This book was turned into a cable miniseries, but no drama can give you the impact of the prose of the book.
There are many ways to tell a story, but Garmus did a great job of telling us how women were regarded by men for so many centuries in western culture. This story takes place in the late 1950s—-early 1960s. Along the way, she gets in a few digs at the Catholic Church. This is global cultural influence of Christianity is what I addressed in my own book:
The church influences public policy as well—-to this day. Our abortion laws are based on what non-scientific people, who are given credibility—believe when live begins. You can tell how disingenuous they are—and more about controlling women, by the compromises they are willing to make, Yeah, life begins at conception, but if the fetus doesn’t LOOK LIKE a total human, then abortion is ok.
I’m a boomer, and I know my parents hoped that my ultimate goal would be to find a good husband and have a normal life with a normal family.
This story involves two individuals, Calvin Evans and Elizabeth Zott, failed by their families for various reasons. How many children today are failed by their families: not encouraging them, or saving them from bad decisions? How a many orphans are mentored realistically, not with an agenda?
While there are a few minor flaws in the story (the dog, ‘Six Thirty’, knows several hundred words. Is that really relevant?), people should know that woman were commonly treated like Elizabeth.
A couple of months ago, I had shingles. Yes, I had the shot, about 15 years ago. I remember having chicken pox, so of course I got the vaccine—& they said it was good forever, but it wasn’t. No sores, no blisters, but excruciating nerve pain.
My own doctor was away, so the clinic suggested I see another doctor, which I did. She gave me a prescription, but it was barely effective. A week later, my own physician was back, I saw him, and he gave me another prescription—which took almost three weeks to be effective.
Then, I got a bill for a co-pay. It seems the 1st doctor I saw was NOT in the network! Or—was it a billing error? Or—now do we have to ask, every time we want to see our doctors, and the clinic asks if we’d see another because, for whatever reason, my own doctor wasn’t available—if the doctor they suggest is IN THE NETWORK?
This is obviously either a coding issue or a human failure issue, but no matter. I won’t tell you how many hours I ended up spending with my insurance company straightening this out.
I bring this up because this is a very real problem: healthcare billing snafus. Meanwhile, the old white men in Congress got a bug up their asses that TikTok is stealing Americans’ personal information.
If they are, the train has left the station. Apparently when the credit reporting agencies decided to store all our info in the cloud & that was breached…that wasn’t as huge a problem as Tik Tok.
What will the Chinese (or the Russians, the Indians, Filipinos, Tajikis, Uzbekis etc) find when they steal out personal information? Lots of us have bad credit and don’t pay our bills. Google it. Something like 22% to 47% have over $10,000 in debt.
About 10 years ago, I Googled ‘ceiling fans’. For weeks, on Facebook, I was getting ads for ceiling fans. it’s true for anything you Google. The is no privacy. You’d think, knowing this, any agency that keeps our financial or health records would NOT be storing this info online, but on discs—but silly me, that’s not how it works. Face it. There is no privacy. At least we know where TikTok has their corporate offices. How about all the no-names scamming people, stealing our stuff? We never have any idea where the scammers are. They easily post on all social media, from Craigslist and Facebook to dating sites.
Banning TikTok is banning free speech. There are a million ways around the ban, but right now, it looks like TikTok is playing by the rules.Our federal law makers don’t seem to recognize that they are too late.
This has been a not-so-great week due to poor planning as well as assumptions. I turned a $1800 ‘vacation’ into a $3000 one because I neglected to actually ask my roommate to stop working, take his headphones off, and listen to me. I had told him I was going out-of-the-country for about 10 days. I did this months ago—-before I went to Dubai. I said I’d be back for 3 weeks, then go to France. Trying to plan better, to make sure I could get a ride to the airport rather than getting up 3 hours early to take public transportation, I asked him if he could drive me to the airport next Saturday because I have to be there at 6:00 for an 8:00 flight.
He looked at my itinerary and vocalized (Wo!Wo!Wo!), because he will be away for 3 days near the end of my trip. He could not take care of my dog and would not bring her to the kennel. That meant I had to arrange for boarding.
This was last Friday night, and I did not sleep well. It’s Spring Break in my area, & I really feared all good kennels would be booked full. I Googled one close to the house. It’s run by someone who has an advanced degree in animal behavior, and two of my dog training friends work there. Unfortunately, the minimum charge is $65 a night ($85 during peal times!!!).
So I called Carriage Hill, in Glenview. This kennel is older than I am. It’s run by family, so everyone involved has come up working in the kennel and learning dog behavior, They show and hunt. It’s austere, I know Delilah will be stressed and unhappy, but she’ll be safe. My tenants can’t care for her, because she hides under the bed when they try to get her out, but she’ll also nip them if she’s out in the a yard and I’m not. This is the irony of training a dog: she knows all the exercises, and comes reliably when called, but that kind of thing doesn’t change a dog’s personality.
But I also had a kerfuffle with my uncle’s wife and my sister.
Over 20 years ago, I called the health department on my brother. My sister had sent her boyfriend to help my brother with some repairs. Eric, the BF, was working outside, but when he asked Scott (bro) to use the bathroom, he opened the door and strong ammonia came out that burned Eric’s eyes and throat (there was also garbage piled up), so he went down to the gas station.
When S (sister) called to tell me this, and that she was afraid she’ have to go in there & clean up dead animals, I said, “Give me his address, I’ll call the Health Department in his town.”
Now—-as an aside—which will make sense—-before the Health Department could arrange a visit, there was a small article in the Chicago Tribune, with a photo of men carrying cages, and the story was that they had raided a snake breeder (in Scott’s town). I called S, and she laughed and told me, “It was on the front page of the Daily Herald. At first, I thought it was Scott.” We laughed….that there could be 2 of them.
Was it none of my business? Here’s the thought that went through my head: If I wasn’t mentally right, and my relatives knew this, and I had accumulated more animals than I could care for, so that my place smelled so bad that friends were physically assaulted by the odor, which was also dangerous (ammonia) wouldn’t I want them to intervene and call the Health Department?
The Health Department came out, & Scott let them in and BRAGGED that he ran a reptile breeding business. He didn’t have to let them in. He was obviously in denial, and told S later that he was already in foreclosure, but he wasn’t even cited. The Health Department called his homeowner’s association, and they gave him a five day notice…which is when he went of Bank of Dad for help once again.
Some how, this got turned into me calling the police. & 20+ years later. Scott has forgiven me, & I should accept this—as though I was the wrong one. Nobody mentions five years ago, when he was so addicted he didn’t care that he had no electricity, heat, running water, or had a hole in his roof during a polar vortex when temperatures were going to 40 below zero. I had asked S if she had heard from Scott, because our 90-year-old father was in the hospital with both a broken femur and broken neck, and Scott couldn’t be found. Apparently his phone was cut off. As least that’s what S told me, I suggested she call the police in his town (a new town…he had moved twice since being foreclosed—-& may father had bought him a mobile home to live in…at least the 4th place my father had bought for my brother), to do a wellness check. They rang the doorbell, and when Scott answered, asked if he was alright, because his sister was worried. He said he’d call her.
2 weeks later—he still hadn’t called S, and I suggested she call the police and have him involuntarily committed. That’s what she did, and that’s what they did—to detox. She went to his mobile home and found it a disaster, with the hole in the roof, and many dead animals. She cleaned up as best as she could, Scott told her there was $30,000 in commemorative coins in the unit. She ultimately did find these while cleaning up. That’s another story.
So, by taking this horrible action of having S call the police and getting Scott into detox—-I saved his live. But that was none of my business.
When my father came to, and we three girls started visiting Dad (and Dad gave ‘power of attorney’ to R, my youngest sister), he asked about Scott: where is he? Because …. three daughters aren’t worth one son.
Although Scott has come a ways emotionally these past few years, being in rehab, he has no problem insulting and trying to manipulate us. but I’m forgiven and should accept that.
I don’t talk to him, but my uncle and his wife do when he calls (every Veterans Day) . They don’t come out and say how uncomfortable they are with all of us, but claim they don’t want to get involved in the DRAMA that is my siblings…when I responded to a text my aunt had sent me (in response to me asking when we could get together—- I’ve been trying for almost 2 years)— she suggested we have Passover at R’s house, and told me that R wanted to invite Scott. I didn’t believe it.
That’s not exactly how it went down. R did not want to invite Scott, but was ambivalent when my aunt said SHE would invite him, and if I didn’t want to come, oh, well…
So she did involve herself and didn’t care that I was uncomfortable. I started the drama when I called the police (no…it was the health department)….but I should not have made a moral decision as my brother’s well being was none of my business.
Other skeletons came out: my uncle doesn’t talk to his brother—not because he wouldn’t share in paying for my grandmother’s housing—but because he called my aunt a racial slur. This as though the uncle who married the Mexican woman never made a racial remark, like denigrating Schwartz’ (what Jews call black people) or anyone from India or the Middle East towelheads.
I’m not ‘religious’, but I try to follow a Sikh ethos. I made a moral choice and got abused for it. I feel very demoralized, but this will not change the dynamic Scott has set, that everyone believes is justified.
After thinking about all this, I decided I was too old to allow them all to affect my feelings and mental health. I apologized to my aunt. uncle, & R, told them my conscious was clear, and to arrange whatever they wanted. I’ll be back in 2 weeks, so we’ll see how that goes.
####
I got a wonderful review of “The Pleasure Seeker,” from Book Viral, which I will post upon my return from Europe.
In my new book of contemporary fiction, The Pleasure Seeker” my main character, Dayal Singh, has married a woman from Dubai. Through the narrative of the book, he and his wife return at least once a year to visit her family, who are emigres from India. Near the end of the book, I have Dayal saying that he never liked Dubai because it’s a land out of science fiction: You never see people on the street. Not like Arusha (Tanzania), where people are always walking around and you have a good chance of greeting someone you know.
I got my initial impression of Dubai about eight years ago when I was there overnight. I had chosen Emirates Air from Chicago to Zambia, because their fare was comparative to United, and I have issues with United & their Starfleet Alliance. The nice thing about Emirates: since there are no direct flights to Lusaka from Chicago, they put me up over night, dinner and breakfast included, in Dubai.
8 years ago, the drive from the airport, at dusk, revealed only sand, sand for miles. I was able to take a tour of the town. It wasn’t a great tour, just an hour or so with another traveler like myself, but we went from the hotel to the Burj Khalifa (not in, but to the driveway) and back. They were just working on the monorail then, and it had 2 stops: the beginning and the end. There was no greenery.
Dubai has exploded in these past eight years. The sand for miles from the Airport? Now mostly warehouses and car dealerships, with other industrial related businesses. The Metro has several routes now, and beautiful stations. The central business district has quadrupled in size. You want to see architecturally significant tall buildings? They are in Dubai. The Dubai Mall,
When I got in to Dubai, it was overcast, but it was around 5 in the afternoon. In the morning, it was raining, It never rains in Dubai, and I had taken my umbrella out of my suitcase. Our guide, Faheem Abbas, was excellent. He explained that rain is so rare, they aren’t prepared for pools in the roadway & people get stuck. So, Radio & TV announce that people should work at home & schools are also closed.
But we had a big tour bus. Our 1st stop was the Dubai Mall so we could get to the top of the Burj Khalifa. The mall is huge, and filled with chain stores from the USA as well as boutiques with souvenirs. It’s almost overwhelming. There is also the skating rink , the ski slope, and an aquarium. In Chicago , we have the Hancock Center & the Willis (sears) tower ‘skydecks’, so I’ve been to the tops of tall buildings, Still, the view is impressive. I wish someone had given us a tour or explanation of the mall, and that we had a bit more time to spend, but we had to get to the skydeck, and thousands of people (I am not exaggerating) go up the every day. It’s not a huge deck, but you aren’t crowded in, either. When we got back, there was a break in the tour, and we reconvened for ‘orientation’ & to meet each other, Tho all were ‘American (at least green card holders), there were 2 Indian couples, an Indian woman & her friend (who came to Dubai from Indian), a Filipino couple, 2 Chinese couples, a Viet Namese family, a woman from the country of Georgia who had been in the USA 40 year, 2 black American couples, and me. Interesting mix.
Day 2, we went to Abu Dhabi to see the ‘grand mosque’. You travel past the water desalinization plant & the power plant. Yes, they use oil for fuel now, but are building a big solar field for the future. A rich Muslim guy built this gorgeous mosque, but it is a ‘demonstration’ mosque: a large marble plaza, and the marble building is inlaid with precious stone flowers like the Taj Majal. There are several large chandeliers with Swarowski crystals, and the larges prayer rug ever made. But…. it is no longer for prayers.
Under the mosque (actually, the parking lot…) is a huge shopping mall with a McDonald’s, a Tim Horton’s, and many candy and souvenir shops. You have to be dressed appropriately to enter the mosque, which you do from the underground mall. I thought I was ok, but the guards objected to the sheer sleeves of my blouse, so Faheem bought me fake sleeves. In any case, the building is beautiful and impressive. On the return, we stopped at what was supposed to be a ‘traditional’ village, but it was really a poorly marked museum of weaponry and coins. All the small buildings we tourist oriented & overpriced. We went into Dubai for lunch, which was ok. Then, we went to the Louvre Abu DAbi. We were given about 45 minutes, which is just about enough time if you race through it. I would have taken the ‘traditional village off the tour to spend more time at the Louvre.
Day 3 We drove to Al Sharjah, another emirate. Faheem explained that the Crown Prince of the town was very conservative & no alcohol or tobacco were available. We went past the mosque and we were supposed to drive through the American University campus, but for some reason we couldn’t go in, so we returned. Since the drive is long, Faheem explained that in a city of 10 million people, only 2 million are Emirati. The rest, including him, are ‘guest workers’. Years ago, most construction workers were from Bangla Desh. They are now recruited for the hospitality industry mostly from Malaysia, Philippines, & Eastern Europe. You must speak English, You are provided with housing, cramped tho it may be, and if you lose your job, you’re sent back. Balli Kaur Jaswal wrote a story involving Malaysian guest workers in Singapore called, “Now You See Us,” involving a character accused of murder. At the end, she has an essay on how these women are treated. In any case, you can not become an Emirati by marrying in. However, this is a capitalist country. You can buy property. It is freehold (meaning not on a 99 year lease).
Day 4 We drove to the metro to take it to Palms Jumeirah (see photo above). I wish I could have gotten a Metro map and gotten on to explore where it goes, but no time, We took the metro to the end of Palms. Palms was an idea eight years ago. It is totally sold out now. Mostly single family homes (starting at $5 million dollars) and some townhouses & the Atlantis Hotel. Pure opulence. From there , we visited 2 small museums, but all the gift shops sell the same tourist stuff made in China and India. Then, we went to the old Souk. On 1 side, it is ‘gold’ and all jewelry, the other side is spices. I guess if you come from a small town, all this would seem exotic, but I live 2 miles from an Indian/Middle Eastern shopping district. We can get all the fresh spices in Chicago. & gold? I don’t think so. I wanted to buy a bar of camel milk soap. The vendor stall owners wanted an equivalent of $8 a bar. They would not accept $4, so I didn’t buy soap. I later went to a local grocery store and found very extoic tumeric and ayervedic soap for under $1 a bar.No joke. In the evening, we took Toyota trucks with experienced drivers & drove in the dunes near Al Sharjah. Not real dunes. The desert is pretty flat with rolling hills. It was fun, but then we went the the Bedouin BarB Q—but it wasn’t a BarBQ. I was expecting meeting actual Bedouin families with kids—and maybe Salukis. It was not. The dinner wasn’t typical. It was ok: chicken in pita, salad, hummos, baklava that kind of thing, set up on a buffet, and they gave out coffee, soda, and water. They had a little entertainment: a guy twirling around like a dervish, and another juggling things with fire. They had women doing henna, so I got my hand hennaed. For $90 extra, I felt it was overpriced.
Day 5 Before I came to Dubai, I googled “Dubai Salukis” and found the BarkPark link, and arranged to meet Jan, the owner. A very interesting Scottish woman, she was recruited to work in Dubai, and liked the lifestyle. She married an emerati, had a son, divorced, went back to Scotland because her mother was dying, Her mother didn’t die, so Jan returned, and via her ex-husband’s connections, was able to lease the land to have her boarding and dog daycare business. We were on the same page on most things. She had a 16-year-old white Saluki from Hamad Alghanem ) known as ‘Mr.Saluki’). & I swear, the dog could step into any show ring in America and contend. She also had 2 rescues. She told me there were no more Bedouins in the area. and the Salukis we used for hunting by Muslims.
This was my last day. half our group had left for home. Back with Gate 1, we took the smaller bus to the Al Shadaya museum. We were only there about 1/2 hour, & many of us felt that 90 minutes would have been more appropriate, It was so interesting. They had 1 room devoted to how various perfumes are made, and a lovely multimedia show on the history of Dubai. We were taken from the to another shopping center , designed like an old souk, very pretty, but all touristy stuff. Then, Faheem brought us to the beach. He left us for 90 minutes, way too long. It’s very touristy, and I didn’t want to spend $$$$ on snacks.
We all thought the time would have been better spent at Al Shadaya.
I got to visit 3 emirates: AbuDhabi, Dubhai, and Al Sharjah. I got to meet a fellow Saluki lover, and maybe a day or 2 more would have been fun. I wish Gate 1 had given us maps of the city. As it was, this trip cost me under $1500, so if you can afford it, do it.
This is what a country looks like when the leaders are sophisticated & employ the best civil engineers and architects. It is a monarchy, not a democracy. There is no trash, no grafitti, no beggars, very little crime. You are a guest. You aren’t employed? You have to leave.
Published in 2021, the back of the book blurb & Amazon descriptions do a good job of telling us what the book is about: How stewardesses came to be in the commercial flight industry after WWII, and how PanAm stewardesses were impacted by the Viet Nam War. it also includes a great chapter on overcoming sexism and gaining respect.
Normally, this isn’t my type of read.It’s a bit cute, and the author dances around why we were in Viet Nam, but that’s not the story. the story is how many families of young women tried to dissuade them from choosing a career in the airline industry, mostly based on cultural images the airlines made popular.
I’m sure many women of the baby boom generation at least considered becoming a flight attendant. The big plus was the opportunity to see the world. Would I suggest this as a career now? Only to bilingual people, and people who enjoyed serving others. The book also has some good photos, so I’d say to any teenager, check this book out and don’t have illusions.
^^^I just returned from Dubai, and will post on that next week. I went to Dubai to see if my impressions of Dubai still held—& they do. Please check out “The Pleasure Seeker”
I live in Chicago, & for the past several months we’ve been getting an influx of refugees from Venezuela. The reason so many have been coming is that because we didn’t like their president (several presidents back) for his economic policies, our congress put economic sanctions on the country, and we destroyed their economy. The people coming from Venezuela are, for the most part, white, urban dwellers—and apparently either devoutly religious or culturally fatalistic. Why they don’t go to Columbia or any other Spanish speaking country is a mystery. They had to walk through several countries to get to the USA. Apparently Panama, Costa Rica, and even Mexico (I’m not suggesting either Honduras or Guatemala—also messed up royally by US foreign policy) wouldn’t do for any of these people. They have actually told volunteers they had no idea where they’d end up or what would happen, but apparently they are disappointed by the facilities they are being offered as ‘not adequate’. While I feel sorry for them (they are being bused up by DeSantis from Florida & Abbot from Texas)—& frankly—they’re right, the facilites are inadequate. We weren’t expecting them, and can’t take care of our own poor people——-the federal government has plenty of money for the military—bur dealing with the right now problem of unhoused, displaced people isn’t getting anyone’s attention…), an awful lot of these refugees are teenagers or in their early 20’s, already with at least 1 child—& pregnant to people they are not married to. They are complaining about not getting diapers for the babies….but how did they get them on their long trek?
I know: who am I to judge? I came from a culture that you don’t bear children until you can support them. It was considered a shame, an abomination. But these people have come from a culture who apparently believe using contraception is not God’s way, and the rest of us should take care of the children they bear and can’t care for.
How dare I? Bearing children is a right, right?
Well, on the opposite end of personal choice are that all male members of the South Carolina Supreme Court, which has decided to ban all abortions because the unborn (that would be people who don’t exist) have rights. & look at Alabama, where the old white guys—-not religion or philosophy majors, have decided eggs are children. They are without sin, so are more important than the rest of us who are actually breathing. The logic evades me. They’ve decided, due to philosophical or religious leanings, that if you get pregnant , if contraception failed, or you were raped , the unborn is more important and has more rights than the woman forced to carry that fetus. Decided by men who would never be in your position.
What a great country this is where a few men can decide what the rest of us should believe. This is, of course, a pretzel logic philosophy. It requires those of us who don’t believe you are born until you breath to abide by a law set by people who believe that God only takes you to Heaven if you are saved by his son, Jesus, and that all that stuff we learned in the old Testament is negated, but more, that they should decide what we should believe and adhere to.
When people bear children they can’t support, morally, the rest of us must—as they are real breathing people. But that (in theory) takes resources away from those who were born and planned, but are special needs and handicapped. How unselfish is that? I’d like to have music and art classes in our public schools, but we have to take care of the special needs kids who will always be a burden to society no matter if they are in school or not.
Meanwhile, I guess the logic is that you have rights until others who are more philosophical decide you don’t.
When I started this blog over 10 years ago, I was a dog groomer. I’ve addressed this before, but when I started learning to groom dogs, in the late 1960s (as a teenager) EVERYONE involved in grooming and training dogs was a DOG PERSON: Meaning everyone was a competitor, or worked for a competition, They all knew the value of learning about breeds, breed/dog structure, animal behavior and husbandry, genetics, and doing our best to understand dogs.
Things have changed. Many of the ‘old timers’ have died and now I am an old timer. The pet industry got a bit more sophisticated about marketing goods, animals, and services, and got less ethical as time went on. The ‘fancy’—as we call ourselves—is small. Are there even 10,000 of us in the USA?
I’m a member of 4 dog clubs, and I’m, sure the average age of our membership is 60. All that indigenous knowledge will be forgotten. Many of the breeders will be forgotten.
I learned about dogs not just from mentors, but from experience. One thing I learned from PAYING ATTENTION was that in many breeds, dogs of certain colors may behave aberrantly. 
I worked for t one of the top Miniature Schnauzer breeders in the country. Miniatur Schnauzers only come in 3 colors: black, black & silver, & salt* peper, Those mostly white with party patches (& blue eyes)? No matter what those AKC papers say, there is no way those dogs can be purebred. But that isn’t the issues I’m addressing, The breeder, for a time, had several black & silver bitches. gorgeous dogs. She had bought them to include into her breeding program, but ended up selling the, She told me they were way more hyperactive than the others, and screamers. I didn’t really think about it at the time, but my sister recently bought black & silver Min. Schnauzer…and it’s true. He’s very hyoperactive and noisy.
I was working in a grooming shop in the early 2000s, and I had several clients with Tibetan Terriers. They come in as many colors as Lhasa Apsos. ”Lion color” in s ; popular (a black masked reddish/fawn. But so are black & white parti-colored Tibetans, and they were all more nervous and noisy int eh shop than the Tibetans of other colors.
I was working for a German Shorthaired Pointer breeder who was also a field trial judge. He was telling us about a client who had a black Labrador Retriever that died, and now she wanted a chocolate Lab. He told us he tried to talk her out of it, for the very reason they were all much more hyper active than the blacks and yellos. It was the reason few regular hunters wanted them.
I was telling all this to a French Bulldog fancier who compete in performance, and she remarked at how interesting that was.  She told me that if you wanted a performance Frenchie, you should get a fawn or brindle, that the parti0coloreds & piebalds didn’t have any attention span.
I am sure this color linked personality has to be true in other breeders, but I don’t have enough experience with that many.
What I do have experience with is designer dogs—the Doodles. Only breeders who breed pets as livestock are breeding mixes, and the irony is thay pull that “F1″ BS, as thouhg theyknow what they’re talking aobut, They know neighter genetics or statistical odds.
Oh, the history we teach ourselves. Didn’t you learn the ’Indians’ saved the Pilgrims from starving—the reason we celebrate Thanksgiving?
I started learning about real American history when Dee Brown’s “Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee” was published in 1970, and I also had an exceptionally good American History teacher in high school. He filled in a lot of facts and disabused us of myths of history we’d been taught. Until then, I did not know that the American government was populated by dishonest, unethical liars and cheaters justifying their unfairness and racism as the Christian way.
Being Jewish, I was particularly drawn to learning about the history of Jews in America. Clarren’s family benefited from The Homestead Act, which gave ‘free; land to (white) people, many of whom were immigrants, willing to go to the ‘barren’ prairie to farm. Little did they know that the land belonged to people already there.
This book is a combination of real history, of the American government continually lying to Native Americans, breaking treaties, tearing their families apart—taking their children to ‘assimilate’ them and knock ‘the Indian’ out of them, and her family history, as her ancestors fled Russia. A family historian provided Clarren with letters, diaries, and photos.
So well documented. This is particularly cogent to me because of the irony of how Israel has dealt with the Palestinians. We taught ourselves a false, mythical history: that nobody was in Palestine, that it was all desert, and we paid for the land. Not true.
Usually you read a book that disabuses you of facts you held as real, and wonder what can be done. In Clarren’s epilogue, she addresses what her family is doing to right a terrible wrong they participated in.
I’ve included images of both ‘Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee’ (which is not a classic of American history), and “The Lemon Tree,” which details how right wing Zionists in Israel terrorized Palestinians out of their homes and into Jordan—because refugee camps did not exist. There are some Jews who think the Palestinians should ‘get over it’—-but it was not a fair fight, & about half the Israelis and an even smaller per centage of American Jews know this.
Of course, here I am in America, living on land that was taken. I think we need to make reparations to Native Americans. But I also believe that we h need to re-examine out blind, stupid relationship with the Israeli government. We are not protecting Jews or Israelis with our current policy to blindly support Likud. This is causing anti-semitism.
****
My book is now available in print & ebook format, and also addresses a mythical history: that Christians civilized the Africans, when, in fact, they terrorized them into complying with Europeans at the risk of death, having their homes, and even their churches burned. But that’s a small part of the story.
Ah, the GOP continues to murmur about what they a call ‘entitlements’. Somehow, grants to the wealthy aren’t entitlements, foreign aid isn’t an entitlement. over-funding the military isn’t entitlement… but what we pay into— Social Security and Medicare—are entitlements? Why aren’t the media—the journalists we do the reporting—-addressing this jargon as a false narrative?
Meanwhile, since the 1960s, we’ve been sending foreign aid to dictators. The rationale is that democracy will come when they have strong economies. We’re ‘encouraging’ ‘right thinking & policy’. However, we know from history, and analyzing the facts, that democracy doesn’t appear until most of the population is literate, has access to communication infrastructure as well as basic health care, until women can control their fertility, until all children have access to education… and there is no unfair support by outside powers to keep a status quo that obviously isn’t working.
I keep returning to social indicators. The push for self rule in Africa happened when there were enough literate Africans as well as communication to address colonial powers. Same with Viet Nam. Why didn’t it happen in India? Social stratification through ‘genetic’ caste being supported by political recognition. Which we, in the USA, apparently think is fine.
We say that we support democracy…but look at our history? We’re always on the wrong side.
Now, again, we are addressing what h is happening in Israel and Palestine. England played both sides and will not address what they caused: taking land that belong to people—Arabs— promising assistance with self-rule—and giving the exact same parcel to a small group (less than 200?) Zionist men. Let the chips fall where they may, eh?
Why did they do that? Because the Zionists were white Europeans & nobody liked the Jews. The Jews wanted a land that the Bible says is theirs. It could have happened peacefully, but that’s not what England cared about.
Because the holy land is holy also to Christians, American foreign policy—also shaped by white men—developed a convoluted narrative, which even fostered more antisemitism.
It doesn’t matter that antisemitism and hate crimes are illegal. This is white American culture. Our foreign policy is more influenced and e developed by public relations agencies for dictators than Americans who have to pick our battled. My tax dollars at work.
Disparateinterests's Blog 