Cacciato on Order
Hey Folks,
Cacciato looked like the favorite, so I made the call to order that one from the bookstore. I'll let you know when it gets in -- hopefully next week some time. We may have to crank it out over the T-giving break, but if it reads anything like The Things they Carried, that won't be a big problem (of course I'm not taking into consideration all those research papers and lab reports and math finals you've got. that's why I'm an English teacher. I just chill out all semster, making movies, reading books, going down to DC to visit the Mall on beautiful sunny Fridays. And I have all summer off. I'm telling you, you nursing students and engineers and whatnot, I think you're deluded. Sure, you might be helping humanity, but so am I, right? Think of all those people I'm helping to learn how to write. So they can write their congresspeople and tell them how we live in a democracy and not a fascist police state, or their literary heroes and tell them how much they admire their work, or their grandmothers to remind them how much they meant to us as little kids. where would we be if we couldn't write?). OK. Enough diatribe.
Anybody want to summarize the last meeting? Some of the folks who weren't able to attend are curious about what we said (and I told them that we actually talked about the book, so I think we should come up with something fast).
Peace,
Carr
Cacciato looked like the favorite, so I made the call to order that one from the bookstore. I'll let you know when it gets in -- hopefully next week some time. We may have to crank it out over the T-giving break, but if it reads anything like The Things they Carried, that won't be a big problem (of course I'm not taking into consideration all those research papers and lab reports and math finals you've got. that's why I'm an English teacher. I just chill out all semster, making movies, reading books, going down to DC to visit the Mall on beautiful sunny Fridays. And I have all summer off. I'm telling you, you nursing students and engineers and whatnot, I think you're deluded. Sure, you might be helping humanity, but so am I, right? Think of all those people I'm helping to learn how to write. So they can write their congresspeople and tell them how we live in a democracy and not a fascist police state, or their literary heroes and tell them how much they admire their work, or their grandmothers to remind them how much they meant to us as little kids. where would we be if we couldn't write?). OK. Enough diatribe.
Anybody want to summarize the last meeting? Some of the folks who weren't able to attend are curious about what we said (and I told them that we actually talked about the book, so I think we should come up with something fast).
Peace,
Carr
posted by Carr Kizzier at
2:28 PM
5 Comments:
With all that to say you couldn't throw in a line or two about the meeting? We talked about how we loved/hated the beginning, getting comfortable with the book and ready to read (blah blah blah). And about how Carr could relate to the part where the guy goes into the bookstore and the books call out to him. How annoying the names of the charactors in the book were to some of us. The ongoing story and the short stories throughout and how much more a couple of you got out of the book the second time around. The rest of the time was spent tearing apart everyone who didn't make it to the meeting. We showed no mercy!
By
Brenda, at 8:42 PM
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By
Kristen, at 2:01 PM
Hey Carr,
I hear you about engineers, health care workers, and everyone else who makes more money than English teachers. Literacy is VERY important, and that's what I want to devote my life to as well. It's just a shame that the government and industry in this nation doesn't seem to care enough about cultivating literate people. Some 30% of Baltimore city residents cannot read well enough to function in this complex information-driven economy. I'm volunteering to tutor a 34 year old man in the city who is at a 6-7th grade reading level. He desires to obtain his GED and get a better job, so he can support his two beautiful daughters. Improving literacy in this country is a major driving force that gets me up in the morning. I can't stand the BS that comes out of politicians' mouths about improving education --No Child Left Behind, my tush! We're spending incalcable amounts of money in Iraq with no tangible benefits in sight. Meanwhile, my learner, James, makes minimum wage at his warehouse job because he never had a decent education. Equal opportunity in this country?Yeah right! I'm for equal federal
funding of public schools--screw that property tax crap. I'm also for intergration of public schools.
It's almost like it was before Brown vs. Board of Education. I went to one of the best public high schools in the nation. It wasn't diverse. I didn't feel like I had anyobody I could relate to--Most of the teens there were insulated, white, upper-middle class. I was also the same but
not so insulated because I have an invisible disability and have seen in mental hospitals very tragic, un-middle class social realities. I was very angry with my classmates because most of them had no idea what it is like when shit goes pear. OK--enough vehement expression.
I just hope I'll be able to support myself by going into this field. But for people like James, I'll find a way to get by. After all, he has not had many choices in life, and I can make sacrifices in luxuries in order for someone else to have some. It's not even a luxury; to be able to read and write well enough to function in one's society should become a constitutionally-guaranteed basic right. Also, economic basic rights should be included: rights to secure meaningful work, so one can provide for oneself and his or her children. Democracts talk about protecting "working families." We need more than talk but consitutional amendments to enforce changes, so everyone can have an equal opportunity to reach their potenitals. If that makes me "idealistic," I don't care. We settle for too much pragmatism, and since Reagan, this country has been brainwashed with too much realpolitik. Democracts more to the left than center need to lucidly articulate their moral and ideological stances. If that can be accomplished, I think we will see quite a different social reality in this nation. I've grown up in a generation where I've seen the only Democratic president, Clinton, be called by farther left liberals as more conservative than Nixon. I grew livid when my Grandma told me about FDR, Lyndon Johnson, and even Jimmy Carter and their political ideals. A War against Poverty? Social Security? Health care for all? Withdrawing ourselves from our oil addiction and finding more economical and ecological ways of transportation? Clinton accommodated too much, and I want a Democractic president that will strive to revive our nation from its stasis.
Thanks,
Kristen
By
Kristen, at 3:06 PM
Just a thought.
As a nursing major, I am well aware that I am out of my mind. I wish I had free time.. But papers, studying, and reading combined with a lot of hours at work leave me with no time to chill, unfortunately.
But you do what you've got to do, right? Right.
By
Erin, at 12:19 AM
Yeah man.
By
Brenda, at 3:10 PM
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