Archives for September 2017

The Sum of Small Things: A Theory of the Aspirational Class

(Sept. 2017) The aspirational class members make decisions and establish norms that have far more pernicious outcomes for society than did previous leisure-class consumerism. Rather than buying silver spoons and going on long holidays, their investments in education, health, retirement, and parenting ensure the reproduction of status (and often wealth too) for their offspring in a way that no material good can. Through this reproduction of cultural capital and its trappings we see the emergence of what Charles Murray has called the “New Upper Class” and “New Lower Class,” which is not simply an economic divide, but is also a deep cultural divide that has never existed with such distinction as it does today.

I see an emerging body of work from various sources that have common threads running through them pointing to this same conclusion. J.D. Vance, in his memoir Hillbilly Elegy, describes his dawning realization that the other students around him at Yale Law School knew things about how the world worked that he had no idea about. The world in which those other students lived might be located in the United States, but it was a world way from where Vance grew up in the economically depressed Middletown, Ohio.

The author, Elizabeth Currid-Halkett, is a social scientist who has taken a great deal of research, data and anecdotal information and weaved it into a highly readable book meant for the general public. I applaud both the rigorous academic research necessary to formulate credible theories and also the academic who can then take that information and make it digestible for non-academic consumption. In order to talk about the bigger issues, we all have to understand the concepts and have a shared vocabulary to do so.

The book begins with the well known research and writing of Thorstein Veblen around the “conspicuous consumption” of the “leisure class.” She then walks us through the evolution of mass production and the democratization of consumer purchasing that removed the status symbols and brands that formerly marked the elite. What has replaced it is “inconspicuous consumption” among those with economic means to have more choices.

Conspicuous consumption among the rich has been replaced by “inconspicuous consumption”—spending on nonvisible, highly expensive goods and services that give people more time and, in the long term, shape life chances. These include education, health care, child care, and labor-intensive services like nannies, gardeners, and housekeepers.

I found the examination of breast-feeding to be particularly illuminating. That particular topic fits within the larger scope of “intensive mothering,” which is also part of this “inconspicuous consumption” that I have seen evolve in my lifetime. Without mandated paid leave benefits in this country for new mothers, women in better paying professional careers with companies that voluntarily provide those benefits have options in their parenting choices that other women simply don’t have.

As the journalist Hannah Rosen calculates, “Let’s say a baby feeds seven times a day and then a couple more times at night. That’s nine times for about a half hour each, which adds up to more than half of a working day, every day, for at least six months. This is why, when people say that breast-feeding is ‘free,’ I want to hit them with a two-by-four. It’s only free if a woman’s time is worth nothing.

Those with the economic means to have choices, are choosing to invest in the future of their children. That leaves behind those families without the economic means to have choices, and creates this widening gap of cultural differences that carry over from one generation to the next.

Having economic means to make a wider range of choices has also given rise to what Currid-Halkett terms “conspicuous production.” From organic vegetables at farmers markets, to the artisanal farm to cup production of Intelligentsia Coffee, cultural capital is created in the choices we make. Where Starbucks made its fortune in bringing luxury to the masses, Intelligentsia makes its (smaller) fortune proclaiming its rarity. What drives the economic model in paying more for a product or service is how that feeds our personal narrative about who we are, what our priorities are, and how we see the world. Consumers’ desire for these less ostentatious forms of consumption is crucial to conspicuous production’s success.

There are themes in this book that intersect with those of Dream Hoarders by Brookings Senior Fellow Richard V. Reeves. That’s why I see this emerging body of work around cultural and economic issues as providing various threads that woven together give us a clearer picture of where we are and potentially where we are headed. There was even a reference in this book to The Primates of Park Avenue, which also looks at many of these same issues from a very different narrative perspective. Awareness is the first step in having a productive discussion about wealth gaps, education gaps, the lack of true social mobility and what seems to be the shrinking of America’s middle class.

This book is a good read. It will likely make you more self aware about your own lifestyle choices, along with heightening your awareness about the choices of those around you. It’s a fascinating look at the times we are living in.

by Catherine Read

Braving the Wilderness – Brené Brown

(Sept. 2017) True belonging doesn’t require that you change who you are. It requires you to be who you are.

This is another amazing book by Dr. Brené Brown, who previously wrote The Gifts of Imperfection, Daring Greatly, and Rising Strong.” She talks about writing this book against the backdrop of polarizing political and ideological chaos. In looking at some other reviews of this book, I am not surprised that there are people who are dismissive of the book based on their beloved writer having the audacity to “be political.” Which ironically is a wonderful illustration of the points this book sets out to make about true belonging and braving the wilderness.

Dr. Brown defines belonging as “an innate desire to be a part of something larger than us.” She goes on to say that our sense of belonging can never be greater than our level of self acceptance, and that being ourselves sometimes means standing alone.

Fitting in is not the same as belonging – in fact it can often be a barrier to it. One of the most poignant parts of the book is when she quotes groups of middle school students who came up with their own distinctions between these two concepts:

“Belonging is being somewhere you want to be, and they want you. Fitting in is being somewhere you want to be, but they don’t care one way or the other.”

“Belonging is being accepted for you. Fitting in is being accepted for being like everyone else.”

“If I get to be me, I belong. If I have to be like you, I fit in.”

She also goes on to talk about how some of these students share a sense of not belonging at home, how they feel like they aren’t living up to their parents’ expectations. Dr. Brown had her own experience of feeling disconnected from her family and points out that “not belonging in our families is still one of the most dangerous hurts. That’s because it has the power to break our heart, our spirit and our sense of self worth.”

She talks about four elements of true belonging and how the daily practice of these things can feel like a paradox. But a paradox is not inherently a bad thing. It requires us to consider two things simultaneously that may seem to be in conflict, or impossible to do at the same time. Her four elements:

People are hard to hate close-up. Move in.
Speak truth to bullshit. Be civil.
Hold hands. With strangers.
Strong back, soft front, wild heart.

She spends some time talking about bullshit as being a greater enemy of truth than even lies are. “Lying is a defiance of the truth. Bullshitting is a wholesale dismissal of the truth.”

She also uses BRAVING as an outline for what it takes in order to trust others. And also to engage in self trust.

B – Boundaries
R – Reliability
A – Accountability
V – Vault (keeping confidences and not speaking out of turn)
I – Integrity
N – Non-judgement (ask for what you need and accept what others need without judging them)
G – Generosity (not jumping to negative assumptions about the intention of others)

I admit that I am a fan of Dr. Brené Brown and love her other books. I’m just as enthusiastic about this one and think the subject is very timely. There are going to be people who don’t like some of her positions and perspectives because it does not align with their beliefs. She talks about Black Lives Matter and why All Lives Matter is not the same. She explains it’s not the same “because the humanity was not stripped from all lives the way it was from the lives of black citizens.” That you can’t undo that level of dehumanization in one or two generations. She goes on to say that it’s possible to care about the lives of police officers and the lives of black citizens and we should not be drawn into false dichotomies of either/or that seek “to shame us for not hating the right people.”

I am passionate in my belief that you can’t simply “opt out” of politics as if it’s something that doesn’t touch you. It touches everyone – it’s the foundation of how public policy is made and that creates the quality of life we have – for better or for worse. Abdicating interest, knowledge and participation in politics gives all your power to someone else – whose intentions and goals may not align with yours. In a democracy, everyone needs to be an informed participant.

I highly recommend this book. It provides excellent food for thought and some very practical suggestions for how to find belonging, even when that means standing alone.

by Catherine Read

Ghost of the Innocent Man – Benjamin Rachlin

(Sept. 2017) What a remarkable book. The entire gripping story is gleaned from 25 years worth of notes, transcripts, forms, files, interviews and testimony. No one’s name has been changed because it’s all a matter of public record. If transparency is what you want, then this style of non-fiction investigative journalism will deliver that on every page.

The book starts off telling two stories: The conviction of Willie James Grimes in 1989 for a rape in Hickory, NC; and the formation of North Carolina’s Innocence Inquiry Commission (NCIIC) which is the first and ONLY commission of its kind in the entire United States. In ten years, the NCIIC has exonerated 10 wrongly convicted inmates.

The chapters alternate between the two stories, which converge when inmate Willie Grimes eventually connects with Christine Mumma, who was the driving force behind the formation of the NCIIC. As a young lawyer fresh out of law school clerking for the Chief Justice of North Carolina’s Supreme Court, I. Beverly Lake, Christine began flagging cases that looked like wrongful convictions. She was frustrated by the fact that appeals are only matters of procedural considerations and NOT about actual innocence. She convinces this conservative Judge to work with the liberal academics of North Carolina’s Innocence Project to form a working group that eventual swelled to 30 members from DA offices, sheriff’s departments, police departments, defense attorneys and even members of a victims rights group. It was rocky, contentious, messy and hard. That group was the genesis of The North Carolina Center on Actual Innocence, where Mumma remains its Executive Director.

The story of the birth of the NCIIC is every bit as gripping and frustrating as the wrongful conviction of Willie James Grimes. We know from the beginning of the book that he is innocent of this crime of rape which happened in Hickory, NC, in 1988. This was at a time when DNA testing was in its infancy and not used as a primary tool in crime investigations. Willie Grimes is convicted based on the testimony of the 69 year old victim and the testimony of a specialist in hair identification – which would later be totally discredited as a reliable tool for identifying perpetrators.

The author, Benjamin Rachlin, walks us through incompetencies at every level – in excruciating detail – from the initial investigation of the crime, to Willie’s many moves among multiple prisons for no apparent reason, to psychiatric reports that are breathtaking in their presumptions, misinformation and misdiagnosis.

The inhumanity of the criminal justice system screams from every page. And the author is simply relaying the information contained in volumes of reports about every tiny aspect of Willie’s life inside the North Carolina prison system. It’s also a walk through 25 years of pharmacology in the U.S. This man entered prison taking no medications whatsoever, and the list of prescription medications and the amounts he was given in the almost 25 years he was a prison is mind boggling. The fact that he had advanced prostate cancer that was overlooked despite constant medical supervision is just one of a long list of incompetencies that plagued this man’s life.

This book is simultaneously infuriating and frustrating and also incredibly inspiring. What happened to Willie Grimes is not some rare case. Far from it. As of March 2017, there have been over 2,000 exonerations in the U.S. – at least one in every state. And that is the tip of the iceberg. Keep in mind that the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission has no counterpart in any other state. There are Innocence Projects scattered across the country doing what work they can, and there are some Conviction Integrity Offices working under District Attorneys in various cities and counties. But the North Carolina Legislature formed this commission and FUNDED this commission and gave them legal authority to decide if a convicted defendant is actually innocent.

The protagonists in this book are Willie J. Grimes and Christine Mumma. Where their stories converge is the heart of this book. The NCIIC decided to investigate his case – a fascinating look at how they conducted that investigation – and then made their case to the 8 member commission which voted unanimously to send it to a 3 judge panel. After living every minute with Willie in prison, and watching the machinations of Christine to invent something that had never been done before, I think I held my breath through the last chapters of the book.

This book is so real. The writing is excellent. Benjamin Rachlin masterfully weaves all this “information” into a compelling story. And he’s not in it. That is the other remarkable aspect of this book – the absence of the writer’s presence. That is a talent not to be overlooked. I’m not sure a lesser writer could have turned 24 years of prison reports into a page turner of a book. This author did that.

I love this book. It makes me crazy to think that we have allowed this to go on. It makes me crazy to think that after a decade of showing the effectiveness of this kind of commission that NO OTHER STATE has followed North Carolina. Why? Do we really not care enough about the integrity of our system of justice to warrant replicating a proven model that has saved the wrongly convicted from death row and life sentences? WTF?

Read this book and then get really really mad. Get up on your high horse and take a wild ride to your state capitol and advocate for your legislature to DO THIS THING!

by Catherine Read

Girls on the Run Northern Virginia – Katey Comerford

(Sept. 13, 2017) Catherine Read talks with Katey Comerford, Executive Director of Girls on the Run – Northern Virginia (GOTRNOVA). This program is designed as a curriculum based program for girls in the 3rd to 8th grades and is largely a school based program reliant on a network of volunteer coaches. GOTRNOVA is one of 200 independent councils under the umbrella of Girls on the Run International and serves the Fairfax, Prince William, Loudoun, Arlington & Alexandria area with 140 participating schools.

While running is a component of the program, the main focus is to inspire girls to be joyful, healthy and confident using a fun, experience-based curriculum which creatively integrates running. The program came about as a way of addressing issues that often undermine girls as they enter puberty – body positivity, healthy self image, confidence, self respect, peer pressure – and addresses the skill development needed to navigate the transition from girlhood to their teenage years.

The program is ten weeks long in the Fall and in the Spring, and meets twice a week either before or after school for an hour to an hour and a half. Volunteer coaches who have been trained in the curriculum, conduct the meetings. Every year 500 adult volunteers step up to complete the training and to conduct the meetings over the course of the ten week program. And while there is a fee associated with the program, GOTRNOVA also provides scholarship assistance for those with financial need. The program culminates in a 5K run bringing girls and their families together at different venues in Northern Virginia. Corporate sponsorships make events of this size possible.

In addition to the school based programs, there are also some community based programs for girls that take the program out of the school setting and closer to where they live. There are some exploratory steps being taken to roll out programs at area apartment complexes as well. Transportation can often be a challenge to participating in before and after school programs, so this model will address bringing the program to where the girls are and offering weekend meetings as a way to build greater participation.

The Heart & Sole program for girls in Middle School focuses on the issues that are unique to girls navigating puberty and the social, emotional and physiological changes that go along with that. The program gives them a safe space with a trained adult leader to look at ways to build healthy relationships, to strengthen their confidence and to build a positive self image.

You can follow Girls on the Run – Northern Virginia on Facebook, on Twitter at @GOTRNOVA or find ways to volunteer or support the program at www.GOTRNOVA.org

by Catherine Read

Becoming Ms. Burton: From Prison to Recovery to Leading the Fight for Incarcerated Women

(Sept 2017) This book is extraordinary – as is the woman who wrote it. One of the great strengths of the book is how it weaves staggering facts and statistics about mass incarceration into Susan Burton’s deeply personal story. Each chapter begins with facts about different aspects of our criminal justice system, and the sprawling prison-industrial-complex, that are impacting generations of American families.

Sixty-five million Americans with a criminal record face a total of 45,000 collateral consequences that restrict everything from employment, professional licensing, child custody rights, housing, student aid, voting and even the ability to visit an incarcerated loved one. Many of these restrictions are permanent, forever preventing those who’ve already served their time from reaching their potential in the workforce, as parents, and as productive citizens.

“The result is that these collateral consequences become a life sentence harsher than whatever sentence a court actually imposed upon conviction.” American Bar Association president William C. Hubbard

While factual information like that sets up the framework for each chapter of this book, it is Susan’s narrative that breathes life into what this means for the people who are caught up in this revolving door of poverty, trauma and incarceration.

Knowing that 90% of incarcerated women have suffered some form of sexual abuse or physical violence isn’t the same as hearing what that means when it is described from the point of view of a 3 year old, a ten year and a 14 year old rape victim now a mother. This is how Susan Burton’s life began. A teenaged prostitute, she was befriended by a bail bondsman name George who would be with her for 30 years – encouraging her to be the person he knew she could be. He was there from the lowest points of her life – working the streets, drug addiction, losing her son to a police van hitting him in the streets, forgery and theft to feed her drug habit – to the point at which she decided to get sober, get clean and start over. When she was named a Top Ten CNN Hero in 2010, she called him out by name at the awards event.

In 2012, she was named Encore’s Purpose Prize winner. In 2014, she received the James Irvine Foundation Leadership Award, and in 2015 the Los Angeles Times named her one of the nation’s 18 New Civil Rights Leaders.

Susan’s journey is remarkable for her ability to re-invent her life as an “ex-con” at the age of 46. It was a series of happenstance and circumstance that created opportunities for her to finally divert into a drug rehab program instead of back to prison. When she finally found the program CLARE in Santa Monica that got her into AA’s 12 Step Program, she was on her way to a new life.

There were many remarkable people that helped her along the journey to what would become “A New Way of Life,” a re-entry program for formerly incarcerated women in the Watts area of Los Angeles. This part of the book resonates with me because of my work with a re-entry program for women here in Alexandria, Virginia, called Friends of Guest House. Susan forged ahead with her vision of providing other women the help they needed to start their lives over after stepping off the prison bus. She did it herself, and she was determined to do it for others.

The impact of our broken criminal justice system on generations of families is a cycle that seems to have no end. The poverty, the trauma, the lack of educational and economic opportunities, is just compounded when millions of people are saddled with a lifetime of restrictions because of a criminal record. The impact on our country cannot be overstated – it’s tearing at the fabric of our culture and our economy. Something must be done and it will only be done when more people are motivated by the injustice of our criminal justice system.

I would highly recommend this book to every reader, and it would be a particularly excellent book club choice. These are issues more people need to be talking about. Individually, we can be the voice advocating for change, and together we can move the needle on taking back our country from a broken system of justice that feeds mass incarceration and dooms future generations.

by Catherine Read

The Hate U Give – Angie Thomas

(Sept 2017) Pac said Thug Life stood for “The Hate U Give Little Infants Fucks Everybody. T-H-U-G-L-I-F-E. Meaning what society gives us as youth, it bites them in the ass when we wild out. Get it? Khalil explains this to Starr as they are riding in his car. A short time later they are pulled over by a cop, and Khalil becomes a statistic – another unarmed black American gunned down by a cop.

This book spoke to my heart. The characters, the families, the relationships – had such a ring of authenticity to them. It’s hard to imagine that Starr and her family and friends don’t actually exist out there somewhere. Or perhaps they actually do exist and author Angie Thomas brought them to the pages of this book so those of us who do not inhabit their world would know them more intimately.

This book is categorized as “Young Adult” fiction, but it should be read by everyone over the age of 12. When I read books like this I wonder why these timely and relevant works have not replaced some of the dated and less relevant books being taught in classrooms everywhere. Literature does in fact influence culture and perspective. It’s time we were more selective about choosing books that are both great works of literature and compelling in their own right to the young people reading them.

I’ve read that the author was inspired by the music of Tupac Shakur – which factors into the book in a beautiful way – as well as by the Black Lives Matter movement. This book takes us inside communities most of us will never see. It gives a vividly constructed backstory to the newspaper headlines we see on a regular basis proclaiming that yet another unarmed African-American has been killed by police. We have come to expect exactly how it will play out – an investigation, a hearing, possibly a trial, and at the end no cop will be charged.

I highly recommend this book. I loved every minute I spent with these characters. Their lives are real and it’s the realness of their situation that makes you hold your breath and fear what will come next. We should feel the same way about the real people in this country that we feel about the characters in this book. We need to care more and we need to do more to protect the lives of black people in our communities.

by Catherine Read

Fairfax County Special Education PTA – Your Need to Know

(Sept. 6, 2017) Catherine Read talks with Diane Cooper Gould, President of the Fairfax County Special Education Parent Teacher Association (SEPTA), and Joanne Walton who is a SEPTA Delegate to the Fairfax County Council of PTAs (FCCPTA) and also a founding member of SEPTA. The Fairfax County SEPTA launched in April of 2017 and is an additional support organization for existing PTAs throughout the county.

Diane Cooper Gould is the parent of two special needs children. A conversation with someone from the Arlington SEPTA inspired her to start a similar organization for Fairfax County. Joanne Walton, also the parent of a special needs student, joined this start-up effort to better support both parents and teachers. Fairfax County is the 10th largest school district in the nation and over 25,000 students currently have an Individualized Education Plan (IEP), others have 504 plans, and some students have not yet been identified as having special needs. The goal is to assist the families of special needs children from their infant-toddler years right through to their high school graduation.

A key focus of SEPTA is recognizing the importance of the “T” for Teacher. They welcome greater teacher input on what is needed in schools and classrooms. Advocacy at school board budget hearings for necessary funds is also a key focus since teacher retention is a challenge. Special Education teachers in Fairfax County stay for an average of 3 years. Better funding and raising teacher pay is needed to support the special needs community in the county. There are teacher shortages in general in Fairfax County schools, and there continues to be unfilled special education teacher positions as the new school year begins.

The collaborative aspect of SEPTA includes offering support to parents through awareness of other organizations offering support within the disability community – such as Parents of Autistic Children (POAC), Decoding Dyslexia Virginia, the Arc of Northern Virginia and programs through the Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia. There is a page on the SEPTA website specifically for support groups and that list continues to grow. As the 2017-18 school year begins, the Fairfax County SEPTA will be focused on raising awareness of their organization and how parents and teachers can find the resources they need through this new organization.

SEPTA has a Facebook page and their website can be found at www.FairfaxCountySEPTA.org

by Catherine Read

VA Governor Candidate Ralph Northam – NoVIE Forum Falls Church

(Sept 1 2017) Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam was the first gubernatorial candidate to speak at a forum hosted by The Northern Virginia Idea Exchange (NoVIE). This coalition is made up of non-profit leaders in the Northern Virginia area. This event was held on Friday, September 1st, as the first of two forums at the James Lee Community Center in Falls Church, VA. Ed Gillespie will address this group on Thursday, September 14th.

Karen Cleveland, President and CEO of Leadership Fairfax, is the moderator of these two forums. After opening remarks from Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam, he was asked questions that had been submitted in advance via email. Following those questions posed by the moderator, audience members were invited to line up at a microphone placed near the front of the stage to ask other questions. Questions came from individuals representing a wide range of non-profit organizations in the Northern Virginia area on subjects ranging from affordable housing and education to medicaid waivers, the school-to-prison pipeline, and the Dillon Rule.

Dr. Northam, a pediatric neurologist, spoke of his long term commitment to public service through collaboration with non-profits such as the Edmarc Hospice for Children where he has served as medical director for 19 years. His wife, Pam Northam, is an elementary school teacher who also works on environmental issues through the non-profit Lynnhaven River NOW. He addressed the importance of the work non-profits do, Virginia’s reliance on those services and the advocacy needed for better public policy, and pledged to continue working with non-profit organizations across the Commonwealth.

This 30 minute video includes some of the remarks made by Lt. Gov. Northam in the hour long forum. While it does not include the questions, his responses indicate the nature of the question. Some of the participating non-profits include Britepaths, Cornerstones, BRAWS, The Literacy Council of Northern Virginia, Friends of Guest House, and many others.

Virginia is one of only two states in the United States with an “off year” Governor’s race that takes place the year following a presidential election. It is the last state to have a one term (4 year) governorship. Election day is Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2017.