Saturday, October 24, 2020

Weekend Reading: A Little Late and a Little Short Edition

This post is late today because I woke up earlier than I wanted to, decided I'd lie down in our guest room/music room for a bit... and woke up and hour and a half later! It felt good to get a little more sleep, but why couldn't I have just stayed asleep to begin with?

This is the first weekend in a long while that I haven't had "write postcards/letters" on my weekend to-do list. It feels a bit weird. I'll pick some races for donations but I am coming to the end of that, too. 

I am thinking about what to do next. I need to stay involved because there is a lot more work to do on climate action, small-d democracy initiatives, and other things I care about. But I am not sure how best to stay involved, and how to balance that with other things I care about - like Annorlunda Books, which I haven't been able to invest as much time in as I'd like to lately. (However, this time next week I'll be posting a link to the page for our next release, Lagoonfire, by Francesca Forrest!)

I am hoping to take a walk or two this weekend, and maybe spend some time in my hammock and think things over. 

Anyway, here are the links I have for you this week:

I'll start very local. San Diego Unified has released some details about the plans for "Phase II" reopening. I am cautiously optimistic about this, but we don't have dates yet. The district says it wants to see what our case load is like at the next calculation for our state rating. We've been teetering on the edge of dropping to the most restrictive tier - only staying in our current tier because of our high testing rate - and so that dampens my optimism for our chances of having our kids back to school in person soon. Pumpkin (8th grade) is reasonably happy with remote learning, but Petunia (5th grade) really wants to get back into class. 

However, there is pressure to move ahead because Phase I, in which the kids who are academically struggling or have an IEP, were invited back for short periods of small group in person instruction has had problems.

Zooming out to the national level... this Washington Post pictorial story on the early voting lines really moved me. People are so determined to vote, and that is inspiring. But it is also a little sad, because it doesn't have to be as hard as some places make it! I filled out my mail in ballot last Saturday, sealed and signed the envelope, and then walked it to my local library branch to drop it in the drop box. There were two volunteers there who could have answered any questions and gave me my "I voted" sticker. There was no line. I signed up for text alerts, and on Wednesday I received a text confirming my vote had been received and would be counted. It could be this easy everywhere.

Ezra Klein's piece on the fight for democracy is really good. It is my "if you read only one thing" pick this week. Klein says he uses his podcast to work out ideas for pieces sometimes, and I've listened to a lot of the podcasts that I suspect went into this piece. I think I have previously linked to his interview with political scientist Suzanne Mettler on the threats to American democracy right now, but I'll link to it again because it was really good!

As the case load in the upper midwest continues to grow, I keep thinking about this article about some of the people who went to Sturgis this year and how it didn't have to be this way.

We really enjoyed our time in Nova Scotia last summer, so I tend to notice Nova Scotia stories now. There is trouble there over lobster fishing. As an American, I have absolutely no high ground from which to judge these sorts of stories, but my personal opinion on any dispute over the rights assigned in a treaty between colonizers and the Native population whose land was colonized is that treaty rights are the law and should be honored. If that creates hardship for any group of non-Native people it is on the rest of us to figure out how to alleviate that, not the Native group exercising their rights.

This is an interesting interview about QAnon, why it is so appealing to so many people right now, and what the rest of us might do about it.

Here are some things that made me smile this week:

A truly 2020 pumpkin:

This artwork:


Here's your bunnies for the week - first painted

https://twitter.com/solexposure/status/1319004913620246528


And then real:


Have a good weekend!


3 comments:

  1. Anonymous11:08 AM

    Thank you for posting now and especially all across the past 4+ years. You have been such a support, as well as being informative and increasing the range of inputs I get. You are apprecaited.

    ReplyDelete
  2. This is unrelated to the post, but I wondered if you were already familiar with bad mom good mom? I find her posts very informative about a number of science/policy intersects and this one seemed pretty relevant to you.

    https://badmomgoodmom.blogspot.com/2020/10/proposition-19-and-wildfire-danger.html

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Kt! Yes, Bad Mom Good Mom and I are friends! We met through blogging. I always read her posts. :)

      Thanks for recommending her, though - I'm glad other people are finding her posts, too!

      Delete

Sorry for the CAPTCHA, folks. The spammers were stealing too much of my time.