Yes, But... Rattlebone

 Yes, I know he's been indicted. I know there may be 30 charges in the indictment. Maybe he'll be arraigned on Tuesday. The media is going crazy with information about Turnip Man and totally forgetting there was another school shooting, fascism is spreading across the red states, and treasonous legislators not only still walk around free spouting their poison, they're still seated in the Congress wasting taxpayer money and doing nothing to help our country.

So I'm numb to the news about HIM. I want to see more accountability for instigating and/or assisting in the violent coup attempt on January 6th.  Dan Rather said it best anyway.

I did, however, just finish a really good book.

The display table as I walked into our library got me again! I cannot go by it without my eye falling upon a book that pulls me toward it. This time it was Rattlebone by Maxine Clair.  I hadn’t heard of the author, but the unusual title attracted me and I had to pick it up. The review on the back promised plot twists and new interesting characters.  I looked at the inside jacket and learned that Rattlebone is a real place. I had to check it out and read it.

 

There are different featured characters in this series of vignettes but one shows up most of the time: Irene Wilson, just beginning adolescence at the beginning. By the end, she is a senior in high school. In between, she does a lot of growing up with a lot of events in her young life.

 

I learned that Rattlebone is or was a Black community within Kansas City. The story begins in the early 1950s, before Brown Vs. Board of Education, so Irene attends a segregated school.  She has a troubled home life because her parents don’t get along. Still, she has a close friend or two throughout her teen years. She also keeps a secret journal. In that way, she reminds me of myself. I used my journals to pour out my heart with secrets I couldn’t share with others.

 

There is humor; there is drama; there is tragedy and trauma. I wouldn’t say that it would keep you on the edge of your seat with suspense, but it is a page-turner. I couldn’t put the book down. I would recommend it to anyone, especially those who enjoy historical fiction. I can’t believe I’m labeling this as historical fiction, lol, because the story mostly takes place just a few years before I was born.

 

 

What Can I Say?

There has been yet another school shooting.  There have been so many, it seems that one blends in to the other. I can’t keep them all straight. All I know is that too many children, teachers, aides, administrators, and others have died because apparently, this country values its guns over the lives of children and adults. I am so sad and so angry that I can’t focus my thoughts well. I can’t say it any better than Robert Reich, Heather Cox Richardson, or anyone else. I feel absolutely zero optimism that anything will be done about these deadly weapons, despite words from President & Dr. Biden and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of NY. The National Rifle Association is deep into the back pockets of legislators. Nothing will change until THEIR children are killed in a mass shooting.

I read that Elon Musk of Twitter and other social platforms (like Facebook?) are going to institute or are considering instituting paid memberships. Right now, I’m thinking, go ahead. Start charging. It’s probably time I get off social media completely and find another way to stay in touch with my family and friends. I dread the news: the mass shootings, the latest fascist acts being perpetrated in FL, TX, and other red states, and the latest poisonous spouting of the man who should’ve been in jail by now.

Yesterday was the anniversary of Japan’s gift of cherry trees to the United States. This was in 1912, and the trees were planted around the Basin near Jefferson’s Memorial. I have seen the trees in blossom only twice in all the years I lived in the DC area. The first time, I was about 12 and during spring break, we drove to Washington to see the sights. The cherry trees took my breath away. I had a Polaroid camera but at that time, the pictures were only in black and white. I wished I had a color film camera to capture the beautiful blooms.

The second time was about 30 years later, in 1996. I was working as an interpreter for the Deaf and had become very familiar with the Metro transit system to get around town. My first husband, Rich, and I took the kids to DC during their spring break. We drove to the subway station and parked there. Using the Metro, we could transfer from train to train and get all around town. One of the first places we wanted to see was the cherry trees. 

They weren’t at their peak yet, but they were still pretty. I had a camera with me—one of those Instamatics so that I didn’t have to load the film.  I took lots of pictures on that trip but was only able to find one of the cherry trees.  We spent most of our day visiting the Smithsonian museums.

 

                                           That's my son in the Cub Scout cap

Today is another anniversary: the nuclear accident at Three Mile Island in western Pennsylvania.  It led to a partial meltdown that released toxic gas into the air on March 28, 1979.

By unhappy coincidence, I’d just seen The China Syndrome, a movie starring Jack Lemmon, Jane Fonda, and Mike Douglas. The movie was pretty darn scary and drastic. What would happen in a total meltdown? Well, everything melts into a toxic kind of lava that releases all kinds of radioactive stuff into the atmosphere.

Now, something like The China Syndrome was happening just hours away from where I lived! For three nail-biting days, my friends and I wondered if the hydrogen bubble found inside would explode and release contaminants into the air. Before this accident and the movie, people thought nuclear power plants were a great idea to save energy. During those three days and afterward, no one seemed to support the idea anymore.  For years, no other nuclear power plants were built. That changed about 10 years ago. There is one in Tennessee now.

Before the week was over, we learned that the bubble wouldn’t cause an explosion and we wouldn’t get radiation poisoning.  Although people around TMI were exposed to some radioactive material in the air, the levels were very low. There were no deaths or injuries. As far as I know, there haven’t been clusters of cancer or other radiation-exposure illnesses.

Ending on a happier note, I submitted a flash memoir to a Writers Advice contest. I just heard back from them, and they requested a bio and an illustration for the story. I have no idea how I placed in it and won’t know anything until it’s announced.  I feel very happy and positive about it.

Courage Under Fire

 I really meant to read a less stressful book after the last one.  In fact, on a friend’s recommendation, I requested Homer’s Odyssey. Going to the library just to pick up one book is challenging for me. As I walk in, there are displays of books everywhere. I found four more I wanted and one of them was Courage Under Fire by Steven A. Sund.

 

What happened on January 6, 2021, is forever etched in my mind, just as are other traumatic dates. It was my husband’s birthday, and we were enjoying watching TV when suddenly the show was interrupted by coverage of the insurrection at the Capitol building. We watched with growing horror all afternoon and into the evening, wondering WHERE was the National Guard and why didn’t they show up until after the traitors departed? Last August, I read Representative Jamie Raskin’s book Unthinkable and experienced what it was like for the legislators, staff, and family members inside who were protected and safely evacuated by Capitol police.

 

Steven A. Sund was the Capitol Police chief that day. I wanted to read his book because I still had so many questions about what happened that day and wanted the viewpoint of the man in charge.  One of the first things I learned is how complicated security is within the Capitol. I would have thought that Sund would be in control of implementing all the plans and would have the authority to call in all the help he needed. But, no. In order to request the National Guard, he would have to get permission from the two sergeants at arms (one for the House, one for the Senate). And THEY have to go talk to their people (Speaker, Senate Majority Leader).

 

Based on reports Sund was getting from Intel across all the federal police sources, there was only a “remote” chance of violence because all six protest groups were supposed to stay in place. However, when they began advancing on the Capitol and becoming increasingly menacing and violent as they began fighting with the Capitol police guarding the outside perimeters, Sund called the sergeants at arms. The House Sergeant didn’t like “the optics” of having soldiers at the Capitol, but he’d go ask Speaker Pelosi and get back to Sund. The Senate Sergeant suggested that Sund call the Guard and see what they might have available.

 

The protest turned into a full scale coup attempt. No one got back to Sund about calling in the National Guard, and so he began calling other agencies with a police force: Supreme Court, FBI, Secret Service, and nearby police forces from Virginia and Maryland. Even New Jersey sent troopers to help at the Capitol, which was rapidly overrun by the insurrectionists.  Sund was in a near panic, watching his police force being attacked with all kinds of weapons and noxious sprays.

 

At about the time Capitol police within the building began escorting legislators, staff and family members to safety, Sund finally got permission to call in the National Guard. But they didn’t come. There were some units within sight of the Capitol, directing traffic, but they were not permitted to deploy to help the struggling officers.

 

Why? And this was my biggest question: why wasn’t the National Guard deployed earlier?

 

Sund explained how the Army was giving him the runaround about deploying soldiers to the Capitol even though the general Sund spoke to could see how dangerous the insurrectionists had become.  Sund does give a reason why the response was so horribly delayed, and it’ll raise the goosebumps in you as it did to me.  You’ll have to read the book to find out why and other hairy details unknown at the time to us viewers.

 

This is the scariest part: there was a massive intel communication failure before January 6^th. Over two years have gone by and not much has changed. Analysts and other intel agents haven’t been replaced; the procedures haven’t been changed. Steven Sund and the two sergeants at arms were both forced to resign before being fired. They were the sacrificial lambs and the world went on.

 

It could happen again. Without any changes, it will.

 

Right Side Up/Upside Down

 

I’m so tired of the Upside Down. Anyone who’s watched the series “Stranger Things” will understand what I mean immediately. For those that haven’t, the Upside Down is a parallel world, similar to our own but is dark and evil. In the last few years, I feel I’ve been traveling back and forth between Right Side Up World and the Upside Down.

                                       Upside Down
 

When I’m in the Right Side Up World, I’m spending precious family time with my hubby, my adult children, my grandson in NJ, and my granchildren and great grandchildren whenever they're visiting. All is well and we’re surrounded with love. In the Right Side Up World, I’m walking on a trail in the park and surrounded by nature. In the Right Side Up World, I’m writing or reading a book. In the Right Side Up World, I’m a tutor, working with elementary aged children to boost their language and reading skills. Right Side Up World is a happy place.

                                         Right Side Up World

The Upside Down is intrusive. It’s physically and emotionally draining. In the Upside Down, 45 is calling for another insurrection because he is afraid of being arrested. He should be ignored and ridiculed for that, but this is the Upside Down: he has what used to be the GOP under his thumb. He also holds the leashes of some very violent supporters who want nothing more than civil war. Truly, I am so sick and tired of this foul, evil creature. I think it's entirely possibly he’s the real Anti-Christ.

The Upside Down is filled with the power hungry and cruel minions of demon 45. They’re busy infiltrating state and local governments and have been for some time. And why? So that they can bring about laws to restrict voting rights, restricting women’s rights to choose their health care, and restricting children’s rights to a decent education. South Carolina would like to set the death penalty for any woman that gets an abortion. Florida and other red-led states have been happily banning books that have anything to do with different races, cultures, religions or sexualities.

The list of banned books is daunting. But 45’s foaming at the mouth fanatics in the House have proposed The Parents Bill of Rights Act (H.R. 5). I belong to the NEA, and this morning I got an email from them. It read, in part: “The bill would undermine local control, a bedrock principle of U.S. public education. It would also facilitate censorship and book bans, with the federal government cast as a national school board that dictates what students can learn and read.” I suppose they are trying to take control away from local districts because not all across the country are in lock-step with this act of fascism. No, the party wanting smaller government control wants to involve MORE government control in education.

I wrote to Representative Andy Kim. It wasn’t necessary because I know he wouldn’t support this noxious bill. But people need to write, especially when they have a red representative. These people need to hear from us that this is NOT okay. They probably don’t care to listen to their voters and haven’t been anyway.

In the Upside Down, there is no justice unless you’re in the 98% and especially no justice if you’re not white. Traitors and participants in the January 6^th insurrection not only are walking around free, many are serving in Congress right now.

I don’t like this world at all. I’m sick of it. I would like to withdraw and hide but that isn’t the right thing to do. The right thing to do is to keep fighting it.

Spending time in the Right Side Up World helps recharge my batteries so I’m off to do that now.