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Monday, March 08, 2021

Regarding Sneetches

 


Busy times. Even when I slow down my mind is racing. Hard to sleep. Haunted by what's going on, and what's ahead. Stressed. The experts say it will be a slow go. Just hope I can free up money to care for my mom. Hoping others will work with me, not against me. We have the same goals, to take care of mom, her house, and her possessions. They're all mom's bills now.

The memorial service is coming together. Got someone to lead the singing, a pianist, and someone to work the sound board. Will is going to share memories, and MC has agreed to sing. Brother in law is working to live stream the service. I'll try to share the link if you want to watch.

Slept a little late on Saturday but not much. Did some catching up, but still have a ways to go. Both our stove and dishwasher were broken. Went to Home Depot and bought a new dishwasher. Then drove C to return the new pair of glasses she didn't like. Back home to rest but got tied up on a destressing call. It ruined the rest of my day.

Drove down to W&MC's for a family meal. Hard for me to enjoy the time after my rough afternoon. BBQ, Brunswick Stew. Mac & Cheese. Potato Salad, M made cole slaw. Banana pudding for dessert, W&MC showed us pictures from their trip to Montana. Just as we were leaving, Jeff Yearwood returned my call. We talked the entire drive home. A good, needed chat, talking me down from the stressful afternoon.

Sunday wasn't as restful as I'd hoped. I attended a church service for the first time in a year, at a small church outside of town. I'd told a couple of local friends I was free for lunch at 1 pm, but the meal lasted longer than I'd expected. It was a welcome respite. Later our friends Nancy and Lee brought us supper: beef stew, wheat rolls, and muffins. Stayed up later than I'd hoped (10:30) organizing leftovers.

Monday: back at the office. Piles of work to do. Small group tonight. Hot Stove on Wednesday night. The busyness continues.    .

 

Denison on Suess: Obama marked Read Across American Day with a proclamation calling Dr. Seuss "one of America's revered wordsmiths". Biden omitted any reference to Dr. Seuss in his recent proclamation marking the day. Then eBay joined the controversy, purging all listings for the six books from the site. Notably, eBay will still allow you to sell pornography, Mein Kampf, and Chairman Mao's Little Red Book.

Writing for National Review, Dan McLaughlin focuses on one of the "canceled" books, The Sneetches. The plot: The Sneetches are identical birds, except that some have stars on their bellies while others do not. The star-belly Sneetches look down on the star-less Sneetches. Then a monkey named Sylvester McMonkey McBean offers to add stars to bellies for a fee. Now that the star-belly Sneetches are no longer superior, McBean talks them into removing their stars so that they can declare star-less bellies to be the new grounds for supremacy. Eventually, everyone loses track of who had what, while McBean makes off with all their money. Poorer but wiser, the Sneetches abandon star-based classification altogether and live in star-blind harmony.

The moral is clear: we should not discriminate against others based on appearance. A "star blind" culture is best for all. Everyone deserves the same opportunities as everyone else. The book is so persuasive and its message so positive that in 1998, NATO and the UN distributed copies of the book in Bosnia in the midst of the ethnic conflicts being waged there. This was the approach of the civil rights movement. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 ended segregation in public places and banned employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 ensured that all Americans have the equal right and access to vote. The goal was a culture in which everyone had the same rights and opportunities as everyone else. A "star-blind" society.

The National Education Association has provided a list of books as replacements for those by Dr. Seuss that have been canceled. It includes Julián Is a Mermaid, about a boy who wants to be a mermaid, and The Prince and the Dressmaker, about a cross-dressing prince. If you disagree with this ideology, you're among the oppressors. If you defend biblical morality against a LGBTQ agenda, for instance, you're an oppressor of the persecuted oppressed. This mentality applies to "minority rights" across the age spectrum from abortion to euthanasia.

https://www.denisonforum.org/columns/daily-article/why-canceling-dr-seuss-is-a-threat-to-all-evangelicals-praying-today-for-the-courage-we-will-need-tomorrow/

The Colonnade wasn't one of my favorite places, but really I can only remember eating there once or twice, and it's been years and years. Saturday Ceil suggested we eat at Little Rey, on the corner of Piedmont and Cheshire, but I don't like it either. Ceil doesn't like La Fonda. I just like it better than anywhere else on the Westside.

I'm surprised I haven't found all my notes and stats from Mighty Mites. Surely I didn't get rid of them. Ellen Dilday or the daughter on another old staff member recently posted scores of photos from old church news, like the one of L looking at clocks. I have a stack of those newsletters as well.

Lately I've been able to keep up with most every GT basketball game.

FERNANDO VALENZUELA [B-R Bio] was the last pitcher to rack up twenty complete major league games in a season. He had 20 CG in 1986. He was the first player to be awarded $1 million salary through salary arbitration. Valenzuela won the arbitration case as spring training began in his 3rd full season. The previous high had been Bruce Sutter's $700,000 three years before. He was a coach for his country's team in four World Baseball Classic Tournaments. Served as a coach for the Mexican team in 2006, 2009, 2013 & 2017.

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