Email re Racism in America

This email has NOTHING to do with coronavirus. 

It DOES have to do with the current furor and commentary about racism in the United States.

First, I/we have come across two items that shed some illumination on the subject for me.

One is the book “White Fragility; Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism” by Robin DiAngelo.  It’s #2 this week on the NYTimes Best Sellers NonFiction list, which notes “Historical and cultural analysis on what causes defensive moves by white people and how this inhibits cross-cultural dialogue”. The author is white, and she gives myriad examples of how white Americans are often unconscious of the culture of racism that surrounds us. The book is also available in audio format, 6 hours long.  I recommend it.

The other is a podcast by Sam Harris, "Making Sense with Sam Harris #207 - Can We Pull Back From The Brink? (June 12, 2020)".  Our son Dan is the one who put us onto this podcast, which is almost two hours long, but worth it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmgxtcbc4iU

Nadine and I had the pleasure of seeing Sam Harris debate David Wolpe many years ago re god and religion. Both very knowledgeable thinkers, it was like watching a great tennis match.  In the podcast, Harris delves into many facets of the situation with facts and opinions that may startle you (meant to, he says).

I don’t agree with all of the statements and conclusions of these two persons (DiAngelo, Harris), but I found them both interesting, and certainly worthwhile grist for thought about racism in our country and what we can do about it.

Lastly, I have been thinking about what I could do to contribute in a positive way to this situation.  I found a website called “Black Votes Matter”

https://www.blackvotersmatterfund.org

The purpose of this fund is to encourage more black citizens to vote.  And you can even pick the state where you want your donation to be put to work.  I debated Georgia vs Florida, but finally picked Florida, because of what happened there in the 2000 election (abetted by SCOTUS)

and this seemed to fit the bill for me. Support black Americans now, encourage more voters in general, and maybe swing Florida, which has been on the brink for decades, blue.

I have very mixed feelings about America's current situation, and our future:

On the pessimistic side, I believe that cultural patterns are very slow to change, and racism against many groups, but especially native Americans and black Americans has an old and deep 400+ year history here.

On the positive side, when I see some many Americans demonstrating in an on-going way, and so many young people (even teens) and including so many that are white, I feel hopeful.

Coleman "

On Aging and Retirement

(Response to Peter Imber's latest homemade cartoon)

Not sure why, but many of your homemade cartoons (and really your commentaries following) trigger a response from me.  And while I knew that you were younger than me, the difference is not as much as I had guessed.

I was forced into retirement at age 74, in 2010.  I did enjoy the work I was doing, for which I got a good deal of acknowledgement, and had no driving urge to do anything else, and was somewhat concerned about “out-living” my retirement investments/pension/social security, and so I was reluctant to retire.

Then I had a serious bout of Menieres disease (intense spells of dizziness and nausea), which made it impossible to continue working.  I was very lucky; the aerospace company I was working for had a downturn, and offered all employees of 65 a pretty fat special retirement package, so I grabbed it.

With not much planning for what to do next, over the next year I became depressed.  I ultimately went on an anti-depressant (still on it), and joined a men’s support group, and got some volunteer work going, and things began to turn around.  And since then, retirement has been overall an enjoyable time.  And now, with COVID, I am even more relaxed with less to do (though feeling a little antsy at times).

And I totally agree with you, with the “why stop?” comment.  I too have made this to a couple of friends when they brought up the subject of retirement.

Loved your reminiscence about using the radiators at Dartmouth to warm up your Bubbie’s knishes.

And yes, sometimes my body feels like I’m 90+, and sometimes my head feels like I’m 19.

Keep the cartoons coming.

On Compassion In My Life

(from an email to a mediation teacher)

I have wondered for some time, what is the difference between lovingkindness vs compassion, so today’s class was of special interest to me.  Here are some of the thoughts I had.

LovingKindness:

You suggested that we might try extending love and friendship to one of the other persons in the virtual class, all of whom I do not know, except for you.  I find this very hard to do, to extend love or friendship to someone I don’t know. I am, at least in some ways, a rather guarded person.  What if I extend love or friendship to someone I don’t know, and they want to reciprocate that, and then I find out later that I don’t really find them very interesting or lovable, and/or they are very needy?  I just don’t want to take that chance.  Because then, if I were totally honest with them, which I probably would not be, I would have to tell them that I find them dull or bigoted or needy or sad or negative or….fill in the blanks.  There’s probably more to this than what I have just written, but that’s what I am getting right now today.

Compassion:

I found this much easier to dwell in, perhaps due to this experience I had about 40 years ago.  My then wife, named Leslie, had cajoled me into getting into therapy, at first couples therapy, which later migrated to a therapy group (where I later met Nadine, and obviously, the couples therapy did not save that first marriage.)  I was very leery of therapy at first; telling my most innermost thoughts and feelings to a total stranger? or strangers?  

For the first few weeks in group, I was basically silent, listening to others, but not venturing out of myself.  One of the people in the group was a younger woman named Sue Haden.  It turned out, her brother was Pat Haden, who had been a star quarterback at USC, and then went on to play for the Rams.  Sue related that she had been to a Rams game in the Coliseum, and the Rams as a whole and Pat in particular were having a bad afternoon.  The fans around her began riding her brother, with shouts like “get him out of there”!  She knew her brother was trying his best, and she was very shocked and hurt by the anger that she saw being directed at him by these people around her.  As Sue was relating this story, I began to silently tear up, as I felt a lot of compassion for the situation she described.  The therapist noticed what was happening with me, and asked me how I was feeling.  I was able to open up for the first time in that group, and for the first time in a long time in my life, and say how sad I felt for Sue as she told her story.  From then on, thankfully, I was more open about my feelings in the group, and eventually with others in my life. 

As you and we dwelt on compassion today, I did feel some warmth in my body, though I still usually find it hard to experience most feelings much in my body; they are mostly in my head.

Old-Time Baseball Radio Broadcasts (a la late 1940's)

(From an email to a friend)

I am sending you a recently published book by my friend Don Zminda, about Harry Carey.  Book should arrive next week. Don was born in Chicago, and worked for about 20 years for STATs, a sports statistics company. He is now working on a book about the Black Sox scandal.

On page 22 of the book, he describes a scene right out of my childhood memory.  I'm guessing you are about half-a-generation younger than I am, so I don’t know if you experienced this in person.

In the summers in Philly, after my dad came back from WWII, on Sunday afternoons we would wash the car, a Pontiac sedan (he was a GM man), in the driveway, right next to the house. He would place a radio in the dining room window, and we would listen to the Phillies game be announced on the radio.  If the game was local, of course the announcer would be watching and broadcasting live from Shibe Park.

But if the game was out of town, the announcer would be reading an on-going teletype stream from the other city (only Eastern and MidWest time zones in those days).  He would then add his own color and patter to make it seem that he was seeing the game in person.  As his voice went into the mic, the mic was also picking up the noise of the teletype in the background.  Even over his voice, you could very distinctly hear the teletype clack-click-clack in the background.

When I read this part of Don’s book, these memories of those late 40’s Sunday summer afternoons returned.

Hope you enjoy the book.  I am still enjoying your history lessons.