what i'm reading: the bridge by bill konigsberg -- important, powerful, essential teen fiction

The Bridge, by Bill Konigsberg, is the best YA novel I've read since Eleanor & Park in 2012.

Unfortunately, I know that many readers won't go near this book, because of its subject matter: teen suicide. This would be a terrible missed opportunity. It's a great book that both teens and adults -- especially adults who have contact with teenagers -- should read. Yes, it's sad, but it's also hopeful, and it's powerful, and it's necessary.

Konigsberg, author of several excellent YA books, approaches the subject with a brilliant twist that makes the whole book work. Two teenagers stand on New York City's George Washington Bridge, feeling suicidal. They don't know each other; their presence on the bridge at the same moment is a coincidence, a quirk of fate, if you will.

The story unfolds four times. She jumps, he doesn't. He jumps, she doesn't. They both jump. Neither jumps. Each timeline explores the ripple effect of each choice.

Through this device, Konigsberg avoids many pitfalls that other books about teenage suicide have suffered from, accused of either glorifying suicide, or over-simplifying it, or blaming others, or making it situational, without examining mental health.

This is also just a really good book. The writing is brilliant, the characters are fully realized -- including the adults, which is rare for this genre. The sadness is leavened with humour and with hope. The story takes place in New York City, in a privileged world which, in reality, is not an easy world for children.

The book is also notable for what it's not. It's not glib or facile. There are no quick fixes. But there are pathways that may lead to better mental health. There are options.

I find it sad and frustrating that so many people will not read The Bridge. They'll say: "It's too sad." "I don't want to think about that." "I read for enjoyment, and that's not an enjoyable topic."

I've heard this about many books that explore painful and upsetting themes. It's a shame, because a book like The Bridge is an opportunity to understand others more deeply, to see people and their choices in a more nuanced way, even to think about how we can try to help.

I probably should have more empathy for people's reading choices, but... I don't. If you read this book, will parts be sad and painful? Obviously, yes. Will you cry? Probably. And what of it? You'll feel something. You won't melt. You won't break.

Millions of lives have been touched by suicide. Mine has been; yours probably has been, too. The ripple effect explored in The Bridge is happening all the time. For me, a book like this is a way to understand this better, perhaps to bear witness, from a respectful distance.

For some people, the topic of the book will be too close. It reflects their own reality, and they may not be in a place where they can absorb the story. I get that. But to people who insist that every read be sunny and cheerful, perhaps try moving outside your comfort zone. It's worth it.

* * * *

Reading The Bridge made me remember -- many times -- one of my favourite monologues from the series "The Blacklist", spoken (of course) by the character Raymond Reddington (James Spader).

Have you ever seen the aftermath of a suicide bombing? I have. June 29th, 2003. I was meeting two associates at the Marauch restaurant in Tel Aviv. As my car was pulling up, a 20 year-old Palestinian named Ghazi Safar detonated a vest wired with C4.

The shock wave knocked me flat, blew out my eardrums. The smoke…it was like being underwater. I went inside. A nightmare. Blood, parts of people. You could tell where Safar was standing when the vest blew. It was like a perfect circle of death. There was almost nothing left of the people closest to him. 17 dead, 45 injured. Blown to pieces. The closer they were to the bomber, the more horrific the effect.

That's every suicide.

Every single one.

An act of terror perpetrated against everyone who's ever known you. Everyone who's ever loved you. The people closest to you are the ones who suffer the most pain, the most damage. Why would you do that? Why would you do that to the people who love you?

what i'm reading: ghosts of gold mountain, the epic story of the chinese who built the transcontinental railroad

Ever since reading, in 2006, The National Dream and The Golden Spike, Pierre Berton's books about the building of the Canadian railroad, I've been interested in the Chinese railroad workers. Two details stuck in my memory: Chinese workers retaining their food traditions (and the racism and abuse they encountered over this) and that they went on strike. I was excited to know that these underpaid, undervalued, and abused workers organized themselves to fight back.

So when I saw a very positive review of The Ghosts of Gold Mountain: The Epic Story of the Chinese Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad, I immediately requested it from my library. Gordon Chang, one of the preeminent historians of the Chinese experience in North America, writes from an American context, but the story applies to Canada and other countries, as Chinese labour built railroads all over the world.

Outsized labour under outsized conditions

To say that the Railroad Chinese (as they are called) toiled under difficult conditions would be a monumental understatement. Whatever one can say about those conditions, no matter how hyperbolic it might sound -- it was worse. 

Avalanches, snowslides, mudslides, blizzards, extreme cold, extreme heat. Smoke, fumes, choking dust, unrelenting sun. Explosions, cave-ins, falling trees. All manner of hazards, often at the same time. The men laboured by hand, with picks, shovels, gun powder, and worst of all, nitroglycerine, without the benefit of any steam-powered tools or safety equipment. 

Food, water, tents, and any other needs were hauled on sleds and by pack animals, and the costs were deducted from their pay. 

(Here's a note about gun powder, then called "black powder," that I enjoyed.

Many of the Railroad Chinese, however, were probably familiar with black powder, which their ancestors had invented in the 9th Century and was commonly used in fireworks, guns, and cannons back in their home region of China.)

Besides the complete absence of safety regulations and safety equipment, there was a total lack of concern for, and interest in, the workers' lives on the part of their employer. Both the Central Pacific Railroad Company (CPRR) in the west and the Union Pacific in the east earned coveted government funds based on how many miles of track they laid, with large incentive bonuses for the company that laid more track. And because everyone grossly underestimated the time and phenomenal effort needed to build the western leg of the railroad, the pressure to work quickly was enormous. 

Why Chinese labour?

Naturally Chinese workers were paid less than white workers -- but that isn't why the western part of the transcontinental railroad was built almost exclusively by Chinese workers. 

White Americans didn't want these jobs. When a call for labour went out, a few hundred white men might show up, but at the first rumour of a gold strike, they'd be gone. Using Chinese workers was suggested, but the CPRR was reluctant, purely for racist reasons. They considered bringing in large numbers of Mexican workers. They recruited some "freedmen" -- Black people who had recently been enslaved. They even considered using former Confederate soldiers who were still in prison. Finally, they turned to China, and the experiment paid off, beyond anything company leadership could have imagined.

Besides lower wages, using Chinese labour had other advantages for the company. Bringing equipment and labour from the eastern US meant a long, slow, dangerous journey by boat, down the east coast, around the tip of South America, and up the west coast. It was actually easier and cheaper to bring workers to California from China. 

Chinese men were recruited by the thousands and tens of thousands. They weren't typical immigrants: they didn't necessarily come from extreme poverty, nor were they escaping war or persecution. This was an opportunity to earn more money than they could at home, so they answered the call. They came alone -- sometimes with people from their region, or with male relatives, but never with wives and families.

They were also the best railroad workers the company had ever seen. Using many techniques they imported from China -- such as building monumental retaining walls without the use of mortar -- the Railroad Chinese worked harder, faster, and more efficiently than their white counterparts anywhere. Even the most hardcore racist CPRR men came to admire both their work ethic and the results of their labours.

But you can't eat admiration or send it home to your family.

The strike

Chinese workers weren't only paid less than their white counterparts. They also had no opportunity to advance into higher-paying positions, no matter what their skills or experience. They lived outside or in tents that they procured and paid for, while their white supervisors lived in converted train cars, with kitchens, beds, and other comforts. Their jobs were the most dangerous by far on the project, so they assumed the greatest risk, were paid the least, and endured the worst working conditions.

Unfortunately, despite all this, the Chinese workers earned significantly more than they could in their home province. So they persevered. But not passively.

On June 24, at the height of the construction season, precisely when the company most hoped to make rapid progress, 3,000 Railroad Chinese, in a fully coordinated and informed effort, put down their tools and refused to work. From Cisco to Truckee, almost thirty miles, Chinese at scores of sites and in hundreds of teams stopped working in unison. One news report called it "the greatest strike ever known in the country."

In this bold act of resistance, the strikers may have been inspired by a smaller labor stoppage by fellow Chinese railroad workers in California nearly a decade prior. It was said that in 1859, an unscrupulous Chinese contractor withheld the wages due 150 Chinese who were working on a rail line near Sacramento before the CPRR. They rebelled, attacked the contractor's assistant, and threatened him with violence. The frightened clerk took refuge in the station house and was saved only by the arrival of the local authorities. Through the years, Chinese workers, long after the incident had passed, likely told and retold this story of strength through collective action.

After eight days without work, the workers' food supplies had dwindled, and the CPRR wasn't allowing their suppliers through. Most -- but not all -- workers returned to work. Chang writes:

Though the company did not concede to the strikers' demands, it would be a mistake to conclude, as most historical accounts do, that the Chinese "lost". The workers, in a well-coordinated effort involving thousands, spread over miles of the train line, had defied the company, and it is clear from internal records that the Chinese collective action had deeply shaken the principals. They had also gotten bad press. The company leadership would not forget the confrontation and realized that the workers could never be taken for granted. What is more, it appears that the company also quietly improved pay following the strike, at least for skilled and experienced Chinese workers, over the subsequent months. Wages for them went above $35 a month. Three years earlier, when Chinese first began working on the CPRR, their pay had been $26 a month. For some, it jumped 50 percent higher. . . . 

. . . The strike might be understood as being as much, or even more, a clash of cultural logics rather than an incident seen in standard Western labor-management terms. Collective action could be seen as an important expression of will, a matter of achieving "face" and self-respect. The specific outcome was less significant that the act of defiance itself. . . . The self-discipline and organization of the striking Chinese did in fact favorably impress the railroad leadership.

Their wages did increase. And after this, strikes and stoppages by Chinese railroad workers took place on many lines and construction projects in California. That's winning.

What might have been

There was a moment in time when things looked hopeful for Chinese immigrants in their new country. 

There was great curiosity among the public about the Chinese workers, and the press reported on it often. The overwhelming majority of these stories were very positive -- writers hailed the workers' skills, their bravery, and their incredible work ethic. Of course most of the reporting was laced with bigoted language and stereotypes, as was the custom of the times, but the public formed a very favourable impression of the Chinese work force. There was a growing movement for changing laws so that Chinese people could become American citizens. 

It looked hopeful... until it didn't. Economic downturn and xenophobia led to scapegoating, expulsion, and horrific violence, including lynchings and the burning of Chinese-owned businesses.

This pattern echoes so much American history. There were hopeful moments when the Pilgrims landed. There were hopeful moments after the Civil War, especially in multicultural metropolises such as New Orleans and New York. But the forces of bigotry and hatred were organized, violent, and usually had the weight of government behind them.

Outsized research, too

Gordon Chang and his team of researchers at the Chinese Railroad Workers in North America Project, out of Stanford University (where he is a humanities and history professor) have uncovered an astonishing amount of material, despite the daunting challenge of having no first-hand accounts from workers themselves. Tens of thousands of letters were exchanged between railroad workers and their families in China, but not a single letter or diary has survived, or at least none have been found.

Despite this, the Stanford researchers have uncovered a trove of material from a huge array of sources. Chang uses what is known, plus his informed imagination, to create a vibrant tale of struggle and triumph.

The stories of the Railroad Chinese have been forgotten, omitted, and expunged from American history. This book goes a long way towards changing that.

fact: you cannot wave the confederate flag or the swastika flag and rightly call yourself a patriotic american

This post has been half-written and sitting in drafts for many months. Days after an armed mob tried to violently subvert the results of an election seems like a good time to finish it.

* * * *

Here's a statement that should be completely obvious.

You cannot wave the Confederate flag or the Nazi flag and also be a patriotic American.

History Lesson #1

In 1861, a group of terrorists attacked the United States. This was an act of war, by a group who would soon be known as the Confederate Army. 

Representing a self-declared country, the Confederate Army fought against the United States in a prolonged act of treason that lasted four years. 620,000 people died in this conflict, at a time when the population of the country (excluding Indigenous people) was about 31 million.

Until 58,000 Americans lost their lives in the Vietnam War, more Americans were killed in the Civil War than in all foreign wars combined.

Thus someone who waves the Confederate flag aligns themselves with treason and with enemies of the United States.

History Lesson #2

From September 1939 until May 1945, the United States was engaged in World War II, often said to be a righteous and "good" war. Along with the Allied nations, the United States fought the Third Reich, also called Nazi Germany. More than 400,000 Americans died in the "European theatre".

I include only American deaths here, as I assume the people who carry Nazi flags are not concerned with the deaths of British, French, German, Italian, Polish, or other people, be they civilians or soldiers.

The Nazi flag was the symbol of an enemy -- a fascist government, an occupying power, and a creator of one of the most horrific genocides in world history. Waving this flag can be construed an act of treason or sedition.

A note about "enemies"

As a person who opposes war in almost all scenarios, I hesitate to use the expression "the enemy". Working-class and poor people were killed, maimed, and suffered devastating losses during these two wars, whether they were from Alabama, Pennsylvania, or Bavaria. Elite Nazis were allowed to retire in comfort in South America, while Nazi scientists were recruited by the US government and lived out their lives under assumed identities. The real enemy is war itself, and the ruling class that profits by it.  

But these flags were symbols of governments. Although ordinary people may have adopted the flags and the propaganda that went with them, the flags themselves were symbols of governments and philosophies. Both the Confederacy and the Nazis were the enemies of the United States. They were also the enemies of the stated values and vision of the United States. 

Yet some percentage of Americans carry these flags and claim to be patriots. 

Although these people have become much more visible in the last five years, their movements are not new, nor are their beliefs.

Do the white nationalists who wave those flags understand this? I'm quite sure movement leaders do. But the rank-and-file militia members, the yobs who were incited by Donald Trump, are not known for their intelligence or their grasp of current events or world history. They live in an alternate version of reality, where Barack Obama was not born in the United States, Hillary Clinton runs a pedophile ring out of a pizza restaurant, Joe Biden is a Communist, and Trump won the recent election in a landslide, among other fantasies.

We know that, to these people, the Nazi and Confederate flags symbolize white nationalism, white supremacy, bigotry, and hatred. This is what drove our abject horror and revulsion at a POTUS declaring "very fine people on both sides" after the violent demonstration in Charlottesville in 2017.

But these flags are also symbols of an imagined past, where women were submissive and servile, Black people were (at best) kept segregated, LGBT people did not exist, and the white "workingman" got a fair deal and had a better life. Immigration was limited to their own ancestors, who (they believe) came to North America legally, spoke English, and quickly assimilated. (PS: not only is that not true, many of their ancestors weren't even considered white at the time!)

So while these flags have come to symbolize extreme racism and a kind of generic hatred for the modern world, we should never forget their original meanings. 

You cannot wave the Confederate flag or the Nazi flag and also be a patriot.

a reading plan for 2021: big stacks of nonfiction, plus some fiction, and series for mind breaks

2018: Titles and reading projects that were languishing on my List.

2019: The year of the biography. The first time I created a reading plan for the year.

2020: I liked having the 2019 plan, and created a new plan for 2020.

In each case, I read many titles from the plan, and many off-plan -- enough that I feel I've accomplished part of a goal, but not so much that the goal became a chore. 

For 2021, I consulted The List, and selected sub-lists of nonfiction, fiction, and YA. Add to that the authors I want to read or read more of (from the 2018 list), plus the long-term goals that may or may not advance. 

Recently I made a brilliant discovery: I enjoy reading on the treadmill! I use a treadmill for exercise in bad weather or if for some other reason I don't want to outside. In the past I've always listened to music while walking to nowhere. A few weeks ago I tried reading, just as an experiment, and found that I love it. This new habit has made it possible to increase time spent on two of my life goals at the same time. Amazing!

Nonfiction

Ghosts of Gold Mountain: the Epic Story of the Chinese Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad, Gordon Chang (reading now)

Sometimes You Have to Lie: The Life and Times of Louise Fitzhugh, Renegade Author of Harriet the Spy, Leslie Brody (A surprise gift from Allan.)

The Sword and the Shield: the Revolutionary Lives of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr., Peniel E. Joseph

Janis: Her Life and Her Music, Holly George-Warren (I read biographies of Janis Joplin as a teenager; this new book sounds fantastic.)

Poisoner In Chief: Sidney Gottlieb and the CIA Search for Mind Control, Stephen Kinzer (Ever since reading Kinzer's Overthrow, I am interested in almost anything he writes.)

A Mind Spread Out on the Ground, Alicia Elliott

Mad at the World: A Life of John Steinbeck, William Souder

Men Explain Things to Me, Rebecca Solnit (Working my way through these amazing essays.) 

The Skin We're In: A Year of Black Resistance and Power, Desmond Cole

The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America from 1890 to the Present, David Treuer

The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming, David Wallace-Wells

Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World, Cal Newport

Fiction 

Charlie Savage, Roddy Doyle (One I've missed by a favourite author.)

Gilead, Marilynne Robinson (Author I've been meaning to read; first of a trilogy.)

The Cold Millions: A Novel, Jess Walter

There There, Tommy Orange

The Resisters, Gish Jen

True Story: A Novel, Kate Reed Perry

Blacktop Wasteland: A Novel, S. A. Cosby

Girl, Woman, Other, Bernardine Evaristo

The Stone Angel, Margaret Laurence (I will try again to read this Canadian classic.)

YA

The Bridge, Bill Konigsberg

Sia Martinez and the Moonlit Beginning of Everything, Raquel Vasquez Gilliland

A List of Things That Will Not Change, Rebecca Stead

Continuing to read more by:

Frans de Waal

Carl Safina

Robert Sapolsky

Giving my brain a break between nonfictions:

Martin Beck, Per Wahlöö and Maj Sjöwall

Parker, Donald Westlake as Richard Stark

Long-term goals

Orwell still to read: three titles

Dickens still to read: four titles

Re-start weekly chapters of Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898 and Greater Gotham: A History of New York City from 1898 to 1919. (Project started in 2018 but abandoned later that year.)

what i'm reading: never cry wolf by farley mowat

I have read many essays and op-eds by Farley Mowat, the legendary Canadian naturalist, but until now, had never read any of his many books. (He was incredibly prolific.) When visiting Russell Books in September, I noticed a copy of Never Cry Wolf and picked it up. I'm so glad I did! It's a short, easy-to-read book that would appeal to any nature lover, not only wolf enthusiasts like me.

Never Cry Wolf: The Amazing True Story of Life Among Arctic Wolves, first published in 1963, chronicles three seasons that Mowat spent observing wolves in the Keewatin Barrens, an area north of Manitoba, in the Northwest Territories. Farley was originally working for the government, sent to study how to control the wolf population that was supposedly laying waste to caribou herds. Armed with faulty equipment and faulty assumptions, Mowat discovered that everything the government -- and all of society -- believed about wolves was false. 

Mowat camped in very close proximity to wolf families and was able to observe them in almost all aspects of their daily lives. His descriptions of the wolves are incredibly vivid, some of the finest nature writing I've ever had the pleasure of reading. 

Mowat's writing, in fact, transcends nature writing or any other genre. The first part of the book is a send-up of government bureaucracy, and of academic researchers. It's decidedly over-the-top and very amusing.

Next, once in the wilderness, Mowat writes with awe and wonder for his lupine subjects, and with simple respect for the few humans he encounters. This is the heart of the book. It's a fast and very engaging read.

Then, in a brief third section, Mowat forcefully and eloquently argues against humans' extermination of wolves, and calls on us to heed the facts and change our ways. I'm tempted to share a story from this third section, but it's very disturbing, and perhaps best left to discover on your own.

* * * *

I won't go into any detail about what Mowat discovered and the myths he shattered. Suffice to say that there are very few wolves, and they kill very few caribou. The tiny percentage of caribou that are killed by wolves helps ensure the survival of the species. Mowat quotes an Inuit saying: The caribou feeds the wolf, but it is the wolf who keeps the caribou strong.

Wolf and caribou have lived together as predator and prey for time immemorial. The threat to caribou is the same threat to polar bears, and whales, and elephants, and tigers. There is only one animal who is a danger to the survival of whole species (including their own), who destroys habitats, who kills for sport, who lays waste to populations. And it's not wolves.

* * * *

Never Cry Wolf was published in 1963. Since that time, the facts that Mowat wrote about have become common knowledge. Yet wolf slaughter continues, and protections are stripped away or ignored. Without the myth of the bloodthirsty wolf, we can see this for what it truly is. Man kills wolf to eliminate the competition. 

Everywhere there are still wolves, the wolf is still in danger.

greetings island: the best e-card site you've never heard of

Tl; dr: Greetings Island is the best e-greeting-card site. 

* * * *

I love greeting cards -- birthdays, anniversaries, thank yous, "glad you're my friend". I used to love spending time choosing unusual and relevant cards for family and friends. No Hallmark drivel, and no holidays that are meaningless to me -- but lots and lots of birthdays and thinking-of-yous. 

I also used to send winter-season cards to a lot of people. My partner and I would carefully choose what card would represent us that year, and every year the list got longer and longer... At some point our list was out of control, and card-sending became a huge chore. Time to cut back! Or maybe to end the practice?

When we moved to Canada, and I discovered that Papyrus products, my card of choice, were outrageously expensive here. On a month when I had a lot of birthdays on my calendar, the price of cards alone, without postage, could easily top $30! Of course the practice of sending cards is environmentally unfriendly, so this was a good excuse to drastically reduce. I decided to send paper cards only to elderly relatives who wouldn't see cards online.

But then... the e-card issue. Most sites are loaded with ads. That's a deal-breaker for me. So my quest for a great e-card site began. 

I used Jacqui Lawson cards for a while. The cards, based on Lawson's art, are animated and accompanied by music. At $24/year, it was a good deal, but the cards are all of a similar style, and I got tired of it.

I used Punchbowl for a while. Their selection is good, but their pricing model doesn't work for me. Punchbowl has three paid levels -- right now it's $3, $5, and $7 per month -- but only the highest level is ad-free. I think advertising-free cards should be the most basic paid benefit, even if it's the only benefit. And $7/month is more than I want to spend on cards. 

This year I did a big survey of e-card sites, and combed through many "best e-card sites of 2020" posts. Most sites were objectionable for various reasons. I thought about using a general design site like Canva, but for me, that's too wide a field -- too much work. I need something more specific.

This year's clear winner was Greetings Island. The site has everything I'm looking for -- great selection, excellent usability, a wide range of personalization options, and an ad-free experience for both sender and recipient. 

For me, $32/year -- $2.60/month -- is a very good deal. There is also a free (ad-supported) version with fewer options for personalization.

In addition to sending cards online -- either through the site, by email, or through social media -- Greetings Island lets you download and print your card. This is still a good option for a workplace or someone on your list who is not internet-friendly.

I hope Greetings Island keeps their card selection updated. It would be nice to continue using it for at least several years.

in which i inadvertently discover a downside to working at home

I've always loved working at home. 

I loved it when I first started writing fiction and working as a freelance proofreader in 1985, and I loved it even more when I started writing for magazines in the mid-90s. 

As much as I find great satisfaction in my new career as a librarian, I've always missed the working-at-home lifestyle -- all the comfort, flexibility, and increased productivity, plus the company of my dogs, and the absence of so many annoyances.

Returning to working at home was a huge silver lining of the pandemic for me (and not the only one). 

Towards the end of 2020, my workload sharply increased, and I began working longer and longer hours. Working from home, this was very easy to do. Being a morning person, I simply began work earlier and earlier. It's one thing putting in some extra time for a project deadline, but working an additional three or four hours every day is not healthy. 

I started feeling stressed and anxious about work, waking up at night with work on my mind. My job satisfaction started to decline. I felt like I was chained to my desk. My job as a library manager is part librarian and part administrative, and I enjoy both roles. But increasingly I felt that I wasn't a librarian at all. I felt like a machine churning out work. And I felt this, despite being in touch with all my branches by phone, and seeing other librarians by Zoom, and making decisions about libraries all day, every day.

I spoke to my manager, and we're discussing ways to reduce my workload. I also spoke to my union reps, because I'm not the only staff struggling with an outsized workload.

Coincidentally, two weeks ago, some events at my home branch caused me to go back to working in the branch (possibly temporarily, that is still unknown). To my surprise, I immediately started working less! The physical separation between work and home was all it took. Instead of working in the early morning, I'm getting ready to leave the house. And once I come home in the evening, I don't log in. I leave work at work. 

I also immediately felt better just from being in the library. The library, my happy place! I walk into a library, anywhere on earth, and I feel my heart lift. I feel at home. I feel inspired. That's one of the many reasons I chose this as a new career!

Working at home, I missed customers -- hearing staff help them, jumping in to answer a question or suggest a resource, or just seeing them use their library. In my home branch, we recently fully opened to our pre-pandemic hours (with controlled numbers of customers allowed inside). All week long, we heard, "This library is a lifesaver!," "We're so happy you're here!," "We missed you so much, so glad to be coming inside again!". This gave me a great morale boost. I thought, ah yes, I'm not a machine. I'm a person, providing a service, to people. 

It took almost nine months, but I finally experienced a downside of working at home.

how do you read? in which my reading habits unexpectedly change

Librarians like to ask readers about their reading habits.

How do you read?

What format do you most prefer? Do you have a secondary format?

These days, most avid readers have found a use for e-books -- travel being the number one reason -- but generally prefer print. But some people read only e-books, and some only print.

Many people listen to audiobooks in their car or during their commutes, often listening to one book and reading another. Some people are audio only, especially now that most audiobooks are available digitally.

One book at a time, two books, multiple?

Series?

Every day, or how many days per week? What time of day?

Where? Bed, couch, outside in good weather?

How long do you give a book that you don't care for -- how many pages or chapters? (Please don't say you force yourself to read books you don't like! Life's too short and there are too many better books for you!)

Do you ever go back to a book you didn't like... and does your opinion ever change?

* * * *

This is on my mind because my reading habits have suddenly changed. I've been a voracious reader my whole life, and in my late 50s, I am suddenly reading differently.

After a lifetime of reading one book at a time, I now find myself cycling back and forth between one nonfiction and one fiction, or sometimes two nonfiction and one fiction. I don't know why, but suddenly having more books on the go is helping me read more.

I've been walking on the treadmill a lot, and have started to read lighter fiction (which for me means a crime or detective novel) while walking to nowhere. Ticking two boxes at the same time, how great is that! This week I'm going to try reading nonfiction on the treadmill. I'm skeptical but I might as well try it.

Another change: series. I never read series. If a series sounds interesting, I would often read the first book to get a taste, and stop there. There are just too many books I want to read to get stuck in a series. Plus, I find the writing quality of most genre books disappointing at best, and I never bothered to search for higher-quality series among them.

Over the last few years, I've been reading the Wallander series by Henning Mankell. I loved the TV adaptations, so I tried the books and was very pleasantly surprised. I read them in between heavy nonfiction tomes, over the course of several years. (I do the same with YA.)

Now, on advice from a friend, I've discovered the Martin Beck series by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö, a married-couple writing team with an abundance of umlauts. This is said to be the original Nordic Noir; I'm really enjoying them. Allan reads the Parker series by the great Donald Westlake, writing as Richard Stark. These books are crime potato chips -- fast, delicious and completely addictive -- and I plan to go for those, too. I'll probably read them in random order, in between other books. The recent death of John Le Carré made me think of reading the George Smiley series. I read a few as a teenager, and think I would really enjoy them now, so I threw them on The List.

This is very strange to me! How can I suddenly be reading series?!

Like most avid readers, I mostly read print, but sometimes read e-books. They're great for travel, or for a portable version of a giant tome that I can't carry around, or when lighting is poor. I read e-books on my phone.

However, unlike most people I know, I cannot listen to audiobooks (or podcasts). I simply cannot concentrate. I either end up thinking of something else, or if I'm in a car, watching the scenery, and end up missing big chunks of the story. On our drive from Ontario to BC, we had a few audiobooks and radio interviews lined up. If Allan was driving, they just put me to sleep.

As for when and how often, for many decades I read in bed before sleep, but fibromyalgia made me give that up. I also read on the subway... but moving to the suburbs made me give that up! After these changes, I was always dissatisfied that I wasn't reading enough.

Now in my intentionally less-busy lifestyle, I've made reading part of my personal habits checklist (my stripped-down version of a bullet journal). I try to read for an hour or so after dinner, and always on the weekend. I usually read four or five times per week, but adding treadmill time has increased this. I also try to read on my lunch or dinner breaks, but usually end up playing games on my phone.

I usually read sitting at a table, with the book flat in front of me. In nice weather, I read on the deck or previously, in the backyard. (This is the best part of living in a house rather than an apartment.) If I'm reading an e-book at home, I prefer the couch, in the dark.

Your turn.

happy new year from wmtc

Wishing you all a happy, healthy 2021. Peace, love, and vaccinations!

Click here to open the card.

PS: This is my new favourite e-card site. I will post about them soon.

further to rebecca solnit: angry men attack me online

I recently completed three booklists for library customers, part of a system-wide readers' advisory project. The lists use good gender balance, and a strong representation of people of colour and LGBT themes. I did classics, award-winning nonfiction, and essay collections. I love readers' advisory, and I really enjoyed the challenge of writing about each title in about 45 words.

In the list of essay collections, I included Rebecca Solnit's Men Explain Things to Me. Then I decided it was time to read it! She's a brilliant essayist, one of the best I've ever read, and an important feminist voice. This slim collection packs an enormous punch.

Reading Solnit's now-famous piece about mansplaining made me think of another, related phenomenon. Both my partner and I have noticed this in discussions online, in a context where the commenters are mostly male. Here's how it goes.

A man comments. 

Many people disagree with him, including me.

The man attacks me. Only me. 

This happens consistently and predictably. 

We first noticed this pattern on The Joy of Sox, the popular baseball blog written by my partner, Allan Wood. For some years, I was a frequent commenter and "gamethreader" in the Joy of Sox community, so we had ample opportunity to observe this pattern. 

Allan writes from a progressive point of view, and like all the best sports writing, views the sport through a larger lens -- racism, labour, the militarization of sporting events, and so on. Although most members of the Joy of Sox community share this worldview, the world of men's professional sports is notoriously conservative, and Allan's politics drive some fans absolutely insane. (A side benefit, as far as we're concerned!) 

Post, progressive perspective.

Comment, right-wing perspective.

Responses, progressives.

Right-wing attack, directed at me.

Let's say Allan posts a positive view of a player who is getting a lot of negative media attention. The post is likely shared in many online baseball fan spaces. A commenter appears at Joy of Sox, angrily disagreeing (as they do). 

The Joy of Sox regulars disagree with the negative commenter. I am one of five, six, maybe 10 people disagreeing with him -- but his response focuses only on me. And he doesn't just respond to me. He foams at the mouth. 

The attacks can be especially vicious if the commenter doesn't know that he's flinging his verbal feces at the blogger's partner. If he does, he is more restrained -- the online equivalent of not getting harassed on the street when you're accompanied by a man.

To be clear, no member of the Joy of Sox community does this! JoS is an inclusive, egalitarian space, where a feminist, anti-racist perspective is the norm. The angry commenter is an outsider. Everyone disagrees with him -- sometimes quite derisively, mocking his ignorance. No matter. He focuses his attack on me.

Apparently the male commenter cannot abide being "contradicted" by a woman, no matter how polite or respectful her comments. He cannot bear her voicing an opinion, so he tries to bully her into silence. 

I don't feel the slightest bit bullied or harassed in these situations. I have nothing but contempt for these regressive men with their delicate egos and myopic worldviews. But they are clearly attempting to bully me.

Back to Rebecca Solnit. In a powerful and deeply disturbing essay called "The Longest War", Solnit quotes the writer Laurie Penny: "An opinion, it seems, is the short skirt of the internet". (What a brilliant line!) 

When I read this bit, all I could think was: poppies. Do you remember poppygate? It was during the 2018 Ontario election, when I was the NDP candidate for my riding. A right-wing rag ran a hate-piece on me, focusing on something I had written four years earlier, pulled out of context and (of course) purposely misinterpreted.

The response was so intense that the NDP took over my email, so I could focus on the campaign without reading daily threats of rape and murder.

Men arguing with me in comments on a baseball blog has never risen (or sunk) to this level. But it's on the same continuum. The other end of that continuum is murder. If you feel that's an exaggeration, give that essay "The Longest War" a spin. Trigger warnings galore.

Men arguing with me in comments: I wish I came up with a great word for this, the equivalent of mansplaining. Any ideas?

the post of orphaned notes

Like many writers, especially those of us who grew up before the digital age, I keep a notebook. I use it to capture ideas, capture thoughts about I'm reading, take notes on experiences, and take notes on various activist or community meetings I attend. 

I've learned that I have to make notes while I'm thinking of something, because I am unlikely to remember the thought at another time, out of context. Before the digital age, I carried a small spiral memo pad with me almost all the time. 

These days, however, I don't always have a notebook with me, so I do whatever is quickest -- type a note on my phone, scribble it on a scrap of paper, save an email in drafts, or email myself from one address to another.

Later on, when I'm blogging, I check my notebook to see my notes. But I don't look at the notes on my phone or the scraps of paper sitting in a neat pile on my desk or any other form of notetaking. My note-capturing process has changed, but my writing process has not. (And apparently cannot.)

Then I write something and post it.

Then sometime later, I find the other notes, the ones not in a notebook. And these notes bother me. I don't throw them away, and I don't delete them. And every time I see them, they remind me of my sloppy, haphazard, non-methodical writing methods.

And so, in what is sure to be an ongoing but occasional series, I bring you: a post of orphaned notes.

what i'm reading

I wrote about David Blight's huge and brilliant biography of Frederick Douglass here: what i'm reading: frederick douglass, prophet of freedom. In my phone, a note called "frederick douglass susan b anthony" says:

All racist
Stanton especially
Huge rift btn Douglass and Anthony/Stanton re suffrage
Racist and white supremacist speeches
Douglass and drunken Irishman speech
Anti Indian in many speeches
Ignorance of what was happening to native americans
Also Douglass imperialist re annexing DR, Cuba, Haiti, what his reasons were
What does the moral purity crowd make of this? All it means is no one is perfect. Not even the best.
xref: extend more compassion to others' imperfections and our own.

A note called "frederick douglass" says:

lincoln re emancipation / JFK re civil rights
JFK was no lincoln but good parallel
both making political decisions, delaying moral decisions
both: standard history credits white men for movement they were dragged into, support only when there was no other option

A note called "running the books" (book reviewed here) says:

compassion as most defiant/radical act
complexities of rules - broken bent adhered to - conseqs
kites
books are not mailboxes
"havens for all variety of loners and outcasts" = daytime library

what i'm watching

A note called "shameless uk" says:

redemption
learning the source of pain that drives bad behaviour eg monica's mum

A note called "bob newhart show guest stars" says:

sharon gless
henry winkler
len lesser (seinfeld uncle leo) (also get smart)
terry garr
ron rifkin
terry garr
howard hesseman (early gay character)
john ritter
fred willard
S3 change in open, now shows emily  

A note called "intellectual superheroes" says:

sherlock
bletchley - fantastic four - superfriends - ea. w super powers
murdoch
gets around pre-computer age 

A note with no title says:

red dwarf waiting for film to be developed - limited imagination!

star trek TOS ep 15 "in accordance w/ our laws and our many beliefs"

malcolm dumb irritating people are often bigots

shows used to be 50 mins now 42 shows used to be 22 mins now 18

An ominous note with no title says:

where do their husbands and kids disappear to? 

Cultural appropriation

A note called "cultural appropriation?" has a brief intro from me, then copy/pasted text from letters to the New York Times Book Review.

letters to nyt book review about the ridiculousness of applying cultural appropriation to fiction

Letters to the Editor

‘American Dirt’

To the Editor:

I wish your reviewers would keep to the business at hand of reviewing books. I am not interested in Lauren Groff’s anxiety and fear about reviewing “American Dirt” (Jan. 26), or her lack of Mexican heritage or migrant experience. Or the author’s lack of Mexican heritage or migrant experience, for that matter. We are all human beings, regardless of racial or ethnic background. Human beings love to tell and listen to stories. It’s in our makeup. It’s as simple as that, no matter who’s telling it. Writers have the great pleasure and privilege of creating worlds for us to enter, whatever color they are, or where they were born.

Please urge your reviewers to actually critique and/or praise books, not give us all their feelings about doing so, the controversy behind the book, or questioning the author’s right to tell the story. Save the hand-wringing and the virtue-signaling for the opinion pages.

Gina Ortiz
Claremont, Calif.

To the Editor:

In her review of Jeanine Cummins’s “American Dirt,” Lauren Groff wondered whether she was the right person to review the novel, being neither a Mexican nor a migrant. If this were the case, then only an African-American should have reviewed DuBose Heyward’s novel “Porgy,” a Holocaust survivor William Styron’s “Sophie’s Choice,” and a classicist Mary Renault’s novels about ancient Greece. If the critic represents the reader at his or her highest level, then Groff has succeeded admirably. She realizes she is not reviewing an art novel but a work of commercial fiction and judges it accordingly. She admits her ambivalence about it but cannot deny its emotional impact. Groff should be commended for navigating the troubled waters of cultural appropriation without hitting a reef.

Bernard F. Dick
Teaneck, N.J.

To the Editor:

I haven’t read “American Dirt,” but the whole debate about cultural appropriation strikes me as ridiculous and dangerous. What’s next: telling a female author she doesn’t have the right to write from a male point of view, or vice versa? Was John Steinbeck an Okie? Was Harriet Beecher Stowe an African-American? And yet, “The Grapes of Wrath” and “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” were powerful works that helped shape public opinion.

In the end, the only thing that really matters is: Is the work of fiction effective or not? Beyond that, it shouldn’t matter in the least who tells it.

Dale Boyer
Chicago

To the Editor:

I have read about all the controversy associated with “American Dirt” and whether it is an appropriation of “Others’” stories. This is my question: I have read all of Tony Hillerman’s novels about the Southwest and the Navajo in particular. They gave me insight into the area and peoples that I never received from my undergraduate and graduate history education. Has anyone ever questioned Hillerman’s appropriation? Was he given a pass because he is a man? And recently male writers have been praised for their novels that featured female main characters.

There needs to be more discussion of these issues.

Dee Pregliasco
Louisville, Ky.

To the Editor:

The idea that certain groups have an exclusive right to certain stories is a critical fallacy; Shakespeare was not a woman, not a Moor, not a Jew, not a medieval — or ancient — English king. Nor was he unable, as a white Christian male of his time, to write sympathetically about them. Let’s get back to judging works on their merits, not by our personal politics.

Gregory Loselle
Southgate, Mich.

A note from antiquity

I have a note to myself from when I read The Intuitionist, Colson Whitehead's first novel, in 1999! Yes, not only did I save this note from 19 years ago, I actually know where to find it! I may have sloppy writing habits, but I am very organized!

When she goes to see Coombs (Natchez) he tells the receptionist to her pass.

Vol I and II as old and new testament. Vol III "truly understands human need". shanti?

"It is important to let the citizens know it is coming. to let them prepare themselves for the second elevation."

Fulton as god or prophet, christlike figure. Lila Mae as prophet p 255

listening to joni

mingus, blasted for thinking she could play jazz and "be black"

1 mingus approached her

2 jazz has always been multicultural, first culture in US to be integrated

3 shut up you idiots

and

review her love life or her personality (which they imagined they knew based on songs) or criticized her for not doing ... ? 

and

did critics hate her because they didn't understand her and she made them feel stupid?

and

anthology supposed 2 b walkthru of joni chronology but no revw of blue or c&s?

 Orphaned blog ideas

These are notes for posts I've never written, and since I never see these notes, probably never will.

dr said choose habits that involve movement
why this is not practical or good advice

and

coltrane
giant steps
in btn 2 miles davis albums

incredibly fertile periods of great musicians: joni, dylan, coltrane
what years for each?

and

to find out which one deserves it most, a series of tests
everyone deserves it!
love, meaningful work, decent life, 2nd chance or 3rd or 4th chance
individual/anecdotal stories determining policies
one @ time - luck - policies for better
individuals vs better society

and

when could you get quality food at a decent price?
when could one earner support a family?
is this only true for white people?
role of unions

and

who is the news for?
price of oil
layoffs vs stock market
"growth" - shareholders
who produces the news

These have been sitting in Blogger drafts for ages. I don't write them, but I don't delete them.

thoughts on listening to bob dylan while driving through the [ends there]

what i'm reading: galileo: watcher of the skies by david wootton

seeing the night sky

five assumptions urbans make about rurals and vice versa

the trudeau government should create green jobs, not bail out the fossil-fuel industry

the strange and circular concept of electability

athena is organizing against amazon, and you can help -- even if you use amazon. especially if you use amazon.

mass demos are ineffective and have been for more than two decades

wondering what to do with all that privilege and surplus good luck? try #write4rights 2020

Here we are in the middle of a global pandemic, and I feel (to paraphrase my favourite baseball player) like the luckiest person on the face of the earth.*

I'm healthy, my partner is healthy, and no one in our extended families has gotten covid.

Thanks to my union, and to my partner's very decent employer, we have a comfortable income, and we didn't lose any income during the pandemic.

I have a safe, comfortable, spacious place to ride out the lockdown and the pandemic in general, with plenty of indoor interests to keep me busy. 

I live in an area with very low covid incidence, where it's easy to enjoy the outdoors while maintaining social distancing.

And that's just my covid-related good fortune. In general my privilege is vast. My young life had many challenges, and perhaps my future holds more (who knows), but in the present I am incredibly fortunate. 

I hope many of you reading this also enjoy lives of privilege, and that you have strong support for the areas of your life where you don't.

The thing about privilege is you don't choose it. You can't lose it. And even if you did, what good would that do? 

The thing about privilege is recognizing it.

The thing about privilege is what you do with it.

* * * *

This month, I encourage you to use some of your privilege to advocate for people who have none, by participating in Write for Rights. 

Write for Rights is Amnesty International's largest annual event. It's easy to participate in and it gets results. 

I've written a lot about the reasons to participate in Write For Rights: the positive and feel-good reasons, and the deadly serious reasons. Some examples are here and here.

These are the 10 cases -- the 14 people -- that Amnesty Canada has chosen to highlight this year. You can read about each one here.

The great thing about Write for Rights is you can participate in a way that works for you.

You can join a virtual event.

You can write on your own, as I do.

You can write one letter.

You can write 10 letters.

You can write by email. 

You can type, print, and send a paper letter. 

It's not difficult to do. 

It makes a difference.

Write for Rights in Canada.

Write for Rights in the US.

Write for Rights anywhere. 

* Many years ago, I wrote "on luck," one of wmtc's greatest hits. This is one of the posts that lost dozens of comments. But it's still a good post.

"at your library" in the north island eagle: an antidote to covid boredom: virtual book clubs

An Antidote to COVID Boredom: Virtual Book Clubs

As winter settles in on the North Island, and we continue social distancing to lessen the risks of contracting COVID-19, life can sometimes get a little monotonous. Boredom is bad for our mental health. Plus, it's boring!

If reading is one of your pleasures, perhaps now is the time to try reading with a group – a book club. The Vancouver Island Regional Library (VIRL) is offering three virtual (online) book clubs with three different themes. Like all library programs, you can join in for free. All you need is a device and an internet connection.

All the selections for these virtual book club titles will be available as eBooks and eAudiobooks with no waiting.

"Our Shared Shelf" Book Club is focused on children's chapter books that the whole family can enjoy. November's title was Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu, an adventure story about a brave 11-year-old girl on a supernatural mission to save her best friend Jack from meeting an icy end.

An early title was The Case of the Missing Moonstone, a fun mix of mystery, history, and science, imagining what would happen if Ada Lovelace (the world's first computer programmer) and Mary Shelley (author of Frankenstein) formed a detective agency.

The Librarian hosting the group posts questions to get you and your child thinking about the book, and suggests activities you can do together that tie in with the themes.

"Take a Break" is an adult book club focused on lighthearted reads. The November title is The Rosie Project by Australian author Graeme Simsion. This book tells the story of a nerdy, super-organized professor who devises a questionnaire to help him meet the perfect woman. When Rosie, a bartender, enters his life, she doesn't meet any of his criteria … and things begin to get interesting

"Books & Beyond" is a book club focused on community action. After each title, the moderators propose a challenge or task for members to participate in, which help explore the topics covered in the book.

One recent "Books & Beyond" title was The Walls Around Us by Nova Ren Suma, a supernatural tale highlighting questions of guilt, innocence, and justice. The November title was The Arrival of Someday by Jen Malone, about a teenager whose world comes to a sudden halt when she learns she needs an organ transplant.

To find these virtual book clubs, go to virl.bc.ca/book-club. Scroll down to find the one (or more!) that interests you. When you click on the name of the club, you'll go to a the club's Facebook group.

Or, go through Facebook:

Our Shared Shelf: facebook.com/groups/ossbookclub

Take A Break: facebook.com/groups/takeabreakbookclub

Books & Beyond: facebook.com/groups/booksandbeyondbookclub

As always, if you need help finding these or any other library resource, ask at your favourite branch. We're here to help.

"at your library" in the north island eagle: homeschooling? your library can help

Homeschooling? Your Library Can Help

One of the many ways COVID has changed our lives is an increased interest in homeschooling. Of course no parents want their children to be exposed to the virus. But many families face health challenges that make the possibility of exposure much more dangerous. Parents may have many reasons for preferring homeschooling, and the pandemic has brought them front of mind.

If you're a homeschool family, you already know that the public library is an invaluable resource. But the Vancouver Island Regional Library (VIRL) can support your efforts in many ways that you might not be aware of.

One of VIRL's most popular resources for homeschool families are our Tinker Totes. Tinker Totes help you bring STEAM learning to life in your own home. STEAM – which stands for Science Technology Engineering Arts Math – activities encourage creative thinking and build problem-solving skills. With STEAM learning, children learn through hands-on experience, rather than memorizing lists and writing exams.

Try Magna Tiles or Keva Planks for building and engineering, a set of handbells for a group music experience, Code-A-Pillar to learn the basic principles of computer coding, and a sensory playtime for a unique, all-around learning experience. Ask for these kits at your library branch, or go to virl.bc.ca and search the catalogue for Tinker Totes.

CreativeBug is another great STEAM resource. One of our newest e-resources, CreativeBug offers thousands of video classes taught by expert makers in design, art, and all manner of crafts. Exploring and creating art, crafts, and DIY projects are all very much STEAM learning. Kids – like all of us – learn best when they enjoy what they're doing. Along with CreativeBug, VIRL has a wealth of art and craft books geared to children – no internet connection needed.

Another popular resource for enriching home learning are VIRL's literacy kits. "Lit kits," as we like to call them, focus on different learning themes, such as Wild Animals, Pirates, Things That Go, Force and Motion, and Divorce. Like Tinker Totes, Lit Kits come in a backpack or tote. They contain books, CDs, DVDs, toys, and other educational tools.

VIRL also offers a huge variety of e-resources specially designed for children and teens. Encyclopedia of British Columbia, Explora for Kids, KnowBC, Knowledge Network, National Geographic Kids, OverDrive for Kids, PebbleGo, and TumbleBookLibrary, are all kid-friendly, and great resources for research projects, building literacy skills, and independent learning.

All in all, the best resource for homeschooling is your local library. Staff can help you find books on every topic, and show you amazing e-resources for kids and teens. To get started, go to virl.bc.ca > learn > kids, or stop by your favourite branch.

"at your library" in the north island eagle: new e-resources and new hours at the port hardy library

New E-Resources – and New Hours at the Port Hardy Library

The Vancouver Island Regional Library (VIRL) has added some terrific new e-resources to our catalogue.

If you read this column, you've read a lot about e-resources. VIRL gives you access to digital tools that focus and it's all free. All you need is a library card.

Our newest e-resource is Clicklaw. Clicklaw provides legal information and education, specifically for people in BC. The law affects our lives in countless ways, and Clicklaw can help you understand your rights and your options. It's kept updated with the most current laws, and can connect you to expert knowledge and advice.

Some of the categories of information in Clicklaw are money (debt, pensions, benefits), families (divorce, abuse, wills), housing (landlords, tenants, neighbours), consumer (contractors, warranties, lending, credit), and employment (hiring and firing, harassment, benefits). These are just a few examples.

Clicklaw is also a great resource for anyone who wants to teach others about the law, or to raise awareness of how various laws impact us. Teachers, counselors, and community activists may find this very useful. You can also search under a specific community or group that you identify with – Indigenous, women, people with disabilities, seniors, or newcomers.

Another priceless e-resource is Consumer Reports. Consumer Reports is best known for its independent, unbiased reviews of cars, appliances, and other expensive items. They don't accept advertising, and their reviews are based on strict, scientific testing.

I know what you might be thinking: the internet is full of user reviews – doesn't that make Consumer Reports obsolete? Anything but.

There's an onslaught of information on the internet, but who can you trust? How much of the information is valid, verified, real? Consumer Reports can help you cut through so much confusing, conflicting information. It can help you understand food labeling, how to keep your identity safe, financial scams, chemical exposure – even the latest news about COVID-19. And it's available free, through your library.

If you're interested in either Clicklaw or Consumer Reports, but you don't know how to get started, visit your local VIRL branch. Even though we're only offering "Takeout" service, staff can still help you get started – six feet apart, and wearing masks, but we'll do our best!

Port Hardy: Improved Open Hours

If you love the Port Hardy library, we have good news! In response to customer requests, we've shifted our open hours to give you more access to the library at times when you are available.

The Port Hardy Library will now be open with continuous hours (that is, no closure for lunch or dinner) on Tuesdays and Saturdays, and will be open until 8 p.m. on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Come and visit us! Even though we can't welcome you through our doors, we'll still be very happy to see you, and we'll help you find what you need.

"at your library" in the north island eagle: september is literacy month

 Catching up on my "At Your Library" column in one of our free local newspapers.

September Is Literacy Month

When you hear the word "literacy", you might think of reading and writing. That is the traditional definition of literacy, but did you know there are many different kinds of literacy?

Numerical literacy is the ability to do the basic math that is needed in every day life – to make change, add up a budget, or read a graph.

Digital literacy means having basic computer skills, being able to use technology to access information, solve problems, and make your life easier. Contrary to what many people think, young people aren't necessarily digitally literate.

Health literacy means being able to communicate with health-care providers, follow instructions for medications, find health information, for some examples.

Financial Literacy means the ability to understand and manage your finances.

Media Literacy means sorting through and understanding the messages we get from all kinds of media – TV, movies, videogames, magazines. In this Information Age, this is something that many people struggle with.

The global pandemic has really highlighted the connection between health literacy and media literacy. There is so much information – but it's not necessarily accurate, and we can't necessarily trust it or take it at face value. How do we find good information? How do we separate facts from opinions? What media can we trust?

There is also: cultural literacy, emotional literacy, and physical literacy.

In short, all the skills you need to navigate and make sense of the world are literacies. And guess what? Your library can help with all of them!

When you want to know more about the world, when you want to learn a new skill or pursue a new hobby, your library is the perfect place to start. At the library, we can connect you with resources to get you started. And of course, our help is free of charge.

listening to joni: #16: taming the tiger

Taming the Tiger, 1998

Taming the Tiger is markedly different than Joni's previous album, Turbulent Indigo. Where Turbulent Indigo is dark, intense, and enigmatic, and the lyrics largely topical, this one has a light, lyrical feel, the music shimmering and weightless, the lyrics more personal. Many critics regard it as Joni's best "latter day" album, perhaps because it's more accessible. I wouldn't go that far -- Turbulent Indigo and Night Ride Home are both better, in my view -- but Taming the Tiger is a solid album.

To me, the name of the album and the title track are self-referential -- Joni, the fierce and dangerous tiger is now a domestic house cat. But in every cat there lurks some tiger; after all, this is "taming", a process, not past tense. 

The title song's refrain see-saws us from the house cat to the tiger and back, using bits from the William Blake poem to a new purpose.

Tiger tiger burning brightly
(You can't tame the tiger)
Oh, be nice kitty-kitty
Boring!
Tiger tiger burning brightly
Nice kitty-kitty
Fight to the light
Fight to the light
In the forest of the night.

Joni may be somewhat domesticated, no longer doing battle with the music industry, critics, and a string of suitors, but "nice kitty-kitty" still bores her. She still wants to fight through the night: she wants excitement, she wants passion. 

Would a house cat begin a song with this?

"Kiss my ass, I said,
and I threw my drink...
Tequila trickling down
His business suit

That song, "Lead Balloon," is a flippant take on the familiar theme of Joni's dislike of the music industry. She sings:

An angry man is just an angry man,
But an angry woman...
Bitch!

The narrator "fights before [she] thinks". Then when she has to ask the man for help -- because it's "his town" -- that goes down like a lead balloon. Not Joni's finest songwriting, but the song itself is lively and fun.

On "Man From Mars", she laments a lost love, who was an alien creature among the rest of humanity. 

Since I lost you...
I can't get through the day
Without at least one big boo-hoo
The pain won't go away
What am I to do?

She's hurting, but she's mocking her pain, too, calling her tears "a big boo-hoo" and lamenting "what am I to do?" like a soap opera actor. 

"Face Lift" contains snippets of mockery, too, as she sings about conflict with her conservative upbringing and her mother's platitudes -- platitudes that she may have adopted. The album's sultry opener, "Harlem in Havana," also mentions that "Auntie Ruthie would have died if she knew we were on the inside". It's always interesting how those childhood realities stay with us our entire lives, and how they inform art.

My favourite track on Taming the Tiger is "Stay In Touch". Many critics point out that it seems to be about Joni's reunion with her daughter and the grandson she didn't know she had. But you know how I feel about music being "about" something. "Stay In Touch" certainly may have been inspired by these life-changing events, but a master songsmith like Joni Mitchell can't be defined by such a narrow frame.

Part of this is permanent
Part of this is passing
So we must be loyal and wary
Not to give away too much
Till we build a firm foundation
And empty out old habits

Joni's guitar is slow and plaintive, Wayne Shorter's soprano sax is mournful but not maudlin. The lyrics take a cliched phrase, something people say with barely a thought -- "we should stay in touch" -- and turns it into a meditation on the human need for connection. The song is so poignant, almost painful.

The arrangements on this album are delicate and ambient -- jazzy but not quite jazz. Joni's distinctive guitar and Shorter's sax form the predominant sound, but both take a back seat to Joni's vocals.

The album cover

This album art is a treasure trove of Joni paintings, and seems to be a series. There are images of paintings -- photographed with their frames -- on each page of the lyrics booklet, as well as on the CD. 

This painting comes complete with word-play.
It seems to me like an update of the inside cover of For the Roses.

This is one of Joni's cats, Nietzsche.

This is a portrait of Canadian musician Don Freed, called
"After the Bombing of Dresden". Story is here.

This is interesting! I didn't find any information on it.
I made up a story that Joni is the cat and the male hand is the music industry.
There's no reason to think this is what Joni had in mind!

France

In past "listening to joni" posts, I tallied references to cactus and stockings, which were recurrent symbols in Joni songs. This album revives another lyrical trend: Paris, or France. Of course two of her very well-known songs are "In France They Kiss On Main Street" and "I Was a Free Man in Paris". When I hear references to Paris and France, I think the place-names are associated with freedom and abandon, and the alternative to the staid, conventional life.

On Taming the Tiger, there is this refrain from "Love Puts on a New Face":

But in France they say
Everyday
Love puts on a new face
Love has many faces

Here, France is the place that understands love, the place we can look to for guidance about being in love.

In "Face Lift", she sings of a memory:

We pushed the bed up to the window
To see the Christmas lights
On the east bank across the steaming river
Between the bridges lit up Paris-like
This river has run through both our lives
Between these banks of our continuing delights
Bless us, don't let us lose the drift
You know, Happiness is the best facelift.

I can imagine a young Joan Anderson looking at the lights on the bridges over the South Saskatchewan River, imagining they were the lights of Paris. 

In her own words 

On the CD cover, after the lyrics and credits, are these dedications.

Special thanks to Fred Wallecki and Brian Blade
For rekindling my desire to make music.

Thanks to everyone at the Daily Grill for the good food and the good cheer.

Thanks to Edwin and the parking gang for their friendliness and courtesy.

Thanks to Julie Larson for fighting for me and with me.

And special, special thanks to Kilauren and Marlin just for being in this world.

Co-writing credits

"Crazy Cries of Love" words by Don Freed.

"My Best To You" written by Gene Willadsen and Isham Jones.

Other musicians on this album

Bass, Larry Klein
Drums, Brian Blade
Sax, Soprano Sax, Wayne Shorter
Barker on "Harlem in Havana", Femi Jiya
Pedal steel, Greg Leisz
Low Lead Guitar, Michael Landau

Joni, in addition to guitar and vocals: guitar orchestra, keyboards, background vocals, bass ("Man from Mars", "No Apologies"), percussion ("My Best to You"). 

One album left in this blog series

This is the penultimate post in the Listening to Joni series! I'm not including compilations or anthologies, so unless Joni records some new music, there is only one more album to write about.

I've already purchased a copy of Joni Mitchell Archives, Volume 1, although I've only explored it a bit so far. I'm thrilled that Joni decided to open the vault. The package itself is impeccably designed.

what i'm reading: beaten down, worked up: the past, present, and future of american labor

Beaten Down, Worked Up: The Past, Present, and Future of American Labor by Steven Greenhouse is exactly what the subtitle says: a history and analysis of the rise, decline, and re-emergence of the labour movement in the United States. Although the context is American, the lessons in the stories easily apply to Canada, and perhaps globally, to labour movements everywhere. 

Greenhouse covered labour issues for The New York Times for more than 30 years. It's obvious that the research for Beaten Down, Worked Up was vast and meticulous, but the book is never bogged down by too much detail. The writing is clear and accessible. Greenhouse is unapologetically pro-labour, but not a cheerleader for unions. 

I found the book easy to read and compelling, and I recommend it highly both to readers of nonfiction with an interest in history and to labour activists. It should be required reading for all workers who are union skeptics!

I really appreciated how this book was organized. Greenhouse walks readers through a story arc, and that story brings a profound understanding of what is at stake, and the potential for change. He demonstrates that when workers win, all of society benefits -- and when workers lose, society begins to crumble.

Part One: State of the Union

The first part of the book describes what happens when workers lose their collective voice, or when that voice is greatly diminished. 

The section ends with what must be American labour's best-kept secret: Culinary Workers Union Local 226 of Las Vegas, Nevada. This is the best illustration of what a strong, progressive, well-organized, and member-driven union can do for its members and for the companies they work for, that I've ever encountered.

Local 226 has transformed the lives of hotel room attendants, food servers, porters, bellmen, cooks, bartenders, laundry workers, and kitchen workers who work on the Las Vegas Strip. The members of Local 226 have transformed these jobs from poverty-level cesspools of exploitation, to well-paid employment with great benefits and a clear path to advancement. Union leadership comes from the rank-and-file, the majority of which are women, Latinx, and other people of colour,

I read the descriptions of Local 226 member benefits with my jaw dropping. Health insurance, including dental, is only the beginning. Members have the opportunity to take free courses to qualify for higher-paying jobs. This means, as Greenhouse writes, "A $35,000-a-year restaurant busser can train for a $60,000-a-year job as a waiter and then study to become a $90,000-a-year sommelier". The union has a homebuyers program for those who reach a certain income threshold can get $20,000 towards a downpayment -- which does not have to be repaid until the member sells the home. 

Greenhouse outlines how Local 226 became the model union, how it maintains its high standards, and how they use their political clout. It expanded my vision of what a union can be.

Part Two: Labor Raises Its Voice

Next, Greenhouse tells stories from labour history:

• "The Uprising of the Twenty Thousand", about Clara Lemlich and textile workers; which dovetails with
  
• "Out of These Ashes", about the Triangle Fire (which I've written about several times) (read this book!) and the influence of Frances Perkins; 
• "Standing Up by Sitting Down", about the Flint sit-down strikes; which leads to
  
• "Walter Reuther, Builder of the Middle Class"; and
  
• "I Am A Man", about the Memphis Sanitation Workers strike -- made famous because that's why Martin Luther King, Jr. was in Memphis on April 4, 1968.

These stories are thrilling -- and inspirational. 

I already knew a fair bit about Clara Lemlich, but reading her story can never get old. A tiny woman, entirely self-educated, barely out of her teens when she started organizing, Lemlich began a movement that became a powerful, transformative force for an entire industry of workers. She is one of my greatest heroes.

Despite the many books written about the Flint sit-down strikes, I didn't know many of the details, and this story was no less thrilling. Many of us view the factory work that used to be common in the US and Canada as decent jobs -- well-paid, with fair treatment, benefits, paid vacations, even pensions. It was not always thus. These jobs became decent work because of unions -- because workers had the courage to unite and use their collective power.

If anyone doubts that unions have contributed to the greater good -- indeed, that they built a middle-class and made it flourish -- they should read about Walter Reuther (who also came from the rank-and-file) and the birth and life of the United Auto Workers.

Part Three: Hard Times for Labor

Part Three of Beaten Down, Worked Up charts the decline of organized labour in the United States, beginning, of course, with the disastrous job action by the Professional Association of Air Traffic Controllers -- the PATCO strike. 

I knew this as the birth of Reaganism and the beginning of the unraveling of the power of organized labour -- and with it, the public good -- in the US. However, I didn't know the details behind the strike -- the many missteps by workers and organizers, who were understandably incredibly angry, but who were untrained in bargaining and let their anger guide them, and the blatant duplicity of then-POTUS Ronald Reagan. It's a heartbreaking story, especially since we know the ending in advance.

In this section, Greenhouse looks at the many reasons labour's voice declined so precipitously: global trends; a new brand of capitalism that focuses relentlessly and solely on shareholder profit; top-down, business unionism and union corruption and discrimination; and the assault on the public sector by politicians like former Wisconsin governor Scott Walker and right-wing mega-funders like the Koch Brothers. 

This part of the book was heartbreaking and frustrating but very informative. The only part I couldn't get into was the corresponding decline in unions' ability to influence politics. However, readers who do the important work of harnessing workers' political power may find this section instructive.

Part Four: Labor, Today and Tomorrow

The final section of Beaten Down, Worked Up looks at the re-emergence and resurgence of workers' collective voice happening right now -- and these stories are every bit as thrilling as those of Clara Lemlich and Walter Reuther.

In this section, Greenhouse profiles: 

• Efforts to bring sanity and equity to the gig economy (which is even worse than I thought);
• The Fight for 15 (which has had many significant wins); 
• The Immokalee farm workers, "from Worst to Best";
  
• The entire City of Los Angeles and how it became a labour-friendly town;
• The ongoing #RedforEd public-school movement that began in 2018; and -- wait for it -- 
• A stunning example of how labour and management can work together for the good of workers, the company, and their customers. I had to stop my eyes from rolling back in my head, but it does seem to be happening at Kaiser Permanente.
  

These stories are rich with lessons that all labour activists can learn from, and brainstorm about how various tactics and strategies might be adapted for their own context -- in both union and nonunion workplaces.

I used to get emails about the Immokalee farm workers, asking me to write companies such as Burger King, who bought tomatoes from these growers -- but I didn't know much of the story behind the movement. (Plus I finally learned how to pronounce it! Immokalee rhymes with broccoli.) 

Immokalee is the leading supplier of "winter tomatoes", all the tomatoes used by consumers and restaurants in the US during the winter months. Workers there lived in conditions barely above slavery, and, in some cases, actually were slaves. With an assist from two labour activists who took on the work as their own, the workers organized, transforming Immokalee to the best conditions of farmworkers in the country -- and a decent place to work.

Farmworkers in Florida are not legally allowed to organize, so this fight needed creative strategies, direct action, and -- like all labour fights -- persistence and tenacity. And they won, without the benefit of a union.

Workers in the City of Los Angeles have -- among many successes -- innovated the Community Benefits Agreement, in which developers agree to design new projects so they enrich not only themselves but the surrounding community, with local hiring, living wage provisions, and community investment. These are not empty promises -- they are legally binding agreements with built-in accountability and significant penalties for non-compliance.

Lessons and Workers' Voices

Many lessons are embedded in these stories, but the two most powerful ideas are also the simplest. 

One, different contexts call for different strategies. Depending on the industry, the workers, the employer, the workplace, the larger community, and the economic situation, different strategies will be needed in order to succeed. While there are certainly some basic principles that apply, there is no one-size-fits-all strategy or solution. In Immokalee, for example, classic farmworker organizing was unsuccessful. They didn't give up: they changed tactics.

And two, when workers win, we all win. Every one of these initiatives -- private sector or public, inside work or outside work, professional or manual labour -- reduces poverty, strengthens the economy, benefits families, and brings positive impacts to every part of the community. Labour activists are not fighting for a slightly larger piece of the pie. They are fighting for affordable housing, living wage laws for all workers (union and nonunion), better education, better healthcare.  

The most compelling stories in Beaten Down, Worked Up are about workers who stepped up and became workplace leaders. Some, like Clara Lemlich, had no role models, and learned only by intelligence, intuition, and raw courage. Others raised their voices to look for help, or were approached by organizers and leapt at the opportunity. Every single one of them -- hotel room cleaners, tomato pickers, grade-school teachers, airport luggage handlers, sanitation workers -- discovered their potential, and went on to lead hundreds, thousands, or tens of thousands.

It's fitting, then, to close with some words about and from some newly-minted labour leaders. 

Shortly before closing time one Sunday, Terrence Wise was mopping the floor at his Burger King in Kansas City, when three fast-food workers entered the store and approached him. A worker wearing a Domino's shirt asked, "Do you think you deserve better pay?"

"Yes, of course," Wise recalls telling them.

"Do you think you deserve health benefits?" the workers asked.

"Yes," Wise responded, telling them he hadn't seen a dentist in 18 years.

"Do you think you deserve a vacation?"

"Yes," Wise said, noting he hadn't seen his mother in eight years.

That was the first time Wise heard of the Fight for $15, and within a week he was attending an FF15 meeting with a dozen other fast-food workers inside St. Mark's Lutheran Church. Little did Wise know that his joining the movement would take him to some surprising places.

Two months later, on July 29, 2013, the Fight for $15 staged its first strike in Kansas City, and Wise didn't show up for his jobs at Burger King and Pizza Hunt. He instead protested alongside 60 other workers outside a McDonald's downtown. That day he worried he might get fired, yet he felt empowered, liberated even. Before the Fight for $15 came along, he said, it never crossed his mind that fast-food workers could walk out "because they don't treat us right."

Wise so impressed the other Kansas City workers with how well he spoke that they designated him their spokesman for the media interviews. His early interest in the ministry had helped make him an eloquent speaker; when Wise gets going, he often speaks in the cadences of Martin Luther King Jr. Soon the Fight for $15 even had him doing interviews on national media. 

He told NPR's All Things Considered about being homeless despite holding two jobs. "We lost our home, and we were sleeping our minivan, me and my fiancee and my three little girls," he said, "We're in America, the richest nation on Earth, and here we have two working parents getting ready for work in the front seat of their minivan, while their three daughters are getting ready for school in the back."

On the radio show Democracy Now! Wise addressed the myth that fast-food workers are overwhelmingly teenagers trying to get extra spending money. "Where I work, in both my shops, there aren't high schoolers. There are people with families," he said. "We're raising families. We're doing hard work, and we deserve to get a living wage."

Every few months, the Fight for $15 held anther strike in Kansas City, with the biggest rally swelling to 2,000 people -- not just fast-food workers, but other low-wage workers and supporters from the faith, labor, African American, Latino, and LGBT communities. Wise and his fiancee, Myoshia, let their daughters miss school to join the protests. "It's been teaching the kids a lot," Myoshia said. "Stand up and fight -- it's stuff they don't teach in school."

Kansas City's fast-food workers elected Wise to be their representative on the Fight for $15's National Organizing Committee, which holds conference calls every two weeks, connecting fast-food leaders from sixty cities. He served as emcee at a Fight for $15 convention in Chicago that brought together 1,000 workers. He was even invited to speak to an NAACP convention in Las Vegas.

America's fast-food workers are disproportionately Black and Hispanic, and the Fight for $15 has tied its struggle to the civil rights movement and Dr. King's struggle for economic justice. It has even joined forces with the revived Poor People's Campaign, rekindled by the Reverend William Barber. "We've seen how the civil rights movement won civil rights," Wise said. "Those things weren't given to us. People faced hoses and beatings. Some people even died. We have to bring the same pressure for today's times and make these companies listen to us. We have to do whatever it takes to win."

Wise is proud that the Fight for $15 is multiracial. "We saw how some unions would exclude women and Hispanics and Blacks," he said. "We knew that wasn't the way. We knew we have to bring all workers together, whether you're black, white, Hispanic, Asian. We had to break all those barriers."

His brightest moment came when the White House organized its Summit on Worker Voice in October 2015. Not only was Wise invited to attend, but he was asked to introduce President Obama. With the president standing at his side, Wise told the White House audience that he was a second-generation fast-food worker and that "despite my working nearly two decades in this industry, I make just $8 an hour." The crowd burst into applause when his mother, JoAnn, was introduced -- the Fight for $15 had brought her to the conference, the first time Wise had seen her in a decade.

"I had a chance to tell Mr. Obama how there are times I struggle and I can barely feed my three daughters," Wise said. "It hurt me to tell him that."

In Wise's view, three ingredients have been critical to the Fight for $15's success. 

First, it encourages workers to tell the world their own, often powerful stories. 

Second, fast-food workers have organized other fast-food workers. "That's the single most important thing," Wise said. "We're the ones that make these companies filthy rich, and we're the ones that are supposed to have this conversation, talking to each other, getting people involved."

The last ingredient has been the movement's extraordinary success at mobilizing workers, getting them to strike and into the streets. That has gotten the attention of McDonald's, state legislatures, and millions of Americans.

"The one thing that works is boots on the ground," Wise said. "Marching and organizing will never grow old.

Here's another inspiring profile of a Fight For $15 leader.

The first time Adrian Alvarez heard of the Fight For $15 was at her mother's house. She often stopped there for food because she didn't earn enough to properly feed herself and her young son, Manny. Her mother told her, Quick, look at the TV, they're showing fast-food workers in New York.

"I thought it was crazy," Alvarez said. "I just kind of laughed." As for the campaign's demand for $15, her initial reaction was "We're not going to get $15. I thought it was too much. Maybe we can get 10 or 12. Honestly, I just thought it would die out," Alvarez said about the movement's progress. "I'd just join on for a little bit, and we'll see what happens. I had no idea the movement would become so big, so important."

Alvarez, the American-born daughter of immigrants from Mexico, grew up in Cicero, a popular and good enough student. Her mother worked in a nearby chicken-processing plant, and her father was a truck driver. After high school, she attended East-West University in Chicago to study forensics, but she dropped out after a year because she couldn't afford a second year of tuition. Alvarez and her son share a bedroom in a basement apartment, which is occupied as well by another single mother with a young son, because Alvarez, making $1,100 a month, on average, couldn't afford the apartment on her own.

Alvarez circulated a petition, asking their McDonald's franchisee to follow the laws, to treat them with respect, and to give workers full-time hours. They were all surprised when they received raises, from from $8.50 an hour to $9.15, and then to $9.75. Alvarez's involvement in FF15 grew along with the movement. At one event, the FF15 brought in a fast-food worker from Denmark.

"She said she makes in three days what we make in two weeks," Alvarez said. "We're doing the same kind of work. It just crushed me." [And of course, the Danish worker's health care is taken care of, too.]

Soon after Alvarez threw herself into the Fight for $15, her McDonald's greatly cut back her hours. The Fight for $15's lawyers filed a complaint with the NLRB, and the labor board's Chicago office warned her franchise owner that it was illegal to retaliate against Alvarez for engaging in pro-worker activities. Her hours were restored.

All the clamor pressured Chicago's business-friendly mayor, Rahm Emanuel, into embracing a $13 minimum wage, in part to help him survive a reelection challenge from the left. That step pressured Alvarez's McDonald's to lift her pay towards $13, even though she works in neighboring Cicero. "The paychecks are bigger now. I can do more with Manny. I can now afford to take him to movies or the Museum of Science and Industry."

Alvarez has become one of the Fight for $15's leading spokeswomen against sexual harassment on the job; 25 McDonald's workers have filed complaints with the EEOC about managers demanding sex and groping their breasts and buttocks. "The public doesn't know what we go through, behind the counters, in the bathrooms, in the janitors' closets," Alvarez said. "We're sick and tired of having to deal with this."

Alvarez was flattered when Fight for $15 strategists invited her to go to Argentina to be the movement's emissary at a day of fast-food strikes there -- part of an effort to make the movement global. Alvarez was a natural choice: she's bilingual, and warm and winning with people. She is also a poised (though she says nervous) speaker who thinks and speaks well on her feet. Of her visit to Buenos Aires, Alvarez said, "They were appalled when I told them that we didn't have any sick days. One worker said, 'But you're from the United States. How can that be?' I was ashamed. The fast-food workers have a union there. They get paid sick days. They get paid vacation. One of the unions has a little camp where they can go on vacation. I don't know what a vacation is. People have been at my McDonald's 10 or 15 years and have never taken a vacation.

"A lot of people get scared of protesting," Alvarez added. "I'm not scared. If you have this big union behind you, why would you be scared? I was more afraid of coming home and not being able to feed my child."

I'll close with words from Roxana Tynan, an organizer with the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy (LAANE), the pioneering Los Angeles workers group that is reshaping the entire labour landscape in that city -- and is being replicated in many other US cities. 

These are words every labour activist should already know. But truth never gets old.

[Tynan's] message for worker advocates and their progressive allies is that one can only build power from the bottom. "Our real message is that power gets built in place and gets built through long-standing coalitions and through leadership development," she said. "And it gets built through the day-to-day work of organizing folks through permanent institutions. There is no shortcut to that. Fancy-ass ideas like universal basic income are meaningless if there is no power to win anything."

Tynan has little patience for critics who dismiss LAANE as a bunch of out-of-control leftist seeking to tear down capitalism. "We have business support," she said. "Developers work with us. Not only do we not have horns, but we have a fundamentally pro-growth agenda. We just want to ensure that all boats are rising." . . .

"When all is said and done," says Tynan, "we have a pretty conservative vision: that people should earn enough money so they can take care of themselves and their families, live somewhere decent, and send their kids to schools that they like. This whole idea that raising wages is a left idea is kind of nutty. You can't make an economy work if people don't have money to spend."