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From: Connie Rockman <connie.rock>
Date: Thu, 20 Sep 2001 10:42:46 -0400
Dear CCBC community:
I'm sure I speak for many of you when I say that this list has been a lifeline for me in the last week. When I met with my graduate students at the Univ. of Bridgeport this week, I put aside the syllabus so we could process feelings - most of them are interns this semester and just entering the field of education. We talked about the ways books can help and heal, and also the strong need for listening to children tell their stories, and allow for silences. I quoted to them from postings by Monica and Jonathan and Adele Geras and read to them what Susan Cooper says in her Newbery acceptance speech about growing up as a child in wartime Britain and incorporating those feelings into writing high fantasy years later. We talked about how many individual ways there are to approach fear and grief through literature - and I think that's the point of all the postings to CCBC so far - that we as individuals make those choices and need to be sensitive to the individual needs of children in our classes.
But I think there is one way for books to heal that we can all agree on and reading Samir and Yonatan this week has pointed this out to me especially. I have received the following message from Rosemary Wells that she wants
widely circulated. Her message is in response to an interchange between
Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson reported in last week's news in which these two "religious" leaders blamed the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington on the wrath of a god who is angry that our country contains secular schools, feminists, abortionists, gays and lesbians. Yes, this actually went out over the airways and through the newspapers.
While we are dealing with the unspeakable grief and fear that followed the events of Sept. 11, we must do all we can to counteract the
cancer of bigotry that is smouldering in those embers. The students in my new children's literature class at the University of Bridgeport this semester come from of a wide variety of cultures and backgrounds. One lovely woman spoke movingly of the prejudice that has been directed against her kindergarten child in the last week at school because of her
ethnicity. It is imperative that we who are involved in the children's book world, as librarians, teachers, parents, booksellers, and interested advocates all seek out and share books with children about all races, all experiences, all ethnicities - and that we emphasize again and again that it is individuals who do evil deeds.
One of the ways I am dealing with my own grief is to listen to an audiobook recording of Anne Frank's diary. Yesterday her voice said plaintively, "Why is it that when a Christian commits an act it is a relection on them, but when a Jew commits an act it is a reflection on all Jews?" Anne's plea was echoed by a writer in today's Connecticut Post who said: " . . . the fanatics who committed this atrocity do not speak for all who look like them, sound like them, or worship the same higher power. They are not representatives any more than Timothy McVeigh stood for all Roman Catholics, or the Ku Klux Klan speaks for all Caucasians." May we all be instruments for healing in any way we can.
In peace, Connie Rockman Stratford, CT
A message to Reverends Falwell and Pat Robertson from Max and Ruby's mother.
Dear Sirs,
Like millions of other Americans I have read your comments of last week.
A very real consequence of your words may not have occurred to either of you. I hope my books for young readers have made me famous enough to get this into print and to your attention.
In addition to the terrifying web of Jihad cells waiting to drop the other shoe, we also have the usual suspects, the psychopathic criminals who make up part of all human society, ever in our midst.
Often these people need only a tiny push to give them "God's permission"
to commit unspeakable crimes.
When you blame gays, women who wish to paid equally to men and people who are pro-choice for the most horrifying mass murder of modern times, be careful.
These are volatile times. When a young gay man is next murdered by thugs, will it be your words in his assailant's ears? When next a doctor is shot in his clinic performing perfectly legal operations which are the business of only him and his patients will it be your imprimatur that goads the trigger finger? When next a man beats his wife black and blue for being "uppity" will your words support his fists?
You are very famous "clergymen" with huge constituencies. You claim to speak for God (always a mistake) and blame the blameless. Most un-Christian of you. Among the dead and living who were firefighters, police, and medics, our best and bravest, are gays, pro-choicers and feminists.
One of you has apologized, but more is needed to repair the damage. You
both need to address this issue vigorously with your followers. You have led your flocks down the road of fundamentalist rage
just as dangerous as the Taliban's. You have embarrassed most of your fellow citizens in front of the world who's help we need. May God help you.
Sincerely,
Rosemary Wells
?
Received on Thu 20 Sep 2001 09:42:46 AM CDT
Date: Thu, 20 Sep 2001 10:42:46 -0400
Dear CCBC community:
I'm sure I speak for many of you when I say that this list has been a lifeline for me in the last week. When I met with my graduate students at the Univ. of Bridgeport this week, I put aside the syllabus so we could process feelings - most of them are interns this semester and just entering the field of education. We talked about the ways books can help and heal, and also the strong need for listening to children tell their stories, and allow for silences. I quoted to them from postings by Monica and Jonathan and Adele Geras and read to them what Susan Cooper says in her Newbery acceptance speech about growing up as a child in wartime Britain and incorporating those feelings into writing high fantasy years later. We talked about how many individual ways there are to approach fear and grief through literature - and I think that's the point of all the postings to CCBC so far - that we as individuals make those choices and need to be sensitive to the individual needs of children in our classes.
But I think there is one way for books to heal that we can all agree on and reading Samir and Yonatan this week has pointed this out to me especially. I have received the following message from Rosemary Wells that she wants
widely circulated. Her message is in response to an interchange between
Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson reported in last week's news in which these two "religious" leaders blamed the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington on the wrath of a god who is angry that our country contains secular schools, feminists, abortionists, gays and lesbians. Yes, this actually went out over the airways and through the newspapers.
While we are dealing with the unspeakable grief and fear that followed the events of Sept. 11, we must do all we can to counteract the
cancer of bigotry that is smouldering in those embers. The students in my new children's literature class at the University of Bridgeport this semester come from of a wide variety of cultures and backgrounds. One lovely woman spoke movingly of the prejudice that has been directed against her kindergarten child in the last week at school because of her
ethnicity. It is imperative that we who are involved in the children's book world, as librarians, teachers, parents, booksellers, and interested advocates all seek out and share books with children about all races, all experiences, all ethnicities - and that we emphasize again and again that it is individuals who do evil deeds.
One of the ways I am dealing with my own grief is to listen to an audiobook recording of Anne Frank's diary. Yesterday her voice said plaintively, "Why is it that when a Christian commits an act it is a relection on them, but when a Jew commits an act it is a reflection on all Jews?" Anne's plea was echoed by a writer in today's Connecticut Post who said: " . . . the fanatics who committed this atrocity do not speak for all who look like them, sound like them, or worship the same higher power. They are not representatives any more than Timothy McVeigh stood for all Roman Catholics, or the Ku Klux Klan speaks for all Caucasians." May we all be instruments for healing in any way we can.
In peace, Connie Rockman Stratford, CT
A message to Reverends Falwell and Pat Robertson from Max and Ruby's mother.
Dear Sirs,
Like millions of other Americans I have read your comments of last week.
A very real consequence of your words may not have occurred to either of you. I hope my books for young readers have made me famous enough to get this into print and to your attention.
In addition to the terrifying web of Jihad cells waiting to drop the other shoe, we also have the usual suspects, the psychopathic criminals who make up part of all human society, ever in our midst.
Often these people need only a tiny push to give them "God's permission"
to commit unspeakable crimes.
When you blame gays, women who wish to paid equally to men and people who are pro-choice for the most horrifying mass murder of modern times, be careful.
These are volatile times. When a young gay man is next murdered by thugs, will it be your words in his assailant's ears? When next a doctor is shot in his clinic performing perfectly legal operations which are the business of only him and his patients will it be your imprimatur that goads the trigger finger? When next a man beats his wife black and blue for being "uppity" will your words support his fists?
You are very famous "clergymen" with huge constituencies. You claim to speak for God (always a mistake) and blame the blameless. Most un-Christian of you. Among the dead and living who were firefighters, police, and medics, our best and bravest, are gays, pro-choicers and feminists.
One of you has apologized, but more is needed to repair the damage. You
both need to address this issue vigorously with your followers. You have led your flocks down the road of fundamentalist rage
just as dangerous as the Taliban's. You have embarrassed most of your fellow citizens in front of the world who's help we need. May God help you.
Sincerely,
Rosemary Wells
?
Received on Thu 20 Sep 2001 09:42:46 AM CDT
