A letter like this makes it all seem worthwhile. This is from a prisoner at a multi-security prison in New Hampshire. We sent him 3 building books. (We have a long-standing policy of sending free books to any inmates that request them.)

I apologize for the delay in responding to your last letter. It’s just that you left me in a state of shock, so all I can say is: THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

It is easy to become dehumanized in this place. After a while we all buy into the rhetoric about how useless we are, So when someone comes along and does something that reminds us that we are still human and worth something (if only in the hearts of a few), it can be disorienting.

Thank you for disorienting me!

I have finished with all three books, and they have now been donated to our library. I have an entire composition book full of notes and designs based on these books.With the present status of my case, I have no idea when I am getting out. However, when I do get out, I will have a plan, and your books will have been a significant contributor to that plan. Who knows, maybe I’ll build something that will eventually appear in one of your future books.

Anyway thank you! Not only for helping me, but for creating a ray of hope for others in this place.

Shalom aleichem,

JZ

https://blog.pacificlegal.org/california-threatens-shut-small-booksellers/

Check out the video in this article. Our book SMALL HOMES is face-up on counter. I did presentation on the book at Book Passage 10 days ago.

From Rick Gordon

It’s called journalism and I’ve been heartened the last few days by the media refusing to be cowered by this lying bully. There was a scathing, hard-hitting editorial in the NYTimes yesterday titled “The Missing Pieces in the Flynn Story.” Right on! Then last night I watched Judy Woodruff on PBS go after the smarmy former Trump campaign manager Carter Page and his actions in Russia. He wouldn’t answer her when she asked “Were you in any kind of contact with Russian officials?” but just kept using the phrase “fake news.”

In my high school journalism class, Mr. Patterson taught us about “the five Ws and one H:” the Who, What, Why, When, Where and How questions that must be answered before any story is complete. AND about journalistic objectivity in reporting the news and saving your opinions for the editorial page. That was the ideal, anyway. The art of journalism.

I’m glad the journalists are not backing down, and the way Trump went after the NYTimes today means they’re getting to him. Viva the power of the pen! (Drawing from an old Punch magazine)

I had the thought last night that it would be good to forget about labels like conservative or liberal and have the focus be on the truth (insofar as it can be determined). What really happened?

And what is honest, what is fair, what is compassionate?

Sorry, every once in a while, the political situation breaks through here. I know people don’t read this blog for my political views, but the hideousness of what is happening right now causes me to erupt on occasion. To my amazement, there are Trump supporters that read this blog, and I just don’t get it. Everything that I write about or photograph comes from a mind and soul that is deeply opposed to this mean-spirited prick.

From the NewYork Times, article by Lawrence Downes, Jan. 10, 2017: 

He hasn’t taken office yet, but Donald Trump is lost, wandering in a labyrinth of lies and trying to drag the country in with him.

Witness his reaction to being called out on Sunday by Meryl Streep. Speaking at the Golden Globes, she said she had been stunned and heartbroken to see him mock a reporter with a physical disability.

It happened at a speech in 2015 in South Carolina. Mr. Trump’s target was Serge Kovaleski, of The Times, who has arthrogryposis, a condition that leaves his right arm and hand bent and rigid. “You ought to see this guy,” Mr. Trump told his audience, flailing his own right arm and hand in the air, making spastic movements, disgracing himself.

The act was contemptible, and in a way unbelievable: a future president showing the maturity and schoolyard viciousness of an 8-year-old.

 “I still can’t get it out of my head,” Ms. Streep said, “because it wasn’t in a movie. It was real life. And this instinct to humiliate, when it’s modeled by someone in the public platform, by someone powerful, it filters down into everybody’s life, because it kinda gives permission for other people to do the same thing. Disrespect invites disrespect, violence incites violence. And when the powerful use their position to bully others, we all lose.” In early morning tweets, Mr. Trump attacked Ms. Streep and swore innocence:

“Hillary flunky who lost big. For the 100th time, I never “mocked” a disabled reporter (would never do that) but simply showed him…….”3:36 AM – 9 Jan 2017 

 “‘groveling'” when he totally changed a 16 year old story that he had written in order to make me look bad. Just more very dishonest media!”

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