The prevailing winds of corporate interests...

"But it is a national shame that a Democratic President who pledged the repeal of the Hyde Amendment would proudly issue an executive order affirming it. How far we’ve come since 2007, when Barack Obama swore that his first act in office would be to sign the Freedom of Choice Act."

http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2010/03/22/fdl-statement-on-the-passage-of-the-health-care-bill/

But it's a start?

"There are many good and praise-worthy things in this health care bill: help for those with pre-existing conditions, guaranteed coverage for children, money for community health centers, and expansion of Medicaid and SCHIP. But there is also cause for serious concern. Never before has the government mandated that its citizens pay directly to private corporations almost as much as they do in federal taxes, especially when those corporations have been granted unregulated monopolies."

And this is why we need a public option.

Mineminemine!

And! I'm annoyed that when I work on this project it's just going to be seen as part of this whole genealogy trend.

Yes, I know genealogy has been an interest of many people since people began. (Wars have been fought over it, marriages set and dissolved over it... blah blah)

But still, when there's a show on it, broadcast in primetime on network TV, it's a trend.*

Yes, I know you can only do what you do and screw the rest. And yes, good work will always be good work (and bad work, bad) no matter the subject area. And yes, I know encouraging this interest only creates a broader market for the work.

But still.

For some reason, the related series on PBS with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. did not bring out the same reaction in me. Let's just chalk it up as part of my snobbish side.



*Okay, I very much enjoyed the one episode of this show I saw, and will likely watch the others.

In fact, I even expected to like the show on NBC. It's just another reminder of all all the work on my own project that I'm not finished with yet.

Hookd on fonicks werked fer mee.

On Who Do You Think You Are, Lisa Kudrow travels to Belarus, to her grandmother's hometown to find out what happened there to her great-grandmother during WWII. (Of course, they killed all the Jews. Duh. Only here it seems their was more involvement by German soldiers, rather than leaving it up to the locals.)

She flies into Minsk, which they describe as "now part of Belarus." Most of the region was old Lithuania. In fact, much Jewish life of old Lithuania happened in places that are now technically part of Belarus.

I think we can only claim towns now, and not countries. Official borders are tricky things.

While there, her guide who runs a Jewish museum takes her around. I am jealous that she has everything - every conversation - on tape.

Her guide is able to translate what she finds in the archives immediately and follow up on the leads. I am jealous of this immediate translation. I have data from the archives, but because I couldn't speak any of the languages in which it was written (only identifying names when I saw them and take a photo of it for later), I couldn't follow up on anything. Not that there was anything to follow up on, necessarily, but maybe...

I remember cursing myself for not knowing Russian and not knowing Yiddish as I sat with the documents. "Why don't I speak Russian???" Yes, I'm prone to drama, but I'm also someone who understands the world primarily through language and text. I am someone who interacts with the world through language and text.

To be foiled by language and a lack of basic literacy is more frustrating and hurtful to me than any other kind of roadblock.

"Guaranteed Swahili!"

It's time to learn Russian. And Yiddish.

Or, it's time to corral my Russian- and Yiddish-speaking friends and relatives, and use their translating abilities.

I still want to learn the languages. A dozen times in my life it would've been helpful to speak Yiddish.

If you're Jewish and you travel and you want to know things or read things or talk to people who not many others can speak with, learn the effing language.

And by that, I mean: "Halley, learn the effing language."