Hello again. Like probably most of you, I’ve spent much of the last week fretting over the impending vote on a healthcare bill in the Senate. It’s no surprise that the leadership of the Republican party is as cruel as it gets, but it’s still an astonishing display to see a bill that will negatively affect the lives of every American family save for the four hundred billionaires who will see a tax cut. If you haven’t already, call your Senators. If you have, call ’em again. Then call your family and friends and tell them to call.
And then take some time to breathe, because whether this vote succeeds or fails, there will be more work to do.
Reading, fast
“As a nation, we’ve never known what to do with our fondness for the work of men who have become troublesome. We force ourselves to practice impossible moral surgery that hopes to cut off the artist to save the art.” The incomparable Wesley Morris on Bill Cosby.
“In the end, a practice of abolitionist care underscores that our fates are intertwined and our liberation is interconnected. As such, defense campaigns guided by an ethic and practice of care can be powerful strategies to lead us towards abolition.” Mariame Kaba on defense campaigns as abolitionist organizing.
“It’s not hard to see what a pro-life world looks like. It looks like a world with a lot of dead women in it.” Jennifer Wright on the anti-abortion movement.
“Moving to a requirement that the exterior of a building be ‘noncombustible,’ Mr. Martin said, ‘limits your choice of materials quite significantly.’” On the unconscionable regulatory malpractice that led to the Grenfell Tower fire.
“For Coppola to make a film about white Southern women in the Civil War while simply ignoring the circumstances around them—and their points of view on those circumstances—invites the question of why she made a film about the Civil War at all.” Richard Brody on Coppola’s The Beguiled. Also: Soraya Roberts on Coppola’s perception of womanhood. And Inkoo Kang on the racist mess that is Lost in Translation.
“Wrote a parent at Laurelhurst Elementary: ‘Can you please address…why skin color is so important? I remember a guy that had a dream. Do you remember that too? I doubt it. Please show me the content of your character if you do.’” White parents respond to a Black Lives Matter day at a school in northeast Seattle.
“Perhaps our system doesn’t affirm black lives because it wasn’t designed to. Perhaps police officials and prosecutors and ordinary jurors view the unnecessary death of a black person at the hands of police like generals view collateral damage in warfare—a regrettable outcome, but one that doesn’t undermine the essential legitimacy of the system.” Jamelle Bouie on the Philando Castile verdict.
“The crucial question concerning capital punishment is not whether people deserve to die for the crimes they commit but rather whether we deserve to kill.” Bryan Stevenson on the history of lynching in America.
“For months during the campaign last year, key progressives had watched Black Lives Matter and kept wondering two things many activists on the inside were starting to wonder themselves: What is the movement’s strategy? What is the end goal?” Darren Sands on what happened to Black Lives Matter. (Much of this piece brought to mind Zeynep Tufekci’s analysis of social media organizing in Twitter and Tear Gas.)
“The question of the hour is whether the forms of communication that exist today make our frame of government unworkable, having thrown the system of checks and balances so far out of whack that it can’t be hammered back into working order.” A fascinating interview with Jill Lepore.
“I have been stress-eating for months along with the rest of this country. Now is not the time to stop.” Rahawa Haile on food and family and the Appalachian trail.
Reading, slow
Critical Race Theory, edited by Kimberlé Crenshaw, Neil Gotanda, Gary Peller, and Kendall Thomas. More notes to come as I work my way through this already very illuminating anthology.
Cocktail recipe
This is a stupid-easy classic. The hardest part will be acquiring yellow Chartreuse, which can be a little harder to find than the more common green. I adore this as an aperitif on a hot day.
Alaska
1 ½ oz gin
½ oz yellow Chartreuse
Dash orange bitters
Pour gin, chartreuse, and orange bitters into a shaker filled with ice. Stir well and strain into a chilled coup glass.
Can’t remember why I’m in your inbox? Feel free to unsubscribe. Like this? Forward to a friend. Hit reply to share reading recommendations or tell me what you’re drinking. Stay strong.
—m
You just read an issue of A Working Library.