Angela

Making a Small Difference by Angela Rieck

January 24, 2020 by Angela Rieck 1 Comment

After despairing about the world that we are leaving our children, I vowed to change the only thing that I could…myself. I began with my environmental habits.

My first mission: reduce my use of plastic. When I mentioned my mission to friends, many were interested and suggested that I write a column about it, to share what I have learned.

The first step was to educate myself…and I learned a lot, all the good that I thought I was doing, I wasn’t doing so good.

It quickly became clear that with a few simple changes I could reduce my plastic use by 12 pounds a year. Doesn’t sound like much does it? But when you think about how little plastic weighs, it actually is a lot…and imagine the impact if everyone did it!

Why is this important? Our plastics crisis has reached scary proportions. There are now 3 islands of plastic floating in the oceans, one island, dubbed the Great Pacific Garbage Path is two times the area of the state of Texas. Every year 12.7 million tons of plastic enters the ocean. Our seas, rivers and landfills are choking. Here are some of the sickening numbers:

2 million plastic bags are used every minute.
More than ½ billion plastic straws are used daily.
More than 480 billion plastic water bottles were sold in 2016.
500 trillion plastic cups are used per year.

The plastic isn’t going anywhere. It takes 1,000 years to decompose. My first inclination was to say that this problem was too big for me…but of course, that is the reason to do it.

So, I have simplified reducing plastic use into 3 basic areas; all easily “doable” without a major lifestyle change.

Reduce single-use plastic. Single-use plastic is just what it sounds, plastic that we use once and discard. Imagine if we reused all plastic, definitionally that would reduce our plastic use by half.

So, how to do it? Well we all know about bringing our own grocery bags, not using bottled water. But there is a lot more. I challenge you to walk down the supermarket aisle with an eye toward finding single-use plastic. You will be amazed at how much there is.

I now choose products that use the least amount of plastic. There are simple choices, for example, I don’t buy pre-bagged produce; I select my own and use re-usable produce bags (available through Amazon or any environmentally focused website). (You can also just bring in the produce bags that you used the last time and re-use them.)

Here is a simple example. Raisin Bread. I noticed that one brand was cellophane wrapped and then sealed in a bag, the other was directly sealed in the bag without the cellophane wrap. I purchased the one without the cellophane wrap. Then I reused the bread bag. Yea, it can be that simple.

There are opportunities at home as well. Rinse out plastic storage bags and re-use them. Use containers to store leftovers instead of plastic wrap.

I would love to hear other suggestions from readers.

Increase Demand for Recycled Plastic. There is also a recycling crisis. The amount of plastic recyclables dramatically outstrips the demand for recycled plastic. China is now refusing to take our plastic recyclables.

Let’s face it, most containers are plastic. I look for products sold in recycled plastic containers (e.g., shampoo, laundry detergent, frozen dinners). I also buy toilet paper, paper towels, etc., made from recycled paper. My goal is to increase the demand for recycled products.

Be Smart about Recycling. The last step is being smart about recycling. In the past, I tried to put everything in the recycling bin, only to find out that they were not properly prepared, so they were headed for the landfill. Our recyclables vendor, Republic, has a simple mantra—empty, clean, dry. Make sure that recyclables are empty, rinsed out and dry (I now put them in the dishwasher before I put them in the recycling bin). Here are some sites that help:

What can be recycled in your area:

Recycling locations on Kent County
Recycling locations in Talbot County

There is a lot more, of course, I bought shoes made of recycled plastic (that’s right, Rothys!). I use durable plastic storage bags (that can be cleaned in the dishwasher); beeswax cloth to replace plastic wrap (not loving it yet); containers to store leftovers rather than plastic wrap. It is easy to get creative.

WARNING: if you drank the “reduce plastics” Kool-Aid, do NOT throw out plastic containers, plastic bags, etc. that you already have, they are going to the landfill anyway. Just replace them with eco-friendly products when you run out.

There is a lot of information available on the Internet and online stores that offer eco-friendly products. More good news, eco-friendly products are available on Amazon.

It has been a fun learning experience. I am enjoying the challenge. I hope that you can be inspired to join and help make this right.

Angela Rieck, a Caroline County native, received her PhD in Mathematical Psychology from the University of Maryland and worked as a scientist at Bell Labs, and other high-tech companies in New Jersey before retiring as a corporate executive. Angela and her dogs divide their time between St Michaels and Key West Florida. Her daughter lives and works in New York City.

Running Around Race in the Justice System by Angela Rieck

January 16, 2020 by Angela Rieck 1 Comment

Columnist’s note: I am writing a series of columns in anticipation of the February 2020 publication of Margaret Andersen’s book, Getting Smart about Race: An American Conversation.

After my first column, I learned about two organizations that are hosting conversations about race right on the Eastern Shore!

In this column, I want to gain more insight from Margaret about the justice system. As a psychologist, I know that perceptions are facts to people…period.

Historically the justice system was complicit by enforcing Jim Crow laws, looking the other way at lynchings, disproportionately enforcing laws for blacks vs. whites, handing out longer sentences for black people and disproportionately targeting blacks at road stops.

The justice system has improved since the 1960s especially in the south. But it is still not a justice system for African Americans. There are hundreds of statistics showing disproportionate treatment by race. Here are just a few (and not the most egregious). Black American men are six times more likely to be incarcerated in their lifetime than white or Hispanic men. Black Americans are jailed on drug charges 10 times more often than whites, despite similar drug usage rates.

There are half a million people incarcerated because they cannot afford to make bail, most of them are African Americans. Sixty percent of the people in jail have not been convicted of the crime but are jailed because they cannot afford bail. Most have been charged with misdemeanor crimes; riding a bicycle on the sidewalk (yes!), driving without a license, petty larceny, bar fights, resisting arrest, etc. To avoid prison stays of up to 18 months while awaiting trial, 90% plead guilty. For those who ARE able to POST bail, only 2% of the cases result in a jail sentence. To recap, of those who cannot make bail, 90% plead guilty but of those who can make bail, only 2% end up being incarcerated.

These are statistics. The human stories that have sparked the “Black Lives Matter” movement are painful. The most disconcerting to me was the Sandra Bland story: A police officer pulled her over for failing to use her turn signal when she moved over to allow him to pass. After refusing to put out her cigarette, he arrested her using brutal force. Unable to make bail and overwhelmed with depression, she committed suicide in jail.

There are dramatically different perceptions between the blacks and whites about law enforcement. Black parents feel they must “give the talk” to their children about how to stay alive if they are stopped by the police. Yet, whites believe that these incidents, while reprehensible, are isolated and reflect only a few “bad apples.”

Question: How can we have a conversation about these different perceptions?

Dr. Andersen: The first thing I would say is that whites need to be aware that the high rate of incarceration for people of color, men especially, is based on the longstanding stereotype of criminality among Black (and now, Latino) men. Since slavery, black men have been perceived by whites as threatening—a painful irony, given that white men engaged in far more horrid violence against black people than black people did against whites. This is all too easy for people to forget (or, worse, be unaware of). The stereotype of men of color as a criminal threat continues to influence the discrimination that black and Hispanic men face in the criminal justice system. At every stage of the criminal justice process, men of color are discriminated against–likelihood of arrest, discrimination in sentencing, discrimination in administration of the death penalty, and so forth. Even starting early in school, research finds that young, black and Hispanic men are more likely to be disciplined–even for the same behaviors that young, white men engage in.

Question: Why are black rates of incarceration so much higher than for whites? What can be done to fix this?

Dr. Andersen: Social policies that incarcerate people for rather minor offenses (three strikes, you’re out and mandatory sentencing for drug offenses) have contributed to the mass incarceration of people of color–including women of color whose incarceration rates have been increasing. One way to alleviate this problem is to offer alternative forms of sentencing. Sentences such as community service can be more effective and are less likely to result in repeat offenses.

Question: What can our society do to reduce racism in the justice system?

Dr. Andersen: We desperately need policies that offer jobs for those with a felony record. To permanently disenfranchise people because of past mistakes leads to a potential lifetime of unemployment–which can then force ex-felons into the underground economy and, potentially, more crime. I wish we had a culture that was more forgiving, especially considering that so much of the behavior that lands people of color into jail and prison is youthful misjudgment. Ask yourself if you would want some misjudgment in your younger days to change the entire course of your life! To deprive young people of opportunities for work (and participation in voting and other civic behavior) only invites further problems.

To me, the criminal injustice system is one of the most heartbreaking issues of our time. Last year the Chesapeake Film Festival premiered The Sentence. Now an HBO documentary, it told the story of Cindy Shank, a mother of 3, who received a 15-year mandatory prison sentence. In her youth, she fell in love and lived with a drug dealer. Although she never did or sold drugs, she was convicted for NOT reporting him to authorities. Six years after the incident, the authorities arrested and convicted her. The film chronicles her story as a mother of three young children (one of them, six weeks old). It shows the extraordinary damage to her and her family.

There is hope. There are movements to reform the justice system. The movie Just Mercy chronicles the work of Bryan Stevenson, a native son of the Eastern Shore, who has dedicated his life to defend those wrongly condemned and those who did not receive proper representation. One of his first cases was Walter McMillian, who was sentenced to die in 1987 for murder, despite eyewitness testimony proving his innocence.

Other organizations have been created to help. One of my favorites is the Bail Bond project, which posts bail for minor offenses (less than $2000); 50% of those lucky recipients get their cases dropped and only 2% receive jail time.

In the meantime, the more we know, the more we can understand. Dr. Margaret Andersen’s book, Getting Smart about Race: An American Conversation will be published this February 2020.

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McCarthyism…Trumpism? By Angela Rieck

January 9, 2020 by Angela Rieck 1 Comment

PBS American Experience aired the story of McCarthyism this week. I was struck the similarities to our current environment.

McCarthyism began and was fueled by fear—fear of communism. The Eastern European countries and China became Communist regimes. North Korea invaded South Korea. From America’s perspective, its enemy, communism, was spreading like a virus. In our own country, some intellectuals, believing that greedy, rapacious capitalism was the cause of the depression, dabbled with Soviet-funded communism as a solution. The conservative press printed sensationalist stories about the spread of communism into America.

Trumpism was created and is fueled by fear—fear of losing our standard of living. So, he made immigrants the bogeymen. Many Americans have experienced a downturn in their standard of living while Wall Street has gotten richer and richer. High paying, skilled jobs have been moved offshore by greedy capitalists, leaving low-paying service jobs. Wages are declining and many fear that the cause is undocumented workers who are willing to work for lower wages. These Americans perceive that they are ignored or mocked. The conservative press prints outrageous stories about immigrants, their detrimental impact on society and how they are taking over America.

Enter Joe McCarthy. He was a failed junior senator, lacking a moral compass and worried about re-election. In a speech he gave at the Wheeling Women’s Republican club he claimed to have the names of 205 communists working in the government. It was a lie, but the conservative press picked it up.

Enter Donald Trump, a failed businessman lacking a moral compass. With over 3500 lawsuits brought against him, having declared bankruptcy, most of his empire came from selling his brand. Trump claimed that immigrants were coming to rape, murder and steal our jobs. The conservative press reported supportive stories while the mainstream press ridiculed him.

Joe McCarthy loved the limelight. He held televised hearings to harass and destroy the “elite” government insiders, accusing them of being members of the communist party. When he lacked evidence, he lied. His supporters marched in the streets. Aided by the conservative press, he searched for other high-profile government insider “communists” to humiliate and destroy.

Donald Trump loves the limelight, believing that any press was good press. He lied and harassed people on the election trail, creating the “lock her up” slogan about his opponent. His supporters marched in the streets, carrying obscene signs about his opponent and immigrants. The conservative press supported his accusations.

Joe McCarthy craved the spotlight. He investigated over 600 people in 15 months. He used lies, innuendo and outrageous statements to make the front page.

Donald Trump craves the spotlight. He uses lies, attacks, rumor, innuendo and outrageous statements to get attention.

What brought down Mr. McCarthy? Most of us believe that it was Edward R Murrow’s broadcast condemning McCarthy and his tactics. That awakened many, but it mostly spoke to those already opposed to McCarthy.

McCarthy’s downfall came when he went too far. He attacked the Army, Eisenhower’s “club”. Eisenhower had been content to ignore McCarthy; he wasn’t willing to lose the support of McCarthy’s followers. But after the attacks on the Army, Eisenhower worked with the senators to hold televised hearings to investigate McCarthy, shining a light on his misstatements, lies and innuendos. Still, his followers continued to support him. Ultimately, moderate fellow Republicans decided that “enough was enough” and courageously risked losing the support of his voters by censoring him. After that, McCarthy lost his spotlight and declined into alcoholism.

What have we learned from this? We have learned that the human condition does not change a whole lot, even as we think that we are getting more sophisticated. When fear is the motivator, bad decisions follow…always. But mostly, we learn that the press can’t fix this, only moderate members of Trump’s own party can. They must decide “enough is enough” and no longer fear his supporters. They must be the change.

Let’s hope they will.

Let’s hope that it is not too late.

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Traditions by Angela Rieck

January 2, 2020 by Angela Rieck Leave a Comment

Winner Home

Traditions and nostalgia are funny things. Nostalgia is really about forgetting, presenting the past in a glowing haze. Traditions are a little different. Sure, there is a lot of forgetting, some remembering, and, of course, intransigence.

The host of any family Thanksgiving dinner may bravely choose to try something new…but it is usually avoided. For me, Thanksgiving is about (in this order) turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, corn (or succotash), stuffing, sweet potato casserole, rolls and, of course, pies. Lots and lots of pies. (Others like to include creamed spinach, creamed onions and the ubiquitous string bean casserole.) Those brave cooks who try to mess with the formula are not rewarded. At best, new dishes are ignored, at worst, jeered.

Traditions allow us to celebrate our lives and carry them onto the next generation. Who, by the way, do not often comply…our Thanksgiving feast has been interrupted with healthy and vegetarian dishes…that are ignored by the grown-ups, of course.

Christmas traditions are unique to each family. Christmas for us meant cold weather; fragrant evergreens; warm beverages; soft, glowing candles; crackling fireplaces; hot, fragrant dishes, all to take the chill out. Christmas carols nonsensically reminded us of the cold (even though, of course, it was warm where Jesus was born), the snow, the icicles, the greenery.

So, after my husband died, and I began to spend my winters in Key West, Christmas became quite difficult. I missed the cold weather, the warming accoutrement and the heavy clothing; the soft, silly Christmas sweaters; fluffy scarves, lined gloves or mittens.

In Key West’s warm weather, evergreens dry out within a week. So, it is artificial everything, artificial trees, artificial wreaths, artificial decorations.

I needed to create new traditions. And Key Westers, being a little offbeat, had the answer…wacky outdoor holiday decorations. In warm weather, outdoor displays are not the challenge that they are up north. And since it is Key West, conventional rules do not apply. You will see Santa’s sleigh pulled by flamingos or he may be sporting a bathing suit.

Key West holds a contest every year for the most daunting display and many homeowners go all out (sometimes using cranes for their rooftop displays). They have everything: Santa, snow (from bubbles), holiday music blasting onto the street, reindeer, snowmen, wise men, nativity scenes, plywood cutouts of cartoon characters, inflatable displays, flamingos, Hanukkah themes, and lots and lots of multi-colored lights. So many lights, that they rival the infamous house in National Lampoon’s Christmas vacation. Residents decorate palm trees magnificently, fences sport falling icicle lights, projectile light displays create patterns on homes, and there are colorful lights, everywhere.

So, we have created a new tradition. On Christmas eve, we cycle around Key West admiring the homes. Many of the homeowners are outside to greet us and we share laughs and compliments. It is all in good fun, a new tradition, an alien one, given what I came to expect from Christmas.

I have a lot of traditions, old ones that I treasure (and sometimes yearn for) and new ones that I am creating.

And that is really life, isn’t it, celebrating our past and creating our future.

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Holiday Traditions by Angela Rieck

December 25, 2019 by Angela Rieck Leave a Comment

Christmas is an intoxicating holiday.

Dazzling bright lights, decorations and colorful ornaments are sprinkled on Christmas trees, wreaths, boughs and tabletops. Brightly wrapped, carefully selected presents are our gestures of love. No longer limited to red and green, Christmas brings a myriad of bright colors to the winter’s gray landscape.

All of our senses are stimulated, the mingling aromas of baking, evergreens and assorted spices. Funny colored Christmas sweaters, scarves and hats and cackling fires surround us with warmth. We can hear Christmas carols, bells, holiday music and sometimes carolers. Parties offer intoxication and laughter as a relief from our daily lives. And, of course, delicious Christmas sweets and traditional meals are recreated to satisfy any appetite and to celebrate our memories of holidays past.

It is my favorite holiday.

Every year my nostalgic (which really means edited) memories of happy times are recreated. I cherish memories of how our home was filled sweet aromas, warm fires, music all celebrating the season of happiness.

When I married my Jewish husband, we added his traditions, Hanukkah. Our daughter was born on December 21st, so we had another reason to celebrate …and we went crazy. We realized that we had gone too far when one December day our 3-year-old daughter woke up and asked, do I get a present today?

So, we scaled back Hanukkah, instead of a nightly present, she got a present on the first night and we lit the Menorah and repeated the blessings on the other nights. Hanukkah is a much more civilized holiday, children love lighting the candles and giving children a single present each night allows them to enjoy it and anticipate the next one.

My husband was intrigued by Christmas, his face was pressed against the glass at Christmas.

He was a good sport about it, he put up the Christmas lights (we used to joke about the Jew having the best Christmas lights). While he did it for me, I think that he secretly enjoyed it. He was perplexed by the constant activity, I baked and baked and decorated and we entertained and built our own traditions. But mostly he was bewildered by Christmas day, watching a child tear through so many presents looked like chaos.

Soon he learned about the other Christmas traditions. Using ladders under treacherous conditions to put up and take down Christmas lights. The annual fight over the Christmas tree. The extra pounds that we needed to lose in January. The Christmas day meltdown, as children were overwhelmed by a lack of sleep and too many presents. The wailing about the first broken toy. (Only having one child, we missed the fight about which child got the most presents.) And, because there wasn’t enough chaos, we created a new tradition, clean up, put everything away by 1pm and rush, rush, rush to drive 4 hours (or fly to a warm destination) to visit family.

Ahhh, traditions.

I wish you the very best in celebrating yours.

The Siren Song by Angela Rieck

December 19, 2019 by Angela Rieck Leave a Comment

“The palms are calling.” It was my sister, she arrived in Key West yesterday and already sounded more relaxed.

“I’ll be there soon,” was my reply.

Each year I agonize over my decision to maintain two homes. I am grateful and fortunate to have this dilemma. The Key West home houses a lot of pain. We purchased it for my husband’s retirement, but before we moved in, he had a serious fall while painting it. I spent our first winter caring for him, unaware that a rapacious cancer was consuming him. He would never live in Key West.

Still the breezes call me, their rustling sounds whisper about the beauty and tranquility of life in Key West. They remind me of the soothing, warm, moist air swirling around and through me. No more jackets between me and the outdoors.

Back at the Eastern Shore, I woke to another cold, dark morning. The dry heat emanating from vents did little to take out the chill. Stumbling down the stairs, I let my dogs into the yard, blasted by an assault of cold, damp air.

Although the sun rises between St Michaels and Key West are only 10 minutes apart, it feels like hours. In Key West the horizon is obscured by clouds that reflect and refract sunlight. Pink or pale-yellow lines outline the puffy gray clouds. As the sun rises, the horizon becomes infused with a warm pink and pale-yellow glow, and the sky becomes powder blue. The colors of the ocean form a complex dance with the sky as the deeper water is colored a cobalt or teal and shallow parts become aquamarine or pistachio. The waves reflect the sunlight like facets of a limitless diamond. On rare occasions their color dance gets out of step and they take the same color, appearing as an endless expanse of blue.

Back on the Eastern Shore, there was no sunrise today. It was damp and gray. The deciduous trees have become skeletons, evergreens sport a darker shade of green; the weeds are bent and brown. A cold breeze blew through my wool headband, my hands hid in my pockets.

The colors of Key West are blues and yellows and greens and pinks and white, and combinations that produce lavender, teals, aquamarines. The ocean depth, sunlight and clouds combine to present a myriad of cobalt, jadeite cerulean, teal, turquoise, beige, pistachio, aqua, tourmaline, bright blue palette of colors.

On the Eastern Shore it is the people who create color. The dazzling light display visible from Oak Street bridge continues to bring me joy. There are flying pigs, lights and wreaths everywhere. Bright, colorful displays abound in St Micheals to celebrate the holiday and bring warmth.

In Key West, I live outside. I bicycle everywhere.

Still I am reluctant to go. It is a long trip and I will miss my book clubs, my family and my friends here. I will miss my neighborhood and the warmth from the citizens of St. Michaels. My roots are forming here, and each time I leave, it feels like they are being ripped out.

As I write this, I turn up my fireplace, sit around the fire with my dogs on my lap. I hold them tightly trying to drown out the gentle rustling sounds that are calling me.

Through Other Eyes by Angela Rieck

December 12, 2019 by Angela Rieck Leave a Comment

I love to see the world through children’s eyes. I get to re-experience what I have taken for granted. I can wonder at a magically appearing lightning bug, chase a gravity-defying butterfly, run from a scary, squirming crab. I get to point out things that I love and love them even more when I see their wonder.

But I don’t have to see it only through children’s eyes. Recently my New Jersey friends came to visit. I had advised them of the beauty of the Eastern Shore, but they were still awestruck.

They marveled at the gentle, flat landscape punctuated by slowly crawling rivers and creeks.

They were spellbound by the towering elegance of Loblolly pines. Their dark brown bark appears to have been applied by an artist’s palette knife. Dark green pine needles and perfectly shaped pine cones cluster on its branches that make a swishing sound when the wind gently surrounds them.

They delighted in the bluebirds that reside near a barn on the nature trail. The bluebirds (not readily visible in their neighborhood) dazzled them with their deep blue feathers.

But what they loved most was the water, its ubiquitous presence. The slow, wide, barely moving rivers allowed them to relax and experience the peaceful and quiet rhythm of the Eastern Shore.

It always comes back to the water, the statutory creeks and rivers. The glorious multi-hued sunsets mirrored on their glassy surfaces. There is no rushing water, no hills to climb, just a soft peaceful landscape.

It’s nice to see it again for the first time.

Running Around Race by Angela Rieck

December 5, 2019 by Angela Rieck 2 Comments

One of the things that I am a little uncomfortable with on the Eastern Shore is the absence of diversity in my new world. It is not deliberate, but the institutions and groups to which I belong are populated with people like me…we share a common experience, a cultural bond. We wish that we were more diverse, but when we surround ourselves with people who are like us, that is not really possible.

I also wondered if the Eastern Shore might be different because of its Southern roots. I was raised at the end of the Jim Crow era, but I remember it from a child’s perspective. It had such a profoundly negative impact on me that I was determined to raise my daughter in a multi-cultural world.

A Talbot County resident, Margaret Andersen, has written a book, Getting Smart about Race: An American Conversation, for the general public that will be released in February 2020. She is a sociology professor Emerita from the University of Delaware, and the coauthor of Race, Class and Gender: Intersections and Inequalities (now in its 10th printing) among many other books, including Thinking about Women.

You may recognize the name because there is currently an exhibit at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum based on her book, On Land and On Sea: A Century of Women in the Rosenfeld Collection.

Dr. Andersen has been a professor at the University of Delaware since 1974 and has lived in Talbot County for five years but became a frequent visitor in 2003 when she and her husband purchased their sailboat. As a professor of sociology, she devoted her career to studying racial and gender inequality in America.

Knowing that academia is years ahead of the general population, I have asked her to help me try to understand the current status of race in America in general and the Eastern Shore in particular. In several columns, she is going to shed light on questions such as: What happened to the “post racial” society? What can we learn from academic research? And ultimately, can racism be eliminated from America?

My first question is the most obvious one, why are you writing this book?

ANDERSEN: I have been teaching about race and racism for almost fifty years and, when I retired, I wanted to communicate what I know to the general public. When my recent textbook, Race in Society, was published, I knew that most people would not read a 350-page textbook, so I decided to write a book for the general audience to explain the research on race and racism. The book is intended to debunk some of the misconceptions we have about race and racism and provide personal reflections and contemporary examples.

Question: One of the “academic terms” that I see throughout your book is intersectionality. What is it?

ANDERSEN: This term is used to describe how race, class, gender, and other forms of inequality (such as sexual orientation)—overlap in everyone’s experiences and in social justice projects. This work originates from the long-standing criticism from people of color that the feminist movement has been too focused on the experiences of white women. Women of color have been important originators of intersectional thinking, because they have too often been sidelined. Intersectional thinking teaches us that we are all influenced by our race, class, gender, and sexual orientation—thereby shaping the advantages and disadvantages that different groups have.

Question: What has research shown are the misperceptions across races that prevent us from becoming a post-racial society?

ANDERSEN: In my book, I use the phrase “commonsense” racism to describe some of the common beliefs that people have that distort understanding of race and racism. They include such things as, “It’s not about race; it’s about class;” “Immigrants are taking jobs away from other Americans; other immigrants made it—why can’t they?” “My uncle was turned down for a job because they had to give it to a woman of color,” and so forth. My book exposes the problems in such assumptions.

The answers to most of my questions will have to wait for the publication of Dr. Andersen’s book in February. But in anticipation, I have asked her to help me understand a few themes in future columns:

What are the current issues with racism in America and how does Talbot County compare?
Is America currently experiencing a backlash? If so, why?
Is it possible to become a post-racial country? What steps must we take to achieve it?

Small Gestures by Angela Rieck

November 21, 2019 by Angela Rieck 1 Comment

A special person died recently.

She was not a close friend. If she had to list the people in her life that she impacted, I would probably not make the list.

But I should.

She was a member of a weekly book group. A place that now feels like home.

The first time I arrived at the book club, I had just moved hundreds of miles away from the place that I called home for 35 years. After losing my husband, my career, a cherished home, my health and beloved pets, among other things, I was floundering. I had to build a new life in the depth of grief, with no road map. So, when I arrived, I avoided eye contact because I didn’t want anyone to see my brokenness.

But she looked up at me and gave me a welcoming smile. I sat next to her, feeling safe in that moment.

That was it, just a small gesture.

Grand gestures such as scientific and medical breakthroughs, inspired leadership, and charitable projects can improve our lives tremendously. Grand gestures are what moves us forward as a society.

But small gestures? Those are what makes us human.

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