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Martha et al -

Found this and thought you all would appreciate and maybe have some fun with it!

The Gender Genie

Have Fun....

I had no cosmic plan in mind when I read Chris Hedges' American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America right after George Orwell's 1984, but they sure have lots in common. OMG! I'm finding links between everything. But it's okay. I'm not making note cards explaining the connections and covering the walls of my room with them. Until that happens, I'm safe. I'm in no danger of waking up to find myself a prisoner in a movie directed by little Opie Cunningham.

Seriously, though, I wasn't even thinking about parallels until in American Fascists I read the following: "Dominionists* and their wealthy right-wing sponsors speak in words and phrases that are familiar and comforting to most Americans, but they no longer use words to mean what they meant in the past. They engage in a slow process of 'logocide,' the killing of words." (page 14) I snapped to attention. Newspeak is upon us, and it's being brought to us by the Christian right as they gain political power.

And the rest of American Fascists (AF) continues to be just as scary. It analyzes the use of fear evangelicals employ as they bring people into the fold, and I was taken back to a teenage experience. One summer two of my friends attended a camp called Word of Life in upstate New York. They had a great time and the next year I wanted to go with them. My parents, apparently leery of religious cults long before the phrase entered our language, opposed the idea, but I won out. For two weeks I experienced the fear AF discusses. Now I joke and say that in that two-week span I was saved at least thirty times and dedicated my life to the lord probably fourteen. It's funny sixty years later, but I was one terrified kid. I'm troubled that the technique is still in use. And I also wonder how it works for so many. In all those times I was saved, the born-again grace never lasted. I'd hear the next night's sermon and know I wasn't any different. If I'd been a sinner the night before, I hadn't changed; I was still a sinner. I wondered then—and I wonder now—how people could accept the comfort of being born again so easily.

Anyway, back to AF. At one point fundamentalism is defined as "the religion of those at once seduced and betrayed by the promise that we human beings can comprehend and control our world." (page 81) Sounds to me like the thinking behind the war on terror. The Republicans are gonna keep us safe. Yeah. Right.

Most scary of all is that AF makes some points that convince me the Christian right is winning. And creationism is now a science. Stephen King couldn't create a scarier world.

AF frequently devotes pages to individual preachers in the christian right. Rod Parsley is one of them, and the worst aspect about him comes near the end of his section. "He has, in the past, urged followers to burn their household bills and give the money to him to be free of debt." (page 163) And his followers believe they are listening to a man of god. Does anyone still think?

Bottom line? It's a frightening book, even more so as we anticipate a second terrorist attack and know how our administration, backed by the christian right, will use it to create more fear that in turn will mean, to many, that it's now necessary to curtail even more rights. Is there any way to stop it?

*I couldn't find "dominionists" in a dictionary. From context, my understanding is that it means those who strive for dominion.

Now I'llgo check OpAl's link.

I entered the first 300+ words of a novel I'm trying to sell. Seems that by their figuring,I'm male.

The author of the AF review above is also male.

I'm starting to have identity issues.

To Whom God Speaks was also written by a male. At least it's consistent.

Summer's End, the play that's going to have a Florida reading, is also by a male.

It's fun, but I think I'll stop now.

Martha,

I've sent this, your latest review, to my brother-in-law who I think does make little note cards and connect them with string.

The "being saved/surrender" event is powerful, even if it is a mind illusion. Trying to be in control of everything, everybody, everywhere is damn tiring. That is the reason it is so comforting to have someone/thing to which to surrender. Christ? The Republican Party?

I watched the wife of Alan Jackson as she appeared on tv today to promote her book, IT'S ALL BECAUSE OF HIM. She points to that point of surrender in her life that changed her outlook. In the book A MAN CALLED PETER, Catherine Marshall mentions a time of acceptance of her TB. Prior to that acceptance she had fought against the disease's ravages. Only in these books, she surrendered and got well. (If she hadn't gotten well, now we wouldn't have the book, now would we?)

God Bless those who are not so inclinded to surrender. They are the ones that keep us from following any Pied Piper.

Respectfully Submitted,

Kathy Albers

(When are we going to have another movie date? I'm getting cobwebs on my cobwebs rotting away here on this hill.)

As soon as I accept the fact that I'm male.

Male or Mail?

Male--according to Opionated Alien's link.

Disappointed only begins to describe my reaction to Darryl Wimberley's The King of Colored Town. I liked the premise: It's 1963, and in a small town in Florida the city officials have closed the separate-but-equal school for black kids. The next fall the students will be forced to attend the white school. Such subjects interest me, so I began the book ready to be entertained. And I was. I did, however, encounter two problems.

1) The following occurred to me only this morning. While the book was a page-turner and the story held my interest, I find myself asking a question. Wouldn't a book that contains rape, lesbianism, castration, other forms of mutilation, homicide, inadvertent incest, and a prisoner's eyes being gouged out with a spoon be considered a tad over-the-top? My answer is yes.. Now I notice the author is credited with being a novelist and screen writer. With the latter in mind, I hear this book screaming, "Turn me into a movie! Oh, please, turn me into a movie!" Watch for upcoming attractions and consider yourself warned.

2) This second problem is the case-closer for me, the reason why I will probably never read anything else by Wimberley. The female protagonist, the narrator, turns out to be a musical genius and winds up in the marching band in the newly integrated school. The following describes her musical growth: "I was studying piano and French horn side by side, graduating in the latter instrument from 'Oklahoma' to 'Singing in the Rain' to 'The Impossible Dream.'" (page 101) Oops. "The Impossible Dream?" 1963? I don't think so. A quick trip to google.com. Yep. The Man of La Mancha opened in New York in 1965. All right. Call me picky, but Mr. Wimberley failed the test. I'm not that smart about many things and musical theatre is far from a strong point, but I find it appalling that such an error made it past the writer, the editors and the publisher—particularly when at the book's end Wimberley thanks several people, starting with those in the Department of Music at Florida State University. Once again and finally: Oops!

I take it this was a novel and not a "documentary."

I grew up in the "separate but equal" south. I know it is hard to understand and I admit a may try a tad too hard to say that my parents were "segregationists" and not "racists." I think they truly believed we had separate but equal blah, blah....

I had my awakening at a very young age because damn I could see "there weren't no equal in the s.b.e. cocktail.

The African American School that I was bussed past every day to the "white" school was a Rosenwald School . I would love to dig into the history of that particular school. I would also like to see their graduating class of the same year as our "white" one. I would like to meet these that would have been my classmates. I would like to talk to them.

I asked the mother of my foster child who grew up black in Silicauga Al what she thought about my seeking those from the Rosenwald School, and she said she didn't think it was a good idea.

In fact here direct quote was, "Why do you think they would want to talk to YOU, Kathy?" That was a hard time for her and her opinion was to let it alone.

Lexington, SC did try to keep up the facade. The Rosenwald School was newer than the elementary school where the little white children went. It was a community center. And they did get the new band uniforms for the high school and the white school did not.

It was a facade. Integration went very smoothly when it happened in Lexington. Heck, the people had been working side-by-side, eating at each other's tables. (We didn't have cooks and maids when we all worked in the fields and mills.) I have no idea how race relations are now so many years later.

I'm sorry this is not a book to be recommended. I like the study of that era.

If you're interested in the subject, read it. Like I said, I enjoyed reading it. It's only in retrospect that the over-the-top bothered me. While reading it, I never thought, "OMG! Not yet another disaster."

And the author's error in factual information does make me wonder what else he got "wrong," but the book is readable. Feel free to borrow and even pass on, if you wish.