October 2021

As I get older, I find that I pay more attention to the living people who’ve been around as long or longer and who see more than I generally do.  Or, at least have different experiences.

The most enlightened people have the ability to be removed from the day-to-day that characterizes most of our lives.

Some examples are from the exceptional like The Dalai Lama, Dolly Parton, Aung San Suu Kyi, and Noam Chomsky. 

The 35^th Dalai Lama, Born, 1935

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On rainbows:  “If you want a rainbow, you have to put up with the rain.”

On Black Lives Matter:  “Do we think that our little white asses are the only ones that matter?”

-Dolly Parton, Born, 1945

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“The education and empowerment of women throughout the world cannot fail to result in a more caring, tolerant, just and peaceful life for all.”

– Aung San Suu Kyi, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, leader of Burma’s democracy movement.  Born 1945.

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 “Over half of the US population reads at a sixth grade level,” 

-Noam Chomsky, explaining why we shouldn’t be surprised by the ignorance of Trump supporters or anti-vaxxers.  Born, 1928.

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And then there’s the perspective on life my friend and mentor, Studs Terkel (who died eight Octobers ago at 96.)

“Who the hell would want to live to be 97?  Well, I would…I’m 96!”

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Back to Chomsky

If over half the US population reads at the sixth grade level, as he said this year in an interview, this, as much as anything, explains the popularity and influence of Fox News, the continuing blind loyalty to “billionaire” The Donald, and the crazy shit that spreads about science, life, government and health on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and the like.

I’m afraid that spreading bullshit has become deeply embedded in Americans’ belief structure, a reality that isn’t likely to be reversed in the next few years…maybe for generations.  To me it’s similar to the ever-increasing disparity in the distribution of wealth in this country.  Some Democrats like Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, AOC and even Joe Biden (in some ways), can explain it in clear and logical ways…and millions won’t listen.  What’s astonishing is that their ignorance leads them to support issues and take sides that are exactly the opposite of their real interests.  Can somebody explain the reasons for that beyond what they get from their mediums, radio, TV, and social.   Fear is one factor, for sure.

Chomsky has been explaining this for dozens of years in books like Manufacturing Consent, Who Rules the World? ,Understanding Power, Failed States, Profit over People and one that influenced me in  1991, Media Control: The Spectacular Achievements of Propaganda.

I believe the failure to communicate we have here and now is not just Democrats and Republicans, a split in political beliefs.  No, it’s about who has control of education, housing, drugs media and our bodies.  Those who have it don’t give up that power easily.

All any of us can do is not give up and refuse to be silenced.

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ON THE MEDIA, OCTOBER

Did you ever hear of DreadCentral.com?  Horror movies have never been on my radar but they’ve been in focus for  of Mary Beth McAndrews, colleague, writer and tech packager of PYO-MY Letter. She is now the content manager of a (well-done) horror movie online magazine.  As my kids used to say,

“Everybody has a different taste.”   I wish her success at Dread Central

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And, at the movies, the world premiere of PUNCH 9, For HAROLD WASHINGTON, a multiyear labor of love by Chicago documentarian Joe Winston (with a lot of help from his friends) is October 14 at Chicago International Film Festival.  It’s a wonderful biography of the charismatic, historically-significant, delightful and decent man who became the first African American Mayor of Chicago in 1985.  He died in office in 1990.  Anywhere anytime you can get a chance to see this doc, please do…you’ll be glad you did.

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Another October PY-O-MY media event could be the long-awaited (six years!) first airing if the documentary about our exploration for a lost city in Honduras in 2015.  Producer Bill Benenson told me that Discovery+ is set to show it, but now, maybe not  in October.  To me, the mainstream TV business and the nervous people who run it are nearly inscrutable.   In any case, keep your eyes open for The Lost City of the Monkey God.  It’s a beautiful glimpse of what it feels like to the Miskitia Jungle.  I’d really like you to see it, but the uncertainty of the broadcast schedule is typical of the mysteries of the mythical Monkey God we chased in the jungle.

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The postseason for our exciting division champion White Sox will really happen.  Game 1 of American League playoffs against the Houston Astros is set for October 7.  The Sox hitting is there…if the strong starting pitchers can muster a hot streak, there’s no telling how far they can go.  The World Series starts October 26 and it will keep going  into November .  Remember when the World Series was the first week in October and the games were all in the daytime?  Like lots of things, it ain’t the way it useda was.

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The Grandkids

They definitely are always changing. And becoming strong characters as they age.

Here’s Charlie Kliner, who just turned three, and on the attack.

And his sister, Maggie Jane after her horse ride in Kentucky.

Here’s Eliza Palm’s third birthday with her brother Oliver, 5, ogling her cake.

October is a month of big changes and new additions…lots more on that next month. 

Enjoy,

-tom