Living in coronavorusworld 67: We all need a strategy to the other side

5/29

Upper West Side gargoyle

I was very happy that on this week’s Gluey Zoomy Show, (https://www.facebook.com/events/everywhere/gluey-zoomy-show-live/) my friends Joel and Carrie (Hot Glue e& the Gun) read my letter and glued  my angelito from outsider artist Angel Romano to their art wall. (http://west-parkpress.blogspot.com/2013/04/angelitos.html ).

there's the angelito

  Their special music guest was a uniquely gifted Lauren Maul. (http://www.laurenmaul.org/)     And Chef Midnight offers us a recipe for ceviche and some guacamole as a bonus. 

My longtime friend David hit all the categories. Well into his 80’s, long time smoker, living in an assisted living facility….when he got diagnosed with Covid19 and sent to the hospital, it was easy to imagine he would not return.  Much to our surprise, he made it through to the other side. Miracles do happen even in coronavirusworld. 

Conversations with Presbyterians and Communists. We all need a strategy get to the other side. I get an invitation to preach my first sermon from quarantine this Sunday. 

Finish the final episode of  Mrs.America. The only problem was, I didn’t want it to end. (https://www.hulu.com/series/mrs-america-96f330fe-878d-412e-949f-fd8b69b3adf2?&cmp=11988&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=BM%20SEM%20Originals%20Suppression&utm_term=mrs%20america&gclid=CjwKCAjw5cL2BRASEiwAENqAPoKBBwHrZX3QuIEeCW_WvTFnpULCaN_GxyCMDdIS_LFZjm57oA1fChoCI-IQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds). It’s a very valuable  look at an important moment in American history, probably the peak of power for US women. It’s good to be reminded that the women’s movement was once bipartisan with active Republican participants like Jill Ruckelshaus and support of elected officials themselves.  Even Reagan himself felt he couldn’t afford to be explicitly anti-ERA.   We get to learn more of the individual personalities and differing  opinions of heroic leaders like Betty Friedan, Bella Abzug and Gloria Steinem.  It’s also close look at the complex and paradoxical character of Phyllis Schlafly. As leader of the anti-ERA movement, she was every bit the “working girl” that any of her feminist opponents were. It’s also important to see the path from Schlfafly’s movement to the takeover of the Republican Party by the extreme right and the coalescence of right wing forces that produced Trump. It helps us gain perspective on how we came to be  here. And also to know that in the last two years, the remaining states necessary to pass the ERA have come through.  The House has passed a resolution to rescind the deadline. Which of course, the Senate refuses to bring to action. 

I take a long walk to visit my friend RL. Hope to get strong enough to venture outside. Looking forward to it. Steady stream of bars  and restaurants reopening, Even a shoe repair shop.  But not our favorite St. James Gate. 

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Finally Muslim Comedian Ramy Youseff  (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramy_Youssef).  Takes us into the world of a modern American religious Muslim. A world we don’t often get to see. And we get to see ourselves from his perspective. He describes a date with a woman in a very short dress and high heels struggling across  street in winter, her carefully done hair blown about. How can they make them go out like that? He asks. (Irony noted.) Most controversally, he describes the effects of  the US response to 9-11. The prejudice in the US which caused many secular Muslims to seek out their faith community and strengthen their roots  as they felt othered by their long time communities and neighbors.  How the US’s interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq stenghtened  dislike (hatred) of US in the Arab  and Muslim 

worlds. So…did 9-11... work? He asks in his special’s most disturbing moment. 

Even with the talk of stronger together, we’ve never been more divided  since the  Civl War.