OK, this may not be the best thread, but I couldn’t think of a better one. It may not be hope, but it is wonderful.
This is the woman who was on the receiving end of too much racist / misogynist / anti-trans hate (despite being cis). I am just so glad she won gold, I’ve got a silly grin right now. Go Imane!!!
Edit: Awww, this makes it even sweeter! She worked so hard to get there, not just training hard, but she worked just to be able to train.
This week I saw some commentariat from various environmental groups that was very fractured. Things like, “renewable energy won’t protect your home from flooding, what we really need is climate resiliency for our infrastructure,” as if the two are separate and exclusive issues.
This article is a good reminder that we need to avoid fracturing. Those of us working for the environment all want the same things, even if specific priorities might vary.
I changed the “Black” to “Non-White” some time ago.
In my city of residence in a red county:
I wish I’d known, I’d’ve WALKED there!
It’s interesting to me that she mentions FDR (of whom I’m gonna have to find a really comprehensive bio - @mindysan33, any suggestions?), because I find him to be such an anomaly: A man who could present himself as caring about the masses as a humanitarian, yet he still maintained his aristocratic attitude.
As I tell my students, one of the best places to start is usually in the citations in wikipedia… they are usually pretty comprehensive…
I’ve heard good things about the work for Jonathan Alter, and Robert Dallek is considered solid, if more traditional. The one by HW Brands, though seems the most interesting to me, though and addresses your point about class perhaps?
I don’t know if those two things are necessarily at odds, though? Sure, he certainly felt a sense of social entitlement to his position, but he was of wealth and privilege, and still made the choice to run for elected office (gov. then pres) on a largely progressive platform rather than do what lots of other rich scions did, which is make the family more money. Or be a rich dilettante, whatever… But he didn’t do that. He might in his heart of heart held contempt for the rabble, but he turned out for the rabble, and put the right people in place to get shit done. It’s sort of like Johnson, in that he might very well have harbored racist beliefs, but he twisted arms to get the key civil rights acts over the finish line and then focused on the Great Society. I think what matters most is what they actually did, not whatever snobbery they might have harbored.
I don’t care what’s in a pols heart. I care what they do. Exactly right!
I wish more humans could put aside their personal beliefs in favor of improving the greater good. I do think in FDR’s case, his polio and Endicott Peabody kept him humble.
“The arc of justice … doesn’t bend by itself … you have to bend it …”! Perfect!