Fiction, because reality can be such a bummer

I haven't been blogging here as much, but I've been blogging a lot on my writing blog. Because... I published my first book, The Smartest Girl in the Room. Woo hoo! Actually, I published it about a month ago, and I've already done two promotions through the KDP Select program. So far, so good. And because everything is about moving forward, the second manuscript is with my editor. And as of yesterday I have an idea for the fifth book that has me more excited than I've been in a long time. Let's just say I'm going to run with "Write What You Know". Nothing like a little shock and disgust to get my creative neurons firing. But don't worry- my story will have a happy ending. Because that is why I like fiction- to make the world a better place, even if only temporarily.

In other news- or is it?- Massachusetts has a special election coming up for Senator. I am... disgusted. I have no love for Gomez, and I assure you he won't get my vote, but I can't get past Markey's pandering on the Tsarnaev burial. As much as I consider myself a jaded Bostonian, I also sat through my husband and sister's induction into the Massachusetts Bar. You know what came up both times? The story of how John Adams defended the British soldiers who were accused in the Boston Massacre. Adams took a great risk taking on that case, but he did it because it was the right thing to do. It was brave, not pandering. God, I miss the 18th century, which is a step above missing The Eighties. And please let me know why I didn't hear a stink made about Adam Lanza, the young man who killed twenty school children before he killed himself, when they went to bury his body. (Is it because no one was running in an election? Or is it because no one could scream "Muslim!"?)

By the way Cambridge, get over yourselves and don't ever go on about your superiority in anything. Because you're cowardly and not anywhere close to the place I imagined I grew up in. You're no better than Creon of Thebes, and even Theseus of Athens, the most questionable hero in Greek mythology, now has something on you.

Boston knows a little something about violence... our test is what we do after

In other news, you know how the US news media keeps pushing out that 70,000 have been killed in Syria over the last two years? Because I've been watching that story as long as I have, I've been suspicious because that figure hasn't moved in months, and I see nothing to indicate that the fighting in the country would lead to a lower rate of death than there has been for months. This morning I stumbled upon this story in the JPost. Frankly, 120,000 sounds much closer to reality, but even the 82,000 is higher than what's been reported. As horrible as 70,000 is, let's not shrug over 12,000 more.

Another thing that has me speaking at the top of my voice: the Justice Department's secret acquisition of phone records from or related to the Associated Press. Um, what? I am horrified, and "but Bush did it too" is not a satisfying explanation, to say the least. As I told someone yesterday, I hope the AP wipes the floor with the Justice Department, and yes that's a horrible thing to have to say.

Alrighty then...

Deb in the City

A terrible thing that should not be lingered over

I haven't been blogging here for a little while because I've been doing more on my writing blog and a few other people's blogs. I should tell you about that, but not today. Next week.

Almost 200 spectators at the Boston Marathon were injured on Monday. Three of them were killed. Many more- people who were there, people who were watching- were frightened. And who can blame them? And by them I mean us.

A number of national news outlets failed us. I hope John King is remembered for the rest of his career for citing an anonymous source on Wednesday who claimed that they had video of a "dark-skinned male" from the nearby Lord and Taylor's. Horribly, the AP and the Boston Globe ran with the same story, and it was picked up by my social networks. (A friend sent me a tweet to give me the news that an arrest was imminent.) It was so bad that the FBI sent out a scathing message, admonishing the media to check their sources before they ran with anything.

On Thursday they released video to the public, and I thought the quality was so awful I didn't bother passing it around. (No worries, plenty of other people did.) There were two men, and I'm not sure "dark-skinned" was an appropriate term. When I was falling asleep on Thursday night my oldest came in to tell me that there were gunshots at MIT.

When I woke up on Friday several cities and towns surrounding Boston as well as the Allston and Brighton sections of Boston were under a Shelter In Place order. The MBTA was also shutdown. Overnight, the suspects had been identified and located, an MIT officer had been killed, a transit police officer was injured and one of the suspects was killed. The hunt for the second suspect began, and we were glued to our screens.

In the evening, they told us we could leave our homes. I took my sons outside- they had been bouncing off the walls- and when I came back in 25 minutes later a section of Watertown was locked down again. My social networks exploded. He's in a boat. He's covered in blood. Shots fired. He must be dead. No he's alive. No he's dead. No he's alive. Because that kind of inane speculation is helpful when people are already on edge, right?

Finally, less than 24 hours after shots were fired at MIT, they caught the man. Man... barely a man. He's a 19 year old kid from Cambridge who is an ethnic Chechen, but at this point I'm not sure where he lived before he came here when he was a little boy. Despite the people insisting this was terrorism, as of this moment I have no idea of his motive.

There were impromptu parades in the streets- BostonStrong is the phrase intended to capture our spirit- while we were hearing that the suspect wasn't read his Miranda rights under a public safety exception. Some are postulating that he was set up and smell conspiracy because of the amount of force that came to bear upon one older teenager. I don't know, but I doubt it. We'd never done anything like this, in part because we'd never lived through anything like this.

I am of two minds.

First, I am so touched by all of the people who checked up on me and my family just because I live in Boston. I was nowhere near the Marathon, and I am nowhere near Watertown or Cambridge. Friends, family, people I've never met in person but know only through social media reached out. Incredible kindness.

But I am also disgusted. There were people who could not wait to jump on this and mock Boston for being a "blue" city in favor of gun control laws. Wouldn't everything have been better if we'd all been well-armed? Short answer: no. An armed and trained person still died in this, and another was injured. And the people who passed around the picture of the suspect on the grass with his torso exposed after he'd been captured made me turn away. I don't want to linger over him. I don't want to linger over any of it.

And let's not forget the assaults on presumed-Muslims since the attack- and mind you, some of them occurred before there was any footage of anyone. Or that we tackled a severely burned man to the ground because he was Arab. As much as we Bostonians are resilient, we can also be provincial.

Something very bad happened. I don't want to linger over the details, but some of the public and private pictures I saw are going to stay with me forever. Our media did a terrible job, and it's saying something when I take law enforcement's side over theirs. The self-appointed pundits on social media didn't help either. Can't we wait before passing judgment? Can't we get the facts first? That the suspect- and I'm going to use that word until we see a conviction- won't be read his Miranda rights makes me groan. I am dreading that someone will conclude that this was terrorism and use that as an excuse to throw this kid into a gulag in Eastern Europe or try him in a military court. No. I want him tried in the light of day, and I want all of the evidence fully vetted. If we are going to get justice for what happened, we need to do it right.

More than anything, I want this to be over, and I believe it can be. I want things to return to normal, which is funny because I felt like I didn't have a normal before this. I want to walk down Boylston Street with my sons. I want to visit the main branch of my beloved Boston Public Library. I want to take my kids to the Boston Common and not see SWAT teams. And those things will happen.

Just not soon enough.

Deb in the City

Doubling down on unfairness

Sit back folks: it's Korean history lesson time.

In Choson-era Korea (think 1392 to 1900, but maybe a little bit before as well), the most coveted jobs were in the King's Court.  There was a time when there were few enough well-placed people that the jobs could be given out by favor, but as numbers increased and politics became more entangled, it wasn't prudent to hand them out that way anymore.  Thus we took on yet another idea from the Chinese: the examination system.

Mind you- and this is important- if you were a yangban (member of the intellectual class) who was in a first or second level job in the court, your oldest son was all set and he would get a government job.  Everyone else had to worry for their children and even more so because the test was open, in theory and at times, to most free people.  If you wanted to pass this test, you needed to study hard for several years.

What was on this test?  Mostly Chinese classics.  Not making this up.  There were some people who had to take exams on mathematics or science, but it was understood that the people who sat for those exams were going onto jobs that were far inferior to jobs in the court.  So anyone who could afford it employed a tutor or sent their son to a school.  And yes, as you can imagine, there was all sorts of philosophical and political intrigue surrounding the best way to teach the set subjects (though, comfortingly, the subjects on the test didn't change a lot).  Let's not even go into how popular this system made the yangban.  Let's just say they weren't well-loved.

Everything old is new again.

It should make the modern reader snicker a little bit that this was referred to as a "meritocracy" in anyway.  According to Merriam-Webster, "virtue" and "achievement" are synonyms for merit.  I suppose mastering the classics of any language is an achievement, but how virtuous is a system that by definition only allows certain people to participate?  Make no mistake- thousands of people sat for these tests every year, but many thousands more worked in fields or shops with no hope of ever being able to devote the time or resources required to study for it.

New York Mayor Bloomberg's asinine remark this week made me revisit this subject.  "Life isn't fair."  You know what?  He's correct- but isn't part of the role of government to smooth over a little bit of that?  Aren't we- in a liberal, capitalist democracy- supposed to be able to take a shot at improving the hand we were dealt at birth?  I think it is, but I think that becomes increasingly difficult when we are pigeon-holed at age fourteen.

Good luck to the NAACP- may its lawsuit against the city of New York help bring some of the fairness that Bloomberg scorns.

Deb in the City

Happy Pi(e) Day!

I wasn't going to, er, celebrate until I got the shipment of Lucy's vegan, gf cookies that my sister sent us as a get-well present for Jacob (he sustained a concussion last week).  At that point, it just seemed silly not to.

Let's call this a Vegan, Gluten-Free Fudge Pie.

Crust:

Four miniature packages Snack 'N Go packages of Cinnamon cookies (any flavor will work)
1/4 cup melted Earth Balance

Pie:

1/2 cup soymilk
1/2 cup Earth Balance
1/2 cup liquid sweetener (we used agave and raw honey)
1 3.5 ounce bar of dark chocolate (make sure there's no milk)
1/2 cup cocoa
1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Crush cookies in bag with a heavy object (I used a rolling pin).  Crumbs don't have to be uniform.  Place crumbs into bowl.  Melt Earth Balance.  Pour over crumbs and stir until combined.  Pour mixture into pie pan and press into place.  Bake for 8 minutes, then let cool while you make the filling.

Combine Earth Balance, soymilk and liquid sweetener in a saucepan over medium heat.  Stir until melted, then turn off heat.  Break chocolate bar into pieces then stir until melted.  Add cocoa and stir until evenly thickened.  Add vanilla and stir.  Pour into pie crust and chill for two to three hours.

Keep water nearby because this is pretty rich.

Enjoy!

Deb in the City

Please donate to Progressive Massachusetts

My fellow MA residents,

We’ve all heard about the great things our newly elected (but now senior!) Senator is doing in Congress.  It makes me proud to be able to say that the person calling our government officials on the carpet for their lax regulation is from Massachusetts.

Here’s the thing though: if you’ve lived in Massachusetts for any period of time, you know that we aren’t nearly as blue as the rest of the country thinks we are.  Elizabeth Warren didn’t beat Scott Brown by 20 points; she beat him by 8, and it was a nail biter down to election night.  You may remember that before Deval Patrick we had not one, not two, not three, but four Republican governors: Bill Weld, Paul Celucci, Jane Swift and Mitt Romney.

But, you may say, at the legislative level, we had a Democratic majority all these years.  And it’s true.  There’s just one thing- not every Democrat in leadership voted the way I, and maybe you, wanted them to.  It was during this period that the MBTA was saddled with the debt from the Big Dig; taxes were lowered, even during the years that we experienced an economic boom; fees increased exponentially for the UMass system; and crucial investment for infrastructure and education was withheld.

Those policies are exactly the opposite of what I expect from a Democrat, and a heartbreaking disappointment from a firmly Democratic legislative body.

I’ll say it- not all Democrats are the same.  

Over the last two years, I’ve been heartened to watch the growth of Progressive Massachusetts.  They’re a grassroots organization that’s already started to make some noise around sentencing reform, progressive taxation and community investment, and, of course, the campaigns in November.  But that’s not all they’re about.  They have a bunch of other initiatives on their plate, including quality public school education, affordable higher education, strategic infrastructure investment, clean energy, job training for 21st century jobs and small business growth.  

Many would have you believe that you have to choose between the goals listed above and maintaining our leadership in research, technology and higher education.  It’s not a competition- it’s allowing everyone in Massachusetts to reap the benefits of that leadership.

Progressive Massachusetts is off to a great start (come to the their Policy Conference on March 24th to find out just how much), but they need some help.  Any donations would be appreciated- and they mean it. As part of a donor challenge, if they can get 50 recurring donations by the end of the month, they’ll receive a much larger recurring donation.  FYI, those recurring donations can be as little as $5/month.  As always, larger donations will also be appreciated.  If they can raise $10,000 in total by the end of the month, that amount will be matched.

We’ve got a lot to do in MA, and the upcoming Senatorial race is just one of them.  If you’re able to, please help out.

Deb in the City

PS  I will get no material benefit out of anyone making any donations to Progressive Massachusetts, just the satisfaction of knowing that a great organization can do important work I believe in.

Consider yourselves on notice

These are the 22 Republicans who voted against reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act.  In case you needed proof that Marco Rubio was wretched- oh, is he the guy delivering the GOP response to the State of the Union tonight?- and that Mitch McConnell really is a cross between a dinosaur and a vampire (apologies to both dinosaurs and vampires).

But Orrin Hatch?  And Lindsey Graham?  Shame on you.

We'll be watching.

Sens. John Barrasso (WY), Roy Blunt (MO), John Boozman (AR), Tom Coburn (OK), John Cornyn (TX), Ted Cruz (TX), Mike Enzi (WY), Lindsey Graham (SC), Chuck Grassley (IA), Orrin Hatch (UT), James Inhofe (OK), Mike Johanns (NE), Ron Johnson (WI), Mike Lee (UT), Mitch McConnell (KY), Rand Paul (KY), Jim Risch (ID), Pat Roberts (KS), Marco Rubio (FL), Tim Scott (SC), Jeff Sessions (AL) and John Thune (SD).

Deb in the City

A Chosen People's Special Burden or Give Me A Break

Two things this week out of Israel enraged me: first, the story about the clandestine birth control shots given to the Ethiopian refugees, then the loose standards some soldiers have been using which has resulted in more than a few deaths of young Palestinians.

I'd like to see disciplinary hearings and I'd like to see people lose their jobs over this, at the very least.

You know what else I'd like?  For people to shut up about how much Israel hasn't learned.  And analogies to the Holocaust are the stuff of a high school debate.

Because you know where you can find links to both stories?  In Haaretz, an Israeli newspaper.  To the best of my knowledge, none of the editors or journalists writing for them has suffered for having voiced their opposition to the policies and practices of the Netanyahu administration.

I promise you, that was not the case in 1933 Germany.  And I assure you, we have propped up governments in the not-so-distant past who have done that to their journalists.  I know because I'm related to one of them.

But I digress.  The real issue, of course, is that Jews have a special duty not to be scumbags because of the Holocaust.  Right?  Because, having lost 6 million members, no one knows better than the Jews about what it is to suffer and be oppressed.

That's one way of hearing it.  The other way: "You people bitched and bitched for decades about the pogroms and concentration camps.  We saved you [finally], and this is how you repay us?"

Yeah...

I just want to know a couple of things.

1.  Remember when India forcibly sterilized its poor men in the Seventies?  You know, after they declared martial law?  How many people around the world got bent out of shape and said, "Ugh!  Don't you people remember what the British did to you?  What would Mahatma Gandhi say?!"

2.  You do know that not all Jews are Israelis, right?  And you do know that not all Israelis agree with each other, right?  Please, see above about Haaretz if you need a refresher.  (If you are tempted to make a joke about argumentative Jews, just don't.)  And you know that a government doesn't usually speak for every single person in its country, I hope.  Because mine hasn't been speaking for me for a long time.

3.  If it's extra-special wrong when the Jews- I mean, the Israelis- do something like this, what is it when anyone else does it?  Just garden variety wrong?  The kind we're used to tolerating from, I guess, everyone else?

In conclusion, I guess I actually want to thank everyone who has beat their chest over the last few days about Israel's special duty.  Because, you know, to me that sounds a lot like you really do believe that Jews are God's chosen people, and that Israel is God's chosen land.

Gee thanks,

Deb in the City