today's pix

this patch of north carolina overgrowth has been a delight this spring. forsythia, azalea, now these wild roses, honeysuckle and some other thing i can't name.

and this is lela's brother, miles the courageous, who calls me "ah. ee" and blows me kisses goodbye. he wants no help ever and tries something new every day in my yard. today he mastered walking backward *down* the driveway, as i knew he eventually would.

happy birthday, hanna!

tomorrow is niece hanna's 15th birthday. as i have a reputation to protect -- one for doing things in a non-traditional manner -- we celebrated hanna's birthday by making a skirt. more accurately, hanna made a skirt and i hovered around.


hanna is a contra dancer, so this is a fabulous contra skirt, carefully designed with panels and triangles to swirl perfectly and catch the light. she wore her "math counts" t-shirt which helped me remember why she didn't need much help figuring out the geometry of this skirt design.

in this next shot, the yummy fabric. hanna gave the extra fabric to lela, my favorite 4-year old next door, who loved its softness but made sure we knew that in barbie mariposa, the bad barbie is named hanna. (yesterday, lela said "you remember that good hanna?")


ta da!!!! (oops, my hands want to type "to do!!!" what does that tell you?!)

is this a beautiful girl in a beautiful skirt, or what?!


you go, hanna!
_________

today's quote from lela: "the willy wed ones ah wipe," showing me the cherries in her yard.

special math

reuters' jon decker on delegate math, and hillary's claim that she is winning the popular vote.





". . . and i think that what she would like to do in these last remaining contests is put her over the top on the popular vote count so she doesn't have to use this special math."

the special math is the math that ignores caucus states, which obama won and where there is technically not a vote. i think it's not so much the math that's special but the twisting of language.

isn't this reminiscent of "depends on what the definition of 'is' is"? or scalia saying waterboarding is not cruel and unusual punishment because, though it may be cruel and unusual, it's not technically punishment. ah, lawyers. this is gonna be fun.

long post on american v. french culture and the death penalty

on a facebook discussion board, this question from ali naderzad: Why do most French understand that the death penalty is barbaric and so many Americans still think it's the only way to go in certain cases?

here's my response:

that’s a fascinating question, ali. i've been thinking about it a good bit. sorry this post is so long.

i’m not qualified to compare the cultures. though i am proud to say i was conceived in france, i didn’t stick around long enough to be knowledgeable about the culture. here are a few thoughts on american culture.

1. the cowboy myth. we see ourselves as rugged individualists and self-made people. the land of opportunity, the free and the brave. we somehow miss the ways we are dependent, interdependent and connected to each other and the rest of the world.

2. the white hat myth. we believe that as a nation we are always on the side of right. we are in so much denial that we cannot tolerate any question about it, and become outraged if one is raised. note, for example, that we have had no national “why did they do this?” conversation about the 9/11 events — we are satisfied with “terrorists who hate freedom.”

3. adolescence. we are a young country and are in an adolescent (male) phase, nationally. i can’t remember where i first heard this idea but it isn’t mine: as a nation we are all swagger and strut. we have gasoline in our blood, are completely self-centered and seem to enjoy annoying neighbors and torturing things. we are concrete thinkers — black/white, right/wrong, good/bad, us/them — and believe we’re immortal. we are outraged when anyone else is in the wrong but we cannot see our own faults.

these things conspire to make several things impossible which might get us to better answers.

— articulated principles. we believe we know what’s right without much thought. it’s an emotional gut-level knowing. when this is the case, vengeance — an old brain response — is easy to drum up.

— careful reflection, thorough examination and open debate. these are more costly and require good leadership. it’s much easier to look for a bad guy to blame.

— empathy. without empathy we are unable to take a more compassionate approach. we can’t put ourselves in the shoes of any but the victims, so fear is easy to tap, and fear makes both compassion and reasoned debate difficult. without empathy, we are also unable to imagine that the wrongful conviction might happen to us, which would motivate us to ensure a fair (and at least partially reversible) process.

— an examination of the costs and flaws of the death penalty. this might motivate us to find another solution, but we are unable to examine, much less analyze or criticize the system.

— a system view. we are unable to focus on prevention or treatment, because this would require a look at the way an individual operates within a system. we can only consider punishment, and when punishment doesn’t work, we just need more punishment. taken to its logical end, we see only one response to criminal behavior and need the most extreme punishment for the worst of the worst (or for when we are most emotional).

the u.s. is young. france and many other countries are older. i remember being struck by how history is everywhere in france. this makes for a longer view and a better memory.

i believe the u.s. is slowly outgrowing the death penalty, but the path is not linear. dna exonerations are slowly bubbling up into our national consciousness and demanding attention to the brokenness of the system. race — a major issue in the death penalty — is more in the forefront today. good groundwork has been laid. things are shifting. much will depend on the next administration. i have some hope that with the right leadership, we can get through this difficult adolescence and take a more mature stance.

big fun in death penalty land

going to see/hear mike farrell at malaprops bookstore tomorrow night.

and recent exoneree (and my new friend) edward chapman is front page of mountain xpress! personally i wish the article did a better job of conveying something of who he is now -- in spite (because?) of all he's been through. i don't know of a better example of getting good from a horrible situation.

in other news, our house is officially on the market, which is what's been engrossing me lately. here's what i want to know: is it actually possible to get to the point where i sit back and look around at the house & yard and say, "it's done" or do i just go on hoping the stuff that's not done doesn't completely outweigh the good stuff? i mean, i'm just not a neat person and i don't give a rip if the lawn's not mowed and that makes it harder to get the house in good shape to show, but is it possible to get to the place of being satisfied that it's done, at least for the moment?

link to 60 minutes on exonerations

thanks to steve houseworth for this link to a recent 60 minutes segment on texas exonerations.

about 12 minutes, this segment introduces several dna-innocent men, and raises some important questions. well worth a look.

here's a bit of the transcript:

"I have to wonder after 27 years how did you stand it?" Pelley asks.

"You can only go one day at a time ever. I don’t really know myself. I just did the best I could. Just you know every day I have hope well maybe today will be a better day," Woodard says.

"You had hope?" Pelley asks.

"That’s all a man has," Woodard says. "I had hope for parole. I think I came up about 12 times."

"When you appeared before the parole board what did they say to you?" Pelley asks.

"They always told me, as long as you deny your guilt its saying something about you, you know you are not willing to own up to your deed. And we gonna deny you," Woodard says.

But Woodard refused to admit guilt. "I wasn't guilty," he says.

"You chose truth over freedom," Pelley remarks.

"I mean, a man has to stand for something," Woodard says.

James Woodard became the 17th prisoner in Dallas to be set free after a wrongful conviction. He walked from the courthouse into a hometown he could no longer recognize. At 27 years and four months, he became the longest serving inmate in the nation to be cleared with the help of DNA.

~~~~~
update:

just re-watched this.

it's important not to focus blame on the deceased district attorney to the point that we fail to ask whether the problem is bigger than just this one guy. it is. there's good evidence that this is a systemic problem. there are dna exonerations going on everywhere. we need to examine the system.

happiness and politics

wall street journal reviewed a book yesterday: how to be of good cheer by arthur c. brooks. wsj: "Those who identify themselves as conservative or very conservative, [brooks] says, are twice as likely to say that they're very happy as those who identify themselves as liberal or very liberal."

while there may be other reasons, may i just point out that this is based on 2004 data?!?!

as eric says, being in the middle of gwb's administration may not have made conservatives happy, but it did make liberals pretty miserable.

that aside, are conservatives happier? if so, are there reasons which i can believe? hmmm.

what i'd really like to know is this: is there a relationship between happiness and the tendency toward complex analysis (vs. black/white thinking, or clarity, depending on your viewpoint). seems to me that's one of the things that differentiates liberals and conservatives. we liberals generally find it impossible to put our positions into 5-word bumper stickers. and it makes some sense to me that this tendency to analyze might make us more aware of what's wrong.

does this make logical sense? what else?

possibly homeless raccoons

hard to tell scale from this picture, but there was a subaru parked in that spot under this tree when it fell in last night's storm. the lucky subaru is fine.

mom and dad have pix of a raccoon family hanging out in this tree, observing the bipeds having dinner in their cage.


yesterday, having mothers' day lunch at rhodo, we found evidence that we are in fact related.

electability silliness

clinton's recent position, which nyt's bob herbert calls "He can’t win! Don’t you understand? He’s black! He’s black!" is not only offensive, it's silly. i don't know what the actual numbers are, but see if you don't agree:

are there really enough voting, non-conservative, non-chauvinist racists out there to make him unelectable?

think about it:

don't the majority of these people lean to the right? aren't they more likely to be under the gop umbrella, not likely to vote for any liberal or progressive? if so their vote is not "lost" because of race. paint obama white (or substitute hrc) and they still wouldn't vote dem.

of the ones who are left, how many of these people would vote for a woman? as commander in chief, remember.

eliminate the ones who talk a lot but don't actually vote.

compare what's left with the number of independents and republicans who thought mccain looked pretty good until they saw obama, plus all the shiny new voters, and the argument that he's unelectable falls apart completely.

glenn edward chapman

i spent the day with glenn edward chapman, recently exonerated and released from north carolina's death row.

i wish i had a picture to show you. here's the video clip again.

i wish i had words to convey what a delightful human being this man is. he has something to teach the rest of us about being centered and clear in the midst of the worst circumstances.

we went for a long walk in the botanical gardens, had lunch, hung out downtown all afternoon. i'm trying to think of anyone i know who is more grounded, grateful, free of resentment, intent on creating a life and continuing to grow as a person. he is present in his moments, smiles easily, and can say no without drama. i'm seriously impressed and grateful for the time he spent with me.

and looking forward to the next time.

delegates

what's all the fuss about these underclad delegates?

noticing racist statements

many of us who are white and privileged fail to notice things like this. From a usa today article on hillary:

I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on," she said in an interview with USA TODAY. As evidence, Clinton cited an Associated Press article "that found how Sen. Obama's support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, . . ."

umm, four problems right off the top.

1. working, hard-working americans = white americans?

2. having hard-working white americans as a base doesn't exactly describe a "coalition"

3. many non-white people who have been left out or who have not seen any candidate worth supporting are coming into the process, participating. this is a good thing. the base is changing, and some of us white folks need to let loose our sense of entitlement to center stage.

4. i was surprised that there were so many white and so few non-white celebrants at asheville brewing tuesday night. it occurred to me that we were celebrating separately, and might need to look at this. but the point for now is that there are a great number of white people supporting obama, at least around here, and not just young ones, either.

i think this kind of statement is not-so-subtly racist and divisive. i point it out, not to attack hillary's character, but to call attention to the racism we caucasians need to be careful to notice.

cholesterol

ok, so i had a pre-law checkup. all good, but cholesterol a tad high. doc wants me to exercise more (ok) and take fish oil (uh, no, i'm a vegetarian).

so . . . what to do instead? mayo clinic says oatmeal and walnuts are good.

i think i'll increase my oatmeal cookie intake.

in other news, it occurs to me that i will soon qualify for both student discounts and aarp discounts. sweet!

the birthsday party

jumping around time-wise (these are from 4/24), here are two pics taken in pretty quick succession. we landed at the airport and went straight to the births day party (marni and david have the same birthday) at the cottage:


in the "what i'll miss" category, this is the heart.

a couple a kids

i will miss my neighbor lela, who is a big supporter of "owock obama" -- lela is seen here wearing my reading glasses. lela likes things that are pink, fancy, shiny or have anything to do with princesses. but for some reason, she also likes me.


i was glad to discover that ithaca also has kids. this random one enjoying some sort of purple candy in starbucks stole my heart:

catching up

i have the best friends. life is good. lunch with janice & larry on saturday at salsa's. aren't they beautiful . . . ?!



and this is a shot i've wanted to take for ages. the jackson building, asheville's first skyscraper and where eric works, reflected in the merrill lynch building in downtown asheville (where i was being an obama signpost yesterday):

cornell it is

i've sent my first seat deposit and we have an apartment in ithaca beginning in early august. the tiny (we'll take turns breathing) apartment is in this funky building just four blocks from downtown and two blocks from a bus which runs every 10 minutes to the door of the law school.



the best part is that it is across the street from gimme coffee! yes, that's eric standing there.


orientation is august 25 and classes start august 28.

so now to sell the house we bought during our "delusions of stability" stage in 2006.

obama wins nc!

obama victory party at asheville brewing co. last night. i didn't stay to hear the final indiana result, but it was great to be in an enthusiastic crowd hearing him speak (via tv). abc has great pizza, too.

i finally did get down to hq yesterday, from whence i was sent out to be a signboard. this was actually fun. honks and waves are great, but i love even more the quieter little grins, thumbs-ups and slight nods from passing drivers. makes me feel we're onto something here and are just acknowledging the connection.

of course there were rude passers-by, but we just dusted off our shoulders and reminded ourselves of who we are. i decided to send good thoughts or silent blessings to each car that passed -- that was kind of fun, too. many ways to try to make the world a better place.