Was Flannery O’Connor Racist?
How Racist Was Flannery O’Connor? appeared in The New Yorker on June 22, 2020. (Note the date) I had long been a fan of Mary Flannery O’Connor, and knew I could not un-read those stories. While researching a book report about a story collection, Everything That Rises Must Converge, I took another look at the cancellation.
The article begins by telling the Flannery story. Soon, a description of a movie, Flannery, yields a false note: “Erik Langkjær, a publishing sales rep O’Connor fell in love with, describes their drives in the country.” According to Flannery: A Life of Flannery O’Connor by Brad Gooch, Mr. Langkjær was far from a boyfriend. It is another piece of the puzzle.
“I was not really in love; I simply enjoyed the company of women during my lonely travels in the South. Although Flannery was both conventional and religious, we eventually became so close that she, while the car was parked, allowed me to kiss her. At that moment, her disease revealed itself in a new way: there was no strength in her lips. I hit her teeth with my kiss, and since then I’ve thought of it as a kiss of death. … When I later read one of Flannery’s short stories, ‘Good Country People,’ I noticed that the main character was a travelling Bible salesman. I didn’t sell bibles, but I used to call my binder with the records of the publishing firm ‘my bible.’ Also, the salesman in the story is named Manley Pointer, which has an obvious erotic connotation.”
Right after this paragraph, there is a break. “FEATURED VIDEO Protests of George Floyd’s Killing Transform Into a Global Movement” The article soon gets down with cancellation.
“Everything That Rises Must Converge was published in “Best American Short Stories” … O’Connor declared that it was all she had to say on “That Issue.” It wasn’t. In May, 1964, she wrote to her friend Maryat Lee, a playwright who … was ardent for civil rights.”
“About the Negroes, the kind I don’t like is the philosophizing prophesying pontificating kind, the James Baldwin kind. Very ignorant but never silent. Baldwin can tell us what it feels like to be a Negro in Harlem but he tries to tell us everything else too. M. L. King I dont think is the ages great saint but he’s at least doing what he can do & has to do. Don’t know anything about Ossie Davis except that you like him but you probably like them all. My question is usually would this person be endurable if white. If Baldwin were white nobody would stand him a minute. I prefer Cassius Clay. “If a tiger move into the room with you,” says Cassius, “and you leave, that dont mean you hate the tiger. Just means you know you and him can’t make out. Too much talk about hate.” Cassius is too good for the Moslems.” (James Baldwin probably agreed with MFO about “the Moslems.”)
“That passage, published in “The Habit of Being,” echoed a remark in a 1959 letter, also to Maryat Lee, who had suggested that Baldwin … could pay O’Connor a visit while on a subsequent reporting trip. O’Connor demurred: “No I can’t see James Baldwin in Georgia. It would cause the greatest trouble and disturbance and disunion. In New York it would be nice to meet him; here it would not. I observe the traditions of the society I feed on—it’s only fair. Might as well expect a mule to fly as me to see James Baldwin in Georgia. I have read one of his stories and it was a good one.” …
“After revising “Revelation” in early 1964, O’Connor wrote several letters to Maryat Lee. Many scholars maintain that their letters (often signed with nicknames) are a comic performance, with Lee playing the over-the-top liberal and O’Connor the dug-in gradualist, but O’Connor’s most significant remarks on race in her letters to Lee are plainly sincere. … May 3, 1964: “You know, I’m an integrationist by principle & a segregationist by taste anyway. I don’t like negroes. They all give me a pain and the more of them I see, the less and less I like them. Particularly the new kind.” Two weeks after that, she told Lee of her aversion to the “philosophizing prophesying pontificating kind.” Ravaged by lupus, she wrote Lee a note to say that she was checking in to the hospital, signing it “Mrs. Turpin.” She died at home ten weeks later.”
“Fordham University hosted a symposium on O’Connor and race, supported with a grant from the author’s estate.” (The panel discussion included Karin Coonrod.) “The organizer, Angela Alaimo O’Donnell” … (who wrote) “Radical Ambivalence: Race in Flannery O’Connor.” … takes up Flannery and That Issue. Proposing that O’Connor’s work is “race-haunted,” she applies techniques from whiteness studies and critical race theory …” In other words, The Flannery O’Connor Trust gave money to Fordham University, so they could examine MFO, using “techniques from whiteness studies and critical race theory.” There is something deeply rotten about this.
Perhaps this cancellation business is what MFO foresaw in a 1963 letter to Betty Hester. MFO mentions her disdain for Eudora Welty’s “Where is the Voice Coming From?” … “What I hate most is its being in the New Yorker and all of the stupid Yankee liberals smacking their lips over typical life in the dear old dirty Southland.”
Eudora Welty is not the only author MFO did not like. MFO wrote to Maryat Lee on 31 May 60. “I hope you don’t have friends who recommend Ayn Rand to you. The fiction of Ayn Rand is as low as you can get re fiction. I hope you picked it up off the floor of the subway and threw it in the nearest garbage pail. She makes Mickey Spillane look like Dostoyevsky.”
“On July 28, 1964, Flannery wrote her last letter. This note to Maryat Lee, written in a “shaky, nearly illegible hand” … is in response to an anonymous crank call Lee received and reveals O’Connor’s deep concern for her friend’s well being: “Cowards can be just as vicious as those who declare themselves – more so. Dont take any romantic attitude toward that call. Be properly scared and go on doing what you have to do, but take the necessary precautions. And call the police. That might be a lead for them. Dont know when I’ll send those stories. I’ve felt too bad to type them. Cheers, Tarfunk” MFO died August 3, 1964 at Baldwin County Hospital.
We don’t know what MFO read by James Baldwin. It might include a 1962 piece in The New Yorker, Letter from a Region in My Mind. Included in those 22,147 words is this gem: “But white Americans do not believe in death, and this is why the darkness of my skin so intimidates them.” This might be a good time to remember the words of Alice Walker: “Take what you can use and let the rest rot.”
Ms. Walker is included in Flannery. “Alice Walker tells of living “across the way” from the farmhouse during her teens, not knowing that a writer lived there: “It was one of my brothers who took milk from her place to the creamery in town. When we drove into Milledgeville, the cows that we saw on the hillside going into town would have been the cows of the O’Connors.” Ms. Walker, who was well aware of MFO’s racial attitudes, adds “She also cast spells and worked magic with the written word. The magic, the wit, and the mystery of Flannery O’Connor I know I will always love.”
A lot of what is said here is taking MFO seriously, in spite of her racial attitudes. This is where I differ with The New Yorker. I am a cracker who likes to enjoy stories, not take them seriously. As a Georgia native, I am well aware of the many “shades of gray” produced by a black and white society. Racism is not a yes/no binary. MFO wrote great stories, in spite of, or maybe because of, her racial attitudes. To paraphrase Alice Walker, take what you need, and let whiteness studies and critical race theory rot.
Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Russell Lee took the featured photograph in February 1940. “Pomp Hall, Negro tenant farmer. Creek County, Oklahoma.”
C.S. Lewis
There was a facebook link to a feature, Ayn Rand Rants Against CS Lewis. It turns out to be verbatim droppings from Ayn Rand’s Marginalia : Her Critical Comments on the Writings of over Twenty Authors. If you are interested in details, there are the links. 55% of the comments were one-star.
Miss Rand has read more C.S. Lewis than I. There was a copy of a CSL work at a yard sale once, which I invested a quarter in. I read as far as the appearance of a pig named trufflehunter. Maybe it was a bad day for books, but I put CSL down, never to make another attempt.
There was a sixth grade english teacher at Ashford Park named Mrs. Ruff. Lots of people talked about how sweet she was, but I was not impressed. One day, between handing out mimeographed copies of poems to be memorized, Mrs. Ruff started to talk about Narnia. It was a fantastic and amazing story. With a hint of primness, she told the class that Narnia was really about Jesus.
This is a repost, with pictures from The Library of Congress. Jack Delano took the featured photograph in June 1941.“Mr. John Gentry, an old resident of Greene County, Georgia.”
Common Sense Quote
This is a repost from 2022. … 0312 – We’re going to conduct a facebook experiment. I posted a video from Dr. John Campbell. He discussed some reputed side effects of the Pfizer vaccine. Soon, Facebook sent me an admonition. “… The post includes information that independent fact-checkers said was partly false. …” The suspicion here is that Facebook has a problem with Dr. Campbell.
On to today’s experiment. I’m listening to another video from Dr. Campbell. He admits that he made some errors in his interpretation of the Pfizer data. He goes on to say “you can’t put solid footsteps into fresh air you need solid ground.” This is just a common sense quote. My plan for today is to make a video segment of the CSQ, and post it on Facebook. Lets see if the fact-checkers have a problem with it. As of March 19, Facebook has been silent.
0314 – I was through with Blocked and Reported, and making great progress on my picture. It was time to go out. I had two destinations. One was the gym. The other was the library. I had a book, The Santa Suit, to return. Think — inside the work — outside the work.
TSS is not a great book. Perhaps that was what was needed. With the book I am starting, quotables lie on every page. The desire to go in depth may prove irresistible. However, I read to have fun. Sometimes a trifle like TSS is what I need. Just read a story, without provoking great thought. The fact that TSS is easy to read indicates that the author worked like hell. Easy writing makes tough reading.
0318 – I’ve stumbled onto this podcast series about the shooting of Martin Luther King, The MLK Tapes. The shooting was quickly blamed on James Earl Ray. He was supposed to be a racist/white supremacist, and most people believed he was guilty. It turns out that there were serious problems with the government’s case. The podcast series is downright fascinating. It’s not something I’ve really thought about a whole lot. I just accepted the conventional wisdom, and went on with my life.
In episode 3, the case was going to trial. Mr. Ray’s lawyers were confident of an acquital. The government was not going to have that. For some reason, Mr. Ray fired his first lawyer. A gentleman named Percy Foreman took over. Soon Mr. Ray entered a guilty plea.
In the show, people talk about how worthless Percy Foreman was. I was curious if Mr. Foreman was still alive, so I googled him. A legal document turned up. JB Stoner was lawyer number three. Mr. Stoner was an extreme racist, even by Georgia standards. He ran for Governor in 1970, and made a spectacle of himself. At one point, Mr. Stoner sued a TV station, to allow an ad with the n-word.
There are many stories that could be told about JB Stoner. The candidates were speaking at the Governor’s Honors program. Mr. Stoner was going through his routine, when three students starting walking up the aisle. A young black man, with a blonde on each arm, walked up the aisle to the front of the hall. The man who won the Governor’s race, Jimmy Carter, was laughing so hard that tears came out of his eyes. … Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Russell Lee took the featured photograph in May 1938. “Making a purchase at cooperative store. La Forge project, Missouri”
Thursday Already
@AmishPornStar1 “Ironic that those who are most upset about athletes “dishonoring our flag” are the same ones who still like to honor this one…” · @chamblee54 “do you have any examples? who are these people you are talking about? maybe this is just another instance of facebook recreational hypocrisy” · @PhoenixRemnant “You’re trying to argue a widely displayed and discussed behavior, that ANYONE from the areas it is common in has first hand experience with, doesn’t occur because you don’t think there’s evidence for it. This isn’t a debate club, fuck off with your sealioning attempts.” The spell check suggestion for sealioning is seasoning. · @chamblee54 “twitter/facebook are full of “casual observations” about hypocrisy, media representation, and poor judicial decisions it is a cheap way to make a point, even if you are not sure what the point is if you can’t say anything good about anybody, you can talk about the media.”
Putting these examples of commodity wisdom into a recreational blog post can lead to brain damage. Facebook is a mine field of people trying to make sense of a hostile world. A lot of things are not fair. The media does not cover events in a way that pleases everyone. Some crimes are more severely punished than others. With the advent of photo challenging software on everyone’s telephone, the urge to be clever can be overwhelming. The problem comes when people feel the need to share this intellectual compost with the digital world.
Hypocrisy is a prime target for opprobrium. This is always the cheapest argument to be made. The occasional validity does not negate the annoyance of every mememonger, with an iphone, railing against the hypocrisy of whatever fingers their fee fees. The best line about hypocrisy stands unblemished. A man said to a preacher, I don’t like to go to church because too many hypocrites go there. The preacher said, yes, and we always have room for one more.
Before this post goes past the attention span threshold, we have one more exchange about America’s favorite insult. This was on facebook, and the thread was deleted. · Luther Mckinnon Calling someone racist is not about them. It is about you. · Cheryl Cheavers nope. If I call an abuser an abuser, is that about me? No. Racists and racism exists. It’s exhausting and frustrating when people who’ve never experienced racism tell us how to think and feel about it and try to flip the blame back to us. You think we can’t be trusted to reliably relate our experiences. · Luther Mckinnon what about prejudice? you never hear people name calling about prejudice, only “racism” Is prejudice and bigotry acceptable? · Marsha Warfield Prejudice is not racism. Don’t conflate terms to make a moot point. · Marsha Warfield and please try to make your points without whitesplaining racism or mansplaining to the little women. · Luther Mckinnon a moo point what do cows have to do with this?
Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Jack Delano took the featured photograph in April 1941. “Singing “Trying To Make a Hundred, Ninety Nine and a Half Won’t Do” during the collection at a Negro church service in Heard County, Georgia.”This is a repost from 2019.
Bowels Of Walmart
The latest episode of Blocked and Reported is a return to form. Jesse and Katie are fun to listen to again, although that can change at a moment’s notice. There is a story about a nine year old boy in Vermont inventing a statistic about paper straw use. It was repeated endlessly, without anybody ever asking if it was true. Supposedly, every american uses 1.5 plastic straws a day, although nobody knows what happens to the other half of the second straw. What few thought to say, at least here, was that this was a straw boy argument.
I am the lurking in the bowels of Walmart. That putrescent high Temple of fevered consumerism, where the unwashed masses pay tribute to the mammon of whatever product the boats from China can drag in. And who do I see in the cake mixes, with her cartoon image on the front of a box of Duncan Hines, but Dolly Parton. Who’d a thunk it? Those clever guys know what they’re doing. Dolly is a trusted name brand, with a whole lot more sex appeal than the Pillsbury Doughboy. I suppose you shouldn’t be surprised at anything you see these days.
A cherished part of Little 5 Poetry Bash is stopping for junk food on the way home. First Burger King on North Druid Hills, then Taco Bell on Buford Hiway. It is a treat, and only once a month. The first one to fall was the Taco Bell, which is now closed permanently. The TB on North Druid Hills is a drive through only nightmare, which leaves BK. Tonight, after a night of poetry and a coffee refill … sleep is overrated … it meant braving the pot-hole infested menace of Briarcliff/North Highland, only to find that the time-honored BK has closed.
One of the poets at L5PB posted some pictures. One was me, in my Big Chicken sweater vest, wishing I had not put that haircut off. I was reading my most recent product, a sonnet about passive agressive cliches in today’s discourse. The thing that most offends me is the overblown rhetoric that “both sides” are using to promote their cause. The poem was printed on the back of a list of Piedmont medical facilities, and a few sentences promoting MyChart, the well meaning Piedmont online portal. One cause of high medical costs is the redundant paperwork your provider supplies.
L5P is an alternate reality, especially when you live in McMansion City and only venture into town on the first Monday night every month. When I got to Euclid Avenue, there was a man, walking down the sidewalk with a blanket wrapped around him, shouting Godknowswhat to himself. I get into Java Lords, get my coffee … another thing I don’t do every day, but you have to patronize the establishment. It was a great night, even when Han Vance looked me in the eye while shouting “you’re my wife.” Does Rosser wear the outfit, or does the outfit wear Rosser?
“either you are on the bus or you are not on the bus … that was a catchphrase of the merry pranksters in the electric kool aid acid test” That is a good quote for Mardi Gras. I was in New Orleans for the carnival in 1990, which is the only time I have been there. Tuesday started with mushrooms and a “special” cake, and walking over to where a neighborhood parade was starting. I was thoroughly overwhelmed by the whole experience, sort of enjoying it but feeling an intense sensory overload, and totally feeling like I did not fit it. … Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Arthur Rothstein took the photograph in July 1938. “A veteran steelworker, Aliquippa, Pennsylvania” · selah
Life And The Horror Of David F. Wallace
I have been going for walks lately. Usually it is a half hour, up and down the path. I decided to stretch things out a bit this afternoon, and go to the library. This may have been pushing things too far. The mapmywalk app says I went 3.06 miles. My feet held up pretty well, but my right knee is none too happy. I am going to keep an ice pack on it for a while, rub some icy hot on it, and hope for the best. It is a good thing that the last part of the walk …
The listening component has been this 160 minute talkathon about David Foster Wallace, written by Derek Swansson. DS talks about himself as much as about DFW, although with far happier results. The file was something I plucked out of archive-dot-org, and it was one of these videos with one picture for the entire visuals. The seminal video was 4.3 gigs, and it was a pain-in-the-ass to play. I had to download a media player, and follow arcane instructions, to save it as a 138mg audio file. This is now fairly easy to play, and I listened to it on the phone.
During my morning walk, I decided to go inside, take off my coat, take a piss, and continue with my walk. While this was going on, DS was talking about the decadence of Bret Easton Ellis, who was notoriously unkind about DFW. BEE was talking about totally depraved behavior in New York and California, which is not a bit surprising. DS came to the conclusion that BEE was a bigger prick than DFW… a notorious hetero sex/drug addict. Taking a piss break on a walk urinate pales on the decadence scale next to the pre-rehab antics of Infinite Jest or …
When I write about other people, I like to use initials. Using the surname alone doesn’t sound right, and titles like mister, mrs, or, god forbid, ms, are too much work. Unfortunately, a middle name is not readily available for DS. I did ask Google what his middle name was … or his first name, or his real name … and I was referred to Chad Derek Swanson, on the Missouri State Highway Patrol Sex Offender Registry. In 2016, when CDS was 29 years old, he got in trouble with an 8 year old Female. The incident took place in Shawnee, OK.
David Foster Wallace And The Horror Of Life is the title of the show. The file was published September 18, 2017. The date is important. DFWATHOL appeared 7 years ago, and a lot has happened since then. But you knew that. It is around this time that the ME-TOO phenomenon got started, and one wonders if DFW would have been caught in that trap. The sexual proclivities of DFW had somehow escaped me until I heard this show, and I must say that it increases my opinion of him. Especially if he could perform while dosing on prescription anti-depression remedies.
DFWATHOL talks about gnosticism, and the archons. Gnostics had a different view of the world, which was highly inconvenient to conventional religions, especially after the concept of yahweh uber alles took root. … “ we arrive on Earth with two souls: an immortal soul that seeks union with our divine spirit, or True Self; and a mortal soul that identifies with the False Self and its attachments to the material world. The Gnostics further elaborated that the True God had given us our rational, immortal soul … “while the Demiurge (a.k.a Yahweh) was responsible for our sensuous, irrational, mortal soul …” · The spell check for Archon: Arson, Anchor
“there’s a hostile, jealous god known to the Gnostics as the demiurge, who created this calamitously fucked up world and now rules it, maliciously, with the help of inter-dimensional mind parasites, known as archons who stoke our pain and mental anguish so they can energetically consume it …” The transformation of “YHWH: The Kenite God of Metallurgy” into THE LORD is one of the greatest feats of marketing the world has ever known. The good ship DFWATHOL does not travel up that tributary, and if it had, it would have been a lot longer than it’s already debilitating 25k words.
I listened to the last twenty minutes or so while driving to dinner. I go to cici’s buffet in Peachtree Corners, even though it is terrible for me, and probably an outpost of corrosive Archon flavored capitalism. Whatever. I always go down Peachtree Industrial Boulevard past the shopping center, to the gas station where gas is always cheaper than in my neighborhood. Tonight, when I arrived, there was a lady talking about how straws are skinnier now than they used to be. I can’t say I ever noticed. This is the strangest pickup line I have heard in a while. … Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Arthur Rothstein took the featured photograph in June 1942. “Queens NY Nursery school at the Queensbridge housing project. Drinking milk”
Pasaquan
I decided to go to Pasaquan a few hours before the event. I had been before, in 1995, give or take a year. This was a few years after the death of Eddie Owens Martin, aka St. EOM. Pasaquan was in disrepair. The guide that day spoke of a pine woods wonderland, created with concrete and Sherwin Williams paint fueled by marijuana and madness.
The plan was to meet at the site at 1pm. I did not know how many people would be there, and had only a GPS guess how to get there. After a gas station stop on I-185, the GPS device was plugged in. OD, the travel companion, got a phone out, and fired up a complimentary GPS. This worked well, until the older GPS said to take a left, and then a right. After a mile, the road was closed. I turned around, and went back on the two lane. A little while later, the GPS said to turn left on Eddie Martin Road. You have reached your destination.
A festive group was on hand for the tour. The two guides told a bit of the Pasaquan/St. EOM story.
The compound has been gloriously renovated, with the assistance of the Kohler Foundation, and Columbus State University. (Here is a video, St. EOM’s Vision for Pasaquan’s Future ) This video talks about some of the challenges of renovation. While St. EOM was a visionary and an artist, he was not a builder. Many of the structures were falling down, and had to be carefully stabilized. Only then could the four acres of paint be brushed on. Many decisions had to be made … how to follow the vision of St. EOM, and exactly what is this vision?
Here are a few videos shot at pre-renovation Pasaquan: A, B, C, D. Eddie used whatever paint was on sale at the oops section, and it often did not work well on concrete. As for Sherwin-Williams, the 1995 guide was part of an effort to get the paint company to help sponsor the renovation.
There are many, many stories about St. EOM. He made his living telling fortunes, (St. EOM, Pasaquan, and Fortune-Telling) as well as selling drugs, and running a gambling house. He learned a few things as his days as a New York hustler. There were stories about keeping rattlesnakes in the bamboo, which he could call by whistling. There is also the legend of the Pasaquonians, who received messages from the cosmos through their cone head hair. This paragraph might not be an accurate account of these stories.
Eventually, it was time to get lunch. I wound up at a combination grocery store/Mexican restaurant in Buena Vista. Afterwards, I missed the place to turn onto I-185, and found myself in Alabama. The GPS was reemployed, and after a few tense moments, we were back in Georgia. We survived the trip on Georgia interstates, and made it home.
Dog Walking On Highway 400
This is a repost from 2022. r/antiwork is “still in business”. Doreen Ford is no longer a mod. … I avoid going to Roswell, because it usually means getting on the dreaded Highway 400. Because of the reconstruction chaos at 285, I decided to get on the highway at Abernathy.
The soundtrack was the “punch and judy” podcast, blocked and reported. Today’s story was a subreddit called Auntie work r/antiwork. The mod, Doreen Ford, was interviewed by Fox news, with disastrous results. The mod is a dog-walker by trade, who someday wants to be a philosophy professor. Ms. Ford is a non-passing trans woman.
I get on 400 at Abernathy Road. There is a construction festival going on. You go through the intersection, and drive onto this two mile long driveway. One lane, one way, no other cars. I was convinced I was about to come to a dead end.
Meanwhile, the B&R story has gone from comedy to psycho-farce. The mod has offended people, who returned the favor. “Years before /r/antiwork rose to prominence, Doreen Ford, facing accusations of serial rape from a prior sexual partner, confessed to inebriated sex that the partner later stated was non-consensual. Soon after, Ford confessed to masturbating while lying next to “a person with whom [she] had an ongoing sexual relationship and living arrangement,” against the individual’s will, placing their hand over her boxers nonconsensually while in bed, and shutting off alarms the individual had set to avoid falling asleep together.”
The cis/trans nature of the players was not specified. “placing their hand over her boxers nonconsensually.” Were the pronouns they/their, or was the author just playing it safe? This was all very disorienting to absorb while driving down a two mile long driveway, on a freeway in progress. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Russell Lee took the featured photograph in May 1938. “Sharecropper family in old home before moving to La Forge project, Missouri”
Little Bird Poems
What follows is a telephone dictation of notes from the February little 5 poetry bash. … Down at the Java Lord’s emporium, waiting at 7:20 on the 9th of the first Monday of this February. I’m here for the Java bash. This is going to be a hell of an editing job once I get started with it.
Well it’s a little bit closer to closing time, or opening time. People are sitting around talking, and there’s all sorts of conversation going on, and a couple people that I know, but everybody seems to be busy talking to everybody else, and that’s fine. They’ve got this pole here, it’s a column, it’s about about five inches square and it’s covered with stickers. Someone was standing behind it, acting like he was going to be gesturing with it. I thought of using that as a dancer’s pole. That’s not not going to happen. None of these people need to be pole dancing. I would probably break something if I tried.
I’m one of the least dressed up people here. I’m wearing my boots, and some clunky old jeans and a white dockers shirt. I’m wearing a t-shirt but I can’t remember what it says I’ll have to look at it but Rosser’s setting up the show. I’m supposed to be opening this thing. I can’t imagine what I owe this honor to. This guy, Dennis, who’s a very entertaining person, he’s going to be the feature.
Rosser’s wearing a fleece vest, a day glow green long sleeve shirt, some flowered pants and some silver Lame’ sneakers. He’s the MC tonight, and he’s going around he’s negotiating with people about who’s going to be performing when and I’m just I’m just here, just here taking up space, not really knowing what I’m doing, but that’s how that’s how you know little 5 poetry bash works.
There’s this Aroma that I always seem to notice when I come to L5P. I was walking past this one of the theaters … they are having a concert, and there’s all these hipster type looking people competing with the security for attention. And there is this L5P odor … a combination of cigarettes and old barroom smell and Old Hippie smell and something else but I can’t really describe it that well I probably wouldn’t want to. You wouldn’t want to wear it as a cologne but this is peculiar to L5P and I smell that it smell every time I come down here.
The show was great. Dennis brought a couple of his pals, and they were all good. Of course it was live, so even bad poets are fun to listen to in person. Something called little bird poems kept coming up, which may necessitate further inquiry. … I googled little bird poems, and did not see any of the groovy violence I heard tonight. This one is typical: “Once I saw a little bird, Coming hop, hop, hop. So I cried out, “Little bird, Will you stop, stop, stop?” I was going to the window To say, “How are you?” But he shook his little tail, And away he flew.” … “TO THE TEACHER Read the poem aloud. Make the children repeat it along with you.”
Finally came the ride home, and the search for junk food. Since the taco bell on buford hiway is closed, the one on North Druid Hills will have to do. Unfortunately, this means an interminable wait at the drive through, and food that is cold when I finally arrives. … Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Russell Lee took the featured photgraph in June 1940. “Group at the literary society. Pie Town, New Mexico”
New Law About Voting
This is a repost from 2022. The Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act failed to pass after a Senate fillibuster. … Democrats have proposed a new law about voting access. Grandpa Brandon thinks denouncing “voter suppression” is the way to build support. Unfortunately, the debate has centered around toxic, race-pandering rhetoric. Almost nobody says what the proposed new law would do. A bit of googling turned up a document from Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law. If you get tired of the chamblee54 version, you can go to the original source. Pictures are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library.”
Most of the proposals are the federal government telling states how to run elections. The IANAL masses wonder if this is constitutional. Another feature of this bill is that the instructions are given to the states. In Georgia, the elections are mostly run by the counties. This did not stop Democrats, or Donald J. Trump, from blaming the Secretary of State for inconvenient election results.
Lets take a look at some of the specific proposals. With regards to early voting, the bill requires the states to offer early voting for a specified time period. No-excuse absentee ballots are subject to a national standard, along with other regulations concerning mail-in voting.
Election Day holiday: “The bill would make Election Day a legal public holiday…” This sounds good in theory, but may be troublesome to many employers. One thing that might help here is to move ED to Monday. Voting on Tuesday is a holdover from days when farmers went to the county seat on a horse. Voting on Monday would make things a bit simpler.
“Voter validation: The bill would promote a national standard for states that have an identification requirement for in-person voting, allowing for the use of a wide range of forms of identification (including electronic copies) and alternative options for voter validation. States that do not impose an identification requirement would not be required to have one.” Voter ID is widely denounced as being racist. If this passage is any indication, Voter ID is here to stay. (In the controversy over Georgia’s SB202, the ID requirement was widely seen as a feature of Jim Crow on steroids. It turns out that SB202 calls for the voter writing their driver’s license/ID number on an absentee ballot application.)
“Cracking down on deceptive and intimidating practices: … It would also establish federal criminal penalties for deceiving voters…” If it was a federal crime to deceive voters, every politician in America would be in prison.
“Voting rights restoration: The bill restores federal voting rights to formerly incarcerated citizens upon their release … removing the vestiges of restrictions born out of Jim Crow.” Kentucky had a law disenfranchising felons in 1792. This was a hundred years before the Jim Crow laws were passed. There are arguments to be made on both sides of this issue. It should not be addressed with misleading racial arguments.
“Countering long lines and related discriminatory practices: The bill creates protections for individuals subjected to excessive lines on Election Day — most often Black and Latino voters — by requiring states to ensure that lines last no longer than 30 minutes …” This is more gratuitous race baiting. While the idea of lines less than 30 minutes is appealing, one wonders exactly how the feds are going to enforce this requirement. Also, since the elections are usually administered by the counties, what are the states supposed to do?
“Requiring paper records and other election infrastructure improvements: The bill requires states to replace old, paperless electronic voting machines with voting systems that provide voter-verified paper records and provides grants for states to purchase more secure voting systems.” Georgia is going to a system with a backup paper ballot. When you cast your vote, a laser printer prints out a sheet of paper with your vote, represented by a QR code. This paper is then fed through a roller into a receptacle. To this uninformed voter, that seems like a lot of moving parts. While the new system MIGHT work in a high volume election, there is a high potential for screw ups. These are Georgia elections we are talking about here.
There are sections of the bill devoted to Campaign Finance Reform, and Gerrymandering. You can look at the Brennan Center document for more information. While the new bill has good intentions, the suspicion here is that the proposals will make things worse. God is in the details.
“The bill would require strong, uniform rules for congressional redistricting, including a ban on partisan gerrymandering and strengthened protections for communities of color.” Gerrymandering is like the weather … everyone has opinions, but relatively few know what they are talking about. If you create a black district, then the districts surrounding it are going to get whiter. If you tinker with the districts to favor one group, another group is going to be unfairly affected. The bill has good intentions, that might not be well thought out. God is in the details.
“Automatic voter registration: The bill would make automatic voter registration (AVR), which 19 states and the District of Columbia have already adopted, the national standard.” In Georgia, when you get a drivers license, you are automatically registered to vote. This eliminates any of the “exact match” issues that Democrats made so much noise about in 2018. The DMV is an exact match operation. Also, paperwork at the DMV is typed. Illegible paper applications were a major reason that registration applications were thrown out in previous elections. Illegible applications were also a problem with the New Georgia Project, a voting registration program directed by Stacey Abrams.
“Same day voter registration: The bill requires states to offer same day voter registration … SDR permits eligible voters to register to vote and cast a ballot in federal elections on the same day.” The sense here is that this is not a good idea. What happens when you move, and want to vote in another precinct? Will your old registration be cancelled? How do the states/counties keep up with all this? Is there a national database, that tells Georgia to cancel your Atlanta registration because you have moved to Alabama? And how are we going to process all of this while people are waiting in line behind you to vote? Once again, SDR might be a good idea, but there are a lot of details to work out.
“Protections against unlawful voter purges: The bill provides safeguards to prevent unlawful, faulty, error-prone methods for purging voter rolls … Further, states would be required to notify within 48 hours any individual removed from the list of eligible voters of their removal, the reasons for their removal, and how they can contest the removal.” In 2018, before voters were removed from the rolls, they were sent a post-card, and asked to reply. If they did not reply, they were removed. Now, if the state could not get in touch with them before, how are they going to reach these voters now? The feds do not always think these things through.
My Head Rent Free
Get the facebook link. This is the first rule of writing about/deconstructing a meme. If you don’t get the link now, you will never find it later. Today’s toxic meme is “15 Sentences That Live In My Head Rent Free” by @jayyanginspires.
15S is a copied page, with the title and numbers draped in yellow magic marker. The text on the other side of the page bleeds inscrutably through. 15S is what you might call commodity wisdom. These are thoughts that sound good, until you think about them. A few might hold water, and none are out and out nonsense. Mostly, they are just thoughts … none of which will make your cold go away.
These helpful suggestions are courtesy of @Jayyanginspires “writing words, lifting weights, & building an internet business. | prev head of content to @noahkagan.” At least he doesn’t list his pronouns. Jay does provide a link to a website, “The Spark A quick dose of inspiration in your inbox, every Sunday.” When Lover of Books posted the meme, they included a link to Audible. The daisy chain of product promotion never stops.
“14. You can’t have a new reality with an old mentality.” This sentence is a good one to ponder. Authoritarian sophistry IS the old mentality. The rhetoric-based argument culture that gave us Donald J. Trump, the Gaza Genocide, and so much more. Manipulative use of language for competitive motivation. The challenge today is to know the difference between true wisdom, and clever sounding bullshit.
Pointing out hypocrisy is so boring. One response is to create art of this text, aka make lemonade out of lemons. I chose to create a haiku reduction. Highlight the parts that I want to keep, and turn the rest into digital rubble. As Alice Walker might say, “Take what you can use and let the rest rot.”
The phrase “God is in the details” applies here, much to chagrin of Yahweh worshipers. There are several steps to the process. If you make a mistake in one you will regret it later. Sometimes, you need to enlarge the image 1600%, and take out one pixel at a time. Just remember sentence nine.
9. “You can do anything, but not everything—focus.” The em-dash is so tacky. The secret is to not be distracted by —, or the uberclever phrasing. Just focus on the message. Focus is essential to getting anything done. This can be tough on a computer, with the digital circus a click away.
Getting back to the reduction, I need seventeen beats out of fifteen sentences. One way is to take one out of all fifteen, and find two more. Or I can just leave some of the sentences blank. There is a message in there if you look for it.
expensive advice · anxiety ill focus · understand mental Is advice expensive for the giver, or the taker? The motivation monger would say that advice is only expensive if you do not take it. Or if it causes anxiety, an ill focus of your precious life. Especially when you are careful to understand mental, while ignoring the danger of oversitting physical.
Pictures today are from Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library The images were taken July 30, 1966. The featured photograph: “Jimmy Carter with family members in their Plains, Georgia home during Carter’s first campaign for governor.” The kids probably belong to Billy Carter. Billy returned to Plains after serving in the Marine Corps as a private from 1955 to 1959. He married Sybil Spires, also of Plains, in 1955 and became the father of six children: Kim, Jana Kae, William “Buddy,” Marle, Mandy, and Earl.
Drinking From A Firehose
This is a repost from January 2020. Many of the youtube links no longer work. Sam Harris continues to get mixed up in controversy. … “You’re drinking from a firehose of bullshit.” Someone is talking. They are full of confidence. The speech gets faster, and faster. They have lots of data points that support their point of view. You suspect there is something wrong with what they are saying. The logic just follows too quickly. If you stop to think about point one, you will miss points two through eleven. It is persuasion, by intellectual bullying.
Sometimes, a good phrase used to support a not-so-good cause. The FOB quote is from Sam Harris. He was on the Joe Rogan Experience, talking with Abby Martin. (The opening clip is from this compilation.) Mr. Harris says the Iraqi casualties, after Operation Iraqi Freedom, were around 200,000. Ms. Martin says the casualties are closer to 2,000,000. Either figure is too high. Mr. Harris displays a certain heartlessness in his argument.
JRE #1419 – Daryl Davis washed up on the digital shore yesterday. Mr. Davis is a black man, who somehow befriended KKK members, and showed them the error of their ways. Here is an npr segment, How One Man Convinced 200 Ku Klux Klan Members To Give Up Their Robes.
Yesterday’s appearance came at an synchronistic time for Mr. Rogan. Last week, Bernie Sanders tweeted a clip from Mr. Rogan, along with a comment. “I think I’ll probably vote for Bernie…” Joe Rogan There was a reaction. @CNN “Bernie Sanders is facing a backlash from some Democrats after his campaign trumpeted an endorsement from comedian Joe Rogan, a popular podcast and YouTube talk show host with a history of making racist, homophobic and transphobic comments”
As Rogan listeners know, Joe is all over the place. The Sanders quote is from JRE #1415 – Bari Weiss. During that show, Ms. Weiss unleashed an FOB in support of Israel. This contrasts with Abby Martin, and other JRE guests, who severely criticize Israel.
The Davis show was an FOB. There were history lectures, that leave discerning heads shaking. (The term white supremacist was first used in 1896.) The firehose kept gushing, until there was one comment that could be easily checked out. “President Warren G. Harding was sworn into the ku klux klan in the green room of the White House”
Warren Gamaliel Harding is known, with some justification, as one of our worst Presidents. “One aspect of the Harding administration that is not well known is his attitude about race. In the years after World War I, America was engulfed in race hatred. The Ku Klux Klan had a revival. “In a speech on October 26, 1921, given in segregated Birmingham, Alabama Harding advocated civil rights for African Americans; the first President to openly advocate black political, educational, and economic equality during the 20th century.” Mr. Harding supported an anti lynching bill, which a Democratic filibuster kept from passing.” (This 2012 quote is based on a wikipedia article, that has been edited.)
“Not only was Harding’s alleged membership in the KKK never mentioned in the contemporary records of anybody who knew him, his public opposition to anti-Catholic agitation and his vehement support for anti-lynching laws, make him seem like an unlikely recruit. In fact, the only evidence that Harding was a Klansman comes from the deathbed confession of a former Grand Wizard, who may have made the whole thing up to get even with Harding for the late President’s anti-racist public stance.” Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.
Chamblee54 
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