Who says woke?

This illustration has absolutely nothing to do with tonight's post, 
but it is another chance for me to show off my forthcoming mystery. 
And who could find a picture of woke?

Pardon my absence from blogging—I’ve been consumed with proofing, one more time, the manuscript for Irene Deep in Texas Trouble, before I send it to the formatter. But now that’s off my desk and sort of off my mind. What’s still on my mind are some current terms that we hear all the time—terms that are new to our culture in the last few years.

You may guess that “woke” is first I’m thinking about. Gov. Ronald DeSantis gave a speech recently in which he talked about the woke invasion. Everything was in aggressive military terms which struck me immediately. As he drew a verbal picture of an invading army, I couldn’t help think how wrong that was—whatever woke is, it is not tangible and to cast it as an army is ridiculous.

Have you ever noticed that the only people who talk about woke are right-wing conservatives. If the rest of us use the term, it is in defense. DeSantis would tell you that it is an acronym that stands for the Stop the Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees (Stop WOKE) Act—they really had to stretch to get a title which would make an acronym. But the real origin is so ironic as to bring forth laughter from progressives—and no doubt from the Black community. The word came into use among progressive Black Americans in the nineties—one essay I read refers to it as Black slang. It meant to be informed, educated, and socially aware, particularly of injustice and racial inequality. Exactly the opposite of the meaning conservatives have attached to the word. To them, in their incorrect use, it denotes anything they don’t approve of, which turns out to be anyone who is not white, straight, male, and Christian, or any idea that displeases that narrow segment of the population. It is quite possibly the most ridiculous misappropriation of a word that I can remember. Yet hundreds of Americans bitterly decry the woke invasion. Ask them to explain what it means, and nine out of ten are stymied. What a way to fight a war.

Another term that has been bothering me is cancel culture, and I’ve only recently gotten a glimmer of what it means. With current moves to ban classic books like some of Mark Twain or To Kill a Mockingbird and rewrite such classics as Roald Dahl’s children’s literature, I always assumed that the phrase meant the right is out to cancel our historic culture until we end up like an Orwellian society with no past. Not so! It means we are becoming (or already are) a culture that cancels out that which doesn’t fit our ideal vision. Wait! What I mean is that Republicans cancel out (marginalize is a big word these days) whatever doesn’t fit their ideal of America, from LGBTQ citizens to the history of slavery. Makes you a bit uncomfortable? We’ll just cancel it, write a law against it, silence those who disagree with us. The result is we are in danger of raising an entire generation with no accurate knowledge of history, no understanding of anyone who differs from them, no grasp of the great literary traditions in world literature and American literature. Ron DeSantis is not, I suppose, a stupid man—he has degrees from Yale and Harvard (I used to hear that I relation to the second Bush and I didn’t buy it then and I don’t buy I now). Yet DeSantis seems to overlook the maxim that he who doesn’t know history is doomed to repeat its mistakes.

And therein is a dilemma: is DeSantis truly ignoring history or is he using that as a political tactic to play to the amorphous group called “the base” and skyrocket his political aspirations. Does he really believe what he says or is he simply saying whatever he thinks will boost him?

These terms, woke and cancel culture, are matters of language, and it is the uneducated who are easily swayed by this manipulation of our language. And that is exactly where DeSantis would have America headed—by taking over public college curricula, banning books, fining those who speak out, DeSantis is dumbing down if not America yet, at lest his own corner of the country. And he has ambitions to move beyond that. It is a frightening prospect, truly frightening.

Please note that if a law being considered in Florida now passes and if I lived and wrote in Florida, I would probably be under fire for having blogged about the governor. The only saving grace for me would be that I am not paid for blogging. IF I were paid, I would be subject to a $2500 fine. Trust me, few bloggers make that kind of money.

PS Just tonight I read Heather Cox Richardson’s Letter from an American about President Biden’s significant visit to the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama on the anniversary of Bloody Sunday and the voting protest march from Selma to Montgomery. (read it here: March 5, 2023 (Sunday) - by Heather Cox Richardson (substack.com) This is exactly the kind of history DeSantis and his ilk would suppress—brutality against people of color. We must not let them succeed.

 

 

Lunch is a learning experience

         

Delightful lunch today on campus. Students in a class in the department of nutritional sciences annually present two luncheons, open to the public. Today neighbor Mary and I went to a “Fiesta” luncheon in the Bass Hall Living Room. My first time on that part of campus in several years, and I was overwhelmed—there are new buildings where I thought we would park, and the Bass Building is now connected to sort of an indoor commons. I was almost lost.

The living room no longer had living room furniture nor the small four-top tables I remember from luncheons several years ago. About twelve long tables, decorated with bright, Mexican-themed cloths, filled the room, the tables set with charger plates, flatware, water goblets, and—yes—cloth napkins. Mexican decorations on side tables made for a fiesta atmosphere.

Service was buffet style, so I was doubly grateful that Mary came with me—she got to park the car and then carry two plates and two desserts. Like the seasoned waitress she was in college, she can hand-carry, stacking plates on her arm. If I’d tried that, back when I used to help out at the Star Cafe, we’d have had two lunches all over the floor.

The carefully selected and planned menu offered green chile chicken enchiladas, homemade guacamole, homemade salsa, cilantro-lime black beans and rice, and tres leches cake. And every bite was delicious. We sat at a table with several faculty and staff from the college of engineering, and they were outgoing, pleasant, and talkative. Mostly we talked about food. I was lucky enough to sit opposite Anne Vanbeber, chair of nutritional sciences, and she put my uneaten enchilada (two is too many) on a plastic plate with my rice and some fresh guacamole for me to take home. Plus, she was interested to hear about my cookbook, Gourmet on a Hot Plate.

Student introductions and a welcome from the class professor were followed by a drawing for door prices—Mary won $20 gift certificate to Salsa Limon. The whole thing was a win-win event—we had good food, good conversation, and saw education in action. We left with small cookbooks that held the recipes for all we’d eaten.

This is my second experiences with innovative programs at TCU in recent weeks. I may have mentioned that I am part of a study to see if the hearing-impaired (that’s me) can be trained to block out background noise. For forty minutes a week, I play a word game on my phone, with a sort of weird, bonging music playing in my ears. After two weeks I don’t know that I’m getting better, but I like playing word games. A student at the Miller Speech and Hearing Clinic is running the study as her senior honors project.

A wry comment from an English major: so nice to see other sides of the college experience besides football!

A hidden museum you should find

If you live in the DFW area and haven't found the Museum of the Americas, you  really should take a trip to Weatherford. You'll find the museum tucked away in a couple of storefronts on the highway that leads right to the courthouse. Co-owners are Dr. Harold and Elizabeth Lawrence, and it's a joy to see people so wrapped up in and thoroughly enjoying what they're doing. The four main rooms of the museum feature art and artifacts of Native Americans, Mexico and Latin America. Last night's exhibit was a sampler of Regional Art of Latin America. Oil, acrylic and watercolors, a stunning piece of metal work, sculpture, some unusual glass sculptures. Harold gave a fascinating gallery talk on the work in the exhibit--artists lived in, worked in and were influenced by various cultures. Some pieces were clearly influenced by cubism; others reflected the politics of the people's movement; all were fascinating.
My favorite collection in the entire museum is the arrowheads--if you go, get Harold to tell you the story of how they arrived in a jumble that he carefully sorted, researched, and assembled. It's an education in itself.
Elizabeth always has delicious nibbles, and the eclectic crowd that gathers for the openings is fascinating. I see several people I haven't seen in a long time--in fact, went with dear old (take that two ways) friends I don't see much.
After I got home I reflected that I don't get out enough to that kind of affair, and I always have such a good time when I do--mixing learning and sociability. Much as I enjoy it, my world is limited to writing, a grandson, a few friends, and of late dogs--who are barking at each other right at my feet. This was supposed to be last night's blog but by the time I got home and caught up with myself and the dogs, I confess I went to bed. Pretend you're reading on Saturday night, please.

Have you done your homework yet?

Jacob told me on Tuesday that he had a project due on Friday. He handed me a tiny piece of paper on which he'd written Jacob Burton/Tiger Woods. "I have to do a budget, and I chose Tiger Woods because he's a great golfer." Okay. "Do you know what a budget is?" "No." So I tried to explain, but it's kind of hard to do in Tiger Woods' terms--where do you start? $10 million? More? Less? I figured he'd take it home to his parents.
Next day, he was frantic. "Where's that piece of paper?" He looked through the loose papers on my desk--they are many--and found it but then last night it was still on my desk. Meanwhile late last night he told his folks he had a project due Friday but they had no inkling about it. I talked, separately, to two concerned, even frantic, parents today. All ended well. I could tell Jacob didn't understand what he was talking about, but he did say that the class would go to the library tomorrow and find information about their subjects. All well and good--no project due. What he missed was that they'd work on the project Friday.
When he comes to my house in the afternoon, we spend a minimum of an hour and twenty minutes on homework--sometimes we finish most of it, sometimes we barely make a dent. He goes home to do his reading and reading comprehension (the latter is a problem) and finish whatever we didn't get done. Then it's dinner, bath and bed. If it's a baseball day, the schedule gets all out of whack.
I finally confessed to Jordan something that's been bothering me for a long time: I don't remember doing homework with my kids. "You didn't," she said, "We didn't bring any home. We did it all in the classroom. When we got out of school, we played with friends. Then it was dinner, bath, and bed."
Whew! I wasn't a bad parent. But where's Jacob's play time? If he wants to play with a friend after school any day but Friday, I have to say no. We have homework to do.
I wonder what all this is doing for him. Today we were adding two two-figure sums. He did it the way he's taught in school--you add the "tens" and then the extra numbers. To check, I scribbled it on a piece of paper the way I've always done it--and came out with a figure ten higher than his. He insisted he was right; when he finally redid it, he said, "You're right."
I'm not sure the Texas gubernatorial debate about how much we spend on each child really addresses this problem. Yes, we ought to pay teachers better and fund our schools better, but will that fix the curriculum? I need teacher opinions.
Meanwhile I'm struggling through third grade and Jacob's sometimes struggling through his childhood, which should be a happy time.

The perils of reading the newspaper

Trivial thoughts on reading yesterday’s newspaper:  a Tarrant County woman was unable to pay almost $3500 in traffic fines, went to jail, and complained about deplorable conditions. If it was $100 I might sympathize but that’s a lot of fines and means a lot of tickets. Why didn’t she take more care with her driving? Why didn’t she pay the fines as they were imposed rather than letting them accumulate to an impossible total? Sorry, but not much sympathy from this law-abiding citizen…..President Obama wants Europe to try U.S. food. This is one time I’m not in step with our president—why should they when Europe bans all the altered foods we are offered. They don’t tolerate Monsanto at all, while we are left to figure out what’s safe and what isn’t. I’ve stopped buying familiar and favorite brands because Monsanto has a hand in them, even Jacob’s beloved chocolate chip toaster waffles…..And, finally, Texas just executed its 500^th prisoner. Makes me cringe with shame and cry with outrage. Sometimes Scotland looks really good—think I could convince my family to go?

And then on Facebook—that oracle of truth—I read that human intelligence is gradually diminishing. Now I know there’s a lot of talk about “dumbing down America” but is this now an international epidemic? I thought some countries, particularly Asian countries, put a much higher value on education than we do in this country (especially in Texas). But then, if I can’t figure out first-grade math homework, maybe the world’s intellectual capacity is going to hell in a handbasket.

I might just quit reading the newspaper and start skimming Facebook. Too depressing.