Here we are at the end of another week. Hope yours has been a good one.
My plan on Monday – looking ahead to a busy week – was to pre-schedule just a fun post for today. Well, as so many plans go, that one went awry.
There will be some fun a bit later in the post – can’t have Friday without some funnies – but I ran across an article by Chris Hedges titled James Baldwin and the Meaning of Whiteness, and I just had to share a bit.
Those of you who have read my books know that I explore issues of racism, especially in the Seasons Mystery Series, so I am always interested in something new on the topic to consider.
Chris starts his article with a review of “I am Not Your Negro,” a new documentary film from Raul Peck, based on an unfinished book by James Baldwin, Remember This House. This is part of that article, and I do hope you click over and read the rest.
The newly released film powerfully illustrates, through James Baldwin’s prophetic work, that the insanity now gripping the United States is an inevitable consequence of white Americans’ steadfast failure to confront where they came from, who they are and the lies and myths they use to mask past and present crimes. Baldwin’s only equal as a 20th century essayist is George Orwell. If you have not read Baldwin you probably do not fully understand America. Especially now.
History “is not the past,” the film quotes Baldwin as saying. “History is the present. We carry our history with us. To think otherwise is criminal.”
I remember reading two of Baldwin’s books when I was in college, Nobody Knows my Name and The Fire Next Time. Both gave me insights as to what life was/is like for African Americans and sparked my activism in the Civil Rights Movement. The Fire Next Time examines the consequences of racial injustice, and, back in 1963 when I first read it, I was horrified to find out that people think that a person of color is somehow less of a person.
Sadly, too many people still think that. Maybe I should dust off my copy of The Fire Next Time and pass it around.
Okay, moving on.
FRIDAY FUNNIES
There was a papa mole, a mamma mole, and a baby mole. They lived in a hole out in the country near a farmhouse. Papa mole poked his head out of the hole and said, “Mmmm, I smell sausage!” Mamma mole poked her head outside the hole and said, “Mmmm, I smell pancakes!” Baby mole tried to stick his head outside but couldn’t because of the two bigger moles. Baby mole said, “The only thing I smell is molasses.”
(BTW, those moles are living in my pasture.)
Did you know that dolphins are so smart that within a few weeks of captivity, they can train people to stand on the edge of their pool and throw them fish?
I drove my sister’s guinea pig to the vet this morning. My new golf clubs work great!
Two caged circus lions break free and corner a clown in his dressing room. One lion says to the other, “Forget it, those things taste funny.”
On his first visit to the zoo, a little boy stared at the caged stork for a long time and asked his dad, “Why doesn’t the stork recognize me?”
If con is the opposite of pro, then is Congress the opposite of progress?
A young gay man calls home and tells his Jewish mother that he has decided to go back into the closet because he has met a wonderful girl and they are going to be married. He tells his mother that he is sure she will be happier since he knows that his gay lifestyle has been very disturbing to her.
She responds that she is indeed delighted and asks tentatively, “I suppose it would be too much to hope that she would be Jewish?”
He tells her that not only is the girl Jewish, but she’s from a wealthy Beverly Hills family. She admits she is overwhelmed by the news, and asks, “What is her name?”
He answers, “Monica Lewinsky.”
There is a pause, then his mother asks, “What happened to that nice black boy you were dating last year?”
Jokes courtesy of The Laugh Factory
That’s all for me for today, folks. If you have a joke you would like to share, please do, and I hope you have a great weekend. Do you have plans?