Procrastadabbler

I read the NYTimes online. Every morning, I receive an email with selected headlines (I selected the categories when I subscribed). Some mornings I scan the headlines and don’t find too much of interest. It could be my mood, or the news itself. On other days, I find quite a bit that I want to read, but once read, little to comment on. And then there are the days when a significant number of articles itch me just enough that I feel the urge to comment.

Here are my thoughts today in no particular order or planned connections.

Doris Lessing received the Nobel Prize in Literature: I read the Golden Notebook as a young woman. It was one of those books a professor said every woman should read, so I dutifully read it. I honestly must say I don’t remember a thing about it. I’m sure it’s wonderful and profound. I can only assume that I wasn’t ready to take in its message at that time. So, I guess I’ll have to jump on what will be sure to be a bandwagon and read it now. As I read the NYTimes article, something she said made me chuckle: “I swear I’m going upstairs to find some suitable sentences, which I will be using from now on.” I sentences lying around Lessing’s bedroom, maybe some forgotten under the bed, a collection neatly folded in her dresser drawers, longer sentences hanging in her closet just waiting to be selected and brought out for a suitable occasion. Prehaps a sentence she tried out yesterday discarded haphazardly over a chair. A few words tumbled into a corner.

 House committee vote on Armenian Genocide angers Turks: First, some facts. In 1915 as the Ottoman empire was falling apart some 1.5 million Armenians were systematically killed. The Turks refuse the term genocide, and the PC term I see applied to it is “tragedy of 1915.” The Turks say the Armenians were killed as part of the war that ended in 1923 with the establishment of modern Turkey. Others say it was genocide, and in fact Hitler is quoted as rationalizing the extermination of Jews by saying that nobody remembered the extermination of the Armenians in 1915.

Now, here’s the thing. Referring to this event as genocide is considered an insult to the Turkish identity and that is a crime in Turkey.

In response to the house committee resolution calling the event genocide, the Turks have pulled their ambassador from the U.S. and are threatening to pull support for the U.S. military. The problem is that the U.S. depends heavily on Turkey as a staging location for the Iraq war. There is also the fear of Turkish military intervention against Kurdish separatists. If this happens, the Iraq war will widen.

What I don’t understand is, why now? Why is the house committee pushing this resolution through? It’s largely symbolic. What happened to the Armenians is horrible and certainly did set the precedent for future genocide (which continues today), but I want to know, why is the house pushing on this now? What political benefits are being seen. Things like this are never done for morals (I believe congress is basically amoral). There has to be underlying political reasons.

 ABC is producing news webcasts that differ from TV versions. These webcasts are designed to appeal to younger demographics. What is particularly interesting is that the webcasts contain longer stories. So much for the curmudgeons who say the internet generation has the attention span of a fruit fly.

There are other articles. A review of the new film about Queen Elizabeth. I find the public interest in QE1 fascinating. What does it tell us about ourselves and the possibilities for electing Hillary into the presidency?

Al Gore was awarded a Nobel Prize for his work in climate change. Seems he’s making more of an impact on the world outside of politics.

Finally, Madonna Constantine, a tenured full professor at Teachers College in Columbia University found a noose hanging on her door. Dr. Constantine is an African American scholar who researches and teaches about race. She teaches about race and cultural issues with a focus on microaggressions.

The situation is being investigated.

What struck me though is her statement that when she went up for tenure she had 30 articles published. She said most people go up with 10-15 published, but she felt that as a Black woman, she had to have at least twice that amount. Although the noose is certainly horrible, the fact that this brilliant woman had to produce twice as much as her colleagues in order to feel confident going up for tenure certainly seems like the results of aggressions as well. Knowing the hard work it takes to publish even a few articles, I have a sense of the psychic toll her professional success must have exacted. And now this outward aggression…

And that’s enough for today.