Some notes on Prisons and The Left, and the Angela Davis threads.
I have enjoyed reading these threads quite a lot, both the ones I agree with and the ones I don't. I want to return my enjoyment and learning with a few thank you notes. I don't want this interpreted as mutual admiration society. The list would stop functioning as learning tool for me. But, I also know people don't get thanked enough for their contributions.
So, some favorites and thank you notes (in no order)
Michael Yates short essay. I enjoy your stories. I especially like your neo-realism style. The phase `hard sadness' is quite beautiful and it captures the deep sense I sometimes feel toward many different situations, institutions, people---friends and enemies in the struggles.
Chris Doss. Because Chris makes me think and sort out carefully, and that often leads in interesting philosophy, literature, and personal experiences. For example his question about Dalamers of the world, lead me to think about Dostoyevski especially The Possessed and Stavrogin's confession as a child molesting murder and suicide. I re- read the summary and analysis of the Unibomber case, also a great example to deconstruct.
Shag. Shag often annoys me and does it on purpose. We've known each other on email for something like fifteen years. But she too gets me to think, write and develop through a different sort of stimulus- response syndrome. Also because shag started the Angela thread, which lead me to re-create the climate of the times, the stuff that was in the air ... where many resources of thought and action lay almost buried now in time.
Carrol of course, for very similar reasons to shag.
Matt. This is a more complex reaction for me. Matt sounds much younger and from an entirely different generation than me. But Matt seems to `get it', get the stuff that was in the air in my youth, and it is great to know that wasn't lost.
Alan Rudy. It's great to have you on the list. You add a great deal of research and academic back grounding. You also add a very high level of though and analysis. I use this list as forum of continued education.
Joanna. Well, because she has great knack for pulling out a source from history and literature that illustrates an issue. The Clarence Darrow essay was an example.
Dennis Claxton. For a lot reasons. But the main one is a sense of comradeship based on some unknown to me reasons. The comradeship for me comes from my own work in the healthcare industry which is so similar to the prisons that it is amazing. It's a linkage that few know. In another post I am going to address this linkage. That's a long post and will have a different title.
B. B. brings up this linkage in an explicit way which will make it easier to understand.
There plenty more who I've read on this and other threads, ravi, dwayne, cb, andie ....
I've run out of time and suspects, but know they are out there. Thanks. Then one last note. Reading and writing here is a long and great creative writing class---an unintended consequence?
CG