This post has some memories of Dr. George Tiller, the man murdered by an anti-abortion activist. It is important, I think, to humanize the victims in a case like this, to show the courage of a man who had been threatened and injured before in the fight for something he believed in.
I also recognize that those who are pro-life (I have some quibbles with that term, but will respect those who consider themselves so) believe deeply in what they are doing, and know it is painful to them to see continuing what they believe is murder. It would drive me crazy if I believed that. And I think only a tiny, tiny, percentage approve of Tiller's murder.
It is a painful, difficult, complex situation all around.
Friday, June 5, 2009
GLBT Youth in Crisis
The article reports on a survey of LGBT youth in the Dallas, TX area. It illustrates strongly the horrors of homophobia. Among the appalling statistics are the number who have attempted or contemplated suicide, the number kicked out of their homes, the number sexually or physically abused, the number beaten at school or called names because of their sexual orientation, and more.
Obama Declares LGBT Pride Month
Obama has declared June National Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered Pride Month. Here is his declaration. I hope he carries through with all the policies he declares he will support here.
June is usually when GLBT pride events happen to commemorate the Stonewall riots, which are generally credited with being the starting point of the national gay rights movement. That movement brought many courageous GLBT folk out, and knowing an LGBT person has been the catalyst for as much change as we've had towards gay equality. May the change continue until all people in this country are equal before the law.
Another piece of happy news to celebrate is the passage into law of marriage equality in New Hampshire.
June is usually when GLBT pride events happen to commemorate the Stonewall riots, which are generally credited with being the starting point of the national gay rights movement. That movement brought many courageous GLBT folk out, and knowing an LGBT person has been the catalyst for as much change as we've had towards gay equality. May the change continue until all people in this country are equal before the law.
Another piece of happy news to celebrate is the passage into law of marriage equality in New Hampshire.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Quote of the Day: 6/3/2009
"Bless the sky that holds the light and life of the sun and the promise of rain...
Bless the moon with her calm and her dreams.
Bless the waters of the lake, and the earth that is strong under our feet.
Bless the east where the sun rises and the west where it goes to rest.
Bless the north from where the snows come, and the south that brings the spring.
Bless the wind who gives us our name.
O Blesser of all blessings, we thank you."
-- Madeleine L'Engle, An Acceptable Time. NY: Bantam Doubleday Dell, 1989, p. 219.
Madeleine L'Engle was a marvelous writer, most known for the young adult novel A Wrinkle in Time, but she wrote many more wonderful works, including some on the Christian religion, such as the very enjoyable Penguins and Golden Calves.
Bless the moon with her calm and her dreams.
Bless the waters of the lake, and the earth that is strong under our feet.
Bless the east where the sun rises and the west where it goes to rest.
Bless the north from where the snows come, and the south that brings the spring.
Bless the wind who gives us our name.
O Blesser of all blessings, we thank you."
-- Madeleine L'Engle, An Acceptable Time. NY: Bantam Doubleday Dell, 1989, p. 219.
Madeleine L'Engle was a marvelous writer, most known for the young adult novel A Wrinkle in Time, but she wrote many more wonderful works, including some on the Christian religion, such as the very enjoyable Penguins and Golden Calves.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Book Review: State of Jones
Title: The State of Jones
Author: Stauffer, John
Sally Jenkins
Rating: ****
Tags: civil war, confederacy, unionists, mississippi, reconstruction, slavery, civil rights
This is a dark and unrelenting book about a dark and unrelenting time. All wars are brutal, but the Civil War was particularly so, and this book doesn't stint on making one understand its horrors.
One of the co-authors of the book, John Stauffer, wrote the book Giants: the Parallel Lives of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln, which I read and thoroughly enjoyed.
State of Jones is centered on the story of one man, Newton Knight, who was a poor farmer in Jones county, Mississippi. Knight's grandfather was a fairly wealthy slave owner, but his eldest son and all twelve of the son's children refused to own slaves. This may have come from being Primitive Baptists, who believed that all souls were equal.
Knight was not in favor of succession when it happened, but was conscripted into the Confederate army and fought, but deserted a couple of times. There were probably a couple of points that broke his will to fight... one was when the Confederate government passed a bill that those who owned twenty slaves or more were exempt from fighting. Another was the siege of Vicksburg, which he endured and survived. Moreover his family may have been in dire straits, as many of the wives of soldiers were close to starvation.
After Knight escaped for the last time and returned to Jones County, he was forced to live in the local swamps, which he knew intimately. He wasn't the only one. The swamps were full of soldiers who had deserted, and runaway slaves. They all helped each other, and Knight became the leader of a pro-Union band of soldiers who ran a guerilla operation for the rest of the war. At one time most of the lower third of Mississippi was out of effective Confederate control. The partisans of the free state of Jones were poorer yeoman farmers who didn't own slaves, and resented the slave-owning aristocracy. During the war, Knight met a slave named Rachel, and they were as close to married as they could be, given that he was already married. He continued to live with and have children with both women until Rachel's death. Sometime after that his white wife left him.
The Confederates lost the war, the land was devastated, but they determined they would win the peace, and they did. By the late 1879s the Northern populace, including President Grant, had become apathetic and no longer willing to fight. The Democrats took over by a reign of terror that didn't let up until the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. The Ku Klux Klan were the terrorists, and blacks and Republicans were murdered, including by lynching, for the crimes of voting, seeking social equality, or for speaking up for their rights. How Knight survived is a mystery, except that he always had a pistol and a shotgun with him and people knew it. He and his large mixed-race family became socially isolated, as even his former fellow soldiers couldn't abide his domestic arrangements.
The book takes one story and through it tells some difficult truths about Southern history. First of all, it explodes the myth of the solid South. There were many pro-Union Southerners. Moreover the Southern revenge and the regaining of power were not a win for democracy. The former slave owners won back power by terror pure and simple, like many of the worst dictators in history.
I have an odd reaction to books about the Civil War and the South. I am a white woman born in the South who has spent most of my life here, an for most of that time, I've hated the bigotry and despised Southern romanticism about the Old South... something my mother was prone to. This book in a way gives me a sense of coming home, knowing that there were Southerners who repudiated slavery and even a few who believed in the equality of all.
It also sheds an interesting light on General Sherman, Sherman's brutality in war was born of the conviction that making the war one of maximum destruction would shorten it. His opinion about war was summed up in the following quote: "Its glory is all moonshine; even success the most brilliant is over dead and mangled bodies, with the anguish and lamentation of distant families." (p. 166)
The book is as well written as I expected from Stauffer. It has good footnotes, not obtrusive, and a good bibliography. My copy was an advanced reader's copy, and is missing features I hope will be in the final book, including an index, maps, and photographs.
Excellent book of history about a brutal time and place whose effects still reverberate in our culture.
Other authors: Stauffer, John
Author – Stauffer, John
Publication Doubleday (2009), Hardcover, 416 pages
Publication date 2009
ISBN 0385525931 / 9780385525930
Author: Stauffer, John
Sally Jenkins
Rating: ****
Tags: civil war, confederacy, unionists, mississippi, reconstruction, slavery, civil rights
This is a dark and unrelenting book about a dark and unrelenting time. All wars are brutal, but the Civil War was particularly so, and this book doesn't stint on making one understand its horrors.
One of the co-authors of the book, John Stauffer, wrote the book Giants: the Parallel Lives of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln, which I read and thoroughly enjoyed.
State of Jones is centered on the story of one man, Newton Knight, who was a poor farmer in Jones county, Mississippi. Knight's grandfather was a fairly wealthy slave owner, but his eldest son and all twelve of the son's children refused to own slaves. This may have come from being Primitive Baptists, who believed that all souls were equal.
Knight was not in favor of succession when it happened, but was conscripted into the Confederate army and fought, but deserted a couple of times. There were probably a couple of points that broke his will to fight... one was when the Confederate government passed a bill that those who owned twenty slaves or more were exempt from fighting. Another was the siege of Vicksburg, which he endured and survived. Moreover his family may have been in dire straits, as many of the wives of soldiers were close to starvation.
After Knight escaped for the last time and returned to Jones County, he was forced to live in the local swamps, which he knew intimately. He wasn't the only one. The swamps were full of soldiers who had deserted, and runaway slaves. They all helped each other, and Knight became the leader of a pro-Union band of soldiers who ran a guerilla operation for the rest of the war. At one time most of the lower third of Mississippi was out of effective Confederate control. The partisans of the free state of Jones were poorer yeoman farmers who didn't own slaves, and resented the slave-owning aristocracy. During the war, Knight met a slave named Rachel, and they were as close to married as they could be, given that he was already married. He continued to live with and have children with both women until Rachel's death. Sometime after that his white wife left him.
The Confederates lost the war, the land was devastated, but they determined they would win the peace, and they did. By the late 1879s the Northern populace, including President Grant, had become apathetic and no longer willing to fight. The Democrats took over by a reign of terror that didn't let up until the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. The Ku Klux Klan were the terrorists, and blacks and Republicans were murdered, including by lynching, for the crimes of voting, seeking social equality, or for speaking up for their rights. How Knight survived is a mystery, except that he always had a pistol and a shotgun with him and people knew it. He and his large mixed-race family became socially isolated, as even his former fellow soldiers couldn't abide his domestic arrangements.
The book takes one story and through it tells some difficult truths about Southern history. First of all, it explodes the myth of the solid South. There were many pro-Union Southerners. Moreover the Southern revenge and the regaining of power were not a win for democracy. The former slave owners won back power by terror pure and simple, like many of the worst dictators in history.
I have an odd reaction to books about the Civil War and the South. I am a white woman born in the South who has spent most of my life here, an for most of that time, I've hated the bigotry and despised Southern romanticism about the Old South... something my mother was prone to. This book in a way gives me a sense of coming home, knowing that there were Southerners who repudiated slavery and even a few who believed in the equality of all.
It also sheds an interesting light on General Sherman, Sherman's brutality in war was born of the conviction that making the war one of maximum destruction would shorten it. His opinion about war was summed up in the following quote: "Its glory is all moonshine; even success the most brilliant is over dead and mangled bodies, with the anguish and lamentation of distant families." (p. 166)
The book is as well written as I expected from Stauffer. It has good footnotes, not obtrusive, and a good bibliography. My copy was an advanced reader's copy, and is missing features I hope will be in the final book, including an index, maps, and photographs.
Excellent book of history about a brutal time and place whose effects still reverberate in our culture.
Other authors: Stauffer, John
Author – Stauffer, John
Publication Doubleday (2009), Hardcover, 416 pages
Publication date 2009
ISBN 0385525931 / 9780385525930
Speak Out on Sexual Violence
Nicholas Kristof has done admirable work in talking about sexual violence occurring all over the world. In this column he talks about silence being an enabler of sexual violence, and urges all to speak out about it.
I was sexually abused by older boys in my neighborhood at age 5, and it has severely damaged my life. I recognize it is up to me to make healthy changes... but I ache for children given such a poor start in life, and hope that together we can make changes. I remember I was horrified at one time to discover that every woman I talked to about sexual violence had either been raped or molested. And I particularly want to remember and honor Joanne Hankamer, who was a friend and coven mate of mine. She endured sexual abuse from her father from the time she was 5 or so. Despite that, she grew into a beautiful young woman with a great, loving soul. She was taken from us when she was 21 by a man who beat her to death in another act of sexual violence. Joanne, sweet heart, I remember you well.
Here is my witness, Mr. Kristof. Thank you for your efforts.
I was sexually abused by older boys in my neighborhood at age 5, and it has severely damaged my life. I recognize it is up to me to make healthy changes... but I ache for children given such a poor start in life, and hope that together we can make changes. I remember I was horrified at one time to discover that every woman I talked to about sexual violence had either been raped or molested. And I particularly want to remember and honor Joanne Hankamer, who was a friend and coven mate of mine. She endured sexual abuse from her father from the time she was 5 or so. Despite that, she grew into a beautiful young woman with a great, loving soul. She was taken from us when she was 21 by a man who beat her to death in another act of sexual violence. Joanne, sweet heart, I remember you well.
Here is my witness, Mr. Kristof. Thank you for your efforts.
Quote of the Day: 6/2/2009
"I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure."
-- Clarence Darrow
Darrow is one of my favorite people in history.
-- Clarence Darrow
Darrow is one of my favorite people in history.
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