Three of the poems in my not-yet-published book, Hunting the Cosmos, have been published in this month’s issue of Verse-Virtual.
Link to poems
Every story and poem in the book relate to the art of mid-century Spanish-Mexican artist Remedios Varo. The book launches next Tuesday!!!
My grandson wanted to be Peppa Pig for Halloween. His parents and grandparents wanted him to be his other cartoon favorite, Mickey Mouse. (He looks and sounds like Mickey). So his dad got him both costumes so he could choose.
He ended up wearing his rain jacket and rainboots and clomped through the “muddy puddles” in the rain. He trick-or-treated in his other grandma’s neighborhood, and she said he even called out “trick-or-treat” on the porches!
However, last night he went to two houses in his own neighborhood wearing his Mickey costume. These people plan special for his Halloween visits :).
My mom is doing ok. She makes some mistakes because of her memory of day and time, but for the most part she does pretty well. I worry about the day she can’t figure out how to use her cell phone because then how will she and I chat? She turns 92 a month from today.
***
On a concerning note, I am disturbed by the rampant antisemitism around the world. It’s gone far beyond people who are angry at Israel’s current policies. One example, a local student, a 14-year-old girl wearing a Star of David to school, was harassed mercilessly by five students and then assaulted. Each time she reported it to a staff member, they made light of it. She no longer attends that public school, and the Anti-Defamation League has made a complaint.
I studied and taught Holocaust literature at one time. Although it was depressing I did it because I wanted to instill the notion of “never again” to my students. I had the same type of reasoning in my text choices when for each children’s lit section I selected a book that showed that animals have emotions and subjectivity. I hoped in both cases that I was contributing to something positive in the world. But now here we are with generations of people who either never learned or have forgotten. People who think it’s ok to hate a group of people and to show it publicly. To discriminate in ways that if they were done to someone else would be against the law. Isn’t it against the law to discriminate against Jews?
Society has given people a free pass to act however they want to Jewish people.
I am posting a link to my 2014 list of Holocaust books for children and teens in hopes that you know someone young who could stand to learn why our world can’t go through this again.
HOLOCAUST BOOKS FOR CHILDREN AND TEENS
This sign is was found on a shopfront in 2025, in Flensburg, Germany. It addresses “Jews,” bars them from the premises, and says the owner can’t stand them. And, yes, this is supposedly against the law in Germany.
In NJ, Holocaust education is required, but I don’t know the details. My daughter always taught an extensive unit to her middle school students. The anti-semitism is alarming, especially with the history. The regime has made hate of others–brown-skinned people, trans, gay, immigrants . . .
Congratulations on the poems!
Thanks, Merril. The antisemitism (or as I was taught in grad school antiSemitism, but I see the manuals have changed) is terrifying. In Arizona the Holocaust and other genecides are taught in 7th through 12th grades for a certain number of days. I do wonder how that is interpreted though by the schools and the teachers. By the teachers who ignoredthe student I mentioned in my post, for instance. A Holocaust museum is being built in Phoenix. We need this!
You’re welcome, Luanne. We do need it.
(Also, more thorough knowledge of history, in general, and critical thinking skills.)
Yes, yes, yes.
A beloved radio talk show host here in Iowa is Jewish, and my, what he’s had to put up with! Just disgusting, and so disappointing.
It is just suddenly everywhere. And too many people are ignoring it IMO. The details might be different from time to time and the thrust can be from any direction but the words of Reverend Martin Niemoller, a German minister who was sent to the
camps for his criticism of the Nazis, still hold true:
“In Germany, the Nazis came for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up because I was not a
Communist. Then they came for the Jews and I didn’t speak up because I was not a Jew. Then
they came for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak up because I was not a trade unionist. Then
they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came
for me… and by that time there was no one left to speak up.”
Funny how racism is often promoted by the same people who scream “racism” every time they don’t agree with someone else’s ideas (even when those ideas have nothing to do with race or skin colour).
That can be especially devastating. Not to say antisemitism is coming from any one direction but tangentially to your point when I was a kid they taught us that the Jews walked alongside Black Americans for equal rights for Blacks. But kids aren’t being taught this any longer.
There is a lot of discrimination against a lot of minorities going on today. I don’t know where it comes from except that it’s more accepted during these times than it has in a while.
I differentiate racism and intolerance which i believe cannot be legislated away from discrimination which is against the law.
That’s interesting. I lump racism with discrimination as they go hand in hand. Intolerance is another thing. Unless it’s in the workplace, not much you can do.
It’s not just the workplace. Too many Jewish students are being targeted in schools–universities, especially. There are discrimination laws that are supposed to function for everyone but they aren’t functioning for them.
Interesting how your view of those three words is different from mine. So me intolerance and racism are much the same. Intolerance just opens up the field to more than being about race–gender, sexuality, etc. Discrimination is actually a legal term in this country.
Thanks for the link to your captivating poems! Congratulations on your upcoming book publication! I can hardly wait to hold a copy in my hands! Thanks too for your thoughtful comments on burgeoning antisemitism here in the States. Never again!
You’re welcome and thank you! 🙂
Congratulations on the publication of your three poems, Luanne. I think some people are using Israel’s atrocities in Gaza as an excuse for antisemitism. It is possible to condemn the war against Gaza and not be antisemitic at the same time. Ugh.
Thank you, Liz! Too many people don’t understand they can make that distinction although they have no problem living in a country that had slavery and Native American genocide. I think there is a huge problem with existing but quiet antisemitism that has been fanned into something fierce. I had no idea.
You’re welcome, Luanne! All part of the Mein Kampf playbook, I reckon.
I agree with your feelings that antisemitism is very common today. It is a real problem. People are forgetting that Hamas was responsible for the October 7th slaughter of Jewish people. Somehow, Israel’s response to that outrage is being called an atrocity when Hamas uses its own people as shields. The fact that Iran has funded Hamas is also overlooked by those who spew their antisemitic hate. I can’t understand why a free-thinking person fails to make the connection and supports radical Islamic terror.
I can see that you have strong feelings about all this, too, John. it’s very disturbing what is going on in this world in so many ways! It’s not just the United States either.
Europe has pretty much given up. They are going to choke on their open-border policies.
When I saw that sign (before reading your comments) I assumed it was from the 1930s. Wow, that really stings. What is the world coming to? I haven’t seen signs like that (yet) here, but the other not at all subtle signs of antisemitism are everywhere. My grandchildren go to a Jewish camp that in the offseason rents out its property to groups wanting a place for conferences, reunions, etc. A group of parents from a public high school in Connecticut objected to using the camp property for a teen retreat because the property was owned by a Jewish camp—even after the camp said it would remove all signs (Israeli flags, stars of David, etc.) that the camp was a Jewish camp in the summer.