Disguised as Clark Kent was devoured in a day. I didn't realize comics faced a backlash in the fifties: there were comic burnings, bans, attempted bans. I also didn't know that comics was considered a second-class industry! Listening to Fingeroth was wonderful; he brought to light many Jewish traditions inherit in comics and their characters. The way he described the comics and their story arcs makes me want to immediately dive into them! Disguised as Clark Kent became an immediate favorite and I want comics. Lots and lots of comics! -------------------------------------------- A Stranger in Your Own City was eye-opening, and it took a while to read. It also drives home the fact that civilians suffer so much during war and it's never just between two armies. Once again, I can't speak for every American state or school system, but in my little Missourian corner, the US led coalition invasion of Iraq was *never* talked about in school. Severe emphasis on never. It was a taboo subject and there was an unwritten rule that it was considered un-American to do so. With that preamble out of the way... I had no idea that Iran and Iraq had a war. (Iraq, under Hussein, who was a dictator, was a proponent of Iraqi nationalism, and ethnic superiority rooted in history and a differing opinion of religion.) Then a Kuwaiti incursion, all the while the Iraqi population were heavily surveilled by Hussain. In a surprising fact, the US--similar to what Russia did to Ukraine a year ago--started building a massive force on the border of Iraq and then launched an air campaign known as "Shock and Awe" as the US displayed some new weapons and the "might" of our US military. The air strikes killed 30,000 Iraqi soldiers and 300,000 civilians. Three hundred thousand civilians! I began preliminary research into how many civilians die in war and, without fail, the number is always higher than soldiers. Why does no one discuss that? History and movies mainly discuss camaraderie, heroism, and soldier life. Where’s the civilian perspective? I also understand why there wasn’t as much coverage about the war. The US gov’t. Learned from Vietnam that war is unpopular and often leads to protests. So now it makes sense. Here is a snippet from the audiobook I found incredibly compelling. "How do you feel about the invasion of your country?...accept a foreign invasion to get rid of the dictator? Did I want to see the end of the Leader of Necessity? Yes. Did I want the war? No. Was I naive and also opportunistic? Yes. Do I believe now that invading and bombing a nation can bring about democracy and human rights? No. The whole debate was flawed from the start: why were our only options between a foreign invasion or the noxious rule of a dictator? Not that anyone cared what we thought. We were all potential collateral damage in a war between a dictator and American Neo-Gods who believed the world should be shaped in their image.” I've reached the part in the book discussing migration and how American incompetence and superiority was fuel for the Iraqi Civil War. (Which I had no idea happened.)

Posted by MotherofHeleus at 2023-05-25 00:11:56 UTC