Great letter in the on-line edition of "The Chicago Tribune", regarding J.K. Rowling!

[DailyGrind51]

Society should put kids first


As millions of fans anticipate the release of part two of the final installment of the Harry Potter saga, parents and teachers all over the world owe a great deal of thanks - not just to author J.K. Rowling but to the British welfare system which sustained her as a single mother while she created her little wizard and his magical world in a coffee shop, able to watch her own child with the knowledge that her and her child's health care needs were covered.

Contrast this with the single mother you may know, working a minimum-wage job with no health benefits, having to rely on others for childcare with little energy to do anything else at the end of the day but fix dinner and put herself and her child to bed.

In return for its commitment to invest in its citizens, Great Britain yielded dividends from a multi-billion dollar industry, creating thousands of jobs, and more importantly watching millions of children in Great Britain and the rest of the world put down their iPods and pick up books to read again. Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, "The test of the morality of a society is what it does for its children (and their mothers)." Judging by the priorities currently being set by Congress, I'm afraid OUR society's morality will be found wanting!

-- Richard A. Kosinski, Chicago

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/letters/chi-110713kosinski_briefs,0,6107884.story

[gateley]

1. K&R!

[Bluenorthwest]

2. A wonderful piece by Rowling- The Single Mother's Manifesto

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article7096786.ece

[MedicalAdmin]

11. Great link.

You should post this as an OP.

I loved this part where she commented on tax dodgers, or job creators as we call them here.

"I chose to remain a domiciled taxpayer for a couple of reasons. The main one was that I wanted my children to grow up where I grew up, to have proper roots in a culture as old and magnificent as Britain’s; to be citizens, with everything that implies, of a real country, not free-floating ex-pats, living in the limbo of some tax haven and associating only with the children of similarly greedy tax exiles."

[DailyGrind51]

18. This is a great link with the same basic perspective on the importance of a social safety net!

[aquart]

3. Her books emphasize study, practice, hard work, and friendship.

[nxylas]

8. Where are you going with this?

Forgive me if I've misjudged you, but it sounds like you are trying to portray her as a "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" conservative, when she is nothing of the sort.

[MedicalAdmin]

10. To be fair, bootstrappers haven't cornered the market on these qualities.

They just advertise that they have.

Most democrats I know are hard working, hard studying, and full of life experience. I find those qualities to be the ones that bootstrappers don't have but wish they did even while they spend most of their days grifting like a Palin.

[aquart]

15. What? She encourages students to study.

I damn well hope that's our plan, too. She encourages the search for knowledge and she shows the rewards of study and practice and inquiry.

Since Harry has a whole lot of inherited wealth in Gringott's, he's hardly going it alone. But it isn't the money that makes a difference to him. It's finding a place that welcomes him, it's discovering he has a talent for sports and honing it with practice. He starts out knowing nothing about being a wizard and we follow his progress to becoming a great one.

We also find the greatness in the characters who are not the wonderful Harry Potter. Neville, the twins, Luna, the girls who are Harry and Ron's luckless dates for the prom. In the end, even Draco.

[DailyGrind51]

16. Think of all the kids who feel unnoticed and unloved who identified with Harry!

There are so many abused, neglected, and unwanted kids, who were looking for a character like them, with special talents, could rise above his surroundings and find an accepting community of like-minded people who appreciate him for who he is! Imagine a neglected kid finding hope in "Harry"! :)

[JoeyT]

13. Not for the protagonist.

He gets by on a mixture of blind luck, who he was born to, and the talent of others which he takes credit for.

Holy crap, Harry Potter is a Republican.

Just kidding.

[aquart]

14. Seriously, he works his ass off and Hermione is still better.

[CBHagman]

20. Hermione will always be my favorite...

...although I have a soft spot for Luna Lovegood and Neville Longbottom.

Now that I think of it, J.K. Rowling went out of her way to populate the book with figures who are misunderstood, mistreated, marginalized, and/or quietly heroic. No wonder she's struck such a chord with readers.

[FSogol]

4. K & R. n/t

[xchrom]

5. recommend

[Hawkowl]

6. Lack of a social safety net is killing our culture

There is less art, less innovation, less creativity, less pure science and learning when the vast majority of us are simply trying to work enough and save enough to survive.

America will rapidly lose it's ability to function as a modern country, let alone "compete" with the rest of the world unless we get universal health care along with decent unemployment, education, and anti-poverty benefits.

Invest or die America.

[DailyGrind51]

7. I remember even Thomas L. Friedman said that a social safety net should have

been a component of globalization. Human decency demands that people displaced from employment for any reason have a modest source of revenue and health-care, and those "freemarketeers" who promote the "sink or swim" philosophy are just plain evil!

[MedicalAdmin]

9. +1 --- invest or die.

Evolution has been stopped for over 30 years in the US. Nature will not be kind.

[yurbud]

12. great find--I might use this in my English classes.

[DailyGrind51]

17. Thank you! :)

[Uncle Joe]

19. This is an excellent observation by Richard Kosinski.

Thanks for the thread, DailyGrind.:thumbsup:

[DailyGrind51]

21. Thank you, Uncle Joe! :)

[Scottybeamer70]

22. Not just kids enjoyed those books!

I'm pushing 72, and I loved every book! It was like being a child again.

[DailyGrind51]

23. Rowling refrained from "talking down" to her readers, which make her books universally readable!

[DailyGrind51]

24. Letter also published in the "Daily Herald", dsitributed in primarily Republican districts!

including Peter Roskam's!

http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20110718/discuss/707189977/