Frog milk & CSPAN
what a week
Dear Frog Troublers, this was quite a week even before the news that the president has started a war for no particular reason.
On Monday, Bea and Harriet had fevers and stayed home from school. We quickly realized it was the dreaded strep throat, and Tuesday morning Dr. Barnes treated them both quickly and kindly. I talked to him about the measles outbreak in NC, an unnecessary nightmare that risks every baby’s life (children can only be vaccinated after they’re a year old). He said that we are all protected by our vaccines but that it was very, very concerning and has already created some different procedures in their clinic. (Bea and I realized that this is may be the plot trajectory of the abandoned-in-the-ER baby in The Pitt, our current favorite show.)
Tuesday evening, Sylvester and I talked about Wyatt Outlaw at Main Street Books in Davidson. Have you ever been? It’s a beautiful little bookstore with an awesome kids’ section and a healthy selection of art supplies (I picked up a calligraphy set for the girls and a travel watercolor set for a friend). We loved the staff, the warm and receptive crowd, and meeting up with OG Frog Troubler Bill Diskin.
On Wednesday I read and marked stories and took care of the girls, who felt well enough by the end of the day for a good walk to the river.
The girls finally went back to school Thursday, a morning of driving rain. I dropped them off as early as possible so I could get to Raleigh to deliver, with my AAUP colleagues, our petition about academic freedom before the UNC Board of Governors met that morning.
What happened next is kind of a blur: driving through a green light on 64, then red tail lights in front of me, stomping on the brakes, skidding tires and the sudden smash and face-punch of the air bag. Little birds and stars were circling my head as I reached for my phone, which was busy dialing 911 on my behalf.
Have you ever been in an accident where the air bag deployed? I had not, and was surprised by the bitter, noxious smell that filled my Prius. But, even though the front end of my car was completely smashed up, I unbuckled my seat belt and stepped out of the car onto the shoulder.
I was emotionally shaken, but physically fine.
“I’m so sorry,” I sobbed to driver in front of me, whose fender was busted.
“It’s okay,” she said, and embraced me. Frog Troublers, she was a doctor from our very practice!
I feel terrible that I hit another driver, but I am also so very grateful for airbags! And vaccines! And all the things that keep us safe. The police officer who protected the accident scene was also a woman, and when she saw the armload of books I was holding she asked, “are you a teacher?”
I told her I’m a professor at NC State, and you know what? She told me she is about to enter NC State’s master’s program in social work and is so excited to begin a new career.
My dear friend Claire picked me up, took me to her office, where I emailed my students and called our insurance company. All morning, I got updates and photos from my friends, who did the awesome work of delivering the petition, speaking to media, and planning next steps to push back against the unnecessary and harmful restrictions on speech, teaching, and research in our public universities:
That night I texted my friend Ajamu Dillahunt-Holloway, a labor historian, with the story about the cop-turned-social work student. Ajamu called it “one of the most beautiful things” he’d ever heard. “She’s ready to do the real work now,” he said.
I thought about academic freedom, and how hard social work in particular has been hit by anti-diversity, equity, and inclusion policies and legislation created by people who have no knowledge of or experience in the fields they seek to limit. I thought about how academic freedom is for all of us: doctors studying and developing vaccines, public health researchers studying vaccine uptake, creative writers teaching stories from around the world, social workers and police officers and every other professional encountering a diverse community that yes-of-course experiences racism and discrimination and yes-of-course needs the best-trained folks helping them.
Without academic freedom, would we even know why putting a frog in milk (a Russian and Finnish tradition from before refrigeration) keeps the milk from spoiling? Bea learned this gross factoid in a Ripley’s Believe it or Not! book this week, and we checked it out: the why of frogs in milk was confirmed by scientists who studied the peptides secreted from the skins of the Russian brown frogs that were traditionally dropped into milk jugs. Not merely an explanation for folklore, the research could lead to “the prevention of both pathogenic and antibiotic resistant bacterial strains,” the scientists concluded.
Academic freedom also helps to investigate and tell the stories of people like Wyatt Outlaw. Thursday was the 156th anniversary of his assassination.
“I never knew that anybody important and Black came from Alamance County,” Sylvester often says. “What would it have been like for me, as a kid, to know that a hero like Wyatt Outlaw walked the very ground under my feet?”
You can hear more March 7 on CSPAN2, which will broadcast our book launch from the AACAHC in Burlington:
More reading dates will be on the calendar soon. In the meantime, check out this story from Randolph County NC, about a community who showed up to a County Commissioner meeting for a silent read-in in support of the library and disbanded board of trustees and in opposition to book bans. Supporters of a challenged picture book, Call Me Max, about a transgender boy, outnumbered opponents 20-to-1.
They kept the challenged book on their shelves, but vigilance is so important. You can support your local libraries by requesting books you hear about (Call Me Max and The Legend of Wyatt Outlaw, for example) and joining a group like Public School Strong, PEN America, and the WDA to stay informed about protecting the right to read and learn in your community.
How was your week, Frog Troublers? Have you started planning for the next No Kings Protest on March 28?
What a week, indeed, Belle! I’m so glad for all the safety measures that worked as they should have. I echo Jill McCorkle’s sentiment thanking you for your ongoing work on so many different fronts. Don’t know how you manage, but I’m grateful you do!
Belle, I am so glad you're okay and the girls are feeling better. What a week you had! And thank you for your ongoing, tremendous work on so many different fronts-- And, as always, I have learned something! the frogs- what a fascinating story that is so thanks to Bea- and congratulations again on your book. I look forward to getting to a reading.