Saturday, June 30, 2012

The Wizards of Oz

The Supreme Court justices remind me of the Wizard of Oz, hiding behind their robes and occasionally roaring at us.  This image couldn't have been stronger this week as we awaited their ruling on the Affordable Care Act and then learned of their decision.  Sing to the tune of "We're Off to See the Wizard."

We're waiting for the wizards to give us a piece of their mind
We hear they will decide the fate of health care for our time
These wizards, you see, I'm not sure why, can rule the land until they die
And in their rule they sit on high like God
And adjudicate the fate of all.
Dumb diddy dumb diddy dumb
We're waiting for the wizards to give us a piece of their mind.

We've now heard from the wizards who startled us all with their news
The head wizard he cast his lot with those who usually lose
He gave the President a win that's barely heard above the din
Of those who fear that Armageddon's near
And that we're becoming mere socialists.
Dumb diddy dumb diddy dumb
We've now heard from the wizards who startled us all with their news.

Thursday, June 28, 2012

Words Without Meaning


Sometimes there's not much to say.  Though words pile on top of each other, nothing adds up.  Even nasal is misspelled.

But to quote my latest favorite heroine, Scarlett O'Hara, "Tomorrow is another day."

Monday, June 25, 2012

"So foul and fair. . .

. . . a day I have not seen."  These are Macbeth's first words in Shakespeare's tragedy, a play that captures the contradictions in human nature.  I thought of this line on Friday night when I learned that Jerry Sandusky was found guilty on 45 counts of sexual abuse charges.  So foul a day--of such unspeakable crimes--and so fair a day--of long-overdue justice.

It's been a hard journey, our willingness to believe that adults--especially those who look and behave like the rest of us--can harm children in such heinous ways.  And though the abuse of boys is no more heinous than the abuse of girls, we've had an especially tough time facing it.  But finally we have on file a jury that believed the words of children--young men, yes, but children stuck forever in a hell that never should have come their way.

Let's go forward now and resolve to believe the words of children, even--and especially--when they tell us something that's hard to believe.  Let's resolve to teach children to speak up when something's wrong and to speak up ourselves when something's wrong.

And let's resolve to make Penn State a watershed moment, a time in our collective humanity when we committed ourselves to a higher level of protection for our children.

Saturday, June 23, 2012

The Wrath of Putin

It's hard to imagine any American president looking forward to meeting Vladimir Putin.  Some of the pictures posted earlier this week of Obama and his Russian counterpart were painful with Obama looking stiff and uncomfortable and Putin looking mean.  The first line of Simon and Garfunkel's "The Sound of Silence" (Hello darkness my old friend) came to mind as I imagined what Obama must have been thinking.

Hello Putin my old friend
I’ve come to talk with you again
I know that you’re a really scary guy
That’s why I look like I just ate a fly
But we’ve got to talk ‘bout the problems everywhere
If I dare
Take on the wrath of Putin.

Meeting you is not my choice
Somehow I tend to lose my voice
You remind me of an old nightmare
Where I find myself exposed and bare
And my eyes are stabbed by the flash of a neon light
That split the night
And touched the wrath of Putin.

And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more
Russians protesting their president
Russians resisting their government
Russians holding signs we never used to see
That show they dared
Take on the wrath of Putin.

“Fools,” said I, “You do not know
This guy’s a wicked, wicked foe
Make sure he doesn’t notice you
Make sure he doesn’t poison you”
But my words, like silent raindrops fell
And echoed
In the wrath of Putin.

And the people stood their ground
For in protest they were bound
To force the end of an oppressive reign
Where the ruler’s had too much to gain
And the crowd said, “We’ve had enough of this thug and his fellow thieves
So we won’t shrink
From all that wrath of Putin."

Thursday, June 21, 2012

Abundance

Growing up in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, I hardly knew anyone different from me.  We were almost exclusively white, middle-class Christians from so-called "traditional" families.  My kids' experiences growing up in Durham, North Carolina, couldn't be more different.  At times this has troubled me.  I've been sorry that they weren't surrounded by kids more similar to them, and I've wondered if they missed out on something.  When I see a picture like this, I realize I couldn't be more wrong.  After all, what does it really mean to be "different"?


Monday, June 18, 2012

More on Mitt

The more Mitt Romney speaks about horses and "sport," the more he bothers me.  This time he talked with Bob Schieffer on Face the Nation about Ann Romney's horse Rafalca, who's headed for Olympics competition.  Commenting on his wife's relationship with horses particularly in light of her MS diagnosis, he then undercut himself by saying, "I joke that I'm going to send her to Betty Ford for addiction to horses."

I bristled when I read that remark and again when I replayed the interview online.  Joking about addiction is not a joke.  Invoking Betty Ford as a joke is not funny.  And minimizing his wife's love of horses is demeaning.

Is this guy tone deaf?  I don't know many people who haven't lived with or known someone intimately who's suffered from addiction.  I don't know many people who wouldn't salute Betty Ford for her bravery in addressing chemical dependency and for founding the clinic that bears her name.  And I don't know many people who would dismiss women as easily as Mitt Romney does.

We've come a long way in the last 40 years, American women, that is.  In fact, we celebrate this week the 40th anniversary of Title IX.  Romney's rhetoric alone sets us back.  What might his policies do?  We can't afford to elect him to the highest office in our land.

Saturday, June 16, 2012

The Rain in Spain: Speech Lessons for Mitt Romney

Following Thursday's post, we turn to Professor Higgins and Eliza Doolittle from My Fair Lady as they sing "The Rain in Spain."  Professor Higgins, played here by Mitt Romney's campaign manager Matt Rhoades, is teaching Eliza Doolittle--now Mitt Romney--how to speak "regular guy" language.

Mitt: Americans are known for playing sports.
Matt: I think he's got it! I think he's got it! 
Mitt: Americans are known for playing sports.
Matt: By George, he's got it! By George, he's got it!  Now once again, what do we play?
Mitt: It's sports, not sport.
Matt: And what's that blasted sport?
Mitt: Football!  Football!
Both: Americans are known for playing sports, Americans are known for playing sports.

Matt: In Boston, Washington, and Phoenix?
Mitt: Sport just doesn't happen.  (How kind of you to let me speak.)
Matt: Now once again, where do we play?
Mitt: On the fields!  On the fields!
Matt: And what's that blasted sport?
Mitt: Football!  Football!
Both: Americans are known for playing sports, Americans are known for playing sports.  

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Idiomatic Mitt

After watching Stephen Colbert skewer Mitt Romney for his use of the word "sport" instead of "sports," I propose a new Constitutional amendment: All persons running for President of the United States must demonstrate idiomatic use of the language.

If you missed Colbert's report this week, he showed a clip where Romney describes having met a tall man, "a great big guy, seven feet tall. . . And he started a business.  Of course you know it was in basketball.  But it wasn't in basketball!  I mean, I figured he had to be in sport, but he wasn't in sport."  Since when does anyone speak like this?  Not since the mid-20th century, according to Tim Murphy of Mother Jones, who notes also that Mitt used this anachronistic expression repeatedly in his 2004 book Turnaround.

What are we to make of Mitt?  Is he a bad sport or a bad sports?

Or more to the point, can he speak our language?

Monday, June 11, 2012

Teacher and Student of the Year


Senora Gomez and Miranda, an excellent teacher for an excellent student.  What more can you hope for?

Saturday, June 9, 2012

Jubilee

We honor Queen Elizabeth's 60th Jubilee with a song originally composed by her Fab Four subjects, The Beatles. "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" was written by Paul McCartney and released in 1968 on The White Album.

Lizzy's been the Queen for 60 years, it's so
Causing now and then a great big wince
For her son is stuck inside an endless role
He can't get out from under being just the Prince.

Jubilee, Jubilah, queens go on, Brah!
Lala how the Queen goes on. . ..
Jubilee, Jubilah, queens go on, Brah!
Lala how the Queen goes on.

Oh her corgis seem to fill her heart with joy
More than all those problematic kids
Lives with plots that rival many soap operas,
I'm sure she'd like to cover these with royal lids.

Jubilee, Jubilah, queens go on, Brah!
Lala how the Queen goes on. . .
Jubilee, Jubilah, queens go on, Brah!
Lala how the Queen goes on.

In a couple of years there will be some brand new heirs
With a couple of kids running in the yard
Of Willie and Kate Windsor.

One year was an annus horribilis, yes
Fergie, Charles, and Diana, too,
Acted out in all the most horrific ways
And Windsor Castle burned as if this were her due.

Jubilee, Jubilah, queens go on, Brah!
Lala how the Queen goes on. . .
Jubilee, Jubilah, queens go on, Brah!
Lala how the Queen goes on.

In a couple of years there will be some brand new heirs
With a couple of kids running in the yard
Of Willie and Kate Windsor.

Now her life has settled into normalcy
Everyone's behaving very well
But there's always Harry waiting in the wings
To turn the monarchy right back into a hell.

Jubilee, Jubilah, queens go on, Brah!
Lala how the Queen goes on. . .
Jubilee, Jubilah, queens go on, Brah!
Lala how the Queen goes on.

And if you want some fun
Sing Jubilee, Lala.

Thursday, June 7, 2012

With Venus as our Guide

The defeat of Wisconsin's efforts to recall its governor on Tuesday sent the analysis world into overdrive.  You could barely hear a news program yesterday that didn't feature someone--or usually someones--spouting off about the significance of this election.  What did it portend for unions? for Obama? for union-bashing governors? for Republicans and Democrats?   All we know for sure is that BIG money played its role successfully, and this shouldn't surprise anyone.

On the same day as the election Venus glided dramatically across the sun, visible practically everywhere in the United States.  On a walk that evening, I dared to glance directly at the sun, wishing I could see the tiny dot on its historic journey.  The fierce glare that met me reminded me that I couldn't.  Some things never change, I thought: you can't look at the sun, plain and simple.

But everything else around us changes.  "You can't step into the same river twice," the Buddhists teach us.  What was true yesterday is not true today, and the presidential election doesn't hinge on Wisconsin.  Analysis and spin don't advance the conversation; they're distractions.

What can we learn from the tiny black dot advancing in the sky?  Life goes on, stay the course, don't give up.  Let Walker govern, so be it.  Now let's turn to the job of re-electing the President.  He's the best hope of keeping hope alive.

Monday, June 4, 2012

Lavender

On Saturday we visited Sunshine Lavender Farm in Hurdle Mills, NC, and everywhere were shades of blue and lilac.


We ate lavender ice cream and lavender cupcakes and drank lavender lemonade.   We learned that lavender is hard to grow in our humid climate.


One species needs a little less sun than the others, and if I'd bought a plant it would have been this one.


But temperamental plants are beyond me now.  The temperaments of people require enough work, I find, and so I will enjoy the beauty of this ancient herb as an occasional visitor.

Saturday, June 2, 2012

You're So Vain

When Donald Trump reappeared on the campaign trail this week to support Mitt Romney, I couldn't resist Carly Simon's great song "You're So Vain."

You walked into my fundraiser
Like you were a launching a TV show
Your hair strategically coiffed upon your head
Like a lawn in need of a good mow
You had one eye in the mirror
As you flashed your gleaming smile
And all the girls wished that they had your money
They had your money, and

You’re so vain
You probably think this song is about you
You’re so vain
I’ll bet you think this song is about you
Don’t you?  Don’t you?

You told me several months ago
That you’d make me the president
Now my aides are worried that your birther views
Could shrink the size of my elect’ral tent
For you question where Barack was born
In Hawaii, I’ve told you so
But you refuse to accept what the truth is
Accept what the truth is, and

You’re so vain
You probably think this song is about you
You’re so vain
I’ll bet you think this song is about you
Don’t you?  Don’t you?

Well, I hear that you call yourself “The Donald,”
This seems excessive I have to say
But your wealth from all that real estate
Is what I need for my Election Day
You’re not my type I know it’s so
But I have a big campaign
And all I need is the cash that you dole out
Cash that you dole out, and

You’re so vain
You probably think this song is about you
You’re so vain
I’ll bet you think this song is about
Don’t you?  Don’t you?