Completed two Books

Among my repetitive semi-annual initiatives have been reading and writing targets.  There are conditions attached to each, such as submission of articles and types of books.  Writing usually gets written, iffy on submission.  Reading always exceeds target, as it does this cycle.  Never complete two on the same day until now, to the best of my recollection, since early grade school when books were short and could be completed at a single sitting.  But yesterday I finished both The Book of Mormon and Shel Silverstein's A Light in the Attic on the same day.  The scripture took months at two chapters a day.  The poems and illustrations took days at ten pages per sitting, or really lying as I read it in bed.

Most Mormons probably have not read the text of their sacred text, even though it is written in most of their native language.  I've been making an effort to pace myself through the sacred Western texts, leaving only Chronicles of the Old Testament unread while completing the New Testament and the Quran in their English translations, four chapters at a time for the NT, two per day for the Quran.  Each took months and my level of recall wouldn't come close to that of a clergyman whose training would interrupt the text to explore established commentary and presumably assignments or exams to assess understanding.

A Light in the Attic comes from the library's juvenile section.  Some arbiters of morality left over from Old Dixie who control school libraries thought this volume should be removed from the shelves, though the poems have probably been read to their own kids at bedtime with some delight.  Why they targeted this children's classic got my attention, so I signed it out and read each of the poems plus an additional twelve added since the original 1981 edition.  One poem references our Darwinian forebears.  Another couple include naked bodies, either washing each other's tushes while crammed in a bathtub or unable to get to the closet to pick out clothing due to a clutter of birthday gifts blocking the path.  Neither prurient and probably something that would make little ones chuckle, as they undoubtedly have for forty years.  A more serious observation, mine though likely not the censors, was the unflattering way aging was described.  Old people were largely stereotyped as impaired geezers who appeared physically in decline, and sometimes emotionally.  The book had a couple of verses dealing with death, sometimes vindictive death.  Unlikely that any child tackling this from their school library would incur lasting mental trauma, though.

I still have a couple more books in progress, but don't think I really want to finish the Old Testament by plowing through the two Books of Chronicles.  Some political reading may be overdue.  I enjoy George Packer's analysis in The Atlantic so took his book The Last Best Hope from the library for admiration of his writing and thinking ability.  And for a second banned work, Art Spiegelman's Maus, another classic that caught the wrath of the Christian Right after being widely read for forty years with mostly admiration.

And then there's my own writing which needs to be more consistent but is greatly enhanced by the breadth and elegance to which I engage in what the masters have assembled.

Redistricted

Our US Constitution mandates a census for the purpose of apportioning legislature representation, misused since the early days of our republic with favorable and unfavorable sequelae that have accrued over time.  States have legislatures too.  Our state uses the Federal Census in its districting.  One of the rewarding projects I have undertaken of late has been to serve as my election district's representative to the Democratic Party.  Good people on the committee, nearly all younger, I assume a little less prosperous, and perhaps a little left of where my worldview stands.  They seem committed to the underserved, which is good, not terribly analytical, which may not be good.

Proposed redistricted maps came out, placing my home smack it the center of a different district, a notably more prosperous population of professionals and tract housing.  Looking at the demographics, we have slightly more Asians than Blacks, which I assume reflects employment of scientists and a priority for the top schools when deciding on a home purchase.  There are no religious demographics included but the new district pretty much absorbs most of our state's Jewish citizens.  

I'm a little sad about being displaced, as I really liked the other people on the Committee and the elected officials who nearly always attended our Zoom meetings.  Whether a homogeneous or a diverse voter base is preferable, I'll leave to the political scientists. These new borders seem to create a district of what some call Bobo's, people like me, those educated, prosperous Americans who invest in the education and security of our kids, those people George Packer in his landmark article How America Fractured into Four Parts https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2021/07/george-packer-four-americas/619012/ called Smart America.  The other district, my current one by number, has a much higher Black representation, less wealth, and aspirations more reflective of the article's Just America.  The current rep, a Black fellow with a good heart and impressive energy, has done his best to legislate mostly small projects that truly enhance the lives of those people, leaving the larger projects with broader impact to our State Senator whose origins and agenda are that of Smart America.  Yet despite the economic divide of who lives within Election District 7 now, there doesn't seem to be much conflict.  Even if bounced from the monthly meetings once the new districts take effect, these are good people to help out when it comes time to support candidates.  As it is now, they schedule all civic events on shabbos.  Perhaps the new district, where there is more of a critical mass of Sabbath observers, will offer other alternatives.

Nominating Myself

America can live through most any kind of public blight.  We have historically survived our share of crises, some leadership corrected, some leadership generated as we seem to have now.  I never expected the people themselves to reject openness and honesty, though historically that's what it took to have Jim Crow and dysfunctional courts as a lingering Confederate legacy once slavery got out of reach. The writer George Packer of The Atlantic recently offered an address on receiving the prestigious Hitchens Prize for editorial writing.  https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/01/packer-hitchens/605365/

He notes that writers, and many others, have become fearful.  We saw that with the attempt to remove a public blight of a President from Office.  People supported him out of fear of reprisal.  Avoiding reprisal was to them more valuable than Keter Shem Tov, the lofty Crown of a Good Name, which most have already tossed aside.  George spoke about fear:  The fear is more subtle and, in a way, more crippling. It’s the fear of moral judgment, public shaming, social ridicule, and ostracism. It’s the fear of landing on the wrong side of whatever group matters to you. An orthodoxy enforced by social pressure can be more powerful than official ideology, because popular outrage has more weight than the party line.

Ironically this all comes the week of Parsha B'Shalach when the escaping Jewish slaves feel trapped, forcing a decision to forge ahead, fight back, or give up.  It was the one Prince who did not have a reference to God in his name, Nachshon, who stepped into the sea first.  Sometimes you just have to say that honesty and character are gifts from God to be protected.

Delaware allows party members to nominate themselves as convention delegates.  I never expected to ever take a public political stand, but I filled out the forms to become a Bloomberg delegate.  Unlikely that he will get the state party's support over our former VP who lives here, but just once I need to pretend I am on a hiring committee and pick the right one, even at the risk of being voted out.  I emailed my self-nomination.