Too
Much News! Northern California is in flames. Las Vegas is grieving.
Puerto Rico is starving. Houston is struggling. And Hollywood is the
heart of a deadly scandal.
The
scariest thing is having Trump in the White House. He is not a steady
hand. He does not have the voice of assurance. He does not give the
impression of calm strength. He is doing an awful job of it.
But
the kids see their own terrors. They don't watch the network news. They
don't read newspapers. They seem to be uninformed. But I'm wrong to say
that. It's more like they know differently and the world looks
different to them. They don't see the same dangers. They don't seek the
same solutions.
Kids
meaning people under 40. They have apps. Apps are OK. I don't use any
myself, but they don't scare me. I did use Lyft the other day -- it was
easy.
I
want to thank Harvey Weinstein for making life difficult for all the
men in America. You can't tell a joke these days. It's like going
through security at the airport and making a bomb joke -- you can't do
that. So, thanks to Harvey, any statement about your relations with the
women in your life must be made with complete sobriety. No jokes,
especially no smirks. Premature apologies might be rejected. Saying
nothing might work, unless they notice you're saying nothing. .....
Thanks, Harvey, you really screwed things up for the rest of us.
No Proof Reader. Jim Bertolino, creative writer, esteemed poet, frog pond watcher, and good friend, said I need a proofreader. Well, I sure do.
I
write this newsletter. I read it over at least three times, and then I
send it out. Some errors always escape detection because, as everybody
knows, you cannot proof your own work.
The
solution is for me to get my column connected to a larger organization.
Send it in to the Acme News and Weather Report, 750 words every week,
for payment of $85, and they can proof it. You get almost zero errors
that way. But there is no Acme News and Weather Report and there is no
$85, there is only me.
Pam
Smith used to proof my copy at the Wilson County News and she was
bulletproof, having served as an English teacher for many years before
coming to work at this newspaper.
That was more than ten years ago. Since that time I have been stuck on my own, broke, lonely, and poorly spelled.
(journalistically lonely -- I have a fabulous girl friend)
Some day it will get better.
I called Stuart Welch, formerly of Rexville. Stuart
ran the Rexville Store outside of LaConner for more than 15 years.
Seven days a a week, 12 hours a day, he rarely took any time off, except
for golf.
I
called him from Santa Barbara because Stuart is an expert on
everything. The words "I don't know" are simply not in his vocabulary. I
asked him who will win the NLCS, either the Cubs or the Dodgers. Then I
asked him if it was a good deal to order Milgard windows from Home
Depot and have the Home Depot crew install them. The windows are for
Laurie's home in Santa Barbara -- six windows and two sliding doors. The
existing aluminum frame windows are more than forty years old and
single pane.
Stuart
did not answer when I phoned this afternoon. I left a voicemail with
the two questions and said I would call back in the morning.
#Me Too and the Republican Rebuttal
#MeToo
is flooding my feed on Facebook. A cascade, a deluge. I read them with
fascination and sympathy -- highly credible statements of harassment and
assault, hundreds of them.
But
what I noticed was that none of these statements came from Republican
women. They have not jumped on the bandwagon. They don't seem to agree
with the thrust of this movement that was sparked by the dismal record
of Harvey Weinstein's very bad behavior.
These
Republican women might have a different take on the problem and they
might say something like the following -- "This kind of disgusting
behavior is a problem in California. The Hollywood crowd has always been
depraved and corrupt. But here in Missouri our men respect us. And we
respect them. You can't trust these Hollywood people. they do not
project the honest moral qualities that make America a good country.
What Harvey Weinstein did is typical of how people behave in the movie
business, but it doesn't happen here in Missouri."
#MeToo and the NRA
The NRA rebuttal to #MeToo is easy to imagine. It goes like this:
"Are
you scared? Are you vulnerable? The smart thing to do, the way to
become truly empowered, is to put a handgun in your handbag. Put a
pistol in your purse, because when you're packing heat, men will respect
you, or else."
#Me Too and the White Nationalists
This is a sad and ugly thing -- white nationalists have inserted themselves into the dialog and here is what they have to say:
"Everybody
knows the Jews run Hollywood, so you can expect beasts like Harvey
Weinstein to do their evil deeds. He is typical of that crowd. But we
respect our women and protect their honor."
The
reactions depicted here, from the Republican women, from the NRA and
from White Nationalists groups will be deployed in the coming days.
It will be quite a battle. Be prepared to rebuke these rebuttals.
Thank you,
Fred
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