Weird Pennsylvania: Your Travel Guide to Pennsylvania's Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets by Matt Lake
2005

Weight:2.45lbs

Method of Disposal: Leaving in a Lending Library

We recently made the trip to Pennsylvania to see a couple of shelter foster/volunteers turned friends and, in the extremely brief time we were there, we did a whirlwind tour of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York.  It was an excellent taster, and there is so much more I would like to do now.  

We had Philly cheesesteaks in Philadelphia.  Mine was vegetarian, of course, and absolutely delicious.  We explored Doylestown and New Hope.  We visited Frenchtown, Lamberton, and then New York City.  It was my first time visiting any of these places.

In Doylestown, there were three bookstores, and I absolutely loved them all.  We bought a new book at Doylestown Bookshop and then bought a whole bag of used books for less than $10 at the other two used bookstores in town.  I might have kept going if I were not flying, but I had added a lot of weight to our luggage already.  I found Weird Pennsylvania in a cardboard box on the sidewalk for 98 cents.  Yes, please.  What oddities could I find in Bucks County that even our hosts did not know about?

It was more paranormal and ghost focused that others I have read in the Weird collection, so there was much less I was enthusiastic enough about visiting than usual, but it was still interesting.  I was quite intrigued by the Rosicrucians and their pyramids.  The fact that Benjamin Franklin and Abraham Lincoln a part of that group added to the appeal and the mystery.  The secrecy and symbolism is somewhat irresistible, despite myself.

Anywho, I always love a good flip through the Weird books when I am traveling and, also, searching Atlas Obscura online.  As if there was not enough to do before opening up all the weird!  The world is so big and complicated, and it is endlessly amusing when you have time to look a little harder aka are not working all day every day.

A Colony in a Nation

A Colony in a Nation by Chris Hayes
2018
Weight: 8 oz
Method of Disposal: Lending Library

This book was accessible and could likely be read and understood by a variety of people.  The author is willing to turn the camera on himself at times to examine his own privilege, but he does not focus in on himself to the extent that it becomes superficial and nauseating.  He ties in his experiences growing up in New York in the 80's, his reporting from Ferguson after the shooting of Michael Brown, American colonialism, and information and insight about race relations in America spanning at least 3 decades.

He posits that there are two Americas that exist at the same time--one America experienced by "The Nation" and one America experienced by "The Colony."

He writes, "If you live in the Nation, the criminal justice system functions like your laptop’s operating system, quietly humming in the background, doing what it needs to do to allow you to be your most efficient, functional self. In the Colony, the system functions like a computer virus: it intrudes constantly, interrupts your life at the most inconvenient times, and it does this as a matter of course. The disruption itself is normal.

In the Nation, there is law; in the Colony, there is only a concern with order. In the Nation, you have rights;in the Colony, you have commands.  In the Nation, you are innocent until proven guilty; in the Colony, you are born guilty" (pp. 37 and 38)

Later, he writes, " So what would it mean if the Nation and the Colony were joined, if the borders erased, and the humanity--the full, outrageous, maddening humanity--of every single human citizen were recognized and embodied in our society? Or even just to start, our policing?

I want to think it would be nothing but a net benefit for us all.  For so long one of the great tools of white supremacy has been telling white people that there's a fixed pie, and whatever black people get, they lose.  As a matter of first principles, I reject that" (p.213).

He brings up the Brock Turner case from Stanford University and how the rapist was given a small sentence due to his background and potential.  He discusses our instinct to "level down" rather than to"level up."  We want Brock Turner to be treated like those in the Colony.  We want revenge.  Instead of wanting those in the Colony to be treated as well as Brock Turner was.  He was right for me in that the name Brock Turner fills me with such rage, and I would love to see the wealthy, white, sociopath suffer in jail for far longer than 6 months.  I understand Hayes point though.  Getting revenge on Turner will not change anything in our criminal justice system with its systematic racism and tough on crime mentality.  

Overall, the book was thought-provoking and told in a way that I hope many people will be able to hear.  I would recommend it to others, especially others who have not read many or any books on race relations in America or on racism within our justice system.