Book Review: Enough
from the series Something I Said…
By DWIGHT HOBBES
Cassidy Hutchinson flipped everyone out, breaking ranks with Donald Trump at the House Committee hearing over January 6th’s insurrection debacle. Here, she had been White House chief of staff Mark Meadows’ assistant, knew all the dirt and came clean. Trump claimed he didn’t even know her. Former White House deputy press secretary Sarah Matthews tweeted, “Anyone downplaying Cassidy Hutchinson’s role or her access in the West Wing either doesn’t understand how the Trump [White House] worked or is attempting to discredit her because they’re scared of how damning this testimony is.” Enough (Simon & Schuster) puts the lie to Trump’s dismissing Hutchinson and traces, from her perspective, just what went on before, during and after the attempted insurrection. At length, Hutchinson’s testimony detailed Meadows’s, Trump’s, and other White House officials’ knowledge of the danger the January 6, 2021 rally participants posed, their activities as the Capitol riot happened, and what they did in the days after it.
The book should’ve cut to the chase and been shorter. She takes up three chapters on how she grew up in New Jersey. Who cares? Enough’s significance isn’t her autobiography. It’s her impact on the most scandalous event since Richard Nixon failed to burn the Watergate tape incriminating him in 1972’s Democratic Party headquarters burglary.… Read the rest “Book Review: Enough”
We Need Each Other
from the series Peace House Community- A Place to Belong…
By MARTI MALTBY
Among my other duties, I help coordinate the adult education series at the church that I attend. This fall and winter we have had various congregation members speak about the intersection of their vocation and their faith. In other words, how does their faith affect their work, and how does their work help them see God.
When the idea for the series came up, I imagined people speaking about the satisfaction they get from their jobs. While that’s happened, we’ve heard more about enduring difficult times than celebrating joys. Teachers have spoken about schools that are so cash strapped that they don’t buy curriculum for the students, instead telling the teachers to use whatever they can find online. A 22 year old camp counselor told about overhearing a 15 year old begging her friends to break her leg so that she would not have to complete a four day canoe trip. The counselor explained how hard it was to get a 15 year old to understand that getting evacuated by helicopter from the Boundary Waters at night with a broken leg wouldn’t make anything better.
This past Sunday, a former firefighter named Hank spoke about helplessly watching people die, being engulfed in explosions, finding charred corpses in burned out apartments, and accompanying the SWAT team on interventions.… Read the rest “We Need Each Other”
A Short, Silent Encounter With Racism
By HOWARD MCQUITTER II
On Thursday, November 30, 2023, a friend and member of my church (St. Constantine’s Ukrainian Catholic Church) went to a screening of the film Holodomor: Voices of Survivors- Ukrainian Famine/ Genocide (2015), a horrific tale of Stalin moving in on the Ukrainians refusing to give up their farms for collective farming in 1932-1933. There were interviews with some survivors (from the diabolical forced famine) and from those stories told by descendants of their forefathers and foremothers. Much of the dialogue had a Minneapolis connection (namely through St. Constantine and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church), although many in the audience probably were not from either church. It was $20 and I made a last minute decision to go. My friend gave me a ride to St. Anthony Main Theater. I was the only Black person there (I’ve been in that situation numerous times in Minnesota). I took notes during the film like I always do when I review any movie. The pastor for St. Constantine was there along with two other sponsors. After the Q&A the crowd spilled into rooms beyond the concession stand. I spoke briefly with my pastor and to a young man (also a parishioner) and a hello to the man (also a parishioner) serving food.… Read the rest “A Short, Silent Encounter With Racism”
