Masks: Off? On? Off?

I took off my mask! We were at University Village to drop off a MacBook at the Apple Store. Yes, we wore it in the store, used their hand sanitizer, sat six feet away from our Genius, and, sadly didn’t shop after our appointment. But once outside again, I took off my mask and strolled back to the car with my face fully exposed to the elements! (The only element to contend with today was the sun.) Nice.

New Culture War Over Critical Race Theory

Critical Race Theory is getting a lot of press lately. I’m not a fan of CRT, but the more the right wing attacks it, the more I see otherwise sensible leftists (i.e. Jesse Singal) try to defend it. This is likely to become another wedge issue for the 2022 election, which I’d rather it not. But red states are passing laws against it, which I’d rather they not, so a full fledged culture war cannot be far behind. More later.

Chocolate Brownie Mix Hummus?

Chocolate Hummus? Yup. Our dining room packaged chocolate hummus with teddy bear graham crackers, strawberries, and pretzels yesterday. Since I like chocolate, it tasted OK, but my tummy protested all night long. I’ve eaten hummus before and don’t remember such a reaction, but I will not be eating this variety again. Not sure what went wrong. Clash of Civilizations, perhaps.

A New Letter Carrier

Our well-trained letter carrier of many years retired last month, so our mail is now hours late getting to our boxes. The new guy is fine; he’ll figure out our 400 addresses eventually, but the previous gal had things well in hand. No point in checking for the mail at 1:00 for a while.

Sad Sack Salads

You know those bags of greens that are now packaged for salads in stores? Do you like them? I don’t know why restaurants – and our dining room – have abandoned the many varieties of lettuce I actually enjoy, but I wish they’d bring them back. I’m betting that these greens are easier to manage in an assembly line, but really, they’re not lettuce, and I don’t like them. They don’t have a shape that enables them to mix with other salad goodies; they just kind of stack up. Am I just getting cantankerous in my old age?

Trigger warnings for MLK? Seriously? 

I got my spring newsletter for alumni with senior status (i.e. 50+ years since graduation) in the mail. An article from 50 years ago talked about a visit to the campus by Martin Luther King Jr. in 1961. Sadly, it contained this trigger warning: “This article is shared as originally written. It contains outdated language that may be offensive or hurtful to some readers.” Here is the entire article (copied without permission). What, in this article, merits a trigger warning? Aaargh!

King Stresses Realism in Integration Future

To push forward in the struggle for the freedom and dignity of American Negroes, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said in Wednesday’s convocation that a realistic position must be taken, combining the trues and avoiding the extreme of the optimistic and pessimistic attitudes. 

“We have come a long, long way but there is a long, long way to go,” the leader said.

There is a new Negro with a new destiny, King Explained. Lynching has just about ceased in the South; the poll tax has been eliminated by all but four states and the Negro is making 10 times more wages than he did 15 years ago.

“We are standing on the border of a promised land – integration,” he said.

King pointed out that there is still violence against those who take a stand for integration and that there are five million Negro eligible voters in the south but only 400,000 are registered. Economically, 48.2 percent of the Negro families make less than $2000 a year.

Segregation is a cancer in the body politic, he declared. “We must work with renewed vigor to end segregation. If segregation lives, democracy will die.” 

King declared that we must not seek the solution to segregation just to counter the appeal of Communism to emerging Negro nations but because of a recognition of its moral wrongness.

“When the Christian Church stands up, transition will be smoothed,” the Baptist minister said in his appeal to the several forces of society – both North and South. “There is more integration in a sports arena than in the church.”

He warned that the Negro should not try to rise from inferiority to superiority as “black supremacy is as evil as white supremacy.”

from the Spring 2021 issue of The Gatehouse of Lewis and Clark College.