It's actually Sunday night as I post this, but I want to get a jump on the week, since I have so much going on right now.
We had a pretty nice weekend. It's been almost too hot and humid in the middle of the day, and things are growing like mad. Terry returned on Saturday from his trip to Phoenix, very excited about the product the start up company he consults for is developing. Today he spent hours on yard work, which pleased me a lot. Not that we will ever conquer the weeds. Our neighbors all use poison, but we refuse to do that.They don't turn down our organic bananas and avocados, I notice.
Last night there was a Nation Magazine discussion group. This is the second time I've attended, and there were only four of us, and it was rather desultory. We hadn't settled on a topic. But next month, when we meet, we are going to discuss income inequality and how that affects the well being of citizens in various countries. Why are we OK with the kind of inequality we have in the U.S? Why is it even worse in a country like Mexico? Why does Sweden have relative equality? We did talk about these matters some and decided we needed to read and study more to have a good exchange about them.
I'm interested in how much of a role social attitudes play. As one woman pointed out, as long as we have an "us" and "them" mentality we are not going to be willing to help others or share with them. She also said we now have a "stand your ground" law in Hawaii. Our lawgivers, even in this liberal state, seem to be doing everything possible to inject anger and suspicion into our body politic.
Another women said in an I-hope-I'm-not-offending-you tone of voice that she did not like it that our new Senator, Brian Schatz, who took the late Dan Inouye's place, is a Jew, especially since there are already so many Jews in the Senate but few women, especially minority women like Colleen Hanabusa. Hanabusa was Inouye's choice for his successor, but our governor, Abercrombie, appointed Schatz instead, which made many party insiders angry. But I feel Schatz was the right choice.
This woman said Schatz was too slick and smooth. I retorted that he was smart and professional. She thought she was stating her objections to Schatz delicately but was actually being quite blatant in her prejudice. She also felt that a big problem is Black single moms on welfare, and everything she said sounded years out of date to me. I picked up a vibe that she felt that Blacks running amok were the reason that our society is falling apart. Honestly.
Well, I'm an educator. My work is cut out for me with this bunch.
Now here is something strange: this was on Saturday, a strange spike in our solar output. We have never seen anything like this before. I wonder what caused it.