The Wretched and Joyful

Yankee transplant to the deep South. Part-time academic. Full-time weirdo.

[thenumberedloversofdukeellington]

Hark! Good News!

Sorry for my extended abscene but this year has been a whole hot mess of personal, familial, and financial issues.

I do come bearing Good News though...

MOMS FOR LIBERTY ARE LOSING THEIR SCHOOL BOARD POSITIONS LIKE CRAZY.

According to NPR, they're losing elections in Iowa, Virginia, and Pennsylvania. Per the progressive institutional newsletter Mother Jones, they also lost key seats to Democrats in North Carolina and Minnesota.

That's not to say that the quasi-facist organization still isn't weilding power, and that the "parental rights" movement isn't quickly careening into a re-do of the 1980s Satanic Panic. Rural Anderson County, SC, a county where 15.8% of individuals live below the Federal poverty line and most do not have a Bachleor's degree, is currently holding a school board meeting to discuss firing certain school individuals. This frenzy comes after State Rep. Thomas Beach (R-10) posted an open letter to his Facebook page that Anderson District One librarians and teachers are grooming students, and hiding pornographic materials - a serious allegation that lacks substance, but nevertheless is being treated seriously.

At a time when college enrollment has been declining and the teacher shortage is so severe that certain South Carolina students are relying on online coursework, Carolinians need to keep focused. Vote. Not just in your school board elections, but in local, county, and state elections. The choice is clear: Robust literacy programs and quality educators, or shuttered libraries and asynchronous online learning?

[thenumberedloversofdukeellington]

In Absentia

Sorry I have been gone for so long but I have good news:

I AM GRADUATING IN TWO WEEKS

Currently screaming like an opossum out of excitement and fear

[thenumberedloversofdukeellington]

Autumn's Here, Back to School

Sorry for the massive hiatus over the summer but between my job, having the kids at home, and having an existential crisis, I needed the break.

Anyway, schools in SC have been back for a month, and a certain group of people are already on a tear. Horry County schools have gone on a record-breaking censorship movement, banning some books outright and moving others to a restricted section that requires parental permission. Lexington School District 2 made an effort to ban five books, include The Hate U Give and Bathe the Cat (which is a literal picture book whose only "offense" is depicting same-sex adoptive parents). Most notably, an AP History teacher was fired after a student lodged a complaint that reading an excerpt of Ta-Nehisi Coates' Between the World and Me made him uncomfortable about the color of his skin (Mr. Coates even showed up to a board meeting contesting the instructor's firing).

I, for one, am genuinely concerned about what the future looks like for South Carolina's public school students. If these students are not given guided exposure to difficult subjects, how are we to expect them to flourish in college or careers, where difficult subjects do exist? How do we expect children to learn to think critically when every point of contention is stifled. How soon will it be before out of state universities stop accepting South Carolina diplomas becasue there is a discrepancy in the quality of education received? Unfortunately, only time has the answers.

[thenumberedloversofdukeellington]

I'm Tired

Well, the tinsel and glitter of the holidays has worn off, the tree is back in box, and we're just left with the cold, grey days of winter. The kids are back in school, and Congress (both federal and state) is back in session.

Here's a few less than fun things that have happened in the past month:

The South Carolina senate reviewed a school voucher bill that will give parents $6k to send their kids to private school. The cheapest private school in my area starts at $9k, so its really not going to do anything positive for lower-income families

Governor Foghorn Leghorn signed a bill banning trans girls from playing women's sports

Three men inexplicably threw a Molotov cocktail into an elementary school (thankfully on a weekend night, so no one was harmed)

Oh, and here's the new "fun" thing: Schools have been getting shut down due to threats of violence, like this one. And this one. And this one. One of the students making the threats has been arrested and is facing felony charges, but others are still at large. Obviously, a lot of parents, myself included are a bit unnerved, especially due to the uptick in school violence in recent years.

I'm tired, y'all. Mentally, spiritually, physically. I have some time off coming up and I am beyond ready for it. It's too early in the year for this nonsense.

Keep fighting the good fight.

[thenumberedloversofdukeellington]

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Well, the Earth took one more revolution around the sun. I don't know if 2023 is going to be a good year, but the vibes are okay for now. Since my last post, here's some fun stuff that has happened:

I had my finals and finished the semester out (4.0, woohoo!)

My spouse had surgery and is recovering beautifully

There's a feral cat that we think is living under our house. I put dry food out for him. Hopefully someday we'll be able to get him into the Trap-Neuter-Release (TNR) program

It was unusually cold here. Now I'm in shorts. Go figure.

We had a lovely Christmas. I did not wrap gifts this year - mostly because I forgot wrapping paper

I discovered Aldi and my life has greatly improved

I've eaten way too much cheese

I started knitting again

I finally got around to watching Under the Banner of Heaven. If you haven't seen it or read the book, you should

Here's two fun things I'm going to share:

If you're looking for a fun non-alcoholic drink, put orange pieces in an ice cube tray and pour in cranberry juice. Freeze and add the ice cubes to Sprite or ginger beer. Garnish with a sprig of rosemary and a slice of orange.

To make a simmer pot for winter: add orange slices, whole cranberries (or pomegranate seeds), a cinnamon stick, whole cloves, a bay leaf, and a few sprigs of rosemary to a pot of boiling water. Simmer for 1-2 hours.

Wishing you all a lovely, prosperous, and peaceful 2023. I'll be back to politics in a few weeks.

Leaving y'all with one of my favorite songs to sing in the kitchen at 2 a.m.

[thenumberedloversofdukeellington]

The Problem We All Must Live With, Pt. 1:

In unrelated news, I put a simmer pot on the stove and now my whole house smells like an overpriced Christmas ornament shop.

As y'all know, last week were the elections. The overall political climate of South Carolina didn't change. Tim Scott won the Senate. Nancy Mace and Joe Wilson won in Congress. Henry McMaster is still governor, despite running ads that made his opponent look insanely cool.

There was one major upset, though, and that was in education.

Ellen Weaver, a controversial candidate due to her shady credentials, won the bid for Superintendent of Education.

Additionally, Moms for Liberty won several school board seats in Berkley, Charleston, and Horry Counties. If you don't know who Moms for Liberty are, they are a coalition of "concerned moms" who want to put "parents' rights" back in schools. Oh yeah, and they're also loosely affiliated with the ultra-right wing Proud Boys, but they don't really want y'all talking about it.

It's been a week since the election and here's some moves that Moms for Liberty has done in the state of South Carolina:

Pulled almost 100 books out of the Beaufort County school libraries, including Go Ask Alice, Speak, and The Bluest Eye

Fired the Superintendent of Schools (who happens to be their first Black Superintendent) and legal counsel, banned the teaching of critical race theory, and created a committee to review books for removal from library circulation in Berkley County.

Partnered with the school principals to create book-banning committees in Horry County. All books containing LGBT+ content or content relating to sexuality are already banned.

Once again, it's been one fucking week since these school boards took power.

There's going to be more to come. There's going to be bans on teaching sexuality, LGBT+ content, and Critical Race Theory (which, need I remind y'all, is absolute not taught in K-12 schools). Books are going to be removed from libraries, and teachers and librarians are going to eventually quit, because they don't get paid nearly enough for all of it.

Maybe it's because my mom worked in a school library, or maybe it's because books like Lolita, The Bluest Eye, and The Perks of Being a Wallflower changed my perspective on a lot of things when I was younger, but I am absolutely not here for having a small group of mothers preventing access to library books.

I'm sure there's a a lot more that's going to happen in the coming weeks, which is why this is part one, so I will be adding additional parts.

[thenumberedloversofdukeellington]

A batch of Sunday fun before the Scaries set in

It is finally cold out! I've been keeping my heat set to 65 since October but I definitely needed to bump it up this morning.

I'm not a fan of it being dark at 6 p.m. It's disorienting and kind of depressing. My energy hits a peak around 3 p.m. so it's disappointing to go outside then and it's almost sunset.

Making a huge dinner last night means that there were leftovers today which means far less cooking (and dishes!).

The cat came by

I've somehow still managed to fritter away and not do anything productive.

The US Senate is still Blue

Abortion is still legal in South Carolina

[thenumberedloversofdukeellington]

Welcome, Y'all!

Since the silly little bird app is on its final song, I figured I would pretend it's 2014 and move my butt back to Tumblr.

Brief little background: I was born and raised in a teeny, tiny town in the Hudson Valley, before I moved South about a decade ago. In that time, I've finished my degree, started another degree, moved houses a few times, held half a dozen jobs, made new friends, learned how to pronounce street names the correct way, bought a cast iron skillet, and learned to poach eggs.

The biggest question I get from my friends up North is: "why?" and to, be blunt, here's my answer: I don't know.

There's a lot about the South that crawls under my skin: systemic racism, poverty, poor educational outcomes, poor healthcare outcomes, weak infrastructure, and that God-damned passive-aggressive tone that people love to take. There's also a lot to love about the South: pine forests, gentle winters, sweet tea, biscuits, the SEC, lizards, blues, folk, Faulkner, and plenty of other things. If people like me, people who actually care about their brethren down here, up and left tomorrow, where would that leave everyone else who can't leave or doesn't want to leave?

I can't promise I'll be in the South forever, and I'm willing to bet good money at it. However, while I'm here, I'm going to work my hardest to leave this place a little better than how I found it.