Great videos: Yo-Yo Ma. BBC parody. Texas talk-back. Jay Leno. "Fearless Girl" revisited. Feminism/Zionism. Cancer tales
LETTY COTTIN POGREBIN NEWSLETTER #40 MARCH 22, 2017
Too much of our brains' band width has lately been jammed by Trump's bizarre, often incendiary, eruptions. (FYI: More than 26,000 mental health professionals have signed a petition asserting that "he has a serious mental illness that renders him psychologically incapable of competently discharging the duties of President of the United States.”) For temporary relief from POTUS, let's switch the dial to normal people, some brilliant or clever, some annoying or uninformed, but none of whom are bent on eradicating truth, demolishing democratic institutions, depriving people of health care, or despoiling the planet.
VIDEOS
Leonard Bernstein's marvelous introduction of 7-year-old cellist Yo Yo Ma begins with a one-minute paean to the benefits of immigration and cross-cultural ferment. Maestro Bernstein then brings out Yo Yo Ma, age 7, (above) accompanied by his violinist sister, Yeou-Cheng, 11. Among the many immigrants who truly make America great are these "foreign artists" who performed at the White House in 1962 for an audience including Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy. Today, Yo Yo Ma and his family would likely be turned away at the airport, and the U.S. would be unable to claim this extraordinary musician as our own. Video begins at .22
Yo Yo Ma at 60 (2015)
You've probably seen the viral BBC interview in which a male expert opining on Korean politics is interrupted by his kids (whom he ignores). Better still is the hilarious new parody showing a female expert reacting to the same situation. This clever visual, a satirical enactment of what millions of moms do every single day, reminds me of the cover illustration on the first issue of Ms. magazine, (Spring 1972)
Did he really tell his constituents to "Shut up?" Watch what happens at a Texas town meeting when a man asks Republican Congressman Joe Barton about the Violence Against Women Act. The last words you hear in this clip should be your standard rebuttal to all elected officials who dare to dis their constituents. (FYI: Rep. Barton was one of 138 House members who voted against reauthorizing the VAWA.)
You won't believe what your fellow Americans don't know. Here's a LOL highlight reel of Jay Leno quizzing people-on-the-street who were presumably educated in the U.S. yet either drew a blank or gave ludicrous answers to the most elementary queries about their country. In a different Jaywalking segment, Leno explicitly says that immigrants routinely answer such questions in order to become citizens so maybe native born citizens who can't provide the answers -- and worse yet, laugh off their ignorance -- should be deported. (Wonder how many of those know-nothings voted for you-know-who. )
Immigrants swearing in at their citizenship ceremony.
POLITICS
Rarely do I have reason to quote the Wall Street Journal, but this blistering WSJ editorial about Trump is eminently newsworthy. It ends with, "if he doesn't show more respect for the truth most Americans may conclude he's a fake President."
BY AREND VAN DAM, POLITICALCARTOONS.COM
Sad, shameful news: Immigrants have been forfeiting their food stamps for fear of being deported.
Pictures speak louder than words: ObamaCare vs. TrumpCare. (Click this link to reveal two amazing photos you'll want to post on your refrigerator.)
WOMEN
Statue stands corrected. Turns out there's a more complicated story behind the "Fearless Girl" Wall Street sculpture. Jillian Steinhauer, commenting on the public's misplaced enthusiasm for the spunky-looking little girl, accuses its sponsor and advertising agency of hypocrisy and "fake corporate feminism."
Photo by MARK LENNIHAN/ASSOCIATED PRESS
"How Smart Women Got the Chance." I haven't read the book but Linda Greenhouse has written a sharp, probing, illuminating review of "Keep the Damned Women Out": The Struggle for Coeducation by Nancy Weiss Malkiel, that describes the cultural, financial, institutional, and social forces behind the decision by three Ivy League colleges to admit female students. Greenhouse says her current Yale students have no idea that, until 1969, their University refused to admit women.
ISRAEL/PALESTINE
Can you be a Zionist and a Feminist and a two-stater? Emily Shire's op-ed in the NYTimes, "Does Feminism Have Room for Zionists? has triggered a maelstrom of controversy. If the debate interests you, start by reading Shire's piece then (cited in order of their publication) Donna Nevel's "Zionism, The Nakba And Feminism" in Huffpost; Collier Meyerson's "Can You Be a Zionist Feminist? Linda Sarsour Says No" in The Nation' and Ann F. Lewis' "When a women's strike is not about women" in the Washington Jewish Week.
As someone who considers herself both a committed feminist and a liberal Zionist, I have strong feelings on the above subject that begin with a challenge to how Zionism is currently being defined and who is doing the defining. The rest I will save for a future posting but for now, I welcome your views.
The new Israeli law banning critics of settlements elicited some thoughtful responses from my readers. Here's one from Sonja Noring: "A liberal democratic society rests on a number of inviolable principles, among them free speech and the right, indeed the obligation, to dissent and to protest governmental policies antithetical to public welfare and humane values. Opposition to settlements does not represent either anti-Semitism or lack of support for Israel. I am not a boycott or divestment advocate, but I am distressed by Israel’s ban on foreigners who criticize settlements, which degrades Israel’s commitment to human rights and betrays its traditions of liberal democratic thought.
NYC EVENTS
"Over The Rainbow," an exhibit featuring Palestinian artists' work that the gallery says "springs from the spirit of recovering and rebuilding Gaza, but also spreads to all aspects of the lived Palestinian experience and the dialogue around it." 3/16- 4/17 @ Babycastles Gallery, 137 W 14th St.
Danae Elon's moving and provocative documentary "P.S. Jerusalem" -- about returning with her young family to the city where she was raised (her father was the esteemed Israeli writer, Amos Elon) -- has been held over for at least another week at Lincoln Plaza Cinema.
CANCER UPDATE
It's been more than seven years since my own diagnosis & I'm still hooked on stories by & about survivors:
"I have cancer. Cancer does not have me," writes Sophie Sabbage in The Cancer Whisperer, a best-seller in England, now available in the U.S. The author was 48, happily married, and the the mother of a 4-year-old when she was diagnosed with late-stage lung cancer and assumed to be terminal. Her memoir-cum-guidebook is an amazing story, beautifully told -- and she's still here.
Sophie Sabbage and her daughter.
Melanie Testa, a 47-year-old artist, explains "Why I Went Flat After Breast Cancer" Some women opt for breast reconstruction, some don't. There's no "right" choice, but the choice must be the patient's.
Melanie Testa
For an account of my experience with breast cancer and some been-there-done-that advice on friendship and illness, see How To Be a Friend to a Friend Who's Sick. (Sorry photo came out so big. )
Stay well, resist when you can and keep hope alive.