I am in Boston, trying to get my ducks in a row to finish a new book and to pick up threads abandoned when the pandemic hit, and I have gone a little too hard for the past several days. Turning things over to my friend Peter tonight, so I can get to bed before midnight. I always love his images of our home, but they are especially sweet when I've been way for awhile.
It is, I think, interesting how a community has grown out of your letters and lectures, and a sizable one at that. Your letters are a grounding of sorts with reminders of our recorded history, and informed commentary on the absurd and sometimes frightening events of the day. There are many people in this community that offer additional valuable context and perspective.
No one expects you to write on the weekend, but you typically do, just to let us know you’re getting some rest, or a well deserved day on a boat, or just had an exhausting day. You often give us photos from Buddy, which are, without exception, beautiful. Tonight’s evocative photo from Peter is fabulous. It is a lovely thing how you care for us, even when you have no time to write. Frankly, I think many of us look forward to the brief posts with some stunning photograph. You give us something to remind us of the beauty that remains, even now.
I was just exchanging texts with a friend and we were both singing your praises. Thank you again, professor, for your daily letters with your insight. Best of luck with the new book.
You are amazing Heather! And thank Peter for a beautiful photo. We sail and have a boat on the Columbia in Hood River. Sailing can be so peaceful and/or challenging depending on the weather. Always good to be prepared. I hope you have a restful night.
Stipes of life in light gray,, green/blue, dark green, shimmering off-white, a sailboat and long brick blockade; a painterly photograph of balance. Thank you, Peter.
HCR your thoughts put into words this week took the spray of deceit, law and officialdom to imagining "The Great Society' early this morning. What are we dreaming these days?
Two Guns in the Sky for Daniel Harris
by Raymond Antrobus
When Daniel Harris stepped out of his car
the policeman was waiting. Gun raised.
I use the past tense though this is irrelevant
in Daniel’s language, which is sign.
Sign has no future or past; it is a present language.
You are never more present than when a gun
is pointed at you. What language says this
if not sign? But the police officer saw hands
waving in the air, fired and Daniel dropped
his hands, his chest bleeding out onto concrete
metres from his home. I am in Breukelen Coffee House
in New York, reading this news on my phone,
when a black policewoman walks in, two guns
on her hips, my friend next to me reading
the comments section: Black Lives Matter.
Now what could we sign or say out loud
when the last word I learned in ASL was alive?
Alive — both thumbs pointing at your lower abdominal,
index fingers pointing up like two guns in the sky.
Raymond Antrobus is a Hackney-born British Jamaican poet, educator, editor and curator of the Chill Pill event series. His pamphlet, To Sweeten Bitter (2017), is published by Out-Spoken Press and debut collection The Perseverance was the winner of the Ted Hughes Award in 2018. He is a Complete Works III fellow and one of the world’s first recipients of an MA in Spoken Word education
Please get rested and thank you for all that you illuminations of the threads between them and now (kind of like highlighting a spider web at night). Thank you, Peter, for such a restful landscape rendering.
Ah! Boston. Our first grandchild rows the Charles in her single early and late, is in grad school. Was there last week at The Eliot Hotel in 704. Medical visit. Opthalmologist. Dermatologist. DMD. PCP. Endocrinologist. My Graves’ Disease is gone after two years of Methimazole. On their sabbath Saturday 10.5.1908, my dad was born in Brookline. His mother’s first of two. She was not nice. On Friday, October 5, 2018, Nadia Murad won The Nobel Peace Prize. She is nice. She was sleeping at The Charles in Cambridge when I awoke her with the news. She combined with two to do her book while living and cooking Yazidi here in Essex, New York at www.Lewisfamilyfarm.com. Has round the clock. ISIS is not going away. Lots of docs in Boston. And The Red Sox. Dad was a bat boy. GHR was a pitcher, then. They both came to New York. Ruth first. Died 1948. Dad died in 1978 at 69. Temple Emanuel was packed. They refused him at first. Cardinal Spellman offered with a caveat. Tell Ace Greenberg Emanuel is best for NYC’s best. He had not paid his dues: did not care. His telephone operators wept. Gov. Hugh Carey arrived 30 minutes late to read what I gave him. Terrible speaker. He was sent by Herbert Allen Jr. And that’s a story.
My younger Republican brother sent this Atlantic article to me asking for my comments. It had been sent to him and others by an MIT alumnus as recommended reading for his group of colleagues involved in some business/political dialogue. It's a very long but effective article on the influence of social media on our thinking, communication and ability to accomplish anything necessary and productive. I already sent my comments where I explored the how history can be both a tool and a story of like sets of conditions and results that we should learn from. In the Atlantic article, history is used as a tool to explain the point of transformation from social media as useful to becoming destructive. And what those changes were in social media that changed it to destructive.
It's worth looking at our lives together through different lenses. Not necessarily from opposing political lenses. But from the lenses of history, science, language, culture, etc. They seem often to come to similar conclusions which can be helpful in finding reality.
The term "abortion" has captured my attention. It has been used si much as a negative term that its use along creates disagreeable feelings and attitudes. How often is "abortion" used to describe the creation of an awful or poorly produced piece of work, art or other activity? And yet pilots "abort" their landings or others abort their plans realizing there is a change in circumstances or conditions that would make proceeding unsafe or unsuccessful. Many pregnancy terminations are for the health and safety of the mother, and yet few debates adequately address the many reasons for terminations. Many pregnancies, about one million per year I have read are terminated naturally via miscarriages. Most before a woman knows she is pregnant which appears to be menstruation. And others which can come quite late and be tragic for the would be parents. Some pregnancies occur via rape which are already quite traumatic for the female. Some of which involve children as young as 10. In the 1930s, a 5 year old in south America was raped by her father and gave birth via C section to a boy, raised as her brother. Are these situations better than terminations of pregnancy? It seems that starting with a word that stigmatizes, we develop narratives that depart from reality that then prevent us from rational, compassionate and empathetic solutions that would benefit our society. It also prevents us from establishing an array of positive solutions that would reduce unexpected pregnancies and provide best healthcare for each situation without prejudice.
None of our difficult cultural, social, political or economic situations are due to one cause. But causes can reinforce each other to create bad outcomes. So it is helpful to look broadly at how things work in the world to learn why they may not work to our satisfaction.
Ah, a perfect opportunity to share this without changing the subject ... (sleep well, professor - last night's letter was a work of art - you consistently earn a good rest!!)
NOTICE: ABOUT THE SUPREME COURT
WEDNESDAY, 5/25 - 7PM Eastern - JIM HIGHTOWER
$UPREME COUP: Happy Hour at the Chat & Chew Cafe with Hightower, Sen Whitehouse and Imani Gandy
With the recent leak of the abortion decision, the right-wing’s scheme to take over the Supreme Court is playing out--with huge consequences for our lives. This week at the Chat & Chew, we’re joined by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Imani Gandy, Senior Editor of Law and Policy for Rewire News Group and co-host of the podcast Boom! Lawyered, to discuss the dark money fueling the takeover of the courts and what We The People are going to do about it.
SUPREME INJUSTICE: Happy Hour with Hightower at the Lowdown Chat & Chew Cafe with Lisa Graves
For two decades, the GOP’s network of corporate and right-wing operatives has painstakingly fabricated the Supreme Court as its own political weapon. In short order, backed by a few billionaires, these anti-democracy zealots have incrementally been imposing on America an extremist political agenda that they could not win at the ballot box. Join Hightower as he sits down with right-wing dark money expert Lisa Graves to learn how this happened– and what we’ll do about it.
Take Back the Court takes off from the premise, shared by us in Lowdownland, that instead of defending Americans against attacks on their fundamental rights, the right-wing majority on the Supreme Court (expanded in recent years through Trump/McConnell/GOP thievery) “routinely sides with big business and wealthy Republican donors over working families.” Find Take Back the Court’s “Case for Court Expansion” at:
The Alliance for Justice was founded in the wake of the infamous Powell Memo urging corporate titans and the US Chamber of Commerce to “to weaponize the courts to serve business interests.” AFJ is a national association of more than 120 organizations working to secure confirmation of “highly qualified, fair-minded, and diverse federal judges.”
The National Women’s Law Center fights for gender justice, not only in the courts, but also in policy and society broadly, working on issues central to the lives of women and girls–equal pay, child care, abortion rights, and more–and breaking down barriers that harm us all.
May 22, 2022
It is, I think, interesting how a community has grown out of your letters and lectures, and a sizable one at that. Your letters are a grounding of sorts with reminders of our recorded history, and informed commentary on the absurd and sometimes frightening events of the day. There are many people in this community that offer additional valuable context and perspective.
No one expects you to write on the weekend, but you typically do, just to let us know you’re getting some rest, or a well deserved day on a boat, or just had an exhausting day. You often give us photos from Buddy, which are, without exception, beautiful. Tonight’s evocative photo from Peter is fabulous. It is a lovely thing how you care for us, even when you have no time to write. Frankly, I think many of us look forward to the brief posts with some stunning photograph. You give us something to remind us of the beauty that remains, even now.
I was just exchanging texts with a friend and we were both singing your praises. Thank you again, professor, for your daily letters with your insight. Best of luck with the new book.
Please rest well!! And what a stunning picture!!
I love the geometry of this photo!
Take care. You are our “lifeline”.
You are amazing Heather! And thank Peter for a beautiful photo. We sail and have a boat on the Columbia in Hood River. Sailing can be so peaceful and/or challenging depending on the weather. Always good to be prepared. I hope you have a restful night.
Stipes of life in light gray,, green/blue, dark green, shimmering off-white, a sailboat and long brick blockade; a painterly photograph of balance. Thank you, Peter.
HCR your thoughts put into words this week took the spray of deceit, law and officialdom to imagining "The Great Society' early this morning. What are we dreaming these days?
Two Guns in the Sky for Daniel Harris
by Raymond Antrobus
When Daniel Harris stepped out of his car
the policeman was waiting. Gun raised.
I use the past tense though this is irrelevant
in Daniel’s language, which is sign.
Sign has no future or past; it is a present language.
You are never more present than when a gun
is pointed at you. What language says this
if not sign? But the police officer saw hands
waving in the air, fired and Daniel dropped
his hands, his chest bleeding out onto concrete
metres from his home. I am in Breukelen Coffee House
in New York, reading this news on my phone,
when a black policewoman walks in, two guns
on her hips, my friend next to me reading
the comments section: Black Lives Matter.
Now what could we sign or say out loud
when the last word I learned in ASL was alive?
Alive — both thumbs pointing at your lower abdominal,
index fingers pointing up like two guns in the sky.
Raymond Antrobus is a Hackney-born British Jamaican poet, educator, editor and curator of the Chill Pill event series. His pamphlet, To Sweeten Bitter (2017), is published by Out-Spoken Press and debut collection The Perseverance was the winner of the Ted Hughes Award in 2018. He is a Complete Works III fellow and one of the world’s first recipients of an MA in Spoken Word education
Please get rested and thank you for all that you illuminations of the threads between them and now (kind of like highlighting a spider web at night). Thank you, Peter, for such a restful landscape rendering.
Please tell us about your new book.
I was hoping that you would take a night off this weekend to rest and recharge! Thank you for sharing this picture and all that you do…hugs!
Ah! Boston. Our first grandchild rows the Charles in her single early and late, is in grad school. Was there last week at The Eliot Hotel in 704. Medical visit. Opthalmologist. Dermatologist. DMD. PCP. Endocrinologist. My Graves’ Disease is gone after two years of Methimazole. On their sabbath Saturday 10.5.1908, my dad was born in Brookline. His mother’s first of two. She was not nice. On Friday, October 5, 2018, Nadia Murad won The Nobel Peace Prize. She is nice. She was sleeping at The Charles in Cambridge when I awoke her with the news. She combined with two to do her book while living and cooking Yazidi here in Essex, New York at www.Lewisfamilyfarm.com. Has round the clock. ISIS is not going away. Lots of docs in Boston. And The Red Sox. Dad was a bat boy. GHR was a pitcher, then. They both came to New York. Ruth first. Died 1948. Dad died in 1978 at 69. Temple Emanuel was packed. They refused him at first. Cardinal Spellman offered with a caveat. Tell Ace Greenberg Emanuel is best for NYC’s best. He had not paid his dues: did not care. His telephone operators wept. Gov. Hugh Carey arrived 30 minutes late to read what I gave him. Terrible speaker. He was sent by Herbert Allen Jr. And that’s a story.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/05/social-media-democracy-trust-babel/629369/
My younger Republican brother sent this Atlantic article to me asking for my comments. It had been sent to him and others by an MIT alumnus as recommended reading for his group of colleagues involved in some business/political dialogue. It's a very long but effective article on the influence of social media on our thinking, communication and ability to accomplish anything necessary and productive. I already sent my comments where I explored the how history can be both a tool and a story of like sets of conditions and results that we should learn from. In the Atlantic article, history is used as a tool to explain the point of transformation from social media as useful to becoming destructive. And what those changes were in social media that changed it to destructive.
It's worth looking at our lives together through different lenses. Not necessarily from opposing political lenses. But from the lenses of history, science, language, culture, etc. They seem often to come to similar conclusions which can be helpful in finding reality.
The term "abortion" has captured my attention. It has been used si much as a negative term that its use along creates disagreeable feelings and attitudes. How often is "abortion" used to describe the creation of an awful or poorly produced piece of work, art or other activity? And yet pilots "abort" their landings or others abort their plans realizing there is a change in circumstances or conditions that would make proceeding unsafe or unsuccessful. Many pregnancy terminations are for the health and safety of the mother, and yet few debates adequately address the many reasons for terminations. Many pregnancies, about one million per year I have read are terminated naturally via miscarriages. Most before a woman knows she is pregnant which appears to be menstruation. And others which can come quite late and be tragic for the would be parents. Some pregnancies occur via rape which are already quite traumatic for the female. Some of which involve children as young as 10. In the 1930s, a 5 year old in south America was raped by her father and gave birth via C section to a boy, raised as her brother. Are these situations better than terminations of pregnancy? It seems that starting with a word that stigmatizes, we develop narratives that depart from reality that then prevent us from rational, compassionate and empathetic solutions that would benefit our society. It also prevents us from establishing an array of positive solutions that would reduce unexpected pregnancies and provide best healthcare for each situation without prejudice.
None of our difficult cultural, social, political or economic situations are due to one cause. But causes can reinforce each other to create bad outcomes. So it is helpful to look broadly at how things work in the world to learn why they may not work to our satisfaction.
(OMG, she's human! she overdoes things!) You've done what had to be done, now rest and recover. Plato rather than Socrates...
Sweet dreams.
HCR, I hope you get a long rest tonight.
Ah, a perfect opportunity to share this without changing the subject ... (sleep well, professor - last night's letter was a work of art - you consistently earn a good rest!!)
NOTICE: ABOUT THE SUPREME COURT
WEDNESDAY, 5/25 - 7PM Eastern - JIM HIGHTOWER
$UPREME COUP: Happy Hour at the Chat & Chew Cafe with Hightower, Sen Whitehouse and Imani Gandy
With the recent leak of the abortion decision, the right-wing’s scheme to take over the Supreme Court is playing out--with huge consequences for our lives. This week at the Chat & Chew, we’re joined by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Imani Gandy, Senior Editor of Law and Policy for Rewire News Group and co-host of the podcast Boom! Lawyered, to discuss the dark money fueling the takeover of the courts and what We The People are going to do about it.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JLZYLdWP17A&feature=emb_imp_woyt
*******
Also, replay from 4/30/22
SUPREME INJUSTICE: Happy Hour with Hightower at the Lowdown Chat & Chew Cafe with Lisa Graves
For two decades, the GOP’s network of corporate and right-wing operatives has painstakingly fabricated the Supreme Court as its own political weapon. In short order, backed by a few billionaires, these anti-democracy zealots have incrementally been imposing on America an extremist political agenda that they could not win at the ballot box. Join Hightower as he sits down with right-wing dark money expert Lisa Graves to learn how this happened– and what we’ll do about it.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EQywbRBUExs&feature=youtu.be
https://m.facebook.com/100047192621598/videos/2183000535189833
*******
... and, this:
How the right wing captured the Supreme Court
https://hightowerlowdown.org/article/how-the-right-wing-captured-the-supreme-court/
Meet Leonard Leo: The capo behind the Supreme Court coup
https://hightowerlowdown.org/article/meet-leonard-leo-the-capo-behind-the-supreme-court-coup/
*****
https://truenorthresearch.org/2021/01/backgrounder-justice-coney-barretts-ties-to-shell-and-api-are-far-deeper-than-reported-her-father-could-be-deposed-in-climate-change-litigation/
http://fixthecourts.com/
*****
Take Back the Court takes off from the premise, shared by us in Lowdownland, that instead of defending Americans against attacks on their fundamental rights, the right-wing majority on the Supreme Court (expanded in recent years through Trump/McConnell/GOP thievery) “routinely sides with big business and wealthy Republican donors over working families.” Find Take Back the Court’s “Case for Court Expansion” at:
takebackthecourt.today
*****
The Alliance for Justice was founded in the wake of the infamous Powell Memo urging corporate titans and the US Chamber of Commerce to “to weaponize the courts to serve business interests.” AFJ is a national association of more than 120 organizations working to secure confirmation of “highly qualified, fair-minded, and diverse federal judges.”
afj.org
*****
The National Women’s Law Center fights for gender justice, not only in the courts, but also in policy and society broadly, working on issues central to the lives of women and girls–equal pay, child care, abortion rights, and more–and breaking down barriers that harm us all.
nwlc.org