Black is beautiful when it is a slum kid studying to enter college, when it is a man learning new skills for a new job, or a slum mother battling to give her kids a chance for a better life. But white is beautiful, too, when it helps change society to make our system work for black people also. White is ugly when it oppresses blacks—and so is black ugly when black people exploit other blacks. No race has a monopoly on vice or virtue, and the worth of an individual is not related to the color of his skin. |  W. Young |
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MY BOOK WORLD Moyers, Bill. Moyers on America: A Journalist and His Time. Edited by Julie Leininger Pycior. New York: New Press, 2004.
I wish I’d read this book twenty years ago when it first came out. The author’s prescient views might have informed my future a bit. We may think that there is a lot wrong with our country now, but Moyers has us take a look at it in 1892. The People’s Party “meet in the midst of a nation brought to the verge of moral, political and material ruin . . . . Corruption dominates the ballot box, the [state] legislatures and the Congress and touches even the bench . . . . The newspapers are largely subsidized or muzzled, public opinion silenced . . . . The fruits of toil of millions are boldly stolen to build up colossal fortunes for a few” (7). Seems as if we’re reading about certain groups today. The only difference is that because of social media, “public opinion” is far from being silenced. People can say whatever they want without a shred of evidence, making “truth” even more elusive than ever. Tom Johnson, mayor of Cleveland in the early 1900s asserts about public ownership of local transportation: “‘If you don’t own them, they will own you.’ It’s why advocates of clean elections today argue that if anybody’s going to buy Congress, it should be the people. When advised that businessman [sic] got their way in Washington because they had lobbies and consumers had none, Tom Johnson responded: ‘If Congress were true to the principles of democracy it would be the people’s lobby.’ What a radical contrast to the House of Representatives today!” (14). Yes, if today every Democrat contributed only $5 a month as “dues” to the DNC, what the party couldn’t accomplish on their behalf! Fall down on the job, and you can withhold your $5! Consider this jewel: “Money has robbed the middle class and the working poor of representation—and as they become weaker politically, they are even more insecure in their jobs, their savings, and their future” (61). What money? you ask. Money from corporate special interests, deep-pocketed lobbyists, that’s what. Or this one: In 2004 “fewer than half” of our population votes in presidential elections, and about a third “vote in our congressional elections—compared to 80 percent a century ago” (62). Still, only 66% turned out to vote for president in 2020, and 45% turned out in 2022 for mid-terms. Why would citizens now care less than those of a hundred years ago? Why be complacent? Moyers ends the book with an essay on aging, which seems more pertinent than ever to Boomers, because we now make up the larger part of that demographic. His suggestion: Avoid disease and disability, maintain mental and physical function, and continue to engage with life. Amen. Up Next: TUES: A Writer's Wit | Ann Brashares WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Whitney M. Young THURS: A Writer's Wit | Herman Melville FRI: My Book World | Mary Robison, Why Did I Ever: A Novel
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MY BOOK WORLD Freudenberger, Nell. The Limits. New York: Knopf, 2024.
This novel of some scope develops several strands. Nathalie, a French biologist working in the South Pacific, sends her daughter off to New York City to live with her father and stepmother. The teen Pia does not like anyone, it seems: her mother, her father, and most assuredly her pregnant stepmother, a high school English teacher named Kate. All of whom do flip-flops to communicate with her. The only person she seems to connect with is a girl named Athyna (pronounced like the Greek figure, go figure)—a student of Kate’s with whom she has a nurturing relationship. To complicate things Pia is “in love with” Raffi, a thirty-year-old Tahitian who serves as Nathalie’s fixer. Of course, it is more of an inappropriate crush, and her affections have not been returned in kind. Still, she believes something is there. The narrative profiles the physical limits of the natural world but also explores the limits of human relationships. I enjoyed the author’s first book, Lucky Girls, much more. Up Next: TUES: A Writer's Wit | Coventry Patmore WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Junichiro Tanizaki THURS: A Writer's Wit | Robyn Carr FRI: My Book World | Bill Moyers, Moyers on America: A Journalist and His Times
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MY BOOK WORLD Kenney, Charles. With an introduction by Michael Beschloss. John F. Kennedy: The Presidential Portfolio. History as Told through the Collection of the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum. New York: PublicAffairs, 2000. [Includes CD with speeches, dictated letters, and phone calls recorded by JFK.]
This book, no matter how much one may have read about John F. Kennedy, provides details that might be surprising—with regard to his upbringing and family line. Both of his parents are Irish immigrants who then become millionaires in the United States. There are details of his education, his military career, and his time in politics. Many pages feature original documents that JFK himself writes, speeches and the like. The CD is comprised of a series of dictations Kennedy is making to his secretary by way of a Dictaphone, as well as commentary by historian, Michael Beschloss. A chapter near the end summarizes the day in 1963 that he is assassinated. JFK’s wife, Jackie, cries out: “He’s dead—they’ve killed him—Oh Jack, oh Jack, I love you” (223). I was fifteen when this momentous day in history took place, but I never recall hearing of this intimacy uttered in her last minutes with her husband as they are about to roll him away. The book is full of these small surprises, and I can see myself returning to its pages to review them, lest I forget, lest I forget. Up Next: TUES: A Writer's Wit | Tony Kushner WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Phyllis Diller THURS: A Writer's Wit | Nelson Mandela FRI: My Book World | Nell Freudenberger, The Limits
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MY BOOK WORLD Dahlstrom, S. J. Wilder and Sunny. Philadelphia: Paul Dry, 2015.
Dahlstrom writes so nicely for children. He doesn’t talk down to them. In fact, he strives to expand their vocabularies, I believe. In this simple adventure in which a friend of the family, a man of seventy-two, takes twelve-year-old Wilder and his female friend Sunny on a fishing trip. The author goes into great detail about trout fishing in Colorado, incorporating words like tippet, hopper-dropper, bead head, and two-fly rig. You either get meaning by context or author explanation or looking them up. Either way you learn. The climax of the book may be when, during this camping trip, the three campers are confronted by a mother bear and two cubs. It is a realistic and dynamic depiction, rather graphic at times, but it does give Wilder and Sunny a chance to grow up in certain ways before Sunny’s father locates them and saves them from further adventures. Wilder and Sunny form a bond that may last well into the future. Only time will tell. Up Next: TUES: A Writer's Wit | Dorothy Thompson WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Alice Munro THURS: A Writer's Wit | Frederick Beuchner FRI: My Book World | Charles Kenney, John F. Kennedy: The Presidential Portfolio. History as Told through the Collection of the JFK Library
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AUTHOR
Richard Jespers is a writer living in Lubbock, Texas, USA. BLOG
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