Signposts to Sanity

An occasional feature where your lovin' Granny points you at somebody else's really good stuff


Over at Alternet.org, Andrew Lam has written a provocative piece not so much on the bigoted response to crimes by minorities as on the frightening effect it has on the entire ethnic group.

In Aftermath of Va. Shooting, Ethnic Groups Prayed, "Let It Be Some Other Asian"

Lam quotes an African American friend:

An Anglo shooter may be an individual, a loner, but God forbid if a person of color goes on a shooting rampage. His whole tribe would be implicated. "I still recall my aunts when President Kennedy was assassinated. They were praying that it wasn't a Negro.***To be a minority in America, even in the 21st century, is to be always on trial. An evil act by one indicts the entire community. Whoever doubts this need only look at the spike in hate crimes against Muslims and South Asian communities after 9/11.

It brought back to me how, after 9/11, my Maya's then 16 year old cousin was cornered in a mall by a man who tried to sic his dog on her! Only because the dog had more sense than the man was she unhurt. And Ted saying that no one tried to run him off the road after he taped a picture of the American flag in the window of his car. Or how, after Desert Storm, my Palestinian brother-in-law who had just earned his degree in engineering could only get work as a janitor.

After yesterday's post on weight issues, again at Alternet.org is this piece on weight and perfectionism, The Frightening New Normalcy of Hating Your Body by Courtney E. Martin, an excerpt from her book, Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters.

There is a girl, right now, staring in a mirror in Des Moines, scrutinizing her widening hips. There is a girl, right now, spinning like a hamster on speed in a gym on the fifth floor of a building in Boston, promising herself dinner if she goes two more miles. There is a girl, right now, trying to wedge herself into a dress two sizes too small in a Savannah shopping mall, chastising herself for being so lazy and fat. There is a girl, right now, in a London bathroom, trying not to get any vomit on her aunt's toilet seat. There is a girl, right now, in Berlin, cutting a cube of cheese and an apple into barely visible pieces to eat for her dinner.***Even smart girls must be beautiful, even athletes must be feminine. Corporate CEOs, public intellectuals, and even accountants must be thin.

At Common Dreams is an article Are They Serious? by Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post, who discusses

Today's topic is credibility - specifically, recent claims by certain high-ranking present, former and perhaps soon-to-be-former Bush administration officials. The aim is to answer a simple question: Should we believe these three Bush loyalists if they tell us that rain falls down instead of up, or should we look out the window to make sure?***To his knowledge? What on earth does that mean? Is Gonzales in the habit of making decisions without his own knowledge? Does he have multiple-personality issues?

Rove, Wolfowitz and Gonzales are making the last-ditch argument of a cheating husband caught in flagrante: Who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes?