Bryce Moore's Blog, page 127

Book Review: The Marathon Man

Marathon Man by William Goldman

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I’ve been a William Goldman fan for just one of his books. (The Princess Bride, obviously.) I’ve also appreciated him for his screenplays (Butch Cassidy, Princess Bride, All the President’s Men, etc.) So when I saw The Marathon Man on sale for Kindle, I decided to give it a shot. It was also turned into a movie with Dustin Hoffman in the seventies (which I have not seen).

Really, it was a blast of a book. The premise is straightforward: a PhD candidate gets involved with a spy ring. It’s your classic under-prepared protagonist in an impossible situation. It’s set apart from other thrillers by a couple of things. First off, I was impressed with Goldman’s skill of writing third person effectively, inserting the character’s views into the narration in a way that made things (for me) very readable. (Actually, I enjoyed it so much I thought I’d give it a shot in writing. I didn’t make it past a few paragraphs with each attempt. Pulling it off was really difficult for me, which made me even more impressed.)

Second, I liked how focused Goldman kept the story, going into details in the scenes and really fleshing them out. You can have something that takes five minutes in real life take pages and pages in a text, or you can sum it up in a sentence, or you can skip it entirely. Goldman knows when to dive deep and when to skim. (If you’ve got a thing against dentists, this is a book to skip. Trust me.)

The book did what it was designed to do: kept me turning pages, even after I wanted to go to sleep. I love it when a book does that. In the end I gave it a 9/10. If you’re looking for a fun summer read, give this one a shot. Sure, it’s from the 70s, but it’s aged very well.

View all my reviews

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Like what you’ve read? Please consider supporting me on Patreon. Thanks to all my Patrons who support me! It only takes a minute or two, and then it’s automatic from there on out. I’ve been posting my book ICHABOD in installments, as well as chapters from UTOPIA. Check it out.

If you’d rather not sign up for Patreon, you can also support the site by clicking the MEMORY THIEF Amazon link on the right of the page. That will take you to Amazon, where you can buy my books or anything else. During that visit, a portion of your purchase will go to me. It won’t cost you anything extra.

New Orleans for Families

[image error]I headed down to New Orleans last week for ALA Annual, and I took my family with me on the trip. I’d never been to the city before (never been to anywhere in the South other than Florida, really. Well, Texas, but that’s got a feel all its own.) Ahead of time, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. I spoke to a lot of friends who had been, and they had mixed things to say about it, ranging from their favorite city ever to a place they were glad they’d only spent a day or two in.

We had eight days slated, and three kids (ages 14, 10, and 5) who had to be entertained. I would have been less worried, but the hotel I booked didn’t have a pool. My kids all love swimming, so if there’d been a pool, I would have known there always would have been something they’d enjoy to do, even if they swam for 8 days straight.

I’m back now, and I’m pleased to say we had a grand time. There were loads of great family activities to do, and my kids all enjoyed the trip, as did Denisa and I. Here’s a rundown of some of the highlights:

Plantation tour. We rented a car for two of the days, heading out of the city to Oak Alley Plantation, where we toured the grounds, the house, and the slaves’ quarters. I’d heard better things about Whitney Plantation, but I’d also heard it was a really heavy tour focused on the slave experience. I wasn’t really up for putting my 5 year old daughter through that, hence Oak Alley. It was beautiful and somber, and I thought it was a great mix and just what I had been looking for.
Swamp tour. I’ve never been to a real swamp. We got on a 2 hour boat ride that took us into the Honey Island Swamp, right on the border of Mississippi. Gators, turtles, raccoons, boars, and awesome vegetation. Let’s just say I’m very glad I’ve never met an alligator in the wild, while I’m in the water. They look like snakes as they slither up to their prey. Snakes with big mouths and teeth and claws and they’re huge. Yikes. Though really, the scariest part for me was when we went to a dead end and we had a pack of raccoons come right up to the boat for food. I’ve seen raccoons at work and read all about just how rabid they can get, and the whole time I was wondering what I’d do if one of them jumped in the boat.
The National World War II Museum. Ranked the number 2 museum in the world on Trip Advisor. I’m not sure of that ranking. I think it’s overselling it a fair bit, but it really was a great museum. Tons of displays and information all about the war. We all enjoyed it, though my 5 year old got a bit bored.
The Zoo, Aquarium, and Insectarium. Two of the days I was at my conference, Denisa took the kids to the Audobon properties. There was a water park at the zoo that everyone loved, and the insectarium had a butterfly garden my girls thought was awesome. A great way to spend a few hot days in the southern climate.
French Quarter. After we figured out which street was Bourbon Street (naturally the first street we picked to walk down), the French Quarter was lovely. Tons of great shops and restaurants, live music, people watching, churches, and more. I loved the architecture. It was so different from anywhere else I’ve been.
Jazz. Denisa and I left the kids at the hotel one evening and headed to Preservation Hall, where you pay $20 a person for a 45 minute concert they have four or five times a night. Live jazz. Incredibly talented musicians in a teeny tiny room that looks like it might fall apart any moment. We loved it.
Food. Beignets, po’ boys, muffalettas, jambalaya, gelato, eclairs, croissants, and more. I gained 6 pounds. (Sigh.) Need I say more?
Alabama and Mississippi. As long as we were all the way down there, I figured we might as well knock a few more states off my To Visit list. We went to the USS Alabama in Mobile, which was a hit with the whole fam. (And made me appreciate even more what sailors went through in WWII. I have no idea how anyone can navigate that maze. We went on a submarine, as well. I could barely fit through the doors. After that, we headed to Gulf Port, Mississippi to go to the beach. It was rainy off and on, so we didn’t do more than wade, but it was a fun time.
Museum of Art. We’ve spoiled our kids, perhaps, by starting them out with Parisian art galleries, but they still had a good time at this one. I was at the conference, so I can’t say much more than that.

The conference itself was also a great experience for me. I went to a ton of fantastic panels and came home with new ideas for the library. Always a plus.

Anyway. If you’re thinking about heading to New Orleans and you’re not sure if your family would have a good time, don’t worry about it. We took public transportation to most places, and it was a fairly easy to navigate city. I will say it wasn’t particular kid-friendly after about 8 o’clock. Lots of public drinking, smoking, and even some nudity on the streets, so I was glad Nickelodeon was playing Double Dare each night. (My kids loved that.) It’s definitely a city where many of the visitors go to get plastered. Not really my scene. But there’s a wealth of things to see beyond that. I was really glad we had the chance to go.

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Like what you’ve read? Please consider supporting me on Patreon. Thanks to all my Patrons who support me! It only takes a minute or two, and then it’s automatic from there on out. I’ve been posting my book ICHABOD in installments, as well as chapters from UTOPIA. Check it out.

If you’d rather not sign up for Patreon, you can also support the site by clicking the MEMORY THIEF Amazon link on the right of the page. That will take you to Amazon, where you can buy my books or anything else. During that visit, a portion of your purchase will go to me. It won’t cost you anything extra.

How I Evaluate the News

[image error]I imagine it’s because I’m a trained librarian, and so people are curious about what I think about various information sources, but for whatever reason, I actually have a fair number of friends ask me about news articles now and then. I had one instance this morning, and I sent back a detailed response. After writing it, I thought it might be something the rest of you would find interesting, especially these days when “the news” so often seems more like “the opinion,” as opposed to anything resembling fact (from some sources.)

So first, the question. What did I think of this article?

For teaching purposes, I’d encourage all of you to click through to that article and read it for yourself and ask yourself the same question. What do you think of it? More importantly, why do you think that? Is it an article to be trusted or dismissed? Why? This will be more valuable if you come to your own conclusions first, I think.

Ready?

For those of you who just decided to keep reading and ignore my helpful advice, the article is about how Obama might have been a plant by nefarious anti-American sources, designed to ruin our country. For the purposes of this exercise (and for all news source evaluations), I think it’s important to distance yourself from what you personally might believe about the topic. Face the fact that your preconceived notions might be wrong, and approach it as objectively as possible.

People come to librarians all the time, asking us questions. We can’t laugh at them if we think their questions are silly. Our job is to find the information they’re looking for. So for this question, I treated as “Do you think this is a reputable article? Why or why not?”

Here’s what I responded:

Hmm. My first step is to look at the source. Both the publication and the author. The publication (Washington Times) is quite a conservative source that sometimes pushes the envelope when it comes to fair reporting. (http://www.allgeneralizationsarefalse.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Media-Bias-Chart_Version-3.1_Watermark-min.jpg). This is an editorial in that paper, so it’s under no obligation to present anything “fair” at all. I’d treat an editorial on MSNBC about the same way.

Then there’s the author. From his bio on the Times’ site: “Todd is a contributor to Fox Business, Newsmax TV, Moscow Times, the New York Post, the National Review, Zero Hedge and others.” I’m not going to touch the Moscow Times reference. Newsmax is hyper-conservative nonsense; New York Post and Fox are borderline, and the National Review is a site I’d actually read and give some credence to. (Yes, you can critique the chart I’m consulting. I know there are quite a few conservatives who see where Fox shows up on that and immediately start accusing it of being biased. But I really believe Fox is put at about the right spot on that chart, just as I believe most of the other sites are placed in the general correct vicinity. I think a lot of the discrepancy of opinions people have about current events can be traced to this sort of bias. Which sources to believe, and why. But anyway.)

Going beyond that, L. Todd Wood helpfully has his own website we can read to see what his views in general are when he’s not tied to any particular news source. He lists his publications, and they’re recently almost all from The Washington Times, and they’re all squarely in a single worldview. From his biography (http://ltoddwood.com/l-todd-wood-biography/), he studied aeronautical engineering at the Air Force Academy, became a pilot, got a Masters in Engineering Management, served in Kuwait, became a Captain in the Air Force, branched out into investment banking, traveled internationally, became an author, and now splits his time between living in NYC and Moscow.

His publisher is Ice Box Publishing, which from what I can quickly gather is basically a company that only puts out books by Wood. It’s an LLC, and my guess is he started a company to publish his own books.

So I find very little reason to actually give him any credence whatsoever. He’s an ex-military engineer/finance guru turned author. Most of his claimed expertise comes from the hazy 17 years he was with an investment bank. “During this second career he became highly knowledgeable in Emerging Markets Fixed Income and traveled a great deal internationally with a focus on the Caribbean.  He has conducted business in over forty different countries.  He became acutely aware of the consequences of economic decisions and their effect on national and economic security.” I’m not sure how his focus on the Caribbean prepared him to become an expert on Iranian and Russian relations, but that’s where his focus seems to be now.

In the end, taking everything into account, I think Wood’s article is a biased, selective hack job–fairly easy to dismiss.

End of my response.

That’s my answer to the question. What would yours have been? How would you approach it? I’m curious if you’d do it differently, and why.

Thanks for reading!

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Like what you’ve read? Please consider supporting me on Patreon. Thanks to all my Patrons who support me! It only takes a minute or two, and then it’s automatic from there on out. I’ve been posting my book ICHABOD in installments, as well as chapters from UTOPIA. Check it out.

If you’d rather not sign up for Patreon, you can also support the site by clicking the MEMORY THIEF Amazon link on the right of the page. That will take you to Amazon, where you can buy my books or anything else. During that visit, a portion of your purchase will go to me. It won’t cost you anything extra.

On Harlan Ellison, and Behaving Badly

[image error]Harlan Ellison passed away yesterday. He was quite a well-known science fiction author, but I don’t think I’ve personally read any of his work. Why not? Because the first time I was really made aware of him was when I watched him in person as he groped the breast of Connie Willis, a writer whose work I had read and admired. This wasn’t done in the corner of some late night party. It was done in the middle of the Hugo awards ceremony, the sci-fi/fantasy equivalent of the Oscars. Here’s video of it:

I recognized his name at the time, but I just sat and watched him make an ass out of himself in the middle of the awards ceremony, and then casually sexually assault a woman on stage. I get that he may have been “trying to be funny.” I just found him tiresome, and I was shocked more people didn’t object at the time to what he had done. Perhaps they didn’t because they thought it was scripted (it wasn’t). Or because he was who he was. (So what?)

In most cases, I try to separate the art from the artist, recognizing that the relationship I have to a book or a movie or a performance isn’t the same as a relationship to the creator of that thing. I know someone can be a failure as a human and still make fantastic art. In fact, sometimes it’s the people who are messed up the most who can somehow create the most interesting things. (Connected? Not sure. That’s a thought for a different time.)

But as I read all the eulogies about Ellison in the wake of his passing, I found myself unable to really separate the art from the actions I had personally witnessed. I don’t know Connie Willis, and I haven’t read a ton of her books. This was a single incident, 12 years ago, but it stuck with me. And as I thought on it further, I found a pattern in me. When I’ve personally had something happen to me or in my presence, I do a pretty bad job at forgiving and forgetting. It sticks with me.

I’ve interacted with editors personally, watching how they treat other people. I’ve met several authors over the years, some of them really nice and gregarious, some of them standoffish, and some of them brusque and harsh. Those personal interactions stay with me much longer than anything I read about people or hear about them. Something to keep in mind as I interact with people at signings myself. Personal connections can go a long way toward making fans or not.

I’m not angry at people who are Harlan Ellison fans. I still believe in separating the art from the artist when you can. But after thinking this through, I also can understand where people are coming from when they’re unable to do that. When they can’t look past the actions of the person in question to be able to enjoy the work that person created.

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Like what you’ve read? Please consider supporting me on Patreon. Thanks to all my Patrons who support me! It only takes a minute or two, and then it’s automatic from there on out. I’ve been posting my book ICHABOD in installments, as well as chapters from UTOPIA. Check it out.

If you’d rather not sign up for Patreon, you can also support the site by clicking the MEMORY THIEF Amazon link on the right of the page. That will take you to Amazon, where you can buy my books or anything else. During that visit, a portion of your purchase will go to me. It won’t cost you anything extra.

 

New Orleans Bound

[image error]I’m off to New Orleans later today. Heading down for the American Libraries Association annual conference. So I’m going to be out of touch as far as the blog goes for a bit. It’ll just be too crazy to keep it going and get everything else done. If something pressing comes up that I can’t keep my mouth shut about, I’ll post, otherwise, you’re on your own until next week.

I will be present on Facebook, posting some pics and updates, so if you just absolutely need to know what I’m doing, you can check me out over there.

Lawn Mowing for the Criminally Lazy

[image error]Allow me to set the scene. You’ve got around an acre and a half of property. Some of it’s covered in grass. Some of it has trees. But there’s a big stretch of it right along the road that’s just a total pain to take care of. The hill is steep there, and it’s just completely overgrown.

You might be tempted to do something with it. Maybe plant something there. Some flowers, perhaps. Or you could try to force yourself to take care of it anyway. Mow it the same way you mow the rest of your yard.

Those are rookie mistakes, people.

A true professional just lets it sit there, year after year, catching all sorts of dirt and sand and salt from the road as layer upon layer of underbrush and weeds grow, thrive, and die there. Yes, it doesn’t look great. Stay strong. Ignore it.

Wait ten years.

And then, one magical morning, the town will come along with a huge digger and just scoop all that crud up when they dig a new drainage ditch.

On that halcyon morning, when that happens, won’t you be glad you didn’t plant anything useful there? Won’t you feel like a genius for just being lazy?

Yes. Yes you will.

So just remember, folks. Sometimes it doesn’t pay to go through a lot of work to get something done. Sometimes it pays to just do nothing at all.

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Like what you’ve read? Please consider supporting me on Patreon. Thanks to all my Patrons who support me! It only takes a minute or two, and then it’s automatic from there on out. I’ve been posting my book ICHABOD in installments, as well as chapters from UTOPIA. Check it out.

If you’d rather not sign up for Patreon, you can also support the site by clicking the MEMORY THIEF Amazon link on the right of the page. That will take you to Amazon, where you can buy my books or anything else. During that visit, a portion of your purchase will go to me. It won’t cost you anything extra.

Separating Parents from Children is Wrong

[image error]I get that life is complex sometimes, and we all have to make decisions that can be incredibly difficult. But at the same time, I’d like to think almost everyone can recognize when something rises above the quandary to show itself as being strictly a question of right or wrong.

Much of what the Trump administration does somehow remains solidly at the quandary level. Some of this is because he or his spokespeople claim anything that paints what he does as bad is nothing more than Fake News. If it makes you look bad, say it’s a lie. It doesn’t matter how clear the evidence is that it’s true. Claim it isn’t, and stick to that claim regardless of what may come.

This approach works. It works because we live in a world where people will question anything. A world where people honestly believe the earth is still flat, and never mind the mountains of proof to the contrary. For many, belief has superseded verifiable fact. As a religious person, I can see where there are areas belief might win out. But there’s a big difference between belief and politics, or at least there should be. But the conservatives tied themselves tightly to a number of religious groups, and over time it appears to me like those ties have bled through, inserting Belief into politics to an unhealthy extent.

Of course, the vicious rhetoric around politics also makes it problematic. When DeNiro comes out and says “F*** Trump,” and everyone goes wild and says it’s great, that does nothing to actually solve problems. It further enflames both sides of the argument. When comedians and bystanders point out (correctly) that Fox News lambasted Obama when he proposed meeting with North Korea, but praised Trump when he decided to do it, they miss the natural other side of that coin. What liberals were all for Obama bringing peace to the world but now say Trump is terrible for sitting down with a dictator?

Remember the views you have now, and try to keep them straight, regardless of which party is in power. Because there are some things that transcend politics. Basic questions of right and wrong. There must be.

Trump meeting with Kim Jong Un and deescalating a situation that was looking worse every day is a good thing. Sure, both Trump and Kim are in large part to blame for how bad the situation had become, but it’s okay to celebrate the fact that we’re further away from nuclear weapons being used today than we were a few days ago.

But at the same time, we can’t let that cloud our view of other things that are happening in our country. Immigration issues that are huge, and seem to be flying under the radar for so many of us, judging by my Facebook feed and the relative little attention I see to it on national news sites.

Wonder what I’m talking about? Read this article and wonder no more.  Or read this one. Or read any of the other slew of articles out there on this topic.

The Trump administration has decided to take a “zero tolerance” policy on illegal immigration. If someone is caught entering the country illegally for whatever reason, they are prosecuted. If they have children with them, the children are taken away and put with a foster family or in a detention center. In large part, it appears this separation is being used as part of the deterrent. Don’t come here illegally, or else we’ll tear apart your family.

I can understand some of the thought process behind this. Taking a hard line on illegal immigration and protecting the border is exactly what Trump said he’d do when he ran for office, so he’s delivering on a campaign process. But the way this has been put into practice is brutal, and it needs to stop. Surely there’s a way officials can continue to enforce the law without needing to rip families apart. Detain illegal immigrant families in separate complexes if they must. Or make exceptions for children under a certain age.

But don’t think this is an isolated incident, either. Do some research into the tactics currently being used by ICE against immigrants in this country, illegal or otherwise.

Illegal immigrants have been dehumanized by many politicians. Their identities stripped away to the point that they can be handled however the government sees fit.

I understand some of them broke the law. But I don’t care if you broke the law or not. You still deserve to be treated like a person, not a playing piece. It’s when people stop being seen as human that real atrocities begin. And from where I’m standing, those atrocities have already started.

We should be deeply disturbed by this. We should demand that policies are changed. Instead, the articles I read on Fox News about it say essentially, “Obama did the same thing.” Okay. If that’s the case, he shouldn’t have done it then. I didn’t realize it was happening. I do now. Does my failure to know an evil is being done previously excuse the person committing it now?

This is beyond politics, and it has to stop.

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Like what you’ve read? Please consider supporting me on Patreon. Thanks to all my Patrons who support me! It only takes a minute or two, and then it’s automatic from there on out. I’ve been posting my book ICHABOD in installments, as well as chapters from UTOPIA. Check it out.

If you’d rather not sign up for Patreon, you can also support the site by clicking the MEMORY THIEF Amazon link on the right of the page. That will take you to Amazon, where you can buy my books or anything else. During that visit, a portion of your purchase will go to me. It won’t cost you anything extra.

What are Your Favorite Westerns or Steampunk Movies?

[image error]Since I’m writing a steampunk western now, I’m in “immerse myself in the genre” mode. I like to watch different films that intersect with what I’m writing. I’m not all that up to date on steampunk movies. I’ve seen a smattering of them, and I like the general vibe of them, but they’re mostly an unknown to me (from what I remember.) Westerns are something a bit better versed in, dating back to watching them all the time as a kid. (One of my favorite college classes was on film adaptations of westerns. That was a fantastic class.)

So I’m up for any and all steampunk movies. (And yes, before you ask, I’ve watched Wild Wild West. Hopefully I end up with something better than that . . .) I mean, I’ve seen steampunk movies, but none are really standing out in my head as movies I’d like to return to again and again. Maybe they’re just eluding me.

When it comes to westerns, I’d love recommendations as well. Here are my top 10 westerns:

Shane
Unforgiven
High Noon
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
True Grit (Coen Bros adaptation)
Silverado
Rio Bravo
The Magnificent Seven (old version)
The Searchers
Tombstone

To get on this list, I have to be able to remember the movie well enough to tell you what it was about, as opposed to all the other westerns I have seen. So I’m looking for something that sets it apart. But more than that, I’m looking for a real western. So Blazing Saddles was out, even though I love the movie. Same for Maverick, honestly. It wasn’t Western enough. Too funny. (Though I’d like this book to have some humor in it.)

I’ve seen many more westerns. (Yes, The Good the Bad and the Ugly), but these are the ones that I’d be most eager to watch again at the moment. Feels like there should be some Eastwood up there, though. Pale Rider? Outlaw Josey Wales? I’m happy to talk Westerns all the time, so it’ll be an interesting process to write one and see what comes out.

In the meantime, what made your top 10 list for westerns? Please share.

For a great overview of another list, check out this one by Cinefix. I love these:

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Like what you’ve read? Please consider supporting me on Patreon. Thanks to all my Patrons who support me! It only takes a minute or two, and then it’s automatic from there on out. I’ve been posting my book ICHABOD in installments, as well as chapters from UTOPIA. Check it out.

If you’d rather not sign up for Patreon, you can also support the site by clicking the MEMORY THIEF Amazon link on the right of the page. That will take you to Amazon, where you can buy my books or anything else. During that visit, a portion of your purchase will go to me. It won’t cost you anything extra.

Eighth Grade “Graduation”

[image error]Tomas had his eighth grade “graduation”/celebration event last night. I didn’t know too much going into it, so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. I’m a staunch supporter of schools and teachers, and so not attending wasn’t an option, but I still wasn’t sure exactly what would happen there.

In the end, I’d have to say my reaction ended up being quite a bit more negative than I would have anticipated. I debated even writing up a response, but often I write blog posts to make sense of things myself, and so my hope is that by writing this, I can get a bit of a better handle on why I thought it wasn’t a good event and what might be done to change it.

On the surface, I can see the reasoning behind the celebration. Get all the eighth graders together, call out their names, and have them walk across the stage to get a certificate of completion. Sure, it’s about as meaningful as preschool graduation, but at the same time, making it through middle school isn’t easy, from a social perspective. It can bring some closure to the students’ experiences, and get them hyped for high school. (I suppose?) That in and of itself isn’t anything to get worked up about. It’s an hour long event. No big deal.

But at the same time, they also handed out awards to students. And this is where I began to get uncomfortable. They don’t tell any of the students ahead of time who might win an award, and they don’t really tell students what it takes to win an award at all. There are a slew of awards handed out. Each teacher of each subject gets to give at least a couple. Some areas gave out as many as 10 or 15, as I recall. It’s what took the bulk of the hour to do.

And the whole time they were doing it, I couldn’t help but do the math. There were around 150 students in the audience that evening. I’d guess there were about 50 awards given out (maybe less?). Some people got multiple awards. Some kids as many as five or six, I’d guess. So perhaps 30 of the students got an award. 20%. Which means that 80% of the students sat there the whole time, wondering if they might get an award, but ultimately getting nothing but the piece of paper that says they successfully finished eighth grade.

Which on the surface shouldn’t upset me, should it? I mean, I don’t believe in giving out awards to everybody. I’m all for recognizing hard work and effort. If everyone gets an award, then it’s about the same as no one getting an award.

But when the criteria for getting the awards are so fuzzy, things begin to blur. From an outsider’s perspective, it began to seem more and more like the teachers picked who would get the award for their class was by picking their favorite students in their class. Which, okay fine. Each teacher will have students they connected with more. Or who they felt really went above and beyond.

(And in case you think this is about me having sour grapes Tomas didn’t get an award, it isn’t. He got one. I’m proud of him, but still very uncomfortable with what went on.)

This is middle school. Rough times, indeed. And for 80% of the students, their night was taken up watching all sorts of other kids get picked over them. And the whole time, they might have been thinking, “Maybe this award will be one I get.” Because they weren’t all even academic. There were awards for PE, School Spirit, Most Improved, Art, Health, Community, and more.

That’s a lot of rejection to get in one evening, in my opinion.

How could this be changed? Well, they might switch things around to recognize groups of students. “Students who got an A in Science, please stand.” “Students who played a sport, please stand.” “Students who were on the robotics team, please stand.” The criteria there would be much clearer, so kids wouldn’t feel like they were losing anything or getting passed over for anything, and yet the ones who made extra effort in areas could still be recognized.

On the other hand they could also make it an invitation event, where students who won an award are invited to attend with their families. Then at least every student who’s there knows they’re winning something, and the “rejection” of the other students isn’t as obvious.

They could still hand out the awards, but do it when they send out report cards. So the student knows they did well, the parents do too, and yet there’s no public shaming of the ones who were passed over.

I think the evening was supposed to be a celebration. A last chance for teachers to recognize students. But because of the way it’s organized, it turns into a last chance for 80% of the students to leave middle school with a bitter feeling. “I thought Mr. _______ liked me a lot, but I guess he didn’t like me enough to give me an award.”

Once again, this is my personal feeling. It’s not based on any discussion I had with any middle schooler. They’re just the thoughts I had running through my head during the awards, and hours after. I wonder if I was the only person thinking them.

In the end, I’m just not convinced the price of the event (hurt feelings for 80% of the class) is worth the reward (recognizing the other 20%).

What do you think?

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In Support of Ranked Choice Voting

[image error]I’m friends with a wide range of people on Facebook. Everyone from staunch conservatives to arch liberals. And as we’ve approached the vote tomorrow, I’ve seen more and more posts crop up around Ranked Choice Voting. For those of you outside the state, know that Maine will become the first state in the nation tomorrow to try out a new system of voting in America. Instead of just picking the one candidate you like the most, you can rank them in order of preference. As many as you like. Here’s a quick overview:

Let me state this right off: I voted for this back in 2016 back when it was on the ballot the first time, and I’m going to vote for it again tomorrow, since politicians have tried to insist they don’t want to let this voting system stand. (How many times do citizens have to vote on an issue before it’s finally approved and finalized? Apparently many more than I thought.)

Why am I in support of this method? Perhaps it’s easiest to run down the arguments I’m seeing against it, and why I find them without merit:

“Votes get thrown in the trash”–This is the argument I keep hearing louder than any other. Basically, some say that in this new method, if you just vote for one person and don’t rank anyone else, then your vote gets tossed entirely after the first round (if the vote goes to extra rounds). It’s as if you never voted in the first place. Honestly, I find that argument disingenuous and misleading. I voted for Romney in 2012. Obama got re-elected instead. I voted for Clinton in 2016. Trump won. In both instances, my vote got “thrown in the trash” as soon as my candidate lost. (Maybe because I clearly lack any sort of consistency when it comes to which candidates I choose to vote for . . .) Honestly, I’m baffled by this argument. The only way your vote gets “thrown in the trash” is if the only person you chose to vote for . . . loses. Which is exactly what happens under the old system. Your vote was dead at that point anyway. But under the new system, people who actually care enough to rank more candidates get to keep taking part in the process. This argument isn’t isn’t a reason to be against RCV, it’s a reason to be in support of it.
“It’s too complicated”–It’s a grid, folks. Candidates on the left, rankings up top. Fill in the circles. I get that it’s more complicated than filling in a single circle, but this isn’t rocket science. If people still want to just vote for one person, they can. Still, I can see how some people will be confused by the layout, and how they might end up inadvertently voting in a way that will invalidate their vote. I think the benefit outweighs that risk. (More on that later.) What definitely IS too complicated is deciphering the wording on the People’s Veto to keep RCV: “Question 1: Do you want to reject the parts of a new law that would delay the use of ranked-choice voting in the election of candidates for any state or federal office until 2022, and then retain the method only if the constitution is amended by December 1, 2021, to allow ranked-choice voting for candidates in state elections?” In case you were wondering, if you want RCV to stay, vote YES on Question 1. If you want it to go, vote NO.
“It takes too long”–It’s true. It takes longer to figure out who won under Ranked Choice Voting. Maybe as long as an extra week. But considering whomever is elected ends up being our leader for the next 4 years, I tend to think taking a bit of extra time is worth the wait. What’s the rush? It’s not like they become Governor the next day.
“It violates ‘one person one vote'”–The argument here is that no one’s vote should count more than someone else’s. But if Person A only ranks 1 candidate, and person B ranks 3, and person A’s vote ends up falling out because their choice received the fewest votes, then Person B’s vote gets counted more often than person A’s. Except this is nonsensical. All RCV does is start a runoff election if a majority isn’t reached after the first vote. In this case, it’s as if Person A chose not to vote in the runoff election, but Person B did. *shrugs*

This doesn’t have to be complex. Get to know the candidates in advance. Decide who you like the most. Decide if there’s anyone else you’d like if that person doesn’t win. Decide if there’s someone you really do NOT want to win. Reach your conclusion, and vote appropriately.

Republicans tend to be against RCV at the moment. Democrats are in favor of it. Something tells me that if Republicans had lost the Governor’s seat because their vote had been split twice in a row just barely, then that would be reversed. To me, this isn’t about political parties. It’s about taking steps to make the country less polarized. To allow actual centrist candidates a chance to win. To break the stranglehold the two party system has on our nation right now.

All of that is worth upsetting a few apple carts.

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Like what you’ve read? Please consider supporting me on Patreon. Thanks to all my Patrons who support me! It only takes a minute or two, and then it’s automatic from there on out. I’ve been posting my book ICHABOD in installments, as well as chapters from UTOPIA. Check it out.

If you’d rather not sign up for Patreon, you can also support the site by clicking the MEMORY THIEF Amazon link on the right of the page. That will take you to Amazon, where you can buy my books or anything else. During that visit, a portion of your purchase will go to me. It won’t cost you anything extra.