Area 24 Evaluation and International Speech Competition

Toastmasters is an international organization dedicated to improving public speaking and leadership skills in chapters around the world. There are over 300,000 Toastmasters members worldwide! Local to Morgantown are two clubs, Country Roads and Laurel Highlands. Country Roads currently meets 100% online on the first and third Thursday of each month at 7:00pm Eastern and welcomes members from throughout West Virginia and the region to attend virtually. Laurel Highlands currently meets on the second and fourth Tuesday of each month at 6:00pm with a hybrid model: meetings are at the Carnegie Free Library in Connellsville, PA as well as simultaneously on Zoom.

Twice a year, speaking contests start at the club level and then move up to area, division, region, and all the way to the top of this enormous global organization. On February 19, the District 13, Division C, Area 24 contest was held at the Carnegie Free Library in Connellsville, PA. This cycle, participants aspired to win the Evaluation and International Speech Competition contests at this Area-level to move on to the Division C contest in Punxsutawney, PA on March 26, 2022. Though it takes a lot more than just contestants to make a contest a success. Today, I served as a judge for both of the speaking contests. In addition, several others served as judges, timers, and ballot counters under the leadership of the Contest Chair and Chief Judge.

The first contest was the Evaluation contest. In an Evaluation contest, contestants observe a five-to-seven-minute test speech and then present a two-to-three-minute evaluation of that test speech. At today’s contest, two competitors evaluated Joe Arnold’s (Division C Director) animated story about how his wife bit off his lip over some Dairy Queen. The talk had the room in stitches and the delivery was without flaw. I really wondered what the evaluation contestants could really even productively suggest! Either way, I sat ready to perform my own evaluation as judge.

The better the speaker, the more difficult the evaluation. Excellent speakers leave the audience spellbound and it is easy to complement performance. On the other hand, it is so difficult to figure out where there may be room for improvement. Only the best evaluators can effectively nitpick a seemingly flawless talk for one or two things to improve upon. The first contestant seemed to feel the pressure. She started strong but hesitated to make any clear critiques. She knew what we all know: this talk was good. The second contestant approached the podium on the stage with confidence. I felt like he must have noticed something the other contestant did not. Indeed, he delivered high praise for Arnold’s hilarious talk, but did manage to find two ways in which he could improve: checking in with his notes less often (or doing something to distract the audience while checking the notes) and using more varied hand-gestures. With these observations and suggestions, Evaluator #2, Jim Teague, won the Area 24 Evaluation Speech Contest.

Next, after a short intermission, the competition switched gears for International Speech Contest prepared speeches. For this part of the competition, three contestants spoke on the topic of their choice for five-to-seven minutes. The array of topics made comparison between the speakers difficult, but it was evident that each speaker was passionate about their topic. However, judges have ballots with a recommended scoring rubric that makes it a bit easier to ensure evaluations are holistic and comparable, even when it seems like there is no common ground between speeches. Topics of the talks were:

• A call to action for all Pennsylvanians to support and improve their local school districts. The speaker listed very tangible actions that people can take to show educators and school systems that they matter, such as running for school board, registering as a substitute teacher, and simply showing gratitude to educators when you meet them.

• The failure to connect the brain to the mouth at a prior speech contest left this contestant feeling defeated, but he did not realize how many people could relate to his moment of public embarrassment and, while it felt like a loss in the moment, he turned it into a winning speech that brought him to this contest.

• Overcoming a heartbreaking speech impediment as a child and developing self-confidence by reading the syllable-by-syllable in the Bible and dictionary.

To compete at the Area-level, all contestants already won speech contests at the club level, so everyone is already a winner. This means that, even at this relatively low level, the talks are very refined and practiced to the point of pure memorization. This presents a challenge for judges, but it is a challenge all judges love! Ultimately, once all of the ballots were in (there were five judges in total), Sharon Joseph, the President of Laurel Highlands Toastmasters, won the Area 24 International Speech Competition with her touching story of overcoming her childhood speech impediment.

On March 26, 2022, Jim Teague (Evaluation) and Sharon Joseph (International Speech) will be carrying the flag for Area 24 at the Division C competition in Punxsutawney, PA. In addition, they each get a little trophy so, no matter how things go in March, they have something they can look at that reminds them of their success here, in Connellsville.

Trophies for the winners of the Area 24 Evaluation and International speech competitions.

The Three Economic Lives of Hancock County

At the very tippy-top of West Virginia’s Northern Panhandle is Hancock County. While many think of West Virginia as the transition area between the cultural north and south in the United States, Hancock County reaches further north than Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Columbus, Ohio. With that in mind, the history of the region has much less to do with coal and much more to do with industrial manufacturing, especially steel. Dedicated to preserving the history and culture of this part of West Virginia is the Weirton Area Museum and Cultural Center, which features an array of exhibits detailing the history of the region and ongoing events that bring visitors closer to the unique history and culture of this region. In support of the museum and cultural center’s mission, Dr. Lou Martin, Associate Professor of History at nearby Chatham University, presented Hancock County: From Pre-Industrial to Post Industrial on February 20, 2022 to an audience of folks invested in the history and future of the Northern Panhandle.

Lou Martin is a steady voice for West Virginia’s industrial and labor history. In addition to his role at Chatham University, he is also a founding board member of the West Virginia Mine Wars Museum in Matewan, which is about as far as you can get from Hancock County without entering Kentucky. Lou is also the author of Smokestacks in the Hills: Rural-Industrial Workers in West Virginia, which highlights the unique combination of industrialization and the preservation of rural habits and culture in areas like Hancock County.

His lecture on February 20 spanned the commercial and industrial history of the region from the late 1700s to the present, detailing the transition from an agriculturally driven economy to one firmly rooted in producing pottery and steel and finally on to the present, post-industrial era brought on by the proliferation of neoliberalism in state and federal government. As emphasized in the talk, neoliberalism has less to do with “liberals” and more to do with market-oriented reform policies like deregulation, incentivizing free trade, and privatization. Indeed, one of the strongest proponents of neoliberal trade policies is Ronald Reagan. That there should very clearly communicate the relationship between neoliberal trade policies to “the liberals.” Indeed, no one person or company is responsible for the shuttering of factories and mills, but rather it comes a consequence of a shift in global economic policy. Of course, it can be frustrating and confusing when major economic shifts occur and there is no one, clear individual or entity to blame.

Lou Martin, Ph.D. discussing the development of the potteries of the East Liverpool region, which includes Hancock County and Weirton.

Both Morgantown, West Virginia and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania are examples of thriving communities with knowledge-based economies emerging after the fall of heavy industry. The term “meds and eds” is commonly applied to Pittsburgh, which has doubled-down on world-class institutions of higher education and medical facilities over the past five decades to great success. Within West Virginia, Morgantown is home to the largest institution of higher education in the state, West Virginia University. Each year more and more people flock to Morgantown to start careers at West Virginia University, WVU Medicine, and an increasing number of professional services and tech companies founded or branching out into the state to take advantage of the growing brain trust in the area. I relate strongly to this because, well, I am part of that movement!

The talk revealed that opportunities can spring up anywhere and that there are individuals and organizations interested in helping preserve and develop communities like Weirton. However, it can be difficult to connect communities in need with the resources available. Groups and individuals often do not know what they do not know.

With so much food-for-thought, it seemed like it was time for actual food. On the recommendation of West Virginia food blogger (and Northern Panhandle native), Candace Nelson, I stopped at Drover’s Inn to try out their legendary wings. Not your typical wing joint, Drover’s dates back to 1848 as a tavern and inn on the Washington Pike a few miles east of central Wellsburg, West Virginia. Each dining room (and the tavern) maintains the character of a bygone era and features extensive collections of local artifacts with an emphasis on glass produced in the area. Indeed, staff even urge guests to walk around and take in the accumulated history of hospitality.

Dunes of Ice

Presque Isle State Park is a gem of the state park system in Pennsylvania. The name roughly translates to English (from French) as an “almost” island and, indeed, the peninsula connects to Pennsylvania’s notch and city of Erie by a strip of land barely wide enough for a beach and a few traffic and parking lanes. Without a series of breakwaters and the winter phenomenon of ice dunes it is very likely that Presque Isle would graduate to being an actual island over the next few hundred years.

The bitter cold of winters on the Great Lakes facilitates the development of ice dunes that cover and protect the frigid sand on the western side of the peninsula. As water hits the beach, some of it freezes. Over the span of the winter, the ice accumulates into dunes. My husband and I make annual pilgrimages to Erie just to take in the sight of this natural oddity, even if we can only tolerate about 30 seconds on the beach before the bone-chilling wind and cold is too much (despite dressing appropriately for the weather). In fact, this year the wind was so sharp and cold that it drew blood! After getting into the car to warm up I noticed a spot just below my right eye, blood. Never even knew that to be a hazard of the frigid wind (the temperature itself was not abnormally cold, mid-20s).

If you have not had a chance to visit Presque Isle in the winter, it is a unique kind of wonderland. The frozen harbor on the eastern side of the peninsula is often congested with people ice fishing. While ice-fishing shanties recently made news when an Ohio mayor expressed concerns about prostitution, there was no apparent red-light district off the shores of Erie. It is also always fascinating to see the lake freighters in the harbor, inspiring me to play the Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald (did not sink on Lake Erie, but the vibe is about right). Plus, the monuments and memorials on the peninsula are much less crowded and facilitate quiet reflection between gusts of frigid, winter winds.

And when you’re finished at Presque Isle, it’s always fun to do a little bit of shopping and Wegman’s and grab a sandwich at Picasso’s.

January 2022 Reads

Rang in the New Year over a gourmet German feast cooked by one of my best friends while flipping between a progressively terrible line-up of New Year’s Eve specials on TV. Classes started back up on January 10. All of my classes are online, which I am grateful for as the number of students testing positive for CoVID-19 in my classes just keeps trending up, up, up! While I think students, especially undergraduates, learn better in class, no one really learns well when they are acutely sick. That said, I have complicated feelings about the start of the semester and knowing so many of my colleagues and students are risking their health for their education. With the weather frigidly cold (and CoVID surging in West Virginia), I have spent most of my time at home. I think the cats are getting tired of me.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou lived an incredible life and this serves as an account of the first 17 years. It reads like fiction but is really an emotional tome of acceptance. Angelou very directly addresses the triumphs and tragedies of her young life and in the process explains how children comprehend tragedies like death and sexual assault. Her account of her junior high school graduation and the feeling that the school district dismissed the potential success of the students from the segregated school for African American students could spark rage in just about anyone. At best, she described, they could hope to be athletes. I dearly hope some of the leadership from the school district in Arkansas lived long enough to realize their mistake. Closing in on the end of her adolescence, it was breathtaking to discover that Angelou was the first woman of color to operate the San Francisco Cable Cars. An engaging and inspiring memoir that has very appropriately taken its place among the classics.

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

Aiming to bring complex and sophisticated scientific concepts to a general audience is a tall order, one that most scientists and researchers fail to do (we love our complex jargon!). Upon starting, I feared this might take the form of a rambling tome akin to everything Simon Winchester has written. However, Bryson, generally, does a very good job of explaining concepts like the Big Bang, geology, and all kinds of biology. I think his approach of explaining the science alongside the history makes for an entertaining read. If nothing else, I appreciated how he humanized the scientists responsible for so much of the knowledge we have about, well, everything. My only frustration is that virtually everyone involved is a white guy. That is not Bryson’s fault, and at several points he indicates some frustration with that, too. Though despite covering billions and billions of years of history, he makes some references that do kind of date the book to the early 2000s. Anyone outside of the science community who feels science is not for them might really appreciate and benefit from this book!

The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave

There are so many missed opportunities in this novel. It reads easily, but feels almost unbearably trite. The character development is weak and formulaic. There are so many leaps of faith as the story is told that it feels inauthentic. I also find the title frustrating because he never said anything, spoiler alert, he left a two-word note before vanishing. I am not sure if the author feels uncomfortable around technology or technical terms, but I found the circumstances surrounding the him in the title to be under-described. Though I did really like what Dave did with time and how there are interludes that describe the relationship between him and the protagonist. This would make for a decent read on a plane or a Sunday afternoon if you want to kind of check out for a few hours, but do not get your hopes up too high.

The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead

I am a huge fan of one of Whitehead’s other novels, the Underground Railroad, so I was really excited to read the Nickel Boys and it did not disappoint! Through the Nickel Boys the reader get a glimpse of growing up black as the end of segregation neared and folks seemed on-edge about the changes confronting a nation. The tug-of-war between how it’s been versus how it’s going to be was rarely directly addressed, but it felt like a pulse beating away under the skin throughout. The twist near the end of the novel came as a huge surprise because it really was not necessary. The novel would have been great without the twist, but Whitehead never seems to settle for the status quo. Rather than good, Whitehead always manages to be great.

The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X

I learned a lot more about Martin Luther King, Jr. growing up than I did about Malcolm X. After reading his autobiography, it makes sense. Born Malcolm Little, he grew up all over the place before his family settled in Michigan. In Michigan, his father was savagely murdered and his mother slowly lost her mind in the aftermath. As soon as he could, Malcolm left Michigan for Boston and then Harlem leading a life that would have been a bit difficult to explain to grade school children: petty crime, womanizing, drinking and doing drugs, etc. However, firmly in my 30s, I can handle the truth! The transformation of Malcolm Little the small-time crook to Malcolm X the leader of a culture movement is engaging. In prison he discovered the Nation of Islam and devoted himself to Islam for the rest of his life, first to Elijah Muhammed and his Nation of Islam and then to the broader, global Islamic community. Malcolm X never stood still and was in continuous transformation until the moment of his assassination at the Audubon Ballroom. Every stubborn person should read this autobiography for lessons on continuous growth and improvement.

Dragon Hoops by Gene Luen Yang

I’ve never really been into comics or graphic novels. I rarely read them and the reason for it has as much to do with laziness (graphic novels don’t render well on my Kindle, so then I have to use the more cumbersome iPad) than it does with struggling to follow the story between the different frames, I never seem to read in the right place. Yang’s love-letter to his former employer and the Bishop O’Dowd basketball team is well received. It took a while to get into the story, but as the story built momentum and I got used to the presentation of the story, it was impossible not to get caught up in the story. By the end of the book, I had to consciously keep myself from yelling out as the story reached its climax. If you’re on the fence about sports (which I kind of am), this graphic novel tells the reader everything they need to know about how sports, in this case basketball, have the power to be transformative forces in the lives of people young and old.

Pick of the Month: January 2022

Books read this month really the gambit from trashy chick lit to a moving real-life story of the power of sports to elevate people to autobiographies of two people who failed to accept the status quo and dedicated their lives to change, despite the deck being stacked against them. All of these are wonderful books. However, the Nickel Boys takes the cake. Last year a wave of mass burial sites at Indian Residential School sites were discovered across Canada (and if they searched at the U.S. residential schools, they would probably make the same discoveries—and this is work that needs to be done). This discovery shook Canadians and accelerated the dialogue about how, as a society, Canada needs to work harder on truth and reconciliation. Anyhow, the reform school in the Nickel Boys is based on an actual reform school that came to Whitehead’s attention after unmarked graves were discovered and it became clear that many students at the school that “ran away” never left the campus. Racism and white supremacy has hurt a lot of people in both Canada and the United States. The Nickel Boys is one way to confront and humanize these tragedies.

One of the Best!

Recently, Fortune issued its list of Best Online Master’s in Business Analytics Programs in 2022. In sixth place is the program I have led since 2018 at West Virginia University, our online M.S. in Business Data Analytics. While I have always known our program to be strong, a testament to the phenomenal faculty teaching the courses, external recognition is always nice.

This is the first time Fortune ranked these types of programs, suggesting that these programs are becoming more popular and mainstream in that Fortune felt a ranking might be helpful for employers and prospective students.

Important to note, with the exception of some programs with very low in-state tuition (Ohio University, Kent State, and Oklahoma State), the online program at WVU charges one great low price to all students. The entire program costs $24,600 (whether completed in one or two years) no matter where students live. This may be why the program has attracted students from Canada, Germany, Guam, and at least a dozen states over the past six years. Well, that, and we have a phenomenal recruitment team that helps students complete and submit applications.

The Bituminous Coal Heritage Foundation Museum

Coal was first discovered in Appalachia in what is now Boone County, West Virginia in 1742. Since that time, men have gone deep into (or, in more recent years, blown the tops off) mountains in pursuit of this dark matter. To recognize the legacy of coal in Boone County and West Virginia, the Bituminous Coal Heritage Museum was established and opened to the public in the mid-1990s, chock full of memorabilia, historical information, and interactive exhibits.

The Museum is on Main Street in Madison, the seat of Boone County. The entrance to the museum is unassuming and, at first, especially as this once-bustling main drag through downtown is a bit sleepier than it probably was 50 years ago. However, once you enter, it is not unlike mining itself, as there are treasures that tell the stories of the thousands of men (and a few women) who went underground to power a nation. In some spots, the sheer amount of stuff can feel overwhelming, but to take a few minutes to take it in and the story unfolds before your eyes.

Very unexpected from a small museum like this was all of the interactive exhibits. One interactive exhibit takes guests into the darkness of a mine and guests can actually handle the same type of equipment that used to mine coal before the era of the continuous miner (though they have one of those, too!). Another interactive exhibit allows guests to step into the locker rooms where miners would put their clothes in a basket and raise it up to the ceiling to keep their street clothes relatively clean as they donned their overalls.

Also somewhat unexpected is that, despite how quiet Madison feels today, in the United States, West Virginia is only second to Wyoming in terms of production of coal. Side note, I think that is interesting (or coincidental?) because there is a Wyoming County, West Virginia, also in the Southern Coalfields region. Automation in the coalmines means that production is up but employment in the mines is down. Therefore, while these areas are still quite productive in terms of coal output, they do not require the manpower of mines 100 or even only 50 years ago. Mountaintop removal mining requires even fewer men (at the expense of West Virginia’s stunning mountains).

What I think I liked most is that the Bituminous Coal Heritage Foundation Museum tells the human story of mining. The exhibits do not exalt Frances Peabody, Don Blankenship, or Robert E. Murray. Comparatively, it is easy to run the company, but underground danger and even death are omnipresent. It takes a special kind of person (or, some would argue, desperation) to spend your days in a mountain. Now, excuse me, I think I need to watch Harlan County, U.S.A. again.

The Museum is located at 347 Main Street in Madison, WV. The Museum is open from 12:00pm to 5:00pm on Monday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. And, while you’re there, stroll around Main Street a bit and check out some of the small businesses.

 

Flatwoods Monster Museum

West Virginia seems to attract cryptids (a.k.a. mythical creatures whose existence or survival is disputed, unsubstantiated, and/or controversial). It is famous for a number of them, including the Mothman, Mamie Thurman, and the Flatwoods Monster (a.k.a. Braxxie or the Green Monster). The Flatwoods Monster is celebrated in its Braxton County home at the Flatwoods Monster Museum on Main Street in Sutton.

The most recent reported sighting was on September 12, 1952 and, while it just seems like an interesting piece of trivia now, History.com explains how this mythical creature terrified the residents of Flatwoods and the surrounding Braxton County communities for over six decades.

The Flatwoods Monster Museum presents a collection of artifacts and pop-culture interpretations of the monster’s likeness. They have also amassed all kinds of media that has focused on the Monster, including a How it’s Made segment about making novelty ceramic lanterns (yes, I bought one at the museum).

The museum is about a five-minute drive off I-79 (WV Exit 62) and worth a brief stop to learn more about this unique bit of West Virginia folklore in an adorable small-town setting.

December 2021 Reads

December 2021 Reads

December saw the end of my semester teaching at Chatham University with two wonderful groups of students. On the immediate heels of submitting final grades, I had a total thyroidectomy at the Cleveland Clinic. Surgery was a bit more painful than expected but, mercifully, much of the scar and swelling are hidden by the collars of my softest t-shirts and, for when I have to dress up, I picked up a few new scarves at one of Cleveland’s really nice malls. I did not have to arrive at the hospital until 1:00pm on the day of surgery, so I had to do something to keep my mind (and apparently my credit card) occupied. In the process of recovering and preparing for a little getaway to the Homestead Resort for a few days before Christmas, I spent a lot of time curled up napping and reading in my recliner. We rang in the New Year with a feast of German cuisine prepared by one of my best friends, flipping between channels to try to find the least-bad New Year’s Eve coverage (it was all bad, turns out that headliners weren’t really interested in getting COVID).

Soul Full of Coal Dust: The True Story of an Epic Battle for Justice by Chris Hamby

In 2014, Chris Hamby won the Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting for revealing how coal companies and law firms manipulated the system dedicated to compensating miners stricken with black lung because of their careers spent in the coalmines. Living in West Virginia, this is a painful topic. While the number of individuals employed by the mines in West Virginia is actually quite small, more folks work in healthcare, at Walmart, and even in higher education than in the mines, the culture of the state simply will not relinquish its tight grasp on coal mining. Heck, it will not even let other industries, like timbering or tourism, sit alongside coalmining. However, to speak negatively of the mines is to speak negatively of West Virginia, even if those mines have systematically abused those who have sacrificed everything for the purpose of running coal. Hamby follows the work of John Cline, who first arrived in West Virginia as part of the VISTA program, became a lay-representative for black lung claimants, and then ultimately earned his law degree to represent black lung claimants in court. Throughout his career, Cline came to work with and represent an array of characters who deserved so much better than the system they endured. Getting to know miners like Gary Fox in the text enlivened what would otherwise be a dry topic, effectively illustrating the stakes of the game the coal companies and law firms have played for decades. Reading this book reinforced to me how there were never any “good old days” of mining in West Virginia and it hurt to read how law firms, coal companies, and even some radiologists treated the lives of miners as merely disposable. This is one of the most compelling reads of the year for me.

The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell

During my semi-weekly commutes to Pittsburgh to teach at Chatham University, I listened to many audiobooks. I had never really listened to audiobooks before but I knew some other super-commuters and they all swore that audiobooks made the commutes so much easier. With some experience in this area now, I certainly agree. The Family Upstairs is the very last audiobook I “read” on my commute and even though I found the book to be pretty average, I was a little teary when I finished it while driving down the old Lincoln Highway in Forest Hills, PA. The book follows the life-changing events of Libby Jones as she discovers she has inherited an extremely valuable piece of property along the Thames in London on her 25th birthday. As she digs deeper into her past, it is as if petals of a rose gradually unfold as she discovers her true identity, the identity of her parents, and the strange circumstances that were seemingly held in suspended animation as her 25th birthday drew nearer.

Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty by Patrick Radden Keefe

If you are anxious or are in pain and wonder why your physicians are hesitant to prescribe opiates or benzodiazepines, it has something to do with the Sackler family. Other books, like Dreamland: The True Take of America’s Opiate Epidemic (which I read in September) effectively describe the situation as we have arrived, but Empire of Pain gets to the root and foundation of America’s addition problem. It turns out that in addition to being a physician (and honestly, a positive pioneer in the deinstitutionalization of thousands from large, state-run psychiatric facilities), Arthur Sackler was a marketing genius. Sackler parlayed his capabilities into the first big campaigns for “minor” tranquilizers like Valium and Librium, which established enormous financial security for his family and the pharmaceutical companies to which the Sacklers were tied. This enabled the second generation of Sacklers to, literally, make a killing on the development and sale of OxyContin.

The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women by Kate Moore

This is a gut-wrenching account of women seeking justice after their employers harmed them in the production of luminescent watch and clock faces. Radium was the secret ingredient to making these luminescent timepieces and, every day, dozens of women were putting small amounts of radium paint in their mouths hundreds of times a day. The women in the story initially felt isolated but eventually unified against their employers, even when it was the unpopular thing to do, to help pave the way for more humane and more contemporary laws to protect workers. It is just unfortunate that many of these women literally laid down and died for these changes to take effect. The author is not a scientist, reflected in some of the murky explanations about how radiation affects the body. However, it is still a very compelling story of the lives of a number of women impacted by this industry, whose pioneers and managers knew that radium could be harmful and instead kept that from the women who were quite literally falling apart.

Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner

While reading Crying in H Mart, I often felt like I was reading details and things so personal to the author that I was somehow interfering in the process of grieving and reconstructing her life after the passing of her mother. Despite the cultural differences, I think anyone with a strained parental relationship could strongly relate to Michelle’s narrative. Teenagers longing to be free from the parent or parents they struggle with and then, when it seems like there is no longer enough time, the lives collide again. The complicated baggage is still there, but despite the boundaries that kept things civil for a period of time, a more intimate relationship seems necessary and, in Michelle’s case, it yielded an opportunity to reflect and grow as a person (despite frequent disagreements and frustration with her parents and caretakers who emerged to help as her mother grew increasingly frail). It is a fairly short read, it feels so personal, but you emerge feeling like you have a new friend in the author.

Pick of the Month: December 2021

This month I took deep dives into industries that can kill. I found each of these three books (Soul Full of Coal Dust, Empire of Pain, and the Radium Girls) extremely compelling. However, after watching Harlan County, USA, which details the 1973, nearly yearlong strike at a Duke Energy mine in Kentucky, I have to hand it to Soul Full of Coal Dust this month. Furthermore, with the failure to pass a new infrastructure bill (e.g., Build Back Better), the fund that pays out black lung benefits will likely be insolvent sooner rather than later. The story in Soul Full of Coal Dust is that of an ongoing emergency that is soon to only get worse for those stricken with the condition and their loved ones.

Frankfort Mineral Springs Falls

Less than a ten-minute walk off of Pennsylvania State Route 18 in Beaver County is a remarkably beautiful and secluded waterfall that, while currently part of Raccoon Creek State Park, was the focal point of the Frankfort House Hotel and Resort, which enjoyed a heyday from the mid-1800s until it burned down in 1920. The falls, its grotto, and ruins from the hotel are all highlights of a one-mile loop hike.

The water here is enriched with iron, leaving unique orange streaks on the walls of the grottos. On a hot, humid July day, there was little water coming from the spring and over the falls, but the trickle of a stream confirmed we found the right location and as we emerged from our hike the most pronounced ruins were evident. Some have even constructed cairns from the stone of the ruined foundations. While Raccoon Creek State Park boasts many great things to do and see, this one isn’t to be missed.

 

November 2021 Reads

The past few months have been extremely challenging as I have attempted to navigate working while battling severe medical problems with my thyroid. Everything really came to a head in November and even featured a several-day-long stay at the Cleveland Clinic where, after creatively suppressing my thyroid, it both became extremely apparent that I need surgery and that my thyroid is the culprit for my feeling terrible for quite some time. This has limited the number of books I have managed to listen to or read, but that is a small price to pay for feeling so, so, so much better! Surgery to remove the thyroid is scheduled for early December.

Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019 edited by Ibram X. Kendi

In five-year increments, beginning in 1619, a human history of African America is told by an array of voices from a range of perspectives. By beginning in 1619, before the heyday of the plantation, it was fascinating to discover the constant evolution, though always subservient, of individuals of African descent in the United States (and colonies pre-dating the establishment of the independent nation). Most frustrating, throughout the read, is the unevenness in which rules and policies were applied. African Americans were (and are) constantly at the mercy of others and how they are judged and treated are far too dependent on benevolent, often, white folks, and less on the law. That seems to be gradually changing, but the unfairness is enraging.

The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together by Heather McGhee

I think Heather McGhee has found the way to market the harms of racism to those denying racism exists. While a hefty read, if pieced out and shared with groups touched by a given topic, I think this might be the most moving argument for the harms and damage of the racist system and environment we live in. The arguments and explanations of what white folks are missing out on are legion. Indeed, the explanation that white folks are the most segregated race, by their own doing, made a lot of sense after my time in the United States, but conceptually still really moved me.

As a professor, however, I think I was most hurt by how the utilization of institutions of higher education, particularly those that are public, by people of color has seemingly simultaneously stripped away funding and interest by state legislatures to support these institutions. The scenario that played out in California was nauseating and, indeed, when as an immigrant I attempted to apply and considered enrolling at San Francisco State University in the mid-2000s, I took the hint—even though the hurdles we not meant for people who look like me.

Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883 by Simon Winchester

Simon, stay focused. Winchester packs a lot of interesting information in his books, I made some really fascinating discoveries in his book about the Great 1906 San Francisco Earthquake, but he meanders mercilessly and a lot of these side trips are not necessary nor do they have a clear connection to the topic at hand. Sometimes it is OK to omit some of the items gathered in discovery while publishing a nonfiction book! Despite the meandering, I think he could have said more about the brutality of Dutch colonialism in Indonesia. I also found the history of the news services, like Reuters, and the nascent infrastructure that facilitated communication in a matter of hours about the eruption.

Pick of the Month: November 2021

While I have learned so much about race in America by reading so many classic and contemporary works, my eyes opened wider by Heather McGhee’s The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together. The discovery that tuition hikes and states backing out of funding public institutions of higher education as integration increased left me absolutely incensed. If you are willing to only read one book about why race and racism still matter in America, read this book. Learn how racism hurts you and not just people who look different from you. In America, we have all been victims of racism at different points and scenarios in our lives. Here’s the proof.