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writerthreads · 3 years

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The top 10 classic fears in literature

By Prof. Marianna Torgovnik on TedBlog

Fear #1: Death, death, death—did I mention death?

An almost universal fear, death recurs in literature more than any other fear, all the way from canonical works through fantasies like J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. I list the fear of death three times since it occurs in many forms: fear of our own deaths, fear of family members or close friends dying, fear of children preceding parents, the death of an entire culture.

Some examples: Shakespeare’s Sonnets (“Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore”; Hamlet (“To be or not to be”); John Keats (“When I have fears”); Virginia Woolf, The Waves; Pat Barker, The Ghost Road. This list could go on and on, because the fear does.

Fear #2: Avoiding death for the wrong reasons.

Literature loves paradox and so, paradoxically, the second greatest fear is avoiding death for the wrong reasons: when death will inevitably follow a noble or moral act or out of cowardice, especially in war. For understandable reasons, this fear is less common than more general fear of death, but it is out there and memorable nonetheless.

Some examples: Sophocles, Antigone (to bury her dead brother, Antigone famously courts death); Shakespeare several times — Hamlet again (“There is a providence in the fall of a sparrow”) and Antony and Cleopatra (to avoid capture by Octavius); Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities (“It is a far, far better thing that I do than I have ever done”); Harry Potter in his pursuit of Voldemort.

Fear #3: Hunger or other severe physical deprivation.

Survival tends to trump the finer emotions when it comes to fear. Sometimes time specific, the fear of hunger nonetheless reminds us of basic things. In romantic novels or poems, it can be and often is a symbol for more abstract needs, like love. In Holocaust literature, it portrays humanity strained to the core.

Some examples: Dante, The Divine Comedy (Count Ugolino and his children); Samuel Taylor Coleridge, “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” (“Water, water, every where, nor any drop to drink”); Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre; Elie Wiesel, Night; Susanne Collins’ The Hunger Games.

Fear #4: Killing or causing the death of someone you love.

Whether by murder, negligence or a set of circumstances beyond our control, the fear of causing the death of someone we love is a big one. It’s a stock feature of numerous spy and crime dramas, where we tend to brush it off since the hero (think James Bond) or (more rarely) heroine’s beloved is almost always a goner. Numerous operas by Verdi, including Rigoletto and Un Ballo in Maschera use this theme, sometimes more than once; in fact, opera thrives on this fear, as in Bizet’s Carmen. It usually takes serious and even majestic forms in literature.

Some examples: Patroclus dying for Achilles in Homer’s The Iliad; Othello killing Desdemona in Shakespeare’s Othello; Thomas Hardy, Jude the Obscure (“Done because we are too menny”); D.H. Lawrence’s Women in Love (Gerald choosing to die rather than kill Gudrun); Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl.

Fear #5: Being rejected and/or being loved by the wrong person.

At last we come to a fear that can have a lighter side and, sometimes — though not always — a happy ending. In literature, characters fear being rejected, being loved, and being loved by the wrong person in almost equal proportions. Once again, the examples span the ancient classics all the way up to the present.

Some examples: Woman loves step-son madly in three versions of the same story, none with a happy ending (Euripides, Hippolytus; Racine, Phaedra; Mary Renault, The Bull from the Sea); mixed up couples set right in Shakespeare’s As You Like It; love triumphs by the end in Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice; two different kinds of love lead to tragedy in Hardy, Tess of the D’Urbervilles; mixed results in Jeffrey Eugenides, The Marriage Plot.

Fear #6: Illness, disease and aging.

Closely allied to the fear of death — but not identical to it — the fear of illness is another constant though, as we’d expect, the disease most feared changes over time. The bubonic plague used to be the leading contender; TB enjoyed a long dominance until cures were found. Nowadays, cancer and, more often, dementia are far greater fears. There is at least one stunning example in this category of embracing the fear being absolutely the right thing to do: Flaubert’s St Julien, L’Hospitalier, in which the saint embraces a leper and achieves transcendence.

Some examples: Giovanni Boccacio’s Decameron; Daniel Defoe’s Journal of the Plague Year; Oscar Wilde, The Portrait of Dorian Gray; Albert Camus, La Peste (The Plague); Ian McEwan, Atonement; Jonathan Franzen, The Corrections.

Fear #7: Lost reputation, divorce or scandal.

People used to fear this one more than they do today, when our motto seems to be that no publicity is really bad publicity and unseemly revelations are the order of the day. Still, this is a significant fear, and one that even recent books revisit in original ways.

Some examples: Sophocles, Oedipus Rex; Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina; D.H. Lawrence, Lady Chatterley’s Lover; Thomas Wolfe, The Bonfire of the Vanities; Phillip Roth, The Human Stain.

Fear #8: War, shipwrecks and other disasters.

The fear of shipwrecks can seem archaic — but they were the airplane crashes of yesteryear. Shipwrecks can be mere episodes or the core of the plot; in early literature, they are closely allied with war, a more global disaster. While other disasters arouse fear — earthquakes, volcanos — war and shipwrecks lead the field. Both change characters’ lives, with variable results.

Some examples: Homer, The Odyssey; Defoe, Robinson Crusoe; Jonathan Swift, Gulliver’s Travels; Tolstoy, War and Peace; Yann Martel, Life of Pi.

Fear #9: The law and, more specifically, lawyers.

Fear of the law is a surprisingly classic fear, weighing in at number nine. But what’s meant by the law changes over time. While fear of God’s judgment remains plausible in literature, it is far less common today than fear of society’s laws — and specifically the rapacity of lawyers and the law’s ability, in Dickens’ words, “to make business for itself.” In some modern books, the law becomes a metaphor for the meaning of life.

Some examples: The Bible; Aeschylus, The Oresteia; Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter; Dickens, Bleak House; Franz Kafka, The Trial; Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things

Fear #10: That real life won’t resemble literature.

While this might seem the most trivial of fears, in fact it drives a lot of great literature. Some characters want life to be elevated, inflated, like epic or romantic literature. Deprived of that illusion, they die or take their own lives—looping us back to fear #1. Other characters favor codes of renunciation that have been called by literary critics “the Great Tradition,” fearing that they will gain something by immoral or amoral actions; a variation on this fear is the fear, as George Eliot’s Dorothea puts it, “I try not to have desires merely for myself.” Not at all light for avid readers, this fear usefully reminds us that life is not really like a Henry James novel.

Some examples: Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote; Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary; George Eliot, Middlemarch; Henry James, The Ambassadors; Julian Barnes, The Sense of an Ending.

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deadpresidents · 4 years

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That is why I had to visit Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington, though I was admitted to the hospital the following day. I just had to see and feel it for myself that, after many years of silent witness, the truth is still marching on.

Emmett Till was my George Floyd. He was my Rayshard Brooks, Sandra Bland and Breonna Taylor. He was 14 when he was killed, and I was only 15 years old at the time. I will never ever forget the moment when it became so clear that he could easily have been me. In those days, fear constrained us like an imaginary prison, and troubling thoughts of potential brutality committed for no understandable reason were the bars.

Though I was surrounded by two loving parents, plenty of brothers, sisters and cousins, their love could not protect me from the unholy oppression waiting just outside that family circle. Unchecked, unrestrained violence and government-sanctioned terror had the power to turn a simple stroll to the store for some Skittles or an innocent morning jog down a lonesome country road into a nightmare. If we are to survive as one unified nation, we must discover what so readily takes root in our hearts that could rob Mother Emanuel Church in South Carolina of her brightest and best, shoot unwitting concertgoers in Las Vegas and choke to death the hopes and dreams of a gifted violinist like Elijah McClain.

Like so many young people today, I was searching for a way out, or some might say a way in, and then I heard the voice of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on an old radio. He was talking about the philosophy and discipline of nonviolence. He said we are all complicit when we tolerate injustice. He said it is not enough to say it will get better by and by. He said each of us has a moral obligation to stand up, speak up and speak out. When you see something that is not right, you must say something. You must do something. Democracy is not a state. It is an act, and each generation must do its part to help build what we called the Beloved Community, a nation and world society at peace with itself.

Ordinary people with extraordinary vision can redeem the soul of America by getting in what I call good trouble, necessary trouble. Voting and participating in the democratic process are key. The vote is the most powerful nonviolent change agent you have in a democratic society. You must use it because it is not guaranteed. You can lose it.

You must also study and learn the lessons of history because humanity has been involved in this soul-wrenching, existential struggle for a very long time. People on every continent have stood in your shoes, though decades and centuries before you. The truth does not change, and that is why the answers worked out long ago can help you find solutions to the challenges of our time. Continue to build union between movements stretching across the globe because we must put away our willingness to profit from the exploitation of others.

Though I may not be here with you, I urge you to answer the highest calling of your heart and stand up for what you truly believe. In my life I have done all I can to demonstrate that the way of peace, the way of love and nonviolence is the more excellent way. Now it is your turn to let freedom ring.

When historians pick up their pens to write the story of the 21st century, let them say that it was your generation who laid down the heavy burdens of hate at last and that peace finally triumphed over violence, aggression and war. So I say to you, walk with the wind, brothers and sisters, and let the spirit of peace and the power of everlasting love be your guide.

#John Lewis #Rep. John Lewis #Civil Rights Movement #Civil Rights #Black Lives Matter #American Hero #Good Trouble #RIP

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wlntrsldler · 4 years

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I’m sure someone’s already sent this but from paper rings “I like shiny things but I’d marry you with paper rings” with George, I’m such a sap for George he’s all I can think of now when I hear this song 😂😂

PROMPT: based on paper rings by taylor swift (an installment of my taylor swift x harry potter series. to read more about it, click here) short imagine with george and yn pranking Ron and talking about their future together.

WC: 1.2K+

HARRY POTTER MASTERLIST

paper rings (g.w one shot)

“Ron is going to kill us,” you chuckled as you messily smeared paint on the walls, ruining any posters that he had on there. You turned your head to see George with a large grin on his face, unapologetic as he covered Ron’s room with the blue liquid. “George! Not on his bed!”

“Go big or go home, my love,” he cooed as he skipped over to you. He kissed your cheek, sloppily, wrapping his strong arms around you, keeping his palms away to ensure he doesn’t get any paint on you.

“He’s going to send me home because of you, Weasley,” you shook your head, laughing as you two stared at your masterpiece. You pecked his nose, giggling as he scrunched his face up in delight.

“I wouldn’t let him,” George murmured, burying his head into your nest of hair. “You’re stuck with me forever!”

“Ooh,” you teased, pushing away from him jokingly. “Who said I wanted that?”

He cocked an eyebrow, a devious smirk tugging on his lips. What started as a small prank turned into turning Ron’s room into a sea of blue. You didn’t know how you ended up here but after a few words of encouragement from Fred- “Why not just paint his whole room blue?” “Come on, Y/N! It’ll be funny.” “You know I’d help you guys out but it’s date night with Angelina tonight.” “Take pictures, though.”- you decided to go along with the ridiculous idea.

George walked away, returning to his side of the room, or so you thought. You turned around, laughing in triumph, not seeing that George dunked his hands into the bucket of paint and sneakily made his way towards you. As you began closing off the paint cans to leave Ron’s room for the big reveal, George picked you up, swabbing the pads of his fingers on your exposed skin.

“You have no choice but to be stuck with me forever!” George laughed, spinning you around the room with the uncapped paint can in your hand. The paint splashed everywhere, hitting untouched parts of Ron’s bedroom and the both of you.

You squealed, “Weasley! Put me down!”

“Never!” he attacked you with kisses all over your face, enjoying the way you were squirming from under him. George didn’t even care that he was covered in blue paint that probably won’t come out in the wash. He mentally apologized to his mother for the mess the both of you created but at the moment he couldn’t help but not care.

You tried to get out of his tight grip, but failed, causing the two of you to fall to the floor in hysterics. You landed on top of him, the paint can happily spilling all the remaining paint onto Ron’s rug. The once organized bedroom was now covered in blue paint with you and George right in the middle of it.

George held your hips with his hands, steadying you as you sat on his stomach. Your hair tickled the side of his face as you leaned down to place a soft kiss on his lips. He hummed in satisfaction, pulling your body closer to his as he deepened the kiss. Your tongue swiped his bottom lip and he gladly obliged, parting his lips enough to let your tongue in. You let out a whimper as he squeezed your hips, subconsciously bucking his hips into the air.

Before you could take it any further, the door to Ron’s room swung open. Ron yelled, “Why are you two having sex in my room? And why is my room covered in paint? What did you two bloody do?”

Startled, you pulled away from George, trying to hold in your laughter. In a teasing tone, you answered first, “Surprise?”

“I’m going to kill you,” Ron snarled, nostrils flaring as he looked around his room, which was now blue from top to bottom. The paint reeked, too, and it was getting difficult for him to breath. His eyes met George’s, stepping closer to his brother, “Both of you.”

George’s eyes widened, “Run, my love!”

He grabbed your hand, pulling you to one side as Ron tried to catch the both of you. Your loud laughter rang throughout the semi-empty Burrow as you ran down the stairs. Ron eventually got tired chasing after you guys, deciding that his energy would be best put to cleaning up what you two ruined for him. George dragged you out to a secluded part of the area, by an old tree that provided shade for the two of you on the sunny, summer day.

He finally let go of your hand, chest heaving as he flashed his award-winning smile to you. George plopped down, leaning against the trunk of the tree and motioned for you to sit beside him. You sat next to George and laid your head on his shoulder. It took a minute before you both caught your breath, giggling as your heartbeats returned to a normal rhythm.

“You’re going to be the death of me, Weasley,” you chuckled, punching his arm softly.

He wrapped that same arm around you, placing a kiss to the crown of your head. “Don’t say that. I don’t want to imagine the love of my life, dead.”

“I’m the love of your life?”

“Mhm,” George answered, not missing a beat. “That you are. Even if you don’t want to be with me forever.”

“I was only joking, Georgie,” you replied, a serious tone to your voice now. You laced your fingers with his, playing with the sleeve of his shirt. “You’re the one I want.”

“Yeah?” His voice dripped with fondness and a bit of apprehension because Merlin, how did he get so lucky with you?

“Mhm.”

“When I marry you, you’ll have the prettiest and shiniest ring ever made,” George began, looking down at you as he started to talk. He thought about it a lot- your future together. He saw you two with a lot of kids, growing up with a big family would do that to a man. George saw you as his wife, dancing in the comfort of the moonlight when you were both old and wrinkly. He saw you walking down the aisle, wearing a beautiful dress, carrying a bouquet of flowers that you, Moine, and Ginny picked from his mother’s garden. He saw it all with you. He saw life with you.

Amused, you looked up at him, “Yeah?”

“Oh, yeah,” he reinforced, continuing his story. “The shop is gonna be booming, my love, just you wait. Me and Fred are gonna be successful, I can feel it. Then, I’ll have enough money to give you the things you deserve. Diamonds, fancy dates, a nice house, you name it. I’ll give you everything you’ve ever dreamt of.”

“That sounds nice,” you sighed. You snuggled closer to him, loving the way he blanketed you with a feeling of comfort whenever you’re around him. “But the only thing I’ve ever dreamt of is a life with you, Georgie. The rest of that is nice, yeah, but I don’t need that to be happy. I just need you.”

George smiled sadly. He knew he didn’t have much and money was always tight. He always wanted to spoil you rotten and he felt pathetic not being able to do it. Hearing those words leave your lips, meant more to him than he could ever articulate. He kissed you softly, “You mean that?”

“George Weasley,” you laughed, taking his face in your hands. “I’d marry you with paper rings.”

He chuckled against your lips, “I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

TAGS:

@rexorangecouny

#harry potter #harry potter fanfic #frances x taylor swift x harry potter #george weasley #george weasley imagine #george weasley x yn #george weasley x reader #george weasley one shot #frances writes #frances song fics

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madamlaydebug · 4 years

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A must read! Thank you Senator Lewis for you service and unwavering dedication!

Together, You

Can Redeem the Soul

of Our Nation

Though I am gone, I urge

you to answer the highest calling

of your heart and stand

up for what you truly believe.

By John Lewis

Mr. Lewis, the civil rights leader who died on July 17, wrote this essay shortly before his death, to be published upon the day of his funeral.

You must also study and learn the lessons of history because humanity has been involved in this soul-wrenching, existential struggle for a very long time. People on every continent have stood in your shoes, through decades and centuries before you. The truth does not change, and that is why the answers worked out long ago can help you find solutions to the challenges of our time. Continue to build union between movements stretching across the globe because we must put away our willingness to profit from the exploitation of others.

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syftkogtech · 4 years

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By John Lewis

Mr. Lewis, the civil rights leader who died on July 17, wrote this essay shortly before his death, to be published upon the day of his funeral .

You must also study and learn the lessons of history because humanity has been involved in this soul-wrenching, existential struggle for a very long time. People on every continent have stood in your shoes, through decades and centuries before you. The truth does not change, and that is why the answers worked out long ago can help you find solutions to the challenges of our time. Continue to build union between movements stretching across the globe because we must put away our willingness to profit from the exploitation of others.

John Lewis, the civil rights leader and congressman who died on July 17, wrote this essay shortly before his death.

"Do not get lost in a sea of despair. Be hopeful, be optimistic. Our struggle is not the struggle of a day, a week, a month, or a year, it is the struggle of a lifetime. Never, ever be afraid to make some noise and get in good trouble, necessary trouble."

~ Rep. John Lewis

youtube

#Youtube

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deevah4ever · 4 years

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John Lewis asked this be published on the day of his funeral. Please take a moment to read it. I feel inspired for the work ahead.

John Lewis: Together, You Can Redeem the Soul of Our Nation

NY Times July 30, 2020

“Though I am gone, I urge you to answer the highest calling of your heart and stand up for what you truly believe."

While my time here has now come to an end, I want you to know that in the last days and hours of my life you inspired me. You filled me with hope about the next chapter of the great American story when you used your power to make a difference in our society. Millions of people motivated simply by human compassion laid down the burdens of division. Around the country and the world you set aside race, class, age, language and nationality to demand respect for human dignity. That is why I had to visit Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington, though I was admitted to the hospital the following day. I just had to see and feel it for myself that, after many years of silent witness, the truth is still marching on.

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never-sated · 4 years

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#John Lewis

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fd-writes · 4 years

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Your Rest is Well Deserved Congressman John Lewis!

🙏🏿 🙏🏿 🙏🏿 The Last Written Words by "#CongressmanJohnLewis" as the Curtain began to descend on him as he finished his race on this side of Eternity and getting himself ready to Walk into the Next Eternity. #GoodTrouble ❤️ ❤️ ❤️

"While my time here has now come to an end, I want you to know that in the last days and hours of my life you inspired me. You filled me with hope about the next chapter of the great American story when you used your power to make a difference in our society. Millions of people motivated simply by human compassion laid down the burdens of division. Around the country and the world you set aside race, class, age, language and nationality to demand respect for human dignity.

You must also study and learn the lessons of history because humanity has been involved in this soul-wrenching, existential struggle for a very long time. People on every continent have stood in your shoes, through decades and centuries before you. The truth does not change, and that is why the answers worked out long ago can help you find solutions to the challenges of our time. Continue to build union between movements stretching across the globe because we must put away our willingness to profit from the exploitation of others.

~ John Lewis

#johnlewis #goodtrouble #civilrights #activist #rip #presidentobama #barackobama

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berniesrevolution · 6 years

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IN THESE TIMES

“The truth is that activists do politics better than politicians,” says Larry Krasner. Bernie Sanders nods emphatically.

The two are meeting for the first time at a roundtable on decarceration hosted by Jacobin magazine’s The Dig podcast, which also included Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor and Premal Dharia. The Vermont senator and the Philadelphia district attorney both serve as beacons of what a left electoral challenge can accomplish, locally and nationally (and win or lose). After the podcast ends, Krasner extends a hand to Sanders and says, “I did vote for you, by the way.” Since coasting to victory last year on a wave of criminal justice reform fervor, Krasner has quickly become one of the most-watched prosecutors in the country. He offers a test of whether a progressive district attorney can fix a justice system that has ravaged communities of color for decades. Krasner now faces immense pressure from both the activist supporters who elected him and the law-and-order proponents who oppose his reforms.

Krasner makes for an unlikely DA. The St. Louis-born civil rights attorney has sued the Philadelphia Police Department 75 times and provided pro bono counsel to Black Lives Matter and Occupy protesters. He once joked that he’d “spent a career becoming completely unelectable.” But the 57-year-old’s brazen résumé became his sales pitch on the 2017 campaign trail, where support from black civil rights groups and prominent politicians lent him immediate credibility. His Democratic opponents, rather than employing the usual “tough on crime” rhetoric, jockeyed to win over the city’s suddenly voluble progressive base. With the support of citywide grassroots coalitions, national progressive groups and, to some controversy, a $1.45 million cash injection from liberal billionaire George Soros, Krasner bested his nearest rival in the crowded primary by an 18-point margin, all but guaranteeing a general-election victory in the overwhelmingly Democratic city.

Five months in office, he has an air of celebrity. A documentary film crew, which has been given unrestricted access, tails him as he leaves the podcast stage, dangling boom mics into his conversations with audience members.

Criminal justice reformers are watching Krasner closely. The Philadelphia Coalition for a Just District Attorney, a diverse group of decarceration activists that helped elect Krasner, pounced on him for softening his stance on the death penalty, which shifted from a firm “never” to a “never say never” shortly after taking office. (While Pennsylvania hasn’t executed a convicted felon since 1999, Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf’s moratorium on capital punishment could be lifted if a Republican challenger manages to unseat him later this year.)

Although anti-prison groups have worked to unseat DAs around the country, they maintain a deliberate skepticism about progressive replacements. Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance Jr., Los Angeles DA Jackie Lacey and New Orleans DA Leon Cannizzaro ran as aggressive reformers but continued harsh practices, from zealously prosecuting panhandlers in monied neighborhoods to arresting rape victims who refused to testify.

The racial justice activists who helped elect Chicago DA Kim Foxx in 2016 pioneered a watchdog model to independently monitor Foxx’s triumphs and shortcomings. Three days after Krasner was elected, the Coalition for a Just DA rallied outside his office with a punch-list of demands for his first 100 days in office. Advocates say that, while they’re not checking off each action item individually, they’re closely monitoring his progress with Chicago-inspired check-ins.

“They hold your feet to the fire,” Krasner says. Krasner cannonballed into the office by axing31 assistant DAs and other high-ranking officials from the 530-person staff. Dozens more have left, apparently unwilling to adapt to the culture under Krasner.

In February, he implemented new recommendations to eliminate cash bail for most nonviolent offenses. In March, he filed criminal charges against a police officer who was filmed body-slamming a pedestrian during an arrest. And he ordered his office’s 300 prosecutors to seek lighter sentences in plea deals and, notably, to factor the annual cost of incarcerating an individual into sentencing recommendations—$42,000 annually, according to his office.

(Continue Reading)

#politics #the left #in these times #larry krasner #bernie sanders #progressive #progressive movement #criminal justice reform

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expatimes · 3 years

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Super Bowl LV: One for the ages despite COVID, politics

When the Kansas City Chiefs won Super Bowl LIV in February last year, it was simply another National Football League (NFL) championship triumph, complete with the pomp surrounding one of the world’s most-watched sporting events and the celebratory gatherings across the United States before, during and after the game.

Within weeks, COVID-19 ripped through the country. The pandemic threw big-time American sports into turmoil.

The annual college basketball tournament, known as “March Madness”, was cancelled.

Major professional baseball, basketball and hockey leagues were forced to cancel games and overhaul their procedures.

The NFL aimed to move forward with severely altered protocols, anticipating a full off-season and regular season set to begin in September.

If dealing with the pandemic was not a massive enough crisis for the league, the protests that followed the police killing of George Floyd, a Black man, in May, had an outsized effect on the NFL and its players, 70 percent of whom are Black.

Now, as the Kansas City Chiefs prepare for Sunday’s Super Bowl LV against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, many are marvelling that the season is culminating in two of the best teams facing off when so much could have sent it off the rails.

“Credit goes to the organisations and the players, who came together to stay disciplined” through what could have turned out to be a polarising season marked by subpar play on the field, US sports commentator Jon Meterparel told Al Jazeera.

This Sunday, just 22,000 spectators will be in attendance, about a third of the Tampa stadium’s capacity. The league will provide N95 masks to all attendees.

Top US infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci has said he is comfortable with the outdoor gathering “as long as they wear masks and as long as there’s physical distancing”.

The season witnessed labelled bottles, face masks, and many other measures intended to prevent the spread of the coronavirus

Pandemic response

The NFL had just begun its off-season when the coronavirus outbreak began in the US – a distinct advantage it had over other professional sports.

That gave league officials more time to consider how they would proceed and coordinate with the players’ union on a contract tailored to the pandemic.

What they agreed to was an approach that emphasised increasingly strict precautions: Daily testing, restrictions on players’ activities in their free time, and aggressive contract tracing and quarantining.

The league and players’ union eschewed creating a neutral “bubble”, where teams gather and collectively quarantine during the season, an approach taken by the National Basketball Association.

While each team had several players who opted out of the season because of the pandemic, the overall strategy was widely considered a success, with the NFL teaming up with the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to see if the general public can learn from the approach.

A resulting CDC study said elements of the NFL’s strategy in limiting the spread of the coronavirus could be applied “to settings such as long-term care facilities, schools, and high-density environments”.

Allen Sills, NFL’s chief medical officer, said the season showed the league was “able to show that you can play a team sport while minimising risk to the participants”.

That extended to spectators, Sills told reporters on Sunday.

Initially fans could not attend games. By week six, they were gradually allowed into stadiums at reduced capacity.

Signs that urge fans to wear a face mask are seen before an NFL football game in Tampa, Florida last year

Sills said the league had not “traced any outbreaks or cluster of cases to any of the places we have hosted fans”.

Under the league’s strict contact tracing policy, which relied on players using “proximity recording devices”, those who came in close contact with infected individuals were required to quarantine for several days.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said games would not be rescheduled for “competitive considerations”. That meant games would only be moved if there were concerns an outbreak had not been contained, not if key players would have to sit out due to the precautions.

It created some unique scenarios.

The Denver Broncos were forced to field practice squad wide receiver, Kendall Hinton, playing quarterback – a crucial offensive position – after their entire quarterback roster was made ineligible due to coronavirus precautions.

He fared poorly, completing only one pass and throwing two interceptions in nine attempts.

New Orleans Saints defensive end Cameron Jordan (94) sacks Denver Broncos quarterback Kendall Hinton (2), on November 29, 2020, in Denver, Colorado

Another unlikely circumstance came during the playoffs when the Cleveland Browns took on the Pittsburgh Steelers with their head coach Kevin Stefanski watching from home.

“You really have to double down on the protocols and trust the protocols and make sure that everybody’s safety is priority number one,” Stefanski told The Washington Post in January.

Social justice protest

In 2016, San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick began kneeling during the US national anthem, protesting racial injustice.

The silent act kicked off a firestorm of criticism, fuelled largely by former President Donald Trump, who called for kneeling players to be fired.

NFL Commissioner Goodell, at the time, suggested Kaepernick’s actions, which were replicated at venues across the world, showed a lack of patriotism. The star quarterback was later forced out of the league.

In 2020, as racial protests swept the country following the police killing of Floyd, players spoke out.

Several players released a video in June calling on the league to “condemn racism and a systemic oppression of Black people … admit wrong in silencing our players from peacefully protesting”.

Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson warms up before an NFL football game against the Buffalo Bills in Orchard Park, New York

“We must have the answer today, and we will work with players, staff and more to arrive at a timely response,” Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shahid Khan, a Pakistani immigrant, said in a statement.

This time, the NFL’s response was starkly different. Goodell swiftly released a video saying the league was “wrong for not listening to NFL players earlier and encourage all to speak out and peacefully protest”.

“We are listening, I am listening,” said Goodell.

The first week of games in 2020 was defined by end zones emblazoned with the phrases “End Racism” and “It Takes All of Us”; league-sanctioned moments of silence for racial inequality; the playing of the Black national anthem “Raise every voice and sing” at games; and players allowed to wear the names of victims of police brutality on their helmets.

New England Patriots linebacker Ja’Whaun Bentley wears a decal on his helmet paying tribute to Breonna Taylor, who was killed by police in Louisville, Kentucky, in March

The NFL, through its Inspire Change programme, has also pledged $250m over 10 years for social justice initiatives.

Kenneth Shropshire, a professor of Global Sport and the CEO of the Global Sport Institute at Arizona State University, told Al Jazeera the league’s shift was a perfect storm: The striking video of Floyd’s death, the pandemic pause in sports giving NFL brass “more time to contemplate”, and less antagonism from Trump.

“The Kaepernick moment was one where the league was let’s shut this down. We don’t need this. The theme of the day was this is distraction from playing,” said Shropshire.

“And to the credit of players like Eric Reid and Kenny Stills, they persisted, even with the potential wrath of being someone who is never signed again, like Kaepernick,” he said.

San Francisco 49ers safety Eric Reid (35) and quarterback Colin Kaepernick (7) kneel during the national anthem before an NFL football game in September 2016

Shropshire also noted that the initiative “coincided with one of the worst hiring seasons for African American coaches”, with only one Black coach hired among seven openings the past several weeks, despite “outstanding candidates”.

Kaepernick has called the NFL initiatives “propaganda” and a disingenuous attempt to seize on the cultural zeitgeist, while accusing the league of “blackballing” Reid, who went unsigned in 2020.

‘One of the great matchups’

As an unquestionably unique season reaches its culmination on Sunday, sports commentators are certain American football fans will witness history.

On the field, the game pits the oldest – and arguably the greatest – quarterback to start a Super Bowl: The Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ 43-year-old Tom Brady, who won a record six championships with the New England Patriots.

Up against him is a young superstar quarterback, the Kansas City Chiefs’ 25-year-old Patrick Mahomes, who won his first Super Bowl last year.

Tony Romo, who will be announcing the game for US broadcaster CBS, told USA Today this is “one of the great matchups in sports history”.

Given the past year’s challenges, “the fact that the NFL completed another successful season is nothing short of fantastic,” said US sports commentator Jon Meterparel.

Read full article: https://expatimes.com/?p=17713&feed_id=32159

#ages #AmericanFootball #Bowl #COVID #News #Politics #Racism #Sports #Super #UnitedStates #USCanada

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risuave · 4 years

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Blog #10- Words from the Wise

Shout out to all the people who have appeared to help me find the light in darker times. From Carrie to Nick, from Julie to Kyle It’s an honor to share the gift you have and continue to give me.

“I feel emotionally depleted. The last year has been a constant trauma roller coaster and I would very much like to get off.”

One of my VO peers tweeted this recently, and boy oh boy does that hit home. I mean THINK about it: this year on a global scale we got stuck with a global pandemic, Tiger King, violence on our streets, a toxic global environment and cultural heroes just dying left and right. And that doesn’t even BEGIN to get into the personal drains. Relationships strained and broken. Jobs taken. Wages lost. Worlds shattered by loss: to COVID, to time, to accidents. This darkness is seeping into our very psyche; it’s affecting our consciousness and, in so doing, affecting our world. It’s a vicious feedback loop.

Personally, this week has been depleting even by 2020 standards. Losing friends. Watching friends lose family. Watching people lose what they once thought was their entire world. Seeing anger and that “I’m fucking DONE” mentality on the streets firsthand. It’s been enough to make anyone want to curl up and shut down, I know I found myself feeling that way this week.

Yet even in moments like this, perhaps ESPECIALLY in moments like this, I find myself looking for the light. In the inspirations and conversations with friends and family. In reading and re-reading passages from idols and inspirations. In seeking the wisdom of those who are no longer with me, whose examples I constantly seek to emulate.

So today, I’m ceding this blog to the words of my inspirations: Chadwick Boseman in the photo and John Lewis in the words (you can read John’s essay on the other socials.) The photo above is from a text Chadwick Boseman sent out a few weeks into quarantine. Even in the darkest of moments; a fucking pandemic and the immediate shut down after, Chadwick was looking at the beauty in the world. In the darkest of moments, Chadwick was able to find the light. His life, his viewpoint, is one that’s always been inspiring and a proper legacy he leaves behind not just for those that knew him, but to all.

As for the words themselves, I’ve chosen to print out the words of the final essay of John Lewis and the challenge he left behind for us. The hope he has given us. I hope, in your own way, you can take comfort in his final charge to us all.

For hope, and the knowledge that her there is always the light.

-V

“While my time here has now come to an end, I want you to know that in the last days and hours of my life you inspired me. You filled me with hope about the next chapter of the great American story when you used your power to make a difference in our society. Millions of people motivated simply by human compassion laid down the burdens of division. Around the country and the world you set aside race, class, age, language and nationality to demand respect for human dignity.

You must also study and learn the lessons of history because humanity has been involved in this soul-wrenching, existential struggle for a very long time. People on every continent have stood in your shoes, through decades and centuries before you. The truth does not change, and that is why the answers worked out long ago can help you find solutions to the challenges of our time. Continue to build union between movements stretching across the globe because we must put away our willingness to profit from the exploitation of others.

- John Lewis

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ballumlicious · 4 years

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John Lewis’ last essay...

John Lewis, the civil rights leader and congressman who died on July 17, wrote this essay shortly before his death to be written on the day of his funeral:.

You must also study and learn the lessons of history because humanity has been involved in this soul-wrenching, existential struggle for a very long time. People on every continent have stood in your shoes, through decades and centuries before you. The truth does not change, and that is why the answers worked out long ago can help you find solutions to the challenges of our time. Continue to build union between movements stretching across the globe because we must put away our willingness to profit from the exploitation of others.

John Lewis, June 2020

What a man...what a loss...RIP Dear John!

(article from http://greginhollywood.com/)

#john lewis #black lives matter #LGBT

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binsofchaos · 4 years

Photo

.Hero | John Lewis

If you see something that is not right,

not fair, not just,

you have a moral obligation to do

something about it.

“Do not get lost in a sea of despair. Be hopeful, be optimistic. Our struggle is not the struggle of a day, a week, a month, or a year, it is the struggle of a lifetime. Never, ever be afraid to make some noise and get in good trouble, necessary trouble.”

“Anchor the eternity of love in your own soul and embed this planet with goodness. Lean toward the whispers of your own heart, discover the universal truth, and follow its dictates. Release the need to hate, to harbor division, and the enticement of revenge. Release all bitterness. Hold only love, only peace in your heart, knowing that the battle of good to overcome evil is already won. Choose confrontation wisely, but when it is your time don’t be afraid to stand up, speak up, and speak out against injustice. And if you follow your truth down the road to peace and the affirmation of love, if you shine like a beacon for all to see, then the poetry of all the great dreamers and philosophers is yours to manifest in a nation, a world community, and a Beloved Community that is finally at peace with itself.”

“Because of you, John. Barack Obama”

https://www.vox.com/2020/7/18/21329556/john-lewis-speeches

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/30/opinion/john-lewis-civil-rights-america.html

You must also study and learn the lessons of history because humanity has been involved in this soul-wrenching, existential struggle for a very long time. People on every continent have stood in your shoes, through decades and centuries before you. The truth does not change, and that is why the answers worked out long ago can help you find solutions to the challenges of our time. Continue to build union between movements stretching across the globe because we must put away our willingness to profit from the exploitation of others.

#if you see something that is not right #john lewis #hero #equality #blm #civil rights #brain pickings #across that bridge #brainpickings

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thelovefieldproject · 7 years

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President Obama’s Reading List:

Entertainment Weekly posted the myriad books that the President has recommended over the years. Over the next four years, I hope to tackle this impressive list...I generally read anywhere from 20-100 books a year, but I know that some of these 100-plus books, I will struggle with. Still, I hope to grow and learn, and overwhelm my already crammed book shelves... @barackobama

Happy Reading, and Thank you, Mr. President

The Naked and the Dead, Norman Mailer One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez The Golden Notebook, Doris Lessing The Woman Warrior, Maxine Hong Kingston Brown Girl Dreaming, Jacqueline Woodson Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad Nora Webster, Colm Toibin The Laughing Monsters, Denis Johnson Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China, Evan Osnos Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End, Dr. Atul Gawande Cartwheeling in Thunderstorms, Katherine Rundell The Narrow Road to the Deep North, Richard Flanagan Redwall series, Brian Jacques Junie B. Jones series, Barbara Park Nuts to You, Lynn Rae Perkins Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life, William Finnegan H is for Hawk, Helen Macdonald The Girl on the Train, Paula Hawkins Seveneves, Neal Stephenson The Underground Railroad, Colson Whitehead All That Is, James Salter The Sixth Extinction, Elizabeth Kolbert The Lowland, Jhumpa Lahiri Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates Washington: A Life, Ron Chernow All the Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald Where the Wild things Are, Maurice Sendak Moby Dick, Herman Melville Self Reliance, Ralph Waldo Emerson Song of Solomon, Toni Morrison Parting the Waters, Taylor Branch Gilead, Marylinne Robinson Best and the Brightest, David Halberstam The Federalist, Alexander Hamilton Souls of Black Folk, W.E.B. Du Bois The Power and the Glory, Graham Greene The Quiet American, Graham Greene Cancer Ward, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Ghandi’s autobiography Working, Studs Terkel Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith Theory of Moral Sentiments, Adam Smith All the King’s Men, Robert Penn Warren Cutting for Stone, Abraham Verghese To the End of the Land, David Grossman Purity, Johnathan Franzen A Bend in the River, V.S. Naipau Fates and Furies, Lauren Groff Lush Life, Richard Price Netherland, Joseph O’Neill Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights, Salman Rushdie Redeployment, Phil Klay Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison Plainsong, Kent Haruf The Way Home, George Pelecanos What is the What, Dave Eggers Philosophy & Literature, Peter S. Thompson Collected Poems, Derek Walcott In Dubious Battle, John Steinbeck Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn The Three-Body Problem, Liu Cixin Harry Potter Series, JK Rowling The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, Edmund Morris John Adams, David McCullough Lincoln: The Biography of a Writer, Fred Kaplan Defining Moment: FDR’s Hundred Days of Triumph of Hope, Jonathan Alte FDR, Jean Edward Smith Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, Doris Kearns Goodwin The Collected Works, Abraham Lincoln Hot, Flat, Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution and How it Can Renew America,Thomas L. Friedman Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10th, 2001, Steve Coll Unequal Democracy: The Political Economy of the New Gilded Age, Larry Bartels The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York, Robert A Caro Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Evan Osnos Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman Moral Man and Immortal Society, Reinhold Niebuhr A Kind and Just Parent, William Ayers The Post-American World, Fareed Zakaria Lessons in Disaster, Gordon Goldstein Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, Yuval Noah Harari The Fire Next Time, James Baldwin Andy Grove: The Life and Times of an American, Richard S. Tedlow Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity, Katherine Boo

#POTUS #Barack Obama #bookworm #reader #challenges #please don't go!

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aion-rsa · 4 years

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Bill & Ted Face the Music Review

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

This Bill & Ted Face the Music review is spoiler-free. Excellent.

Both Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure and Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey reside in that unique cinematic grey area somewhere between blockbuster and cult classic. It’s a sweet spot that these characters — created by Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon, who return to write this third outing — have inhabited for over thirty years, with the second movie hitting theaters way back in 1991. While the height of Bill & Ted-mania was in an era when grunge when was just getting warmed up (and thereby making the leads’ rock/metal-worship feel quaint), the films maintained a not-unsubstantial pop culture footprint that was eventually overshadowed by Keanu Reeves’ ascent into superstardom. To be clear though: Reeves never turned his back on Ted. Over the years he maintained a friendship with Alex Winter — it is beyond satisfying to know that Bill & Ted are close in real life — and regularly spoke about the possibilities of bringing Ted “Theodore” Logan back to the big screen.

Through a combination of Reeves’ clout and perseverance on the part of the cast and the creative team, a third Bill & Ted movie was crafted over the course of the decade. So, the major question going into Bill & Ted Face the Music is do these lovable dudes still have any appeal in 2020?

The answer to that query is, you guessed it, a most excellent one.

You see, Bill & Ted Face the Music is a bodacious conclusion to the story of these characters (albeit one that welcomely sets the stage for a passing of the torch to the next generation). More than that? It’s a sublimely crafted midlife crisis movie that touched me more than similarly themed works by Noah Baumbach ever could.

No, really. This movie is far more relatable than Marriage Story, even with all the time-displacement.

The film’s at times overly complex plot involves the future destroying itself because Bill and Ted have yet to write the song that Rufus (a much-missed George Carlin) told them would unite humanity. A quick info dump at the start of this movie addresses how after the most triumphant end of Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey, the pair and their Wyld Stallyns (which includes Death, again played here with scene-stealing glee by William Sadler) petered out following the success of their hit single “Those Who Rock.” In true Behind the Music fashion, breakups and lawsuits followed, and Wyld Stallyns were back to playing in their basements and Elks Lodge…forever searching for the song they are destined to write.

The fact that they continue to fail miserably at doing so gives the movie’s first fifteen minutes most of its comedic heft, until the plot begins to complicate itself, veering off into unexpected tangents. Rufus’ daughter Kelly (Kristen Schall of Bob’s Burgers and Flight of the Conchords fame) arrives from the future to tell Bill and Ted that their song needs to be written within hours unless not only will humanity be destroyed but the universe as well. (Time displacements are occurring throughout the world, resulting in Babe Ruth being transported back to the American revolution, among more chronological chaos). This discovery adds to the already tense marital relationships that Bill and Ted have with their wives Joanna (Jayma Mays) and Elizabeth (Erinn Hayes), the princesses they rescued back in Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure and whom are increasingly tired of their husbands acting like a unit instead of individuals.

This isn’t an issue that Bill and Ted’s daughters Thea (Samara Weaving) and Billie (Brigette Lundy Paine) have. Thea and Billie and devoted to their fathers entirely, offering them constant support as they write clunker after clunker. The characters are the breakout stars of Bill & Ted Face the Music, giving the film an emotional center for viewers to latch on to. Not to mention inspired casting, Weaving and Paine do an outstanding job of incorporating personality traits of Bill and Ted into their own performance in a master class in comedic subtlety.

And so begins a time-hopping adventure in which Bill and Ted, in true them style, attempt to steal the galaxy-saving song from future iterations of themselves. Among the Bill and Ted variations they encounter are imprisoned versions of themselves and elderly Bill and Teds whom are living together in a nursing home. (Maybe it’s just a byproduct of living in the uncertainty of 2020, but knowing that these two friends grow old together left me feeling profoundly moved). While Bill and Ted are squaring off against goofball future versions of themselves, their daughters borrow Kelly’s time machine to travel to the past to build a backing bad for their dads that includes Jimi Hendrix (DazMann Still), Louis Armstrong (Jeremiah Craft) and Kid Cudi, who portrays himself in an extended cameo that elicits huge laughs.

Perhaps the biggest problem with Bill & Ted Face the Music is that is might be a bit too ambitious for its own good. There are moments of inspired lunacy here, especially involving Dennis, a murderous robot from the future portrayed by Anthony Carrigan, that I which had more time to be explored. (The same can be said for Beck Bennett, Holland Taylor and Jillian Bell’s underutilized characters). But the lack of screen time for these actors combined with a truncated subplot involving Joanna and Elizabeth being transported through time by their own future selves indicates the the film might have been better served by a longer runtime than its tight 92 minutes. Fingers crossed for an extended Blu-ray edition.

The Bill & Ted films have always been way smarter than they were given credit for: Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure subverted cliched teen comedy tropes, and Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey was unafraid to get incredibly strange and existential. While not surprised by the flourishes of sadness in a movie that is, at its very core, a film about unfulfilled potential, I was surprised by how director Dean Parsiot (Galaxy Quest) allowed these moments to breathe amid all the comedy.

The third act brings all of our characters’ storylines together in a decidedly non-bogus way, and even manages to take a detour to hell, the exact context of which I dare not spoil here. It is all incredibly satisfying, made even more so by Winter and Reeves’ now-nuanced take on Bill and Ted. (Yes, they are both excellent). It would be a bummer, dude, to see the characters acting they same way they were when they were in high school. The new Bill and Ted have been through the ringer — haven’t we all — but the fact that they delivered another excellent adventure after all this time, and one that actually has impactful things to say about legacy and aging, is a major achievement. Bill & Ted Face the Music is a triumph of comedic storytelling that proves that you can’t party on forever, but you don’t have to abandon your dreams either.

The post Bill & Ted Face the Music Review appeared first on Den of Geek.

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#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

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