Contributing column for print or e-edition. No cost.
627 word count
Pass on the family stories
“When families are invited to share their stories, folktales, and culture, there are a number of benefits for children, families, and schools: Encouraging students to talk with family members about their cultural heritage shows respect and interest in students’ diverse cultures, making students and families feel more connected to the school. Families are offered authentic, academically oriented ways of being involved in the school without themselves needing to be highly proficient in English or numerous academic subjects.” www.readingrockets.org/.
Every family has a book full of stories. Account of births and deaths—and the colorful happenings in-between. Each generation is unique. Tales are photographs made up of word pictures. Of course, some yarns are embellished or exaggerated. And some stories are full of laughter while others are full of tears. We reach back into our memories and relive the times of the past. Family history is embossed in our DNA.
Recently, my aunt Judy told me a story about the time Lydia, my grandmother, square danced for Rosalynn Carter. I guess the Carters visited Portsmouth, Ohio, during their campaign for the presidency. Lydia bowed and kissed the hand of Rosalynn after the dance ended—and the lady from Georgia bestowed a glowing compliment upon the pioneer woman from Appalachia.
And who can forget our witty and wacky relative, “Uncle Beanie.” He bought, sold, and traded antiques in Scioto County and beyond. As a kid, I was mesmerized by his house full of goodies. It looked like a store of treasures. And that man could play a tune on the piano! Without taking any piano lessons, he learned to tickle the ivories by ear. His sister, Joyce lived next door. She wore red lipstick and sparkly jewelry. My cousin Kim and I adored Joyce and thought she must have been a former movie star.
My grandmother Hila was the queen of the garden. She plowed, planted, and produced veggies fit for royalty. Her fingers picked, snapped, and cooked the best green beans in southern Ohio. Snuggling under my grandmother’s homemade quilts on a cold winter’s night and examining the different pieces of fabric in the warm daylight are fond memories of yesteryear. Patchwork quilts lay at the foot of every bed. She used remnants and scraps of fabric from old clothes and sheets for quilt pieces. Every homemade quilt told a story. Instead of ink and words, the fabric’s color, texture, quality, pattern, style, and stitching give an account of why, what, where, when, and how. Hila hailed from the backwoods of Kentucky.
In her book, “Appalachian Elegy” (University Press of Kentucky, 2012), bell hooks wrote of life’s harsh realities in a collection of poems inspired by her childhood in the isolated hills and hidden hollows of Kentucky. History lives on when our words are written in a book.
Storytelling is as old as the mountains. Rural folks gathered together around wood stoves, front porches, hunting campfires, church steps, garden fences, barn dances, quilting circles, general stores, and anywhere country people congregated to hear stories. Spoken stories served the purpose of informing, entertaining, educating, sharing, and passing down beliefs, values, and ideas.
“Family stories are tales about people, places, and events related to the members of our immediate family or their ancestors. Family stories casually chatted about at the dinner table, or regaled again and again at family gatherings can parallel great epics or notable short stories. The memorable stories of our lives and of others in our family take on special importance because they are true, even if everyone tells different versions of the same event. These tales are family heirlooms held in the heart not the hand. They are a gift to each generation that preserves them by remembering them and passing them on.” www.storyarts.org/.
Melissa Martin, Ph.D., is an author, columnist, educator, and therapist. She lives in Southern Ohio.
===========================
Immigration and the Democratic Hopefuls
by Andrew Moss
831 words
To date, Democrats have largely failed to lay out a comprehensive vision of what our immigration policy should be. Some of the announced presidential candidates have, over time, staked out positions on specific issues, such as the status of the Dreamers or the abolition of ICE, but they've largely left it to Donald Trump and his allies to set the broader terms of the debate.
If the candidates hope to offer a genuine alternative to the administration's policies, it's imperative that they shift the debate from sloganeering about the wall and "open borders" to a consideration of an underlying question: what priorities and values will guide our immigration policy in the coming years? Will we continue along the present path of increased militarization and incarceration, or will we forge policies guided by a vision of a more just society?
No challenger will succeed in this project unless he or she can begin to counter Trump's greatest political weapon: fear. Right from the start, candidate Trump began stoking people's anxieties about their job security, their physical safety, and the cohesion of American society itself. Since his election as president, he has used the enormous power of his office to amplify his message, supported by Fox News and other conservative outlets. If Democratic challengers are to succeed, they'll need to employ facts and narratives skillfully to align the mainstream debates to reality. For the facts, they'll need to draw on extensive research, including a recent report of the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, that documents the positive overall effects of immigration on U.S. economic growth.
They'll need to show that Trump is wrong on crime and immigration. A number of recent, large-scale studies of metropolitan areas throughout the U.S. have shown no correlation between crime and the growth of immigrant communities. If anything, crime in those areas has decreased. Moreover, challengers to Trump must show that his repeated characterizations of migrants as constituting a destabilizing "invasion" are dangerously distorted. Although news reports have focused on recent migrations to our southern border of people fleeing violence and destitution in Central America, the greatest percentage of people coming to the U.S. since 2010 is from Asian countries, and many of these immigrants are college educated. The percentage of foreign-born persons in the U.S. – 13.7 percent as of 2017 – is still lower than the peak percentage of around 15 percent at the turn of the twentieth century.
But in addition to neutralizing the weapon of fear, successful challengers to Trump must show in stark terms the tragic failures of the present policies. They must remind voters how Trump's harsher policies on asylum, prosecution, and detention have failed to deter migrants from coming to our southern border (a record 76,000 came this past February). They must keep before the public mind those images of cruelty that have repelled people of all political persuasions: the separation of migrant children from their parents, the caging of children in make-shift facilities, the teargassing of migrant families by U.S. agents at the border, the deaths of both adults and children in detention.
The challengers must call out the racist discourse animating these policies – and the white supremacist logic that moves inexorably to greater and greater cruelty. They must show their skill in using facts and stories to remind us of our common humanity – not only in the suffering experienced as a result of injustice, but also in the countless gifts and contributions that flow from centuries of immigrant experience.
On my small street in Los Angeles, I greet neighbors who are first-generation immigrants from Thailand, India, France, Myanmar, Korea, Argentina, Israel, and China. While I type this column, construction workers and painters from Mexico and El Salvador are finishing up a remodeling project the next street over, and, in a mini-mall close by, a fitness trainer from Trinidad is helping seniors stay healthy as they age. All of these individuals contribute in countless ways – including taxpaying – to the vitality of my community, and I can only ask whether or not the candidates will sufficiently honor their contributions.
Will the Democratic hopefuls speak forcefully about the choices facing our communities? Will they sufficiently highlight the failures and abuses of the current policies as Trump seeks a record-breaking $51.7 billion for the Department of Homeland Security? Will they speak of spending $2.7 billion on warehousing up to 54,000 people a day in detention facilities (many of them run as for-profit enterprises), when humane and tested alternatives to detention exist? Will they speak of the corruption and tragic waste in such expenditures when so many other human needs are neglected – in restoring our infrastructure and in providing more equitable opportunities in human services, education, and health care?
The challengers wishing to replace Donald Trump in the White House have a tall order if they want to display genuine leadership on the issues of immigration. At the very least, voters deserve a higher standard (i.e. than heretofore employed) on which to evaluate that leadership.
–end–
Andrew Moss, syndicated by PeaceVoice, is an emeritus professor at the California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, where he taught in Nonviolence Studies for 10 years.
-----------------------------
Governor Signs 75 Bills
SALT LAKE CITY (March 22, 2019) – Gov. Gary R. Herbert signed 77 bills today. This brings the total number of signed pieces of legislation from the 2019 General Legislative Session so far to 99. Information on these bills can be found below.
Human Trafficking Amendments, Romero, A.
Offender Supervision Amendments, Ray, P.
Presentence Investigation and Probation Report Amendments, Hutchings, E.
Tax Commission Amendments, Eliason, S.
Political Subdivision Lien Amendments, Acton, C.
Utah Retirement Systems Amendments, Robertson, A.
Utah Wholesome Food Act Amendments, Stratton, K.
Bureau of Criminal Identification Reporting Amendments, Ward, R.
Early Childhood Coordination Amendments, Snow, V.
State Databases Amendments, Ray, P.
Correctional and Peace Officer Amendments, Ray, P.
Local Government Financial Amendments, Handy, S.
Special Group License Plate for Motorcycle Safety Awareness, Wheatley, M.
Court Commissioner Amendments, Miles, K.
Local District Board Amendments, Handy, S.
School Counselor Services, Pulsipher, S.
Political Subdivision Boundary Shift, Stenquist, J.
Nighttime Highway Construction Noise Amendments, Christofferson, K.
Off-highway Vehicle Permit Amendments, Owens, D.
Rural Economic Development Incentives, Albrecht, C.
Survival Claims Amendments, Hawkes, T.
Victims of Communism Memorial Day, Christofferson, K.
Civic and Character Education Reports Amendments, Johnson, D.
Traffic Code Amendments, Brooks, W.
Trampoline Park Safety Standards, Thurston, N.
Fire Management Provisions, Snider, C.
State Highway System Amendments, Christofferson, K.
Homeless Shelter Funding Revisions, Chew, S.
Silver Alert Program, Perry, L.
Uninsured Motorist Identification Sunset Amendments, Ferry, J.
Money Management Act Amendments, Ballard, M.
Adult Education Access Amendments, Johnson, D.
Drug Paraphernalia Penalty Amendments, Pitcher, S.
Controlled Substances Amendments, Ray, P.
Concurrent Resolution Celebrating the 100th Birthday of Joe McQueen, Hollins, S.
Concurrent Resolution Encouraging High Expectations for Students with Disabilities, Spendlove, R.
Medicaid Dental Coverage Amendments, Christensen, A.
Public Utilities Committee Reports, Hemmert, D.
Sunset Reauthorization - Used Oil Management Act, Grover, K.
Sunset Reauthorization, Solid and Hazardous Waste Act, Grover, K.
Sunset Reauthorization, Safe Drinking Water Act, Grover, K.
Sunset Reauthorization, Water Quality Act, Grover, K.
Health Care Malpractice Act Sunset Extension, Christensen, A.
Anesthesia and Sedation Related Provisions Reauthorization, Weiler, T.
Sunset Reauthorization - Speech Pathology and Audiology Licensing Act, Weiler, T.
Department of Transportation Procurement Authority, Buxton, D.
Tire Recycling Amendments, Sandall, S.
Placement of Minors Amendments, Fillmore, L.
Board of Pardons Amendments, Thatcher, D.
Poll Hours for Early Voting, Iwamoto, J.
Campaign Finance Revisions, Iwamoto, J.
Vessel Amendments, Bramble, C.
Utah Noxious Weed Act Amendments, Iwamoto, J.
Driver License and Implied Consent Modifications, Mayne, K.
Unclaimed Property Amendments, Hillyard, L.
Native American Remains Amendments, Iwamoto, J.
Safety Inspection Fee Amendments, Hemmert, D.
Agricultural Nuisance Amendments, Sandall, S.
Navajo Code Talker Recognition, Iwamoto, J.
Public Education Information Systems Uniformity Act, Anderegg, J.
Accounts Receivable Collection Revisions, Hillyard, L.
Telecom Merger Review Amendments, Buxton, D.
Prosecution Council Amendments, Stevenson, J.
Public Education Vision Screening, Escamilla, L.
Energy Balancing Account Amendments, Hemmert, D.
Department of Workforce Services Amendments, Weiler, T.
Corrections Officer Certification Amendments, Iwamoto, J.
Gang Prevention Awareness Week, Mayne, K.
Injuries by Dogs Amendments, Fillmore, L.
Booking Photographs Amendments, Thatcher, D.
Homeless Service Provider Amendments, Escamilla, L.
Asset Protection Trust Amendments, Davis, G.
Concurrent Resolution Recognizing Edward T. Alter for his Service as Utah State Treasurer, Okerlund, R.
Concurrent Resolution in Support of Advanced Nuclear Reactor Technology, Bramble, C.
Concurrent Resolution Urging Legal Medical Cannabis Banking, Anderegg, J.
# # #
