Carla Rising, A Novel Worth Reading

I just finished reading Carla Rising, by Topper Sherwood, available as a soft cover paperback only from WV Book Company click here (could be ordered by your local bookstore as well). Full disclosure: Topper and I worked together thirty some years ago and he has sent donations to a project I coordinate called AWARE: Artists Working in Alliance to Restore the Environment.

Carla Rising is a novel written by West Virginia native, Topper Sherwood, about the period in American history known as the West Virginia Mine Wars, specifically, the Battle of Blair of Mountain in 1921, during which thousands of armed miners attempted to march on the town of Logan to free their union brothers who had been jailed without charges. The battle ended only when the U.S. Army was sent in to restore order.  

Sherwood has fictionalized the event, renaming some places and not others, and assembling a cast of characters some of whom can be fairly easily correlated to the historical figures they stand in for. The book is named for a central character, Carla Rising Mandt, raised on Blair Mountain by parents, Bonner Rising, a miner who had died in an earlier labor battle, and her mother, Mary, a quintessentially strong Appalachian woman who quietly endures the hardships of an idyllic rural life trying, but failing to avoid the dangerous politics of the era. Carla has been married for a year to Sid Mandt, a miner and local union leader as the book begins. 

Sherwood, a journalist and small press publisher now living in Berlin, Germany, has long been interested in this period of West Virginia History, having co-authored the history, Just Good Politics, the Life of Raymond Chafin, Appalachian Boss. Sherwood displays virtuosic skill as he paints a rich picture of life in the southern WV coal fields in the early 1900’s. He brings to the page many of the images John Sayles fans will recognize from his 1987 independent film classic, Matewan, which covers some of the same ground, but focusses on the “Matewan Massacre,” which took place a year before the events portrayed in Sherwood’s novel.

Carla Rising explores the minds of two brothers, Todd and Gibbs Bryant, who vie for leadership of the striking miners, one advocating patience and one armed action. Having grown up roaming Blair mountain, Carla’s knowledge of the terrain is valuable to the striking miners, and she struggles to decide which of the two brothers to support.

Along with a host of authentically drawn characters, some born and raised in the mountains, others newly arrived European immigrants: Aunt Tildy and Uncle Harm, Lowcoal, Darko, the evil Baldwin guard, Gaujot, and Carla’s eleven year old brother, Nick, a mute innocent collecting trinkets to display in his secret cave, Todd, Gibbs, and Carla each find their way to important life lessons amidst their struggle to make a better life for the miners and their families in this period of exploitation and corruption in the Appalachian Mountains.

Sherwood’s Carla Rising is an important book because it brings us into the minds of people who struggle against seemingly impossible odds to take on local and state government leaders who are fully beholden to their corporate sponsors. Of course, there are no political leaders such as this in the United States today, right?

Thoughts on Belief on Passover, Easter

As a humanist (non-theist), I understand the desire that people have to believe that there is a force for good looking over and protecting them and their loved ones and forgive them for their seeming lack of ability to imagine how that might seem when applied to those whose lives are negatively impacted in any given situation. It always drives me crazy to hear someone describe some incident in which others were hurt or died, but they or their loved one survived by saying, "God was watching over (me or them)."

"Oh, really," I want to say, "but He didn't care about the others?" Of course they would likely come back with "He has his own plan" or some such.....But, that is just what they need to make sense of the world, and many studies have shown that people who believe in these ways get health benefits from this kind of thinking, although it looks like denial to me.

I wrote the above in response to a Facebook post in which someone had made a similar observation regarding lyrics in a Garth Brooks song about souls being called to earth to be born to wonderful mothers. She wondered about the babies being born to less desirable parents and situations.

And then I remembered that last night was the beginning of Passover and tomorrow is Easter. No, I did nothing to observe Passover last night. 

I was raised in a Jewish family by educated parents who were not terribly religious, though we attended services in a Reform congregation somewhat regularly through the year and on holidays, I attended Sunday School and had Hebrew lessons twice a week for a couple years preparing for Bar Mitzvah. But part of the rebellion of my young adulthood was a disavowal of religious belief, and I have only been back in synagogues for family weddings, Bar Mitzvahs, and funerals since.

Passover, which celebrates the escape of the Jews from slavery in Egypt recounted in the Book of Exodus, is a perfect example of a religious belief in which God is watching over only certain people, not others. Moses demands that Pharoah release the Jews; he refuses, and God unleashes various plagues until finally the Jews are instructed to mark their doors with the blood of a lamb and the Angel of Death is sent to kill all the firstborn sons of the unmarked households. Hence the holiday is named "Passover," since the Jewish households were passed over and their children spared.

According to the Christian Bible, Jesus and his disciples were eating the Passover dinner, the Sedar, in what has come to be called the Last Supper. Jesus was a devout Jew, a rabbi, though his teachings challenged the powerful Jewish priesthood at the Temple in Jerusalem and the Roman notion that Caesar was a living god.  The Romans could put up with an invisible Jewish god, but not with a man who had thousands of followers who proclaimed him King of the Jews and possibly the Messiah.

The message of Easter (apologies to any Christians who may ask how a lapsed Jew has the chutzpah to interpret their religion), while broadening the extent to which the heretofore God of the Jews would extend his love and protections to anyone, Jew or Gentile, limits his favor to those who acknowledge faith in Jesus Christ. 

I don't hate religions or religious people, but I recognize that religions are exclusive clubs. They subscribe to the "only-one-True-religion" thesis. While most of them invite others to share their beliefs, too often they find other religions or even sects within their own religion threatening, and since in their belief system God favors them, blesses them, they sometimes feel justified in discriminating against or even attacking others. While there are benefits in belonging to religious groups, such as the wonderful charitable work they do for their own members and for others outside their groups, and for the teaching of moral lessons inherent in all religions, I would on this holiday pray if I were religious, but hope since I am not, that my religious friends would contemplate whether the sense that their god protects and favors them affects the way they think about people who are different or believe differently than they do.

Sixty Degrees Difference from Snorkel to Skis

I went cross country skiing today. The sun was shining and it was in the mid-20’s. One week ago, I went snorkeling in the Virgin Islands. The sun was shining and it was in the mid-80’s. The snorkeling and the weather in St. Croix was more enjoyable than the skiing, but even though I found it difficult to get enthused about going out today to shovel snow and get my old cross country skis out of the garage, I enjoyed the physical activity.

As I swished around the Shawnee Park golf course in Dunbar, WV, I worked up a sweat and found myself smiling and enjoying the exertion, the beauty of the almost unbroken expanse of snow, white and blue before me. 

But snorkeling over the coral reef off Buck Island, hovering above schools of brightly colored fish and interesting coral formations in the warm, clear tropical waters was clearly the more beautiful and interesting activity. Of course, without the effective waterproof sunblock I had smeared over my body before getting on the sailboat for the forty-five minute sail from St. Croix to Buck Island, I would likely have sustained a serious sunburn. But with the ocean breezes, I rarely felt hot during the week I spent there.

View of Buck Island from Point Udall, St. Croix, VI

Warming oceans and increased carbon dioxide in the water is killing coral reefs. And today, a few miles from Charleston, where I live, a train derailed and several tanker cars filled with crude oil from the Bakken shale exploded and continue to burn twenty-four hours later as I write. Some of the oil has fouled the water of the Kanawha River. 

February has been very cold and snowy over much of the country, and because of this, no doubt the climate deniers are saying this proves that the planet is not warming. Actually, extreme weather of all kinds, including colder weather in some places is expected as the arctic winds escape the forces that used to hold them in place around the poles.

I’m becoming increasingly disillusioned about the ability of those of us on the planet who would like to preserve the beautiful places and creatures and plants in the world by reducing and finally eliminating the burning of fossil fuels, and though I know I contribute to the problem by stepping on an airplane to go see some of those places, I’m glad that I have the time and resources to be able to once in awhile. 

Call Me Humanist, Not Atheist

Before I tell you why I prefer the label humanist to atheist (literally, “not a theist”), I have to ask, what is a theist? Easy, you answer, someone who believes in a god or gods. 

A majority worldwide, and over 70% of Americans believe there is one God, and they generally agree they are worshiping the same God, but in different ways, ways they often believe will give them a good result in this life and/or an afterlife.

So really, when we ask a person what they believe, we are usually more concerned with, and they are more likely to answer with something that reflects their religion of choice or birth. “I’m a Christian. Jesus is my savior.” “I’m Jewish. one of the Chosen People.” “I’m a Muslim, praise be to Allah (God).” And in the United States, where most are Christian, “I’m Catholic.” or Episcopal, Baptist, etc. with all the distinguishing beliefs that each carries.

Theists not only believe in a higher power, but usually subscribe to a specific shared set of beliefs regarding that higher power and the possibilities of an afterlife, and how one should live one’s life in order to fulfill the higher power’s wishes or demands. 

There is also a fairly large group of people who one might call unaffiliated or agnostic who will say they believe in or at least don’t disbelieve in God or a higher power or say they are “Christian,” only meaning that they believe Jesus existed and was special and agree with the concepts associated with him. They generally go along with God or Christ being a force for good, and maybe if they live a good life, they’ll probably have a good result if there is an afterlife. Of course people move between agnosticism and belief and change beliefs in the course of their lives.

What does an atheist believe? The short answer is whatever hum (the non-gender pronoun hum can mean he, she, him, her, etc.) wants. Since hum does not subscribe to one of the world’s religions, hum does not have a set of rituals to follow, like praying at certain times, attending meetings on certain days of the week to talk about shared beliefs or receive instruction on them, eating or not eating certain foods or following certain rules or laws written in ‘sacred’ texts and interpreted over hundreds or thousands of years by scholars or visionaries, or powerful leaders. 

Many theists wonder if an atheist feels free to steal, kill or rape freely without fear of retribution. Rest assured, we live in the same world you do and follow the same laws which are enforced in the same way. There are many who make the case that atheists, because we have to think through what we believe to be right or wrong as we consider where our natural instincts or desires lead us rather than referring to an ancient text or asking a clergyman, are more moral than the many throughout history who have at times followed their religious leaders to commit atrocities. 

When I think about what I believe, I’m not thinking about what I don’t believe. That list is very, very long, and extends to all kinds of supernatural phenomena and conspiracy theories, from a burning bush that is not consumed and talks to Moses to paranormal activity or ability such as ESP, ghosts, or psychic abilities. Essentially, I’m a skeptic.

Humanism sprang up in the early 20^th century and, according to Wikipedia, “rejected revealed knowledge, theism-based morality and the supernatural.” Sometime later religious conservatives began to refer to it as “Secular Humanism,” to distinguish it from some religious, non-fundamentalists who adopted humanist principles.

As a humanist (I prefer no capital H, because it’s just a label, not a religion or organization), I believe that no one has the answers to “life’s persistent questions,” which Guy Noir, a character of Garrison Keillor’s, seeks. I believe that this is the only life we have and our goal as humans should be to make the most of it: learning, loving, laughing, creating. I believe that through science, we have the potential of solving problems and making our lives better.  I value kindness, taking care of the planet, being a force for good. I acknowledge that not everything is known, and therefore many things are possible, such as that there is a remote possibility life or memory may continue in some form after death and even that there could be a “higher power” that in some way influences life on earth. That doesn’t make me a theist, or even agnostic, but it allows me to be a humanist.

Four Months of Yoga

In four months of Yoga, I have made progress. If Yoga is a journey, then I have assuredly begun, though I have a long way to go. Okay, let’s start with what I couldn’t do before, but can do now.

I could not do a full or even half lotus. When I put a foot on top of either thigh, the knee stuck way up in the air. Now I do a passable half lotus and can get the right knee to the floor if I work at it. The left side has a few inches to go.

I could not do a full squat and now can. I could not kneel and put my full weight on my heels, and I sort of can now. I can’t quite get my full weight there, my knees protest a little too much. There’s a position in which you start kneeling, but your torso is straight, then you put your hands behind you on your heels and arch your back, looking at the ceiling. Couldn’t do it before, but can do it now. In fact, I can even do the next more difficult version of that in which my hands are palm down behind my feet.

With my knees locked, I could only get the palms of my hands within four inches of the floor, but I can put them flat now, and with my hands behind my ankles, I can pull my nose to my knees. Sitting, I can bring the toes of my foot to my nose. That's a gain of about six inches, the goal is to bring them to your ears.

Sitting crosslegged, I can bend forward and put my elbows and forearms on the floor. Before, I could barely sit up straight, let alone lean forward while sitting crosslegged.

Don’t get me wrong. It’s not magic. It’s not easy, and it’s not quick. I’ve been practicing Yoga (that sounds pretentious), doing Yoga for forty minutes to an hour almost every day. But the best thing isn’t the increased flexibility, though that’s certainly important. Don’t worry, I’m not going to get all spiritual, either, though as with my nearly daily cardio workouts, there is a certain energy that Yoga brings to my day, a relaxment, an easiness. 

No, the most important thing that Yoga has done, or is doing for me, is that it is helping me finally, after about 35 years, deal with my back problems. No, not deal with them, but, and perhaps I’m overoptimistic, but fix them. Full confession: I was once given a series of exercises that might have fixed my back problems, but I didn’t stick with it. And I think that perhaps that’s because, at least for me, there’s a difference between exercising and Yoga, which makes it easier to stick with.

So, short version, though I haven’t had a recurrence for fifteen years, I have had, and still have something stiff and sore, tight, and angry in my lower back, left side. It was muscle spasms, not spine problems I was told by the doctor and physical therapist fifteen years ago. The original injury, or strain, was never really treated, so I compensated for it by putting less weight on that side when I sat, walked, lived. And those muscles got weaker and weaker over time. Consequently, they could get strained more easily and the cycle continued. The PT taught me some exercise to strengthen those muscles, and I did them just enough that the back and stomach muscles got strong enough to keep a recurrence at bay. Yoga does some of the same things those exercises did, but it is a much more balanced program of stretching and strengthening, and of course it is strengthening and stretching my entire body, not just my lower back. 

I believe, that is I hope, that if I keep it up, eventually the final knot will be relaxed, the muscles will become completely healed and strong at long last, and unless I do something stupid, as I did thirty-five years ago when I picked up one end of a 24 foot long 12”x12” oak barn beam, probably the 20th I’d helped move that day, and tore something, I will live out my life without a sore back. Oh, and I’m for the first time in my life learning to sit up straight. I can’t stand to sit in the Lazy Boy or slouch for long anymore. If only my mother could see me now. 

Happy Gratefulbeing!

Being thankful implies there is someone or something to be thankful to--as in a higher power, a supernatural being. And when people begin to think in that manner, it implies that that hypothetical being has been especially favorable to them by providing these things, perhaps to them rather than someone else (perhaps to their family, their co-religionists, their country).

However, I see a slight, but significant difference in being grateful. I can be grateful for what I have because of my good luck or my hard work, the vagaries of the natural lottery--being born in the time and place and to the family that I was with a gene code that gives me certain advantages and presents certain challenges. And I am. Grateful. I have a wonderful life. And I am grateful that you are my friend and are willing to read this and click like. For what it's worth. Happy Gratefulbeing. Eat turkey (or tofu). Watch football. Read a book. Hug your family and friends.

Electorate Lacks Critical Thinking Skills

In recent elections, why have so many voted for candidates who support policies they say they oppose or that are harmful to their economic interests?

Why vote for politicians who seek to dismantle public education, are against raising the minimum wage, pass tax cuts to further increase the wealth gap, and who want to continue to allow corporations and billionaires to flood the political system with money when generally you disagree with those policies? Polling shows that even many who disagree with their policies chose the Republican party in this election.

Benefits from Social Security Insurance, Medicare, Medicaid, subsidies for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), Unemployment Insurance, Workman’s Compensation, SNAP (food stamps) are designed to keep working people and those unable to work out of poverty.  What does it mean when even people who are receiving these benefits vote for a party that seeks to dismantle or undermine these programs?

I believe it’s because many simply reject facts regardless of scientific and historical evidence in favor of voting based on their mood, feelings, or beliefs. They do this at least partly because many lack a skill that educators call “critical thinking,” an essential backbone of a competent education, and an area of emphasis in the Common Core State Standards. Republicans have now turned against this challenging set of educational principles, which was developed by the states in a non-partisan process. I wonder if they are concerned they might work.

When George W. Bush, with help from liberal lion Ted Kennedy, passed No Child Left Behind (NCLB) in 2001, many saw it as an attack on public education. NCLB required annual testing that would not only label schools in which the majority of students were not reaching annual benchmarks in reading and math as failing, but would give parents the option of sending their children to another school, often a charter school run by a private company. Kennedy had apparently signed on because he hoped that after identifying struggling schools, which he knew would mostly be in poor neighborhoods, the law made provisions to provide large influxes of money to the school to implement change. Naturally, the law was never fully funded by the Republicans. Regardless, even a large amount of money rarely turns around a school serving a population of students who are growing up in poverty in only a year or two.

The most laughable (or more accurately, tear-inducing) part of the law was the goal it established that declared that ALL students must reach mastery in Reading and Math by 2014. The only reason that most all schools have not been labeled failures is that the Obama administration has allowed states to apply for waivers from the most onerous provisions of the law.

Critical thinking is the highest goal of education. It can’t be taught in one lesson or in one year. You can find short definitions and full-length books on the topic. In a word, it is rationality: the ability to weigh evidence objectively, to identify and distance the emotional triggers and beliefs that may cloud one’s thinking, so that one can analyze the validity of “facts” and assemble a theory or argument.

Americans often wonder how masses of people in other parts of the world can be convinced to support dictatorial governments or follow religious leaders who exhort them to hatred of others and rejection of freedom and Democracy. The answer is simple: a powerful combination of control of the media, religious belief, and weak or religiously based education systems and systems of law which do not operate on the basis of critical thinking, but on pre-determined belief systems, whether they are economic, secular, or religious.

In recent years America’s radio and TV airways have increasingly been filled with intelligent right wing personalities who craft seemingly rational arguments based on faulty premises and suspect “facts”. They almost always wrap their propaganda in expressions of religious belief, patriotic fervor, and fear that the opposition is trying to destroy the American way of life, nostalgically bringing to mind an America of small towns, picket fences, and….for many, segregated schools.

The Republican strategy seems to include weakening education, instilling fear of an increasingly diverse society in their low and middle income white male base, and allowing the rich to spend limitless money on elections in order to maintain power and win elections.

If I were President Obama, I would challenge the nation to embark on a simple mission. Congress should come together to pass an education law to repeal and replace No Child Left Behind and its patchwork waiver system. The Common Core has become a punching bag, so start over. Call the new law, or some major part of it “FACTS: For All, Critical Thinking Skills.” From pre-school to free adult classes in libraries and community centers, make rational discussions and analysis a national pastime. We could start by studying the campaign ads from this season.

Paul Epstein is a retired teacher, a musician, and writer who lives in Charleston, WV. He blogs at http://paulepstein-muse.blogspot.com/