Blind Melon - Change

On writing for change and changing my writing

I renewed my library card last night at the Capital Area District Library and borrowed Writing to Change the World. It was written in 2006 by Mary Pipher, Ph.D., a former therapist who also wrote the 1994 New York Times bestseller, Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls.

I chose this book for a few reasons. First, Dr. Pipher dedicated it “to Anne Frank and Nelson Mandela and to those writers from all over the world who, in all times and places, have written to make things better.” Who doesn’t want to consider themselves in the same arena, if not the same box or row, as Anne Frank and Nelson Mandela?

Secondly, before I even made it to the table of contents, I ran across the following quote by James Baldwin:

"You write in order to change the world, knowing perfectly well that you probably can't, but also knowing that literature is indispensable to the world...The world changes according to the way people see it, and if you alter, even by a millimeter, the way...people look at reality, then you can change it."

I love the idea that my thoughts and objections and rants, my sentences and paragraphs, might actually have an impact, might stick with my readers and reshape, even slightly, the way another person thinks or feels or interprets something.

When I got home and started reading, I found myself bummed out by page two of the introduction:

“I can name salient examples of our harsh world – the deterioration of the ozone later, deforestation, and the enormous differences in wealth across nations and within our own. We live in a world where twenty-seven million people live in slavery, a world where poor children make toys for rich children, where the World Food Program cuts distribution because of lack of funds while two-thirds of Americans fight obesity. We humans have become the species of nuclear weapons and genocide, one that is killing itself and all other living things.”

It’s a good thing Dr. Pipher moved on or I might have started sobbing and that would have surely awakened Anita, who was sleeping soundly next to me, oblivious, apparently, to the immense pain and suffering and evil in the world.

I haven’t gotten far but from what I’ve read so far, I’m doing it wrong. Dr. Pipher believes the goal of “change writing” is “not to evoke one particular set of ideas, feelings, and actions, but rather to foster awareness and growth.” It’s doubtful that I’m fostering growth among my readership through my angry missives and bitchy diatribes, although strong and loyal readers are probably more aware of what’s wrong with the world if they’re able to make it to the end of a post.

I hope this book teaches me how to write compellingly about tough issues without turning people off. One friend told me she doesn’t even read my stuff unless I’m writing about my kids. She said she feels better after reading the posts about my family but worse when she reads about politics, and she prefers better over worse. When I asked how I’m supposed to get people to care about important stuff going on in Lansing or Washington if I don’t just lay it out there in black and white, she answered, “You don’t. It’s not your job to change the world. Just make your readers happy.”

That was the first time I wished I was 233 pounds of Ben & Jerry’s Chunky Monkey ice cream instead of a guy who writes about politics. I hope it won’t be the last.

Many cool and inspirational quotations from Tier One writers are sprinkled throughout the 226-page book:

• “A true piece of writing is a dangerous thing. It can change your life.”  (Tobias Wolff)

• “Write a little every day, without hope, without despair.”  (Isak Dinesen)

• “We can spend our whole lives fishing only to discover in the end it wasn’t fish we were after.” (Henry David Thoreau)

• “I shall allow no man to belittle my soul by making me hate him."  (Booker T. Washington)

I need to work on that last one because it seems like the older I get, the more I hate. Well, maybe not “hate,” but certainly “despise with a deeply-rooted passion to the point that I’d probably hit this person in the back of the head with a brick if I could do so without fear of apprehension or prosecution.”

I haven’t even finished the 15-page introduction and already I feel like changing something. Dr. Pipher’s good.

The Man and the Myth

Robbie Williams - Angels

Who's turning their porch lights on for Aiyana Jones?

Aiyana Jones

 A Facebook group entitled “RIP Caylee Marie Anthony” has 331,292 likes.

Fifty people (including me) like a Facebook group for seven-year-old Aiyana Jones.

Aiyana was a seven-year-old girl from the east side of Detroit who was sleeping on the couch when police burst in and shot her in the neck on May 16, 2010. They were raiding her house and searching for a homicide suspect; the whole thing was being filmed for an episode of the reality crime show, “The First 48.” (This could be why Detroit police used a flash grenade to enter the house even though neighbors told them there were kids in the house and pointed to the toys in the front yard.)

The case received some attention, and U.S. Congressman John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI) requested an FBI investigation. But more than a year later, no one’s been charged in Aiyana’s death, and Nancy Grace hasn’t said a word about it.

She said a lot about Caylee Anthony, though, and if she had any shame, which she surely doesn’t, she’d be feeling it now, after a jury voted to acquit Caylee’s mother, Casey, of her child’s murder. Instead, Grace was characteristically hyperbolic when responding to the verdict: “Somewhere out there tonight, the devil is dancing.”

It makes me physically ill that a woman could decide not to report her toddler missing and lie about her disappearance – and kill her, as some of the experts in Facebook allege – and if the media depictions of her are accurate, Casey Anthony is an irresponsible and unlikable piece of trash who can’t be trusted with car keys, let alone children.

But I’m more disgusted by the fact that the murder of a little black girl by law enforcement receives little coverage or concern while a little white “angel” is mourned by thousands.

Isn’t Aiyana an angel too?

Depeche Mode - Corrupt

Hello? Is this thing on?

Photo courtesy CBS News

Did you notice that Eric Cantor’s (R-VA) been in a heap o’ trouble ever since his debt ceiling–related conflict of interest was revealed?

That’s because he hasn't.

Since the story broke on June 27, I’ve heard virtually nothing on the radio and seen nothing on television about it. The all-powerful Obama/Pelosi/Reid machine has been silent. I just scrolled through ten hours of Facebook postings and not one was about Cantor.

I read about Casey Anthony, which is apparently the Most Important News Story of All Time, and saw a Yahoo “news” item speculating that Obama may drop Biden from the ticket next year. I saw something about the government shutdown in Minnesota and an article revealing where dictator Muammar Qaddifi can go if he decides to flee Libya. There was even an interesting Chicago Sun-Times editorial asserting that electric cars are right for America.

But nothing on Cantor the Creep.

He was the Republicans’ chief debt ceiling negotiator until he stormed out of a meeting like a petulant little boy on June 23 because Democrats were insisting that tax increases ought to be on the table. (Democrats have been pushing for an end to subsidies for oil and gas companies and people who make more than $500,000/year. House Speaker John Bonehead er Boehner has declared any and all tax increases dead on arrival in the lower chamber.)

Then it was disclosed that he stands to reap a small financial windfall from his investment in a mutual fund that does better if there’s turmoil surrounding the debt ceiling.

The Number Two Republican in the House – who owns a million dollars worth of real estate in Virginia and is therefore not too worried about where his next cup of Joe’s coming from – invested up to $15,000 in “ProShares Trust Ultrashort 20+ Year Treasury EFT.” If the federal government begins defaulting on its debt payments on August 2 and Cantor still has money in this fund, the value of his holdings will skyrocket.

When I posted a Facebook status update about this last week, one friend posted a one-word response: “Surprised?” My answer was no, I’m not surprised that Eric Cantor’s an ass. I am surprised that he doesn’t even try to hide it and no one seems to care.

Again, I have to point out that a Democrat tweets his meat and all hell breaks loose but another Republican is found to be sleazy and corrupt and unethical and no one bats an eye.

I’ve written before that nonpartisan economists predict disastrous economic results – including the likelihood of a double-dip recession – if the debt ceiling’s not raised. Apparently it wouldn’t be disastrous for Eric Cantor, though.

I don’t know how some of these dickheads can sleep at night. I really don’t.

***

I just read that the Yacht Brokers Association of America has come out against repealing federal subsidies for that industry after Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said tax breaks for yachts should be eliminated.

The association’s vice president, Joe McCann, pointed out, “These yachts can go anywhere they want and they're gonna go where it's most economically beneficial to go."

I’m not making this up.


Sources: Huffington Post, Salon.com