JoNel > Recent Status Updates

I can already tell this is one I will savor and revisit. Thank you, dear friend who shared this with me ❣️

Putting this aside for a bit to read book club and must-be-returned-to library-soon books. Bought it because I already know I will want to revisit and share this.

As an American of European descent, when contemplating our history of forcibly removing indigenous people and enslaving Africans, I struggle with the question this author poses: "How can we meaningfully respond to being beneficiaries of a crime so plain it cannot be denied and so large it can never be fully righted?" I inherited land that was essentially stolen. I did not "earn" this with merit or hard work.

I can only read this is small stretches as it makes me so angry and sick hearted. The fact that many people still hold these views in modern America is abhorrent.

Mr. Seidenberg must own stock in a dictionary publishing company. I have a pretty expansive vocabulary, (IMHO) but I'm looking up a couple of words about every page. I don't think he needed to use words like ''boffin" to get his point acrossed.

"It is so much easier to believe than to think..." James Kemper

Very readable. Great explanation of the geographical, political and social elements that contributed to the flood's devastation. Thought provoking quote from influential Greenville, Mississippian LeRoy Percy "...the maintenance of any form of government worthwhile means a constant struggle..." He said it in 1923. Feels very timely almost a hundred years later.

Beautiful writing. Wonderful characters. I'm going to have to brush up on first century history to understand all the references.

Great quotes with back stories.

Skimming some of this, but finding a few good nuggets.