Posts

It's worse than you think

Image
January 6 was your first warning. Roe V. Wade was your second. The third is on the way.  On MSNBC and CNN they throw around the term "Erosoion of Democracy." Doesn't sound too bad - we're used to erosion. The fate we are approaching is unimaginably horrible, so let me help you imagine. The repubs are aiming to turn us into a Putin style "Democracy," where one party has all of the power. The checks and balances imagined by our founding fathers are already fading away. The Supreme Court is pretty much an arm of the Republican Party.  Elections will soon be run by zealots who will do anything to ensure that their party wins, whether it got more votes or not. If you don't like what they're doing, just complain. Those in power won't be motivated to hear you out, because they no longer have anything to lose. States like New York and California can continue to go on as before, but eventually the noose will tighten. Anyone who challenges the establishmen
Post a Comment
Read more
Image
                                 A new name. A new me. I have now passed the age of 75, however badly, and now I feel the need to share all of those years of accumulated wisdom with an unwilling world. As someone who was born and raised in Arizona, spent an 18 month stint in the Philippines as a young teen, and settled finally in New York, I don't have much of a peer group. Most of my Facebook postings reflect the more normal positive and tolerant me, but recently, I gave them a taste of my Other Side, and it did not go well. Since I already have a blog account, it seemed like an idea to let my hair down (What's left of it) and let my grumpy side have its say in an environment where no animals would be injured. Here are a few accumulated gems: Don't pick up glass jars by their lids. Don't bother with anti dandruff shampoos - they don't work. Observing the matter for 40+ years, I conclude that trickle down works, but only for the billionaires. They let their money tr
Post a Comment
Read more

Dishing the dirt

Image
   On my first full day on Long Island, I rented a car, and made an arrangement at a local real estate office. I remember which agency, but I don't want to get them in trouble. I made an appointment with an agent to look at the types of rental houses I might find if I did somehow get the job. She drove me around central Nassau County and talked about the two main types of Levit houses - ranches and capes.    While making our rounds, she did tell me a bit about the reality of Long Island. "You may have heard a lot about race relations in the South, but here it is even worse. It just doesn't get a lot of publicity." In this county you have Black towns, Hispanic towns, Jewish towns and Catholic towns. If we show a black family a home in the wrong town, we start hearing from the prospective neighbors. The conversation always begins with "I'm not a racist, but my neighbors aren't going to put up with this."    She explained that there are o
Post a Comment
Read more

Making a good impression

Image
   I was called to Long Island in the spring of 1990. Five months after getting my library degree, I had still not landed a job, so I was enjoying the title of "World's most overeducated library assistant' at the Phoenix Public Library. In March and April, I had a flurry of promising interviews, but still had not landed. The biggest disappointment was getting an offer from the Chicago Public Library, but I decided I'd better go take a look before I made such a radical move.    The good news in Chicago was the library which was absolutely beautiful and enormous, which would give me a position in Audio Visual to use my first master's degree. The bad part was the pay, which would qualify me for a one room walkup flat and food stamps. Then there were the unsubtle things my wife and I heard. Multiple times we heard "If librarianship doesn't work for you, you can always teach at one of our wonderful colleges." I had been in libraries 25 years, so I d
Post a Comment
Read more