire (distractions
from the quest), mothers, wives, or helpers to the male heroes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While the men are out performing feats of
strength and courage, women are more often at home tending the hearth.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Winterson explicitly presents the story of Orion and Artemis
as “the old clash between history and home. Or to put it another way, the
immeasurable, impossible space that seems to divide the hearth from the quest.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If it’s a simple feminist revenge fantasy, then why is the
story entitled after the male “hero,” and why is it Orion who gets immortalized
in a constellation, where to this day “he does his best to dominate the skyline”?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If it is simply a representation of the ancient gender
binary between quest and hearth, then how is it that Artemis rejects marriage,
childbirth, and home-making in order to be a great hunter?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While the original story itself challenges
this binary, it also reinforces the polarity as an either-or choice. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
By invoking the myth Winterson also reinforces the ancient
difference between male and female social roles, but she challenges it by
having Artemis, not simply reject the traditional female role, but redefine it
in terms of self-knowledge:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“She found that the whole world could be contained within
one place because that place was herself… What would it matter if she crossed
the world and hunted down every living creature as long as her separate selves
eluded her?”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Artemis comes to realize that “Leaving home meant leaving
nothing behind.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It came too, all of it,
and waited in the dark.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Quest and
hearth are one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The ultimate quest is
the journey to the self.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This wisdom eludes Orion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>For him the quest is all about hyper-masculinity, power, and
domination.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thus his rape of Artemis.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Yes, Artemis kills him in his sleep, and while this act of
revenge suggests a struggle between feminist power and masculine power, it is
more than that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After Orion rapes
Artemis, he falls asleep, but after Artemis murders Orion, she wakes up:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Artemis lying beside dead Orion sees her past changed by a
single act…She is not who she thought she was.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Every action and decision has led her here.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The moment has been waiting the way the top
of the stairs waits for the sleepwalker.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>She had fallen and now she is awake.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When she sees Orion’s body becoming food for lizards, she
covers him with rocks to create a high mound, which, when she views it from a
distance looks like a monument.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
By rejecting the social norms of her day, Artemis begins to
awaken to self-knowledge and to recognize the false binary of quest and
hearth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The gender power struggle
overtakes her, but, again, she awakens to new self-knowledge.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her “burial” of Orion demonstrates respect
for his humanity, despite his cruelty to her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This act of redemption takes her to a new level: “Finally, at the
headland, after a bitter climb to where the woods bordered the steep edge, she
turned and stared out, seeing the shape of Orion’s mound, just visible now, and
her own footsteps walking away.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then it
was fully nigh, and she could see nothing to remind her of the night before
except the stars.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The story offers three larger contexts in which to view the
myth and the story that Winterson draws out of it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
First there is the context of history: the ancient myth
transformed into a modern feminist story in 1988.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What future transformations will unfold in
history?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Monuments and cities would
fade away like the people who build them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>No resting place or palace could survive the light years that lay ahead.
There was no history that would not be rewritten…” </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Second is the context of medieval alchemy: “Tertium non
data. The third is not given. That is, the transformation from one element into
another, from waste matter into best gold is a process that cannot be
documented.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is fully
mysterious.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Artemis’s transformations
from gender rebel to self-conscious individual to stargazer could not have been
predicted, nor can future transformations to come.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Third is the context of astronomy:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Every 200,000 years or so the individual stars
within each constellation shift position.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>That is, they are shifting all the time, but more subtly than any
tracker dog of ours can follow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One day
if the earth has not voluntarily opted out of the solar system, we will wake up
to a new heaven whose dome will again confound us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It will still be home but not a place to take
for granted.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For now, Orion still
dominates the skyline (though “he glows very faint, if at all, in November.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>November being the month of Scorpio.”) But what
of that “new heaven” to come?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This past November it seemed a new transformation was on the
horizon, but it was not to be.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Orion
still dominates the skyline.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But what of
that “new heaven” to come?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Judy C. Fosterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09260240756709001428noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6533244374175739413.post-23776589808654033202016-10-31T15:36:00.000-05:002016-10-31T15:36:08.423-05:00"Unharvested"<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A scent of ripeness from over a wall.<br />
And come to leave the routine road<br />
And look for what had made me stall,<br />
There sure enough was an apple tree<br />
That had eased itself of its summer load,<br />
And of all but its trivial foliage free,<br />
Now breathed as light as a lady's fan.<br />
For there had been an apple fall<br />
As complete as the apple had given man.<br />
The ground was one circle of solid red.<br />
<br />
May something go always unharvested!<br />
May much stay out of our stated plan,<br />
Apples or something forgotten and left,<br />
So smelling their sweetness would be no theft. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://www.poemhunter.com/robert-frost/poems/">Robert
Frost</a><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When I put my garden to bed last month, I left some of those
small, yellow pear tomatoes on the ground.
There were more than I could use or even give away, so I left some
behind, unharvested. Perhaps some
passerby would pick them up and take them home; perhaps some animal would take
sustenance from them; perhaps, forgotten and left, they would decompose and
make my garden plot more fertile for next year. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Robert Frost’s “Unharvested” celebrates that which goes
unharvested, that which is forgotten and left, that which we might otherwise
regard as failure, a “dead ambition,” a “relinquished desire” (Anonymous). And
his comparison of “an apple fall” to the mythic Fall of Humankind suggests the
Felix Culpa, or Fortunate Fall, of Christian theology, the idea that human
failure was “fortunate” in that it brought us a Redeemer in Jesus Christ, the
idea that human suffering is necessary for the achievement of human happiness,
that evil can be turned to good and loss to plenitude. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If this interpretation seems to burden a simple and
light-hearted poem with a heavy message, bear with me as yet more layers may be
uncovered.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Let’s note first that the poem is a variation on a sonnet,
fourteen lines of primarily iambic tetrameter (instead of the pentameter of a
traditional sonnet), with an oddly asymmetrical rhyme scheme: abacbcdade edff,
unlike any “sonnet” you would ever encounter.
Instead of the octet-sestet arrangement of a Petrarchan sonnet or the triple
quatrain plus couplet structure of the Shakespearean sonnet, we have a ten-line
description followed by a four-line commentary.
Perhaps it’s not a sonnet at all!
Perhaps it’s a playful variation.
Perhaps it’s an abject failure of a sonnet! Perhaps it’s a deliberate
design to reinforce that theme of fortunate failure. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Let’s note also the imagery: “scent of ripeness,” “routine
road,” “apple tree,” “summer load,” “trivial foliage,” all suggesting a
passerby in a natural, possibly rural, setting.
But then this tree, free of its “load,” breathes “as light as a lady’s
fan.” How does this image of cultured
society fit into a nature poem? Is it a
mistake, an oversight, or is it a deliberate anomaly, meant to suggest our
human world of imperfection? </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And then this “apple fall” is parenthetically, off-handedly,
described as “complete as the apple had given man.” Now that gets your attention. We’re not just talking about a bunch of
mundane apples on the mundane ground. Now we’re in the Garden of Eden with Adam
and Eve and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. And, in that context, when we read that “The
ground was one circle of solid red,” it is difficult not to think of the “red”
of passion, of violence, of blood. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So the apples represent our fallen human nature, our
imperfection, our capacity for wrongdoing, our unharvested goodness, our
neglect and our failure. But this human
decay, if you will, is celebrated: “May something go always unharvested!” How boring to be perfect! “May much stay out of our stated plan....”
How boring never to make a mistake! There
is something sweet in the scent of that forgotten “ripeness,” and to smell that
“sweetness would be no theft,” that is, to value our failures, to see how suffering
can lead to happiness, how loss can be a gift, how evil can be turned into
good, is “no theft” from our human capacity for success, virtue, and betterment.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
None of this is to say that we rejoice in violence, disease,
cruelty, injustice, or pain, but, rather, that we celebrate the opportunities that
human life affords us for redemption.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So much for the positive interpretation of Frost’s poem. But
are there hidden ambiguities? <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For example, that sweet “scent of ripeness” will soon be a
scent of rottenness. Which is
stronger? Which lasts longer? And what of that neglectful property owner? What of the waste of nutritious food in a
world where many go hungry? To what
extent is the idea of Felix Culpa a rationalization, an excuse to cover up,
paper over, and unjustly exonerate us from our wrongdoings? However you slice it, when I put my garden to
bed last summer, I was just too lazy to clean off my plot and take those
unharvested tomatoes to the nearby food shelf.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A tragic world view might suggest our positive
interpretation of the poem is just Pollyannaism, that the poem illustrates our human
tendency to lie to ourselves and deny the painful truth that indeed there is no
redemption. “Life’s a bitch and then you
die.” We are left with the image of that
“circle of solid red,” the blood of billions who have suffered from evil at our
human hands.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But surely this is way too heavy a burden for such a light
and innocent poem to bear. Perhaps Frost
is just playfully making fun of our human habit of finding self-satisfying
explanations for bad behavior. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Then again, perhaps that seemingly simple poem captures the full complexity of our contradictory human drama. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;">
<br /></div>
Judy C. Fosterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09260240756709001428noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6533244374175739413.post-83840294315511693142016-09-19T19:39:00.000-05:002016-09-19T19:39:50.445-05:00Commonwealth
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">I heard
Ann Patchett interviewed about her new novel on NPR. Having just blogged about
my adopted state of Minnesota in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Wintering</i>
(see previous post), I was drawn to the possibility of blogging about my home
state since <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Commonwealt</i>h takes place
partly in Virginia.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">As far as
the opportunity to enjoy another familiar setting, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Commonwealth</i> was a disappointment. The sense of place is as absent
in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Commonwealth</i> as it is present in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Wintering</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In addition<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">, Commonwealth</i> is not as compelling or well written as<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> Wintering</i>. It's a fairly commonplace,
popular-style novel without great distinction. However, it has enough redeeming
features to make it worth a read. I read it all in one day.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">One thing
I confirmed for myself is how much I despise reading about drugs and alcohol,
especially when kids are involved. I almost stopped reading <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Goldfinch</i> (see Oct. 2014) for
exactly that reason.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">Like <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Wintering</i> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Commonwealth</i> is a web of multiple storylines, flash-forwards,
flashbacks, and memories that challenge the reader to keep track of characters,
settings, and chronology. Like <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Wintering</i>
it's a family drama, but <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Commonwealth</i>
keeps its focus on just two generations. It begins with Franny Keating’s
christening party and ends with Franny, as a wife and mother, remembering a
private moment with her younger stepbrother when she was an adolescent. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">In
between, Franny's parents divorce, her mother moving to Virginia with her new
husband, her father staying in California where Franny was born.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Franny and her older sister Caroline live
with their mother, spending just two weeks each summer with their Dad, but
their step-father's four children spend the whole summer in Virginia with their
Dad, allowing for extended time as a blended family of eight. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">Neither
parent of this blended family is what I would consider very responsible in the
child supervision department, and so readers are subjected to extended periods
of holding our breath wondering if these mischievous, risk-taking, unsupervised
kids are going to survive their multiple misadventures, which involve a gun,
drugs, alcohol, and what I would consider generally dangerous behavior,
especially for their young ages.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">As it
turns out a tragedy does eventually occur, and, as if divorce and disruption
were not enough to scar these young lives, this tragedy continues to haunt
them. Nevertheless, as we watch them grow into adulthood, it is amazing how
well they turn out, despite some of their continuing misadventures.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">So, we
have the coming of age story of six young innocents, one of whom doesn't reach
adulthood, living through their parents' messy lives, plus their own failures
and missteps, five of them at least coming to terms, each in their own way,
with the dark side of life, finally achieving some semblance of responsible
maturity, even caring for their flawed, aging parents and step-parents.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">More than
a group coming of age story, though,<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> Commonwealth</i>
makes a positive case, in the end, for the modern family, with all its
complicated relationships, adultery, divorce, remarriage, etc., and the human
resiliency, not just to survive, but to thrive. That modern family includes,
not only the blended family, but also the multicultural family, as Franny
marries an East Indian and one stepsister marries an African. The only thing
missing is a gay couple.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">What
makes<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> Commonwealth</i> truly distinctive
though is another storyline, in which Franny meets a popular author, falls in
love, and, in need of reassurance from this man she has long admired, shares
her family's personal story, which the author proceeds to turn into a
successful novel. When her younger stepbrother coincidentally reads the novel
and recognizes their family, he feels betrayed. Their private lives have become
fodder for literary gain. A confrontation ensues and while Franny's relationship
with the author does not survive, her relationship with her stepbrother and the
rest of her family does, testifying to the strength of family ties that bind,
even when they're not based on blood relations.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">In her
NPR interview Ann Patchett revealed that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Commonwealth</i>
is based on her own experience growing up in a blended family. Thus the
sub-plot of fiction based on personal experience becomes a meta-commentary on
the ethics of the autobiographical novel, of exploiting the lives of real
people for artistic purposes, and of invading privacy in general. It is curious
how self-referential <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Commonwealth</i>
thus becomes, especially since the fictional famous author, for all his
arguments on behalf of imagination over documentation, emerges as less
sympathetic than the aggrieved family members.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">Without
presuming to speculate on the significance of this storyline to Ann Patchett's
own experience publishing a novel based on her personal family life, I will
simply note how it gives <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Commonwealth</i>
a twist that raises it above the merely pedestrian popular novel.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt;">To
conclude, I'll just comment on the title. I was struck, of course by the
reference to the "Commonwealth" of Virginia, but in a larger sense
the novel captures the shared lives, relationships, and ties that bind; the
shared history and shared guilt of extended, blended family; and it reminds us
that it is the sharing, not so much what is shared, that constitutes the
wealth.</span></div>
Judy C. Fosterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09260240756709001428noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6533244374175739413.post-78956220548815883372016-08-27T19:56:00.000-05:002016-11-12T10:14:22.456-06:00Wintering<style>
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</style> Speaking of winter (see previous post) this 2016 novel by
Peter Geye will make you feel it in your bones, even in August. Unlike Amy
Lowell’s indoor winter world of human society, art, and civilization (see
previous post), the winter of this novel takes place on what in Minnesota we
call the North Shore (of Lake Superior), in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area
(BWCA), and in the fictional town of Gunflint, which Minnesotans will quickly
recognize as Grand Marais.<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Its central episode involves a canoe/camping trip into the
BWCA that starts in October and finally ends in January.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In between a father and son battle the winter
elements, get lost, struggle to survive, barely do survive a confrontation with
their human enemy, and eventually find their way close enough to home to be
rescued by passing snowmobilers. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That central episode is like a story within a story in a
story that is really about stories as much as it is about a winter wilderness
adventure.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The narrator is Berit Lovig, whose late-life lover, Harry,
having lost his memory to the ravages of age, disappears one day into the
wilderness and is never found.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The year
is 1996.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Harry’s son, Gus, brings Berit
the bad tidings and begins reminiscing about the family history.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Berit recounts, not only her own memories
from the time she came to Gunflint from Duluth in 1936, but also the ones that
Gus shares with her, including that wilderness adventure with his father in 1963
when Gus was just eighteen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Between the two of them, Berit weaves a tapestry of alternating
stories, flashbacks, and memories that follow similar patterns of journeying
out, getting lost, experiencing a turning point or moment of truth, then
finding one’s way, and eventually arriving home, though, of course, there are
those that experience a moment of lies, never do find their way, and are never
found, marked only by traces left behind, sometimes in physical form, like the
cenotaph erected in honor of Harry, sometimes in someone’s fading memory, sometimes
in a story that may or may not bear any resemblance to truth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Disappearance, it seems, is as much a part of
the story as being found.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
History and memory, fact and fiction, truth and lies,
knowledge and false belief are the themes that tie these stories together.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Harry has lost his memory; Gus is a high
school history teacher.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Berit recounts
her memories and the local folklore while at the same time turning the building
where she had lived and worked with Harry’s estranged mother into a museum of
local history.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She discovers some letters
written by Gus’s great-grandmother to her parents in Norway but never
mailed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The letters are historical
“records,” but they contain the lie that she had married and borne a son,
though everyone “knows” that Harry’s father was a “misbegotten” child of rape
in a logging camp.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Harry had witnessed
a murder, but it is reported as a tragic accident.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Harry’s rival and enemy, Charlie, whose own
life was based on lies and deceit, disappears in the wilderness and is never
found, but Gus knows where Charlie’s “cenotaph,” a pile of bones, can be
found.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The word “wilderness” means “place of wild beasts,” and
Harry and Gus encounter a few in their wilderness adventure, along with bitter
cold, blizzards, huge snow drifts, rushing water, fog, and ice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But men can also be beasts that prey on one
another, and they can be found in town as well as in the wilds.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Similarly, the domesticated life in town can
be a wilderness of stories, some of which pass as history and in which one can
get lost in lies and may or may not ever find one’s way to the truth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Such is the challenge of both ordinary people
and professional historians. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Wintering</i> is also
a coming of age story for Gus, as he pits himself against the elements and ends
up saving both himself and his father.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>For Berit it’s the story of her adopted family, the Eides.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rebecca, who had abandoned her husband and
son early on and remained estranged, had hired Berit, at age 16, from Duluth,
to live with her and work in the local “apothecary,” the original lighthouse
keeper’s quarters, which Berit later turns into a museum.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rebecca’s son, Harry, also age 16, witnesses
his father, Odd, disappear, never to be found, when the ice floe he’s fishing
from breaks loose and floats away.. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He
takes refuge in the apothecary, which also doubles as the town post office, and
meets Berit for the first time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It means
little to him, but she falls in love, and waits, until after Harry’s divorce, when
he shows up at Berit’s door with a bouquet of butterworts, her moment of truth,
or, as she calls it, fate. Berit never has children, but, clearly, she is like
a surrogate mother to Gus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thus the
novel is a family saga and a story of late life, “winter” romance, as well as a
coming of age and a journey into the “heart of darkness” to be found in the
wilderness as well as in the human heart and mind. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What is the significance of these stories, some true, some
false in the world of the novel, all fictional in the world of the reader?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Can “truth” be false?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Can recorded history include that which is
false and leave out so much that it is hardly the “whole truth”?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Can fiction be true?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Can stories, which may be factually false,
convey a symbolic or metaphorical truth?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I have argued so repeatedly in this blog.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The stories in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Wintering</i>
embody age-old universal myths of trial and quest, initiation, the fall from
innocence, death and rebirth (being lost and found), journeys
outward, journeys to the self, homecoming, romance, good and evil, crime and
punishment, love and hate, truth and falsehood, discovery, and
disappearance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We all experience these
stories in our own ways and we can thus reenact our own stories as we read
these “fictions.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Historically, Berit’s memories, stories, and artifacts represent
the immigrant experience in North America, the leaving of home and family, the
journeying out, the encounter with an alien world that can be both sweet and
sour, the struggle to survive, the building of a new life, the making of a
family legacy, and the creation of a new identity.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Even when these stories are based on lies, they give meaning
to our human experience, which is why we love to tell them, to hear them, to
read and write them.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Judy C. Fosterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09260240756709001428noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6533244374175739413.post-61692641853559410842016-08-13T15:24:00.000-05:002016-08-25T11:32:23.267-05:00"Summer": A Meditation<div class="MsoNormal">
Summer is an active time of year when we spend more time
outside, enjoying nature, attending outdoor events, vacationing and, despite
ragweed and mosquitoes, mostly reveling in the sensory pleasures of long sunny
days and a green, growing world. In
mythology summer represents the prime of nature, vitality, fertility, and the
fullness of life, before the decline of nature in fall and its “death” in
winter.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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According to this pattern I’ve been spending my summer
gardening and appreciating the backyard pleasures of birds, blooms, and
nature’s bounty, as one might surmise from the neglect of this blog. In search of an appropriate reading to end
this neglect, I began looking for a “summer” poem. One interesting observation is that there
seem to be more poems about the end of summer than about its full glory,
perhaps because poetry is more contemplative than active, and the end of summer
reminds us of the decline and fall to come, inspiring us to poetic meditation.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Amy Lowell’s 1912 meditation on summer (see previous post),
however, takes us in a different direction, making the case for the indoor life
of winter, of city life over “fields and woods,” of intellectual effort over
sensory delights, of human interaction, art, civilization and the life of the
mind.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Lowell invokes the ancient debate over rural vs. urban, body
vs. mind, nature vs. the human realm of intellect, art, and society. Of course, it’s a false dichotomy since it is
no doubt natural for humans to gather in society, to think, to create
artifacts, to “improve” on nature, and seek to mitigate the dark side of “tooth
and claw.” Nature is as fraught with
death and danger in summer as it is with life and growth. And, as Lowell reminds us, the world of art
and civilization in winter can be full of “the pulse and throb of life.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Curiously, though, Lowell’s poem, while it ostensibly favors
the “human world,” seems to spend as much or more effort on the pleasures of
nature at full bloom in summer as it does on the “labor,” “inspiration,” and
“vivid life of winter months.” The
strongest images in the poem summon “the voice of waters,” “great winds,”
“sunshine and flowers,” “moonlight playing,” a “sleeping lake,” “nodding
ferns,” “the blue crest of the distant mountain,” and “the green crest of the
hill…” The power of the nature imagery seems
to undercut the stated preference of the poem for city life and human society. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Yet the structure and style of the poem support the value of
art and civilization. Written in
traditional blank verse, the poem parallels the Greek choral structure of
strophe, antistrophe, and epode. Lines
1-12 focus on those who find “inspiration” in nature and consider the city to
be “a prison house.” Line 13 makes a
turn, renouncing the preference for nature but, in the same line, announcing, “I
love the earth…” Lines 14-29 develop the speaker’s love of nature in lavish
detail, but in line 30, again there is a turn; and the final 12 lines develop
her preference for “the human world,” which is “like a lantern shining in the
night/To light me to a knowledge of myself.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The poem could be read as contradictory, perhaps
unconsciously revealing a preference for nature in an argument for human
society, or it could be read as representing a fragile balance between the love
of both. Despite her love of the active,
outdoor life of summer, she longs for the contemplative, indoor life of winter.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So what? Is “Summer”
merely an expression of the poet’s perhaps conflicting preferences? Or is there more to it?<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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The style and structure, as well as the stated preference
for art and civilization over nature suggest a classic, somewhat aristocratic,
certainly upper class, perhaps elitist, perspective. Some readers may even hear a
quasi-imperialistic message of Western dominance. Others will note how, if there is such a message,
it is clearly undercut by the honorific tone in the nature imagery, with its
implicit celebration of the romantic, the democratic, and all that is wild and
uncultivated. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Contemporary readers may well note that nature is gendered
as “she,” a traditional way of associating women with the body, as opposed to
the mind. Some may even speculate on the
possibility of a subliminal message of conflicted sexuality.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Mythologically, the poem invokes the universal contrast
between youth and age, life and death, body and mind, nature and art.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
However you choose to read it, Amy Lowell’s “Summer” is more
than simple self-expression. It is more
like self-reflection or an extended meditation, in which the speaker develops a
complex identity with a complex relationship to her world.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<br />
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And with that, I return to the pleasures of my summer, with
greater anticipation of and appreciation for the pleasures of winter to come.<o:p></o:p></div>
Judy C. Fosterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09260240756709001428noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6533244374175739413.post-4795026586192558202016-08-13T15:18:00.000-05:002016-08-13T15:18:41.292-05:00"Summer"<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;">
<em>Summer</em></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;">
Some men there are who find in nature all<br />Their inspiration, hers the sympathy<br />Which spurs them on to any great endeavor,<br />To them the fields and woods are closest friends,<br />And they hold dear communion with the hills;<br />The voice of waters soothes them with its fall,<br />And the great winds bring healing in their sound.<br />To them a city is a prison house<br />Where pent up human forces labour and strive,<br />Where beauty dwells not, driven forth by man;<br />But where in winter they must live until<br />Summer gives back the spaces of the hills.<br />To me it is not so. I love the earth<br />And all the gifts of her so lavish hand:<br />Sunshine and flowers, rivers and rushing winds,<br />Thick branches swaying in a winter storm,<br />And moonlight playing in a boat’s wide wake;<br />But more than these, and much, ah, how much more,<br />I love the very human heart of man.<br />Above me spreads the hot, blue mid-day sky,<br />Far down the hillside lies the sleeping lake<br />Lazily reflecting back the sun,<br />And scarcely ruffled by the little breeze<br />Which wanders idly through the nodding ferns.<br />The blue crest of the distant mountain, tops<br />The green crest of the hill on which I sit;<br />And it is summer, glorious, deep-toned summer,<br />The very crown of nature’s changing year<br />When all her surging life is at its full.<br />To me alone it is a time of pause,<br />A void and silent space between two worlds,<br />When inspiration lags, and feeling sleeps,<br />Gathering strength for efforts yet to come.<br />For life alone is creator of life,<br />And closest contact with the human world<br />Is like a lantern shining in the night<br />To light me to a knowledge of myself.<br />I love the vivid life of winter months<br />In constant intercourse with human minds,<br />When every new experience is gain<br />And on all sides we feel the great world’s heart;<br />The pulse and throb of life which makes us men!</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;">
Amy Lowell ( 1874-1925)</div>
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Judy C. Fosterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09260240756709001428noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6533244374175739413.post-36955781621591519172016-05-18T14:03:00.000-05:002016-05-18T14:03:48.150-05:00Eligible: A Modern Retelling of Pride and Prejudice
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Remember when Jane Austen’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Emma</i>
met contemporary high school culture in the 1995 film <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Clueless</i>?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then there was <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Pride and Prejudice and Zombies </i>(book
2009, film 2016), featuring the Bennet sisters as masters of martial arts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now there is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Eligible: A Modern Retelling of Pride and Prejudice</i>, in which the
Bennet sisters meet Yoga, Crossfit, and reality TV.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">There is also a pregnancy by artificial insemination, non-marital
sex, a lesbian couple, a transgender character, and an interracial
relationship. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Bennet family is
nothing if not up-to-date in Cincinnati.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>At least the sisters are; the parents still need some convincing,
especially when it comes to a transgender son-in-law.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">I saw a PBS interview with author Curtis Sittenfeld, and was
immediately hooked.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Bingley and Darcy are medical doctors, as well as wealthy eligible
bachelors, and Elizabeth writes for a fashionable and feminist New York
magazine called <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mascara</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">But, never fear, Mrs. Bennet is still firmly focused on traditional
marriage to unattached men of means for her five daughters; Mr Bennet is his
curmudgeonly self; the younger sisters are as superficial and silly as in the
original; and there is the same irresistible combination of biting Austenesque
snarkiness, romantic misadventures and misunderstandings, lovers’ quarrels,
pathos, heartbreak, sidesplitting one-liners, comic absurdity, and, of course,
all that ends well.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Jane Austen is well known for taking the popular courtship plot of the
18<sup>th</sup> century and transforming it into her own unique brand of
incisive social satire combined with the enduring appeal of a romantic love
story.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But what is it about Austen that
inspires these ongoing adaptations and updates?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">In the PBS interview Curtis Sittenfeld said it is the way Austen’s
plots create sexual tension by throwing obstacles, misunderstandings, and bad
timing in the path of powerful attraction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>You have these two characters who are obviously drawn to each other but
who either resist that attraction or manage to miss every opportunity for any
kind of consummation, even if it’s just that first confession of romantic
feeling or that first kiss.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">As Shakespeare said, “the course of true love never did run smooth,”
and Austen was a genius for dramatizing, not only that proverb, but also the
sheer foolishness and comic absurdity that seems to accompany the human
experience of either looking for love, stumbling over it, or missing it
entirely.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At the same time, she could
capture the authentic pathos of human longing and the joy of fulfillment. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">In <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Pride and Prejudice</i>, we
have two characters, both determined to preserve their dignity while in the
throes of a strong attraction; both caught in a web of circumstance, gossip,
and misunderstanding; leading to a kind of love-hate relationship that raises
the sexual tension to an extreme level, until neither the characters nor the
reader can stand it no more.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">This love-hate relationship is manifested in a martial arts duel
between Elizabeth and Darcy in the Zombie version, and if anyone doubts the
sub-text, it is fully revealed when Darcy’s sword slices off the buttons off
Elizabeth’s bodice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Eligible</i> Darcy and Elizabeth have what
she calls “hate sex” because their mutual attraction is always masked by their
constant conversational sniping.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">But for all the humor in these romantic situations, Austen does not
ignore the tears that lie just below the surface when human longing is
frustrated or denied.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Indeed it is that
depiction of genuine human suffering in romance that is a major part of her
enduring appeal.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Similarly, for all the outlandish comedy in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Eligible</i>, like Austen, Curtis Sittenfeld recognizes the emotional
pain that often accompanies the human drama of love and romance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At one point Elizabeth, having finally
admitted to herself her attraction to and longing for Darcy, is certain that
Darcy is actually dating Bingley’s sister, Caroline.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She goes for her usual run, shedding tears
most of the way, then collapses on a park bench, puts her face in her hands,
and sobs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A black woman passing by stops
to check on her, and the normally reserved Elizabeth, exclaims to this
stranger, “I am heartbroken!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The woman
responds, “Oh, honey, aren’t we all?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
include the detail about the stranger’s race because it underscores part of the
appeal of Jane Austen that Sittenfeld captures, namely her representation of
human experience that transcends, not only race, but all the other social
categories we use to divide ourselves from one another.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">And for all the spoofs, parodies, updates, and adaptations of Jane
Austen, it is that universal human experience, whether it be comic, romantic,
or tragic, at the heart of her novels that ensures her reputation and standing
as, not only a perennial favorite, but as a classic writer of literature.</span></div>
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Judy C. Fosterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09260240756709001428noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6533244374175739413.post-23861940261543938112016-04-04T16:22:00.000-05:002016-04-05T14:24:11.398-05:00Under the Influence<style>
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<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The theme of deception, of illusion vs. truth, and
of appearance vs. reality continues to fascinate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>See blog posts on <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Goldfinch </i>(Oct., 2015<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">)</i>,
“Eisenheim the Illusionist” (March, 2015), “and “A Game of Clue” (Jan., 2016).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Epistemology is more than an obscure
philosophical sub-discipline; it is a challenge of daily life, whether we are
following the news or navigating our own personal lives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 12.0pt;">How do we know the truth?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even when relying on direct sense perception,
we may be vulnerable to deception. Even when facts can be established and
agreed upon, they may be open to multiple interpretations. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even, perhaps especially, when applying strict
standards of observation, logic, and rationality, we may overlook the
unpredictable, often irrational human equation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>To what extent do we see what we want to see and believe what we want to
be true?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It may even be possible to base
our whole lives on a false belief (See blog post on <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Blame</i>, Nov., 2015).</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Joyce Maynard’s recent novel<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> Under the Influence</i> could just as well be titled <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Under the Spell</i>, as the first-person
narrator, Helen, a recovering alcoholic who has lost custody of her son because
of her drinking, falls under the spell of a wealthy couple who “take her in,”
not only in the sense of providing friendship and support, but also in the
sense of deceiving her with their false show of glamour and goodness, charity, and
kindness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Granted, Helen, a professional photographer,
provides multiple services to the Havillands in return for their favors, but,
even so, it is a bit too good to be true.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Does this couple have to use their wealth to buy friendship?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Blinded by her own neediness, Helen falls
under the spell of this upbeat couple and their exciting, glittery life style,
ignoring one red flag after another, abandoning her one faithful friend, and
eventually choosing the Havillands over a dull but wise fiancé, who tries to
warn her that “something’s not right here.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Helen’s greatest need is to get her son back.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She uses the couple, especially the husband,
Swift, who admits he is a just a grown-up, fun-loving kid himself, to lure her
son back into her life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Swift teaches
him to swim and keeps him entertained with toys and games, acting almost as a
bribe to draw young Ollie back into Helen’s life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Swift also promises to have his lawyer pursue
the legal means for Helen to regain custody.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Despite becoming Ollie’s favorite playmate and serving
as the means by which Helen hopes to get her son back, when a tragic accident
occurs involving his own grown son, Swift quickly turns on Ollie, trying to
shift blame for the accident from his own son to Helen’s.</span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 12.0pt;">That becomes the wake-up call that Helen finally
hears.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the end she does regain
custody, but as much because of problems in her ex-husband’s new family as the
friendship with Swift.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Along the way she
has lost her previous best friend and her fiancé. </span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Meanwhile, the Havillands crash and burn as
financial irregularities are uncovered that lead to indictments for both Swift
and his son, thanks to some behind-the-scenes sleuthing by Helen’s ex-fiancé.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In a recent commentary (<a href="http://theweek.com/articles/608203/joyce-maynards-6-favorite-books">http://theweek.com/articles/608203/joyce-maynards-6-favorite-books</a>),
Joyce Maynard identifies her key theme as the seductiveness of friendship and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Great Gatsby</i> (see blog post, June,
2014) as a key source of inspiration. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The traditional seduction narrative, as she notes,
involves romantic relationships, but there can be a fine line between romance
and friendship, and any relationship can, no doubt, be subject to the
manipulation and deception often involved in seduction.</span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The traditional narrative also often ends in
tragedy for the (most frequently) female protagonist, thus serving as a kind of
cautionary tale of warning to its young female romance readers, and the novels
Maynard cites in her commentary all involve friendships that go awry, often
ending in tragedy, though the sympathetic protagonist may survive to tell about
it, as Helen does. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 12.0pt;">It is really Ava Havilland, the wife, who takes
Helen under her wing and befriends her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The novel begins with a chance sighting that Helen gets of Ava years
after the dissolution of their friendship.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ava has become a tragic and
lonely figure, sans Swift, sans glamour, sans Helen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The rest of the novel is a flashback to their
first meeting, the blossoming of their friendship, the increasing importance of
Swift to Helen’s relationship with her son, the accident, the betrayal and end
of the relationship, Helen’s recovery, and the Havillands’ decline.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 12.0pt;">“The
painful dissolution of a friendship is a universal theme,</span><span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> “ Maynard states in the above
commentary.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“</span><span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In
my life,” she says, “the ends of certain friendships have hurt as much as the
end of any love affair.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Given that she
kept a copy of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Great Gatsby</i> on
her desk as she wrote, it is tempting to see Gatsby with his wealth, glamour,
grandiosity, and hidden dark side, as a model for the Havillands. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
friendship theme hasn’t received a lot of attention in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Gatsby</i>, though some have seen a same-sex attraction on Nick’s
part.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Certainly Nick is as fascinated
and drawn to Gatsby as Helen is to the Havillands.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Also, just as Nick is self-deceptive about
his role in the dark underside of Gatsby’s romantic idealism, so Helen is self-deceptive
in the way she rationalizes the Havilland’s behavior when those red flags go
up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 12.0pt;">It is not
just that appearances can be deceptive, but, all too often, we participate in
our own deception. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Both Nick
and Helen escape the worst.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Gatsby is
murdered and the Havillands lose their lavish lifestyle, just punishment for
the latter, perhaps not such just punishment for the former.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nick leaves the East Coast and returns to
the, in his mind, more “decent,” less corrupt Midwest of his upbringing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Helen remains in California, raises her son
as a single mother, and, as he prepares to go off to college, decides to call
that ex-fiancé to see if there is any hope for rekindling their relationship.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We’re left in uncertainty about both Nick’s
and Helen’s futures. Presumably, they’ve both learned some lessons along the
way, about illusion vs. reality, about self-deception, about friendship.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Whatever
comparisons and contrasts there may be between the two novels, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Under the Influence</i> does not rise to the
level of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Great Gatsby</i> in terms of
literary quality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s a B novel, at
best, though it resonates with those universal themes.</span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
Judy C. Fosterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09260240756709001428noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6533244374175739413.post-76508968167102006782016-02-14T10:19:00.002-06:002016-02-14T10:19:20.683-06:00The Price of Salt
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<div class="MsoNormal">
When I went to see the movie <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Carol</i>, I thought I had read the 1952 novel it was based on by
Patricia Highsmith, but I quickly realized I had not. The movie was
disappointing to me. I thought the dialogue was superficial and the
relationship unconvincing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps the
book would be better.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was, but only
because Highsmith is a good writer, who makes it worthwhile, despite the same
unconvincing relationship.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Price of Salt</i>
is presented from the point of view of Therese, the young, naive shop girl, who
falls in love with the older, married, sophisticated Carol, and who, by the
end, is well on her way toward a professional career. Though it is largely
Therese's story, the emotional focal point is Carol, which somehow justifies
the book being later republished as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Carol</i>.
But that change sacrifices a unique and powerful metaphor, which captures what
is best about both the movie and the book.</div>
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<br /></div>
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The novel is both a coming of age narrative and a coming out
story. Therese is just 21, working as a store clerk while trying to build a
career as a theater set designer. (In the movie she is just 19 and has not yet
seriously begun to pursue a career in photography.) She has a boyfriend who
wants to marry her, but she is unenthusiastic, to say the least. When Therese
waits on Carol in the store, it seems to be her first same-sex attraction experience,
and it's a powerful one. The two women begin to see each other, and Therese
slowly begins to acknowledge that her connection with Carol is romantic. Carol,
who is in the midst of a divorce and child custody dispute, is more
experienced, but it is actually Therese who makes most of the explicit verbal
advances, perhaps only half knowing what she is doing. (In the film Therese is
more reserved but is clearly more interested in Carol than in any man.)</div>
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<br /></div>
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On a car trip west the two women eventually become sexually
intimate. (In the film Carol is the initiator, but in the novel it is clearly
mutual.) This relationship is a sexual awakening for Therese, but for Carol it
becomes an undoing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her husband has had
them followed by a private detective, who gathers enough incriminating evidence
to use against Carol in court.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The love
story hits the rocks as Carol returns to New York, leaving Therese behind, and
ends up promising never to see Therese again, or any woman romantically, in
order to have visitation rights with her daughter. (The film depicts the legal
dispute somewhat differently, but in both cases Carol gives up the joint
custody fight.)</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Meanwhile, Therese begins to come to terms with her
self-discovery, her loss, and her future. At one point, mourning Carol's
absence, she questions. "...how would the world come back to life? How
would its salt come back?" (The film makes no mention of this metaphor.)</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But it is Carol who pays the highest “price of salt.” In the
end she refuses to agree to all the terms of the divorce, sacrificing some of
her visitation rights in hopes of being reunited with Therese, or, at the
least, being able to live an authentic life. Therese, having returned to New
York to pursue her career, at first spurns Carol's offer to live with her, but
finally, perhaps having both come of age and come out to herself, perhaps
feeling on more equal terms with Carol, perhaps simply unable to resist,
perhaps all of that, returns to renew the relationship, knowing that there will
no doubt be more price to pay in a world that is hostile to them. </div>
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<br /></div>
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So why do I find this relationship unconvincing? It isn't
just the age, class, and experience differences; it's the superficial dialogue
and seemingly superficial interactions. As good a writer as Highsmith is, she
expects us to take the narrator's word instead of dramatizing any depth in the
relationship. If we read a biography of Highsmith, we learn she didn't really
experience a successful relationship herself. Could that explain her inability
to make a fictional one believable?</div>
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<br /></div>
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Highsmith is better at description and narration than she is
at dialogue.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some passages are admirable
as poetry. Others are striking in their unique word choice. In the following
passage she captures the fragility of relationships, perhaps based on her own
experience:</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Was life, were human relations like this always, Therese
wondered. Never solid ground underfoot. Always like gravel, a little yielding,
noisy so the whole world could hear, so one always listened, too, for the loud,
harsh step of the intruder's foot.”</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But, to what extent does that sense of instability in human
relations derive from the realities of same-sex relationships in the
fifties?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A primary value of the novel,
and of the movie, is the way it represents the price historically exacted by
society for same-sex love.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Although the novel is unusual for lesbian fiction in the
time period by portraying a "happy ending," it's hard not to wonder
whether Therese and Carol can sustain their relationship with so little social
and institutional support.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In any case,
there will no doubt be more price to pay for a world with salt. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Judy C. Fosterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09260240756709001428noreply@blogger.com0