Oh, the irony

In WWII, the U.S. government mined uranium in the Navajo lands of western New Mexico and eastern Arizona. They left behind mountains of radioactive waste that has poisoned the land and the people ever since. After we blasted Hiroshima and Nagasaki flat and left them teeming cauldrons of radioactivity the demand for uranium changed. Time passed. Now two companies – one of them from Japan – want to start mining uranium in the same area. The . . .

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Note: For a history of what uranium has done to the native peoples of New Mexico and Arizona, see the book Yellow Dirt.

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Just Like a Woman

What if there were more people in power who acted just like women? Would health care and education finally get adequate funding? Would wars be avoided? Would national infrastructure be repaired and updated? Would there be an end to government meddling in women’s reproductive choices? Would harmful chemicals be kept out of food and off playgrounds? Would rapists be punished rather than the victims of rape? Would . . .

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Like a Rolling Stone

Ideas gather momentum, like stones rolling down hill. They can be pebbles, they can be boulders, they can ripple, they can crash. Sometimes change comes slowly, justice comes slowly. I’ve been reading “Affirmative Acts” by June Jordan. The book is over 20 years old, the pages yellow with age or with incendiary thought. Many things have not changed, justice still fails many. But . . .

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American Lit

It’s fascinating to talk to my grandchildren about what they are reading in their high school American lit class. They are still learning about Holden Caulfield and Big Brother and Piggy. These are the same characters I read about 50 years ago in high school. Makes me wonder what new material has been added to the curriculum since then. Is there anything new?

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Extrovert

Like male is the default gender and white is the default race, extrovert is the default personality type. Chatty, friendly, quick on the feet.  Like many default choices, the extrovert is not always the best choice in every situation, even though the extrovert may be the one leading the charge.

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Good Morning

A cheerful good morning is so much easier to dredge up after a cup of coffee. I don’t see how people can wake up chipper and full of smiles and greetings before their coffee. Fuzzy headed and grumpy is my philosophy in the first 15 minutes of the day. Then I get a cup of joe down and everything looks more colorful.

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Introvert

Are you an introvert? Most writers are, I think. Who else could sit alone in a room typing for days on end? I say thank goodness for introverts. There are more good qualities among introverts than just the ability to be alone without going nuts. For example, . . .

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Toy Stores

I never saw the FAO Schwarz flagship store in New York City until I was an adult. So I wasn’t as impressed by the splendor of the place as I might have been at a younger age. Like everything else in New York City, the toy store had been featured in so many movies that I felt as if I’d already been there when I walked through the glittering front door. But then,  . . .

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Hope

So much hope and joy is involved in becoming a new parent. As time passes, parents hold on to that hope and love to get through the realities of watching children grow up and become independent. Eventually, you have to let go of your hopes as a parent and embrace the hopes of the your children so that they can be who they want to be rather than who you want them to be.

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Hot Coffee

Coffee is hot this week. It’s been all over the news on NPR’s Morning Edition, where they talked about everything from how it’s grown to what effect it has on your social life. The newspaper reports that coffee is good for you brain, and a science journal talks about how coffee is good for your heart. My advice is to go have a cup of coffee. Go.

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