#OnThisDay: Gideon v. Wainwright

I should have kept my notes from studying the Gideon v. Wainwright US Supreme Court case when I took Constitutional Law as a senior political science major in college. Fifty years later, I remembered the Gideon case as the one that gave individuals charged with a crime in the United States the right to legal counsel, but I was more than a little fuzzy on the details. Hence, today’s post necessitated my doing some research.

Who was Wainwright?

Louie L. Wainwright was the Secretary of Florida Department of Corrections from 1962 to 1967.

Who was Gideon?

Clarence Earl Gideon had an eighth-grade education. He reportedly ran away from home while a middle school student. He was no stranger to the law throughout his life as he was jailed or in prison more than once for committing nonviolent crimes.

So how in the world did his name get attached to a landmark US Supreme Court case in 1963?

Earlier charges against Gideon bear no bearing on the Gideon v. Wainwright case. The pertinent background facts in the determination of this case are as follows:

Gideon was charged with breaking and entering with intent to commit a misdemeanor after allegedly breaking into a pool hall in Panama City, Florida in June 1961 with intent to commit a misdemeanor. At that time (I do not know the current Florida laws) that charge constituted a felony. Gideon asked the judge in that case to appoint legal counsel from him because he could not afford an attorney. Florida law only permitted for free legal counsel in capital offense cases at that time.

After the judge was forced under state law to deny Gideon’s request, Gideon represented himself in the trial. Despite doing a commendable job considering his education and background, he was found guilty and sentenced to five years in prison.

On the grounds of his constitutional rights having been violated, Gideon filed a petition with the Florida Supreme Court. The state court denied the petition.

Against all odds, Gideon then filed a handwritten petition with the United States Supreme Court and the justices agreed to hear the case. What Gideon was calling into question was the interpretation of the last clause in the Sixth Amendment to the US Constitution.

The Sixth Amendment was ratified with the following wording in 1791 and has never been amended:

“In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.”

The US Supreme Court agreed to hear Gideon’s case in part to determine if the 1942 Betts v. Brady case should be reconsidered. In Betts v. Brady, the US Supreme Court had ruled that persons charged with a felony in a State Court was not guaranteed legal counsel under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

The Outcome of Gideon v. Wainwright

The US Supreme Court unanimously overturned the Betts v. Brady decision. The Court found the Court had ignored precedent set by Powell v. Alabama (1932) when it decided Betts v. Brady.

Justice Hugo Lafayette Black wrote the opinion for the Court. In part, he stated that “reason and reflection require us to recognize that in our adversary system of criminal justice, any person hauled into court, who is too poor to hire a lawyer, cannot be assured a fair trial unless counsel is provided for him.”

Justice Black went on to say that the ideal of a fair trial cannot be met if a poor defendant is not granted the right of legal counsel.

Therefore, today we have the perseverance of Clarence Earl Gideon and a decision by the US Supreme Court 61 years ago today on March 18, 1963 for the right individuals in the United States have to free legal counsel to defend them in-person in a trial whether it be in a state or federal district case, if they cannot afford to hire an attorney.

Being in the Bill of Rights, the right to a fair trial is fundamental in the United States. This is a right people in such countries as Russia, China, and North Korea cannot imagine.

Remember that when you vote in November.

Until my next blog post

I hope you have at least one good book to read this week.

Don’t forget to visit https://www.janetmorrisonbooks.com to subscribe to my e-newsletter and to read about the books and short stories I have written.

Remember the people of Ukraine, Gaza, and all the other places in the world where innocent people are suffering.

You and I do not have to agree on politics but, at least for now, I am free to state my opinions. I hope you are free to state yours.

Janet

#OnThisDay: The Blizzard of 1888

I am wearing my historian hat today to write another #OnThisDay blog post. Sometimes I’m quite familiar with the topics covered in my occasional #OnThisDay blog posts, but today’s subject was one I knew nothing about. I need a topic like that to come along once in a while to keep my research juices flowing.

The Blizzard of 1888

I had never heard of the Great Blizzard of 1888 until I stumbled upon it in a reference book that lists events of note for every day of the year. It turns out that the blizzard in March 1888, also known as the Great White Hurricane, was not measured in feet like the snow in the Sierra Nevada ten days ago. However, it was a paralyzing blizzard in the Northeast US and eastern Canada.

It was unseasonably mild leading up to the March 1888 blizzard. Temperatures plummeted and it snowed for a day and a half. Many people were stranded at their places of employment. It is said that prisons and hotels were crowded with people seeking shelter from the storm.

Snow depths from 10 to 58 inches accompanied by sustained 45 mile-per-hour winds created 50-foot snow drifts. It took eight days to clear the New York-New Haven rail line at Westport, Connecticut. Telegraph service infrastructure was knocked out in Montreal and from Washington, DC to Boston for days. In fact, the disabling of rail and telegraph lines by that storm prompted authorities in New York City to start working toward moving of some of those services underground.

More than 400 people died as a result of the blizzard, including 100 seamen as more than 200 ships were grounded or wrecked. Immobilized fire stations prevented firefighters from responding to fires. Loss of property to fires alone during the blizzard amounted to $25 million (in 1888 dollars), which is the equivalent of $810 million in 2024.

The Children’s Blizzard of 1888

In researching the Great Blizzard of 1888, I found information about another blizzard that year and a book about it – The Children’s Blizzard, by David Laskin. I read the book and thought it would be interesting to supplement what I had learned about The Blizzard of 1888 with a few details about The Children’s Blizzard.

Photo of dark clouds looming over a herd of buffalo on the Great Plains — Photo by Laura Ockel on Unsplash

To my surprise, The Children’s Blizzard, by David Laskin captivated my interest. The stories about the so-called Children’s Blizzard dwarfed the more famous “Blizzard of 1888” in the northeastern states. Granted, the snow drifts in the northeast might have been higher than in the Children’s Blizzard in the Plains states two months earlier, but the sheer brutality and suddenness of the storm in Montana, the Dakota Territory, Nebraska, and Minnesota made the one in the northeast pale in comparison.

The snowstorm on January 12, 1888 in the Plains was called the Children’s Blizzard because so many school children were caught off-guard in their one-room schoolhouses that mild winter day when a monster blizzard roared in at break-neck speed. In today’s meteorological parlance, it would probably be described as a “perfect storm,” as all the forces of nature converged to create a blizzard beyond comprehension.

Photo of a person just visible in blinding snow — Photo by Zac Durant on Unsplash

Like the Blizzard of 1888 in the northeastern states and eastern Canada, the Children’s Blizzard was preceded by at least a few hours of mild weather. This lulled people, except for the most seasoned Plains residents, into a false sense of security. Folks across the Plains welcomed a morning when the temperatures did not dictate the wearing of their heaviest winter clothing. Children were glad to have a pleasant morning on which to walk to school.

The state of weather prediction in 1888 did not afford the people enough – and in some cases, not any – warning that within several hours a dramatic drop in temperature and blinding snow would engulf them.

I will write more about The Children’s Blizzard, by David Laskin in my blog post scheduled for the first Monday in April.

Until my next blog post

Never be without a book to read. I hope you are reading one now that you don’t want to put down.

Don’t forget to visit https://www.janetmorrisonbooks.com to subscribe to my e-newsletter and to read about the books and short stories I’ve written.

Remember the people of Ukraine who have been fighting for their lives and democracy for two years now. Can the members of the US Congress not see what Putin is doing?

Remember the innocent people in Gaza who it appears more convincing by the day are the victims of a genocide. I do not condone in any way the terrorist attack on Israel on October 7, 2023; however, that event does not warrant the wholesale bombing of millions of innocent people. This war will not lead to peace in the Middle East. It will lead to countless generations of hatred on the part of survivors and the descendants of those who are murdered. And that hatred will be turned against not only Israel but also on the countries that enable Israel.

You and I don’t have to agree on politics but, at least for now, I am free to state my opinions. I hope you are free to state yours.

Janet

3 of the 5.4 Books I Read in February 2024

February was another interesting reading month for me, even though I did not read as many books as in January. Here’s my take on three of the 5.4 books I read last month.

Fortune Favors the Dead, by Stephen Spotswood

I was not familiar with Stephen Spotswood’s writing until I read about Fortune Favors the Dead in an e-newsletter from Main Street Books in Davidson, North Carolina. This is the first book in a four-book mystery series and was recommended by the bookstore’s staff.

The novel is written in first-person in the voice of Willowjean “Will” Parker, a teen with several years of experience working for a circus. In her employment with the circus, Will has learned many skills (such as knife-throwing) and life lessons. Through those experiences she comes to be employed as an assistant for private investigator Lillian Pentecost in New York.

Ms. Pentecost is a well-respected investigator. She and Will get involved in investigating the Collins family of Collins Steel. As one expects in a mystery, there are many secrets and a couple of murders. A clairvoyant is involved, as well as a college professor.

The story held my interest throughout. It is written with humor and suspense, and it will keep you guessing.

The Kingdom, The Power, and The Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism, by Tim Alberta

*The Kingdom, The Power, and The Glory*, by Tim Alberta

Where do I begin?

This book tries to get to the heart of a question I have wondered about and to which I have been unable to find a satisfying answer: How did so many evangelical Christians in the United States get so far removed from the teachings of Jesus Christ?

I really want to know. I want to understand what happened and why.

Written by the son of an Evangelical Presbyterian pastor, Tim Alberta set out to discern the answer. For starters, I find “Evangelical Presbyterian” to be a bit of an oxymoron. Presbyterians by nature are not what I would call evangelical. I’m a member of a church affiliated with the Presbyterian Church USA, which is a much more liberal denomination than the Evangelical Presbyterian church.

This book is fascinating. The author’s theory is that for many evangelicals in the United States, America is their kingdom. They see the United States as a nation set apart and uniquely blessed by God. But this love of country has transitioned into nationalism bordering on idolatry. He documents case after case where worship services look and sound more like political rallies than places where “love your neighbor” is proclaimed.

The book looks at famous televangelists as well as not-so-famous preachers and congregations that are focused on winning at all costs and praising their political darlings instead of God. They have somehow forgotten that the kingdom that Jesus Christ promised was not the kingdom of the United States.

The author was hit in the gut by the extremism and hatred in the fractured right-wing of the conservative evangelicals when he attended his father’s funeral. His father had been pastor of the church where the funeral was held. When speaking to the author as he stood in the receiving line, a number of church members took that opportunity to verbally attack him for the stand he had taken in favor of leaving politics out of American Christianity and unflattering revelations he had made in his earlier book about a twice impeached, 91 times indicted US president.

More people than Mr. Alberta could count spoke to him that day not to offer condolences but to attack him. It was on that day that Mr. Alberta saw the true colors of these people, many of whom he had known all his life. He set out that day to try to determine how and when the conservative right-wing segment of American Christianity went so horribly off the rails and lost sight of the teachings of Jesus Christ.

The people this book is about are the people who claim to be Christians (and in their hearts they believe they are Christians), but they have lost sight of people who are not exactly like them. They have confused their worldview with Christianity. They have lost sight of love your neighbor as you love yourself. They not only don’t want to welcome the stranger or the foreigner, they hate them and wish them harm. They have gotten so obsessed with arming themselves to the teeth that they have lost sight of the Prince of Peace.

The most frightening part of all is that they have proclaimed a foul-mouthed, hate-spewing former US president as their savior. He has tricked them into thinking he is one of them.

If you wonder what has happened to many American evangelical Christians, I think you will find this book to be thought provoking.

Ninety-Day Wonder: How the Navy Would Have Been Better Off Without Me, by Stephen Davenport

I learned of this book from Liz Gauffreau’s January 24, 2024 blog post: https://lizgauffreau.com/2024/01/24/bookreview-ninety/. Mr. Davenport’s book is a memoir of his years in the U.S. Navy in the early 1950s. It is a humorous telling of the way he more or less bumbled his way through the service. He tells of bungled practice runs of amphibious landings off Morehead City, North Carolina and how he was often put into situations where he did not know what he was doing.

Mr. Davenport entered Reserve Officer Candidate School in 1951 but, when he was thrown into various situations where he was the ranking officer, he often learned the hard way that the enlisted sailors until his command were more familiar with the tasks at hand than he was. Hence, the graduates of the Reserve Officer Candidate School were called “Ninety-Day Wonders,” and perhaps are to this day.

Liz Gauffreau gives a more detailed overview of the book than I have here. She is more adept at writing book reviews. I highly recommend that you check out her blog, or poetry, and her other writing.

Until my next blog post

I hope you have at least one good book to read. Support your local public library and your local independent bookstore!

Please visit my website, https://www.janetmorrisonbooks.com and subscribe to my e-newsletter. If you were a subscriber as of last Thursday, you received my March newsletter on Friday. Among other things, I wrote about and shared photos from my recent hike on the Hector Henry Greenway on the Carolina Thread Trail and its connection to my articles in Harrisburg, Did You Know? Cabarrus History, Book 2 about the bridges over Rocky River in Cabarrus County in the 1870s. You never know what you’re going to miss if you aren’t receiving my newsletters!

Remember the people of Ukraine and the innocent people suffering in Gaza.

Janet

I Feel Like the World has Passed Me By

I recently read a blog post that made my head spin. It left me wondering if I can make it as a writer. The world is changing at warp speed, and I cannot keep up.

My post today is a bit of a rant. Please bear with me. I’m curious. Do you feel the same way, or am I just an old fuddy-duddy? (Granted, if I casually use the term “fuddy-duddy,” I probably am one.)

What set off this particular rant (a.k.a., blog post)?

The blog post I’m referring to is https://writersinthestormblog.com/2024/02/social-media-best-practices-for-authors-in-2024/. This is a blog I have followed for years and I usually benefit from reading the posts. This particular one gave me pause.

I didn’t realize how much I was lagging behind in the world of social media until I learned that “you might want to consider IG Thread, Mastodon, or Bluesky (still in Beta and by invite only). The stated goal of Threads is to become part of the Fediverse (of which Mastodon is a part) so many people have just jumped straight over to Mastodon.”

WHAT?

That one paragraph was confusing on so many levels.

I continued reading and learned that there is also a social media platform called BeReal, in case I want people to know where I am at all times.

No thanks.

I learned that Reddit “has released an API in preparation for its upcoming IPO.” I have used Reddit, but I don’t know an API from an IPO. In fact, I have very little interest in learning the difference. (I’ve looked them up before, but I don’t have enough brain cells to clutter up my head with information I don’t need to recall.) It’s frustrating to read an article about what authors need to know about social media when you don’t understand the abbreviations. It’s overwhelming.

Granted, API and IPO were clickable, but the assumption is that I should already know what they are. It just reinforces my feelings that I’m so far behind there’s no hope for me to catch up. And, oh… in my spare time, when I’m not studying the latest technological advances and numerous social media platforms, I can do historical research and turn that into a novel.

I also learned from the Writers in the Storm blog post that “Google has been talking about E-A-T for a few years now, but with the extensive use of generative AI, they have added another E. This is good news for us, as their requirements and Quality Rater Guidelines for good content will almost certainly exclude most AI-created content. E-E-A-T stands for Expertise, Experience, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness.”

The explanation of E-E-A-T was much appreciated because I had never heard of E-A-T in the first sentence of that paragraph, much less E-E-A-T.

My readers know I’m not the most computer-savvy person in the world, but I have managed to write a blog on a regular basis since January 24, 2010, format and publish two local history books, two short stories, and a cookbook for publication. All but the cookbook are available in electronic as well as print form. I’m on Facebook and have many boards of interest on Pinterest. I’ve learned how to create book covers and memes. I put a new meme on Pinterest six days a week to publicize my various books and short stories. I’ve created bookmarks, flyers, and business cards. I publish an e-newsletter. I have my own website.

Apparently, it is not enough.

I should not have to be a technology whiz to be an author, but I have read and heard a multitude of times that I need tens of thousands of followers on social media if I stand a chance of catching the eye of a literary agent or book publisher.

Perhaps I was born in the wrong century.

And did I mention the scammers I have to deal with several times a week?

I’m proud of my vintage postcard book, The Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, published by Arcadia Publishing in 2014; however, I can’t visualize it as a movie. I get numerous phone calls from people speaking broken English telling me that I can make boatloads of money if I agree to let them turn the book into a movie. I received a call a couple of weeks ago from someone claiming to be with HBO promising me $300,000 if I would allow them to turn my postcard book into a made-for-TV movie.

*The Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina*, by Janet Morrison

Yeah, right! I’m sure it would be a blockbuster.

Since my last blog post

I’m putting the finishing touches on my March newsletter. If you have not subscribed to my newsletter, please go to https://www.janetmorrisonbooks.com, click on the “Subscribe” button, and fill in your email address. In return, you will receive a free downloadable copy of one of my short stories, “Slip Sliding Away: A Southern Historical Short Story” and you will receive my newsletter every other month.

In my newsletters I give details of the “field trips” I take to do research for my historical short stories and the historical novels I’m working on as well as photographs from those trips. I give more information about the things I’m doing to move my writing career forward than I do in my weekly blog posts.

I promise I won’t bombard your inbox with emails!

Until my next blog post

I hope you have a good book to read. As usual, I’m reading several books. So many books… so little time!

Please get your news from more than one reliable source.

Remember the people of Ukraine and let your representatives in Washington, DC know how you feel about aid to that country. It just might get through to them and make a difference.

Janet

Four More Books I Read in January 2024

This is a first! I’ve never read so many books in one month that I had to dedicate three blog posts to those books the following month!

Saving Grayson, by Chris Fabry

I requested this book at the public library after reading that it was about a man with Alzheimer’s Disease. This terrible disease has struck my immediate family and I’m trying to learn as much about the condition as possible.

It wasn’t until I brought the book home that I saw that Jerry B. Jenkins had anything to do with it. The author credits Mr. Jenkins as giving him invaluable editorial advice. The front cover says, “Jerry Jenkins Presents.”

I’m not a fan of Jerry B. Jenkins’ Left Behind books. I think his books blurred the lines between fiction and nonfiction and too many people latched onto that series as being nonfiction. I tried to put those feelings aside and started reading Saving Grayson.

I immediately became invested in the main character, Grayson “Gray” Hayes; however, by the time I was one-third into the novel I was no longer able to suspend disbelief.

There were too many instances where Gray was doing and saying things that a person in his stage of Alzheimer’s Disease would not be able to do. I know that every case of Alzheimer’s Disease is uniquely manifested, but for Gray to be able to go from hardly recognizing his traveling companion to climbing up the concrete embankment under an interstate bridge to give a mattress and advice to a homeless man was difficult for me to believe.

After his dog was hit and killed on the highway after he’d completely lost track of the beloved pet after getting out of his van which had run out of gas – the van he was driving without a driver’s license – and telling a police officer he didn’t know Josh, the traveling companion he’d sneaked away from, but the next minute was able to give a stranger marital advice in nuanced language… I decided I didn’t need to finish reading the book. I carefully select the books I have time to read, so I’m always disappointed when I decide I can’t finish a book.

Perhaps from my description you will know if this book is your “cup of tea.”

The Official Mind Diet: A Scientifically Based Program to Lose Weight and Prevent Alzheimer’s Disease, by Dr. Martha Clare Morris

Photo of book cover for The Official Mind Diet: A Scientifically Based Program to Lose Weight and Prevent Alzheimer's Disease, by Dr. Martha Clare Morris — *The Official Mind Diet: A Scientifically Based Program to Lose Weight and Prevent Alzheimer’s Disease*, by Dr. Martha Clare Morris

I have been semi-following the MIND Diet for a year or two, but it was not until last month that I read The Official Mind Diet: A Scientifically Based Program to Lose Weight and Prevent Alzheimer’s Disease, by Dr. Martha Clare Morris, the diet’s creator. It is the potential for delaying the onset of Alzheimer’s Disease that drew me to the diet. It is named one of the best diets by scientists, doctors, and organization such as the Alzheimer’s Association. It combines the Mediterranean and DASH diets, and I find it relatively easy to follow. It’s a lot of common sense and information we all know but most of us have chosen not to follow. It isn’t a diet you must strictly follow. Following it to various degrees is supposed to help you.

The MIND Diet has recommendations for how many servings of leafy green vegetables, other vegetables, certified extra-virgin olive oil, and whole grains you should eat every day and how many servings of berries, nuts and seeds, fish, poultry, and beans and legumes you should eat every week. There is a list of things you should limit, such as red meat and processed meat, butter and stick margarine, full-fat cheese, fried food, and sweets. No surprises there!

If you are interested in giving yourself a chance at avoiding or at least postponing the onset of Alzheimer’s Disease, I highly recommend this book. Whatever steps you can take in following the recommendations of this book will be positive.

Annals of Bath County, Virginia, by Oren Morton

Photo of book cover for Annals of Bath County, Virginia, by Oren Frederic Morton — *Annals of Bath County, Virginia*, by Oren Frederic Morton

I read this book for free online via Internet Archives. I needed the information it held so I could more effectively write the first chapter in my historical novel, The Heirloom. Since the history of Bath County, Virginia is of limited interest to the readers of my blog, I’ll just leave it at that. It was a Godsend for me, however!

Finding My Way: My Journey as a Blind Educator & Pastor, by Dr. Gregory Davis

Finding My Way: My Journey as a Blind Pastor & Educator, by Rev. Dr. Gregory Davis — *Finding My Way: My Journey as a Blind Pastor & Educator,* by Rev. Dr. Gregory Davis

I dedicated my January 15, 2024 blog post to this book. I’m so excited by this book, I’m writing about it again today.

This is a book of the Rev. Dr. Gregory Davis’ memoirs. I don’t care what you have accomplished in your life, this book will leave you feeling like you should have done more. To say it is inspirational is an understatement.

Dr. Davis completely lost his sight as a teenager. He never once used blindness as an excuse or a crutch. In the book he chronicles his childhood; his time as a student at the Governor Morehead School for the Blind in Raleigh, North Carolina; his time as a student at Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte; his time as a student at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte; and his time in the School of Divinity at Duke University.

Everywhere he studied, he excelled not only as a student but also as a leader. He served in student government associations and all along the way encouraged other students to be all they could be.

Originally aspiring to be an attorney, he came to realize that God meant for him to be a Minister of the Gospel and a college professor. He taught and mentored at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and he also served as pastor of Bellefonte Presbyterian Church, USA in Harrisburg, North Carolina for nearly 30 years.

I have been acquainted with Dr. Davis for nearly 30 years and I knew he was a remarkable person; however, I had no idea about most of his challenges and accomplishments until I read his book. If you want to read about someone beating the odds in life and never giving up, you need to read this book.

By the way, did I mention that Dr. Davis accomplished all this while not only being blind but also being a black man?

In case you missed them…

I blogged about three books on February 5 (Three of the 10 Books I Read in January 2024) and three books on February 12 (Three Other Books I Read in January 2024).

Until my next blog post

I hope you have a good book to read this week.

Take advantage of the resources available through your local public library system.

Remember the people of Ukraine.

Janet

Three Other Books I Read in January 2024

January brought me lots of books and time to read them. Last week’s blog post talked about three books I read last month. Today’s blog is about three other books I read. Next week, I’ll blog about the other four books I read in January.

The Woman in the White Kimono, by Ana Johns

The Woman in the White Kimono, by Ana Johns

It is not often I get to read a book that I hate to put down – one I just have to read “one more chapter” before stopping to do something else. The Woman in the White Kimono was one of those novels.

I learned about this historical novel by being a member of the Historical Fictionistas group on Goodreads.com.

This is one of the best historical novels I’ve read in a long time. Well-researched, it takes the stories of mixed-race babies born to Japanese women and American military personnel before, during, and after the post-World War II Allied Occupation of Japan. There were 10,000 such babies, and the ones that survived were ostracized.

This novel grew out of the author’s own father’s story. Hearing bits and pieces of his story spurred her on to do extensive research in Japan and weave a compelling piece of fiction.

This is a can’t-put-downable novel of racial prejudice and the power of love. I don’t usually like novels with alternating timelines, but this one worked – and maybe wouldn’t have worked well chronologically.

In additional being based on good research, I was captivated by the beautifully-written prose.

Sisters Under the Rising Sun, by Heather Morris

Photo of book cover for Sisters Under the Rising Su — *Sisters Under the Rising Sun*, by Heather Morris

If you have followed my blog for several years, you may recall that I have blogged about three earlier historical novels and one nonfiction book by Heather Morris. (The Tattooist of Auschwitz in Many Good Books Read in October! on November 5, 2018; Cilka’s Journey in I stretched my reading horizons in November on December 2, 2019; Three Sisters in Books Read in December 2021 on January 3, 2022; and Listening Well: Bringing Stories of Hope to Life in Spy Thriller, WWI Novel, Nonfiction, and Historical Mystery Read Last Month on October 10, 2022.)

I praised each of those books, and I recommend Sisters Under the Rising Sun to you, too.

Heather Morris, a New Zealand author, has a way of taking a great amount of information from historical research and in-depth interviews with the survivors of an event – or their descendants – and turning their experiences into unforgettable historical fiction.

Sisters Under the Rising Sun is the story of 65 nurses in the Australian military and some British, American, and Dutch civilians who were captured by the Japanese and held prisoner for three years and seven months on Sumatra, Indonesia during World War II. Although only 24 of the 65 nurses and an undisclosed number of civilians survived the war, this is the remarkable story of their heroism, tenacity, and dedication to each other. It is a story of sisterhood and self-sacrifice. It is based on real people and their experiences under horrendous conditions.

More than 65 individuals are mentioned by name in the narrative portion of this book, so I recommend that you keep a running list of characters as they are introduced because, unless you read the Author’s Notes at the end of the novel first, you won’t know which characters you need to remember.

There are a couple of biological sisters whose stories are woven throughout the book as well as the stories of the Australian nurses. It is the practice in Australia to refer to a nurse as “Sister,” so the title of the book has a double meaning.

There has been a spate of World War II novels published over the last few years, so you might be growing weary of them. I recommend you read one more: Sister Under the Rising Sun, by Heather Morris.

We Must Not Think of Ourselves, by Lauren Grodstein

Photo of book cover for We Must Not Think of Ourselves: A Novel, by Lauren Grodstein. It is a downtown street scene and the Star of David is on one of the buildings., — *We Must Not Think of Ourselves*, by Lauren Grodstein

Although a novel, the author bases this book on real life accounts she has researched. The premise is that certain Jews in Warsaw, Poland were selected to write notes about their treatment and what they observed starting in 1940 so, if they were survived by their notes, the world would eventually learn what persecutions the Jews endured under Nazi Germany. The project was called Oneg Shabbat.

The story follows a Jewish widower, Adam Paskow, who had been an English teacher and was fluent in five languages. The gradual persecution of the Jews is chronicled as one right after another is taken from them until their homes and businesses were confiscated and they were forced behind locked gates into crowded and deplorable circumstances in what came to be called the Warsaw Ghetto.

The author artfully takes written accounts from many people and turns them into Adam’s story and reflections. The narrative chapters are interspersed with interview-type chapters.

I liked how the author, through dialog at the Oneg Shabbat meetings, included bits of news about the war. For instance, by the spring of 1941 the Oneg Shabbat participants knew about the gas chambers at Auschwitz. That information filtered down from Polish resistance spies, POW escapees, and Russian soldiers captured by the British.

One thing that comes through in the book is how the people of Poland were wondering why the United States wasn’t yet willing in 1941 to send troops to help them. They reasoned that if they knew it in the Warsaw Ghetto, surely the United States knew it. They wondered why the US was willing to help convey ships across the Atlantic Ocean while unwilling to commit troops to the war.

Interwoven throughout the novel is the love story of Adam and his wife, Kasia. She dies before he is forced into the ghetto to live in a cramped apartment with strangers. Over time, he and Sala fall in love; however, Sala’s husband lives there, too, which creates an awkward situation. Adam and Sala’s story reflects the desperation and hopelessness the Jews lived with. It was a hopelessness that grew by the day.

The people in the ghetto survived by selling or bartering with their meager possessions. Adam carefully sold every item of his wife’s that he’d been able to take into the ghetto. Will he have anything of value left in the end to secure papers that will give him a chance to escape from Poland before he’d shipped to Auschwitz?

Until my next blog post

I hope you have a good book to read. I’m reading a novel and a nonfiction book.

Remember the people of Ukraine.

Janet

Three of the 10 Books I Read in January 2024

Being a cold month and more than a little wet in North Carolina, January turned out to be a great 31 days of reading opportunities for me. Today I’m blogging about three of the 10 books I read last month. I’ll blog about the other books February 11 and 19.

As I often have in the past, I begin this post about the books I’ve read by stating that I am not a book reviewer. True book reviewers have some rules they go by. I have no such rules; I just write my reactions to the books I read. Sometimes my political leanings come through. I majored in political science in college. I can’t help myself!

I enjoy a variety of genres. Much of my reading is more or less dictated by when my name reaches the top of the waitlist at the public library. If not for the public library, my reading selections would be severely limited. Never miss a chance to support your local public library!

That said, here are my thoughts about three of the books I read in January.

So Late in the Day: Stories of Women and Men, by Claire Keegan

This book is made up of three short stories, each taking a look at the relationships between women and men – each from a different perspective. The publisher calls this book a “triptych of stories about love, lust, betrayal, and the ever-intriguing interchanges between women and men.”

The first story shares the title of the book. In it, Ms. Keegan, an Irish author, explores what Irishmen think of women in general. What she portrays is a man who never in any way thinks of a woman as his equal. It is demonstrated through a love story that goes sour when the bride-to-be sees the groom-to-be for what he is. Underlying the story is the premise that this man is the way he is because that’s what his father was like.

“The Long and Painful Death” is the second story in this book. It’s about a writer who goes to live in the basement of a house on an island to be the writer-in-residence for two months. She has a strange encounter with a scary German man.

“Antartica” is the third story. It’s a dark tale about a married woman who goes to London under the guise of doing Christmas shopping for her husband and children, but in reality she goes to find out what it would be like to sleep with a different man. This tale begins nicely and (spoiler alert!) ends badly.

Vitiligo Made Me Beautiful, by Laleh Chini

Book cover of a brown-skin little girl in front of her school. Book title: Vitiligo Made Me Beautiful, by Lalah Chini — *Vitiligo Made Me Beautiful,* by Laleh Chini

This is the latest book published by my dear blogger friend, Laleh Chini. Although the book is meant for children ages 7-12 years of age, it can serve as a reminder to adults, too, that we need to always be kind to one another.

The main character in the book is a little girl who wakes up one day with white patches on her skin. A few days later she is diagnosed with Vitiligo. It is a condition in which patches of a person’s skin lose their color. This, of course, is especially difficult for a person with dark skin.

In the book, the little girl’s classmates rally around her as they focus on what they like about her and her qualities and talents. Don’t we adults need to do that more often, too?

If you want to read a compelling book by Laleh Chini, I recommend Climbing Over Grit. It is the story of her mother’s growing up years in Iran and the child bride culture there. Fortunately, Laleh’s family escaped life under that regime when she was 16 years old, and they made their way to the United States. Here’s the link to Climbing Over Grit: https://www.amazon.com/dp/9176375536/. It won the Canada Book Award

Book cover for Climbing Over Grit, by Marzeeh Laleh Chini & Abnoos Mosleh-Shirazi — *Climbing Over Grit*, by Marzeeh Laleh Chini & Abnoos Mosleh-Shirazi

If you’d like to read what I said about Climbing Over Grit on my blog right after I read it, please follow this link to my November 5, 2018 post: Many Good Books Read in October!

Standing My Ground: A Capitol Police Officer’s Fight for Accountability and Good Trouble After January 6^th, by Harry Dunn

Standing My Ground: A Capitol Police Officer's Fight for Accaountability and Good Trouble After January 6th, by Harry Dunn — *Standing My Ground: A Capitol Police Officer’s Fight for Accountability and Good Trouble After January 6th*, by Harry Dunn

Harry Dunn was on duty at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021 – that infamous day of the insurrection and attempted coup. I’ll never be able to erase the images of that day as I watched TV in horror.

In his book, Mr. Dunn talks about the honor it is to serve as a US Capitol police officer. He talks about our country’s history and how proud he has always been to serve in that complex government building, to protect the US Constitution and the people inside that building. He talks about how he enjoys interacting with people who visit that building.

And he talks about the unexpected vicious attack on our democracy on January 6, 2021 and how it has changed him forever. He talks about the violence and the racial slurs, the bear spray, the WD-40 spray, the pepper spray, the beatings, and the hatred the mob showed toward police officers and our country that day.

He talks about the fact that some in the mob were already convicted felons with a history of violence. He talks about some in the mob being swept up in the moment after being hoodwinked by Trump’s big lie.

He talks about the fragility of democracy.

This is a gutsy, no-holds-barred, raw book. I highly recommend it, especially if you have any doubts about what happened on January 6, 2021.

Since my last blog post

I learn from comments from readers of my blog. One of the comments I got in response to last week’s post prompted me to add a postscript to that blog post. I’m afraid my reference to the side effects of my second Shingrix injection might deter others from getting the Shingles vaccination. That was not my intent. I had Shingles in my right eye a few years ago. It felt like a knife in my eye for weeks; therefore, I was eager to get the Shingrix vaccine as soon as it was available free of charge for Medicare patients. The discomfort of the side effects of the shot pale in comparison to the pain of having Shingles, so please talk to your doctor about the Shingrix two-injection vaccine, and take it if you are a good candidate for it.

My research about the route of The Great Wagon Road/The Carolina Road in Virginia continues as I work on my historical novel tentatively titled The Heirloom.

Until my next blog post

You have no idea how much I appreciate the moral support my blog readers give me – even when I fail to read all their blog posts!

I hope you have at least one good book to read.

I hope you will pay attention to reputable news sources and keep up with the events in the world. If you are a citizen of the USA, I pray you will do so to be an informed voter this year more than ever before.

Remember the people of Ukraine as they are the only ones standing between Vladimir Putin and his invasion of NATO countries. When a dictator or a dictator-wannabe announces his plans, believe him.

Janet

I’ve Made it Around the Sun 71 Times

Photograph of a large seventy-one in numerals — Photo credit: Metin Ozer on unsplash.com

There’s a popular saying now: “Being in my 20s in the 70s was more fun than being in my 70s in the 20s.” There is a lot of truth in that, but I’m glad I’m in my 70s now and not in my 20s.

My parents always made my siblings and me feel special on our birthdays.

Mama always made a buttermilk pound cake and decorated it elaborately for our birthdays. She made a “doll cake” for my birthdays for many years. They were things of art I didn’t fully appreciate at the time.

There were no cake molds then for making such a cake. Mama had to make the cake in several layers of different sizes and then do some trim work to make a perfect full evening gown-shaped cake.

Everything was made from scratch. She took no shortcuts with a cake mix or store-bought icing. (I don’t think that was even a thing back then.) I wish I had a photograph of one of those doll cakes that I could share on my blog.

Mama’s hand and fingers must have been sore for days after painstakingly decorating the doll’s evening gowns with ruffles and flowers of stiff homemade icing. I had no idea how difficult it was to use her metal cake decorator gizmo until I was old enough to try to use it myself. The operative word is “try.”

Daddy only made home movies on the following special occasions: Christmas morning, our birthdays, and sometimes on Easter morning. Film and its developing were expensive, so he usually managed to get our birthdays and those two holidays on one roll of 8mm movie film.

It was always a great day when a roll of film was developed. Daddy would set up his movie screen and movie projector in the living room, thread the projector, and alert whoever was appointed to then turn off the lights. It was fun reliving the events as many of the occasions projected onto the grainy white screen had happened more than a year earlier.

It was even more fun years later to look at those home movies. At least, it was fun until sometimes when the film would get stuck and the heat from the projector light would immediately burn a hole in the film. But I digress.

It was a special time to be a child in the 1950s and 1960s. It was a good time to be a child. At least, I can say that because I was a white middle-class child in the United States. It wasn’t as good of a time if you were a black child in the United States.

Until all the public schools were racially-integrated and black citizens secured the right to vote and receive equal service in restaurants, hotels, and in public transportation and employment opportunities, it was not a great time for them. I’m aware of that now. I wasn’t back then.

We weren’t bothered by social media and the only drugs we knew about were the ones prescribed by Dr. Nicholas Lubchenko, the family doctor who made house calls when we were sick. If you had stayed home from school because you were sick, you’d better be in bed and not on the couch watching “I Love Lucy” on the black-and-white TV when he came to check on you!

The years I spent in school dragged by slow as molasses, but the rest of my life has passed in a split second. That’s an impossible concept for people under 30 years old to understand. They cannot imagine how fast their next 40 years are going to fly.

So Happy 71^st Birthday to me! I can’t believe I’m this old, but many of my friends and relatives were not so fortunate. Therefore, I try to value every day God gives me. I have been blessed beyond anything I deserved.

Since my last blog post

Finally feeling like I had recovered from having Covid in December, I thought last Thursday would be a good day on which to get my second dose of the shingles vaccine. I guess it was as good as any. I don’t want to cause anyone not to get the Shingrix shot, but that second injection laid me low for the entire weekend. I’m just one of those people who often has ill effects from vaccines, so the aches and fever were not a surprise. That they lasted for more than three days was. (Postscript added January 31, 2024: I should have also said that I had Shingles in my right eye a few years ago and it felt like there was a knife in my eye for weeks; therefore, I was eager to get the Shingrix vaccine as soon as it was available free of charge to Medicare patients. The discomfort of the side effects of the shot pale in comparison to the pain of having Shingles!)

I took advantage of my down time by reading a very good historical novel.

I admit that I had a “senior moment” when I typed the title of this blog post. Just before pressing the “publish” button, I realized I had typed the title as “I’ve Made it Around the Moon 71 Times.” Thank goodness I caught that mistake! I never would have heard the last of it! After a rough few days, it was good to have something to laugh about.

Until my next blog post

I hope you are reading a book that’s so good you didn’t want to put it down long enough to read my blog. (I read a book like that over the weekend – The Woman in the White Kimono, by Ana Johns.)

Remember the people of Ukraine.

Janet

#OnThisDay: U.S. Supreme Court on Abortion, 1973

Before I address today’s topic, I need to apologize for an error I made in my January 15, 2024 blog post. I stated that Dr. Gregory Davis was the first African-American president of Central Piedmont Community College. That, of course, is not true! What I meant to write and thought I wrote was that he was the first African-American student body president at Central Piedmont Community College. My eagle-eyed sister, Marie, found the mistake and brought it to my attention. I have corrected that post, but I wanted to make sure those of you who read the original post knew about the error.

Points of View

Before I launch into Roe v. Wade, I will share two quotes I happened upon last night while reading a blog post about how to write a novel with multiple points of view. I had already written today’s post and scheduled it. It was worth opening it up to add these quotes. Although they were intended to help me be a better writer of fiction, they dovetailed nicely with the true theme of today’s post — which isn’t abortion. Abortion is just an example of the issues over which U.S. citizens are deeply divided.

“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view.” ~ attributed to Harper Lee.

“If there is one secret to success, it lies in the ability to get the other person’s point of view.” ~ attributed to Henry Ford.

Fasten your seatbelts. I’m getting ready to step on some toes.

Roe v. Wade

It was on this date in 1973 that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on the case of Roe v. Wade. It was believed by the Court then that a woman had a constitutional right to obtain an abortion as a protected right of privacy.

In summary, the lengthy Roe v. Wade written decision ruled that in the first trimester a woman had the right to get an abortion and the right to seek advice from her doctor. In the second trimester, the law could impose reasonable restrictions related to the woman’s health. In the third trimester, when the fetus is recognizable as a human being and not completely dependent upon the mother for life, the law had considerable authority to regulate abortion.

Overturning the Roe v. Wade decision became a goal of the Republican Party in 1980. That goal was achieved on June 24, 2022 when the U.S. Supreme Court published their six to three decision to reverse the 1973 ruling.

That reversal left each of the 50 states to adopt laws regarding abortion and left women in many of those states once again being relegated to the pre-1973 back- alley abortions in unsanitary conditions that put their future fertility and very lives at risk.

Sadly, some of the new state laws have forced women to continue to carry a dead fetus because the medical procedure necessary to deliver the dead fetus is now illegal. Whether that was a conscious decision made by legislators or due to their ignorance probably varies from state-to-state. There was a case of that in my own family in the 1950s, and the trauma of that experience is still talked about.

It baffles me that “the party of family values” / “the party of ‘Let’s get the government out of the bedroom’” thinks treating American citizens like this in 2024 is just fine and dandy.

A hijacked segment of Christians and a hijacked political party?

It has always baffled me that people who most-adamantly say they are pro-life because they are Christians are against all government programs designed to make sure those babies have sufficient food and basic healthcare once they are born. I think they should more accurately say they are anti-abortion instead of saying they are pro-life.

The Jesus I follow is all about His followers taking care of the poor and downtrodden. The Jesus I follow is all about forgiveness and compassion. The Jesus I follow is all about loving your neighbor as you love yourself.

I don’t see any of that in the people who wear the MAGA caps, so maybe it’s time for the Christians who support the hatred spewed by that segment of today’s Republican Party to be honest with us and with themselves. It appears from the outside that they have lost sight of Jesus in their zeal to crush anyone who gets in their idol’s way.

I don’t understand why they think it is acceptable to be a racist, misogynist, or a xenophobe and would support a politician who proudly falls into all three of those categories. Jesus is certainly none of those things.

There is something very wrong today if Democrats don’t think Republicans can be Christians and Republicans don’t think Democrats can be Christians.

I miss the America of my younger days when most people did not know and did not care about another person’s political affiliation because most people understood that our democracy thrives when we have choices and two imperfect but relatively healthy political parties.

I miss the America of my younger days when in polite society in the United States you did not talk about religion or politics to a stranger, much less threaten to kill another person if they dared to hold opinions that differed from yours.

I miss the America of my younger days when you could have a civil conversation with a friend or relative with whom you disagreed about politics.

I miss the America of my younger days when I did not realize how very fragile democracy is.

My intentions for my blog

I did not set out to use my blog as a political platform; however, I have been blogging for more than a decade and I think God expects me to use my blog and my freedom of speech — which I will have at least until noon on January 20, 2025, when I just might lose all my rights.

Since my last blog post

I have struggled more than ever before with the writing of a blog post because I know some of the toes I’m stepping on are the toes of some close friends and relatives.

The topic of today’s blog post is complex. There are no easy answers, so I pray that both sides on the issue will try to keep their minds open to differing views and scientific facts as they wrestle with the matter.

The overturning of Roe v. Wade is, no doubt, not the last word on this issue. If we are a democracy after January 20, 2025, this matter will continue to be debated in the United States. I just hope it is debated with more compassion and open-mindedness than it was over the last 51 years. I hope people will stop hating the people whose beliefs on this subject and anything else do not match theirs.

Until my next blog post

I hope you have access to the medical attention you need.

I hope you have a good book to read.

I hope you pay close attention to politics on all levels and practice your responsibility to vote, if you have that right.

I hope you and I will continue to be friends, and in the Presbyterian way, “Agree to disagree agreeably.”

Remember the people of Ukraine during their miserable winter and how cherished freedoms can disappear in the blink of an eye.

Janet

A Book by a Blind Pastor & Educator

If you read my blog regularly, you know I usually wait until a new month to blog about the books I read the previous month. Today I’m making an exception. Last week I read a book by a local blind pastor, and I didn’t want to wait until February to tell you about it.

The title of the book is Finding My Way: My Journey as a Blind Pastor & Educator, by Dr. Gregory Davis.

Living in the same community and being a member of a Presbyterian church just up the road from Bellefonte Presbyterian, where Dr. Greg Davis was pastor for nearly 30 years until his retirement in 2017, I have been acquainted with him for several decades.

I knew from the beginning that he was a professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte (UNCC) in addition to being the pastor of the Bellefonte congregation. I knew from the beginning that he was completely blind. What I did not know until I read his book is that he lost his sight as a teen and overcame innumerable odds to accomplish many things beyond my imagination.

Being labeled as “mentally retarded” (the vernacular in the 1960s) at the Governor Morehead School for the Blind in Raleigh, NC, he matriculated at Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte to attain his GED, take college courses, and became the first African-American president of the student body of the college. He went on to not only be the first black student to graduate with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Religious Studies from UNCC, but he was also a leader on campus. Actually, to say he was a leader on campus is a gross understatement.

He went on to graduate from the Duke University Divinity School in 1979.

He started teaching at UNCC in 1979 and remained on the faculty there for 29 years. Not only was he a faculty member, he was a student advisor, counselor, and advocate. He was instrumental in starting numerous programs at the university.

Dr. Davis knew he was called to be a pastor, but he kept running into roadblocks. It seemed that many congregations were hesitant to accept a blind pastor. Fortunately, for him and Bellefonte Presbyterian Church, that congregation saw his potential and issued a call for him to be their pastor. He served in that capacity for 27 years and led the congregation through growth, new ministries, and two massive building programs.

By his example and courage he has touched thousands of lives.

Having worked hard and had many times of self-doubt in undergraduate and graduate school as a sighted person, I am in awe of all the obstacles Dr. Gregory Davis overcame as a student in the 1960s and 1970s. Those were the days before personal computers. Those were the days of tape recorders, manual Braille typewriters, and massive volumes of Braille dictionaries and the Bible.

Dr. Davis’s dedication to education as a student and as a teacher is nothing short of remarkable – as was his dedication to God and to the congregation of Bellefonte Presbyterian Church. Now, in his retirement, Dr. Davis has blessed us with this book. I highly recommend it to everyone. It’s available from Amazon in paperback as well as e-Book.

Since my last blog post

Our property was unscathed by Tuesday’s massive storm; however, it seems our landline phone service won’t be restored until this week. Parts of the area received in excess of four or five inches of rain in 24 hours, which resulted in local creeks flooding some roads. Electricity was knocked out in areas, resulting in some traffic lights still not working on Thursday night.

It was disorienting. I look forward to some semblance of “normal” returning this week.

I had a delightful conversation with Dr. Greg Davis on Friday.

Until my next blog post

Get your free library card and start using it! Go to your local public library and be amazed at the resources it offers.

It looks like I’ll be masking up again for a little while. Three respiratory illnesses are making the rounds. After having Covid in December, I’m not interested in catching the other two!

Remember the people of Ukraine.

Janet

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