Crazy Brave: A Memoir

photo: Shawn Miller

Joy Harjo's memoir provides some valuable insights into what it is like to grow up as a minority person surrounded by an often-hostile dominant culture.  In addition to that cultural challenge, Harjo also had to contend wirh violent abuse by her step-father which ultimately drove her to abandon her family home as a teenager.  Just surviving those experiences seems remarkable enough, but on top of that Harjo found her way to a functional and productive adult life;  a life which included becoming the first Native American Poet Laureate of the United States.

What struck me early on in Harjo's story was how much it resembled the story of another woman half a world away, that of novelist Arundhati  Roy.  As a member of a Syrian Christian family Roy had to constantly contend with living in the shadow of the Hindu majority.  She also, like Harjo, was subjected to parental abuse which drove her to leave home as a teenager, and to negotiate a precarious voyage to adulthood to ultimately achieve success at the highest level. 

Both women were highly intelligent and both showed early interest in creative pursuits which seemed to help to sustain their dreams in the face of daunting circumstances.  Were those traits the secret to their ultimate successes?  Many others with similar traits and experiences must have proceeded into unsatisfying lives and untimely deaths.  Sheer luck certainly played a role.

I am left wondering if Harjo and Roy ever had the chance to sit down together to compare their life experiences or, if not, how such a meeting might help us to understand how devastating early adversity might be overcome. 

Seven Cranes

 I'm looking forward to this event at the National Hispanic Cultural Center.

I enjoyed taking a number of classes at the Instituto Cervantes.  The most memorable was taught by the poet, Tony Mares, who spent his childhood in Albuquerque's Old Town.  Courses at that level have not been offered for some time, so I'm hoping this Day of the Book is a sign of better things to come.

What can we do now?

Robert Reich has some ideas.

The war in Iran is an American failure. What do we do now?

Robert Reich

 

Granite Street Afternoon

Casualties

 From Widipedia:

"21 February 2026, at least 75,227 people (73,188+ Palestinians... and 2,039+ Israelis... have been reported killed in the Gaza war according to the Gaza Health Ministry (GHM) and Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, including 248 journalists and media workers,[11] 120 academics,[12] and over 224 humanitarian aid workers, a number that includes 179 employees of UNRWA.[13] Scholars have estimated 80% of Palestinians killed were civilians.[6][5][14] A study by OHCHR, which verified fatalities from three independent sources, found that 70% of the Palestinians killed in residential buildings or similar housing were women and children."

The great majority of those deaths were caused by bombs supplied to Israel by the United States.  So the question now is how many Iranians will be killed now that both Israeli and U.S. planes are dropping the bombs?

No matter how many bombs are dropped it seems clear that they alone will not be enough to defeat the Iranian armed forces in a country of 90 million people.  So the next question is, Will Trump be sucked into sending in ground troops? 

 To give the issue some geographic perspective, consider that the area of Palestine is 2,320 square miles while the area of Iran is 636,372 square miles -- about the same as Alaska.

Map shows how big Iran is compared with the 50 US states (Aljazera)

Granite Street Sunset