elainegrey

I was distracted yesterday by researching the person likely responsible for the absurdly large Confederate flag flying as one enters Pittsboro from the east. The shiny new flag is likely correlated with the county commissioners terminating their contract with the Daughters of the Confederacy and wanting them to get their statue off the courthouse lawn.

I'm not certain how this tactic will work but it does seem to try to run around the state law by making it clear the state (and the county?) doesn't own the statue. ( Found it: https://www.ncleg.net/Sessions/2015/Bills/Senate/PDF/S22v4.pdf) I'm happy to see the statue leave it's place of prominence, and I'm happy the county first discussed "reimagining" the statue to recontextualize it. I am well aware that the historic courthouse itself is understood by some in the African-American community as a symbol of injustices -- lynchings. The statue doesn't help.

Finding the name of the property owner was no challenge, and a bit of a story or two unfolds in town government proceedings. I'll call him Johnny R. One story is that of trading one subdivision for another: Johnny R's family has been here for some time, and had a bit of land outside town. Johnny R apparently wanted to subdivide and sell lots in May of 2008. It appears it had preliminary approval. but a great deal of neighbor complaints about all the horrible development. 2008 was a bad time to start a project like that, and it looks like Johnny R sold most of his land to to the developers who are making the mega-development around the town called Chatham Park.

My sister and i exercised our eyes a good bit, rolling them around, considering folks who assume their neighbors aren't going to make changes with their land. I think again about the 60 acres to the east of our patch: i'm not sure if the hunting is worse for Christine than bulldozers. The county just recently zoned all unzoned property: that rilled people up, but it's those same folks who are indignant about cement plants and mining.

Back to Johnny R, deeds, cemetery records, and a genealogy all connect to point to the person being over 80 years old. I wonder about wives and children. A genealogy lists a wife, and she's since died. Her obituary mentions a daughter with the same first name as the daughter listed in the genealogy, two deeds list a woman with the same first name, Johnny R's last name, and the last name used in the obituary. There is no mention of a husband in the obituary: no husband predeceased or surviving.

I develop a story in my mind about a bitter divorce and a desire to strip Johnny R out of their lives.

Following Johnny R's deeds he remarries, and he and his second wife apparently stand in line together to give public comment at various county and town meetings -- often at the front. His second wife also has an obituary -- and again Johnny R isn't mentioned. His brother has an obituary: Johnny R isn't mentioned. Deeds record the second wife's daughters, as trustees of her estate, releasing property to Johnny R in reference to a court proceeding.

I'm getting a sense of Johnny R that doesn't seem to indicate a beloved family member. On the other hand, he performed in a local theater production (in keeping with his education and drama degree) and he's acted as an announcer at horse shows.

When i mentioned the flag to the town mayor at an event at Meeting last night, she exclaimed about Johnny R always getting into things, so it's clear he's a well known quantity in town.

Meanwhile, a Confederate "History" group is having a prayer and vigil rally in town today for the Confederate soldier statue. Mayor C asked us to keep clear: she's very worried about the possibility for a fracas. This after our little town had a hostage situation in the state credit union on Thursday.

The statue, flag waving, and local politics distress Christine. Given the distress the code bro culture of Silicon Valley caused her, i have to bite my lip when she talks about the benighted state of affairs. It's easy to see darkness at the edges (if not center) of much of what goes on in human life. There's light, too. It's easy to see one and ignore the other.

Well, then there's me. I'm off to ignore both and just mow down stilt grass.

[I'm sure i've written of Chatham county things before, but recent obsessiveness leads to retroactive adding the tag chatham back this far- 2019-09-22)

Wednesday's work begins: what are all these meetings! Yikes.

Tuesday was not as productive a day as i needed, so i planned to use Wednesday morning for getting some things done for Thursday. I came in to find some meetings i needed to prepare for at a run. This is just the thing that drives me into little self distraction, self destruction patterns.

We aren't as prepared for power outages with Michael as we were with Florence. Post Florence we bought a big water "cooler" so we've got that partly filled with water. ( notes while reading weather warnings )

I look out at the haze of green that is beginning to cover the bare dirt, and think back to the bright green a month ago, grieving. And i think of the hard clay and the holes the trees are in. I'm thankful this should just be one day. Fall arrives in the wake of this storm, with the humidity and temperatures dropping.

If there are frosts before i get back from my conference trip, with floating row covers and my new "greenhouse" arriving while i am gone, i will be miffed. Average first frost date is Oct 30th, i am back on the 21st.

Last night i went out with my parents to the League of Women Voters presentation. ( Read more... )

The venue wasn't intended to be partisan. It says something to me about the state of politics that it seemed that way.

I continue to read http://www.electoral-vote.com/ , which, until midway through 2016, was a fairly clear summary of polls and the news that affected the political polling. There was a light writing style, and i could tell there were shared values around facts, science, general good citizenship, and balance. I was never sure of the political leanings: they were not partisan hacks.

In 2016, like the rest of the country, there was a shift to the amazed, disbelieving, "if this was a movie i would not believe it." And after the election, instead of quietly slipping into silence to reactivate at midterm elections, they kept up with writing summaries. And the snark slipped in. What i like about their summaries is they're trying to read the tea leaves of the American electorate, which means comparing how stories are framed across the news spectrum. That helps a little in answering my question of how long can this nonsense go on: other frames focus on other things.

What's even more helpful though, was this Wednesday article from the Atlantic, pointing out after the jaw dropping pairing of Manafort and Cohen court outcomes Fox news led with "murder in the heartland." The article presents a narrow slice of moral foundation theory (i wish i had a citation to the first long article i read on the subject; an academic survey of some interest is Graham, Jesse, Jonathan Haidt, and Brian A. Nosek. “Liberals and Conservatives Rely on Different Sets of Moral Foundations.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 96, no. 5 (2009): 1029–46. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0015141.)

The article includes this quote:

Yale philosophy professor Jason Stanley makes an intriguing claim. “Corruption, to the fascist politician,” he suggests, “is really about the corruption of purity rather than of the law. Officially, the fascist politician’s denunciations of corruption sound like a denunciation of political corruption. But such talk is intended to evoke corruption in the sense of the usurpation of the traditional order.”

which the author refines into a pithy statement:

What the president’s supporters fear most isn’t the corruption of American law, but the corruption of America’s traditional identity. -- Peter Beinart

Some one of you, i think, referred to the president's Tweets as from someone cosplaying at being president. And... YES ...

....

My background of stories -- countless X-Files episodes, a dash of Twin Peaks, western tropes that seep into Science Fiction -- all have this idea of a community where there is a powerful person with family members and loyalists "running the town," keeping a hierarchical order, taking what they want, and generally held up as exploitative. "The dark underbelly." And the hero goes in and defends the innocent at the bottom of the hierarchy and convicts the bully at the top.

Is that essentially a liberal story? To me, the current executive branch looks a good deal like an extremely stereotyped cast for such a story.

I suppose the other side are all the criminal procedural where the outsider did it?

--== ∞ ==--

Must move on to work. Quick notes re yesterday. Woke 3 am probably too excited about how soon i will be planting fescue in the orchard, and then i can plant my chestnut and the two mulberries, and i need wood chips and etc etc. Worked 4 am to 5:30 ish finding an email that presented a design issue that worried me, was able to doze back off, and realized a solution. Busy workday with many meetings. Briefest lunch break, ended up talking about design issues until 4:30 pm, and NOT quitting early to nap. Walked with Christine and Carrie around the beautiful grounds at Fearrington reveling in the dry air. Got Subway for dinner, ate, and spent the evening on the deck reading about extrafloral nectaries in Prunus spp aka petiolar glands.

Windows open all night -- how incredibly delightful. I hope we have a very very long autumn. Today is heavenly and i have too many meetings.

I found this summary of a Politico article on crazy American political years to be somewhat reassuring. In particular, the comment from Ron Chernow about how Lincoln was followed by Andrew Johnson (not Jackson) was particularly interesting. I have pondered whether the current Obama to Trump succession was some sort of bizarre echo.

This news story is just shy of being a Gary Larson "Far Side." One wonders about a child getting in and finding both of the items that were in the vehicle, but i'll assume that the owner lived alone in the woods.

( Spoiler )

--== ∞ ==--

In more uncomfortable thinking, tensions about "cultural appropriation" on a mailing list continue into a second week. There's some generational tension, i think, and today's post had hand-wringing over "Why must we be so painfully correct all the time?" There was an attempted distinction between micro-aggression and cultural appropriation: this makes me bang my head because the precipitating issue can easily be interpreted as a micro-aggression as well.

I think the original purpose was what i'll call a subversive ministry of gender expression to tradition bound American men when transgender folks were deep in closets. Having a S-- Day to celebrate a skirt-like item of clothing that was gender neutral made for a way to encourage men to wear skirts for a day without the "feminizing" label "skirt" or the defensive masculinity of a kilt. Theoretically, it's gender inclusive, but it certainly misses the obverse of constrained gender expression for women. Indeed one person, female identified at birth, gently noted this issue.

I don't think they were heard.

I think attitudes have changed enough in liberal Quakerism, that addressing gender expression with a "S--- Day" isn't nearly as powerful as it may have been originally. I wonder, even, if younger folks completely miss the subtlety of the choice as they ask, "Why not just have a skirt day?" which would be an honest and plain spoken goal, but far more challenging to masculinity.

Then, there's the fact that this is not a formally organized event, as far as i can tell, but one person's celebratory mission. That the person who brings it forward is more boomer generation than millennial does not escape my notice. That they may not be aware of the male privilege inherent in the framing despite challenging the policing of male privilege is intriguing.

All of this plays out in the larger context of some tempest over white privilege and white supremacy in the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, where i also perceive a generational divide between "I marched at Selma, how dare you!" and "Black Lives Matter", get woke folks.

I don't think S--- Day is any more culturally appropriative than wearing pajamas and is less so than a Kilt Day. I do think there's much more going on though, and the energy of the kerfluffle on list certainly strikes me as pulling strength from some warm ocean of discontent. I wonder if the current group can survive it's calling to be radically inclusive when it comes to nostalgic folks who feel they've done their work.

--== ∞ ==--

Friday night we were out late celebrating Christine's sister's birthday. Carrie woke me at 6:30 barking at the young buck just beyond the deck. I skipped tea, worked outside in the steam for a while, and then dozed for the rest of the morning. Not a highly productive day, and i couldn't bring myself to go back outside at 5 pm, it was so steamy. By the time we could bestir ourselves, the evening thunderstorm hit.

This morning she woke us barking at 5:30, and it was too dim for me to see any critter. I was more rested this morning, and made tea, and have spent the time on the back porch. It's 99% humidity, with the dew point only a fraction of a degree below the temperature, but it's cool enough that, being still, i'm not soaking.

I finished the potato harvest in that outside time yesterday, and planted the whole row with a variety of seeds. On the ends of the rows, where the plants may sprawl beyond the defined borders i planted the mini-melons and yellow squash. The current yellow squash are in abundance, but i don't know if they'll survive to frost. In between i planted marigolds, peanuts, and some very old bean seed. I picked a ear of the popcorn. The pollination of the kernels wasn't as thorough as i'd wish, and -- while it may have been at milk stage -- it wasn't nearly as tasty as sweet corn. This might keep it from falling prey to critters. Time will tell.

We have entered yellow squash season. We appear to have enough for dinner every night -- which isn't going to happen. I suppose i finally have an excuse to take veggies to neighbors! Also, apparently baked squash chips are a thing.

--== ∞ ==--

I didn't post that on Wednesday, but we did take potatoes and squash to the friendly couple who greeted us when we moved in. They in turn shared their bounty of green beans. I'm dubious i'm going to have any beans due to deer, so that was a delight.

I was sucked into the Senate testimony Thursday. This composite of the written statement from McSweeneys is delightful, but when i sit back and think about what i've learned i feel a pit of disgust.

First is the visceral understanding of how hierarchical bureaucratic, law enforcement, and military cultures are -- and how harmful cultural ignorance is at the top of that culture. I sense some of the Senators don't necessarily get the cultural challenge, probably from moving around in more of the wheeling-dealing world. But the senators who have been prosecutors seemed to get it. I don't think i could function well in a hierarchical culture: i am far too used to a much more academia informed culture of all folks being heard. I can recognize what complete dedication there is to such a culture too. The pointed questions of why didn't he quit

Yesterday, an invited speaker gave a message at meeting that moved me deeply. It was very steeped in biblical tradition and the prophets, and with much reference to the political times.

I found myself thinking of the Flyting of Loki. In years past when i read the poem, i chose to believe that Loki was telling the dark truths of all the other assembled Æsir. My suspicion about recorded Norse myths is that there is an overlay of interpretation and framing that is alien to the original stories, and thus disentangling the two sources and the wisdom of the original is a challenge. This morning, i've been reading a little (here, mostly) about Loki: one thought, unbidden and not particularly wanted comes. Can i understand the desires of those who supported Trump as desires for a trickster to take on Washington, a hope that out of disorder and chaos something better will come? That the absence of the trickster -- am i right to not see tricksters in American dominant culture**? -- has made it harder to interpret Trump? Instead, media thought of him as a jester or fool, and thus were stuck in the amusement frame? And because we lack a shared cultural frame of the trickster, this lack, this gap, leaves us so disorientated?


** Not that there aren't amusements that include tricksters, eg Bugs Bunny, but it seems that the fool/jester functionality is more what is brought forward in current culture, not the sharp edge of the trickster that Loki brings forward.

I made a horrible mistake and read the twitter feed of the president elect. There's something about the rhetorical style, exclamations of "Sad!" "Special!" "No more!", which ... are the verbal equivalents of emoticons, now that i think about it. And now i feel uncomfortable, but i suppose "more articulate than smiley faces" is yet a low bar. I suspect i've been exposed to emoticons for so long that i am inured to the shorthand.

--== ∞ ==--

Friday i had a bit of a migraine. "Bit of" in that i was not laid completely out, but "migraine" as it was preceded by a scintillating scotoma. I was restless and raked leaves and unloaded all the unboxed books into the bookshelves: they fit! We had plumbers fix a leaky faucet, and it is truly fixed. I suspect it was about two quarts a day. Every little bit conserved helps, right?

Saturday was planned to be a bit busy. I started with burning a pile of brush, and pulled a great deal of honeysuckle and grapevine out of the near by bit of woods. I went into Raleigh to meet up with my sister. Instead of our plan to meet at the Unity rally, we met up at the art museum where i collected my niece E. We spent a while together enjoying both the modern collection and the antiquities, and then we met up with my mother at a Scandinavian Yule Fair. E had $13 burning a hole in her pocket and we went to every booth multiple times as she looked at little trolls and small figures.

Sunday, Christine and i went to the Mark Hewitt pottery and bought a 2 gallon jar as an anniversary celebration. Come the winter solstice, we will have been married 25 years. The jar was in my arms as the potter came in and we had a lovely chat with him, and he asked questions of us -- it turns out he knows our neighbors and, well, it is a small town.

Today we thought we might go see the swearing in of our new county commissioners, but instead stayed home and discussed dental insurance. We are so very very delighted that the governor's race is finally over and the progressive candidate won. Huzzah.

We saw a doe behind the house in the morning, looking delicate and magical. At lunch i found all my pansies had been munched along with the collards. Harumph.

I have just become nauseous reading North Carolina news about the governor's race and the potential for shenanigans.

http://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article115729818.html
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/11/north-carolina-governor-alleges-voter-fraud-in-bid-to-hang-on-231728
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/11/north-carolina-governor-mccrory-election

I'm not sure if i will join the protests tonight.

For my friends in the US --

* As i told my Muslim sister in law, i will continue to support religious liberties, looking for where i can be effective in education and advocacy. (If you are in the San Fran Bay area, supporting the building of the Islamic Center in San Martin against the NIMBY crowd is a concrete action.)

* I will continue to mind my carbon footprint and encourage others to mind theirs. I will work to educate on the realities of global warming.

* I will work to ensure EVERYONE is included in our society. I'm not sure how to do that but listen. Black Lives Matter. Trans Lives Matter. How can i help people understand that raising up people doesn't mean pushing down others?

* I will listen to the people who supported Trump and try to learn. Where are the bridges?

After the cut are my thoughts this morning for my record.

( Read more... )