link post for third quarter moon
link post for third quarter moon
January's "news with nuance" plus other stuff
Moon and process
This link post marks my fifth link post since I started dedicating my 3rd quarter moon posts to my reading. I have given each of these phases a lens through which to plan my posts and it has streamlined my posting by providing some limits. I now tend to know what I will write for each phase in advance, and start the posts early, and then have notes ready to spring from the week leading up to that phase. Sometimes something happens to derail that process and those ideas get pushed off to future phases and other times the subjects are timed out and no longer relevant to me, and maybe that means less relevant to you as well.
And the link post requires a bit more discipline. I open a draft and get the links on it that I think are worth sharing and then take notes before I forget the details. It has been great for me to be able to track my reading this way and I have heard that my sharing has been helpful from you. So thanks for that. Thanks for reading.
More on Hamas
This title came to me when I was listening to the Ezra Klein show at the recommendation of my friend who had inspired my last link post, the Hamas deep dive # 1. I have listened to his podcast with Tareq Bacon, the author of Hamas Contained: The Rise and Pacification of Palestinian Resistance (NYT Opinion page for this episode). This authors point of view is interesting to me as it seems to point out that the views of the negotiations throughout the history of this conflict have created the constraints in which we view what is possible. Near the end of the podcast Bacon talks about what Palestinian’s need to own at this point, and he says they need to create a legitimate government that can negotiate for all Palestinian people, of which they have not had and Hamas doesn’t want, because what it wants is to be the resistance. And on the other side of that Israel needs to own that their actions have destabilized any ability Palestinians had to create a functioning government that works.
I think this instagram reel called “the untold history” and created by Muhammad Zoabi, an Israeli writer, speaks to the long complicated history of conflict in the region and is a nice counterpoint to the above point of view while still showing the long convoluted history and exhaustion turned anger surrounding this issue.
And more on Islamists…
This article is written by an Islamic person (Abdulrahman Bindamnan) who lived under Islamism in Yemen in 2015 when it was seized and ruled by an Islamist group. He is a PhD Student at University of Minnesota. He wrote this to clarify the history and reality of Houthi fighting in the news right now. He especially made the distinction between Islam and Islamism, saying Islamism is politicized religion, while Islam is a spiritual religion that respects freedom of religion rather than inflicting “religious tyranny” upon a region. I was really glad to find this artical because it was helpful in articulating some fine points about the difference and about what is going on in the Middle East right now.
Here is a quote from the article:
“The Quran itself states unequivocally that freedom of religion is inviolate. As God said in the Quran: “You have your own religion and I have mine.” In other words, as a faithful Muslim (not Islamist), I am instructed by God in the Quran to respect the religions, or lack thereof, of my counterparts. Yet so many Muslims — both supporters and detractors of Islamism — are conspicuously silent on this issue. They do not propagate the noble theme, stated in the Quran, that freedom of religion is part and parcel of our religion. It is a famous verse in the Quran that somehow has been abrogated by the bigotry and demagoguery of Islamism.”
The above article has a similar subject matter to Elica LeBon whole feed, who I shared in my last link post a lunation ago (the Hamas deep dive #1 of January 3). She is an Instagram Influencer from Iran and a lawyer who also shares about the nuances of persecution within a fundamentalist minority regime. Look over her stuff to learn about the nuances in the world news today. I have been sinking into her posts and learning about her point of view and finding it both interesting and educational.
If you are hearing things boiled down into simple terms, be suspicious, we are living with complexity here.
I am a fan of Biden.
I like his experiment of using the government to support ordinary Americans in order to grow the economy and I feel like his initiatives to boost infrastructure and manufacturing have proved to be successful. These projects are called the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the CHIPS and Science Act and are funding projects all over our country. Another one is the Inflation Reduction Act which put in place the ability for the government to negotiate drug prices for things like insulin. These things are helping ordinary citizens. But I also like the things he has done internationally. Here is a quote about that from Heather Cox Richardson’s November 29, 2023 letter who is quoting “David Andelman, a former foreign correspondent for the New York Times and CBS News who now writes Andelman Unleashed, noted today in CNN that President Biden has brought a very clear-eyed set of principles to foreign affairs, making him “one of the rare presidents who has accomplished something quite extraordinary: He has carefully defined and quite successfully defended democracy and democratic values before a host of existential challenges.”” Today he announces sanctions of settlers in the West Bank for violence. While this is largely symbolic, it will be interesting how it plays out. Leadership matters.
Below is a Biden quote from his inaugural address three years ago right after the January 6th insurrection and Covid vaccines had just begun to be rolled out in December. I like his call to step up. I like the way he evoked John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Address, “Ask not what your country can do for you,” towards the end of this and also that this is it, we get the government we deserve. It is hard to lead in this day and age of broken media and the long arc of broken promises and secret deals and the resulting way it has played out in society. We have to do our due diligence of showing up, to this election year, to the misrepresentation in the news, to complexity.
“This is a time of testing. We face an attack on democracy and on truth. A raging virus. Growing inequity. The sting of systemic racism. A climate in crisis. America’s role in the world. Any one of these would be enough to challenge us in profound ways. But the fact is we face them all at once, presenting this nation with the gravest of responsibilities.
“Now we must step up. All of us. It is a time for boldness, for there is so much to do. And, this is certain. We will be judged, you and I, for how we resolve the cascading crises of our era. Will we rise to the occasion? Will we master this rare and difficult hour? Will we meet our obligations and pass along a new and better world for our children?”
“Let us add our own work and prayers to the unfolding story of our nation. If we do this, then when our days are through, our children and our children’s children will say of us: They gave their best. They did their duty. They healed a broken land.”
He is an old guy, but an old guy who has experience and integrity. He keeps people around him with experience and integrity, including his vice-president. He knows both how to hold to a message and the backlash that is inevitable when any kind of progress is made.
Closer to home-
Thanks to Deena Winter from The Minnesota Reformer for watching the movie called “The Fall of Minneapolis” so I didn't have to. I had been feeling like I should and was dreading it. Linking her article about it so you don’t have to watch it either.
I had been hearing about this movie from various sources. Namely people who mentioned it also mentioned the woman who made the movie, Liz Collin’s the journalist (not Liz Collin, the textile artist on Wikipedia), is married to Bob Kroll.
If you live in Minneapolis and have been paying attention to local news, you know that he has been labeled the downfall of the MPD (who’s going to make that movie?). He was head of the police union that referred to Black Lives Matter as a terrorist organization. Here is his wikipedia, I couldn’t find one for Liz Collins, journalist. Deena Winter, who reported on the trial in the spring of 2021, says the movie misleads by portraying information about George Floyd which had been previously released both during and within the trial, as if it is all new, and implying that the trial was a fraud. All of it had been widely shared during the trial and before, in fact the trial had been expertly led by our Attorney General Kieth Ellison and Chauvin was widely seen on video kneeling on Floyd’s neck while he died. Read the article for yourself, there’s a whole lot in it.
Also, just today (2/1/24) the Minnesota Reformer linked this Substack called The Watch by Radley Balko. He recounts the history of outrage at Chavin’s behavior after the video of George Floyd’s murder circulated up until the time of the trial and then spends some time refuting the points that the documentary claimed as true (as in that Chauvin only kneeled on Floyds neck for 4 minutes) and are now making their way into mainstream press (namely an article by Coleman Hughs in The Free Press, you can get to it through the Substack link above if you want to read). I appreciate that he is doing the work of detailing the falsehoods that are being made to look legitimate and used to undermine government processes that are working. The post is quite extensive and I haven’t gone through the whole thing, but it is linked here for all of us to check out. Please let me know if you have thoughts about this.
I went to a documentary screening in North Minneapolis on January 13th. The film is entitled Force of Blue directed by Jeffrey Williams and tells the story of the North High School coach, or actually a team of coaches, who also happen to be a police officers. They led the Polar Players, North High’s football team, to win a championship during Covid. It tells some recent history of the Northside and covers the complexity of what was happening in that community at a time when George Floyd’s death was very fresh and these youth were relying on their coaches.
Even closer - updates from the land of Lake Harriet
As you may have noticed, I spend a lot of time around Lake Harriet. I see a lot of salt on the sidewalks. Do you know that the sewer grates over here deposit the water they collect directly into the lake? And do you know what kind of effect salt can have on a lake? There are 50 lakes and streams that have been declared to be impaired by salt and 75 more which are getting close, they are listed in this Minnesota Reformer article that shows that the amount of salt we use on our streets could fill the USBank Stadium. It only takes one teaspoon to ruin 5 gallons of water. Here is a quote: “That’s how much salt we dump on the state’s roads and sidewalks every single year. Much of that salt ends up in the state’s waterways, fouling our lakes and rivers at a rate of one teaspoon to five gallons. It’s little wonder the MPCA is trying to get those numbers down.”
Now for something completely different
Anybody who loved the Wrinkle in Time Series by Madeleine L’Engle when they were younger and remember Charles Wallace’s struggle in the third book, may not be surprised by mitochondria’s role in long covid. Here is a story about the new discoveries from MPR. As dad would always say, Science Fiction wasn’t good science fiction unless it was real. I learned to love from the best ♡
Also, speaking of loved ones, I watched the new Elvis movie with my daughter and my husband and I couldn’t stop thinking of my mother. This fictionalized biography of Elvis tells his story in the contexts of its cultural history here in the US. It’s not necessarily true. I couldn’t help to watch it and think of “old Elvis” and how much disrespect he received while my mother continued her semi-ironic love for him. Recently at a dinner with my cousins and sisters we were talking about how much Elvis summons up her father, my grandfather. They had similarities in style and era and their rural up bringing. I really appreciated the reframe of his story in history and just feeling how trapped he truly might have been. Do you realize that “old Elvis” died at 42 years old? That still doesn’t make his relationship with the 14 year old Pricilla any less wrong when they met at 24. Still problematic. I enjoyed it, if you are looking for something to watch and want to have a new perspective on something you could only see one way before. Once again, nuance.