Moody Mondays, mass transit, failed business plans, and Happy Indigenous Peoples’ Day

Happy Indigenous Peoples’ Day!

—

I am exhausted today, but wanted to get a blip out there about the importance of every class of people, especially the middle and upper middle classes, using the public transportation systems: please use mass transit!

Regarding the business plan, I can only find the abstract, though I remember writing up about 9 or 10 pages, despite being told that “tourists do not want to walk,” and that they want “to check my brain at the door” and be entertained, not educated, and certainly not about slavery in the Nation’s Capital.  I created the business, anyway…

–

 

Executive Summary
SHIR is a cooperative community enterprise working to provide
educational tools by which the paradigms of critical thinking and
equality, the birthrights of all people, are actively promoted.
SHIR focuses on movement-oriented educational techniques which
simultaneously build love of learning and community in ways which
incorporate natural curiosity and multiple learning styles. SHIR
implements this focus through community affirming walking tours as
the primary form of outside-the-classroom learning.
The long term vision of SHIR is to provide guided walking tours of
Washington, D.C. with emphasis on the history of African-American
neighborhoods in the city. These tours will incorporate multi-media
history from different neighborhoods by time period and demographic
era, and feature participatory discussions of the values held across
those communities and neighborhoods over various time frames.

The marketing section needed more work, as this business failed in 2013.

–

 

So, it turns out that I should have listened about there being no market for Black-Jewish history walking tours, but making the point was more important to me than making money, and I got my wish: I made a point for a few months, but then realized that I was losing all of my savings, and in an apartment with cigarette smoke coming in from the noisy neighbors, I couldn’t concentrate enough around my tours to get paid work. At least I did write and publish a book about it, with the tours freely available (with the bibliography, despite being told to keep it secret: sorry, Knowledge should be free!!) for all walkers in DC. (Please remember to wear a hat, sensible shoes, and bring water and grapes to snack on!!)

  More on my continuing striving with education for Justice next time, friends:

Yassas,   γεια σας!    Salût !  Nos vemos!  Görüşürüz!     ! שָׁלוֹם

Action Items in support of literacy and hope that you can take right now:

1.) Search for two different resources on why History Matters.

2.) Share them with us in the comments, here, please.

3.) Share your thoughts on how you like each of the resources you found,  perhaps as an update on your GoodReads reading,

4.) Write a blog post or tweet that uses history, tells a good story, and makes a difference. I’m working on that through my historical fantasy #WiP, #WhoByFireIWill. Once published, donate one or more copies to your local public library, as I intend to do.

Dear Readers, any additional ideas toward learning, especially multiple #LanguageLearning as part of on-going education and empathy-building, to #EndPoverty, #EndHomelessness,  #EndMoneyBail & achieve freedom for All HumanKind? 

Support our key #PublicDomainInfrastructure  & #StopSmoking for CCOVID-19:
1. #PublicLibraries,
2. #ProBono legal aid and Education,
3. #UniversalHealthCare, and
4. good #publictransport
Read, Write, Ranked Choice Voting and Housing for ALL!!, Teach and Learn (Lesson Plans)!

ShiraDest

September, 12020 HE

(The previous lesson plan since this post, and the most recent lesson plan…)

National Public Libraries: Learning languages to bring books, literacy, and possibility to others: …

The National Library of France, aka La Bibliothèque nationale de France, provides online access to classic books which are in the Public Domain. Assuming that one has access to the internet, and also has a device on which to read the eBook, this can be a huge boost to literacy, and also to hope. Hope for education, and hope for young women, who see a strong and highly intelligent role model in the heroine of 1001 Nights, who weaves stories within stories intriguing enough to save both her life, and the lives of the young women of her kingdom.

Reading novels in general builds empathy, which builds hope, and helps people to pull together in mutual aid.

Books, film, and other forms of media, like comic books, aka graphic novels, and music all have a strong effect on how people view the world. So, here are some Action Items in support of literacy and hope that you can take right now:

1.) Download some public domain version of the 1001 Nights,

2.) Read a page,

3.) Share your thoughts on that page, perhaps as an update on your GoodReads reading,

4.) Write a novel that references a classic book, tells a good story, and makes a difference. I’m working on that through my historical fantasy #WiP, #WhoByFireIWill. Once published, donate one or more copies to your local public library, as I intend to do.

Other ideas welcome on how to #EndPoverty, #EndHomelessness, & #EndMoneyBail, starting with improving these four parts of our good #PublicDomainInfrastructure:

1. #libraries,

2. #ProBono legal aid and Education,

3. #UniversalHealthCare, and

4. good #publictransport

Read, Write, Ranked Choice Voting and Housing for ALL!!!!, Walk !

#PublicDomainInfrastructure #StopSmoking for CCOVID-19 ShiraDest

5 October, 12020 HE

French Friday: Learning languages in a Booth! (Chag Sameach l’Sukkot! Happy Sukkot!!)

I love the stories that were original from the 1001 Nights, and it’s funny how out of theme and out of place the stories added by Antoine Galland sound: they clearly match European hero tropes far more than the ‘story as payment’ tropes in the original frame.

I’m scheduling this post ahead of time, since this coming Shabbat is the start of Sukkot, (aka The Feast of Tabernacles…). That means that most of the coming eight days should be spent eating and studying in a small booth/tabernacle outdoors, hoping that it doesn’t rain!

-This week’s updates, from September 25th to October 1st:

September 25, 2020 – 35.0% “je n’ai pas eu le temps, au jour d’hui, de lire/écouter l’histoire d’Amine, soeur de Zobéîde. Je meurs de savoir pour quoi elle a des cicatrices…

I’ve had no time today for the story of Amine, Zobéïde’s sister. Dying to know why she’s got scars…
(35% LVIII nuit au eBook…)” September 25, 2020 – 37.0% “Zobéïde having finished her story and been rewarded by the Caliph, we now hear the start of Sinbad the Sailor’s 7 voyages, which does not start off nearly as interestingly as the previous stories, imho.” September 25, 2020 – 37.0% “Now I know what bothers me about Sinbad: rich kid wastes his twenties then takes his remaining money, which he was born with, to start a business and has the nerve, the gall, to preach to a poor man that he made his own money himself.” September 29, 2020 – 38.0% “Sinbad sounds like a spoiled rich kid telling a story where he is the hero, rather than the previous stories, which all involved humble people (even when Princes/esses) exchanging stories for their lives.

Prudish (yes slave-owning, as only the upper classes had time & education enough to read novels) French readers demanded the extraction, after about night 65 (at the start of the Sinbad story) of Dinarazad waking..” September 29, 2020 – 44.0% “Sindbad only worries about himself being buried alive, not about his poor wife!!” September 30, 2020 – 44.0% “Chapitre 11, Histoire des trois pommes. En fin terminé avec Sinbad !
Ch. 11, story of the three apples. Finally done with Sinbad’s story.” September 30, 2020 – 48.0% “Now you how each story is building with some innocent person killed, and then the killer repenting of the deed. she is stretching out the stories and the time to give the king time to get over his pain and to understand his Injustice.” October 1, 2020 – 49.0% “Histoire de trois pommes : autre fois, la vie se paye avec une histoire. Cette fois ci d’une presque innocent…
This time of an almost innocent…
The three apples: Again, a life is bought with a story…” October 1, 2020 – 50.0% “99: excellent !! Les Djinn ont changé ent les hommes !;.
Excellent, the genies swapped men!!” October 1, 2020 – 50.0% “99: excellent !! Les Djinn ont changé ent les hommes !;.
Excellent, the genies swapped men!!”

–

I have now listened to several stories that were mysteriously edited out of the written version, whose updates on all of my daily reading you can see here, if you are rather bored.

These stories are so well framed for both complication of listening (presumably because people who were in the habit of listening to stories were accustomed to holding many bits of information in their minds at once, which I think we’re forgetting to do, in the modern world).

Some good stories seem to have been left out of the eBook version from Project Guttenberg that I am reading as I listen to the LibreVox/AudioBooks version being narrated. I see that there are illustrated versions that I never noticed, on the PG site, so maybe a few new scans have been made!

So far, most of the stories are stories within stories, which can become a bit complex to keep in mind. This must be how people trained their minds, before Sudoku! I suppose that if one were not sufficiently educated to know of these tales, as my Freedmen and escaped but still technically enslaved WiP characters are, then mere survival was enough to exercise the brain.

I am very very thankful that we have libraries, the internet, Project Gutenberg, and kind people who lend their time and talents to teach us and encourage all of us to learn and to wonder. Please join me in wondering, and in learning to build a more hopeful world.

Books, film, and other forms of media, like comic books, aka graphic novels, and music all have a strong effect on how people view the world. So, here are some Action Items in support of literacy and hope that you can take right now:

1.) Download some public domain version of a classic book, or grab your favorite version of the The Arabian Nights (yes, I know: the 1001 Nights was by Antoine Galland, who made up a few stories and inserted them into older Arabic and Persian stories that may have come from India, but still…) or any other story, in an original language, if possible! 🙂

2.) Read a page,

3.) Share your thoughts on that page, perhaps as an update on your GoodReads reading,

4.) Write a novel that references a classic book, tells a good story, and makes a difference. I’m working on that through my historical fantasy #WiP, #WhoByFireIWill. Once published, donate one or more copies to your local public library, as I intend to do.

Other ideas welcome on how to #EndPoverty, #EndHomelessness, & #EndMoneyBail, starting with improving these four parts of our good #PublicDomainInfrastructure:

1. #libraries,

2. #ProBono legal aid and Education,

3. #UniversalHealthCare, and

4. good #publictransport

Read, Write, Ranked Choice Voting and Housing for ALL!!!!, Walk !

#PublicDomainInfrastructure #StopSmoking for CCOVID-19 ShiraDest

written in September, 12020 HE

Can learning languages help local education? Libraries, nurses and mass transit certainly can…

Anna J. Cooper was a strong advocate for education, especially in Washington, DC, and one of the first Black women to earn a PhD. August 10th is her birthday, and as she fought to make the dreams of Black students possible, we must fight to make all of our collective dreams possible for a safer, kinder world.  So dream, and write your dreams in a language all your own, if you have to.   Then, expand your world by learning two more languages.

(My personal dream has always been to save and enrich all lives, and my dream for the world is to see a Tiny House or at least a small well-insulated room with kitchenette and bathroom, with potable water, green vegetables, brown rice and dried beans and solar/windpower with backup pedal power for every man, woman and child over maybe, the age of 10, world wide, free for that person’s use from birth to his/her death with no charge, no questions, and no way to lose that right.)  See four suggestions for ways that our Community Colleges can help all of us make the dream of a kinder world come true:

So, I journal in Spanish and Biblical Hebrew, which inspire me to look to examples like Amelia, of El Ministerio del Tiempo, and Ruth, of Biblical fame, as inspirations to persevere.

Spanish has always been my favorite language, especially in the bilingual South West. As an adult education instructor at the Continuing Education division of the San Diego Community College District, that proved helpful for me as an instructor, and also, of course, the ESL classes help our students from many nations contribute in the USA.

Every local educational institution has room for improvement, particularly when seen from both faculty and student perspectives. I posed some questions, recently, about ideas for implementing (on a shoestring budget ) projects that would have been helpful to our students when I taught in North campus involving

1.) a small library or study area,
2.) workshops by CA Promise Program graduates,
3.) an on-site nurse paid for by mediCal, and
4.) access to public transportation:

1.) Many of my students told me they didn’t have a quiet place to study.  While I know that space is in very short supply on the North campus, I wonder if a small area, possibly in the multipurpose room when it’s not being used, could be set aside with cubicles or movable small desks and a small movable lending library like the tiny libraries?

2.)   I wonder, on the assumption of course that having graduated and started a new career as a professional with a bachelor’s degree anyone can be found who will have time, if any students having graduated with a bachelor’s degree after getting their first two years of community college paid for through the California promise program or with the San Diego promise program, could be persuaded to come back either as tutors, mentors, or even just to give workshops in the areas in which they got their educations?  Particularly accounting majors or paralegal/pre-law majors who could give small workshops on dealing with debt in California including California statutes of limitations, or financial planning workshops or how to do your own taxes if you only need to do the 1040EZ, etc?  One-on-one tutoring, and also mentoring,  that supportive help, especially for our high school equivalency students, could be both useful and inspiring.  Seeing successfully graduated professionals with a bachelor’s degree who came through the community college system and are willing to spend individual time with them, even if only a couple of hours a week, could make a difference.  Could interns or SCORE volunteers put a program like this together?  Do we track or stay in touch with students who finish the California or San Diego promise program once they finish their bachelor’s degrees?

3.) Many of my students worked two jobs or for other reasons never had time to see a doctor even when they were ill. I wonder if it is possible to pay, through the Medi-Cal system, for a nurse to be on-site, perhaps based out of the office  of each campus, a couple of days/evenings a week?

4.)  One of the biggest problem areas that I saw for my car-free students was that neither the continuing ed, nor the  faculty Union was able to get the transit authority to enforce acceptance of continuing ed student IDs for the monthly bus and rail pass discount.  In planning for post-Covid-19 classes, will we have any resources to address public transportation discount and access issues?

I imagine that some of these ideas may be a little overwhelming, because I understand that time and resources are extremely limited, but once in a while, as Dr. Rivera-Lacey noted: we do have to dream.

Some possible action items that you can take right now include:
1.) Call your local City Council members, and ask them to increase library funding,
2.) Donate to ProPublica for probono legal and financial education for all,

or, please share your ideas for improving local libraries and education!

Let’s #EndPoverty , #EndHomelessness, & #EndMoneyBail starting by improving these four parts of our good #PublicDomainInfrastructure 4:
1. #libraries,
2. #ProBono legal aid and Education,
3. #UniversalHealthCare, and
4. good #publictransport
Read, Write, Ranked Choice Voting and Housing for ALL!!!!, Walk !

#PublicDomainInfrastructure #StopSmoking for CCOVID-19
ShiraDest

September, 12020 HE

Moody Mondays: Take the Metro, or Take the Debt? Ir en Metro, o en Deuda?

Click here for English & Action Items (below Spanish)…

“ -Fuera lo espera un chófer con un coche oficial.

-Gracias.
Prefiero ir en metro. ”

Como el subsecretario Salvador Martí del Ministerio del Tiempo, ojala que habîan màs funcionarios que nos darîan el buen ejemplo de usar los transportes publicos. A menudo, la falta de transporte publico llega hasta faltar las citas medicas y legales, con consequencia de perder los procesos judiciales que no han de perder, si la persona endeudada hubiera podido llegar a la corte para defender sus derechos.

A corto plazo, otros estados de los EEUU podrîan seguir el ejemplo del estado de Maryland, que ha prohibido las acciónes civiles por parte de colectores de deudas ya pasado la fecha limite segûn el tipo de deuda. Mientras tanto, a largo plazo, reconstruimos nuestra estructura economica para crear la igualdad en vez de crear la pobreza. Los dos puntos de vista, corto y largo plazo, nos urge.

—

“ -An official car and choffeur are waiting for you outside
-Thank you.
I prefer to take the Metro.”

Would that more of our public officials, like subsecretary Salvador Marti of The Ministry of Time, set the example of using public transportation in our modern day real life.  Mass transit is a crucial part of society’s infrastructure, allowing equal access to transport, and also moving people more efficiently on the roads or rails, while keeping down pollution, two key ways of reducing the background stressors that make it harder for citizens to take active part in the governing process of our democracies.  Lack of transportation also often leads, directly or indirectly, to default judgement on an expired debt which could have been avoided, had the debtor been able to defend in court.  After all, we no longer have debtor’s prisons, as they did in the time of my Work In Progress (or do we?).

Over the short-term, states could follow the example of Maryland, and prohibit lawsuits on all expired debts, while also rebuilding our economic structures to create equity rather than poverty, over the long-term. Both short-term and long-term approaches are needed, urgently.

Action Items:

1.)    Just look up the public transportation options available in your area.

2.)     Try riding them, if you can.

3.)      Look up times and locations for your local Transit Board meetings.

4.)       Ask your local law-makers to put in Light Rail stops to your local airport(s).
–

Quotes for an earlier important debt-related post came from a recent ProPublica article co-published with The New Yorker.

Let’s #EndPoverty, #EndHomelessness, & #EndMoneyBail and support these four key parts of our #PublicDomainInfrastructure:
1. #libraries,
2. #ProBono legal aid and Education,
3. #UniversalHealthCare, and
4. good #publictransport
Read, Write, Ranked Choice Voting and Housing for ALL!!!!, Walk !

#PublicDomainInfrastructure #StopSmoking for CCOVID-19
ShiraDest

September, 12020 HE

Saturday Spanish: Learning languages to bring harmony to …

I’m currently finishing a book by the Dalai Lama about harmony, or ethics, sort of. I read it in Spanish because that was what came to hand to read, and I found that I missed Spanish, and still miss dreaming of living in Andalusia. I no longer permit myself to dream that dream, but I do continue to at least try to read in Spanish, to keep up my literacy. So I am starting volume I of Don Quixote, and if you don’t mind the occasional comment in Spanish, please tell me, Dear Readers, so that I know how much of which language (English or Spanish) to use.

My review:

“Ayudar a los demas
Helping others, not standing idly by while the blood of your neighbor is shed…” November 6, 2018 – 21.0% “P. 41 ” el odio y la ira nos lleva a perder todo sentido de la proporcion “” November 7, 2018 – 22.0% “Excellent point I’m glad that I did not write the book that a friend asked me to write about 10 years ago, because this is the book I would have written more or less minus the Buddhism.” November 15, 2018 – 25.0% “La empatia = sentir y compartir/experimentar los sentidos de los demas.” November 15, 2018 – 33.0% “Arg : natura. = Viv., -> compassion…” November 15, 2018 – 34.0% “on page 77 he speaks of tierra pura, pure earth or new earth, or heaven, but he neglects the idea of places like Valhalla, the Viking warrior paradise…” November 16, 2018 – 38.0% “Que es la lujuria?” February 18, 2019 – 86.0% “”…compasiôn… nos acerca a la felicidad” -pero demasiado nos da pena, tb. (como cuando lloro por los pordioseros frente al metro…)

“compassion… leads us to happiness” -but too much also harms us
(as when I cry because of the homeless in front of the Metro…)” February 26, 2019 – 86.0% “”si va mas alla del hecho de afrontar la injusticia, si se …”

“disociar entre acto y agente…”” July 20, 2020 – 86.0% “Perdí mis notas, pero creo que decía que comportamientarse de manera ética ahora el sufrimiento psyjologica.”

Este libro, por supuesto, es bien pensado, pero bastante evidente. Me costó mucho trabajo leer lo que leí, y en fin, no lo pude terminar.

This book was well-thought-out, of course, but, pretty obvious. I had a very difficult time getting into it, and finally I had to give up.

–

Books, film, and other forms of media, like comic books, aka graphic novels, and music all have a strong effect on how people view the world. So, here are some Action Items in support of literacy and hope that you can take right now:

1.) Download some public domain version of a classic book,

2.) Read a page,

3.) Share your thoughts on that page, perhaps as an update on your GoodReads reading,

4.) Write a novel that references a classic book, tells a good story, and makes a difference. I’m working on that through my historical (slavery era Baltimore) fantasy #WiP, #WhoByFireIWill. Once published, donate one or more copies to your local public library, as I intend to do.

Other ideas welcome on how to #EndPoverty, #EndHomelessness, & #EndMoneyBail, starting with improving these four parts of our good #PublicDomainInfrastructure:

1. #libraries,

2. #ProBono legal aid and Education,

3. #UniversalHealthCare, and

4. good #publictransport

Read, Write, Ranked Choice Voting and Housing for ALL!!!!, Walk !

#PublicDomainInfrastructure #StopSmoking for CCOVID-19 ShiraDest

September, 12020 HE

French Friday: Learning languages to see beyond yourself, and Action Items…

I’m scheduling another related post ahead of time, since next coming Shabbat is Rosh HaShannah…). I just wanted to get my French Fridays started.

(Interested fellow book worms can click on my 1001 N. link below for current updates on my reading status, as I read one of the printed Public Domain versions of Antoine G.’s original French version of the stories while listening to the LibreVox audio version, which so far is a great deal more complete than what I’d initially thought to be the Gutenberg project’s scan of the printed version! …)

I have always been fascinated by the stories of the Near East, the Middle East, the Fertile Crescent, and especially around the Mediterranean. I love the stories of the 1001 Nights, and listening (though the versions I’m finding seem to be pretty different, with some versions leaving out entire stories, like the famous talking head!) to the web spun by our heroine under pressure is incredible!

I’m absolutely gobsmacked, as I read, of the willingness to potentially sacrifice her own life, taking the risk in order to save all of them, even if it is ‘just fiction,’ it is still very real. I believe that because we see people risk their lives each day IRL, as they now say in the Internet Age, to save other people they have never met. Such heroism has always existed, but rarely been praised in a woman.

And the stories within stories, which seems to have been left out of the eBook version from Project Guttenberg that I am reading as I listen to the LibreVox/AudioBooks version being narrated. I know that there are many compilations, but I’d have imagined that the Guttenberg version would have been complete. Or perhaps I simply downloaded the first version I saw of this Public Domain work, assuming that there would only be one scanned version: silly me! I’m very glad that the audio version is far more complete! 🙂

So far, the Sultan has decided to give our intrepid lifesaving lady one month to live, but he doesn’t tell her that! Talk about singing, or rather story-telling, for your supper! Wow!!

-This week’s updates:

September 10, 2020 – 16.0% “Le 50ieme nuit, au LibreVox, c’est le XLIe nuit dans le livre écrit. J’ai hâte de savoir demain si la princesse va se marier avec le Prince singe…
50th night in audiobook is 41st night in e-book. I am dying to know whether or not the princess will marry the prince ape…” September 9, 2020 – 16.0% “Le 49eme nuit, dans le livre audio, c’est le XLe nuit , a 23%, dans le livre Kindle, ce que manque l’histoire de l’ennui meurtrier qui a fait le maître derviche se jeter dans le puits.” September 9, 2020 – 15.0% “Le singe qu’écrit…
Thé ape that writes…” September 8, 2020 – 15.0% “”et il l’a baissa aux yeux.”
And he kissed her on the eyes. Just as Greeks still do today!” September 7, 2020 – 14.0% “Uh oh: yet another underground palace?
Autre Palais souterrain ?” September 6, 2020 – 13.0% “50 cavaliers : ça ne semble pas du tout bien…
50 bandits : that doesn’t look good at all for the Prince and the ambassador to India…” September 6, 2020 – 13.0% “L’histoire des trois Calenders c’est le 23e nuit dans le livre, mais, dans le livre audio c’est le 30ème nuit.” September 6, 2020 – 13.0% “Again, the written version has edited out parts of the audio book, so I am hearing descriptions of beautiful ladies and dropped baskets that the e-book left out. Glad I decided to listen to the audio version of the book.” September 5, 2020 – page 19 8.19% “Il me manque dans la version écrit de cette tome, l’histoire du roi grec et du médecin du Bain, mais l’histoire est lu dans la version de livre Vox! je croyais que toutes les versions de l’histoire originaires en français c’etait la même.” September 5, 2020 – page 19 8.19% “”La nécessité donne de l’esprit.”. Cette phrase est nouvelle pour moi. Voilà j’ai appris ce soir.” September 4, 2020 – page 19 8.19% “De plaindre au fortune et prier au Dieu. Intéressant…

Reminds me of the trial at Auschwitz where God was found guilty of violating his contract with his chosen people, and then those who conducted the trial said ‘okay it’s time for the evening prayers.'” September 4, 2020 – page 19 8.19% “Mais, c’est pas possible ça ! Comme laisse-t-il, retenir l’histoire du 3e vieillard, le sultan ?” September 4, 2020 – page 19 8.19% “Bravo, le sang froid de !Shéhérazade !
Excellent grâce under pressure, Shéhérazade !”

–

I am very very thankful that we have libraries, the internet, and kind people who lend their time and talents to teach us and encourage all of us to learn and to wonder. Please join me in wondering, and in learning to build a more hopeful world.

Books, film, and other forms of media, like comic books, aka graphic novels, and music all have a strong effect on how people view the world. So, here are some Action Items in support of literacy and hope that you can take right now:

1.) Download some public domain version of a classic book, or grab your favorite version of the The Arabian Nights (yes, I know: the 1001 Nights was by some French guy who made up a few stories and inserted them into older Arabic and Persian stories that may have come from India, but still…) or any other story, in an original language, if possible! 🙂

2.) Read a page,

3.) Share your thoughts on that page, perhaps as an update on your GoodReads reading,

4.) Write a novel that references a classic book, tells a good story, and makes a difference. I’m working on that through my historical fantasy #WiP, #WhoByFireIWill. Once published, donate one or more copies to your local public library, as I intend to do.

Other ideas welcome on how to #EndPoverty, #EndHomelessness, & #EndMoneyBail, starting with improving these four parts of our good #PublicDomainInfrastructure:

1. #libraries,

2. #ProBono legal aid and Education,

3. #UniversalHealthCare, and

4. good #publictransport

Read, Write, Ranked Choice Voting and Housing for ALL!!!!, Walk !

#PublicDomainInfrastructure #StopSmoking for CCOVID-19 ShiraDest

my First French Friday, 18 September, 12020 HE

(but scheduled on Sunday, 6 September, almost a week ahead of time…)

Turkish Tuesdays, Istanbul, late 2004, and Izmir, early 2005, Chanon’s bus Lymeric post

This post is pretty much a reminder that the only way to learn anything is by doing it badly, at first, and then: persisting!  🙂

Some thoughts from back when I lived in Turkey, originally posted at the start of 2020’s global pandemic, but putting in a bit of order as I try to make sense of my longing to get back to languages before I forget them all (glad to see that I’ve improved quite a bit since then!), and to make time to learn all of the lessons from those places where I lived, searching for something that I am not sure how to find.

“cultural note: Kurds, Turks, and Jewish (Sephardic) families all kiss the hand and touch the forehead of the eldest person/host as a greeting. I was quite surprised to see this as a universal custom (ok, at least one Kurdish family and extended friend group, only one Jewish family that I got to spend alot of time with around their extended family, and I’ve only seen Turkish family greetings on TV here in the commercials and shows. The Turkish family I lived with did not do this, but they are quite wealthy, and Americanized).

My Kurdish friends love to sing! They do not however consider me Jewish, because my father and mother are not Jewish. That seems to be the same sentiment I got from the Turkish and Jewish people I spoke with here in Istanbul as well.

Most people use propane gas for cooking. Natural gas is only in rich areas, so far.

Here, the doorway is not the place to hide during an earthquake. Under a table is what my roommate tells me…
2004-11-09 17:34:00″
from:..

“karamsar, dark or negative thinking, really?

A person in Izmir accused me of being thus, for refusing to bring a new life into this world. I beg to differ…
May all people who wander be granted peace of mind, and complete, total Shalom. “

And lastly but most certainly not least of all, remembering old friends who visited (twice!!):

The conversation before the lymeric (ok, or maybe after the Lymeric…) !!   I am very grateful that this friend visited me, as I’d never have taken the time to see anything around me, working as I did constantly, while I lived in Izmir.   May his memory be for a blessing:

“At Ersan Pansyon, just off of Kibris Shehitler caddesi, near my apartment, there is a nice young man who works there, who yesterday offered us breakfast and the opportunity to talk. My guest Chanan does not speak Turkish, so I served as both translator and breakfast guest with him. This has been wonderful. I have forgotten the young man’s name, but he asked many questions about the US, which I translated for Channon from a Boston/NY perspective, and occasionally threw in my own perspective on growing up in the South. One thing that particularly struck me, which I have hear from religious Turks before, is that they are anxious for Americans and Europeans to know that Turkey is different from the other muslim countries, and *is not Arab* -and also is not a bed for fanatical Islam. The current president, as our friend told us, comes from a religious background, as does the family that runs this pansyon, and none of them are fanatics. All do however believe strongly in hospitality and friendship. He told us that all of the people in the world are relatives, all descending from Adam and Eve. This was a wonderful conversation.
2005-03-24 12:52:00”

“2005-03-23 15:10:00
Group Limerick -on the bus!!
Here is a limerick Channon and I composed with the help of several fellow passengers (!)on the bus as we travelled to meet some SERVAS friends (the SERVAS http://www.servas.org coordinator here in İzmir, as it turned out) here in İzmir:

Izmir’de çok kaybolduk
“Hangi tarafa döndük?!”
Mutfak çok pislik
Zor temizledik
Efes’i gördük, mutluyduk

the link to all of his travel limericks is also available from this link, i think… https://lists.ccs.neu.edu/pipermail/craignet/2005/000122.html

=========
Here is my original in a more readable form…
—-
Izmir’de cok kaybolduk
“Hangi tarafa donduk?!”
Mutfak cok pislik
Zor temizledik
Efes’i gorduk, mutluyduk
—-

…sorry, thought I’d posted the translation with it:
In Izmir we were lost all the time
“Which way did we turn?!”
The kitchen was really dirty
We had a hard time cleaning it
We say Ephesus, we were happy
—

2005-03-25 14:15:00
Los EE y el emperio Romano; ABD ve Roma emperyum; US and the Roman Empire…
Estoy trabajando para amigos en leer sus documentos en ingles, escuchando a Nuevo Flamenco muy bonito (me sorpresa que Slash puede tocar la gitarra tan bueno asi!), y preocupando por me permiso de trabajar, y yo estaba pensando en los EE y Roma, que similar; En los ultimos años, la culta del emperor y los valores familiares fue mucho hablado (me temo que he olvidè a esta idioma, y nunca fue tan bueno, asi que me perdoneran, ustedes queridos leeredores…). Una buen amiga me decia que los EE y Roma tienen muchas cosas en comun…

*cringe* now for the Turkish attempt -I’m still trying to translate the last line :
*ahora en Turquesa, aunque estoy tratando de traducir a la ultima linea de la respuesta de Silmaril…
—
Çalışıyorum ve düşünüyorüm -çalışma vizem nerede? Düşündüm ki ABD ve Roma Emperyum çok beğenziyor.
***
As I shuttle back and forth between trying not to worry about where the bleepety bleep bleep bleep my bleeping work visa is (lost in Ankara …), work on reviewing the English documentation for some friends, and reading this paper on Global Civil Society …

Memories.  Neither misty nor water-colored.

Working on learning.  öğrenmeye çalışıyorum.

Astérix: Learn a language to bring freedom to others: Phase I…

In Asterix & Obelix: Mission Cleopatra, the Druid Panoramix, of that unconquerable village shared with Astérix the Gaul, came away with a scroll from the Library of Alexandria. Could it have contained what we see in the image above? Unlike Queen Cleopatra, we do not have to speak ten languages, but studying at least two or three can help widening one’s perspective. Or simply communicating with fellow workers.

FDR’s Four Freedoms, particularly freedom from fear, are echoed in this funny, but informative French film. From fear of being fed to Sacred Crocodiles to fear of losing face, languages and learning play a key role in this film, as in our real world today. Languages and libraries can also play a key role in moving us from our current world situation to one in which every human being is free from fear. Here is one proposal for how I hope we could move on, from #publicdomaininfrastructure as phase I, to phase IV’s #freeRoomAndRice for every person.

Phase I, already coming into motion, involves both humanizing all people in the eyes of one another, and building up existing infrastructure that contribute most directly to our long-term democratic institutions. The arts and media have been effective, historically, in sculpting ways of seeing the world, and in bearing witness to events. This is important for building empathy. Films like Astérix..Cléopatre, books like the Harry Potter series, and TV series like Babylon 5 all help. But our institutions also need support, in order to support us over the long haul.

Events over the last four years have shown us all the importance of 1.) both public education and also of adult education in the local community, as well as ongoing availability of 2.) free legal and financial advice. These sets of needs all come together in 3.) the institution of the Public Library system, as does one other: 4.) the public health system. Public health relies heavily on the assumption that both basic health education and current information are accessible to the entire population. Thus, all four parts of our infrastructure: transport, libraries and early education, adult continuing education (especially free financial and legal), and access to health care, impact all of us at all income levels. So, the hashtag #publicdomaininfrastructure was created to pull together those specific issues as a way to focus on a reduced set of areas that could have a higher impact on the lives of many people. In doing so, energy and time are freed up to allow more constructive solution sets to be created to all of our problems. Once transportation and knowledge are established in support of general health, ways of funding our remaining critical policy needs can be found, starting with reducing the needless and crushing collections burden many face for medical and student debt. Once reduced, these burdens then allow time and energy for more apprenticeships, tutoring, and ways of educating ourselves that allow for far more cooperation and community building.

Phase II can then begin to lay the groundwork for new ways of seeing ourselves and our responsibilities toward one another. More to come on Phase II soon (in about 10 years or so)…

More ways of supporting the requisite empathy, which must exist first in order for our society to care enough to pull together in mutual aid, include books, film, and other forms of media, like comic books, aka graphic novels, and music. All of these media have a strong effect on ways that people view the world, and so, here are some Action Items in support of #PublicDomainInfrastructure that artists can take over the next ten years or so:

1.) Write a novel that both tells a good story, and makes a difference. I’m working on that through my historical fantasy #WiP, #WhoByFireIWill. Once published, donate one or more copies to your local public library, as I intend to do.

2.) Write blog posts pointing folks to non-profits that offer pro Bono legal aid and free financial education for those most needing it, such as The Center for Heirs’ Property Preservation, in South Carolina.

3.) Draw or caligraph something helpful on your COVID-19 face mask, in favor of Universal Health Care.

4.) Write songs or music that get people thinking about public transportation, like the song ‘Walkin to New Orleans’ by Fats Domino

Other ideas welcome on how to #EndPoverty, #EndHomelessness, & #EndMoneyBail, starting with improving these four parts of our good #PublicDomainInfrastructure:

1. #libraries,

2. #ProBono legal aid and Education,

3. #UniversalHealthCare, and

4. good #publictransport

Read, Write, Ranked Choice Voting and Housing for ALL!!!!, Walk !

#PublicDomainInfrastructure #StopSmoking for CCOVID-19 ShiraDest

September, 12020 HE

Learning the language of Family History, and Choosing your Hill…

Tracing one’s family, particularly a family full of mostly Enslaved Persons, and some Free People of Color (free before the Civil War and subject to the Black Codes in most states), means learning the language of genealogy, and then learning your own family language, with names that run in families, especially middle names, and have certain meanings known only to the inner circle at that time. In order to survive, each of those People of Color had to decide and choose which hill they wanted to die upon: the hill of passing for White, in some cases, despite loosing family to do so, the hill of fighting to educate Colored people, despite the many hurtles, as my 2xs great grandfather and his daughter, in her turn, did, or the hill, today, of bearing the torch to help educate all people, as many of us are choosing in this difficult time.

What hill do you choose to die on? Building or choosing ‘Found Family’ for me is about connecting deeply and personally with other folks who share my values, as my great Aunt Sr. Mary Felix Manzilla did, when she joined the Oblate Sisters of Providence, the first Catholic sisterhood open to Colored women, in 1914. I seek to help build community that honors safety and Enough for All, and is willing to die upon the hill of Empathy and Compassion, fighting for Everyone to have Enough of Everything

(… taking a quick “station break” for some Standing Action Items on that:
1.) Tell your local Transit Board to build more LightRail stops,
2.) Tell your local city council to hire more librarians, add social workers and nurses to the library staff, and add washing stations to Public Library bathrooms,
3.) Ask your Community College Provost to give free classes on State Law Basics covering local land, property, contract and Statutes of Limitations laws (with shuttle bus service from poor neighborhoods!),
4.) Ask your State Senators and Reps to pass Universal Health Care in your state, and tell your Congressmen to do likewise at the Federal level.
…)

that Every Human Being needs to live with human dignity. But I seek that community as one looking to build personal family connections, to walk, to teach, and eat together, to look after one another and if necessary, to die for and with one another. In other words, Family, like my great aunt found, with the OSP.

Dear Readers, please consider the people and institutions linked above, and

Action Items:

1.)    Share your Hill, if you wish.

2.)     Simply Google your town’s Mass Transit Authority, to see if you have a Light Rail.  Then, if you have one, ask them to expand it!  🙂  If not, ask them how a simple and cheap tolley or light rail line could be put in.

You are now returned to your regularly scheduled #PublicDomainInfrastructure through #LanguageLearning channel (& I return to my #WiP!): please stand by…

Let’s #EndPoverty , #EndHomelessness, & #EndMoneyBail starting by improving these four parts of our good #PublicDomainInfrastructure 4:
1. #libraries,
2. #ProBono legal aid and Education,
3. #UniversalHealthCare, and
4. good #publictransport
Read, Write, Ranked Choice Voting and Housing for ALL!!!!, Walk !

#PublicDomainInfrastructure #StopSmoking for CCOVID-19
ShiraDest

August, 12020 HE