Greatness

Instead of my usual plan to go to work this morning, where I get to  swim in a vast and lovely ocean of children's and YA books, I found myself sitting front row center in the massive auditorium of Evanston Township High School, my friends and book colleagues on either side of me.

And in front of me...
a mere four or five feet in front of me,
standing on the stage
was U.S. Congressman John Lewis.


John Lewis is a formidable Civil Rights leader, a tireless peaceful warrior whose belief in the power of peace and love among all people has remained unchanged since he first joined the  Civil Rights movement as a very young man almost 60 years ago.

This morning he was speaking to an auditorium filled to bursting with high school freshmen.  Each of them had been given--and had been studying in class-- signed copies of "March", a graphic novel trilogy about the Civil Rights movement written by  John Lewis and Congressional Aide Andrew Aydin, illustrated by Nate Powell.

As I sat in the front row, well over 1000 students filled the seats behind me, each of them fully aware of the history and the power in the man on stage before them.

And it wasn't just due to the book.

Sometimes, if we are very lucky, we encounter greatness.  Not the transient greatness of money, power, fame or even necessarily skill.  I'm talking about the greatness of spirit.  Of inner strength. The greatness that is earned by keeping to a course and a path when pain, cruelty and misfortune tempt one to quit.

As John Lewis spoke today, I knew everyone in that room sensed that they were sitting before real greatness.  Congressman Lewis told that massive room of newly minted high school freshmen funny stories from his childhood that held hidden morals and foreshadowing of his own future.  He described being beaten bloody and arrested during peaceful protests and marches.   He  reminisced about his own encounters with greatness:  Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Malcom X, John F. Kennedy, Nelson Mandela...so many others.

But above all he kept asking, demanding, imploring the same thing (and I paraphrase from my hastily scribbled notes):

"When you see something that isn't right, that's not fair and not just, you have a moral obligation, a mandate, a mission to speak up and to act."  

He repeated this throughout his talk.  He repeated it as he answered the students who nervously took the microphone to ask him carefully considered questions.  

And he always followed it up with the same directives:  never give up. keep pushing, but do so with love and always in a non-violent, peaceful manner.  

In his talk Congressman Lewis alluded to the fact that right now we are seeing a repeat--or a variation--of the same kind of hate, the same slide into violence, the same intolerance and short-sightedness as there was during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960's.   

His message, as simple and elegant as it is, is a message that has been repeated by people of vision, action and peace all my life.  And it is a message we desperately need to heed once again.

At the end of the event John Lewis waved  to the audience and thanked everyone, and then simply stood on stage as waves of students rushed down the aisles towards him .

I think this is the best picture of all--John Lewis surrounded --nearly swallowed up--by young students wanting--perhaps needing--to touch greatness. 

As do we all sometimes.

And I leave you with some homework, assigned by John Lewis and graded by whatever our shared future brings:



"When you see something that isn't right, that's not fair and not just, you have a moral obligation, a mandate, a mission to speak up and to speak out."  

The Battle of the Burkini

This is a burkini. 

It is a lightweight swimwear alternative for Muslim women who want to go swimming, but who don't want to swim in yards and yards of heavy, waterlogged fabric.

This seems straightforward to me.  The burkini is a modest swimwear alternative for Muslim women whose beliefs and religion include  clothing mandates for women that they choose to follow.  I am not a Muslim woman, so therefore I strongly feel that I have no business passing judgement upon them.  I similarly don't pass judgment on women who choose to wear microscopic swimwear, or who sunbathe topless, or who wear shorts and an old t-shirt for beach swimming.  

However it would seem that the burkini is now a hot-button issue, with the anti-burkini-ists shouting down the burkini as an insult to feminism and/or  a clear link to terrorism.  

A Lifestyle article from March 2016  in The Telegraph has recently resurfaced in which  Daily Telegraph journalist and columnist Allison Pearson (2) blasted the burkini  for sending women, women's rights and feminism back to the dark ages. (1).

After reading the article my first feeling was extreme  frustration because Allison equates a woman's choice in clothing with freedom.  She points out that "the burkini is woven from shame" (1).  So if a burkini is "woven from shame", then what is a string bikini woven from?   Exploitation?  One cannot call out one extreme without also looking at the other. The writer goes on to  cite her experiences in teacher training placements where little Muslim girls were rendered markedly different for their modest Muslim clothing and customs, and in some cases unable to take part in school activities such as swimming. (1).  

As if the teachers and  fellow students didn't also have the power--and responsibility-- to reach out, learn about their Muslim classmates and in doing so discover those things they had in common as well.   The author is a clear and firm supporter of full assimilation for all immigrants, stating that we (in the UK) "should have insisted  that the price of admission to Britain was learning to conform with its customs and social attitudes" (1).  She goes on to admire Germany for one of its  court rulings that mandated that a Muslim girl must participate in school swimming lessons because "the social reality of life in Germany came above her religious beliefs." (1).   

Um.  What???? Perhaps if the girl had been allowed to wear...oh, I don't know...a burkini...she could've participated in swimming lessons easily.

And thus we come full circle to a place where no matter what, Muslim women and girls cannot win. 

But beyond the issue of feminism denied or supported in the guise of the burkini, there was another deeper and perhaps more insidious issue.   Allison might be ranting on behalf of the UK but her argument is echoed here in the United States as well, both with roots in the same divisive, poisonous mind-set:

MY way is right because this is MY country.  I was born here.  

YOUR way is wrong because this is MY country and NOT YOURS.  Even if you WERE born here It will NEVER BE YOUR COUNTRY, because you are DIFFERENT. 

In a world that is increasingly integrated, where one never knows just which branch on their family tree could also be labeled "immigrant",  where one could travel to a different country and find THEMSELVES as the odd-person out, with blaringly different language, culture and beliefs, this is a particularly ignorant and nasty stance to take.

What's even more dangerous, and of which the United States is increasingly guilty, is conflating spiritual or religious beliefs with extremism.   Our media is slathered in variations of "Muslim = Terrorism",  and in spite of plenty of intelligent, open-minded everyday people yelling out into the void "Being Muslim DOES NOT immediately make a person a TERRORIST", the media circus easily drowns them out. 

Isn't it fortunate that the same isn't being done with Christianity?  Catholicism? Buddhism?  Judaism?  

But I digress.  Back to the burkini.

1

Look at the burkini. Swim pants.  Long sleeved swim shirt.  Head covering.   It seems pretty mild to me. I'm not sensing a particularly anti-feminist vibe coming from this, nor do I fear it.  But don't take my word for it.  I'm a freaky California liberal after all.  Let's put the burkini in context.

3

Well how about this?  This is swimwear designed to provide total UV protection.  Does this scream feminist scandal to you?  Does this holler "terrorism"?   Or is it acceptable because (a) it is form fitting so we can see the curves of the model's body, and somehow visible  curves=girl power  (?!?) and (b) her head is not covered up.

4

Or how about this?  China's "facekini". (4)  Remember this?  A nearly complete head covering designed to protect the skin from the sun--often also worn with long-sleeved swim shirts.   

Perhaps the controversial  issue with the burkini is the head covering, in which case, shouldn't we have totally freaked out about the "facekini"?   But no.  The world saw the facekini, chuckled a bit, and went on its merry way. 

5

Perhaps the complaint is that the burkini is connected with the Muslim faith and its assumed views towards women and women's bodies.  Perhaps religion and cultural and spiritual beliefs are the issues here.

In which case,  why aren't we all  coming unglued about  the periodic sighting of nuns at the beach?  A nun's habit is exactly as concealing as a burka--and far more so than a burkini.   And I would argue that if, as is occurring currently in France right now, the fear is of inherent terrorism (6), the burkini would make it much more difficult to hide dangerous items than the standard nun's habit.  (disclaimer:  I am NOT saying that nuns are concealing dangerous items beneath their habits.  This is an example, nothing more.)

My point in all this is simple:  it is extremely easy to make quick judgements about things of which we know very little, or even absolutely nothing.   We look through our British-tinted glasses, or our United States-tinted glasses and we slam and shame anything that screams "NOT ME".  

Is the burkini an insult to modern feminism?  Is it designed to hide and shame women's bodies, as Allison repeatedly and vehemently insisted in her article?  

I don't know.

And it is okay for me not to know because this is not about me.  

There are Muslim women who feel their clothing is a vital expression of their faith.   And there are Muslim women who may agree with Allison and want to cast off the Burka, the Hijab, the Niqab and/or the headscarf.  

In the argument of whether or not  burkas and similar garments reinforce or undermine the freedom of the women who wear them, it is for the women themselves to determine...and our job, as fellow human beings, to respect and support their choices and, if needed, fight  alongside them for their freedom to be and believe as they choose.  

Nothing more.  Nothing less.

Sources

1.http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/the-ms-burkini-for-muslim-women-shows-britain-is-letting-sexism/

2.http://www.telegraph.co.uk/authors/allison-pearson/

3.  http://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/2015-Beach-UV-Protection-Pringting-women-full-body-swimear-wetsuit-anti-sun-rashguard-Snorkeling-swimming-Surf/1852700_32495481307.html

4. http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/facekini-china-terrifying-swimwear-trend-hit-beach-gallery-1.1910561?pmSlide=1.1910552

5. https://www.flickr.com/photos/radziecki/172916749

6. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/24/french-police-make-woman-remove-burkini-on-nice-beach

Where'd Ya Go Curly Jo?

1

A friend of ours enjoys festooning Facebook with  kitschy retro bits of ephemera from the distant/not so distant past.

Recently he posted this--what looks to be a newspaper ad from the 1970's (judging by the collar on the  shirt and hairstyle).

It's not a remarkable newspaper ad.  Simply a plug for a local or perhaps traveling entertainer at one of hundreds of Holiday Inn hotels that once upon a time dotted the U.S. highways at regular intervals.

The ad gives us the basics:  Curly Jo Russell.  Two week Holiday Inn hotel bar stint.  Cocktail Hour prices.  Hotel address (although  no city or state).

After our friend posted this, quite a few other people jumped in to share humorous imaginings about the identity of Curly Jo Russell.

Because imaginings are all we are left with.



The longer I looked at this ad, the more questions percolated uselessly into my idle mind.


Who was Curly Jo Russell?
What was his real name?  Surely his mother didn't name him "Curly Jo"...right?
Where was he from?  Did he have a job besides touring the Holiday Inn bar performance circuit?
Did he have a family?  A partner?  Children?   A cat?

I did a few quick google searches and came up with nothing.

I googled "Curly Jo Russell" and "1970's performer".  Nothing.
I googled "Joe Russell", "Joseph Russell"  and "1970" along with "performer", "musician", "magician", "comedian".

Nothing.
Nothing.
Nothing.


Meanwhile, someone else added a bit more information to the mystery.

2

The address listed on Curly Jo's original newspaper ad matched the address for  a former Holiday Inn in Grand Island, Nebraska.

I thusly renewed my search.

Nothing.

I searched the obituary archives for the long-time local newspaper, the "Grand Island Independent" (on the assumption he might have been a local) .  I read 15 to 20 obituaries that included the name "Russell" in any way.

I did some math and figured Curly Jo may have been born between 1940 and 1950, and then narrowed my obituary search.

Nothing.


Along the way I read the summarized newspaper life stories of cowboys and farmers, ministers and world travelers, soldiers and woodworkers and teachers.  Some of the stories were long and detailed. Others simply noted place of birth and place of death.

But no Curly Jo Russell.

Now, I am well aware that I'm not a professional researcher.   And I am also aware that the name "Curly Jo Russell" might be entirely a stage name.  Or perhaps in his later years Curly Jo decided to distance himself from his youthful Holiday Inn performer past, so it wouldn't even show up in his obituary.

However I know this much.  At one point in the 1970s,  only 40 years ago or so, there was a person who called himself (or herself.  One cannot assume) "Curly Jo Russell".  

At one point only 40 years ago Curly Jo Russell wanted to share his talents with the world.  Curly Jo might have been a comedian.  A musician.  A magician.   Who knows?  The what doesn't matter as much as the fact that Curly Jo Russell followed a dream to the microscopic stage of a nondescript Holiday Inn bar in Grand Island Nebraska.

What matters is that across everything that Curly Jo Russell might have been and done, who he might have loved and lost, the entirety of his life is immortalized in a random, now-amusing newspaper ad for a Holiday Inn bar performance where his audience could enjoy mixed drinks for 50 cents each.

Depending on your perspective,  the story-non-story of Curly Jo Russell could be wildly depressing...or it could be reassuring.

Most people want to make a lasting mark on the world--a touch of immortality (because for some reason the desire for immortality seems to be somehow genetically wired into our psyches, starting with the biological drive to have children and then just spiraling out from there in all the weird ways).

What we get from this touch of immortality is anyone's guess.  But we want it anyway.

The real story of Curly Jo Russell may be lost forever.

But Curly Jo got his touch of immortality.  He surfaced improbably, 40 years after his Grand Island Nebraska performances, on a social media site where he managed to unintentionally amuse us and spark our silly imaginations.

Personally, I think there are far worse ways to touch the future.

Good for you Curly Jo.  We are entertained.






Sources

1. https://www.facebook.com/thekitschbitsch/?hc_ref=NEWSFEED&fref=nf

2.  https://www.google.com/search?q=holiday+inn+2503+s.+locust+grand+island
+ne&espv=2&biw=1248&bih=594&source=lnms&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi4y
JL7ttDOAhXLpR4KHYb_DAIQ_AUIBSgA&dpr=2