Monday, September 14, 2009
Preliminary Weekend Fun
We had a great weekend, but I will have to post more about it later. It was nice to be all better. We had the bug that was going around, and missed all the fun on Labor Day weekend, because we were all sick. Sarah went to Las Vegas with a friend's family. She was SOOOO excited to go. Then on Monday, she was even more excited to be home! It was not the fun trip she was hoping for. Instead they sat around their condo and watched movies. She did get to go to In-and-Out Burger, but she said it wasn't anything special. She was NOT impressed. Oh, and when she came back, we had a girl trip to Iceberg for milkshakes. My favorite is the caramel with Heath bar. Yum.
Monday, September 7, 2009
Book Review: In Reckless Hands
In Reckless Hands: Skinner v. Oklahoma and the Near Triumph of American Eugenics, by Victoria P. Nourse
"It was an almost irresistible intellectual seduction: a Promise that asylums and prisons would fade away and that the problembs of the old and infirm and unemployed would 'cease to trouble civilization.' The seduction was once named the scines of eugenics. Law would confront this seduction and its science in a case called Skinner v. Oklahoma."
From the opening paragraph in this book to the final page, I was completely wrapped up in the writing and the story itself. Nourse takes a rather controversial decision of the Supreme Court, and through it, explores the racial attitudes of the United States in the early 20th century.
By race, Nourse makes it clear that it is not specifically color of skin that she's talking about. Rather, eugenics used to refer to the ethnic and class distinctions which even scientists used to classify people.
She starts by referring to a newspaper that has photographs of 3 men on the front page: Chief Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Oklahoma Governor Alfalfa Bill Murray, and Adolf Hitler. Today, any such grouping would be an automatic 'guilt by association.' But when the picture appeared, it was in reference to the hot new science of eugenics, which its proponents believed held the key for transforming society by eliminating poverty, mental illness, and crime. Those carrying 'bad germ plasms', which we call genes today, would be sterilized and therefore all the nasty things that affect humanity would disappear in a generation or two.
It was only when reports began to leak out of Nazi Germany that people began to realize that eugenics could also be used as a handy excuse to exterminate entire populations. Nazi doctors bragged of sterilizing over 1000 people a week, including children. Of course, eventually they got tired of that and just began exterminating people. That way, the Aryan race would remain pure.
But in the 20s and 30s, a really staggering number of people subscribed to this way of thinking, without ever considering what kinds of abuses it would lead to. When Oklahoma proposed a law allowing involuntary sterilization of any prisoner convicted of three crimes or more, all hell began to break loose. Men at McAlester prison rioted, escaped, and shot it out with police in an effort to escape the procedure. Hundreds of inmates in Oklahoma asylums were sterilized without their consent.
Eventually, the inmates in the McAlester prison had collected enough money to hire a lawyer, choose a plaintiff, and take the case to court. Interestingly, the very aspect that would strike most modern readers as being the deciding factor in declaring this process as unconstitutional, that of the right to privacy, was scarcely mentioned. Nourse goes over all the aspects of the decision, which ultimately meant the end of eugenics as practiced in the prison.
But was I was astounded (and infuriated) to learn was that the practice of sterilizing the mentally ill continued up until 1983, when a court ruled that North Carolina officials were justified in sterilizing a young Black woman because she was 'promiscuous' and 'feeble minded.' The young woman went on to graduate from college.
I think what really made me so angry was the realization of how this law would have affected my own family. My grandmother suffered from depression, although she was never hospitalized. If things had been different, and she had lived just 100 miles north of her home, she could have been one of the ones selected for sterilization. That would have meant that now, 3 generations of people would not have been born. Among the 20 of us, there are certainly those who do have depression, some who have been hospitalized and received medication. But there are also 2 veterans who have and are serving their country. There are a few who have attended college, a couple of them graduating. There are no hardened criminals - in fact, the worst any of us has done is received a traffic ticket. In the meantime, we have married, raised families, worked hard, paid taxes, and served in our communities. All that would never have happened if my grandma hadn't been so lucky in where she lived.
What I took away from this book is a recognition that I need to be more vocal in demanding my rights. I need to stand up for my children, and refuse to allow anyone to deny them anything because of their tendency to mental illness. Today it is almost impossible to find a family who has not been affected by mental illness. And yet, we go on, and we are still good people. My children are inferior in absolutely no way to any other child. Such practices seem completely barbaric today. But if we're not careful, it could happen again.
"It was an almost irresistible intellectual seduction: a Promise that asylums and prisons would fade away and that the problembs of the old and infirm and unemployed would 'cease to trouble civilization.' The seduction was once named the scines of eugenics. Law would confront this seduction and its science in a case called Skinner v. Oklahoma."
From the opening paragraph in this book to the final page, I was completely wrapped up in the writing and the story itself. Nourse takes a rather controversial decision of the Supreme Court, and through it, explores the racial attitudes of the United States in the early 20th century.
By race, Nourse makes it clear that it is not specifically color of skin that she's talking about. Rather, eugenics used to refer to the ethnic and class distinctions which even scientists used to classify people.
She starts by referring to a newspaper that has photographs of 3 men on the front page: Chief Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Oklahoma Governor Alfalfa Bill Murray, and Adolf Hitler. Today, any such grouping would be an automatic 'guilt by association.' But when the picture appeared, it was in reference to the hot new science of eugenics, which its proponents believed held the key for transforming society by eliminating poverty, mental illness, and crime. Those carrying 'bad germ plasms', which we call genes today, would be sterilized and therefore all the nasty things that affect humanity would disappear in a generation or two.
It was only when reports began to leak out of Nazi Germany that people began to realize that eugenics could also be used as a handy excuse to exterminate entire populations. Nazi doctors bragged of sterilizing over 1000 people a week, including children. Of course, eventually they got tired of that and just began exterminating people. That way, the Aryan race would remain pure.
But in the 20s and 30s, a really staggering number of people subscribed to this way of thinking, without ever considering what kinds of abuses it would lead to. When Oklahoma proposed a law allowing involuntary sterilization of any prisoner convicted of three crimes or more, all hell began to break loose. Men at McAlester prison rioted, escaped, and shot it out with police in an effort to escape the procedure. Hundreds of inmates in Oklahoma asylums were sterilized without their consent.
Eventually, the inmates in the McAlester prison had collected enough money to hire a lawyer, choose a plaintiff, and take the case to court. Interestingly, the very aspect that would strike most modern readers as being the deciding factor in declaring this process as unconstitutional, that of the right to privacy, was scarcely mentioned. Nourse goes over all the aspects of the decision, which ultimately meant the end of eugenics as practiced in the prison.
But was I was astounded (and infuriated) to learn was that the practice of sterilizing the mentally ill continued up until 1983, when a court ruled that North Carolina officials were justified in sterilizing a young Black woman because she was 'promiscuous' and 'feeble minded.' The young woman went on to graduate from college.
I think what really made me so angry was the realization of how this law would have affected my own family. My grandmother suffered from depression, although she was never hospitalized. If things had been different, and she had lived just 100 miles north of her home, she could have been one of the ones selected for sterilization. That would have meant that now, 3 generations of people would not have been born. Among the 20 of us, there are certainly those who do have depression, some who have been hospitalized and received medication. But there are also 2 veterans who have and are serving their country. There are a few who have attended college, a couple of them graduating. There are no hardened criminals - in fact, the worst any of us has done is received a traffic ticket. In the meantime, we have married, raised families, worked hard, paid taxes, and served in our communities. All that would never have happened if my grandma hadn't been so lucky in where she lived.
What I took away from this book is a recognition that I need to be more vocal in demanding my rights. I need to stand up for my children, and refuse to allow anyone to deny them anything because of their tendency to mental illness. Today it is almost impossible to find a family who has not been affected by mental illness. And yet, we go on, and we are still good people. My children are inferior in absolutely no way to any other child. Such practices seem completely barbaric today. But if we're not careful, it could happen again.
Saturday, September 5, 2009
My New Obsession
I tend to get these obsessions. Sometimes it's a book, or a series, but often it's a computer game. I'll start a new game, and suddenly, I play it for hours and hours until I win. Sometimes it's a website. When I first found BookCrossing, LibraryThing, GoodReads, Facebook. And now, it's a game on Facebook - My Hero Ability. I'm totally addicted.
I'd seen the ads for the game, and decided to give it a try. At first, it told me my superpower was Precognition - knowing the future. That is the exact superpower I would absolutely not want. But I got to reset and get another one. This time, I got Electric Manipulation. Cool!
I chose my new name - Shockwave! All right, Ellen came up with the name. But I like it! Here's what I can do:
Create an Electrical Maelstrom
Give a Small Jolt
Electrocute
Conjure a Storm of Static Electricity
Short Out the Nerves and Paralyze
Light up the Room
The last one is a helpful action, and I can do it for myself or my friends. I've made it up to level 22 in less than a week, and I send my time fighting muggers, pickpockets, and thieves. I could also fight terrorist or assassin, but right now they would totally beat me.
Yes, I know I'm a little old for this, but it really is fun. You can travel all around New York City, helping folks (or beating up taxi drivers and junkies), travel to other world sites, and join super hero leagues! Yes! Even the League of Justice. No, not really. I joined the Heroes league, based on the TV show, which I don't even watch. But the game is fun. So if you need someone to save the day, you can always call on SHOCKWAVE!
I'd seen the ads for the game, and decided to give it a try. At first, it told me my superpower was Precognition - knowing the future. That is the exact superpower I would absolutely not want. But I got to reset and get another one. This time, I got Electric Manipulation. Cool!
I chose my new name - Shockwave! All right, Ellen came up with the name. But I like it! Here's what I can do:
Create an Electrical Maelstrom
Give a Small Jolt
Electrocute
Conjure a Storm of Static Electricity
Short Out the Nerves and Paralyze
Light up the Room
The last one is a helpful action, and I can do it for myself or my friends. I've made it up to level 22 in less than a week, and I send my time fighting muggers, pickpockets, and thieves. I could also fight terrorist or assassin, but right now they would totally beat me.
Yes, I know I'm a little old for this, but it really is fun. You can travel all around New York City, helping folks (or beating up taxi drivers and junkies), travel to other world sites, and join super hero leagues! Yes! Even the League of Justice. No, not really. I joined the Heroes league, based on the TV show, which I don't even watch. But the game is fun. So if you need someone to save the day, you can always call on SHOCKWAVE!
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