Whatever side of this odd debate you come down on, the thesis statement that, “vaccination is a victim of its own success: we’ve forgotten how bad infectious disease is.”, is most chilling.
Hope Springs Eternal! 58 and on Spring Break! Still like snow days, too!
Just to hear to school is off, on break or canceled and I get a jolt of joy in my heart.
I guess that isn’t so odd, but I enjoy hearing it about the Grand Rapids Public School system and I haven’t lived in Grand Rapids in 10 years and 2 of the three schools that I attended, Crestview Elementary and Creston High School, are no longer there.
sane, pragmatic versus those unsatisfiable impossiblilists
Today I hold up a mirror to reflect your thoughts on who these words embrace?
Republicans vs Democrats?
Pro wall versus no wall?
Big Ten vs. ACC?
DH versus pitchers bat?
I found the combination of these wonderful words in an article about Brexit in the Manchester Guardian Online, one of my favorites.
The author writes of Theresa May, “Where she might have endeavoured to bind together a fractured nation and forge an alliance of the sane Brexiters and the pragmatic Remainers, her language and approaches have further polarised the country and radicalised opinion on both sides. This was compounded by concentrating her energies on trying to please the unsatisfiable subset of Brexiters who wanted the most impossibilist versions of the enterprise.”
I encourage you to read the article, not for its content, but just for its use of language.
I want to read it out loud and applaud every “It is now so risible that thinking about it for too long risks permanent injury to your abdomen.” and ” call the hubristic snap general election in the spring of 2017, squander her majority with an atrocious campaign and then respond as if, to use one of her most notorious phrases, nothing had changed” and “Even a leader with the power to inspire of Churchill, the team-building talent of Lincoln and the capacity to heal of Mandela would have struggled.” along with “The Tory party is now preparing to find a new chief for its cannibalistic tribe.”
Oh how I hate twitter and 140 characters. Mr Mencken, where are you.
Morning sounds, birdsong Sin to kill a mockingbird? thoughts over actions …
Deep thoughts over the morning coffee with the sounds of birds outside,
Let me start by telling you I have never read the book, To Kill a Mockingbird.
As I think back, I am not sure that I have ever sat down, on purpose, and watched the movie from start to finish.
But I seen the movie many many many times, in bits and pieces so that I can say I have seen it.
It is a great movie. Gregory Peck may have made the finest film recording of an actor ever.
But has any movie raised the level of wide discussion and personal discovery with less result.
How can you watch this film and not mentally sign up with Lawyer Finch and NOT have it impact your life?
Yet, where are the results?
I want to stay away from the political if I can, but I have to admit that I was dismayed watching the reports of a President Trump rally from my home town of Grand Rapids, Michigan.
I felt I might know a lot of the people at that rally.
I feel like I could make the claim, that if asked, EVERYONE AT THE RALLY would have responded that the movie, To Kill a Mockingbird, was a great movie, a favorite movie, a movie that changed their lives, a movie they made sure their children watched.
Somehow, I also feel, that Atticus Finch, the man portrayed in the movie anyway, would not have gone to a rally for President Trump.
If you know the movie, in the scene where Finch stares down the crowd, where do you picture President Trump standing?
I don’t know if I can say for sure that I would be on the porch with Finch, but I hope I would. I hope I have that type of courage.
I don’t have answers. I do try to think that I would never really understand a person until I consider things from their point of view … until you climb into their skin and walk around in it. Which goes for those folks and friends at the rally.
Augusta? Macon? Chattanooga? Birmingham? Bypass? Quo Vadis?
A Latin phrase meaning “Where are you marching?” It is also commonly translated as “Where are you going?” or, poetically, “Whither goest thou?” (Wikipedia)
Inspired by the road signs and directions at the I85 and I285 interchange in North Georgia AND the EB White story, Quo vadimus?, about two men who meet each other on the street. One asks the other Quo vadis? and after a bit of hesitation, tells him a very complex tale of where he is going, and what he is going to do. (New Yorker, May 24, 1930 Issue)
White writes, “Did it ever occur to you that there’s no limit to how complicated things can get, on account of one thing always leading to another?”
As a post script, a little known piece of family trivia is that son Ellington’s full name is Ellington Bernard Hoffman.
He is named after Duke Ellington, Bernard Berg (Grand Father) AND EB White.
