Some tales just beg for retelling. Anita and I attended a Book Festival forum titled “Fiction: Retelling the Tales” which included Margot Livesey (The Flight of Gemma Hardy), Sharyn McCrumb (The Ballad of Tom Dooley; Ghost Riders), and Hillary Jordan (When She Woke). In some Jane Eyre was the starting point, but in “When She Woke” we are reminded of Hawthorne and The Scarlet Letter. Politics and women’s bodies collide as they seem to do over centuries, and I bought the book about a woman named Hannah (like Hester) whose skin was dyed red because she had an abortion.
Then I woke this morning to a discussion about the new Tennessee ruling that will allow a science curriculum to include discussion of different theories on climate change and evolution. You got it. Evolution may be challenged by Tenn students who may want to talk about ‘creationism’ oh and maybe tell their teachers that the stork delivered them as Richard Dawkins so wryly put it. There is no room for real science in Tenn, the state that brought us the 1925 Monkey Trial; it’s a brazen retelling of the teacher, John Scopes, who was accused of violating the Butler Act. Yet again, teaching evolution in a public school is a dangerous business. And remember, they too want to brand publicize doctors’ names and women who seek abortion.
http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2012/03/22/tenn-senate-oks-bill-to-allow-anti-evolution-talk-in-classrooms/
Anita and I left the Jefferson Library in 83 degree heat and saw a young woman sitting outside the frozen yogurt store. Her head was completely wrapped up in a fashionable plaid scarf so that only her eyes were visible. I thought about Sister Mary Claire who smacked me on the knees for chewing gum in mass, one of my oldest memories. At least I could see her mouth as she humiliated me. Then, believe it or not, I saw 3 very happy looking male monks, wrapped in white robes, holding pickets about the Affordable Care Act and Freedom of Religion! Maybe we do need to question our politicians more about religion. Hey Rick, do you really think you are drinking the blood of your saviour at mass? And Mitt, how do you feel about baptizing dead Holocaust victims?
http://www2.dailyprogress.com/news/2012/mar/23/scores-protest-federal-contraception-mandate-charl-ar-1790006/
MountainMornings 