Kent State

Kent State is the name of the book by Deborah Wiles and it is also the name of this university and when one hears it, it one's age or knowledge of history that impacts what it brings to mind.  I was born in 1971 so the Kent State killings had happened before I was born, and I first learned about it when I heard this song.  I remember asking my dad about it and he told me what happened. I can't remember how old I was at the time, probably 7 or 8.  My dad was NOT a fan of Nixon and so he definitely told me about the shootings from his own POV. 
As I grew older I learned more about it and began to have more sympathy for those National Guardsmen who were sent to Kent State and did the shooting.  I have not been able to find much about how they feel, fifty years later.  But I do believe what my parents told me years ago and what has been said many times over "rich men start the wars and poor men fight them."
This book is very well done and I think a very important book for all.
Living in the world is hard when we forget that the answer to everything is to respond with love.  And when we are finished responding with love, we should respond with love.  And when we are finished responding with love again, then we should respond with love...and so on and so on and so on...

Under the Cover

Remember the horrible Gary Paulsen covers?  The Cat Ate My Gymsuit has had the same trouble. The cover was the total reason that I never read this book until now.  Here are the terrible ones:

But here are some good ones, that I didn't see until now.

This book is about a lot of things!  Self-esteems, equal rights, all kinds of stuff.  I never, ever knew what it was about because I just couldn't read it because of the cover...and maybe also because I was (and am) a fat person and man...it just was too painful then to get into it with a book.
This book is from a time and a place that I don't remember much about from experience, but it was back when women really didn't work outside of the home.  When it was weird for a woman to refer to herself as Ms.  instead of Miss, if she wasn't married.

Ms. Finney is Marcy's new teacher and she is really looked upon with suspicion by the school administration because of her "unusual" tactics and her "untraditional" dress, but what puts her job in jeopardy is her refusal to say the Pledge of Allegiance.  I went back in my blog to see if I had written about this before and I had, back here, two years ago.  Now the gal I wrote about back then was different from Ms. Finney.  In the book, she stands and salutes, but won't pledge to the flag because she believes that our country doesn't offer "liberty and justice for all." and she will keep working to see that it does, with that hope that it will one day do just that.  She also says that she loves her country.  So it is a little bit different from the 13 year old that I railed against two years ago.
The thing is....at the time that I was listening to this, I was (and still am) listening to Hitler Youth:  Growing up in Hitler's Shadow.   Hitler made folks pledge the flag.  He made them pledge him.  And the truth that is even deeper, is that as a Christian, we really aren't supposed to pledge our allegiance to anyone but God.
Now I am a patriot.  My last night at karaoke, I sang, as I have many times before The Fighting Side of Me.  I won't buy anything but a Ford, GM or Chrysler.  Well, I have never bought a Chrysler and I probably will stick to Ford from now on, unless maybe someone wanted to give me a Caddy or a Corvette.
But I am a Christian first.  The man I used to pastor with back in the day, he never said the pledge.  I can see why now.  I pledge my allegiance only to my Lord.
Ah, I have gotten off track again!  Shocking!
But I did enjoy this book, though I don't know if kids would be in to it today.  But maybe to read it in addition to American Girl's Julie books.  Yeah!  Like Meet Rebecca and All-of-a-Kind Family!   Yeah!  Hooray!
Also, TCTAMG has a sequel, There's a Bat in Bunk Five.  I am going to read that, too!