{"id":7069,"date":"2021-01-03T23:05:32","date_gmt":"2021-01-03T23:05:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.reggiemorrisey.com\/?p=7069"},"modified":"2021-01-03T23:05:32","modified_gmt":"2021-01-03T23:05:32","slug":"it-all-adds-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reggiemorrisey.com\/?p=7069","title":{"rendered":"It All Adds Up"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pl-7069\"  class=\"panel-layout\" ><div id=\"pg-7069-0\"  class=\"panel-grid panel-no-style\" ><div id=\"pgc-7069-0-0\"  class=\"panel-grid-cell\" ><div id=\"panel-7069-0-0-0\" class=\"so-panel widget widget_black-studio-tinymce widget_black_studio_tinymce panel-first-child panel-last-child\" data-index=\"0\" ><div class=\"textwidget\"><p>Among <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.huffpost.com\/entry\/good-things-happened-2020_l_5feb660fc5b6ff7479847494\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">18 Actually Good Things That Happened in 2020<\/a><\/em> highlighted in <em>Huffington Post<\/em> to open the New Year:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&nbsp;\u2026 Crayola unveiled its most inclusive skin-tone crayons yet. The \u201cColors of the World\u201d pack includes crayons that represent over 40 skin tones, according to Crayola\u2019s CEO, \u201cto advance inclusion within creativity and impact how kids express themselves.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>More Americans voted in the 2020 election \u2014 two-thirds of the voting eligible population, in fact \u2014 than in any other election in 120 years.<\/li>\n<li>At least 50 women of color (including 46 Democrats) will serve in the next Congress \u2026&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>So ...<\/h3>\n<p>A numbers fan, I notice that one number, then another, adds up, and eventually I leap to a conclusion. The exercise suggests the illusion of control to plan for the year 2021, in this case to stay tuned in rather than revert to a complacency felt between 2008 and 2016 when adults were in charge of the country. Going forward, we all better stay alert to the lurking crazies who seek to undermine the new president and vice president.<\/p>\n<p>Researching the future Democratic Party, I downloaded a 2020 audio book <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/AOC-Fearless-Alexandria-Ocasio-Cortez-America\/dp\/1662003595\/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&amp;keywords=AOC%3A+The+Fearless+Rise+of+Alexandria+Ocasio-Cortez+and+What+It+Means+for+America&amp;qid=1609526227&amp;sr=8-1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>AOC: The Fearless Rise of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and What It Means for Americ<\/em>a<\/a>&nbsp;by Lynda Lopez. The answer appears in framed in mirrors.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Contributor end-credits make clear the book is not so much about AOC but a collection of essays by 17 authors. Sparse on AOC\u2019s biographical details, the musings echo the same refrains - as often as they point out the first-time congresswoman\u2019s matte red lipstick. Seventeen people see themselves mirrored in AOC.&nbsp;Their voices blend - like chatter at a picnic as acquaintences arrive with homemade dishes. Mostly Latino female admirers of AOC lay out their life struggles for readers yet pull in one thread of the vibrant power broker.<\/p>\n<h3>So Relatable<\/h3>\n<p>I did find an insight about AOC. The week she left home to study at Boston University she lost her 48-year-old architect father to cancer. He told her to make him proud. That bend in her arc drew upon grit, resolve and intelligence.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Having worked a summer as a coed waitress at a hip hangout, I shared AOC\u2019s realization that customers looked down on servers - specifically on her as a bartender. And they find so many reasons to look down. Lowlifes \u2014&nbsp;such as the never-again-to-be-quoted poseur who <em>paid<\/em> someone to take his college entrance exam \u2014&nbsp;doubted AOC went to a decent college.<\/p>\n<p>As a native New Yorker, I grasped how AOC\u2019s parents\u2019 move to a Westchester County suburb and away from The Bronx was meant to spare her a life hemmed in by the humbler ZIP code. It was their version of the American Dream. Their nightmare: her father's medical bills and her mother's battle to elude home foreclosure during the Great Recession.<\/p>\n<h3>So Driven&nbsp;<\/h3>\n<p>AOC\u2019s passion fighting for health care and against income inequality springs from a calamity shared by 41% of the population that went bankrupt in the mid-2000s. Even as America hustled into the Obama - Biden Administration's recovery, millennials cobbled out a living with gigs to pay college loans. Alarming 2020 threatened to wrestle millions of strivers to the ground again.<\/p>\n<p>In late December, a TV commentator said if we allotted one second to name each person who died of COVID in 2020, it would take&nbsp;<em>four<\/em> days. Given the pandemic\u2019s toll on the Black and Latino population, multitudes face grief and anxiety.&nbsp;Under such conditions, Senate Republicans who posture, self-righteously indifferent and cruel, compel a counter-force for change among populations that now have a voice in AOC and the so-called Squad made up of people of color.<\/p>\n<p>Conclusion: The future stretches out like a child\u2019s Crayola drawing of a world flush with 40 skin-tones. I hope that world welcomes a hand from those who have been coloring since it went Boom.<\/p>\n<h3>No Words for 2020<\/h3>\n<p>Clare H. Torry is a British singer who, in one recording studio take, performed&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?sa=t&amp;rct=j&amp;q=&amp;esrc=s&amp;source=web&amp;cd=&amp;cad=rja&amp;uact=8&amp;ved=2ahUKEwjG-YOEuvvtAhUCm1kKHVPfAnkQ3ywwAnoECAcQAg&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DcVBCE3gaNxc&amp;usg=AOvVaw3sSOzE0HYPQAiKRsv5h0Zg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>The Great Gig in the Sky<\/em><\/a>&nbsp;on Pink Floyd\u2019s 1973 album <i>The Dark Side of the Moon. &nbsp;<\/i>As words cannot express, she speaks for 2020.<\/p>\n<p>Note: See <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reggiemorrisey.com\/?page_id=727\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Gallery of Ed Morrisey Art&nbsp;<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><div id=\"pgc-7069-0-1\"  class=\"panel-grid-cell\" ><div id=\"panel-7069-0-1-0\" class=\"so-panel widget widget_black-studio-tinymce widget_black_studio_tinymce panel-first-child panel-last-child\" data-index=\"1\" ><div class=\"textwidget\"><p><div id=\"attachment_328\" style=\"width: 336px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.reggiemorrisey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Painting_Women_Pastels.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-328\" class=\"wp-image-328\" src=\"https:\/\/www.reggiemorrisey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Painting_Women_Pastels.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"326\" height=\"446\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.reggiemorrisey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Painting_Women_Pastels.jpg 468w, https:\/\/www.reggiemorrisey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Painting_Women_Pastels-219x300.jpg 219w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 326px) 100vw, 326px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-328\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Colored-pencil drawing by the late Ed Morrisey<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Among 18 Actually Good Things That Happened in 2020 highlighted in Huffington Post to open the New Year: &nbsp;\u2026 Crayola unveiled its most inclusive skin-tone crayons yet. The \u201cColors of the World\u201d pack includes crayons that represent over 40 skin tones, according to Crayola\u2019s CEO, \u201cto advance inclusion within creativity and impact how kids express [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reggiemorrisey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7069","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reggiemorrisey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reggiemorrisey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reggiemorrisey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reggiemorrisey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7069"}],"version-history":[{"count":32,"href":"https:\/\/www.reggiemorrisey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7069\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7102,"href":"https:\/\/www.reggiemorrisey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7069\/revisions\/7102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reggiemorrisey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reggiemorrisey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reggiemorrisey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}