By MARSHA MERCER
If you have Monday off from work, thank 19th century American politics.
The Columbus Day holiday has its roots in the presidential campaign of 1892, when President Benjamin Harrison was running for re-election.
Last year, Gov. Ralph Northam declared the
first Indigenous Peoples’ Day in Virginia, “a day to honor the rich culture and
recognize the contributions of Indigenous people and Native Americans across
the Commonwealth.” He recognized Oct.11, 2021, the same way.
By MARSHA MERCER
An acid attack when he was just 4 years old disfigured
and blinded Joshua A. Miele for life.
A deranged neighbor came to the Miele family’s door in
Brooklyn, N.Y., and threw sulfuric acid in the child’s face.
Miele, 52, didn’t let the tragedy stop him. He earned
a Ph.D. at the University of California at Berkeley and became a designer of adaptive
technology. He currently works at Amazon, helping blind and visually impaired
people use everyday technologies.
“I want to be famous for the right reasons, for the
work I’ve done, and not for some stupid thing that happened to me 40 years ago,”
Miele told The New York Times in 2013. And
now he is.
Miele is one of the 25 exceptionally creative people the
John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation announced would receive $625,000,
no strings attached, paid out in quarterly installments over five years.
The awards are popularly known as “genius grants,” but
the foundation does not use the term as it connotes intelligence, but not
creativity or originality. The foundation calls the winners fellows.
“As we emerge from the shadows of the past two years,
this class of 25 Fellows helps us reimagine what’s possible,” Cecilia Conrad,
managing director of the fellows program, said in a statement on macfound.org.
This year’s group includes historians, scientists,
economists, artists, poets, performers, filmmakers and activists. Many have
devoted their careers to raising consciousness about systemic racism, inequality
and social injustice, and almost all challenge the existing state of affairs in
one way or another.
Proving there are second acts in life, two recipients are
former prison inmates.
Reginald Dwayne Betts, 40, is a poet and lawyer at Yale
Law School who served nearly nine years in prison for carjacking when he was 16.
He turned his life around with books, reading and writing in his cell every
day.
A practicing lawyer, he represents incarcerated
clients on issues of clemency, cash bail and lengthy prison terms and recently
started building libraries in prisons.
Desmond Meade, 54, a civil rights activist, triumphed
over addiction, homelessness and a 15-year prison sentence for possession of a
firearm as a felon. He is executive director of the Florida Rights Restoration
Coalition, working to restore voting rights to formerly incarcerated persons.
Historian and writer Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, a
professor of African American Studies at Princeton, writes extensively about race
issues and has argued that Black elected officials are often complicit in
perpetuating systemic racism by supporting policies that maintain the status
quo.
Among the better-known winners is Ibram X. Kendi,
author of the 2019 bestseller book “How to be an Antiracist,” which sold 2
million copies.
Safiya Noble, an internet studies and digital media
scholar at UCLA, is author of “Algorithms of Oppression,” which contends search
engines are biased, not neutral, and magnify racism, sexism and harmful
stereotypes.
Monica Munoz Martinez, a public historian, studies and
writes about cases of racial violence along the Texas-Mexico border in the 20th
century.
Filmmakers Cristine Ibarra and her partner Alex Rivera
each won grants for their work exploring the immigrant experience. Ibarra
describes herself as coming from “a long line of border crossers,” and Rivera
has long been interested in “society that needs work but rejects workers.”
No one can apply for a MacArthur grant, and winners
are nominated and chosen in a confidential process that can take years. Recipients
must either live in the United States or be U.S. citizens. Elected officials or anyone who holds a high government office are
ineligible.
The grants are designed to liberate recipients to
pursue their creative instincts “for the benefit of human society.”
An additional benefit is that the grants program
resonates with the rest of us. A 2012 study found it “inspires members of the
general public to pursue their own personal creative activities and to think
about how they can use their own skills and ideas to make the world a better
place.”
Now more than ever, we need our best minds to tackle
the persistent problems facing our country and the world. Although popular
culture encourages and rewards the lowest common denominator, the MacArthur grants
remind each of us to use our talents to challenge the status quo.
©2021 Marsha Mercer. All rights reserved.
30
By MARSHA MERCER
In his memorable short story “The Things They
Carried,” author Tim O’Brien tells about the things foot soldiers carried in
Vietnam.
I want to tell you about a trunk that carried the
things an immigrant family brought to the United States almost one hundred
years ago. As improbable as it sounds in our age of disposables, the trunk has
a future.
For 15 days in August 1923, Raffaele and Maddalena
DeGennaro and their four children under the age of 10 made a voyage of faith aboard
the SS Dante Alighieri from Italy to Ellis Island.
In a somber
immigration photo, Maddalena holds in her arms a baby who was not yet 2 years
old. That’s
my father.
The DeGennaros also brought a domed wooden trunk painted
green with metal straps. It was 40 inches long, 26 ½ inches high and 22 ½
inches wide and weighed about 47 pounds, empty.
It contained their hopes, dreams and what they needed to
start their lives anew.
The family settled in Connecticut and the trunk went
to their attic, where the boys slept. The family grew to eight children, and the
trunk became a plaything for generations.
The family assimilated. My dad and a couple of his
brothers Americanized their names. They served in the military, traveled, pursued
educations and careers -- but never lost their sentimental attachment to the
old trunk.
In the mid-1980s, my dad, Guy DeGenaro, living in
Richmond, worried what would happen to the trunk with the older generation gone.
He wanted to keep it safe.
My dad’s older brother, Augie DeGenaro, shipped it by
Greyhound bus from New Haven to Richmond. My mother was not as fond of the old trunk
as my dad, and it went to their attic for about 35 years.
My dad died in February at 99, and I began going through
his and my late mother’s houseful of belongings. When I opened the Italian
trunk, I was astonished to find it full of newspaper clippings.
Unbeknown to me, my parents had saved almost every
story and column I wrote for Richmond newspapers for decades. My dad stored the
pages in clear plastic bags by year.
The trunk’s interior had been restored at some point
and covered in patterned paper. Someone – my grandma? – had written in Italian inside
a list of the things the family had carried in the trunk. A translator deciphered
some of the words:
Shirts or blouses, a knit or jersey suit for Augie, a tablecloth
and napkins with bobbin lace, an embroidered sheet, a red skirt with bobbin
lace, a bodice, cotton towels, a cover-all and diapers.
My grandma made lace, a lost art, and my guess is lace
was the nicest thing they had.
I struggled with what to do with the trunk. My dad had
desperately wanted it to stay with the family; so did I. But I live in a small
townhouse in Alexandria and don’t have room for it.
Nor does my Uncle Richard DeGennaro, my dad’s last
surviving sibling, who is in his 90s and lives in Florida. I asked his son, Rafael,
to email the family to see if there was any interest.
Instantly, Abby DeGenaro Davi in Branford,
Connecticut, the daughter of my first cousin Gregg, Augie’s son, spoke up. She
didn’t even wait to read the entire email. She knew.
“I’m a total traditionalist,” she said. “I want it to
stay in the family.”
Abby and her husband Brian Davi and their children
Violet, 11, and Colton, 6, live near her dad, who played in the trunk as a
child.
She decided to ship the trunk back to New Haven by
Greyhound. Christian and Grant Smith, sons of a friend, double-bubble wrapped
the trunk, hoisted it into their SUV, and drove us to the Richmond Greyhound
station.
Several days later, the trunk arrived safe and sound. It
now has a place in the Davi family room next to a highchair Gregg made for his
grandchildren.
Violet and Colton play in the trunk, though they say “it
smells like old people.”
No, their mother replied, “It smells like 1923.”
They call it a “treasure chest” – and, for my family,
it is. A treasure chest that’s ready for its next hundred years.
©2021 Marsha Mercer. All rights reserved.
30
By MARSHA MERCER
Even in the best of times, news is rarely uplifting.
“If it bleeds, it leads” is more than a catchy TV
phrase. News thrives on quarrels, conflict and chaos.
That said, we’ve all endured a particularly sad run of
news of late.
The 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks
brought back the day’s horror and sorrow. The precipitous end of the war in
Afghanistan made us question, well, everything.
The pandemic tightens its deadly grip on our country because
too many of us refuse to take simple, free precautions. Our ailing planet repays
us for our disregard of climate change with disastrous storms, floods and fire.
Need I go on?
No wonder so many of us are disgusted, disheartened
and dispirited.
Usually, when the world is too much with me, I go on
vacation, but for various reasons, I haven’t taken a vacation in more than two
years.
Fortunately, fall means festivals, and in a rare
benefit of COVID-19, many festivals are again virtual, inviting us to attend
wherever we are.
The National Book Festival, sponsored by the Library
of Congress, continues through Sept. 26, with live author conversations online daily.
Only two festival events are ticketed and in person at the library in
Washington.
More than 100 popular authors from a range of fields are
participating in various formats. Among them: historian Joseph J. Ellis, fashion
designer Diane Von Furstenberg, business magnate Bill Gates, historian Annette
Gordon-Reed and journalist Isabel Wilkerson.
Children and teen authors include Traci
Chee, Kate DiCamillo, Meg Medina, Lupita Nyong’o, Jason Reynolds and Angie Thomas.
Dozens of videos are available to watch on demand,
including with actor Michael J. Fox, social commentator Roxane Gay and Nobel
Prize winner Kazuo Ishiguro. Question-and-answer sessions with authors are
scheduled as well.
New this year is a “Festival Near You” section on the
festival website that shows local events. See more at https://www.loc.gov/events/2021-national-book-festival/
First lady Laura Bush brought the National Book
Festival to Washington on Sept. 8, 2001, three days before the world changed
utterly. That the festival has survived 20 years and evolved to meet today’s
challenges is cause for celebration at a time when we don’t have many.
The theme this year, “Open a Book, Open the World” celebrates
the power of books to change our lives as well as our perspective.
“Books have been everything to me,” poet Amanda Gorman
said in an interview with Librarian of Congress Dr. Carla Hayden on a PBS special
about the festival, available on the library’s site. Actor and child literacy advocate LeVar Burton hosts the special and
also is a festival speaker.
Gorman became a worldwide sensation at age 22 last
year when she read a poem at President Joe Biden’s inauguration. She knew she
wanted to become a writer in third grade, when her teacher read Ray Bradbury’s novel
“Dandelion Wine” to the class, she says.
Bill Gates says he was lucky as a child to have a grandmother
who read to him and his sisters. He also credits summer reading contests at the
local public library for encouraging his keen love of reading.
“An addiction to reading has been a key secret of my
success,” Gates says.
If, like me, late September makes you feel like you
should be back in school – cue Rod Stewart – the festival offers plenty of food
for thought, reflection -- and action.
Adam Grant, author of “Think Again: The Power of
Knowing What You Don’t Know,” says it’s important to avoid letting our beliefs
harden into fossils.
“The problem is we live in a rapidly changing world,
where we need to spend as much time rethinking as thinking,” he said on the PBS
special. Grant, an organizational psychologist at the University of
Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, suggests: “Don’t let your ideas become your
identity.
“Look for reasons why you might be wrong, not just
reasons why you might be right. Listen to the ideas that make you think hard,
not just the ones that make you feel good.”
I haven’t read Grant’s book, but I plan to. In the
meantime, his advice makes me want to give rethinking my beliefs a go. What
about you?
©2021 Marsha Mercer. All rights reserved.
By MARSHA MERCER
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott offered a bizarre defense of
his state’s new, unconstitutional anti-abortion law.
Asked Tuesday why the state would force victims of rape
or incest to carry pregnancies to term, he denied the law does that.
“Obviously, it provides at least six weeks for a
person to be able to get an abortion,” Abbott said. No, it doesn’t.
The Texas state law known as Senate Bill 8 prohibits
abortion after a fetal heartbeat is detected, which is usually four weeks after
conception or two weeks after a missed menstrual period. That’s before most
women even know they are pregnant, before the embryo becomes a fetus and months
before fetal viability, generally at 24 weeks.
The law effectively prohibits about 85% of the
abortions in the state and will force most abortion clinics to close, providers
say.
The Republican governor also said: “Rape is a crime,
and Texas will work tirelessly to make sure that we eliminate all rapists from
the streets of Texas.”
Really? Eight in 10 rapes are committed by someone who
knows the victim, often a family member or family friend, according to the
anti-sexual violence group RAINN.
Critics said Abbott is
ignorant, but it’s more likely the governor, a graduate of the University of
Texas and Vanderbilt University Law School, knows the facts and is playing to his
constituents.
About a dozen other states have passed anti-abortion “heartbeat”
laws but courts have tossed them out, at least temporarily, as unconstitutional.
What makes the Texas law different, and threatening to abortion rights
nationwide, is its enforcement mechanism.
Unlike other states’ laws, Texas specifically blocks
state or local officials from enforcing it and leaves enforcement to
individuals. Any private citizen anywhere – not just in Texas -- can bring suit
against anyone in Texas who performs an abortion or “aids and abets” one.
The patient may not be sued, but anyone who pays for
an abortion, the doctor, nurses, abortion counselors, even someone who drives a
patient to a clinic can be sued.
State courts are required to award the private citizen
$10,000 for each abortion identified. The defendants – abortion providers --
cannot recover their court costs even if they win.
The Supreme Court last month ruled 5 to 4 to allow the
Texas law to go into effect, although it did not rule on its merits. Chief
Justice John Roberts joined the three liberal justices in dissent.
“The Court’s order is stunning,” Justice Sonia
Sotomayor wrote in a blistering dissent. Calling the Texas law “flagrantly
unconstitutional,” she said the majority of justices “have opted to bury their
heads in the sand.”
The clever way the law was written has made combatting
it difficult, but the Biden administration is preparing to sue Texas.
Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee wrote
Attorney General Merrick Garland and the Justice Department urging them to prosecute
“would-be vigilantes.”
“The Department of Justice cannot permit private
individuals seeking to deprive women of the constitutional right to choose an
abortion to escape scrutiny under existing federal law simply because they
attempt to do so under the color of state law,” the letter said.
Bounty-hunting on healthcare workers is a novel twist
on laws aimed at rewarding private citizens who are whistleblowers against
fraud in government programs, such as Medicaid and Medicare, or defense
contracts.
So-called “qui tam” statutes allow individuals to
bring fraud cases and incentivize them with an award. Congress passed the False
Claims law in 1863 to combat fraud by companies that sold shoddy supplies to
the U.S. government during the Civil War.
A law professor
who clerked for the late conservative Justice Antonin Scalia reportedly helped
Republican lawmakers craft the private-enforcement strategy. By empowering
citizens to bring lawsuits against abortion providers, Texas has succeeded so
far in circumventing a constitutional challenge.
Other Republican governors are already using Texas as
a model for stricter anti-abortion laws.
Regardless of how you feel about abortion, stop and
think about the precedent of a state using vigilantism to enforce laws.
It’s one thing for private citizens who observe fraud
to be rewarded for coming forward, but Texas has enlisted residents of any
state to enforce a social standard.
This is a slippery slope, and any state could incentivize
individuals anywhere to enforce its pet social mores.
Conservatives are celebrating now, but liberals can turn
out to be just as ingenious in using these laws.
©2021 Marsha Mercer. All rights reserved.
30
By MARSHA MERCER
This Labor Day weekend, my candidate for Worker of the
Year is a professor who quit.
Irwin Bernstein, a psychology professor at the
University of Georgia, walked off the job Aug. 24 because one of his students
refused to wear a mask properly in class.
“That’s it. I’m retired,” Professor Bernstein reportedly
said and left.
Bravo, Professor, for drawing your personal red line and
for your long run in the classroom. Bernstein began teaching in 1968. He is 88.
That’s not a typo.
He retired in 2011 but returned to teach part time. This
school year he was teaching two classes.
But Bernstein has Type 2 diabetes. His age and other
health problems put him at higher risk for complications of COVID-19.
It’s not too much for him and other teachers in the
nation’s classrooms to expect their employers to follow the guidance of public
health authorities and require masks and vaccinations.
The University System of Georgia offers vaccinations and
encourages masks inside campus facilities -- but does not require them.
So, Bernstein adopted his own “no mask, no class”
policy.
Two of his students missed the first day of class
after having tested positive for COVID-19, the student newspaper The Red &
Black reported. On the second day, 25 students in Bernstein’s seminar did wear masks, but one student
refused to pull the mask over her nose, saying she had “a really hard time
breathing.”
Bernstein asked her twice. An Air Force veteran, he said
he risked his life in the military but wouldn’t do so during the pandemic.
Bernstein’s last stand came as the delta variant is ravaging
the country.
The daily average of hospitalized COVID-19 patients
topped 100,000 over the last week, the highest level since last winter, The New
York Times reported.
Hospitalizations nationwide have risen 500% in the
last two months, primarily in the South, and intensive care units are reaching
capacity. About 1,000 people a day are dying of COVID in the United States, the
most since March, the Times said.
With such devastating numbers, mask and vaccination
mandates in schools and universities should be welcome.
And yet, anti-maskers and anti-vaxers, spurred by irresponsible
Republican politicians, still complain that requiring a mask or vaccination is
an infringement of their personal freedom and rights. Critics of mandates complain
of “tyrants,” and worse.
Some flout the rules with appalling consequences. Consider
a case from California the Centers for Disease Control reported this week.
In Marin County, an unvaccinated elementary school
teacher removed their mask while reading aloud to the class last June and half
the pupils, who were too young to be vaccinated, got COVID-19. Removing the
mask was against school rules.
And yet, as students return to schools and campuses
this fall, classroom conflicts are spreading.
The Republican governors of Florida and Texas have
fought school districts that have imposed mask mandates. The federal Education
Department is investigating whether five states that have prohibited mask
mandates have violated the civil rights of disabled students.
At least 16 states have statewide school mask
mandates, according to tracking by the Times. But that doesn’t always matter to
misguided local officials. A rural school district in Oregon just fired its
school superintendent because he followed the state guidance and required
masks.
Virginia requires all students, teachers and staff in
K-12 schools to wear masks indoors, even if vaccinated. Most colleges and
universities in Virginia also require vaccinations and masks.
Virginia Tech disenrolled 134 students and the
University of Virginia disenrolled 238 who failed to provide proof of
vaccination against COVID-19. It’s unknown how many of these students had made
other plans for the school year.
Fortunately, with full approval of the Pfizer vaccine,
more employers – including governments at all levels -- are requiring
vaccinations as a condition of employment, with a few exceptions.
That’s good news. Few teachers or other public
employees can afford to say, “Take this job and shove it.”
Universities and schools that hold in-person classes,
especially where children are too young to be vaccinated, should protect everyone
involved with vaccination and mask mandates. And they should get community
support when they do.
©2021 Marsha Mercer. All rights reserved.
30
By MARSHA MERCER
As bad as things look for President Joe Biden these
days, Donald Trump may have it worse.
After seven months on the job, Biden’s job approval
ratings have plunged as the debacle in Afghanistan, the raging delta variant, the
crisis at the border and other calamities take a toll.
Only 47% of Americans approve of the job Biden is
doing as president and 49% disapprove, according to the Real Clear Politics
poll average on Thursday.
Such numbers disturb Democrats, but Biden has time and
the economy on his side. The midterm elections are more than a year away.
Biden faces an array of crises that challenge his
governing skills. Most Americans support getting U.S. troops out of Afghanistan,
but the speedy Taliban takeover showed a lack of strategy and preparedness.
Now, however, the administration is working tirelessly
to evacuate tens of thousands of Americans and our Afghan allies. Secretary of
State Tony Blinken said Wednesday rescue efforts would continue even if U.S. troops
leave by the Aug. 31 deadline.
In the war on the pandemic, Biden declared victory too
soon. The surge in COVID-19 cases and deaths nationwide has devastated
hospitals. But with full government approval of the Pfizer vaccine and others likely
soon, more unvaccinated Americans will choose, or be forced, to get the jab,
and the vaccinated will get boosters, extending protection.
With luck and barring new variants, the United States should
get ahead of the deadly coronavirus and find a new normal way of life next
year.
Biden’s massive American Rescue Plan made it through
Congress, and House Democrats held together to pass pieces of his ambitious
legislative agenda. September will be do-or-die for infrastructure and the
budget. The Senate remains a stumbling block, but Biden’s proposals are still
on track.
As for Trump, who teases about another presidential
bid, he lost the 2020 election by 7 million votes. He also lost his White House
megaphone, his favorite social media platforms and much, though not all, the
news media coverage he craves.
The sore loser continues to claim falsely he won, and,
sadly, many Republicans still believe him, despite numerous recounts and court
cases that have turned up no widespread election fraud.
Trump draws large crowds of supporters to his rallies,
but his overall approval rating is lower than Biden’s. Only 41% of Americans have
a favorable opinion of Trump with 52% unfavorable, in the latest Real Clear
Politics’ average of polls.
Trump even got booed briefly Aug. 21 at an Alabama
rally, and right-wing talk radio host Alex Jones turned on Trump, for
suggesting people might want to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Fewer than 35% of Alabama residents are vaccinated.
“I believe totally in your freedoms. I do. You’ve got
to do what you have to do,” Trump said. Raising his voice for emphasis, he
said, “BUT, I recommend take the vaccines. It’s good. I did it. Take the
vaccines.”
Trump faces mounting personal woes. The Justice
Department said in July the IRS must release Trump’s tax returns to a Congressional
panel, as some courts have ruled. Trump’s lawyer says they will fight “tooth
and nail” to keep the returns private.
The Select Committee to Investigate the Jan. 6 attack
on the Capitol Wednesday released a barrage of requests to the National
Archives and seven other federal agencies for information on a wide range of topics.
They set a deadline of Sept. 9.
The Democratic-controlled committee plans to examine
Trump’s Sept. 29 comment that the far-right Proud Boys group should “stand back
and stand by” as well as “documents and communications related to any plan for
the President to march or walk to the Capitol on January 6, 2021” and “documents
and communications related to the metal stability of Donald Trump or his
fitness for office.”
And that’s just the first wave of the inquiry. In
their zeal to hold Trump accountable for one of the worst days in American
history, Democrats risk overreach, yet it may take only one incriminating
document to land Trump and some congressional allies in trouble.
Biden has time to tackle and solve the many crises
facing the country. He and Democrats will need to make effective use of that
time to remind voters why they chose Biden over Trump.
©2021 Marsha Mercer. All rights reserved.
