Sunday Salon, Black Lives Matter Edition

Weather: Cool with sun breaks and light showers throughout the day (light showers with the five-minute exception for a downpour of rain and hail earlier this afternoon).

Black Lives Matter: With the events of this week I want to deviate from my typical Sunday Salon and post items I have found that I think advance the conversations we need to be having about social justice and Black Lives Matter. I have a lot of links which, if you follow them all, will probably lead you down a lot of rabbit-holes. I hope you take the time to at least follow a few of them and then find a friend or family member with whom you can talk about what you read.

It is okay to grow and change as we learn new information. Here is a good place to start:

All four living former Presidents speak out about the actions taken by Trump in the wake of the George Floyd protests: Carter, Clinton, Bush, and Obama. It couldn't be clearer that the current President is on the wrong path. New York Intelligencer, June 3rd, 2020.

In his video (on the linked page referenced above) Obama mentions a 12-year-old boy singing about how hard it is to be a black boy. Here is that video:

In a surprising twist of events, the NFL and other sports teams are doing an about-face on the issue of Black Lives Matter:

• NFL Statement: "We were wrong on kneeling player protests."
• Sports Stars and brands against racism
• Nike Ad---For Once, Don't Do It

My own way of fighting for equality---with literature. This week I created the beginnings of a list of books to advance the discussion about social justice and equality in our country. I hope you will click this link and visit my list and give me suggested book titles if you know of others. Otherwise, just make a comment to let me know that you saw it. Also, feel free to share this list widely. I know that reading helps us expand our minds. We can change as we learn new information.

White supremacists attempted to get a hashtag #whitelivesmatter trending on Twitter. But K-Pop fans were way ahead of them. Every time that hashtags was clicked it would take the viewer to a message like the one below making fun of white supremacists, calling them clowns and racists. It was the most fun thing on Twitter this week. Clever K-Pop fans beat the system!

We can do better, we can be better:

It feels like things are different this time. Maybe we are on the precipice of a new day? I hope so. Take a musical break here. "What's Going On"/Playing for Change.

And now for a little bit about politics:

This sign has become popular in a community in Florida. People are abandoning Trump left and right.

This week's polls have been devastating to Trump with a disapproval rating of 54%, the highest of any President.

And anti-Trump groups are creating ads which are devastating to Trump and his re-election campaign. It isn't just Democrats who want him out. Will other Republicans start to jump ship soon?

George Will, a conservative columnist, says "Trump must be removed. So must his congressional enablers." (Washington Post, June 1, 2020) We must not only remove the President by voting him out of office, but also retake the Senate.

On that note, George Floyd protests have led to a surge in voter registration.

Emotional debate about anti-lynching legislation this week. Really? We can't get this done now?

Remember coronavirus? It is still out there and I still have a few funny/thought-provoking memes to share:

Books and reading:

• Currently reading
• Silkworm by Robert Galbriath. I can't "attend" to heavy books right now so I started this second book in the Cormoran Strike series just last night. E-book. 1%.
• Recently abandoned
• The Rise and Fall of Charles Lindbergh by Candace Fleming. This book is getting book reviews but I cannot make myself care about what happened to this man so many years ago. I am setting it aside for now but maybe forever. 15% complete. E-book.
• Children of Virtue and Vengeance by  Tomi Adeyemi. The second book in the Legacy of Orisha series. I liked the first book a lot. It was based on Nigerian folktales and myths. It has just been too long since I read the first book and I cannot remember anything to help me get started on this second book. I am removing this one from my TBR pile and will be done with it. 10% completed. Audio.
• Finished this week
• The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates. A timely reading selection about slavery and the underground railroad. Excellent. Audiobook.
• Separate is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez and Her Family's Fight fro Desegregation by Duncan Tonatiuh. Another timely read. This is a children's book and I got it free from Kindle. See if you can, too. E-book.
• So Big by Edna Ferber. I read this for the Classic Club spin. It was written in 1924 and won the Pulitzer. I liked it for the fact I got to see a slice of life from the beginning of the last century, otherwise I wasn't that impressed. E-book.

Required cat photo? This week I was only inspired by one of my daughter's shots of her boys, Fred and George. In it you see Fred not quite relaxing on his cat play structure. What a goofball cat.

We did get away from all the craziness for a lovely hike this past Wednesday: We hiked the Greenwater Lakes Trail which is located on the Western slope of the Cascades about an hour from here. It was a lovely day--not too warm or buggy.

I close this week with a collage of flowers blooming in my garden right now. The yard is lovely this time of year and so peaceful. All these photos were taken on one day, June 4th.

-Anne