Kill the Jellyfish

Tuesday, July 12, 2016

Paggank

Governors Island

For just $2 you can take a 5 minute ferry ride to Governors Island and a walk through history!

Governors Island (called Paggank or "Nut Island" by the "First Nations" before being crushed by European occupation) is a 172 acre island less than half a mile off of the southern tip of Manhattan.

My wife and I intended to go to the island to take panoramic shots of Manhattan and the Brooklyn Bridge from arguably one of the most beautiful vantage points in NYC and unexpectedly we discovered a relatively quiet oasis of exciting "off the beaten path" history.

Lower Manhattan from Governors Island

These are some of the "discoveries" we made:

In 1624 the Dutch used Governors Island as the first landing place of settlers in New Netherlands Territory, making Governors Island the birthplace of New York and New Netherlands their first military base.

Governors Island was originally 69 acres and expanded to 172 acres in 1912 using materials excavated (nearly 5 million cubic yards of rock and soil) from the building of New York City's first subway line.

The oldest structure still standing on the island is "The Governors House" built (according to some sources) circa 1703.

During the Revolutionary War the Continental (American) Army fortified the island with an earthworks fort and 40 cannons, in anticipation of a British attack on NYC.

In 1794, Fort Jay (the subject of an upcoming post) was built on the site of the previous earthworks fort that was laying in ruins.

A moat surrounds Fort Jay

From 1807-1811, Castle Williams (the subject of an upcoming post) was built on the northwest corner of the island as part of a movement to fortify American ports from foreign invasions...both forts (and others in the area) proved very useful during the War of 1812.

Castle Williams

During the Civil War, the forts were used as an administrative site for Union officers and to house Confederate prisoners of war.

After the Civil War, Governors Island was used as a military prison (the east coast version of Alcatraz).

Civil War Rodman Cannon at Fort Jay

Thankfully, 22 acres of the island have been declared a National Historical Monument preserving an important part of history (and the ability to critically think about history) forever.

Friday, July 8, 2016

James Baldwin and July

"To be a Negro in this country and to be relatively conscious is to be in rage almost all the time."

"Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced."

"Love takes off the masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within."

"I know you didn't do it, and I didn't do it either, but I am responsible for it because I am a man and a citizen of this country and you are responsible for it, for the very same reason."

"Somebody, your father or mine, should have told us that not many people have ever died of love. But multitudes have perished, and are perishing every hour - and in the oddest places - for the lack of it!"

"If I love you, I have to make you conscious of the things you don't see."

"Love is a battle. Love is a war. Love is a growing up."

Thursday, July 7, 2016

Seems Like Murder Here

"BLACK RAGE"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0M4egdt4rs

Today in the Twin Cities, Baton Rouge, Chicago, and across America... "everyday seems like murder."

From drones to police brutality to innocent children gunned down in gang wars to educational credit factories, etc... "we sing the blues" in a kill first society.

Ida B. Wells 1893 or 2016?

"The lawlessness (lynching) here described is not confined to one locality. In the past ten years over a thousand colored men, women and children have been butchered, murdered and burnt in all parts of the South. The details of these horrible outrages seldom reach beyond the narrow world where they occur. Those who commit the murders write the reports, and hence these lasting blots upon the honor of a nation cause but a faint ripple on the outside world. They arouse no great indignation and call forth no adequate demand for justice. The victims were black, and the reports are so written as to make it appear that the helpless creatures deserved the fate which overtook them."

...and when will the lynchings and killings end?

Friday, July 1, 2016

The Library of Congress

One of the most unexpectedly exciting parts of our (I must mention...my wife has been a librarian for over 25 years) Washington, D.C. visit was a tour of The Thomas Jefferson Building at The Library of Congress. The library was established in 1800 as "Our Nation's Research Library" and is the second largest library in the world.

The Research Reading Room

The Library of Congress houses over 32 million cataloged books (filling over 800 miles of book shelves) in over 450 languages, over 61 million original manuscripts, an rough draft of the Declaration of Independence, and two Gutenberg Bibles (one handwritten and one from a printing press). There are also millions of newspapers, pieces of sheet music, maps, sound recordings, and photographs, etc. in its vast collection.

All of the inscriptions at the Library of Congress

https://www.loc.gov/loc/walls/

But IMO, the most awe-inspiring section of the Library of Congress is the Great Hall...the Great Hall is lined with myriads of impressive murals, sculptures, ornate stairways/ arches and quotes on wisdom, and an incredible painting of the goddess Minerva.

Minerva: The Guardian of Civilization

One could spend hours contemplating the artwork, inscriptions, the meaning of freedom...

One of my favorite quotes of dozens lining the wall of the Great Hall was:

"A LITTLE LEARNING IS A DANGEROUS THING;
DRINK DEEP OR TASTE NOT OF THE PIERIAN SPRING."

My wife savoring her time at the LOC

Thursday, June 23, 2016

Official "History"

Recently while on a trip to Washington, D.C. and NYC with my wife, I was painfully reminded about how "we" and even official "historical" tour guides romanticize about (while perpetuating fairy tale myths) and attempt to sanitize American History.

Top 5 "truths" (believe me there were more than 5...in no particular order) heard (or not heard...ignored) on the trip:

1. While standing at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial and hearing dozens (including teachers with student groups) repeat the mantra of "Lincoln as The Great Emancipator...the Savior of the slaves, etc." while having no clue of his plans of colonization, his racist rhetoric and tone, etc. while hundreds trampled over (without notice or recognition) the plaque commemorating the place where Dr. King delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech.

2. While visiting Teddy Roosevelt's home at Sagamore Hill (actually a great tour)...the tour guide throws in (IMO to placate the people of color) during the last 5 minutes of the tour how progressive President Roosevelt was on race because "he was the first President to invite a black man to dinner at the White House."

But, what about Roosevelt's belief in racial eugenics, referring to Africans as, “ape-like naked savages, who prey on creatures not much wilder or lower than themselves" and stating that whites were “the forward race destined to raise the backward race[s] through industrial efficiency, political capacity and domestic morality"...his implicit cover-up of contributions of the Buffalo Soldiers during the Spanish American War, etc.

3. A tour guide at Arlington National Cemetery referring to Robert E. Lee as a "great American general" whose property was "rightfully returned to the Lee family in December of 1882 on a 5-4 U.S. Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision" which stated that the confiscation of the property lacked due process...."and Congress eventually purchased the property from Lee for $150,000."

All this without one mention of Lee being a traitor, Freedmen's Village and the thousands of slaves who fled, lived, died, and were buried at Arlington during and after the war...no mention of Medgar Evers or many other important people of color and women buried at Arlington.

4. The same tour guide at Arlington National Cemetery giving a very cursory and inaccurate history of the Iwo Jima Marine Memorial without a mention of the first flag raising, cost of life for government propaganda, etc.

5. Listening to a tour guide eulogize Thomas Jefferson and his "great belief in freedom and all men are created equal" while failing to note that TJ owned slaves, raped Sally Hemings, called Native Americans "Noble Savages", etc.

As Edourd Glissant suggests...

If only we dared "to abandon the absurd catalogue of official history".

Saturday, June 11, 2016

Literacy = Freedom

IMO, WE MUST BEGIN TO READ AND NEVER STOP!

Not an unusual story across our nation...

Mary Willingham (a learning specialist and tutor) was in her office when a basketball player at the University of North Carolina walked in looking for help with his classwork. He couldn't read or write...even about himself in the local sports page!

"I kind of panicked. What do you do with that?" she said, recalling the meeting.

Willingham's job was to help athletes who weren't quite ready academically for the work required at UNC, one of the country's academically elite public universities. But she was shocked that one couldn't read or write.

And then she found he was not unusual:

35% of Americans read below a 5th grade level.

19% of high school graduates (how did they graduate...is this immoral?!?) can't read...This is on top of the fact that 22% of students nationwide do not graduate from high school.

An estimated 20% of college athletes read below an 8th grade level.

33% of high school graduates never read another book after high school.

In the USA, the average person spends 4 hours per day watching television and less that 20 minutes reading.

One of the functions of The National Association of Adult Literacy is to measure the English literacy of adults across the United States. They define literacy as the ability to “search, comprehend, and use information from continuous texts,” and categorize literacy into four levels:

Below Basic- the most simple skills ranging from non-literate to being able to follow simple written instructions. (14% of population)

Basic- the ability to perform simple everyday literacy tasks like reading and understanding simple texts and documents, being able to read the TV schedule, etc. (29% of population)

Intermediate- the ability to summarize, make simple inferences, compare and contrast, determine the author's purpose, locating information in complex reading materials, identifying locations on a map, etc. (44% of population)

Proficient- skills to perform moderately challenging and complex literacy such as reading lengthy abstract prose, integrating, synthesizing, and analyzing multiple pieces of information, making inferences, etc.

In an extensive NAAL survey, only 13% of adults attained the proficient level (compared to estimates of 20% in 1776).

We must do better...these statistics are an unacceptable truth!

How to improve your reading:

1. Find something interesting to you and at or slightly above your current reading level.

2. Find a quiet place where you can read.

3. Have a regular routine/ schedule to practice your reading.

4. Take your time, concentrate, sound out words, look up difficult words (it is a good idea to read while listening to the audio version...this especially helps for pronunciation).

5. Determine context clues, implied messages, symbolism, etc...read and reread if necessary.

6. Keep reading...soon your vocabulary will become larger and more sophisticated, your ideas and imagination will broaden, and you will notice your grades change for the better in school. You will also become a better writer due to your more advanced vocabulary.

7. Have fun...because reading is fun!