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| Find this book on amazon HERE |
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| FIND IT ON AMAZON HERE |
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| FIND IT ON AMAZON HERE |
Since the origins of humanity, Humans have always been attracted by the stars, but why?
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| Crew-1 mission astronauts, now on the ISS |
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| Dragon capsule cockpit |
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| Astronaut and cosmonauts before launch in Russia. |
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| The ISS (International Space Station) soon to host visitors |
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| NASA - Future base on Mars |
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| Mining the asteroid belt is coming sooner than you think |
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| One day Humans will live on exoplanets |
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| The steps of terraforming Mars |
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| Find this book at your favorite retailer HERE |
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| Find this book on amazon HERE |
DiAngelo starts with, “White people in North America live in a society that is deeply separate and unequal by race, and white people are the beneficiaries of that separation and inequality.” What she calls “white fragility” is born of a feeling of superiority and entitlement. “Discrimination is action based on prejudice. These actions include ignoring, exclusion, threats, ridicule, slander and violence…” “When a racial group’s collective prejudice is backed by the power of legal authority and institutional control, it is transformed into racism…”
The author points out that, “Life in the United States is deeply shaped by racial segregation. Of all racial groups, whites are the most likely to choose segregation and are the group most likely to be in the social and economic position to do so. Growing up in segregation (our schools, workplaces, neighborhoods, shopping districts, places of worship, entertainment, social gatherings, and elsewhere) reinforces the message that our experiences and perspectives are the only ones that matter.”
The author provides some “color blind statements,” which indicate that people do not see race:
I was taught to treat everyone the same way
I don’t see color
Everyone struggles, but if they work hard…
I’m not racist; I’m from Canada
Most importantly, the author provides some clear instructions on how to personally become an antiracist. “We can follow the leadership on antiracism from people of color, and work to build authentic cross-racial relationships. We can get involved in organizations working for racial justice. And most importantly, we must break the silence about race and racism with other white people.” Well, I have my marching orders!
The book has been a New York Times best seller, and here is a thoughtful critique from The New Yorker: “The value in White Fragility lies in its methodical, irrefutable exposure of racism in thought and action, and its call for humility and vigilance.”
You can find the entire book reviews on my website under the “Library” tab. Please let me know what you think— about this newsletter, my reviews and most importantly, what you’re reading so I can ponder all of it and share some of your comments in my next column. You can email me at: Mark@MillionMileWalker.com or through my websites: Million Mile Walker.com Guatemala Story.net Facebook
Finalist in Guides, 2020 New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards
Runner-up in Compilations, 2020 New York Book Festival
“This is a strong collection of essays. Each story weaves a
tale of a woman overcoming some sort of oppression, such as sexism or
discrimination, in their lives. The editor does a fantastic job of curating
these essays. They certainly all have similar themes, but they each tell a
unique story that adds to the overall collection.”
Judge, 27th Annual Writer’s Digest Self-Published Book Awards.
“Despite their trials, however, the authors provide hope and
understanding to women today who are going through their own ordeals. Their
messages spoke volumes - being a woman is not just about being beautiful,
conforming to how others think you should be, or being less than others. I
think these messages can reach more than just women and I am sure it can
inspire many individuals.”
Shannon Winings for
Readers' Favorite
The lockdown caused by COVID-19 has laid bare the growing inequalities and injustices in our social and economic systems today. Yet it offers a good opportunity to understand our foundations, as well as why so many white Americans seem willing to disregard the needs of their fellow citizens in order to maintain a system that benefits them so mightily, while ignoring and explaining away the suffering of others.
The public, excruciating murder of George Floyd sparked an awakening among many white people of our nation’s systemic racism, to acknowledge its power and longevity for over 400 years on this continent. Pulitzer Prize winner and bestselling author, Isabel Wilkerson, examines the often unspoken caste system that has shaped America. Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, shows how our lives are still impacted by a hierarchy of human divisions, which damages not only the Blacks at the bottom, but also the white population at the top of society today. In understanding this insidious system, I fully agree with Albert Einstein, who said, “If the majority knew of the root of this evil, then the road to its cure would not be long.”
Wilkerson states, “American slavery, which lasted from 1619 to 1865, was not the slavery of ancient Greece or the illicit sex slavery of today. American slavery, by contrast, was legal and sanctioned by the state and a web of enforcers...” “For the first time in history, one category of humanity was ruled out of the ‘human race,’ and into a separate sub-group that was to remain enslaved for generations in perpetuity.”
The author goes on to describe caste systems in India as well as in Nazi Germany, in order to broaden our understanding of how the system has developed in the U.S. And according to a spokesman for the German press agency, when the Nazis were solidifying their grip on the country, they used the United States as a model for their own racism. “For us Germans, it is especially important to know and see how one of the biggest states in the world with Nordic stock already has race legislation, which is quite comparable to that of the German Reich.”
Another passage reveals, “In Germany, displaying the swastika is a crime punishable by up to three years in prison. In the United States, the rebel flag is incorporated into the official state flag of Mississippi. It can be seen on the backs of pickup trucks north and south, fluttering along highways in Georgia and the other former Confederate states…” The author goes on to point out that, “In Germany, restitution has rightly been paid, and continues to be paid, to survivors of the Holocaust. In America, it was the slaveholders who got restitution, not the people whose lives and wages were stolen from them for twelve generations.”
The Epilogue of the book offers some sobering final thoughts, such as, “Caste is a disease, and none of us is immune. It is as if alcoholism is encoded into the country’s DNA and can never be declared fully cured. It is like a cancer that goes into remission, only to return when the immune system of the body politic is weakened…”
“Wilkerson’s book is a powerful, illuminating and heartfelt account of how hierarchy reproduces itself, as well as a call to action for the difficult work of undoing it.”—The Washington Post
So, the question becomes, how does the white community deal with systemic racism in this country? Given the numbers and diversity of people participating in the Black Lives Matter protests around the world, this seemed a good time to reflect on my own upbringing and what we can do to take advantage of a pivotal point in our history, especially with elections on the horizon.
I was brought up in Plainfield, New Jersey, and although many of the students were Black in middle school, I saw only a small number who were part of the “advanced” classes, and these kids seemed very scholastically motivated. My family moved to Littleton, Colorado, when I was 16 and from there to Evergreen in 1963. I went to school on the Western Slope of Colorado in a basically white community and ended up in the equally white community of Scottsdale, Arizona. Shortly after we arrived in Colorado, all hell broke loose in New Jersey with violent race riots, burning property, shooting and looting. I remember thinking, “What was that about? Boy, did we get out of there just in time!” By 1967, Newark, New Jersey, was one of 159 cities where riots took place, including one four-day tirade in which 26 people died.
ABOUT THE REVIEWER:
Walker was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Guatemala and spent over forty years helping disadvantaged people in the developing world. He came to Phoenix as a Senior Director for Food for the Hungry, worked with other groups like Make a Wish International and was the CEO of Hagar USA, a Christian-based organization that supports survivors of human trafficking.
Several of his articles have been published in Ragazine and WorldView Magazines while another appeared in Crossing Class: The Invisible Wall, an anthology published by Wising Up Press. His reviews have been published by Revue Magazine as well as Peace Corps Worldwide, including one on Paul Theroux’s latest book, On the Plain of Snakes: A Mexican Journey.
His honors include the "Service Above Self" award from Rotary International. His wife and three children were born in Guatemala. You can learn more at www.MillionMileWalker.com and follow him on his Facebook page.
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| Find it HERE |
Last winter, our library had an overflow sale in which all books, including hardcovers, were sold for ten cents a piece. Needless to say, my boys hated me that day, because they had to lug home 30 boxes of books for which I paid a whopping $42 dollars. The books filled 15 large book shelves. Since then, I’ve been reacquainting myself with books I’d read as a child, such as Mark Twain’s classics and a few from Jules Verne, as well as some historical fiction. It is one of the latter genre that I’d like to review today.
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| Find it on amazon HERE |
Leon Uris is unapologetically pro-Israel; he freely admitted it during his lifetime. He is the same author who gave us Exodus, of which the Prime Minister of Israel at the time, David Ben-Gurion, said, "as a piece of propaganda, it’s the greatest thing ever written about Israel.” The Haj continues from an Israeli viewpoint and must therefore be understood in that context. Despite this caveat, I found the characters human, believable, and likeable on both sides. While the Haj is sometimes a brute, his youngest son is sensitive, caring and unlike his father. And even the Haj, the leader of his village, loves his Jewish neighbor in his own, strange way. While reserving judgment on Leon’s unabashedly one-sided account, I can wholeheartedly recommend The Haj as worthwhile and absorbing reading.
Due to covid, my library canceled the coming overflow sale. I’m going to have to be content with borrowed books in the coming months, and pray for all our sakes that this covid nightmare ends before another year passes. Good luck and stay safe, everyone!
Kathleen Cook is a free-lance editor and the author of twenty books. A former copy writer/editor for Demand Studios, she also served as the Fictional Religion Editor for the ODP (Open Directory Project). She is currently the Arizona Authors Association newsletter editor.
Women Wronged was a finalist in the guide category of 2020 New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards, I'm proud to say. Buy it on Amazon.
This course is offered by Iversity, a Berlin-based online education center. In it, you’ll learn how to spot bad arguments and avoid them in your own writing. While not geared specifically to writers, it’s an excellent way to improve your own work. From the website: “In this course we will learn how to recognize and resist the most common 15 fallacies, from Loaded Question and Slippery Slope to Red Herring and Straw Man. Each fallacy is illustrated with examples, funny dialogues, a case study discourse, and there's even a quiz show at the end to test your knowledge. We describe the mechanism for each of these rational traps, and we learn proper ways to refute it. Fallacies are like crime novels: if you know who the killer is, the whole plot seems transparent. In the same manner, this course acts like a vaccine: once we learn to recognize and counteract a fallacy, we cannot be deceived again. Enjoy!”
Another course by Iversity, this one will teach you what you need to know to produce quality content for digital media. The course description says it’s “intended for anyone who needs to use digital communication in some way. In the end, this course is really for everyone.” If you’ve ever wanted to write online and build a following, this is for you. The course is laid out as follows, according to the website:
To sum up, you’ll get another overview of the necessary steps for quickly and successfully creating content.
This course is from FutureLearn, a British online educational center affiliated with many of the top universities in Britain. The website’s course description (note the British spelling) says:
“What makes a great novel? How is a novel woven together? How can we best appreciate works of fiction? Answer these questions and more with this course from The University of Edinburgh and the Edinburgh International Book Festival. On the course you’ll discover four of the main building blocks of modern fiction: plot, characterisation, dialogue, and setting, using examples from a range of texts including the four novels shortlisted for the 2020 James Tait Black fiction prize. You’ll also explore the formal strategies authors use, how they came to be, and how they affect us as readers.”
If you have to be cooped up due to covid, this is a great time to improve your skills and come out the other side of the pandemic ready to shine! If you’re an author or simply a still-unpublished but inevitable author, these courses will take your talents to the next level, so that you’ll look back at this pandemic and say, “Well, at least I put the time to good use.”
Kathleen Cook is a free-lance editor and the author of twenty books. A former copy writer/editor for Demand Studios, she also served as the Fictional Religion Editor for the ODP (Open Directory Project). She is currently the Arizona Authors Association newsletter editor.
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| Find it on amazon HERE |
About the author: Marlene Baird is a long-time member of Arizona Authors Association, and a judge for our annual writing contest. She has won the contest for both a novel and an essay. Marlene also enjoys writing short stories, having taken 3rd place in the Lorian Hemingway writing contest in 2008. She lives in Prescott with husband, Bob. Find out more about Marlene at http://marlenebaird.com/ Marlene’s Books: Murder Times Two -The Filigree Cross - Minnie and the Manatees - Claire Walker.
Vince Bailey's award-winning Path of the Half Moon-the first book in the series-is a paranormal historical fiction tale set in a remote detention facility for wayward boys in the early sixties. Winner of the Arizona Authors' Association Literary Award and the Chanticleer International Book Awards for Paranormal and Supernatural Fiction, the Curtis Jefferson series presents an edgy and thrilling escape from the ordinary.
About the author: Vince Bailey is a writer and construction manager who grew up in Central Arizona in the late 1950s. His youthful escapades in the copper state climes contribute significantly to the nostalgic flavor of his fiction creations. The author's adolescent haunts of yesteryear, tracing around the east side of Mesa, crop up frequently as facets of his fictitious hometown of Jacobs Well, the anchor location of several of his stories. Path of the Half Moon is his inaugural novel, the first of a paranormal/historical fiction series that make up his Fort Grant Trilogy. Mr. Bailey currently resides in Peoria, Arizona, with his wife, Rita. Find out more about Vince on his Amazon page, his Arizona Authors Association Biography Page, or on his website, vincebaileyauthor.com
Most of the past publicity about the Unification Church (Unification Movement), and Reverend Moon has been negative. Jo Ann attempts to give an understanding of what this movement is all about, based on her experiences, and as seen through her eyes, and explain what made her and thousands of American young people join this movement.
She also tries to give a basic understanding of the Divine Principle (the teachings of Reverend Moon). She says, "I believe if the world knew even the basics of the Principle, we could see the way to peace on earth, as we could overcome the things that divide us now."
The chapter on "What We Believe" deals with questions humans have been asking from the beginning of time, including who or what God is, the purpose of life, our spiritual and physical bodies, spiritual growth, life after death, the origin of evil, the truth about the life of Jesus, the purpose behind human history, and the mission Reverend Moon said he was given by Jesus on a North Korean mountainside in 1936 when he was sixteen years old. The purpose of giving this basic understanding is to help make happy individuals and families at a time when so many people feel there is no purpose in life or ability to save this world from destroying itself.
Jo Ann also explains the meaning of the "Blessing," which refers to the well-known group wedding ceremonies, a hallmark of the Unification Movement. She was matched by Reverend Moon to a Japanese groom, and they participated in the Blessing ceremony of 2,075 couples in Madison Square Garden, New York, in 1982.
About the author: Jo Ann is a native Arizonan, born in Phoenix. She started writing poetry and winning awards while in grade school. In high school, she helped publish a poetry anthology, contributing several pieces. She was also a past columnist for the Arizona Authors Association and her feature, Member’s Spotlight, was well received. A graduate of Phoenix College, Confessions of a Unificationist is Jo Ann’s first published book.
