Hi Helene,
So this is why you both were so tranquil in Syracuse!
- now I must visit Steepletop. Some years ago I contributed to a fund to help restore the gardens there. How wonderful to see photographs and have your descriptions of the place.
I hope you are well and when you see Mary, please give her my best.
With affection,
Suzanne McAuliffe

I've been pondering this same issue as my partner and I think about having kids. We eventually realize, though, that our cats have done nothing special for us these past few years and figure we'll be fine if our little kiddies don't do too much either. I think on mother's day this year my cats actually woke me up even earlier!

First, never ever read my blog post about this because I totally got it wrong.

I think this is closer: OK, some 15-year-olds are sexual, some are maybe having sex, some are necking, some think the whole idea of teenagers having anything to do with sex or even with people of the gender they're attracted to is as disgusting as we think it is, especially when it's about our teenagers..

Kids should not just be given the freedom to be, but to become.

And one serious part of that is (apart from having That Talk at appropriate intervals and knowing where they are and what they're doing at appropriate intervals, we need to leave them alone.

Except for "You're changing out of that damn thong and putting on something sensible right now!. Maybe. But you never know who's out there.

But kids get a voice.

That especially includes passing around pictures of children in *any* kind of attire. And using pictures of semi-clothed teenagers to sell something and making padded bras for 7 year olds are disgusting. Let's vote with our pocketbooks. And if we want to organize, let's organize. We're allowed to have opinions. So are our kids.

I've loved Edna St. V.M. since I was a young woman and have always felt inspired by her work. I get a 'so take that' kind of feeling when I read her. Last summer I read "Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay" by Nancy Milford and highly recommend it. But Edna died so horribly (in a drunken stupor she fell down the stairs) like so many creative people. Last year I also read bios on Kinsley Amins, E.A. Poe and Phillip Larkin - all carried off by drink.

Where is Avril Lavigne in all this?

And, more seriously, what would Judith Levine (Harmful to Minors) say? Professor Scott, what did you think of her book?

I don't think Miley "backtracked", I think her publicist did. They saw the reaction of the public and forced a statement in her mouth. Girls even at 15 are sexual... or have that component within them. Unfortunately for Americans we see that as "dirty" rather then natural. And unfortunately for Miley she is growing up in public.

Thanks for sharing this exciting project. It is amazing how little people understand when it comes to the entire immigration debate. Sadly, many indigenous peoples and their families are being ripped apart because of our recent policies - the fathers are deported and the moms and kids are left in the US with no support.

A very cozy and warm read! I very much enjoyed it!

MY TEACHER HAS ASSIGNED MY CLASS A RESEARCH PAPER TO DO ON THE AUTHOR OF OUR CHOICE AND I CHOSE LOIS LOWRY BECAUSE I LOVE HER BOOKS. I HAVE LEARNED SO MUCH ABOUT HER LIFE AND WHAT SHE CONTRIBUTED TO AMERICAN LITERATURE. I ALSO HAVE LEARNED WHY SHE WROTE WHAT SHE DID. HER BOOKS MAKE ME THINK ABOUT MY LIFE AND LIFE IN GENERAL. ITS VERY SCARRY TO THINK THAT OUR WORLD MAY TURN INTO SOMTHING LIKE THE GIVER'S BECAUSE OF ALL THE PEOPLE BANNING HER BOOKS. I HAVE LOVED LEARNING ABOUT LOIS LOWRY AND HER LIFE. THANK YOU!

Thanks for a great post—I’d been looking forward to the book for awhile, but am now looking forward to the book tour almost as much!

Why is it wrong to wonder about his mother's heritage? I was genuinely curious when I wrote my piece that you link to, though now there has been a recent Newsweek article about Obama's mother. I, too, am white mother of a child of color -- Asian, by adoption -- so I am not unaware of all the issues that will come up for my daughter. I think we should just be willing to talk about them

Seems right. I wonder if the current economic conditions will make the Wal-Mart model harder to sustain? In a time of cheap gas, the savings "always low prices" provide (or seem to provide) are obvious to consumers, but the costs (both short-term and long-term) of the big-box retail model are mostly negative externalities, not paid by Joe and Jane Shopper, and not something they notice (unless they read your book).

When gas for your car costs over $3 per gallon, though, even a shopper who cares nothing for the environment (only for his short-term cashflow) might be willing to pay a bit more at the store in your town (if there are still stores in your town) rather than driving to a big-box retailer.

And when transport fuel (planes, trains and trucks) sees a similar jump in cost, the goods themselves that big-box stores like to sell (goods, as you note, often made on other continents) become more expensive relative to local substitutes, since somebody (probably the consumer) has to pay more to bring them into the stores.

Is the rising price of gas, then, a net good?

Hi Steve --

Thanks for your comments. I would certainly be delighted if every journalist covering this case would read both my post and even better, my upcoming book . Feel free to forward it to any you know.

There's some merit to the argument that these symbolic debates get more attention than they should. Certainly, whether a granite monument sits in a city park is less important than the soldiers dying in Iraq, the millions without health care, the children not graduating from school (or graduating unprepared), and so on. But ultimately, these debates are important because they are symbolic of so much else that the Religious Right wants to accomplish with the help of a compliant federal judiciary, including in some instances restricting our very ability to debate some of these issues. So while this particular monument may not even be the most important issue on the Court's docket next year, it can be seen as the granite nose of a very large and threatening camel.

I am very interested in reading this book for many reasons. One of these is that this story is also the story of my own family, a heritage we share and of which we can be proud. It's a story of overcoming outstanding odds to achieve new opportunities for future generations of our families. And I agree that it is refreshing to see a book about Italian-Americans that is NOT about the mob!
My other thought is that I hope an introspective look at our own heritage as immigrants helps to inform our attitudes towards current-day immigrants. So much negativity is in the media and public opinion seems to be largely uninformed and lacking in long-term memory; we are all immigrants! Hopefully in examining our own histories with pride we can project a feeling of understanding and hope towards our newest Americans, regardless of their country of origin and extend a welcoming hand toward them; in time, theirs will be stories that will be handed down to future generations and how we treat them will become part of our history.

I'm so pleased to see this discussion happening. I think one of the greatest dangers today is that we too often grow complacent about the underlying racism that exists in society and, as well, within ourselves. We like to imagine that we're beyond "all of that", but the very fact that we are all aglow over Obama and Hillary being in the position in which they are is that race and gender are still very much issues today. We like to say, "We're ready!" and don't always realize just how much a self-congratulatory attitude that is. The mere fact that nooses are draped as casually as a profane remark scrawled in Sharpie ink, or so-called journalists flippantly mention the possibility of a "lynching party" for someone, shows just how out-of-touch we are with the raw terrorism these things represent for black Americans. The truth is, there is an element of prejudice and racism in each of us. We may not let it run our lives or victimize others, but it's there. We notice it when we're walking at night in an unfamiliar neighborhood; we find it when we hear of a crime occurring nearby and we imagine the perpetrator. We feel it when our own borders or property line or job is threatened and the ugliness of painting one group with the same brush rears its ugly head. I don't think it's such a terrible thing to admit to those reactions, but it's crucial that we own it, and are careful to never slip into the mob mentality that poisons our nation's history.

Warren Read
author, "The Lyncher in Me"
www.thelyncherinme.com

Thank you, Lillian, for your wonderful, honest book. You have spoken to millions of us who are "60 on up." Mourning our lost youthful bodies and energy, trying to keep it all together, but appreciating the good times we still have.

I hope you live as long as you WANT to.

Two-- no, three-- reactions:

(1) Every journalist who covers this case should know about the origins of the Ten Commandments monuments in Hollywood showmanship: I hope they all read this post.

(2) Yikes!

(3) I wonder what you think of Noah Feldman's recent argument-- I can't really do it justice here-- that these sorts of symbolic disputes ought to get less attention from those of us committed (as I am) to the First Amendment than they have received, so that we can concentrate on more obviously consequential matters, like what's taught in schools and what sorts of private groups get or don't get government $?

Neat piece-- it makes me want to read Just Add Hormones. (And to see whether 21st century trans writers still find strength, or inspiration, from Jan Morris' beautifully written Conundrum.)