This cannot be the new normal.

In the days since the election we have seen a dramatic in hate crimes as Trump supporters emboldened by his win seem to feel that their hatred for anyone who is not a heterosexual white male is acceptable to the American public, this is unacceptable. We cannot allow such hatred to infect our country, but now that a man who embodies so many despicable values has managed to weasel his way into the Oval Office a systemic infection has blossomed and it will take everything we have to destroy it.

So what can we do to contain, and hopefully, one day eradicate the infection of hatred that is washing over the country? Unfortunately there is no easy way as this disease is nothing like what we have seen before, we cannot isolate it like Ebola, nor can we cut it out like a cancer. The way we squash the outbreak of hatred is to spend time with people who have opposing view points, to try to understand another person's point of view, the way to squash hatred is to emphasize with your fellow humans. I understand that maybe this sounds terrifying for some people, but try and remember how scared anyone who is not a heterosexual white male is feeling right now (myself included) about the future of our rights, our lives, and our planet. If you absolutely cannot tolerate having a calm and reasonable conversation with someone who does not share your point of view, read a book preferably one that challenges your human experience and can expand your world view. Ignorance and isolation will get us nowhere, we must come together if we are going to eradicate the disease of hatred.

Here is a list of books to get you started in your journey to better personhood:

• Twelve Years A Slave by Solomon Northrup
• Beloved by Toni Morrison
• Beyond the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo
• Middlesex by Jeffery Eugenides
• Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
• Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath 
• Night by Elie Wiesel
• Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi 
• The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie
• A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

** Image Credit: Dump a Day (found via Pinterest). 

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How is this still a thing

The Electoral College....

I do not have a great answer for this, in my somewhat obsessive consumption of election coverage in the days leading up to and since the election I have discovered a number of very unsatisfactory answers including a) it's just how we do things b) there hasn't been enough push back from the American people to change the system c) it's worked out ok so far. There was some push back after the 2000 presidential election when George Bush won the election but did not win the popular vote, bear in mind that this was the first time in 112 years that this has occurred. Now for the second time in less than 20 years we are in a similar position except this time a man who is woefully unqualified, who used hatred and fear to fuel his campaign, who was endorsed by the KKK, who seems to believe that women are sex objects, and can't even be bothered to pay his taxes (along with many other egregious offenses that are in no way less important that the ones listed) has somehow managed to weasel his way into the oval office. Now if we take a moment to remember that when the Electoral College was created, it was deliberately set up to favor slave owning white men, suddenly the election results make sense. 

So how have we allowed such a horrible piece of our past to endure to this day? This question could  be posed to a great many things in America today, but right now we are focusing on the Electoral Collage; and now that we are no longer pretending that racism is something that does not exist in modern America, we can admit that this is another part of the systemic racism that innervates our country and we can get rid of it. I realize that it's not that easy, that there are those that believe that one race is better than another, people that think race is a thing (it's a bloody social construct, pretending it is anything else is ignorant), people that think race has any bearing on who people are as human beings. I am not saying that I am not guilty of my own biases and prejudices, but I am aware of these things and I actively work against my own biases because I refuse to remain ignorant.

Now I'm going to get off my soap box for a minute and step onto another one (I have soap boxes galore), if our country was a true democracy our election would have been decided by the popular vote. As of yesterday (11/12/2016) Hillary Clinton had 1.8 million votes more than Donald Trump, with more than 4 million votes still left to be counted in California alone. I suspect this gap will only increase as more votes are counted, the people have spoken. Hillary Clinton is our president.

** I stole this fantastical image of young Hillary Clinton that that was originally featured in a 1969 issue of Life Magazine from an excellent article on Hillary Clinton from NPR which you can read here.

** Here is a link to an excellent article from Bustle with a link to six whole petitions that you can sign to abolish the Electoral College, because slacktivism.

** Here is a bonus petition urging the Electoral College to vote for Hillary Clinton on December 19

Body Electric Book Review

Body Electric by C.E. Smith is a small book that artfully wrangles tremendous issues such as post-mortem privacy, bias, morality and mortality into a mere 121 pages. The story centers around the complexities of a relationship between a father and his teenaged daughter 4 years after her mother's passing and the ramifications of the mother's absence in such trivial and yet complicated things as the young woman's first school dance, her first date, and her birthday. Interwoven into the narrative is the father's work as a pathologist and his group's decision (despite his objections) to participate in a reality show called American Autopsy. 

What I perhaps enjoyed and appreciated more than the masterfully crafted and interwoven story lines, was the use of language in this story. As a bit of a word nerd I tend to geek out a bit when I encounter a really stupendous word, and there were a plethora of extraordinary words in this work, although the use of the word "bromide" is by far my favorite, which he uses by it's lesser known (at least by me) definition of "a phrase or platitude that, having been employed excessively, suggests insincerity or a lack of originality in the speaker".  

** Body Electric won the 2013 Paris Literary Prize and can be purchased at the Shakespeare and Company bookstore. 

So I'm a bit of a book snob....

This, I think, comes to the surprise of no one. Especially if you've ever had a conversation with me about books or you've seen my personal library. I am a voracious reader and I have a well rounded library and tastes in books, everything from comic books to books on theoretical physics to children's classics have made it into my collection. While my tastes in books is rather broad, there is one thing that is pretty constant in my collection and book history; I do not read garbage. That is to say, life is too short for bad writing, too short for terrible plots, too short for flat main characters.

This of course reminds me of a time when I was reading Pride, Prejudice and Zombies, something I should mention I am not proud of, but I thought it would humorous. Unfortunately it was terrible, it took a literary masterpiece and reduced it to a heaping pile of garbage. So when I accidentally spilled my cup of coffee on it, I unceremoniously chucked that sucker into the trash without a moment of hesitation. So without further ado, I present my list of books to avoid and the books you should read instead.

• The Twilight Series by Stephanie Meyer: If you want to read about vampires try anything by Anne Rice or The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. 

• Anything by Stephanie Meyer: She a terrible writer, read almost anything else. 

• Sense, Sensibility and Sea Monsters by Ben H. Winters (who thinks it's ok to bastardize Jane Austen): Instead try Sense and Sensibility the classic novel by Jane Austen, it's fantastic.

• Pride, Prejudice and Zombies by Ben H. Winters (another bastardized classic): Instead try Pride and Prejudice, it's a literary classic. Also Mr. Darcy is one of the sexiest men in literature. 

• The Fifty Shades of Grey series by E.L. James: If you want to read erotica read almost anything ever written by Anais Nin, maybe start with Delta of Venus. 

• Anything by E. L. James: Anyone who can make domestic abuse, stalking, rape and a bastardization of S & M acceptable to the general public is not someone I would ever waste my time and money on. Also she makes me embarrassed to say that my alma mater is WSU Vancouver. 

• Romance Novels, I have to banish an entire genre because they are form letters pretending to be novels. They rot the mind, if you want to read a great love story try Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, One Day by David Nicholls, The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger, Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. 

• Broerature: This is a term I just made up, but it includes gems like I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell by Tucker Max. Basically anything that is deliberately shocking for the sake of supposed "humor". These books tend to be terribly written, have horrendous grammar mistakes, and exist only to entertain other Bros. Instead read something that empowers women and will probably make you a better human like The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan, We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, or Men Explain Things To Me by Rebecca Solnit. 

** You'll notice that I only put links to books that I would recommend, I cannot support the reading of garbage. So I have not made it easier for you to locate it. 

** Image Credit: I found this lovely art print on Etsy by SacredandProfane.  

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Je Suis Parisien

Today, or rather yesterday, (with my rather odd sleep schedule I have not gone to bed yet) I awoke to the news that Paris had been attacked by terrorists. There were six attacks across the city leaving 128 people dead and at least 180 more injured. At this point it is believed that all the attackers died, most via suicide. French President François Hollande has declared a state of emergency for the first time since 2005, closing public places, imposing curfews and restricting the movement of people and traffic throughout the city. My heart weeps for Paris, we must all pray for Paris.

Image credit: I took this picture of the Eiffel Tower when I was in Paris in 2013.

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Writing advice from John Steinbeck

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