Marcus' World

An Emerging Literary Talent

My Northwestern classmate Cristina Henriquez has published a story, "Ashes", in the July 4 issue of the New Yorker.  After graduating from Northwestern Cristina attended the Iowa Writers Workshop.  A collection of her short stories,  "Come Together, Fall Apart," will be published next spring.

Cristina and I were both English majors.  She preferred to write her stories on a typewriter, and I thought this was cool.   We briefly discussed completing a joint English honors project together, but soon learned that the department wasn't open to joint projects.  Now I wish I'd fought for that project. 

But who cares? Congratulations Cristina!!

Street Fair Activism

I've decided to channel my frustration with New York's street fair scene into a feature story for the Gotham Gazette, which is a very comprehensive resource about life in the city.  Today I corresponded with the editor, and now have a deadline for the middle of July. 

I've been fortunate to have several articles published in the library literature, but this is my first foray into local media.  It's the beginning of something good.

New York City Street Fairs

Helen and I have been fans of street fairs for many years, beginning in Evanston and Chicago.  So we were happy to discover that New York City has multiple fairs every weekend.

Alas, they are all starting to look alike.  And that's no accident, because the high profile fairs are all managed by the same company.  So much for the thrilling diversity of the pulsing metropolis.  You can get the same sausage on the Lower East Side that you'll find on the Upper West Side. 

The better option is the neighborhood block parties, where you can buy cheap board games and learn about new restaurants.  This is what happened last fall, when we went to the 90th Street block party.  And just a few weeks ago we bought a nifty new water pitcher on 87th Street.

These events won't be listed in Time Out New York, so it pays to pay attention to neighborhood happenings. I suppose that's a good trait for more than just block parties!

Billy Graham Crusade Concludes

Yesterday marked the end of the Billy Graham crusade in Queens.  Although we did not attend, every day I found myself drawn to the news coverage.  It may or may not be Graham's last crusade; he is thinking about going to London later this year.

Soon after my last posting about Graham's anti-Semitic moment with Richard Nixon, I read about how he had apologized repeatedly for this.  More importantly, the majority of the city's Jewish leaders have accepted this apology.  So it's churlish for me, of all people, to keep on fueling that fire.  Helen and Scott's response to that posting also made me relax.

Graham was tougher in yesterday's closing sermon than in his earlier remarks.  Those sessions focused on Jesus' love, but yesterday there was much talk of hell.  Graham argued for getting right with God now, because the end is drawing nigh. 

As someone who was raised in an evangelical church, this is the message that makes me angriest. It is emotional exploitation, no matter how dignified the exploiter happens to be.

Graham's evidence for the end times were two recent tragedies:   the disappearance of a teenager from Alabama in Aruba, and the accidental deaths of three New Jersey boys who were locked in a car trunk.  As Graham said, "I believe today God is warning us."

Everyone agrees that these are terrible events, and sympathizes with the worried and grieving loved ones. But it's a quite a stretch to go from there to demanding that everyone bow before the cross. 

Billy Graham Comes to New York

Tonight Billy Graham begins a 3 day crusade in Queens.  One interesting detail of the preparations: Armored cars will arrive each evening to carry the offering away.  Apparently God's army is unable to provide sufficient protection.

As evangelists go,  Graham has always had a dignity that escapes people like Pat Robertson and James Dobson. For this reason I'm inclined to respect Graham.  But then I remember that he egged on former President Nixon while  Nixon spewed forth anti-Semitic remarks.

What would Jesus have done?

Public Broadcasting Wins

Despite the best efforts of the right wing to tar and feather the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, yesterday the House voted 2-1 to restore a proposed $100 million in cuts.  Some other cuts remain a possibility, but nevertheless this is a great day for balanced news coverage and excellent children's programming.

It happened because everyday people cared enough to make it happen.  That's an important confidence booster during this usually dreary period of Republican rule.

Member of the Coastal Elite Attacks Public Broadcasting

Yesterday's News Hour featured a long story about the proposed cuts to public broadcasting in the House, which would be very significant.  I was curious to see how a public broadcast source would present the story, and believe it was handled fairly.

The debate was between George Neumayr, executive editor of the conservative American Spectator magazine, and Bill Reed, president of the PBS station in Kansas City.

As was not surprising, Mr. Neumayr saw horrible liberal bias in PBS.  He peppered his remarks with attacks on the "coastal elite," as well as an obligatory smear of the New York Times. 

I found the coastal elite comment amusing.  The American Spectator is  a Washington rag, and as such is part of that coastal terror that so spooks Mr. Neumayr.  Meanwhile, Mr. Reed defended PBS eloquently from Kansas City, right in the heart of red America. 

Democracy NYC

'Tis  the season for gathering signatures to ensure a place on the 2005 ballot in New York City.   So the walk to the subway features young people holding clip boards, asking you to sign green sheets of paper.

Sometimes I fall into the New York cool mode of not wanting to be bothered.  But other times I stop and sign.  I wonder if people think that by signing they are actually endorsing the candidate.  Of course, all you are doing is getting someone on the ballot.  It would have to be a pretty rough customer to make me not even do that.

The first question is always, "Are you a registered Democrat?"  After all, Manhattan is a very Democratic precinct.  Yesterday, I overheard a man respond, "Definitely not," as he whizzed by the corner of 1st Avenue and 53rd Street. That made me smile. Even though I'm as Democratic as they come, I do admire the chutzpah it takes to be something besides a Democrat in NYC.

I've begun to study the different approaches to presenting your signature.  Most people ask you to print your name and address, and then sign the document.  But yesterday a representative of a Manhattan borough president candidate filled out my name and address, and only made me sign.  It was the electoral equivalent of a full-service gas station.

Off to Long Island

Helen's current consulting project has provided her with a car for the last several months.   So we've used it for weekend road trips, although we still travel by subway in the city.

Today we went to Long Island, because Helen wanted to visit a "pick-your-own" strawberry farm.  We have been going to farms like these for many years, first in Illinois, then outside of Washington, and now outside of New York City.

Before we picked our own strawberries, we went to the Mattituck, Long Island Country Fair and Strawberry Festival.  It seemed that all the other couples had kids. That was fine with me and no surprise--Helen and I are always attracted to things that appeal to older people.  We did show one youthful spark at the fair, when we rode a contraption--the Cliff Glider--that required you to lie on your stomach. 

Today's activities fit into a larger pattern. We go to a cabaret performance alongside octogenarians, or seek out walking tours that mainly attract retirees.  This may seem uncool, but it's far more enjoyable than the "hip" alternative: going to some bar or club where the music is loud and the beer tastes bad, and you wake up no earlier than noon the next day.

Helen and I are just ahead of our time.  Those young whippersnappers don't know what they're missing.

Schiavo Autopsy and Some Second Thoughts

With yesterday's release of the autopsy in the Schiavo case, it is now medically indisputable that Ms. Schiavo was in a persistent vegetative state.  Of course her parents are not willing to accept this, and I don't blame them.

Although the autopsy vindicates those of us who felt that this was a matter for the state courts rather than Congress, lately I've had some second thoughts about my own reaction while the drama was unfolding.  I suppose this would be called "flip-flopping" in GOP political parlance.  But I prefer to think of it as the behavior of a mature person.

My re-evaluation was prompted by a powerful essay by Joan Didion in the June 9 New York Review of Books. Didion touches on many things, such as the fixation of Michael Schiavo's attorney on end-of-life cases.  Or the fact that ending Schiavo's feeding did not require the physical removal of the feeding tube; stopping the liquids from flowing would have sufficed. 

Most importantly, Didion pierces the false notion that any concern about ending a life prematurely is a mark of evangelical Christian insanity.  Heaven knows that I have numerous problems with people like James Dobson.  But as Didion notes, concern about the societal implications of ending Schiavo's life is reasonable among any person whose life has "at any point been touched by any of the world's major religions."  Buddhists had a stake in this struggle, as did all Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, secular humanists, agnostics, and atheists.

What happened with Theresa Schiavo--and what I fell victim to myself--was an over-reaction by secular America to a preening religous right.  In the end, I stand by my belief that the Congressional and Presidential intervention in the Schiavo case was a shameful attempt to score political points from personal tragedy.  Michael Schiavo had the right to act as he did.

It is possible to hold this view and remain troubled by the broader ethical dimensions of the case.  If we weren't living in such a polarized time, this fact would have been obvious from the beginning.