Everett Jenkins 2018

The following email was originally posted on May 30, 2018 As a viewer of the Roseanne reboot, I was amazed at the recent booting of Roseanne from the airwaves for some reprehensible tweets that she made over the weekend.  In this time of a newfound "corporate sensibility", it is fully understandable that the Roseanne show was swiftly terminated.  That is a good thing.   However, in reading the reports, it appears that the corporate sensibility of Disney primarily derives from the corporate sensitivity to the financial bottom line.  Supporting Roseanne was deemed to be detrimental to the financial security of ABC (aka Disney) especially in light of the recent financial success ($1.3 billion and climbing) of the ethnically affirmative "Black Panther" movie as opposed to the successful ($45 million and no longer climbing) but not as lucrative Roseanne. By almost all accounts, the termination of Roseanne is deemed to be a good thing.  But what about the c...

The following email was originally posted on Africa Day, May 25, 2018 After last week's post regarding Deniece Williams song "Black Butterfly", I did a little research on the symbolism associated with black butterflies.  http://www.butterflyinsight.com/black-butterfly-color-meaning-and-myths.html and I found that some of the research even makes reference to  the Deniece Williams song https://mysticurious.com/black-butterfly-meaning but the most startling discovery was that there is actually a movie titled Black Butterflies https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Butterflies and that the movie tells the story of Ingrid Jonker, the South African poet who is likened to Sylvia Plath https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingrid_Jonker Jonker's poem "Die Kind" ("The Child")  https://dustymuffin.wordpress.com/2007/10/13/die-kind-ingrid-jonker/ became a rallying cry for anti-apartheid activists http://www.sahistory.org.za/ar...

The following e-mail was originally posted on February 9, 2018 Earlier this week I was listening to a a news program on the radio when the host announced the results of a scientific study that surprised me.  The newscaster announced that a study of the genes of Europeans from relatively recent times revealed that up until 5,000 years ago most Europeans of Central and Sourthern Europe were dark skinned individuals.  There was not much explanation given for this during the newscast, but this being Black History Month, my interest was piqued.  Earlier tonight, I found this news article which explains the genetics. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3028813/Europeans-dark-skinned-8-000-years-ago-Pale-complexions-brought-Europe-Near-East-study-claims.html and here is another article that makes the case even more clearly http://politicalblindspot.com/scientists-reveal-the-first-european-faces-were-not-white/ and here is the Science magazine article t...

The following e-mail was originally posted on February 9, 2018 Last Sunday, after watching the Young Jedi lead Philadelphia to victory over Darth Vader and the Death Star crew in Super Bowl LII, and after abandoning This Is Us after learning of the demise of Jack but before all the tears could flow, I scrolled down the guide for something else to watch.  During the scroll, I came across a listing for TCM showing the 1943 movie  The Song of Bernadette.   As Wikipedia describes it The Song of Bernadette  is a 1943  biographical   drama film  based on the  1941 novel of the same name  by  Franz Werfel . It stars  Jennifer Jones  in the title role, which tells the story of  Bernadette Soubirous  (later  canonized  Saint Bernadette) who, from February to July 1858 in  Lourdes ,  France , reported  eighteen visions  of the  Blessed Virgin Mary .   https://en.wikipe...

The following e-mail was originally posted on February 12, 2018 Once upon a time, we celebrated February 12 as a national holiday in honor of Abraham Lincoln, quite possibly, our greatest president.  But we no longer do that now.  Today we celebrate "Presidents' Day", ostensibly in honor of both Lincoln and George Washington, but arguably in honor of all the men who have served in that capacity over the last 229 years.  Our transformation of Lincoln's Birthday celebration into a generic Presidents' Day seems to be proving more and more problematic in my mind, especially, in comparison with the recent utterances coming forth from the current occupant of the office.  Perhaps, it would be more beneficial for the nation to return to a time when we spent a day (February 12) reflecting on a man who actually possessed character and humility and who displayed humanity towards the downtrodden and forgotten.  Maybe then we would encourage future generations to emulat...

The following e-mail was originally posted on February 20, 2018 This past Friday, I flew down to Los Angeles to celebrate the Chinese New Year.  Our plane arrived late and so sometime around midnight we finally were able to get our rental car from the Dollar car rental place on Aviation Boulevard.  There were three or four silver Hyundai Elantras to choose from and my girlfriend chose one that was in the middle of the pack. After loading our extensive luggage, we proceeded on our way to San Gabriel to visit her mother.  The next day, Saturday, as we ventured out for a Costco run, I noticed a strange thing.  The rental car that my girlfriend had chosen had Illinois license plates and the license plates proudly proclaimed "Land of Lincoln".  I chuckled and thought that maybe, in some way, the Spirit of Abraham was sending me a sign, thanking me for my defense of him as set forth in my February 16 email below.  However, I now think that the sign "...

The following e-mail was originally posted on February 23, 2018 The sun is setting here in the West and another turbulent week is coming to an end.  As I reflect on the week, there is not much to be encouraged about.  We were still reeling from the senseless killing of seventeen people in a Parkland, Florida high school when we became more sickened by the reaction of some to further victimize the young protesting the gun madness in this country by demeaning them and devaluing the authenticity of their grief and concern.  On top of this comes the notion that the gun madness should be exacerbated by arming teachers as an act of deterrence against the insane coming in and shooting more kids.  It seems, at times, that madness is being compounded by more madness.  For various reasons, I find myself contemplating the meaning of life more and more these days.  In doing so, occasionally I listen to music to help me to come to understanding.  This is o...

The following e-mail was originally posted on May 18, 2018 A few weeks ago, I went to Yoshi's in Oakland to hear Deniece Williams https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deniece_Williams For many, Deniece Williams is best remembered for having been part of the Kevin Bacon Universe with her No. 1 Pop song from the movie  Footloose ...  Let's Hear It For The Boy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7FGbhpr2pg However, for me, there were two memorable r&b songs that were better than Let's Hear It For The Boy Free https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zu0tt20UJag and It's Gonna Take A Miracle https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOXCvyfsjB8 And then there was my favorite song of all ... a song that I play at least once every week  Silly  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0gOr3ffuS4 During the concert, Deniece explained the genesis for her writing Silly.   She explained that the words for the song came from the painful ending of a re...

The following e-mail was posted on February 23, 2018 This week the nation mourns the passing of Billy Graham, the evangelist who is called the "Presidents Pastor" for the number of United States Presidents he counselled and befriended.   https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/21/obituaries/billy-graham-dead.html While Graham was widely admired and accomplished a great deal during his lifetime, not everyone agrees that what he accomplished was for the good https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/21/opinion/billy-graham-death-missed-opportunties.html What caught my attention the most in this critique were these words:  Liberal Protestant and Catholic leaders have long articulated and ably defended many variations on the old faith that accommodate what modern science and scholarship have discovered about our world.  But Mr. Graham, who could have done the same, acquiesced in the provincial suspicions of modern intellectual life -- suspicions that keep millions...

The following e-mail was originally posted on February 26, 2018 Harold, Thank you for these posts.  They appear to me to be getting at the "heart" of the matter.  I seem to recall that we must love our enemies as much as we love ourselves.  Sometimes, it seems to me that we forget to do that.  I suppose that is why I wanted to develop a calendar of Holidays and Holy Days that incorporates the holidays and holy days of those we tend to despise and who we tend not to even know.  By making it a daily habit of considering the beliefs of others, perhaps, we can begin to more fully understand the foundation of our own beliefs. A few years ago, Meryl Streep starred in a movie entitled "The Iron Lady", a biopic about the British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.  In that movie Streep quotes Thatcher as saying: Watch your thoughts, for they become words. Watch your words, for they become actions. Watch your actions, for they become habits. Watch your h...

The following e-mail was originally posted on February 27, 2018 As I have previously mentioned, February 16 was the day to celebrate the Chinese New Year https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_New_Year However, what I failed to mention is that the Chinese New Year is also known as the Spring Festival and is not simply a one day affair but rather extends for 15 days.  In celebration, I went down to San Gabriel on February 16.  Usually the festivities begin by watching the CCTV New Year's Gala, the world's most watched entertainment show on New Year's Eve.  However, our flight got in too late for that.  But the next day (Saturday) was dedicated to sharing a meal with family and friends. Unfortunately, I was observing Lent at the time so I skipped the big meal.  However, later in the evening I was treated to a bowl of chicken broth soup with a special (and expensive) sort of reed like fish product along with a side dish of sea cucumber.  I liked the...