Yesterday, I despaired for the future my country. Although it was what I had expected, I was very sad that Scott Walker won his recall fight and will be the Governor of Wisconsin for the remainder of his term. People voted for him in spite of his questionable (to put it mildly) testimony to Congress and in spite of (perhaps because of?) his vicious attacks on the rights of public employees. I despaired for the future of all of us who are not among the very wealthy, all of us who need our jobs not just for the pay, but also for the health insurance. And I was amazed at the utter lack of imagination among so many of the voters of Wisconsin.
"Why a lack of imagination?" you may ask. Because it shows a serious lack of imagination to vote to keep someone who, as soon as he had the power, immediately stripped away the rights that had been won through hard experience, the rights that were, in fact, protecting the rights of ALL of Wisconsin's workers, regardless of whether they belonged to unions. Do the people who voted for Walker really believe that their jobs are safe as long as he is in office? Do they really think that he won't want to take away other workers' rights? Do they actually believe that their lives will be better now?
The truth is that workers with rights are what keep our economy going. Walker talks a lot about how good for Wisconsin's economy his policies are, but where will Wisconsin's economy be in, say, 5 years? Our national economy relies on consumers, primarily middle-class consumers, with disposable income. How many of those consumers will be left after a few more years of Scott Walker? Now that public employees can no longer bargain collectively and he's made it so hard for their unions to work for them, we're going to see their pay and benefits dropping, which will mean they will have significantly less disposable income. There will be, to quote a famous Republican, a "trickle-down effect" throughout the economy of Wisconsin. Stores will close. Companies will downsize. The few manufacturers who remain will relocate their businesses. People will lose jobs.
Yesterday, I imagined similar scenarios playing out in other states over the next few years, with similar outcomes. I saw short-sighted voters all over the country electing people who would take away collective bargaining rights, would cut funding to schools, would cut the few remaining public programs that help those in need, and would increase tax breaks for corporations and wealthy individuals. The social-class divisions that exist today are nothing compared to what we could be living in just a few years from now.
And why would people vote for the politicians who would enact such harmful policies? I suspect that much of it boils down to the attitude of, "If I don't have a union representing me, why should you? If I don't have good health insurance, why should you? If the people in my profession can't bargain collectively, why should anyone else have that right?" But maybe that's just cynicism on my part. I confess that I am feeling exceptionally cynical right now.
Thursday, June 7, 2012
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Certainty In Spite of Facts
I find it amazing, although I probably shouldn't, that so many people are absolutely convinced of things in spite of evidence to the contrary. Let me give you an example -- people all over the US have expressed the belief that our public schools are failing and are in crisis. They say that the evidence in support of this belief is that students in the US do not score at the top of the heap on international tests. They continue to say that our country is in danger because our students aren't number one in the world on these tests and they say that our students are performing worse now than in the past.
They continue to believe this even though the data from the National Center for Education Statistics show that our scores on international tests have never been at the top, and in spite of the fact that our scores have improved each time our students have been tested. Let me state that again: our scores get better each time our students are tested. Our students are performing better on international tests now than they have ever performed.
Here's another statistic: the number of Americans with some college education has increased from 10% in 1940 to 56% today. Again, we aren't number one in the world in terms of college degrees obtained. But this hasn't hurt our GDP. It is still well above China and Japan, the next closest countries.
So, I'm appalled that so many people still argue that our schools are failing and that these failing schools will hurt our economy and make us less competitive. Where is the data?
I'm particularly struck by this when I think about the assumptions of people like Columbus when they set off to explore. Columbus and his backers were certain they would find lots of gold when they landed. Some European explorers were so certain they would find gold that they forced the natives to work in mines that failed, over and over again. And what about the US invasion of Iraq, which American leaders said was necessary because the Iraqi government had weapons of mass destruction and American lives were at risk? Where was the evidence of that? Plenty of people at the time expressed doubts, but more people wanted to listen to those saying we had to invade. Tragic.
I guess it's not news that people can be misled, quite easily, when someone speaks with authority. It's depressing, though, that humans haven't learned to demand evidence.
They continue to believe this even though the data from the National Center for Education Statistics show that our scores on international tests have never been at the top, and in spite of the fact that our scores have improved each time our students have been tested. Let me state that again: our scores get better each time our students are tested. Our students are performing better on international tests now than they have ever performed.
Here's another statistic: the number of Americans with some college education has increased from 10% in 1940 to 56% today. Again, we aren't number one in the world in terms of college degrees obtained. But this hasn't hurt our GDP. It is still well above China and Japan, the next closest countries.
So, I'm appalled that so many people still argue that our schools are failing and that these failing schools will hurt our economy and make us less competitive. Where is the data?
I'm particularly struck by this when I think about the assumptions of people like Columbus when they set off to explore. Columbus and his backers were certain they would find lots of gold when they landed. Some European explorers were so certain they would find gold that they forced the natives to work in mines that failed, over and over again. And what about the US invasion of Iraq, which American leaders said was necessary because the Iraqi government had weapons of mass destruction and American lives were at risk? Where was the evidence of that? Plenty of people at the time expressed doubts, but more people wanted to listen to those saying we had to invade. Tragic.
I guess it's not news that people can be misled, quite easily, when someone speaks with authority. It's depressing, though, that humans haven't learned to demand evidence.
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
More Sonic Thrills
I spent a wonderful afternoon last Sunday, sitting on my porch in my new rocking chair, reading and listening to the birds. It was so quiet on my street and the weather was perfect -- not too hot and not too cold, with a light breeze. I really love hearing birds singing. It's another of my sonic thrills.
Sounds are a very important part of my life. It's not surprising, then, that I have become a huge fan of audiobooks in the past ten years. I like listening to books because I can do other things while I listen to them (multitasking is my whole life, it seems) and because I get to hear good books while relaxing. However, not just any audiobook will do. I find that I can really only listen to fiction. I prefer to read nonfiction. I also find that certain narrators are absolutely unlistenable to me. I have some very specific preferences.
There are certain words that I love strictly because of how they sound. These are usually words that start with an 'm' or a 'p'. If both of those letters are in the word, it's probably one of my favorite words. For example, I like the words:
Sounds are a very important part of my life. It's not surprising, then, that I have become a huge fan of audiobooks in the past ten years. I like listening to books because I can do other things while I listen to them (multitasking is my whole life, it seems) and because I get to hear good books while relaxing. However, not just any audiobook will do. I find that I can really only listen to fiction. I prefer to read nonfiction. I also find that certain narrators are absolutely unlistenable to me. I have some very specific preferences.
- In general, I prefer women narrators. However, their voices cannot be too high and I really prefer that they not have upper-class English accents. Unless, of course, we're talking about Rosamund Pike.
- Regarding male narrators, I prefer voices that show some energy. I can't stand Dick Hill as a narrator. Does it get any more stagnant than his narration? Not possible. Oh, and who calls himself "Dick"?????
- If I'm listening to a novel that takes place in Scotland or Ireland or England, the narrator's accent should be Scottish or Irish or English. Why does Samuel Gillies or Joe Dunlop or Michael Page narrate books by Ian Rankin, which take place in Scotland? I prefer James MacPherson when I'm listening to Rankin. And I'm so grateful for Gerard Doyle, who narrates Adrian McKinty's books, which take place in Northern Ireland. I feel like I'm there when I listen to him.
There are certain words that I love strictly because of how they sound. These are usually words that start with an 'm' or a 'p'. If both of those letters are in the word, it's probably one of my favorite words. For example, I like the words:
- pimento
- pipit
- pippin (to be fair, I also like this word because of Scottie Pippen)
- mercurial
- madcap
- maharaja
- mineral
- memento mori
- prism
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
In defense of print and ink
I am an advocate against going paperless. Not that I don't love technology; on the contrary, I am a gadget fiend. But I also love actual paper, print, and writing by hand. I have used iBooks for some reading, but I still prefer holding an actual book in my hands, turning the pages, flipping around, and reading in bed without worrying about breaking a device. I also like magazines. Again, it's about holding the magazine in my hands, flipping pages, and not worrying about breaking anything.
Perhaps one of the things I love most about books and magazines is browsing in a book store. Sadly, there aren't any bookstores that are less than an hour's drive from my house, but I'm willing to put in the driving time. Even more sadly, driving an hour only gets me to a Barnes & Noble. To get to a really good bookstore, it's a much further drive. I can, however, get to a pretty good pen store in about an hour.
I collect fountain pens. This may seem pretentious, but allow me to explain. I've always loved writing, both the physical act of writing and the intellectual pursuit of writing. The things I've loved about the physical act of writing have been finding new and interesting writing instruments and using them on different kinds of paper. My father mostly used fountain pens when I was a child. He thought he was state-of-the-art because he used cartridges. I never really thought about fountain pens, myself, until one day when I was in a drug store when I was about 19 years old. I came across the Varsity, a disposable fountain pen by Pilot. I bought it and loved it. I loved the way the ink flowed out of the pen and how the nib looked as I wrote.
Unfortunately, at that time I couldn't afford any high-quality fountain pens. And, since I was going into teaching, it was many more years before I could afford to buy one of my own. Eventually, though, I got a Waterman Hemisphere and a Parker Sonnet. These were my first 2 real (non-disposable) fountain pens. I went on to buy many more and I now have a nice little collection. My current favorite is my Pelikan Souveran 215, although I still use my Hemisphere very regularly. I don't have any antique fountain pens, which is what the "real" collectors love, but I'm quite happy with my pens.
Of course, as soon as I got my own fountain pens, I had to look into inks. This is where things got really interesting. I started by getting a bottle of ink from Levenger, Cobalt Blue. Then, of course, I had to get some cartridges, since most of my pens take cartridges as well as bottled ink. When surfing the internet, I came across Private Reserve Ink, which has a great selection of ink colors. My favorite of theirs is DC Supershow Blue. But my favorite ink company is, without question, Noodler's Ink.
Noodler's has a fantastic selection of colors, and it also has some truly inspired names for them. Currently, I have Dragon Napalm (a bright orangey red, kind of like mercurochrome), Baystate Blue, Navajo Turquoise, Concord Bream (a pale, grayish lilac), and Polar Blue. Next, I plan to get Nikita (a bright red), Eel Cactus (magenta), and Bad Blue Heron.
Perhaps one of the things I love most about books and magazines is browsing in a book store. Sadly, there aren't any bookstores that are less than an hour's drive from my house, but I'm willing to put in the driving time. Even more sadly, driving an hour only gets me to a Barnes & Noble. To get to a really good bookstore, it's a much further drive. I can, however, get to a pretty good pen store in about an hour.
I collect fountain pens. This may seem pretentious, but allow me to explain. I've always loved writing, both the physical act of writing and the intellectual pursuit of writing. The things I've loved about the physical act of writing have been finding new and interesting writing instruments and using them on different kinds of paper. My father mostly used fountain pens when I was a child. He thought he was state-of-the-art because he used cartridges. I never really thought about fountain pens, myself, until one day when I was in a drug store when I was about 19 years old. I came across the Varsity, a disposable fountain pen by Pilot. I bought it and loved it. I loved the way the ink flowed out of the pen and how the nib looked as I wrote.
Unfortunately, at that time I couldn't afford any high-quality fountain pens. And, since I was going into teaching, it was many more years before I could afford to buy one of my own. Eventually, though, I got a Waterman Hemisphere and a Parker Sonnet. These were my first 2 real (non-disposable) fountain pens. I went on to buy many more and I now have a nice little collection. My current favorite is my Pelikan Souveran 215, although I still use my Hemisphere very regularly. I don't have any antique fountain pens, which is what the "real" collectors love, but I'm quite happy with my pens.
Of course, as soon as I got my own fountain pens, I had to look into inks. This is where things got really interesting. I started by getting a bottle of ink from Levenger, Cobalt Blue. Then, of course, I had to get some cartridges, since most of my pens take cartridges as well as bottled ink. When surfing the internet, I came across Private Reserve Ink, which has a great selection of ink colors. My favorite of theirs is DC Supershow Blue. But my favorite ink company is, without question, Noodler's Ink.
Noodler's has a fantastic selection of colors, and it also has some truly inspired names for them. Currently, I have Dragon Napalm (a bright orangey red, kind of like mercurochrome), Baystate Blue, Navajo Turquoise, Concord Bream (a pale, grayish lilac), and Polar Blue. Next, I plan to get Nikita (a bright red), Eel Cactus (magenta), and Bad Blue Heron.
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Sweet Home, Chicago
Last week, I visited family and friends in the greater Chicago area. Already, I am imagining that I can hear those who live in the actual city of Chicago groaning. People who live in Chicago proper sometimes have attitude about those who live in the suburbs. OK, so I was raised in the suburbs. What's the big deal? Anyway, while there, I ventured into Chicago, itself, in order to visit the Art Institute. I have several favorites there, such as Beata Beatrix by Rossetti, and The Old Guitarist by Picasso. But my favorite gallery within the Art Institute has always been the Paperweight Gallery. You can imagine my disappointment, then, when I entered the gallery only to find that many of the paperweights were not on display. Later, I learned that the Art Institute was considering getting rid of them.
[Insert melodramatic scream of "Nooooooooooooo!" while on knees and shaking fists at sky.]
The collection of paperweights at the Art Institute is one of the best in the world. When I lived in the Midwest, I was fortunate to be near two of the best paperweight collections -- the collection at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Bergstrom-Mahler Museum in Neenah, Wisconsin. I can't explain what I find so beautiful about glass paperweights, except to say that I've always liked very small things. Within the beautiful millefiori antique paperweights are very small "canes" and there are often letters or dates to be found on them. I could spend hours looking at collections of antique paperweights because there is so much to see within these little worlds. This is what attracted me to Hello Kitty and Little Twin Stars when I was 10 years old. Everything was so tiny! Of course, now the Sanrio company makes normally-sized things with Hello Kitty on them, too many things, in fact. And, it's very hard to find anything with Little Twin Stars. But, I digress.
Oddly, I do not enjoy the Thorne Miniature Rooms Gallery, which is quite near the Paperweight Gallery. I find the miniature rooms to be stifling. I really don't enjoy entire rooms of antique decor, whether miniature or full sized. I like individual pieces of antique furnishings, but not entire rooms. So, a gallery of 68 miniature rooms of antique decor overwhelms me.
The depleted paperweight display was not my only disappointment on my visit to Chicago. I also saw one of the most hideous things I've ever seen. On Michigan Avenue, there is a monstrously large, full-color statue of Marilyn Monroe, Forever Marilyn by Seward Johnson. It's been there for almost a year and it's the ugliest piece of public art in the world. OK, that might be an overstatement, but come on! I'm a big fan of public art and I also love pop culture, but this statue is just an eyesore.
Throughout Chicago, you can find public art by Picasso, Oldenburg, Chagall, Miro, Dubuffet, and Calder, among many others. The architecture in Chicago is also breathtaking, with buildings designed by Henry Hobson Richardson, Louis Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Mies van der Rohe, among many others. In this setting, the statue of Marilyn Monroe is just an insult. I'm just grateful that it isn't going to be a permanent installation. It's supposed to leave sometime soon.
[Insert melodramatic scream of "Nooooooooooooo!" while on knees and shaking fists at sky.]
The collection of paperweights at the Art Institute is one of the best in the world. When I lived in the Midwest, I was fortunate to be near two of the best paperweight collections -- the collection at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Bergstrom-Mahler Museum in Neenah, Wisconsin. I can't explain what I find so beautiful about glass paperweights, except to say that I've always liked very small things. Within the beautiful millefiori antique paperweights are very small "canes" and there are often letters or dates to be found on them. I could spend hours looking at collections of antique paperweights because there is so much to see within these little worlds. This is what attracted me to Hello Kitty and Little Twin Stars when I was 10 years old. Everything was so tiny! Of course, now the Sanrio company makes normally-sized things with Hello Kitty on them, too many things, in fact. And, it's very hard to find anything with Little Twin Stars. But, I digress.
Oddly, I do not enjoy the Thorne Miniature Rooms Gallery, which is quite near the Paperweight Gallery. I find the miniature rooms to be stifling. I really don't enjoy entire rooms of antique decor, whether miniature or full sized. I like individual pieces of antique furnishings, but not entire rooms. So, a gallery of 68 miniature rooms of antique decor overwhelms me.
The depleted paperweight display was not my only disappointment on my visit to Chicago. I also saw one of the most hideous things I've ever seen. On Michigan Avenue, there is a monstrously large, full-color statue of Marilyn Monroe, Forever Marilyn by Seward Johnson. It's been there for almost a year and it's the ugliest piece of public art in the world. OK, that might be an overstatement, but come on! I'm a big fan of public art and I also love pop culture, but this statue is just an eyesore.
Throughout Chicago, you can find public art by Picasso, Oldenburg, Chagall, Miro, Dubuffet, and Calder, among many others. The architecture in Chicago is also breathtaking, with buildings designed by Henry Hobson Richardson, Louis Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Mies van der Rohe, among many others. In this setting, the statue of Marilyn Monroe is just an insult. I'm just grateful that it isn't going to be a permanent installation. It's supposed to leave sometime soon.
Monday, March 26, 2012
The Plan
When I think about how I spend my time, I get a little discouraged. I work at least 45 hours a week, which leaves 123 hours. I sleep about 56 hours a week, if I get a full 8 hours a night, which leaves 67 hours. I spend about 10.5 hours "getting ready" each morning, which includes showering, drying my hair, getting dressed, putting on makeup, eating breakfast, taking care of the dogs, etc. This takes it down to 56.5 hours of free time. Due to my geographic location, I usually drive about 3 hours (round-trip) on Saturdays to shop, see a movie, eat out, get a pedicure, etc. This leaves 53.5 hours.
So what am I getting done during those 53.5 hours each week? Not much. I read, watch TV, listen to music, talk to my husband and kids, surf the internet, and that's about it. I always have lots of ideas of things I could do, like gardening, writing, finishing my Ph. D, or learning how to make pottery. But I never seem to follow through on these things. Although, I must say that I had started a novel that I think was going to be pretty good. Unfortunately, my daughter deleted it by mistake from my iPad. I made a couple of attempts to re-create it, but they were unsuccessful. Since then, though, I've had another great idea for a novel and I made a minor start on it, but I haven't worked on it in quite a while. Really, I'm all potential. No actual accomplishments.
Is that what will be on my headstone after I die? "Here she lies. She was all potential, no actual accomplishments." No! I refuse to let that be the case. So I have developed a plan to transfer some of my ideas into actions. There's some irony here, because I hate it when my husband comes up with schedules/budgets/lists/plans for us/me to follow. Although I am definitely a creature of habit, I don't like thinking that I am on a schedule or a routine during my free time. Basically, I don't like being told what to do, even by myself. However, I'm going to give this a try and see how it turns out.
My plan is this: I will act on one of my ideas for at least 10.5 hours each week for a month. I figure I should spend at least as much time accomplishing something as I spend on "getting ready" each week. I will start this week, even though it's already 2:30 PM on Monday, March 26th, because if I leave it until next week or until April, I will be much less likely to begin. I'm lazy, but I'm self aware.
So, wish me luck on my self-improvement plan. By April 26th, I should have made some progress on one thing on my list of ideas. Any and all encouragement is welcome.
So what am I getting done during those 53.5 hours each week? Not much. I read, watch TV, listen to music, talk to my husband and kids, surf the internet, and that's about it. I always have lots of ideas of things I could do, like gardening, writing, finishing my Ph. D, or learning how to make pottery. But I never seem to follow through on these things. Although, I must say that I had started a novel that I think was going to be pretty good. Unfortunately, my daughter deleted it by mistake from my iPad. I made a couple of attempts to re-create it, but they were unsuccessful. Since then, though, I've had another great idea for a novel and I made a minor start on it, but I haven't worked on it in quite a while. Really, I'm all potential. No actual accomplishments.
Is that what will be on my headstone after I die? "Here she lies. She was all potential, no actual accomplishments." No! I refuse to let that be the case. So I have developed a plan to transfer some of my ideas into actions. There's some irony here, because I hate it when my husband comes up with schedules/budgets/lists/plans for us/me to follow. Although I am definitely a creature of habit, I don't like thinking that I am on a schedule or a routine during my free time. Basically, I don't like being told what to do, even by myself. However, I'm going to give this a try and see how it turns out.
My plan is this: I will act on one of my ideas for at least 10.5 hours each week for a month. I figure I should spend at least as much time accomplishing something as I spend on "getting ready" each week. I will start this week, even though it's already 2:30 PM on Monday, March 26th, because if I leave it until next week or until April, I will be much less likely to begin. I'm lazy, but I'm self aware.
So, wish me luck on my self-improvement plan. By April 26th, I should have made some progress on one thing on my list of ideas. Any and all encouragement is welcome.
Monday, March 19, 2012
2 Kinds of People
Sometimes, it seems this simple.
There are 2 kinds of people:
There are 2 kinds of people:
- those who carry hand sanitizer around with them and those who don't.
- those who specialize and those who don't.
- those who let their children grow up and those who don't.
- those who say, "Gesundheit!" and those who don't.
- those who dance in public and those who don't.
At other times, it's more nuanced.
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