Mother Jones has the story, but I am posting this solely for the purpose of my Photoshop creations of Rep. David Moore.
My Online Mission to Find MO Gov. Jay Nixon #Ferguson
13 Aug
Posted by Kevin Bondelli as Police Brutality, Twitter
EVERYONE IT'S GONNA BE OK! @GovJayNixon HAS BEEN PRAYING ON THE SITUATION! http://t.co/e1LNL2emzo
— Kevin Bondelli (@kbondelli) August 14, 2014
HEY @GovJayNixon I THINK ALL THIS TEAR GAS IS BLOCKING YOUR PRAYERS ON WAY TO HEAVEN. MIGHT NEED TO TRY SOMETHING ELSE.
— Kevin Bondelli (@kbondelli) August 14, 2014
UM @GovJayNixon I THINK THE POLICE INTERCEPTED YOUR PRAYERS AND HAVE WEAPONIZED THEM AS GAS. FIRING IT AT YOUR CONSTITUENTS. PLZ ADVISE.
— Kevin Bondelli (@kbondelli) August 14, 2014
HEY @GovJayNixon I THINK SOMETHING IS WRONG WITH PRAYERS TONIGHT CUZ I PRAYED FOR YOU TO GOVERN AND IT DIDN'T HAPPEN EITHER.
— Kevin Bondelli (@kbondelli) August 14, 2014
ON RELATED NOTE @GovJayNixon WHAT KIND OF BED DO YOU HAVE BECAUSE IT MUST BE AMAZEBALLS FOR YOU TO BE ABLE TO SLEEP TONIGHT.
— Kevin Bondelli (@kbondelli) August 14, 2014
OMG I THINK I FIGURED IT OUT! THE POLICE ARRESTED @GovJayNixon FOR PRAYING TOO HARD! SOMEONE PLZ BAIL HIM OUT. COULD USE HIM NOW.
— Kevin Bondelli (@kbondelli) August 14, 2014
HEY @TheTweetOfGod HAVE YOU SEEN @GovJayNixon LAST I HEARD HE WAS TRYING TO CONTACT YOU?
— Kevin Bondelli (@kbondelli) August 14, 2014
HEY @GovJayNixon YOU MIGHT WANT TO RECLAIM YOUR PRAYERS B4 MORE PPL HURT. PLZ GIVE ETA ON ACTION. https://t.co/og1lZUH5kI
— Kevin Bondelli (@kbondelli) August 14, 2014
ARE THEY TRYING TO FIND @GovJayNixon TOO? https://t.co/1ynpS605oX
— Kevin Bondelli (@kbondelli) August 14, 2014
ANYBODY SEEN @GovJayNixon? PLZ FIND HIM AND SEND HIM TO #FERGUSON ASAP. pic.twitter.com/8vxUKVgwKf
— Kevin Bondelli (@kbondelli) August 14, 2014
I HEARD THAT IF POLITICAL LEADERS ALL ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ AT ONCE A TEAR GAS CANISTER GETS ITS WINGS. #WhereIsJayNixon @GovJayNixon
— Kevin Bondelli (@kbondelli) August 14, 2014
At this point Antonio French had been arrested and Gov. Nixon finally made a tepid statement.
HEY @GovJayNixon I KNOW YOU'RE DOING THE WHOLE 'JESUS TAKE THE WHEEL' THING RE: YOUR JOB BUT I 'URGE' YOU PLZ GET @AntonioFrench RELEASED
— Kevin Bondelli (@kbondelli) August 14, 2014
SOMEONE PLZ CONFIRM FOR ME THAT @GovJayNixon IS STILL GOVERNOR AND THERE WAS NO POLICE COUP.
— Kevin Bondelli (@kbondelli) August 14, 2014
HIS TEPID RESPONSE AND APPARENT LACK OF ABILITY TO DO ANYTHING BUT 'URGE' COPS TO OBEY CONSTITUTION HAS ME CONCERNED. @GovJayNixon
— Kevin Bondelli (@kbondelli) August 14, 2014
Here is FCC.GOV/comments for your call-to-action convenience.
Internet Fast Lane Explained: How it Resembles Mafia Protection Money
15 May
Posted by Kevin Bondelli as Net Neutrality
I put together a very short slide presentation.
Reading Women Writers #5: Meg Wolitzer – The Interestings
13 Jun
Posted by Kevin Bondelli as Books, Reading Women Writers
This is the fifth post in the Reading Women Writers series.
I finished Meg Wolitzer’s The Interestings weeks ago, yet I found it difficult to write about until now for a couple of reasons. First, it is a very recent novel, and I don’t want to spoil it with an in-depth writing. Second, I had an unexpected reaction to it. It is well-written, the characters are developed, it feels real. These qualities make it an excellent book. Both bildungsroman and social commentary, there is an underlying darkness that at times bleeds to the surface. Being 30 in America today, the novel struck me in a way I did not expect it would when I began reading.
In the summer of 1974, 15-year-old Julie Jacobson was sent to the Spirit-of-the-Woods camp in New York, a place where precocious, artistic teens spent their vacations. Here she joins a group of campers, self-named The Interestings, who for the most part become life-long friends, and is in a sense reborn as “Jules.” The novel follows Jules and the rest of The Interestings into adulthood in the 21st century.
In the novel, as is the case most often in real life, growing up means the loss of possibilities. The idealistic aphorism about one door opening as another closes is an overstatement. At 30, nearly everyone has a fraction of the possibilities for their lives that they did at 15, or even 20. Once you reach your teenage years, each coming year brings more doors to a close. They may be doors that you never would have considered, but they are closed nonetheless.
The other aspect of growing up portrayed in the novel is relegation. For many, becoming an adult means relegating yourself to a life that isn’t close to what you imagined or hoped it would be. This is especially painful for those, who like The Interestings, were celebrated in their youth for being talented or brilliant. It is the burden of having potential and the expectations that are associated with it. One can become a slave to those expectations, and this can make even a comfortable life seem an abject failure.
This feeling, that for all but a few life will never seem as good as it was in your youth, is extremely potent at the milestone age of 30. It is an age where one feels like one foot is still planted in youth and the other in the adult world of unrealized potential and relegation. One is close enough to see the closed doors of past possibilities all too clearly.
Wolitzer also looks at friendship and love, envy, mental illness, sexual assault, AIDS, identity and belonging, and exploitation. Her characters react to the challenges of their lives and the changing world believably, facing things that many readers will have faced in their own lives. To me it seems that The Interestings is one of those novels, like Catcher in the Rye, that elicits a different reaction depending on the age and station of life of the reader.
